My Travel Adventures

We began our first and only full day in Vientiane with a bus ride to the famous Buddha Park. We had considered hiring a tuk-tuk, but taking a bus – at 36,000 kip per person for a round trip – was a cheaper alternative that allowed us to observe a little bit of local life. Finding the Talat Sao bus station was not difficult, and we knew from the internet that we were to take bus number 14. We also made sure to cross-check this piece of intelligence with nearby information boards, which to our surprise were translated to English. And, as though these two sources were not enough, several local busybodies came up to us and confirmed we were waiting in the right place.

Our tour group began the first full day of our Vietnam trip by walking around the old city of Hanoi, taking pictures of fruits vendors, fishmongers, birdmen, butchers, and many more. Our first proper historical stop was Hanoi’s oldest temple, Bach Ma, which is called the White Horse Temple in English. The shrine was founded in 1010 by emperor Lý Thái Tổ, founder of the Ly dynasty. Legend has it that the emperor struggled to construct a citadel in Hanoi, his buildings sinking into the marshy ground as soon as they were finished. Finally, a white horse led him to a suitable site, tapping its hoof on a piece of solid ground that would become the foundation for modern Hanoi.

My redeye from Delhi arrived close to five in the morning, and I did not catch a jot of sleep. Once I got to my hotel, however, I did not feel particularly drowsy, and instead of napping for a few hours, I started sorting through my photos from India. This exercise lasted for as long as it stayed cloudy outside – that is to say – until around eleven, when I grew bored of the very mechanical editing process and decided to go out.

As I wrote in my last post, I keep a mental list of places that I’ve never visited despite their proximity to Prague. Until the end of this year, this list somehow included Bratislava, the capital of our sister nation, the coronation city of Hungarian kings, and the first foreign destination of all Czech presidents.