2011, DEC 24: LAOS, VIENTIANE-City B

Our next stop was the Morning Market. As the hub of local commerce, it is always crowded.

Here one can find almost anything. Deepa bought a travel book. Although it was supposed to be the 2011 edition, but it contained was probably from a 2008 edition. Probably, the local publisher had copied the 2008 edition, but was marketing it as the 2011 edition, a clear violation of the copyright laws.

The top floor is devoted entirely to Jewelry shops.

Our final destination for the day was Wat Si Saket. Completed in 1818, it survived the devastation caused during the Thai invasion of 1828, it is perhaps the oldest temple still standing in Vientiane.

As at the Wat Ong Teu, the doorway of this temple has typical Laotian pointed double arches. Also it has similar decorative embellishments of gilded vines and leaves set against green
background.

The Temple is reputed for more than 2000 Buddha images of various sizes and shapes. Many of them are housed in rows of small niches on the interior walls of a big hall.

One of the images is of standing Buddha with both hands extended downward. It is believed to be in a style that is unique to Laos.

There are some small shrines also in the compound of this temple.

After saying good bye to our tuk-tuk driver, we headed to a restaurant across the street from our hotel.

But I started feeling more light-headed than I had been for the last few days. Therefore, I returned to the hotel. Later, Kundan brought lunch for us both from the hotel to our room.

I rested in our hotel room for the remainder of the day, while Kundan went shopping with Deepa.

After some thought, I attributed my light headedness to Malarone, which we had started taking every day, on December 18, to guard us against Malaria from mosquitoes in the Bagan area of Myanmar, which our travel clinic had advised us, had gotten immune to Mefloquine, which we used to take before. Next day we both quit taking Malarone, and I felt better.