Sandalwood City: Vientiane

“Vientiane is exceptional, if inconvenient”, wrote Paul Theroux in 1975, “the brothels are cleaner than the hotels, marijuana is cheaper than pipe tobacco, and opium is easier to find than a cold glass of beer."

Much has changed since one of my favorite travel writers swung through Laos thirty odd years ago. It may have had something to do with the culmination of another successful communist revolution in Southeast Asia (1975 was a big year for the local Reds) and, perhaps more tellingly, the subsequent departure of American USAID and CIA personnel. When the Pathet Lao rolled into town they immediately shut down the local bars and night clubs, sent most of the former regime off to "re-education" camps in the hills, and (no kidding) banished the city's sizable population of prostitutes to an island in the middle of the Mekong.

It turns out that at least some of the hookers could swim, because they're back on the streets plying their trade to an annoying degree. I can't walk more than two blocks at night without an offer ("hey you, you want Lao lady tonight you?") - although, sadly, most of them are coming from the taxi-driver by day/pimp by night dudes. I guess "boom boom" is big business in Vientiane again. Never a group to hide on the sidelines, Katuoys are also on the prowl. Normally the Thai-style Lady Boys are pretty harmless and mildly entertaining in the light of day - they get a little creepier when they start hooting and hollaring at you on a dark street. If you've been to Southeast Asia you know what I mean. Enough said.

At any rate, after the revolution Vientiane began the inexorable socialist slide into economic and cultural oblivian. While things are perking up a bit, and have been for a while, Vientiane could win the world's mellowest capital city award, hands down. I know I've (over)used the term "sleepy riverside town" to describe most of the places I've visited in Laos, but there's no way around it - Laos is full of them, and the biggest of all is Vientiane. Compared to Hanoi, Saigon, and Phnom Penh....well, there's just no comparing (I won't even mention Vientiane and Bangkok in the same breath). Vientiane is more of an oversized town than anything else, which is wonderful, if a little boring when all is said and done. The Buddhist temples are (mostly) beautiful and there are literally dozens of them within the city limits to check out. The food selection - via French cafes, Scandanavian bakeries, Indian and Italian restaurants, the riverside fish stands, a Tex-Mex place, and more - is out of this world, especially when compared to some of the local gruel I've had to endure over the past few weeks. The locals are exceptionally friendly and the touristas definitely entertaining (the Japanese "lotus-eaters" (wiki that one) I'm dorming with are....interesting). As someone told me, the lure of Vientiane is not so much seeing as just being.

And until the Bangkok airports start moving some planes, plenty of ticked off foreigners are just being in Vientiane a little longer than expected. Good thing I'm heading north overland. Next up, Vang Vieng.