Vientiane: Love from First Sip

This laid-back, small town provides a surprising amount of sights, maybe due to its complicated history, which lead Communist, French, and Buddhist heritages to blend gracefully, creating a magical spot living in its own time-bubble. Most visitors arrive here from Thailand and it does not take long for them to find that they have returned to a culture that appreciates bread and coffee; together with the architectonic style of many official buildings and to the urban design of its center, these are blessed leftovers from the colonial period. The actual Communist era provided some unusual constructions and sites, the most remarkable being the National Theatre, the National or Revolutionary Museum and the unforgettable Patuxai Arc, a weird mixture of de Arc de Triomphe in Paris with Buddhist motifs.

The deep-rooted Buddhist traditions contributed the That Luang Stuppa, which few of its size and splendor can be seen elsewhere, the That Dam (black stuppa) carrying the signs of the last Siamese invasion and the Wat Haw Pha Kaew, the former home to the Emerald Buddha, the ruling talisman of the current Chakri dynasty in Thailand. However, the true highlights of the town are its wonderful, welcoming residents.

Quick Tips:

Despite its small size, I recommend to give the town at least a week since many of its cultural features take some time to be absorbed. If you liked Thai food, you will find the Lao cuisine to be sensational; its shared roots with the Thai one had been spiced up with an amazing French touch. Small baguettes are eaten here regularly and during the mornings, you will easily find local coffee in the markets.

Coffee lovers all over the world enthusiastically argue over the question which is the best coffee, the prevalent candidates being Blue Mountain from Jamaica and Kona from Hawaii; but the Bolaven Plateau Coffee from that area in South Laos can stand up to them without shame. The limited production means that there are practically no exports of it and thus your visit to Vientiane will provide a unique opportunity to taste it and definitely fall in love afterwards. The slow-flowing Mekong River provides a wonderful spot to spend the evenings.

Best Way To Get Around:

Bus number fourteen connects the Friendship Bridge, the entry point from Thailand, with Vientiane, some twenty kilometers to the north. Due to the bus station geometry, you cannot know to where the bus is headed, if the driver will sign you not to climb, it means it is arriving from the town and continuing south. However, if you climbed it in the wrong direction, you will gain a trip to the capital through the countryside and loose a couple of hours.

Unlike neighboring Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos, has a superb public transport system with buses connecting the capital with all the provincial cities; hence, there is no need to book expensive tours to travel within the country. There are two main terminals, the bigger one just in front of the Morning Market in downtown, offering buses mainly to the south and east, and the Northern Terminal some five kilometers to the north. Some destinations are served from both of them, and I recommend visiting them one day before your planned trip to get updated information and to clearly identify the departure bay: that will save surprises at the last moment.

One of the most inexpensive guesthouses in Vientiane is the Sabaidy; the name means "feeling good" in the Lao and Thai languages. It has an exceptionally good location at the center of the town, very close to the Namphou fountain, to the Mixai Temple and one block away from the beautiful promenade along the Mekong River.

The original building was a two floors colonial French structure, which was re-modeled into a three low floors one by the owner, an architect educated in La Havana, Cuba. The first floor contains the large lobby with the reception counter, a small eating area with an advanced and modern entertainment system, and a kitchen in its backside.

The guesthouse provides basic food services at economic prices and of good quality but with the amazing morning market just a couple of blocks away, that is a doubtful choice unless you are in a hurry.

The reception counter includes a computer with a database of the guests, and you are always asked where did you come from and to where are you leaving, although any answer you give is accepted without further checking. Behind it are documents’ lockers that you can use with no further charge. There is a mezzanine floor with a single room hanging over the kitchen's entrance, which is used by their cleaning employee, and at its side, there is a balcony looking over the lobby.

On the second floor is the dormitory, a huge room housing eighteen beds that is divided with the help of two thin curtains to create three partitions of six beds each, giving thus the illusion of privacy. Each partition has two fans, one for the upper berths attached to the wall and the second for the lower ones, placed in front of them above a line of six simple wood lockers, one for each guest.

The dormitory has a pleasant balcony facing the street, which serves as an information exchange center among the backpackers. A few small wood rooms are scattered in front and above the big dormitory and can be rented at a premium. Three shared toilets are placed one in each floor, and they include electrical water heaters above the showers.

