Vientiane, Vientiane Prefecture, LaosHi from Vientiane, the capital and largest city of Laos. It's another world entirely from the sleepy, historic backpacker town of Luang Prabang here, where there's only one main road and you could run into the same people over and over. Vientiane, while certainly no Bangkok, is a bustling modern city of a million people filled with shopping, cafes, French colonial architecture, temples, neon lights, and, so far, very few tourists.
Many travellers advise skipping Vientiane, saying there isn't much to do or see here. But, I'm a bit of a completionist, so visiting all three capitals of the countries we're seeing on this trip felt like a must-do. Besides, it worked out better in terms of flight schedules to spend a day here on our way to Cambodia. So here we are.
Last morning in Luang Prabang
This morning, we woke up feeling rested and -- for me at least -- much better than yesterday. After a third straight banana pancake breakfast on the balcony, we organized our bags. We weren't being picked up until noon for our 2pm train, though, so we had some time to kill. Why not go see a couple more sights, we figured?
We jumped on the 10am shuttle back into town and walked around for an hour or so. We visited one more of Luang Prabang's many renowned temples, Wat Mahathat, which was quite big and had some more impressive artwork and architecture. We did a bit more souvenir shopping -- me picking up a Laos shot glass to add to my collection, and Ryan getting a little embroidered heffalump he named Xang, which is Lao for elephant. Hopefully she and Watarimono can team up to bring us extra good luck on our travels.
We caught a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, packed up our stuff, and went to check out. The owners of the guesthouse have been so amazing to us, and check-out was no exception, as we were presented with a Buddhist ceiling hanging for good luck, handmade by the owner's mom, and string bracelets for good luck on the rest of our journey. I was definitely sad to leave.
Taking a train! In Laos!
At around 12:45, the driver picked us up in a minivan already full of other tourists and drove us the twenty minutes or so to the train station. Laos's stations are built on the Chinese model (which makes sense, since the LCR was built by China and will eventually connect to China): They're enormous, they're empty, they're surrounded by absolutely nothing, and they're quite far from the city. We had to show our tickets and passports to enter the station, and there was a security check for our bags. Once inside, there was a massive waiting room with seating, access to bathrooms and drinking water, but not much else. No shops, no restaurants, no services. Very weird.
Actually, the whole notion of a high speed train in Laos is also very weird. This is a traditional country where things normally run very very slowly. Nothing seems in a hurry here. So these ultramodern trains that run at 160km/hr (not technically a high speed train; more of a medium speed one) just feel so out of place here.
We all grew up hearing stories about when Canada's railroad was constructed and how it completely changed Canada's course of history. It's weird to think that Laos is living that moment right now. The trains are still new enough here that they're novelties to the locals taking them; the railway has only been open for a year. And it's so difficult for tourists to obtain tickets that we saw very few westerners on the train.
There are still some bumps in the system to work out. So far there are only two fast trains and one slower local train per day in each direction, and they frequently sell out, so it's likely that they'll need to add more frequency on the routes. The lack of services ands shops in or around the stations will probably eventually be addressed. And the ticketing system is a nightmare. But even so, it was a train! In Laos! Isn't that a strange thing to say? A year ago it would've been impossible. Five years ago, it would've been unimaginable.
We found our seats; the tickets all have assigned seating and there's no way to choose your seats at the moment, so we sat where we were told. At least we were sitting together, ish; we had seats on both aisles of a 3-2 configuration. The person sitting by the window next to me in the 2-seater side refused to switch with Ryan, so we both sat next to strangers who insisted on keeping the window blinds shut so it was hard to see much scenery on the two-hour journey. Not that there was much opportunity to look at the scenery whizzing by, as much of the journey took place in tunnel after tunnel.
We made only one stop, halfway through the journey in Vang Vieng. There aren't very many stations yet on the route, though more are under construction, and the links to China in the north and Thailand south of Vientiane are planned for the future.
