Vientiane, and the one reason to stop

What Vientiane actually is

A capital city of about 950,000 people that behaves like a large town. It sits on a bend of the Mekong with Thailand visible on the far bank, and it has none of the density of Hanoi, Bangkok or Phnom Penh. The riverfront is a promenade and a night market, the centre is low-rise, and the traffic is manageable.

Most itineraries give it a few hours between a train and a flight, and on the tourist checklist that is defensible: Pha That Luang is a fine gilded stupa, Patuxai is an arch built with cement donated for an airport runway, and Wat Si Saket has ten thousand small Buddha figures in its cloister walls. None of these is a reason to change your plans.

What is a reason is COPE. The visitor centre of the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise deals with the consequences of the American bombing of Laos between 1964 and 1973 — more than two million tonnes of ordnance, about 270 million cluster submunitions, of which perhaps 30 per cent failed to detonate. People are still killed and maimed by them, and COPE makes the prosthetics. It is free, it takes an hour, and it is the most important hour in Laos.

How many nights

One night, in most itineraries, and that is enough to do COPE properly and see the riverfront at dusk. Two nights makes sense if you are arriving on the evening train and leaving on a morning flight, or if you want the Buddha Park at Xieng Khuan, twenty-five kilometres out.

It is not a town that rewards three nights, and we will say so rather than filling a day.

The practical reason Vientiane appears in itineraries is that it is a hinge. The Laos–China Railway ends here, the sleeper to Bangkok starts here, and the first Friendship Bridge crosses here. A trip going from northern Laos into Thailand passes through it by geography.

The connections, which is why you are here

The Laos–China Railway

Vientiane station is 14 kilometres from the centre, about thirty minutes by taxi. Luang Prabang is two hours by fast train; Boten on the Chinese border is about two hours further. Booking opens seven days ahead, and in December and at Lao New Year that window matters.

The train to Bangkok

Khamsavath station on the Vientiane side connects to the Thai network. The through service, train 133/134, runs overnight: it leaves Bangkok Krung Thep Aphiwat at 20:25 and arrives at Khamsavath at 09:05, and the reverse works the same way. A second-class air-conditioned lower berth costs about 874 baht. Thai immigration is done at Nong Khai and Lao immigration at Khamsavath, both on the platform.

The Friendship Bridge

The first Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge is about twenty kilometres from the centre and you cannot walk across it — a shuttle bus does the crossing. It is one of the nine Lao ports where an eVisa is valid. Allow ninety minutes for the whole thing including both immigration halls; it is usually less.

When to go

What things cost

Photographs

When to skip Vientiane

• If you are flying between Luang Prabang and somewhere else and the routing does not need it. There is no obligation.
• If you want the temples of northern Laos. Luang Prabang has thirty working monasteries; Vientiane has a handful.
• If your trip is under ten days. One night here is one night not spent in Nong Khiaw.
• If you cannot face COPE. Some people cannot, and that is a legitimate reason to spend the afternoon on the river instead.
• Mid-April, unless you actively want Lao New Year.

Tours that include Vientiane

One night in the eight-day northern Laos route and the eighteen-day classic, and one night in the twenty-four-day four-country route before crossing into Thailand on the ground.

Questions travellers ask most

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