2/20–Vientiane–Kaysone Promvihane Museum

Arriving at this grandiose palace of a museum, we have to park out by the road, passing by an armed guard in a little hut who asks for our passports.  Uh oh.  We don’t have the actual passports, but we do have copies.  He accepts these and then keeps them as he admits us into the museum grounds, which can best be described as acres of sculpted park-like grass and fountains.  The museum/palace taunts us from a distance, with the monstrous statue of President Kaysone himself staring down at us, almost daring us to come further into his ‘sanctuary.’ LOL.  Seriously, it’s a pretty impressive scene here, including the huge, Iwo Jima type statues on either side of the President’s likeness. 

When we finally make it to the doorway, we are greeted by very nice ladies who take our entrance fee, show us the lockers and react with surprise when we tell them we are from the U.S.A.  Guess not a lot of Americans visit this monument to Communism.  Oh well, their loss.  If you don’t want learn about other cultures and politics, then you probably shouldn’t travel, IOHO. 

The museum displays are all housed on the second floor.  As you ascend the stairs, you are greeted by yet another statue of the President on the landing between floors.  We have to wait to take a picture because a huge school group is just leaving (thankfully) – but first there is the obligatory group photo in front of the President!

Photo accomplished, we continue up the stairs to begin our touring, walking through exhibits explaining the country’s most recent revolutionary history in vivid visual displays depicting the rise of Communism through conflicts and wars, and most notably the rise of President Kaysone Phomvihane. It’s actually pretty informative, and most of the displays actually have some English translations, so we can follow along. Some of the more off-beat and interesting displays are the recreation of the President’s boyhood home where his foster father hid him when the French invaded the village – and the replica of a portion of the cave in which he lived during the American “conflict” from 1971-73, including his gun and binoculars.  They even have a replica of his school desk from the French school he attended. (I mean really, who saved this stuff?)

There are many other military displays – the guns, the jeeps, the soldier tableaus.

Then there are the more cultural exhibits, depicting life in Laos – two of which – the call center photo and the lottery basket full of balls – that struck our fancy.  Definitely an interesting immersion in Laos communist history.

Collecting our backpack and bidding the ladies goodbye, we leave the museum staring longingly at the new Lao Museum building, which is quite obviously not completed yet.  Sullen boy was correct, this place clearly isn’t open just yet, you can see all the cars and scooters parked on the veranda, and the grass around the building isn’t even planted.  It looks like it will be lovely when done, but darn it, we obviously aren’t going to see it on this trip.

We trek back to the entrance, where the guard tells us our driver has our passport copies (phew, don’t really want our passports staying here in Laos without us).  But, Driver Man is no where to be found. So we hang out for a while under the trees in the shade, waiting for him to finally appear from his rest stop in the gardens somewhere.  Next stop, the President’s living quarters.