Vientiane

This post will be short since we only spent one night in Vientiane. We were supposed to spend two, but stayed in Vang Vieng an extra day to hang out with friends.

Vientiane is Laos’ capital city. It sits on a curve in the Mekong. Near our guesthouse, we found a whole slew of restaurants overlooking a huge sandbar on the river. We had lunch at one and walked around the city.





Vientiane has a strange mix of buildings. Shacks, communist era monoliths, and wats sit next to each other on the same block. Initially, the city doesn’t appear to have much charm, but after walking around it grows on you. It seems like an undiscovered, real place, not a tourist hotspot like most of the places we’ve been so far.









As we were walking around, there was also something about the light playing off the buildings that made them glow. It looked and felt like a warm autumn day.







In the evening, we returned to a restaurant on the Mekong to eat dinner and watch the sunset. It was nothing short of spectacular! One of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen.









I wish we had a couple more days here to cycle around and hang out. In the morning, we fly down south to Phuket. We will be spending about a week on the beaches before we fly back on the 11th.

See all our photos here.