Lao: Vientiane - the city where you can tickle a Buddha's feet
- Where To Go Next By I&P
- Feb 15, 2023
- 4 min read
After 2 weeks visiting Vietnam, we took a flight from Hanoi No Bai airport (spotless and modern airport, by the way) to Vientiane, the Lao capital.
The flight with Lao Airlines went really well and we could appreciate the politeness of the Lao personnel. Did you know that Lao language is very close to Thai? They share a lot of words and even the gesture of praying 🙏 when saying hello and thank you.
Fun fact: You may have noticed that we repeatedly wrote Lao and not Laotian. The Lao referrer to themselves, their country and their language as Lao. But during the French colonization between the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the French introduced the term Laotian and even added a "s" to the name of the country. And since then, the term Laotian has been mainly used by western countries, especially for restaurants and food - do you know a Lao restaurant? 😅
The Lao government is trying to limit the use of the term "laotian" as it refers to a colonial past.
As soon as we arrived at Vientiane's airport, we exchanged a little bit of money (as you cannot exchange it outside the country) and bought a sim card, 35k LAK for 15Gb for 10 days with Unitel.
That helped us to book a Loca, the Lao equivalent of Uber or Grab but only available in Vientiane. The app is different though because it provides an estimate but we pay a metered fare, which is fairer.
Vientiane is more of a small town than a huge metropolis. Most of the tallest buildings are 4 or 5 storeys high and the main downtown area can be visited in less than half day by foot, but you need to ride a taxi or bus to go to some of the main attractions.
You also have several large avenues and shopping malls, some of them still being built.
We went to one of them, the Vientiane Center Mall, to go buy the train tickets to our next destination with the Laos China Railway.
But the long line and the fact that we could not pay by cash or credit card (you can only pay by using a local bank app to scan a qr code and transfer the money), we decided to book a minivan instead. But if you want to take the train, there are a ton of locals willing to help you (for a small commission, of course).
The mall is close to Talat Sao Morning Market bus station. There was a bus there to go to the Buddha Park every 40min for 12k LAK/pax. So we said Praise Buddha and we took the bus 🙏😁
After a 1h bus ride in the middle of the countryside, along the Mekong river, we reached the marbled gate of the Buddha Park. After paying 40k LAK/pax, we entered the world of the one hundred stone Buddhas, small or gigantic, seated or lying down. It was like visiting all the temples in Asia in one place 🤣.
There was also a big stone tree on top of a big bulb shaped building. You could enter the it by walking inside a mouth and you could go up its 4 storeys by climbing very narrow and steep stairs. Each floor had hundreds of Buddha statues made of stone which was a little creepy! But definitely a very beautiful park overall.
When we went back to town, we went to walk along the riverbank where the night markets are located. There were hundreds of stands, stalls and little shops there with thousands of people enjoying the sunset and the multiple attractions that the city offers at this time of day. All under the watch of the statue of King Chao Anouvong, who died in 1828 after fighting against the Kingdom of Siam, when the 3 main cities of Lao were under their control. The rebellion of King Chao led to the destruction of Vientiane (rebuilt later by the French who occupied the country after. Yes, we did some good nonetheless 😊) but he remained the king who fought for the Lao identity.
The following day, we went a little bit north of the city to visit the temple complex around Pha That Luang. This 44m golden stupa protected by a wall, is a magnificent piece of Lao architecture that people can visit for 30k LAK/pax.
Surrounding the Pha That Luang, you have three impressive Lao temples, making the area worth visiting.
We took the Loca to go back closer to the city and visit the Patuxay, an arched monument with 4 gates inspired by the Taj Mahal that honors fallen Lao soldiers. It was renamed Patuxay (Victory Gate in Lao, read "patussaï" and not "Pas Toucher " 😜) after the uprising of Lao against the French in 1975 to claim their independence.
This monument is on one of the biggest avenues of the city that leads to the Presidential palace.
Nearby is That Dam Stupa, a brick stupa. It's believed the gold around that stupa was stolen by the Siam when they invaded the city. As visiting that dam(n) stupa 🤣 during peak heat, we went to cool off with a Lao massage. 😁
Afterwards, we went to walk around town and we found a lot more temples. Too many to post here 😅
And we also noticed a lot of asian car brands that we did not know such as BYD (the Chinese Tesla), Isuzu, Foton and Wuling. A lot of the Loca cars were BYDs, so we got to ride in a couple of them. They're pretty comfy and modern!
That's it for Vientiane! Next stop, Vang Vieng.
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