Vientiane Vits: A Forced Alliteration

The Chain

Tai Pan is the name of a hotels' chain operating in East Asia. They have an aggressive marketing and offer discounts for members of their customer's club. However, the membership is expensive and cannot be justified when finding a place in hotels is never a problem in that area, regardless the desired luxury level. I didn't join the club, but checked out their hotel in Vientiane.

The Location

Tai Pan Vientiane is superbly located, despite the fact it doesn't enjoy a direct view of the Mekong River. The promenade and all the other main downtown attractions can be easily accessed by foot.

The Worldwide Traveler Angle

Traveling around is often aimed at reaching new places and discovering new cultures. That's a target achievable even in your own city, as long - of course - as you do not depend on a hotel membership card.

Overplanning

In my first trips I was worried about details; especially about hotels. I booked hotel rooms from across the world. Over time I learned such an approach lead to bad choices and to difficulties in changing them afterwards.

Serendipity

Once I arrived at a new place after midnight with no local money, no hotel reservations and not knowing the local language. Morning found me alive and cured of futile control games.

The Rationale

Refusing such memberships doesn't mean the place shouldn't be checked out. Maybe the travelers there will tell fascinating stories about membership card hotels in Timbuktu.

The Narrative

A usual pitfall for travel writers is the lack of narrative. Under such perspective, following a chain of stores across the world provides a cheap and handy pseudo-narrative whenever you find yourself under pressure of people unable to appreciate travel on its own. Strangely, most of those people would show interest in such quasi-narratives and take them seriously.

The Location

Despite not having a direct sight of the river, the Tai Pan Hotel enjoys a superb location in downtown Vientiane. The promenade can be reached by foot, as most of the other city's attractions.

The Facilities

The hotel features an attractive bar, a business center, Jacuzzi, a swimming pool, and a well-equipped health club. The rooms are spotless and include a good bathroom, satellite television, and internet services. The structure is attractive and overall the hotel provides one of the best luxury deals in Vientiane; few hotels can claim to offer a better arrangement.

The Rates

The hotel rates include all the taxes and are offered per room and not per guest, as in other South East Asian hotels. Prices vary with season, however a single room costs around seventy American dollars per night and a double is below a hundred dollars.

Following the burglary event described in my Nita Guesthouse entry, I moved to Mixok Guesthouse for a few days. The choice was logical since in such an open environment it would be difficult for the thieves to approach my belongings again: there was always a watchful crowd present.

Mixok Guesthouse is a hybrid establishment; showing an extraordinary elasticity the place combines two dormitory rooms with a few private quarters hanging from the walls at curious angles and accessible through shaky wood stairs.

The Qualifying Dilemma

While trying to qualify Mixok, I found myself contemplating a complex dilemma. How should I judge a place purposely positioning itself at the market's bottom? Would the owners be pleased would I say it is the worst guesthouse in Vientiane? Would that increase its value and attraction towards potential customers? In a world where values went awry, these turned out being delicious topics for a lengthy meditation in the dark, while waiting for the redeeming morning.

The Qualification

If judged within its humble category, Mixok offers a good value. The dormitory was less crowded than expected and the personal space larger. As often happens within crowded public spaces, most guests just ignored the others and pseudo-privacy was thus achieved. The toilets were basic and functional with the expected electric heater for the shower's water. They had bicycles and motorcycles for rent and an internet kiosk next to the reception.

The Computer

The receptionist's computer at Mixok expects to be fed with details like where did the guest arrive from and to where he plans leaving. As explained in my entry about the Laotian immigrations, the details are collected and seriously checked before the exit stamp is applied to the passport.

The Lobby

The lobby was the liveliest place in the establishment; there, travelers exchanged tips and wild stories. I was told how the Jarro people in the Andaman Islands escaped the last tsunami, while inconspicuously being interrogated about my traveling plans. While giving random answers, I stored the valuable information gained. Running uphill whenever birds and animals do the same became my second nature since then. Following the trend, I got another fabulous free tip. While leaving the guesthouse, a fellow traveler cut me short and without any provocation or hint from my side, he began explaining me how to reach one of those areas in Laos closed for tourists due to armed civil conflicts. After thanking him profusely, I left Vientiane in a different, quasi-random direction.

The Added Value

These small, comical encounters are typical of places like Mixok and practically non-existent in luxury hotels. For a while - a night or two - they justify giving up commodity and luxury. That's the stuff dreams are build of.

In a city with so many Buddhist temples of importance, Mixai may be considered the underdog. Despite being on a superb location, trapped between downtown and the Mekong River Promenade, it doesn't appear in the lists of Vientiane's main attractions. Its location next to the night market's edge, the promenade and many restaurants suggests a leisure visit, in which its attractive features would be thoroughly appreciated.

This weird situation offers a golden opportunity for the traveler since it means it is actually possible enjoying a visit there. Probably no other visitors would block the structures and the resident monks would be relaxed and willing to chat and explain about the place. It means no excessive fees for entering or taking pictures would be charged and that re-entering after a lunch break would be a natural and welcomed step. It means the place would be faithful to local traditions; all this makes Mixai an attractive stop while in Vientiane.

The Thai Connection

As described in another entry, the Thai and Laotian cultures share a common origin; even the languages are similar despite the slightly differently shaped letters. The Mixai Temple may be the best place in Vientiane for contemplating the similarities between the religious architecture of these sister cultures.

The Temple

For the untrained eye, the most evident connection between the cultures would be the colorful statues acting as guardians of the temple. They are placed at strategic access points and are shaped as humanoids with frightening teeth; standing with a sword or in a menacing posture, they quickly catch the visitors' attention. However, instead of frightening, they are a successful magnet for cameras. The huge drum placed on a prominent platform and used for announcing the prayers is also hard to miss shared characteristic.

