Cultural Hall sponsored by ChinaSpent a few days in Vientiane to relax. We managed to stay at a very nice guesthouse recommended by Pieter from Switzerland. John was able to lie in air-conditioned comfort and watch cable TV and view, soccer, tennis, formula one racing...
There were many western tourists about and it seemed that many crossed from Thailand for a short stay. We also saw many ex-pats who worked in the city for various organisations. An enormous new building for the United Nations offices was being built in the city centre.
Tuk TukWe wandered about the city and visited the Victory Monument which looks like a kind of Arc de Triomphe. China gave Laos the money to buy cement to build an airport but they used it on the Monument instead. It has never been finished either!
We saw many places that had been sponsored by other governments: roads by the Japanese, bridges by the Dutch and water pumps by the Australians.
Laos has just opened its first shopping mall and it was full of young children playing on the escalator and enjoying the air-conditioning as the store owners were trying to stock their stores. The air - conditioning was going while the food court had all the windows open and the cooks were cooking their dishes on charcoal stoves. A mix of old and new.
On the banks of the Mekong we saw the Chan Palace Hotel: the first skyscraper in Laos (about 12 stories high).
If we had crossed the Friendship Bridge to Thailand we would have gone full circle as we spent Songkran (Thai New Year)on the other side of the Mekong back in April!
A Mekong sunset!
