"No need to rush away..." a Vientiane Travel Page by Hewer

I visited Laos in October, 2005 and stayed five days in Vientiane. Most people stay there for a short time before heading up north. Indeed, when you wander around the city during the day, you get the feeling that everyone is off on holidays somewhere. Everything in Vientiane has a Sunday afternoon feel about it.

It's pretty small as far as capital cities go - only 200,000 live here and many of the roads in the city are unsealed. There are many broad, tree-lined boulevards and traffic is sparse. A capital city has to have certain facilities and infrastructure - various ministerial buildings, museums, embassies, monuments and so on and I think the addition of these structures has effectively spread the city out. In any event, it makes Vientiane easy to navigate and not at all intimidating.

I like to walk quite a lot and to experience for myself what a city has to offer. I discovered very quickly that a) Vientiane is much bigger than it appears to be on the map and b) Most places are closed by about 10pm. In one case I went to a Japanese restaurant and I was astonished to see them shut up shop behind me when I left - this was in the centre of town at 8:30pm!

The picture I have here on my Vientiane page is the Victory Monument, located close the center of Vientiane. When you read up on the city, you'll find that this concrete building is dismissed as having no architectural merit, being an eyesore and various other things. I don't care really - I thought it was great and forms a powerful central point. The view from the top is great and I like the gardens around it.

I met up with Steve (sieffron on VT) at the Samlo Bar on my second night in Vientiane. He's an interesting bloke and was just embarking on a long trip around south east Asia. I suggested a VT meeting on the forum just before I left and Steve said he'd be in town.

We only had one drink because Steve was a bit under the weather from his jaunt the previous evening (in fact, I believe he is drinking Lao moonshine on his VT home page if you check it out :-).