A dormitory bed is available for the equivalent of two dollars and you can pay in Thai Bahts or American Dollars as well; due to exchange rate considerations, paying in the local currency is cheaper. They provide a visas service, but it is faster and cheaper to approach the relevant consulates directly, in such a small town as Vientiane that is easy to do while sightseeing. Similarly, buying here tickets to buses or trains within Thailand is not necessary.

One of the few recognizable structures in Vientiane from across the Mekong River, the Lao Plaza Hotel can truly claim to be an international hotel. The Thai town of Srichiangmai in Thailand is located in front of Vientiane and allows a clear view of the Lao Plaza cubic structure; especially at night when its greenish neon advertisements are on.

Unless you visit Vientiane, a tiny town whose downtown can be easily explored by foot, it is hard to understand how out of place the hotel’s limo service is. However, it exists and offers a rental service per hour (from $4 and up, depending on the car) or per day ($12 and up). The hotel offers airport transfer as well.

Several shops share the hotel’s quarters and they include a travel agent and a silk shop; however, a visit to them is not a reason to skip the nearby Morning Market, which is one of the best of its type in Southeast Asia. Another available service is the fitness center and pool on the second floor, which offers an extensive array of related services including traditional Lao massage (a variation of the Thai one).

Even if this hotel is beyond the budget of most travelers, it is worth entering it and taking a look at the sumptuous rooms. They are decorated in traditional Lao style and offer thus an almost unique sight in Vientiane. The rooms include all the modern facilities, from a coffee maker (buy the excellent Laotian coffee in the nearby market and enjoy it in the room) to a safety box, and include direct internet access and satellite television. A typically Lao friendly touch is the 3pm checkout time. The prices begin at $100 per night.

The Lao Plaza includes several excellent restaurants and bars. Despite that, they can hardly compete against the amazing variety and quality of their counterparts in downtown. The May Yuan Chinese Restaurant specializes mainly in Cantonese and Sichuanese cuisines. The Dok Champa is internationally oriented and offers Thai, Japanese, and Western dishes, including steaks and salmons, an oddity in this part of the world. The Lobby Lounge and the Bon Café offer an excellent place to receive visits while enjoying a coffee or a casual drink; the nearby Deli Bakery provides the other necessities for such an event. Below them is the Blue Note Pub, which offers an unasked-for karaoke environment.

Even if opting for more economical hotels while in Vientiane, there is another good reason for visiting the Lao Plaza. For around $2, it is possible to rent an impressive office (called Business Center and placed next to the lobby) with a good internet connection; it is the best way of sending bulky pictures to friends around the world.

Temple

The Pha That Luang is one of the biggest stuppas in the world and the national symbol of Laos. Stuppas are designed to resemble the Buddha’s rice bowl, folded garments and walking stick arranged vertically, but they can also be interpreted as a symbol of the three different stages in the Buddhist spiritual development. The asymptotic approach of the temple to Nirvana at its top is especially meaningful and symbolic.

Structure

Pha That Luang structure’s summit is almost fifty meters tall. This specific stuppa is remarkable not only for its size, but for its golden splendor which is the result of the gold leaf used to cover it; approaching it during a sunny day without sunglasses can be damaging to the eyes. The stuppa is surrounded by heavy walls which gave the whole complex the feeling of being an odd type of fort; they display many Lao and Khmer sculptures.

History

The birth of this temple is buried under many legends; however, the oldest historical evidences show a Khmer monastery existed here at the 12th century. The original stuppa was built from 1566 onwards by the King Setthathirat when he moved his capital to modern Vientiane from its northern site at Luang Prabang. Due to the repeated invasions by the Burmese, Thailand, and Chinese neighbors it had been reconstructed several times. The 1828 invasion of the Thai – which rendered the Black Stuppa its name – caused the total destruction of the Pha That Luang. The modern structure was erected in the 1930 with the help of drawings made during the 19th century.

Legend

Despite the earliest recorded history of the place, legend states that a piece of Buddha’s breastbone was enclosed here in the 3rd century BC by Asokan missionaries.

Location

Pha That Luang is next to the Laotian Parliament and is clearly seen from the top of the Patuxai Arc in downtown Vientiane. The wide avenue connecting the two takes some twenty minutes to cross; tuk-tuks span the distance in less time. The Mekong riverside is nearby.

