Laos - Vientiane

Vientiane is the laid-back capital of Laos. Small, with a population of just under 800,000, it was once a French colonial backwater but is fast emerging into a bustling modern city. We like the place a lot and stayed a fortnight.

Lilz and I had stopped in Vientiane a decade ago when we travelled from Singapore, to Thailand, up through Laos north to Nong Khiaw. We were really taken with the city then, and I remember it as sleepy, full of artisan markets, temples, good coffee, and warm sunsets over the Mekong. It felt like a little sister to more developed cities in Thailand. Since then it has outgrown this and is now a more vibrant, modern, cosmopolitan city. I feel in this transition it has lost some of its quiet romantic charm.

We did enjoy capitalising on the change however, making most of the abundance of food. We’ve realised that at home our meals are very diverse. Vientiane gave us a sudden smorgasbord, making us deliriously happy. Ditching months of rice, noodles, egg and fried veggies, we had a glorious romp through different cuisines - scoffing up falafel, pizza, curries, spaghetti, roti pancakes, banh mi, panini, and delicious pastries. Dependent on time of day we swallowed it all down with Beer Lao or coffee.

Beerlao is the national beer and Laos' most famous brand - it monopolises the marketing everywhere. It is a firm favourite of ours. There is a strong drinking culture in Laos, and in Vientiane we saw people sitting at tables with a beer tower and a bucket of ice. Although we didn’t partake of the towers, we embraced the ice in our beer - Lilz slightly more reluctantly at first 😄.

A lot of our conversations in Vientiane focused on the change we witnessed since we were last here, the history and future of the country. Laos has one of the youngest populations in SEA with 60% under 25 years old and we noticed feeling distinctly older walking the streets as bright young things zipped past us on their silent electric vehicles. This generation is the country’s future powerhouse and you can almost feel the growth of Laos crackling in the air.

For us, in the city, the most obvious boom was in tourism. Large luxury hotels had changed the skyscape. The abundance of restaurants the foodscape. Glitzy bars the night scene. And the rise in traffic the soundscape. With the new Laos-China Railway, there has been rapid growth in the number of Chinese. We noticed this was driving local services to accommodate the high-quality demands of these high-end tourists. Reading the Vientiane Times confirmed our observations. An article outlined tourism growth is set to continue. When we visited in 2016, Laos welcomed 4 million of us foreign tourists. Over the next five years Laos aims to make tourism a key economic pillar, targeting 22 million foreign tourists by 2030. That’s a huge leap. Especially when you think the entire population is about 8 million.

Perhaps to avoid thinking about what all this change means we took enjoyment in seeking out historical sites, age-old craftsmanship, and found peaceful sanctuary in a tucked away reading room. During the day, the age-old calm returns, and the slow-paced Vientiane drifts on in the heat. Temples still dominate - our hotel was within spitting distance of three or four - and their gilded interiors, frangipani trees, and serene statues are so integrated they keep the city serene.

We wandered through Vientiane’s many wats, particularly enjoying re-visiting Wat Sisaket. Built in 1818 it survived the 1828 Siamese occupation and is the city's oldest Buddhist temple. Avoiding the scorching sun, we circuited the wat’s shaded cloisters housing thousands of tiny Buddha statues in rows of small niches, along with larger Buddhas, hands clasped serenely in their laps. The main hall, within the courtyard, houses a big golden Buddha, intricate murals featuring some splendid elephants, and, echoing the cloisters, rows of Buddha niches. The main hall is photograph-free. A great old sign forbids use of your Nokia and your analogue vintage camera. Both Lilz and I wanted to take a photo of this sign saying don’t take photos.

We’d read about Maurice Cavalerie, the French-Chinese owner of the Constellation Hotel, a fascinating character. We searched out the hotel, walking past it at first in its sad abandoned state. A legendary ‘War Hotel’ in Vientiane during the 1960s and 70s it served as a key sanctuary for journalists covering the conflict in Laos during the Secret War. The hotel was described as a chaotic but safe haven filled with cigarette smoke, rumour-gathering, and intense conversations between spies and reporters. Engrossed in this Vietnam War-era Laos period - especially after being so moved by visiting the COPE museum (covered in another Footprint) - we watched the film ‘Air America’, enjoying a young Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr playing pilots in CIA airlift operations, and a few episodes of the 1992 TV mini-series ‘Frankie's House’ featuring Iain Glen as British combat photojournalist Tim Page.

Lastly, I enjoyed exploring all the shops and markets selling Lao textiles. Vientiane is a hub for hand weaving produced across the country. High-end handmade artisan pieces, scrappy antique hangings, and an overwhelming array of machine made fabrics at Talat Sao market hall, I loved it all.

I was particularly delighted to find Ock Pop Tok has a shop in the city. We’d stayed at Ock Pop Tok in Luang Prabang when we visited in 2016 and I had done a workshop with them and bought one of their pieces. They are a premier female-led social enterprise dedicated to empowering women and promoting traditional Laotian textiles. Their talented artisans create exquisite silk fabrics using sophisticated and complex weaving techniques. Their gallery featured colourful pieces demonstrating intricate, symbolic patterns. I was drawn to small squares - Lao Pha Khan Mon, or Love Gifts - which carry a message of love and protection. Traditionally, these tokens were woven by young women to showcase their weaving skills and suitability for marriage. They were given to loved ones embarking on journeys or going to war, symbolizing care and a wish for their safe return. The intricate patterns, which include flowers, diamonds, and the mythical Naga, are believed to bring good luck and protection. Butterflies were typically avoided in Love Gifts because they symbolize a short lifespan.Read more