(c) December 2007 Oliver Bonten
Wieng Chang (Vientiane)
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Wieng Chang (Vientiane)
December 2007 72 |
The Western spelling of the Lao capital's name, Vientiane is a victim of french phonetic limitations, and it is very confusing for Thai or Lao if people pronounce the name as it is spelt, in particular with an english pronunciation. Try it as a French word and you get much closer to the proper pronunciation, which is something like "Wieng Chan" - the "Sandalwood Fortress". Vientiane is by far the biggest and most developed town in Laos, but that doesn't mean much: it has less than half a million citizens, and when I arrived on a Saturday afternoon, the town was so quiet that you could cross major streets without looking left or right - you would hear any of the few passing cars from afar. The traffic lights seemed to be a bad joke, and though many shops were open, not a lot of people (other than tourists) were on the streets.
Actually, there is not too much to do or see in Vientiane and probably after two days you've exhausted all the really interesting things. Nightly entertainment means to sit on a bamboo platform by the bank of the Mekong with a Beer Lao or two, enjoying fresh spring rolls and other Lao food. Vientiane now has it's first shopping mall, a drab provincial-style Malaysian construction near a traditional and much more lively market. There is a small number of historical buildings, but most of the town had been razed by the Siamese army about 200 years ago, and French colonial architecture is about as old as it gets in places. Not as consistent as in Luang Prabang though. In addition there are a number of modern buildings which appear to be a mixture of socialist realism and Lao design.
It is close to Thailand though. Thai people and Thai cars are everywhere. Three currencies are in widespread use - Lao kip, US$ and Thai Baht. I could even use the Thai mobile phone network, which was kind of handy since my provider doesn't have a roaming partner in Laos. Why should they, when the two biggest cities are immediately on the Thai border, so that business travellers are well provided for?
Temples are everywhere in Laos. There is hardly a house, or at least a block of houses, that does not border on a temple, and there are often two or three temples in a row. There are more than a dozen temples in central Vientiane alone. Compared to Luang Prabang, there are not so many old and famous temples (the city was razed about 200 years ago, and only one temple survived), but there are a lot more new temples and ongoing construction.
The Victory Gate or Patuxai is something like the Lao Arc de Triomphe. The "-xai" syllable actually is related to Sanskrit "jaya", which means success or victory. The Patuxai was built in the 1960, allegedly with concrete meant to be used for an airfield (to be used in the Vietnam war - pre-revolution Laos was supportive of the American effort in Vietnam). It follows topologically a similar design as the French Arc de Triomphe, but geometrically it has a square design.
The inside of the Patuxai is very smelly (pidgeons are roosting here) and except for the roof ornament pretty drab. But you can get inside and ascend to the arch level, from where there is a good view over the city - Vientiane is rather flat and does not have a lot of high rise buildings. I noticed that the spires of the Patuxay are adorned with four-faced Avalokitesvara images, something I've so far mostly seen in Cambodia.
The Patuxai is located in a little park and there are a lot of local visitors on Sunday.
That Luang is a large That (Buddhist reliquary) that was erected on the occasion of Vientiane becoming the capital of Laos, in the 16th century. It's a square about 35m wide, probably 15m-20m high, and completely coated in gold leaf. Already the first Dutch traders who visited Laos were impressed by the "golden Pyramit" they saw in the city.
With a cloudless and deep blue tropical sky, the golden turrets and spires are pretty photogenic, but besides that there isn't a lot to see. Near the That Luang there are a few temples, some of them pretty new.
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