Festival

In November, the impressive Stupa’s Festival takes place. It is worth timing the visit so that it can be witnessed, since is the main annual fair in Laos. Since it is a major religious event taking place in a communist country, it is doubly interesting. Within the temple walls, people walk around the stuppa with lit candles in their hands, while outside the walls a huge night market pops out of nowhere and is crowded by what seems to be the whole Laotian population. Cosco Cola is available there for the joy of all participants.

Each one of my visits to the central part of Laos or its south, were enlightened by this unique delight. Much earlier, at the end of the 19th century, French settlers planted coffee in the volcanic ground of the Bolaven plateau in south Laos, a place originally inhabited by the Laven people. Despite the extremely high quality of the local product, both Arabica and Robusta varieties, it is mainly ignored by the world, maybe a result of the low yields; for example in the year 2000 it was just 13900 metric tons, most of them used in the local market. The small quantities exported, always get record prices without any dependence in the international coffee market situation, a modest recognition of its high quality. In blind taste tests, the Laos coffee get almost always the first place, a result of optimal geographical conditions with a slow paced organic growth, a subtle reminder of the charming local culture. They still place quality before quantity.

The best place to experience it is in the morning market of Vientiane, Laos' capital, one of the most impressive markets in South East Asia. Other two exciting markets and coffee centers are in the French sisters of Vientiane, Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Saigon.

South of Vientiane, the coffee quality is also high, especially as you get closer to the Bolaven Plateau, but when you start moving to the north or the east the quality deteriorates rapidly, as a result of high transportation costs that dictates the use of diminished quantities of coffee in the preparation process and the lack of French settlers in this areas in the past to introduce the taste. Coffee beans in Laos are roasted to a very dark grade, called by experts "Italian grade", without creating a bitterness that sometimes accompanies this long roasting process, another testimony of their high quality. The basic preparation technology is shared also with Cambodia and Thailand, although Laos is by far the highest coffee producer and consumer among them.

A coals oven, made from a conical bucket filled with concrete and with an aeration open in it bottom, is placed over a few layers of bricks, ordered perpendicularly to each other, is the basis to a big evaporation vessel. This vessel is cylindrical, with the diameter of the bucket and in his upper side there are two circular openings the size of a kettle, partially obstructed by two kettles. Inside the kettles there are filters made from a circular metallic frame, to which a conical cloth filter is attached. The diameter if the filter is about 13 centimeters and the length of the cotton cone is 15 centimeters when new and about twice this size after it is used for a while. The preparation starts by putting around fifty grams of very coarse grounded coffee to the cloth filter. Almost boiling water from the vessel is poured over the filter into the kettle and the filter is left inside the kettle that is continuously heated by the vapors from the vessel. As the filter with the coffee is immersed inside the filtered coffee, it experiences a prolonged process of cooking. The length of this stage is not constant and it depends on the number of customers, time of the day and other similar variables. Since from time to time more grounded coffee is added to the filter, any practical evaluation of this time is impossible. Long cooking time can cause the appearance of a mild acidity to the taste; therefore, it is preferable to approach the stalls early in the morning to enjoy the best quality product.

The result of this process is an extremely condensed coffee, used as a base to the preparation of several coffee drinks, the most popular being the coffee with milk To prepare it, around 15% of the volume of a small glass is filled with condensed milk, the cloth filter is placed over the glass and the condensed coffee is poured again over the filter and flows down to the glass. Only around half of the remaining volume is filled with coffee and the rest is filled with hot water from the vessel that has the double effect of diluting the strong coffee and gives a final heating to the mixture. As in Vietnam, the result is a black and white dichotomy, transformed after mixing into an opaque dark brown. The coffee, both because of the preparation method and the addition of condensed milk is very dense, with an extremely heavy body, reminding very much of a chocolate drink, leading to the most popular impression of first time drinkers: coffee-tasted chocolate. Another colorful characteristic is the, luckily temporal, effect of blackening the drinker teeth and tongue.

There are several stalls selling it, the easier to find are just across the bus terminal but the ones placed around the corner in front of the main post office are more comfortable if you are planning a much-recommended long stay. Due to its strong taste, locals wash it with a cup of tea, which is added free to each cup of coffee. If you are planning to drink more than one cup of coffee during your visit, it is wise to alert the seller so that the tea would be served only at the end.