Vientiane Laos

When I arrived in Vientiane my first destination (after checking into my hotel) was JOMA, a great cafe, for a banana split. I love eating there as they have excellent pumpkin soup, a decent apple pie and passable quiche. Properly fortified its time for a walk around to see what's new. Vientiane is one of my favorite cities. Its one of the smallest, most quiet, friendly capital cities in the world. The Mekong River, which flooded here in August, was still sandbagged.

A Wat entrance on the Mekong. The Sim.
Sandbags surrounding a local bank.
A typical basket seller near the main market.

A Bell Tower in one of the Wats.
A downtown sidewalk restaurant. No, I didn't eat here.
Another Wat. There are numerous gorgeous Wats all over Vientiane.

The Mekong is still high and muddy.

The riverside restaurants are very popular in the evening. A fairly new tourboat which does a couple of cruises a day up and down the river.
If you have good knees and like beer you can sit in one of these lounges.

A peddler on a local street. I have often seen similar vendors stop and gut a fish right on the sidewalk.

One of the hmong women that I purchase story quilts and other items from. The person in the shop is usually a representative of a large family and/or group who laboriously makes all the stock, mostly by hand.

One of my favorite Wats near my hotel. I particularly like the statues by all the gates.
As well as the central market there are more and more upscale shops in town.
A central circle and fountain in the downtown area. The fountain is often working and lit at night.
The brown building in the center is new and representative of old style architecture.



The huge cultural hall. Many conferences and conventions are held here. I attended an Indian/Lao Fashion Show here one year sponsored by the Indian Embassy.

The view of the Mekong from my hotel window.

Before I left I took time to watch Debate #2, aired here in the early am because of the time difference. My bags are packed, I'm ready to leave for Thailand.
I was lucky while I was there to have time for a visit with my friend Phonesay, the former monk who happened to be in town for a day. He is shown here with his little daughter.




He is second from left with the dark hat. He now is a manager for an NGO removing land mines left from the Vietnam War.