This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Visiting Vientiane was certainly not at the top of my thoughts; and the accommodations in Laos are among the most picturesque I have come across.

Like most I had hardly ever heard of the capital of Laos. But one of my favorite authors is Tiziano Terzani, and his book In Asia, had been ready on my desk for some time, waiting to return to the continent about which the Tuscan author wrote so much. And he talks extensively about Vientiane, having lived there during the so-called Vietnam War.

In the following link is the first video I took in Laos, from the lively and cheerful Patuxai Square.

Tiziano Terzani muse of every traveler

In Asia is not a novel, but a collection of articles he wrote in his long activity as a foreign correspondent. An ever-accurate roundup of mainland characters, events, and viewpoints, coinciding with historical events, from the Vietnam War, to the return of Hong Kong to China.

Especially reading the parts about Laos and Cambodia while I was there gave color to the trip and a chance to understand those countries better. Also, it was very nice to be able to compare Terzani’s vision from decades earlier with what one can have now of countries that have obviously changed a lot. Every now and then I thought, I wonder if Titian would have ever imagined this….

In one of the very first pages is a message to his wife written just after arriving and the first time in Asia. The writer is in Japan and says:I just want to get away from this sleepy quietness of manager hotels, who can wash themselves here with the same soap as in Toronto….

Not that I have an alternative (to do a lot of traveling I have to adjust with accommodations), but it is just what I have been saying all along: to experience more deeply the places you visit, budget accommodations are very useful.

For example, could it ever happen that in a not say 4-star, but even 3-star hotel, they give you the typical Laotian breakfast? Eh, I don’t think so, but I will talk more about that in the next chapter.

Accommodations in Laos

The cost of living in Laos is very low, and I allowed myself something better than the dive bars I am forced to in Western countries. Despite this, there was often a lack of a ‘switch by the bed, for example, or a bedside table.

The mignon bathrooms then, for me being tall, I didn’t really find them comfortable. In one I had to bend down to take a shower. In another on the toilet I had to sit sideways.

But, as mentioned, certain uncomfortabilities are also nice and make you feel in the place. The best accommodation was in a village on the Ou River. There was a river view and possibility of dining by doing just a flight of stairs. ‘Having the bed within walking distance of the restaurant is something that in general a thing I really appreciate.

After a walk in the jungle all joyously dusty and sweaty, I was looking forward to shower and BeerLao from 66 (cost 20 cents) as an aperitif with sunset view of river and forest; dinner and super sleep. But there was a breakdown in the power line; the whole village was without it, so there was no hot water either. It was 4:30 p.m. and I was reassured that in a couple of hours everything would be fixed.

Instead, it was not until 8:30 p.m. that the lights came back on. But, without having told me anything, they thought they were not even staying to open the restaurant. Thanking the holy inventor of the flashlight in the cell phone, I walked down the small road full of huge holes that led to the village to look for a small restaurant that was open. The darkness around me was absolute, on one side was the high riverbank, on the other was the forest and all around were mountains.

Visiting Vientiane after 50 years

Terzani first went to Laos exactly 50 years before I did. Of the country with a million elephants (I did not see a single one) he said it was not just a geographical place, but a state of mind. He described Vientiane as a den of mercenaries, spies, and prostitutes; full of opium dens; brothels and bars where girls smoke with the least suitable and most intimate part of their bodies ; and marijuana for sale in the market among the cabbages and basil.

In the 1970s it was one of the first countries in the area to have stability, and the communists who won the civil war did violence against supporters of the previous regime, but without going as far as what happened in neighboring Cambodia. For many years it was one of the poorest countries in the area, with few resources, a disastrous economy based on communist principles, and closed to the outside world. Only since 1992 has it opened up to tourism. Even, it was not until 1994 that the first bridge was built across the Mekong River connecting it to Thailand.

But there is still a totalitarian regime. So on the one hand, there has been money coming in from China, also for mass tourism. On the other hand, to counteract the prostitution that is so prevalent in other countries; an intimate relationship between foreigners and Laotian women is prohibited. Apparently, the police raid hotel rooms and you risk jail time.

I wonder what Titian would say today?

Home trip Travel to Laos and Cambodia with inadequate guide

Next stop Food in Asia (I like it) and stomach ache on the plane

Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent

Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives

Countries visited in my travel stories

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Fabio Viroli

Ho sempre avuto tante passioni, ma da sempre più o meno latenti, le principali sono viaggiare e scrivere. Tra le altre cose ho una laurea in psicologia; ho fatto per più di 30 anni l’allenatore di basket; leggo tanti libri; sono stato molto appassionato di sport e di musica rock; e faccio improvvisazione teatrale. IL mio primo romanzo, che non parla di viaggi, si chiama LE TUE GAMBE SONO BELLE COME LE TAGLIATELLE

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