Vientianne, City of walls.

I have been in VIENTIANNE for 4 days now. In all previous occasions I havecome and gone as quickly as possible. My experiences of the place were not positive and I took the view that it was a shithole of a place and the best thing was to leave as soon as possible. This time however I decided to try and give the place a break and to find some positive aspects about what is the capital City of Laos. While here I had a job to do and that was to get a Vietnamese visa. This was achieved in quick order. Monday I applied and Tuesday I picked it up. I then consulted my Lonely Planet and began by visiting some of the thousands of Wats (temples) that cover the entire city. It sems you can' go more than 3 blocks without bumping into one. Most have schools attached. The first I visited was the oldest one in Vientianne ,Wat Sisket. It was very interesting, particularly the restoration work going on inside the main part of the temple.

A word about restoration.... the entire city seems to be in need of it. All the older buildings have this air of decay, paint peeling, rust showing and everything with a coat of dust. The whole place looks like the cleaners have been doing something other than cleaning. The older buildings all show a very strong connection with French colonial architecture with the obvious asian influence. But the whole effect is of decay and indifference to a broom. The other thing that I have found particular to this place is that every building is surrounded by walls! Of course all the government buildings are surrounded by high walls topped either with barbed wire or rather nasty looking spikes or broken glass. All the modern buildings have that air of stand alone naked but even this is rare. Most of everything else is also surrounded. If the building has a street front the sides and backs are embraced by walls. I am not sure if this is a Lao thing or a carryover from colonial days but it is definitely a feature.

So here I am my last night here. I am sitting in the "Highland Bar" on the banks of the Mekong watching the sunset which is muted by cloud and some very fine rain. I am planning to eat out here and then catch a tuk tuk to the Billabong bar back in town. From there I will go to this resteraunt next door to the Samlo night club (to be avoided as it is a sleaze spot). Ii ate tahere last night and noticed that they had these cute little bamboo containers with steamed dishes in them. It reminds me of an asian tapas and I plan to samples the tastes. Then tomorrow morning it is farewell to the city and off to Luang Prabang.