The main structure is where subtle - but easy to spot - differences appear between Thai and Laotian pagodas. Instead of focusing on them, I would like in this entry to emphasize the shared characteristics which make these temple so attractive.

The slanted, multi layered roofs are the boldest feature of the pagodas, despite Thais and Laotians choosing different colors for the tiles covering them. A second and more careful look at the roof's corners would result in noticing strangely shaped extensions of the supporting beams pointing upwards, usually made of sandalwood; they resemble two arches connected at their points. This beautiful feature is the clearest sign of the local version of Buddhism being a syncretism with animism, since they are spirits exits, and were designed to prevent malign spirits getting trapped within the temples.

Food stalls in South East Asia markets specialize in one or two dishes; seldom is it possible to eat a complete meal in the western meaning just by sitting at one of them. At first sight the practice may seem impractical, but that does not make sense while speaking about pragmatic Asian people.

The explanation to the apparent paradox can be found by visiting a typical Asian market like the one in Vientiane. The vast majority of the denizens prefer eating at the market; even people who are obviously poor eat there. That means that eating there is cheaper than buying the ingredients and cooking at home.

Location

Vientiane’s Night Market spans several streets, from the promenade along the Mekong River through Khoun Bouloum, Sethathiarth and the adjacent streets.

Food

See my Laotian Snacks entry for a more detailed description of that cuisine; the main dishes eaten at night are listed here:

Chinese
A Chinese restaurant placed among the stalls supplies tasty dim sums and an excellent opportunity to compare between these two cuisines.

Kalapao
Similar to steamed Chinese dumplings, Kalapao are substantially bigger and filled with pork meat or a cooked egg and served very fresh, straight out of steaming bowls.

Grilled Chicken
Ping kai are half chickens skewed on sticks and grilled; grown in organic conditions, the chickens are rather small.

Bamboo Sticks
Bamboo sticks filled with sticky rice and coconut cream or beans are cooked on coals, afterwards the burned bamboo is peeled off and the sweet interior is eaten.

Squids
Grilled and press flattened squids are a popular and salty snack; they are of the fresh water type.

Pork Skin
Curled, fried bits of pork skin are as crispy as the freshest French fries and are a popular snack while contemplating colorful sunsets over the Mekong River.

Added Value

Many travelers snob local markets; some travel across the world and then eat at a fancy French restaurant identical to the ones at their hometown. However, sharing the local dishes with the denizens under the open sky and among structures built according to alien principles vastly enriches the traveler’s perspective and creates a golden opportunity for a direct, friendly and tasty contact with a new and different culture.

Safety

In certain cities visiting an open night market is a cause for worries. However, Laotians are friendly and easy-going; walking Vientiane streets is completely safe.

The food is clean and safe with the exception of nâm pa ("water-fish"), a fermented fish sauce which is ubiquitous but not recommended because sometimes it carries parasites, not that anyone would add it to the food after smelling it.

Relaxing

A dinner at the night market is more than a refueling ritual. The slowly walking denizens show that with every aimless step they take among the countless stalls. With every step they unload another worry until they seem to be weightless, happily floating between the Mekong River and the ever present - in spirit at least - Laotian full moon.

Travelling in Laos is a tiring experience. Long distances, narrow roads, old vehicles and the most rustic accommodations assure the moment will arrive when a traveller will exclaim: "Enough!"

Luckily, Vientiane is never more than a couple of days away. The town allows restoring energy with excellent French meals and Laotian coffee, meeting other travellers and locals capable and willing to speak with foreigners.

During my stays there I found several of those, but two of them had exceptional stories and a friendly attitude. I won't name them, but the descriptions would make recognizing them an easy task. Each one of them illuminated a different angle of this complex country.

The first is the owner of a chain selling foreign second-hand books. A chain of shops in a Communist country? The story was intriguing enough for a hot-pursue. Strangely, the mogul's story began during royal times. Back then, he was a military policeman which enjoyed a scholarship in Washington for studying English. He returned to Laos just to find a new regime who wasn't hiring people belonging to the old one.

He became a tuk-tuk driver but his English skills helped him getting a strange job from the local English-books store: he gave the English newspapers to the embassies. Soon - in a move that was never fully explained to me - the bookstore owner left Laos and gave the shop to his tuk-tuk driver. Since then, two other shops were added in the capital and one in Vang Vieng; all the branches' staff is family members of him.

This awesome flip of the coin may be explained by his over-friendliness with tourists. During my many visits to his main shop - where he can be easily spotted - I watched with awe how he addressed every tourist entering the shop and obtained skilfully and non-violently all the information regarding their trips until they reached Vientiane and their future plans.

As always in such cases, my recommendation is never give accurate information and if possible change topic; the local baguettes and coffee provide suitable excuses for that.

The second may be described as belonging to the actual oligarchy. He is the son of Communist Party members and a party member by himself. During the Vietnamese-American war, they were in Xam Nua - in the far northeast - living in caves with most of the future leaders of the country. From there, they were part of the network providing communications between Laos and Hanoi.

Once the war was over, he was sent to Moscow, where he finished secondary school, and then to Cuba, where he studied architecture. He found himself back in Laos when the country was opening its doors to tourism, and was awarded with the first dormitory guesthouse in the Laotian Capital.

He used his education for restoring the old colonial building and manages it since then. Even now, the place is occasionally visited by Russians and Cubans adding thus an intriguing angle to such a visit. He speaks Spanish and enjoys practicing it with the guests.

These - and other - people enriched my visits and added a human angle to them which would have been impossible to get unless actively seeking contacts with those rare and often unobserved denizens catering for tourists.