Vientiane, An Oasis In Southeast Asia

Landing in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was like waking up from a chaotic dream. The drive from the airport was on a busy road but the drivers seemed “sane” and I didn’t think about having a crash–never had to close my eyes one time. I got there in the evening so my adventure by myself wouldn’t start until the next morning. First things first……I bought a baseball cap for $2.50 (so much for thinking I could blend in better with my Panama hat) and rented a bike for 2 days for that same amount. I look like Mary Poppins–a real sight to Laotian eyes.

I spent the morning sightseeing. It was Sunday and I thought I had arrived in “Shanghri-La”. I rode along a lovely park that bordered the Mekong River and had areas for exercising in front of the Presidential Palace.

The most amazing thing is that this same park becomes a teaming night market with stalls that run about ten blocks. When I rode through there was not one piece of garbage or a hint of what was to come.

I had some street food noodles and a Beerlao for dinner:

There are multiple temples–one with 6,840 Buddha statues:

I rode past the city Fountain:

And I visited some “Thats” which where built to hold remains of famous and important people. It is reputed that the golden one was built to hold hair from The Buddha.

Laos (which has 132 ethnic groups) was a part of French Indochina from 1883 until 1953 and they have there own Arc de Triomphe—the Patuxay Monument :

There are a good sampling of French restaurants and I had to have a non Asian lunch with smoked salmon, asparagus, cheese, bread and chilled white French wine:

I was in Vientiane for three nights and two days. After biking round the city each morning I had to cool off at the public swimming pool. The second day I was able to watch a group of grade school children having a swimming lesson.

Vientiane is a lovely city–I am glad I decided to visit. I am off to Vietnam this afternoon.