Vientiane and the northwest - The Rough Guide to Laos - page 110

chi, India. The main stupa is surrounded on all sides by a total of thirty short, spiky stupas,
which can be reached via any of four gates in the crenellated walls that support the monu-
ment. The whole is in turn surrounded by a cloistered wall, vaguely Chinese in style. With-
in the cloisters is a collection of very worn Buddha images, some of which may have been
enshrined in the original Khmer temple that once occupied the site. Until recently, only the
stupas' spires were “gilded”, but with the passing years, more and more gold paint has been
applied, so that now even the inner walls and their crenellations are gold. The effect is best
seen just before sunset or during the evenings leading up to the That Luang Festival , when
the stupa is festooned with strings of lights, and moths the size of sparrows circle and cling
to its glowing surface.
COPE Visitor Centre
Khou Vieng Rd, around 1km east of the Talat Sao bus station and roughly opposite Green Park Boutique Hotel
∙ copelaos.org ∙ Daily 9am-6pm ∙ Free, though donations are appreciated
COPE is a non-profit organization founded primarily to help those whose lives have been
affected by unexploded ordnance ( UXO ) . You can learn about the organization's work and
the continuing challenges faced by Lao UXO victims at this excellent, free-to-visit inform-
ation centre just east of the city centre. The main exhibition, housed in an old store room,
starts by describing how America's secret bombing campaigns during the Vietnam War left
Laos littered with unexploded “bombies”. Between 1964 and 1973, more than two milli-
on tons of ordnance were dropped on Laos. Around thirty percent of the cluster munitions
dropped failed to explode and even today, 25 percent of Lao villages are contaminated by
UXO. The tragic result is that since the end of the war, at least 20,000 people have been killed
or maimed. Some of those affected tell their stories on TV screens around the exhibition, and
bombs hanging from the ceiling give some sense of the scale of the problem. But the centre
isn't only about looking back; here you can find out how prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation
programmes are giving victims another chance at life, and see how those advances are help-
ing other people too, including those injured in motorbike accidents. The centre also runs a
café.
Wat Sok Pa Luang
3km southeast of central Vientiane ∙ Daily sunrise-sunset ∙ Free ∙ The easiest way to get here is by tuk-tuk
(20,000K), though if you don't mind braving busy roads, it's also possible to cycle from the centre in around
20min
Originally outside the city limits and surrounded by forest, WatSokPaLuang lies in a sub-
urb that spreads out from the highway south to the village of Thadua. The temple is known
locally for its herbal saunas, though at the time of writing the saunas were being rebuilt fol-
lowing a major fire. Progress is slow, which means that for now at least, wandering through
the shady temple grounds is a peaceful (and mostly tourist-free) experience.
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