Vientiane, Laos

The last real stay of our trip is the capital of Laos. I knew before booking this stop that there was not much to recommend it as a city destination. Luang Prabang is the place to go in Laos because of its beauty. Vientiane serves as the capital and is functional but not beautiful. Circumstances of the trip began to dictate this choice. Originally I wanted to spend time exploring the beauty of Laos’ natural landscape. It’s so gorgeously green and unspoiled. August is, however, the rainy season and it rains some everyday. While we were in Luang Prabang, it stormed resulting in mudslides downriver that washed out small farms and trees. Laos suffers from deforestation. To help boost its economy, the government cuts lots of trees and sends the lumber to Vietnam where they make furniture. As a result after the strong rains, all kinds of debris floated down the Mekong River in Luang Prabang.

Everyone spent the day watching it with some workers trying to retrieve bamboo and tree limbs for use. The Lao people use wood to cook. Every shop and home has a small pot over a wood fire in front . For us, the end result of the August rains was a change in travel plans. Rivers and roads could not be counted on. The roads in Laos are bad anyway. Our hotel owners told us some of their guests had gotten delayed coming back from a car trip further north because the road was impassable. We were interested in natural protected areas in northern Laos, but decided going south was a better option. We had to make our final departure plane in Bangkok in less than a week. First we planned to hire a car to drive us from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng and then onto Vientiane along a beautiful stretch of highway. Then we find out Route 13 was closed because of fallen trees and that it would take days to unblock it. With the help of our Belle Rive staff, we ended up flying from Luang Prabang to Vientiane: the result being three nights in Vientiane before flying to Bangkok. Airports always divulge the economic status of a country. Laos is poor and we knew we were in a third world country. We never felt this way in Thailand or Vietnam. In Cambodia and Laos, we did. That’s not to say we were afraid, far from it. A nice young man from the hotel Ansara met us. He spoke virtually no English. Few Lao do. Wait people know the basics related to food service. If I asked them how they were, they didn’t know what I was talking about. The Lao people we came in contact with were very timid and therefore didn’t seem friendly. The Vietnamese always wanted to ask us questions and engage. The Lao lacked confidence or interest. We found that over time they became very warm. We have pictures of the staff in Luang Prabang because we were there for six nights.

Vientiane was by in large not an attractive city. It was hot, dusty, and torn up. Much construction was taking place. It was as if the city was having an identity crisis. It will host the huge Europe-Asia conference in November and needs more hotels. Infrastructure all over Laos is a problem. Vientiane wants to look like a world capital worthy of international dignitaries. We could tell that international investments underlined much of the building. They are building a new mall, a plaza with fountains, and office space. All of the architecture is modern and could be anywhere. The city lacks character. There are lots of good reasons for this, mainly historical. During the Vietnam War, Laos was ravaged. In what was called “the silent war” in Laos, the US dropped two million dollars’ worth of bombs a day for nine years. This knowledge alone made it difficult to go to Laos. Yet this is the country that took my heart. The land is extravagantly green and overgrown. The people are small, most of them are shorter that I am and a third my size. This is true of both men and women. They are extremely small. Most of them are young, born way after the war. Education is a problem and they are trying to keep up with their Southeast Asian neighbors. This is the only country where the novice monks stopped us to initiate a conversation in English. They take an hour of English a week, an HOUR, and also take an hour of Chinese. They viewed American tourists as an opportunity to practice their English. One told Tom he looked like Bill Gates and that he wanted to be a computer programmer. These ambitions did not fit my images of a monk. Being a monk is the only opportunity for them to go to school. I found it interesting that young monks would initiate English conversations with us, but the Lao people in tourism were intimidated. Although on the whole, the temples, wats, and sites in Vientiane were not as beautiful as in other places, we found two exceptions: the Patuxai, or Victory Monument, and Wat Si Saket. Built in 1969 with cement donated by the US for a new airport, the Victory Monument, commemorating the Lao who died in prerevolutionary wars, appears to be Vientiane’s Arc de Triomphe.

It comes off as Lao’s attempt at a grand monument with surrounding plaza and boulevard. However, what surrounds it is disappointing. Tom and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Wat Si Saket. We have seen a lot of wats and experienced a lot of heat at this point, but were both fascinated by this oldest of temples in Laos. What gives it distinction is the number of Buddhas. The cloister around the wat houses around two hundred sitting or standing Buddhas, all rescued by monks from other places. Small niches carved into both the cloistered wall and the temple walls hold tiny ceramic images of Buddha that end up conveying an intricate background pattern.

When we were leaving Vientiane, I told Tom that I bet if we ever returned to Vientiane, it would be a different city.