Vientiane: Treasures Without the Crowds (for Now)
By DANIEL ALTMAN
New York Times
12/9/2006

Feel like taking a few days’ break from the hectic Southeast Asian tourism circuit? Then point yourself toward Vientiane, Laos’s easygoing capital. There are no mobs of aggressive taxi drivers at the airport nor packs of begging youths, and hawkers barely merit the name as they casually mind their stalls.

All that tranquillity aside, Vientiane is ready to receive high-end tourists, with daily nonstop air service from Bangkok, and a crop of recently opened hotels and restaurants. (Though many visitors still prefer to stay at the colonial-era Setta Palace, which the excellent Web site www.smarttravelasia.com calls a “Raffles in all but name.” Rooms start at about $155 a night.) Accessibility should improve with the completion of a new road leading from the airport to the city.

Vientiane’s main attractions are its Buddhist sites — glorious sanctuaries like the golden Pha That Luang temple or the Wat Si Saket, with a butterfly-filled courtyard and a cloister with thousands of tiny Buddhas.