Vientiane is the capital city of Laos. It's quite small for a capital city with about 750,000 residents; but then again the entire population of the country is less than seven million. As a traveler it's a very interesting place to visit, taking in the the everyday culture, seeing the historic monuments, and the Buddhist temples will likely be the highlight of your time here. I wouldn't consider Vientiane much of a backpacker paradise lacking in activities and a good traveler community, but being very affordable and culturally interesting it still gets a good rating on my World Travel Scale from 1-5.
Travel Score= 4
Affordability= 4
Food= 3.5
Culture = 5
Safety = 4.5
Hotel Value= 4
Activities = 2
Transportation = 4
Vientiane rates well in affordability, however this is a country where the average worker makes about five dollars a day. With this knowledge in hand you would think that things would be a little cheaper here, but in fact many of the everyday expenses like food, water, accommodation, and other products are equally or more expensive than neighboring Thailand where the average worker makes about 10 dollars a day. Regardless, coming from a western country everything is a bargain, especially clothes.
Getting a nice air conditioned modern room for my target price of $10 dollars a night was simply not possible, after a little negotiation I was able to find one for $12 dollars a night. Not a big difference, so it still rates well. But this was after quite a bit searching and some travel pro negotiation! You can find hostel dorms in Vientiane for as little as 3 dollars a night, going that rout will certainly stretch your budget for the long term traveler.
The food in Vientiane is fairly good. Compared to neighboring Thailand it's a very similar style but a good step down in terms of cleanliness, variety, and value. You can find lots of grilled pork and chicken. Beef on the other hand seems almost hard to come by except for a few high end restaurants charging western prices as fine cuts are imported from Australia. There are no western chain restaurants in the country like KFC or McDonald's. The closest thing they have to a chain store is K-Mart. K is for Korea!
Laos has done lots of tourism advertising in Korea and it seems like most of the tourist in the county are Korean! K-Mart carries a variety of import products from Korea including some good quality Kim-Chi. I found myself eating grilled pork, sticky rice and kim-chi on more than one occasion. A meal like this would cost me about $2.50.
Laos in general is a very culturally rich Buddhist country. Vientaine is the location of it's most prized monuments you can see in the photos below. This is Patuxai Gate and the country's most significant Buddhist Stuppa, Pha That Luang.
Equally interesting to me was just walking through the streets, the markets, and seeing how people live their lives; and how it probably hasn't changed much in hundreds of years. You can still see the French occupational influence as the baguette has been fully adopted into their food culture.
There isn't much to do here as far as activities. There isn't even a good place to unwind with a cocktail by a pool in the heat of the day. The city has a night market along the Mekong River, but it's mostly clothes and as a travel foodie it was a little disappointing. Seeing the monuments, getting a six dollar Lao massage, and just walking around would probably be your entertainment. If you're looking for activities and adventure the next tourist stop north, Vang Vieng is where it's at.
Vientiane like the rest of the country is very safe. Their high Buddhist morality and way of thinking naturally keeps crime and drug use to a minimum. As far as emergency medical care goes in case of an accident, that may be something to be concerned about but all in all this is a very safe country to travel in.
Getting to and around Vientiane is a piece of cake as it's a very walkable city. They have an international airport just a few kilometers outside of the town center where all the hotels are located. I flew in from Bangkok for about 40 dollars, then I walked from the airport to my hotel. I could have taken a tuk-tuk for a few dollars but I enjoy walking and seeing what I can see.
Taking tuk-tuks are the most convenient way of getting around, but a bit of pain as they will try to charge you double and triple of the real going rate. Haggling over a tuk-tuk ride as they try to charge you triple can leave a sour taste in your mouth.
Getting here from Vang Vieng is best done by mini van and will cost you about 10 dollars and 4 hours. Hopefully you will have a good driver. It's not the smoothest ride as the roads are full of pot-holes along with some sharp curves; however the ride offers some great views of the surrounding landscape.
Overall Vientiane is a very interesting place to visit. It might not be the most appealing destination for some, especially the young backpacker looking to party. If that's your thing go straight to Vang Vieng where there is much more of social atmosphere. Other than that it's culturally rich and a very peaceful place to visit. It's certainly worth a few days for any traveler visiting Laos!
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