The Charm of Vientiane

After two days in Nong Khai, the participants of the conference crossed to Vientiane, the capital of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic – the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia and home to only 6 million people.

It is one of the bastions of French colonization in Southeast Asia until it was granted freedom in 1945. The country was also involved in the Vietnam war, destroying vital infrastructure in the process. In 1975, the communist Pathet Lao, backed by the Soviet Union and the North Vietnamese Army, took control of the country from the royalist government.

Until now, Lao still has a socialist regime although it has begun opening up to trade since the 1980s, paving the way for the country's recovery, although a slow one at that.

The capital Vientiane (population 200,000) rests near the bank of the Mekong, an easy crossing from Nong Khai through the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, which opened in the 1990s. When the bus was on the bridge I noticed how the Thai side was lined with Thai flags and in the middle of the bridge the line of flags stop, replaced by flags of Lao PDR.

(Click on the images for a larger version.)


Upon entering Lao, I soon realized that cars stay on the right side of the road, much like in the Philippines.

Our first stop was the Lao National Library, or Bibliotheque Nationale, which occupies an old colonial building in the middle of the town.

I swear, the building, although very charming indeed, was going to collapse anytime. We were taken to some of the rooms where they were restoring frayed books, in French, but the tour guide spoke only Thai so I wandered around the rooms of the library instead.



We also stopped over at the National Film Archives, a section of the trip that was rather uneventful.

After lunch we went to the National Museum, also housed in a massive colonial building with wood floors on the second level. The mounting of the artefacts were very rudimentary, which does not give justice at all to the historical value of the things on display.

I was horrified to see some of the participants of the trip taking pictures of the artefacts. This speaks a lot about the lax security of the facility.

We rushed next to the Wat Phra Koe, an amazing example of traditional Lao architecture. In contrast to Thai wats (temples), the roof of Lao wats are closer to the ground, thus giving the temple roofs an elegant swoop.

Thai wats are also laden with intricate details made of glass and gold leaf, but the Lao temple had the designs carved on the stone walls, giving it a more aged look. [I have to thank my officemate R for imparting to me all these details.]

Surrounding the temple are numerous Buddha statues in various poses.


Vientiane had more interesting landmarks but we only got to drive around them rather than actually make a stop coz we did not have much time. It was fascinating how the signs in the city are translated from Lao to both French and English. The street signs even read as Rue So-and-So.

I noticed also that Vientiane is populated with numerous and valuable colonial buildings, which sadly are being neglected and pretty much allowed to crumble to the ground.

The government however is bent on preserving the look of the city as buildings taller than seven floors are not allowed. Definitely, at least in this respect, they are going to the right direction.

In the afternoon it was time to cross back to Thailand. The bus I took for Bangkok was a so-called VIP bus, their seats can even give you a massage.

More pictures here.