1 April - photo from the past of Wat Meuang Wa

The first picture in Vientiane Daily Photo was a panoramic view of Wat Meuang Wa, a Buddhist temple out by the airport. Since I wrote earlier that they are now putting the finishing touches on the temple, I thought I'd post a few pictures over the next few days of the steps of renovations.

One of the earliest pictures I could find was from February 2007, when they were starting to tear the old Bodt down. In the rubble, I found this mound of concrete near the stairway into the old building - it was molded into a very rough shape of a Buddha image and painted gold. I don't remember seeing it in front of the old building and no one knew where it had come from.

From Vientiane Daily Photo

It's always strange - when you see new construction, you wonder about what had been there before.