The most important temple in Laos, (and the largest and shiniest), Pra That Luang is located a couple of miles outside of town. Originally built in the 1300's, it's been rebuilt many times, with the recent version built in the 1930's. Surprising, since I had it pegged as a '70's kind of architectural statement. Basically a huge mound of cement painted a very bright gold, everything about it struck me as awkward. But it does make a fitting end to our visit to Laos' capital city. Oh, and I almost forgot, I stayed at the Novotel, at the time the only business hotel in Vientiane. There are a couple of more stylish boutique hotels now, like the Settha Palace hotel, which is clearly preferable. But if you're in the unlikely position of being on a business trip to Vientiane, the Novotel is a perfectly adequate place to stay. Unfortunately I can't remember anything about it beyond its adequacy, so I'll give it straight 5's and a goose egg for wow factor.

Wat Si Saket is the oldest temple in Vientiane, and about the only building left standing after the Thais flattened the place (and stole the Emerald Buddha) in the 1820's. It's famous for having over 10,000 Buddha figures in every nook and cranny of the courtyard. It's also probably the nicest spot in the city, so let's move quickly on to Laos' most important religious center, and one of the ugliest Buddhist temples I've ever seen, Pra That Luang.

Well, onto the temples, a couple of which unfortunately are pretty nice, so I'll have to drop the sarcastic tone for a while. First up is Ho Pra Keow, which serves the same purpose as Bangkok's Wat Pra Keow, that is, to house the much revered Emerald Buddha. This small Buddha statue originated in Chiang Mai, and is said to give unstoppable power to the owner, which set off nonstop wars as various kingdoms invaded their neighbors to take the all powerful Emerald Buddha back home. You would think the fact that the statue passed around Southeast Asia like a football would indicate that its power may in fact be stoppable, but apparently nobody thought of that. Eventually it ended up in this specially built temple until the Thais took it back to Bangkok in the 1820's. So now it's been converted into a museum of Lao art.

Just finishing up on the non-temple part of our tour with some shots of the main streets of downtown Vientiane (seriously). Somchai (who actually loves Laos) used to cover Laos for American Express. I can't imagine a harder job then explaining to the very primitive hopitality industry what a credit card is, that it's ok for them to take a picture of a card rather than cash from their customers, and why they should let AmEx keep some of the total and trust them to eventually give them their share. Anyway, he used to come here frequently, and we were walking by the central bank (the building on the corner with the jeep parked in front of it) and Somchai went in to visit a friend who used to work there. And a few minutes later, he comes out with the governor of Laos' central bank, and we all go to lunch! I can't see stopping by the Federal Reserve in DC unannounced and lunching with Alan Greenspan (I know there's a new guy but with much less name recognition so I thought it might ruin the analogy). Anyway, the currency had completely collapsed and inflation was running over 100%, but we had a nice leisurely lunch so I guess everything was under control.

I feel bad dumping on the place, so I'm going to quote Frommer's on the next part of our visit, the Mekhong. The river is pictured at right, and the shophouses on yet another paved road are on the street across from the river. To quote Mr. Frommer: "The Mekhong, lined with picturesque colonials, rolls through the very heart of the city and glows pink at sunset-not to be missed."

44. Vientiane

Vientiane has to be the least impressive capital city in the world. Historically the Lao capital shifted between Vientiane and the far more interesting Luang Prabang, and you would have thought the flattening of Vientiane by the Thais in the 1800's would have settled the matter, but amazingly this small, dull city has regained the capital title. It's built in a lazy bend of the Mekong River, but a big mud flat usually separates the city from the river. It's got a population of about 300,000, but feels much smaller. Surprisingly for a communist country, it has almost no statues and monuments to various revolutionary leaders, or any architectural statements of any sort really. Shown here is the closest Vientiane comes to grand architecture. At left is Thanon Lan Xang, Vientiane's main thoroughfare and one of the very few paved roads in the city. It's modeled after Paris' Champs Elysses, complete with Patuxai, Vientiane's own version of the Arc de Triomphe, complete with some Asian flourishes. At right is the Presidential Palace, one of several French colonial buildings recycled into Lao government service.