Vientiane, Laos
Wat Sisaket in Vientiane
Our impressions of Vientiane
Sleepy and lackluster (aka Dushanbe vibes): Sleepy can be a positive or negative, but for us the sleepiness of Vientiane was a negative. Despite being the capital city of Laos, Vientiane doesn’t feel so happening or exciting. We remarked on some similarities to Dushanbe, the dystopic capital of Tajikistan, namely unfinished construction, abandoned buildings, and malls that were way too large for the population. Walking around was easy (there wasn’t much traffic), but there also wasn’t much to see on our walks
Fine place to spend a day (but not much longer): Though we didn’t love Vientiane and wouldn’t recommend spending time there, we still enjoyed our time there. It wasn’t hard to fill up our time between walking, seeing the city’s most prominent sites, and checking out a handful of restaurants. That being said, a day and a half was probably too much time for us to spend here – one day would have been perfect. We’re hopeful that Laos will invest a bit more in the city given it’s a major transit point for anyone entering the country
Interesting national sites: As the capital city, Vientiane does have a handful of intriguing national sites. We had a fun time looking at the different government buildings (the ministry of education and sport is curiously one organization), spotting different embassies (Brunei has a shocking large and beautiful building), and visiting the independence monument
What we saw in Vientiane
Night Market: One of favorite things about Vientiane was its night market. The area along the Mekong becomes much livelier at night with an endless row of clothing vendors setting up shop in red tents. The market was catered to locals, not tourists, which made it much more interesting than other night markets we had visited. We had a lot of fun looking through racks of shirts with nonsensical English slogans like “trolls paper stationery for creators caprice memopad.” Doug follows an Instagram called Funny Vietnamese Shirts that we considered submitting a few photos to 🙂
Wat Sisaket: We were very limited on kip (Lao currency) towards the end of our time in Laos (Vientiane was our last stop), so we had to carefully consider if we wanted to spend money on Wat Sisaket. We decided to go for it and were thrilled with our decision. It ended up being one of the most interesting temples that we visited in Laos. The temple sits in the middle of a courtyard that is surrounded by walls on all sides. There are hundreds of bronze buddha statues within cubbies in each wall with larger buddha statues resting in front of them. Though the color of the walls has faded, there is one section that has been restored to the previous colors – yellow, pink, and blue – with intricate details. We can only imagine how spectacular this place must have felt back in 1818 when it was constructed. The temple itself was also remarkable with well-maintained murals in its interior (no pictures allowed)
COPE: After visiting the UXO Center in Luang Prabang, we were looking forward to spending time at COPE – an organization that supports physical rehabilitation services for UXO (unexploded ordinance) survivors and other people with disabilities. At COPE, we read and watched stories from UXO survivors which was a very moving experience. Laos has limited healthcare infrastructure, so many people don’t have artificial limbs available to them at their local healthcare facilities. As a result, survivors have made their own limbs and lived with them for decades in some cases – an amazing display of resilience. Part of COPE’s mission is to educate survivors on the options that are available to them if they lose a limb. We were inspired by these stories and the organization’s mission and happy to hear that USAID was a major benefactor (though it would be even better if the U.S. would fund the clean-up of all UXOs)
Wat That Luang: Though the walk here was lackluster, the stupa was pretty neat. It was originally built in the 3rd century and is said to contain bones of Buddha. It has evidently been reconstructed since the 3rd century and is now painted in gold. A newer edition is a giant reclining buddha next to the temple. It reminded us of some of the temples that we saw in Thailand that had intentionally constructed large buddhas to draw in more tourists
Patuxai Monument: This monument was built between 1957 and 1968 to commemorate Laos’s independence from France. Ironically, it looks fairly similar to the Arc de Triomphe (especially the ceiling). From afar, the architecture also reminded us of the Gateway to India in Mumbai and the Taj Mahal. We were pleased to read that it was in fact influenced by Mughal architecture when we got close enough to read about it
Where we ate and drank
Chokdee Belgian Cafe: We were looking for a place to have a drink and play cards and settled on Chokdee. This spot was great on the drink front with many imported Belgian beers, but less so on the cards front. After we had only played one game, one of the staff members came up to us and asked us to stop playing, pointing at the CCTV camera and saying his boss was watching. He must have thought we were gambling or something…
Jamil Zahid Punjabi Restaurant: The food selection in Vientiane was fairly limited, so we switched it up with an Indian spot where we had our first Indian fare since our month traveling in India. It was a modest and slightly gross operation (just a bit dark and unsanitary), but the food was very tasty! We had samosas, veg curry, daal fry, and cheese naan. The pictures that we took of our food don’t adequately represent its tastiness, but they did give us a good laugh
Cafe de Boris: We had heard that Vientiane had a great cafe scene, but we weren’t overwhelmed by the options. With limited kip left, we were hopeful that Cafe de Boris would take credit card, but it did not. However, it did end up being a great place for a pain au chocolat and airy, black baguette sandwich that we had just enough kip to pay for
Greenhouse Cafe: Greenhouse Cafe was a total gem of a place that we were so happy to find. We were looking for a cafe that took credit card, offered decent food options, and had a nice place to sit. Greenhouse Cafe checked all of these boxes. We had a delicious meal here – Doug had a cheeseburger (the best of the trip with a homemade bun) and Jessie had a vegan tofu bowl (all rejoice!) – while spending some time writing and doing trip research. If we ever find ourselves back in Vientiane, we’ll definitely come back here
Where we stayed
La Seine Hotel: After a stretch of fairly basic accommodations in Laos, we decided to stay at a nicer place in Vientiane. It was much appreciated, especially given Jessie had just recovered from food poisoning a few days earlier. The room was super comfortable with a place to sit outside of the bed (a huge luxury for us these days) and a really nice bathroom where the shower was separate from the toilet. Definitely one of the highlights of Vientiane for us!
