Vientiane – Greg and Mandy's Travels

Mar 14, 2025

Vientiane is typical of the divide that exists in many countries between their capital and the more rural cities and towns. It is vibrant and prosperous, there are a lot of well educated and well employed people around. But to understand Vientiane you also have to understand the history of Laos.

By the 1700s the three regions of Laos had been largely unified under a king based in Luang Prabang. However, the invasion by Siam broke it all up again, and it didn’t become re-unified until 1893 when the French asserted control. Colonial France wanted to ensure that it had safe ports and friendly waters in the region in order to support its pacific islands, especially in view of other strong colonial powers controlling strategic trade routes like the Dutch, the Portuguese and the English, so they exerted their presence in what was called French Indochina – Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

For 50 years the French continued to rule and exploit Indochina without putting back too much in the way of infrastructure. However World War II put paid to all of their interests. Hitler invaded France, and Japan invaded all of their pacific territories. At the end of the war France was handed back control of Indochina, but was in no condition to re-exert its influence. In 1949 it gave Laos its own self rule, and in 1953 gave them full independence.

For the next 20 years Laos was ruled by its king, who had three sons who all wanted to be appointed the Prime Minister and next king. The moderate son tried valiantly to form a coalition government with his two brothers, but the youngest brother sought assistance from the North Vietnamese army. A compromise was reached where he would become a cabinet minister and the North Vietnamese elements of the army would be integrated, but that compromise didn’t last long.

In 1964 Lyndon Johnson triggered the war in Vietnam, attempting to defend the South Vietnamese forces from the advancing North Vietnamese army. (Does anybody else remember Harold Holt and “All the way with LBJ”?) The North Vietnamese army developed a route through Laos called the Ho Chi Minh trail to re-arm and re-supply their forces, which dragged Laos into the Vietnam war. As previously blogged, the US dropped more bombs on Laos than were dropped in all of the second world war, without any authorisation from the US Congress.

Came 1973 and Nixon admitted defeat, signed the Paris peace accord and withdrew US troops from Vietnam. The South Vietnamese army was eventually no match for the North Vietnamese army and were overrun in 1975.

At the same time, the North Vietnamese army overran Laos, appointed the favoured prince as President, and declared the Peoples Republic of Laos, which has remained in power ever since.

So today we saw a mixture of French, independent, and communist architecture and monuments.

It’s a funny thing that when you struggle to expel a colonial power, you then set out to mimic them. The monument to commemorate independence from colonial France is modelled on the Arc de Triomphe, with Laotian decorations and murals. The French governor’s palace became the King’s palace and then the President’s palace. The avenue constructed between the palace and the Arc is modelled on the French Champs-Élysées. They wanted to be like them, just not ruled by them.

In an unexpected irony, even though the US had heavily bombed and fought against Laos, they donated enough concrete to create a military airport – presumably that they would use at some stage. Not surprisingly, the communist government declined to build the Americans an airport and used all of the concrete to build the Arc de Triomphe, which is now locally referred to as the vertical runway.

We started our walking tour early this morning before the heat set in and walked all the way out to the main Wat (That Luang Tai) with the reclining Buddha, the golden stupa (That Luang), and monument to the king who built the stupa, kicked out the Siamese and moved the capital from Luang Prabang.

We then wandered all the way back down the Champs-Élysées (actually Ave Lane Xang), past the Chinese donated dancing fountain, under the Arc (Patuxai), past the heavily fortified US embassy and the ANZ bank building, to the presidential palace and then past several city sites such as the cultural theatre and the main square with the colourfully lit waterfall (Nam Phou), back to the hotel. Boy that air conditioner was appreciated.

Pulled our last few Kip out of the ATM to buy dinner, enjoyed the colourful fountain again, and turned in.