And two hours later, we pulled into the Vientiane station -- equally far from town, equally large and empty and surrounded by nothingness -- and it was so strange to think that, previously, this journey would've taken two days.
Welcome to Laos's capital
Exiting the station into the parking lot, we were set upon by the many taxi and tuk-tuk touts looking for fares. Not sure of the right cost and not feeling like running the negotiation gauntlet, I opted instead to call us a Loca. Loca is the Lao answer to Grab or Uber; it appears to mostly work in Vientiane, but it works quite well here. We got driven in a four-seater pickup truck the twenty five minutes into downtown and dropped in front of our hotel, and the ride cost about $15 CAD. Not bad.
Vientiane isn't a big city; its population is around 1 million. But it's fairly sprawling and spread out. Our hotel is conveniently located walking distance to most of the main sights and restaurants and shops near the riverfront, which is good. So after checking in, we set out for a wander around the neighbourhood.
There aren't a ton of key sights to see here in Vientiane, but there are a few. We passed the Patuxay Monument on the drive from the train station, which is sort of Laos's answer to (and giant middle finger to) the French Arc de Triomphe. More on that tomorrow, probably.
Near the hotel, we walked by a stupa hilariously called That Dam Stupa (and, suitably, all the restaurants nearby call themselves things like That Dam Noodle House or That Dam Wine Bar), the Presidential Palace (not open to the public but pretty from the outside), the Ministry of Information (you know you're in a Communist country when...), and a few temples. Also quite a few shops and cafes.
The night market that wasn't
We'd read that there's a bazaar and night market set up by the riverfront park every night here in Vientiane. We like night markets, so we set out to check it out as the sun was setting, turning the sky beautiful shades of red and orange over the river.
It was a bit of a bust, unfortunately. Most of the stalls appeared closed, and the few that were open had only a handful of people nearby. The market seemed quite local and not at all touristy, with the menus at the few restaurant stalls entirely in Lao and featuring items like chicken feet or pig's guts. Normally, I wouldn't have minded a market that's more local and less touristy, but this one didn't seem very popular among the locals either. The cardinal rule of street food is eat where it's busy. None of this felt very busy.
Across the road from the food courts, there was a clothing bazaar set up selling clothes, shoes, watches, cell phone cases, you name it. That part was busier, but honestly not all that interesting to us.
Ryan was getting hungry, so we left the night market area and cut back across the park to a street with a few restaurants on it. After rejecting a few western-style tourist trap restaurants with ridiculous prices, we found a local Thai-style restaurant with reasonable prices and a decent looking menu, and settled in for a typically slow-paced meal. Ryan's laab was much spicier than it had been in Luang Prabang. My spicy basil with tofu was far less spicy than I'd expected, and some of the tofu was cold. Not the best meal we've had on our trip by any means, but it served the purpose.
The night market that was
After dinner, we decided to go for a wander. And that's when we found all the shops, restaurants, and cafes of downtown Vientiane that we seemingly missed on the walk to the riverfront. When you're hungry and looking for food, there never seems to be any nearby. As soon as you're full, there seems to be so much food everywhere. It figures.
I laughed at restaurant names like Sputnik Burgers (they're out of this world!), noted all the French food everywhere, and even went by a Hard Rock Cafe. The notion of Vientiane with a Hard Rock Cafe somehow doesn't compute any more than the notion of Laos with a high speed train. The times, they are a-changing.
A block further up, we saw lights and heard music and people, and found the real night market, the one we unfortunately didn't know about when we were searching for dinner earlier. The Culture Market in Vientiane is definitely where it's at: Every type of street food stall, from grilled alligator head to octopus balls to curly potatoes, was on offer. There were young trendy locals everywhere lining up and eating everything. We were both full from dinner, but still decided to get a banana chocolate roti for dessert.
After that, we headed back to the hotel, bellies full and feeling far more positive about the vibe here in Vientiane. I'm looking forward to exploring more of this city tomorrow.
2025-05-23