Laos

On our recent trip to Laos and Thailand, we spent four days in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, where I promptly fell madly in love with the place. It is situated on the Mekong River and across the river is Thailand. It’s not a large city and very safe and easy to walk around – which I did for three straight days, sometimes by myself and sometimes with a Bhutanese friend who was also tagging along on this business trip. Vientiane is an interesting mixture of French colonial, Buddhist temple, and southeast Asian indoor/outdoor living architecture. The French influence is very evident – they even constructed a Champs Elysée type avenue which is a huge surprise as you turn the corner and come upon it.
Much of the town is, shall we say, shabby which gives this colonial architecture its own charm and appeal. There is, however evidence of new construction and renovation taking place. The main road along the river near where we were staying was, I am told, only recently paved and people who live there tell me that the city has been changing greatly within the last five years. There were lots of Caucasian tourists of all ages including young backpackers with ENORMOUS backpacks - the sight of these young people made me smile. Good for them to get out and explore this world – something I never did at that age (too hooked on room service perhaps!).


Along the river there are several open air restaurants where you can drink Lao beer and watch the amazing sunset over the Mekong River. One day we had lunch at one of these, where the entire kitchen is set up outside under a canvas roof. I overcame my reticence about street food to enjoy a great meal of enormous fresh grilled shrimp and Tom Yam soup. The weather was fantastic, warm with river breezes. This is the dry season and the river depth has fallen to reveal a huge sandspit in the middle, where we saw a bunch of kids playing soccer (you can just barely see them in this shot of the restaurant table by the river).



Monks' laundry in the temple grounds





Lao fast food
Local transport - the tuk tuk








I met some interesting people during my shopping expeditions. I was quite intrigued to find some longtime expat residents there and was curious about their stories.

One gal I met was Carol Cassidy who owns a textile company called Lao Textiles. Carol is an artist who used to work in Africa, helping women develop their own craft businesses. She has lived in Laos for 16 years now and creates beautiful silk wall hangings, wraps, and scarves integrating traditional Lao weaving techniques and motifs with her original artistic designs. I spent quite a bit of time there talking to Carol and her husband as I tried to decide what I wanted to take home with me. Their facility is in an old restored French colonial house in the middle of town and I had a tour of the workshop where the Lao weavers work on creating these works of art. When I finally did decide on the major piece, I was able to meet the gal who had actually created it, which was great. From time to time Carol’s work tours in stateside museums and I have promised to lend our piece back if she wants to include it at some time in the future.

I also bought some pieces that were created in another facility Carol has opened in Cambodia. In this workshop, she employs Cambodian women who have lost limbs as a result of landmines. Someone else told me that this operation is not (yet) profitable but Carol has been supporting it through the Lao company. The story of Carol Cassidy’s Lao Textiles journey, Weaving Treasures is told on my friend Liza’s website at www.lizalinklater.com in the Journeys section. (Liza has other articles and photos on this site of her extensive travels in Asia).

Naga wall hanging now at homeDetail of Naga
The Naga, or serpent, is best known for its protective properties, not only in Laos but esentially throughout the whole of Southeast Asian mythology. There are more than 30 different types of Naga motifs used in Lao textiles. This contemporary representation of the Nagas was based on a traditional candlestick motif formed of two Nagas with raised heads at each end and joined at the tail.


Vientiane is what I would call a “real small town”. I kept running into people over and over again as I was out and about. One day I was having lunch with my Bhutanese friend when she struck up a conversation with two women from California beside us, who, as it turned out, had just come from spending two weeks in Bhutan. I also met (separately) two other women traveling alone from Thailand. One is a retired German librarian who has been living in Chiang Mai for the past four years and the other an American who lives in Bangkok. Both were on “visa runs”. In Thailand, resident foreigners have to leave the country in order to renew their visas, so there are a number of places in Laos and Cambodia where you’ll meet people doing this. Depending on the type of visa, some have to leave the country every 3 months to renew. We’ve all exchanged email addresses and when I go to Chiang Mai (next on my list in Thailand), well guess what? I already have a friend there!

For me, watching that sunset over the Mekong River was huge. Before I came to this part of the world I used to say that my mental images of southeast Asia were totally built on ignorance. Say the words Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam and the only thing that would pop into my head was Apocalypse Now. Thank goodness for this opportunity to change all that and be lucky enough to explore these sights, sounds and smells, which, I might add, are becoming highly addictive.