SOUTH EAST ASIA’S SMALL & SLEEPY CAPITAL
Vientiane is the capital of landlocked Laos, in South-East Asia. It combines French-colonial architecture with Buddhist temples, broad boulevards and tree-lined streets, together with many notable shrines, such as, Wat Si Saket and Wat Si Muang. Despite being the largest city in this tiny nation, there’s really not a whole lot to do and that actually has to be one of its main selling points!
Is Vientiane worth the visit? Yes, Vientiane is certainly worth considering but only for a few days. There’s just enough to see and do for 1 or 2 days but if your time in the country is very limited, then we would suggest you focus on the northern city of Luang Prabang. Laos’ sleepy capital doesn’t have the greatest reputation among tourists. If you browse online forums you will commonly find descriptions like ‘boring’, ‘not worth visiting’ and ‘too quiet’. Despite all, we really enjoyed our short ‘bleisure’ trip and would recommend others to visit.
What top tips do we recommend for 1 or 2 days?
Patuxai (Victory Gate): Yes, Vientiane has its own Arc de Triomphe! Vientiane’s version is slightly taller, made of concrete, and is more Laotian in design but with an obvious French flavour. Interestingly, money was given to Laos by the United States to build a new airport, however, they decided to build Victory Gate instead. The views from the top are definitely worth the climb!
Wat Si Saket (Temple): Vientiane has a number of interesting temples (temples are known as Wats). We suggest you visit Wat Si Saket, which is located across from the presidential palace. This is the only temple in Laos that survived the Siamese occupation, which destroyed much of the capital in 1828. It features over 10,000 Buddha sculptures of varying sizes and styles.
Presidential Palace: It’s not possible to go inside but The Presidential Palace (official residence of the President of Laos) is worth a photo stop.
Laos National Museum: This small, run down museum presents an interesting insight into the way that the Lao government views history and highlights how incredibly poor Laos actually is.
COPE Visitor Centre: This venue exists to help provide prosthetic limbs and treatment to victims of the cluster bombing that the US performed during to so-called “Secret War” from 1964 to 1973. During this time, more than 580,000 bombing missions over Laos were made. The purpose of the raids was to disrupt supplies and traffic through the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’, which ran along the Laos–Vietnam border. Laos became, and still is, the most bombed country in the world per capita in history.
Local Cuisine: Laotian food has many similarities with northern Thailand. The main difference is that Lao cuisine uses a lot of herbs and vegetables, and is cooked / served immediately. You will struggle to find slow cooked dishes here. Sticky rice is the staple diet of many and consumed at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The French influence still remains in Vientiane where baguettes are sold almost everywhere.
If you are looking to visit Vientiane, Luang Prabang and the beautiful mountainous country of Laos, then Tour East (Select Representation‘s DMC for 18 countries in the APAC region) can help. Tour East provides the ground arrangements for a number of reputable tour operators in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia. For more details, contact us on: salesuk@toureast.net