I woke up a bit later than planned, the fan had been annoying during the night and the bed was a bit short so I had moved it so my feet could stick out of the end without hitting the guy in the next bed. I had breakfast downstairs which was ok then showered, packed and moved to a guesthouse in an Indian restaurant called Dhaka. I got a dodgy small dark room for 40k for the night with a similar breakfast from what I could see. I headed out a bit later than planned and after a small amout of wandering around the bus station which is being developed I got the number 14 bus I needed. The bus had been funded or donated by none other than the Japanese and it was 8.30 and the bus filled up with people. The bus fare was 6k which made me think I should have rented a bike as I could have done this journey and then biked around town afterwards, the bus though was quicker and it meant I didn't have to drink so much water although my new guesthouse did have free water refills. The bus stopped at friendship bridge where lots of people got off to go into Thailand and I was worried the bus might gead back into town but it carried on to Buddha park where I got off with several others. Entry was 5k and it was quite a small place crammed with various statues including one there is a picture of on my current page. I climbed up inside a pumpkin which is meant to represent heaven and hell and it gave me a view down onto the park. There was a long wait while a group of people all came down stairs that I wanted to go up but after that I got around it no problem. I walked through the park, took some photos of a multi arm shiva, a standing statue, the big lying statue and a tower with really steep steps I climbed up. It was ok but I think I spent 30 minutes at the park before leaving and getting on a bus going the wrong way as I thought it would turn around. I got off, briefly visited a temple and got a bus going the right way. I was back in town after 11am and museums were going to close for lunch soon so I'd probably timed that badly and was worried I wouldn't be able to fit it all in. I went north and got a pot noodle for 3k and a litre of mixed juice for 6k and then came to a big temple which was new but still quite good. From there I could see a multi level pagoda temple so I went there and climbed up and the view including the arch was decent. I went back down and walked to the arch and then onwards to MAG, the people who remove mines in Laos had a visitors centre. It was after 12 but the place was smaller than the COPE centre so I didn't spend do long there especially as their video wasn't set up. I decided to take a detour to a park and a viewpoint and go past a temple but that wasn't there, the park was wasteland with a badminton centre and the viewpoint wasn't there. I did see a convention centre and then got to the main road where the memorial to the president Souphanouvong was. Thr door was open so I went in and it was dark but it was 1.15 and it opened at 1pm. I took a photo of the main room before 2 people came in and switched the lights on. The main room was mainly photos of the man over many years and he was a Prince who became president. It also seemed that the same party ruled Laos. Upstairs there was a living room, study area, office and bedroom. The most interesting thing were the amount of statues and pictures of communists, Ho Chi Minh, Lenin, Marx, Fidel Castro in the place. I went down to leave and they wanted me to sign the guestbook so I did and then they wanted 5k for the museum but I'd read it was free so wikitravel needs updating. I paid and left and went to the peoples army museum where a French speaker explained it was closed for international womens day. So I went to the national security museum which had its gates closed but door open and they switched on the lights. It at least was free and it wasnt very good. There were a lot of pictures of police winning medals, army people ready and criminals they had caught. Everyone including an English girl done for drugs had their face shown apart from one Thai man who had a black strip over his eyes. I headed back to town past the arch again (only the 5th time) and saw an internet place on the way closer to my guesthouse than the other place and it looked cheaper and was busier. I went to the national museum which was 10k entry and started with pre history and had information about the dinosaur discoveries in Savannakhet. Then it had information about the plain of jars and upstairs some pieces on early Laos kingdoms in the 14th through to 19th century when the Thais attacked and then the French came. There was definitely anti French sentiment but Laos had fought and got their independence earlier than Vietnam just after WW2 ended. Then there was some anti US imperialism photos about the war before downstairs the museum descended into lots of photos and some artifacts with no stories or interest to them. I left and went to the cultural museum which was definitely not open and then I went back to the guesthouse and filled up my water. The bus the next day would leave around 10am and I couldn't find an earlier one unless I took a local bus for the same price but more hassle and less speed so I booked it with my old hostel. I went out to the West and and saw guess what, some Wats (temples) and a statue and briefly went to the riverfront. After that I had been to everywhere I wanted and it was getting close to 5 so I wanted food. I got an ice cream and then went to the road with the noodles but a lot of stalls including that one hadn't set up yet. I bought what I thought was rice wrapped in bamboo leaves as thats how they had it in the Phillipines and I also got some BBQ rice on a stick. I went to the stadium again and ate the rice and sat down. There were some old people playing football and lots of people running around the athletics track training. I unwrapped the bamboo and there were a lot of leaves it was like when you get a box within a box and a big present becomes tiny. Inside there was what looked like squashed white worms and a chili pepper. It took a long time for me to eat it but it tasted ok with the chili flavour. The flies meanwhile seemed to love it and were all over the bamboo leaves which might be why they wrap them so much. I went back to the market where the noodle stall was setting up and I got 2 portions. I ate one box of noodles at the stadium where another football game was starting with some younger, better players and then I went back to the guesthouse. I had a bit if a read and a nap and then went out around 8pm to the internet place where a couple of doors down a big dog really threatened me. The owner came out but the dog wanted to attack and because I knew there was a real danger I wasn't as unafraid as I needed to be but still I was ready to take the dog out if I needed to and I had my rabies inoculation. It didn't come to that and I got to the internet shop which had some really friendly dogs. I updated my blog and was pretty happy with its shape although I probably should have done more research into China. I left and walked the other way back stopping at a shop where I got some small juices for 1k, a big bag of ellse biscuits for 8.5k and a yoghurt for 4.5k because I just fancied it. Back at the guesthouse I read a bit more and went to sleep.
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