What do you think of when you think of Laos? Poverty? Outdated? A small country in Southeast Asia? Laos, one of the ten poorest countries in Asia, compared to the Philippines of Boracay, Cambodia of the Khmer smile, Nepal of Kathmandu, Laos is so unknown, basically forgotten by the world. In recent years, along with the figure of compatriots going to Laos to do business, and its very few tour groups occur, gradually get rid of the rural life here a quiet, the city of Laos into everyone's field of vision, today to talk about living in Vientiane, Laos, what is the experience.
1. Unique quietIf you have never arrived in Vientiane, you would not have thought that it would be the capital of a country - there are no skyscrapers, there is no urban bustle of the scenery, some of them are only comfortable and calm quiet, here is more like a small town construction. In the streets of Vientiane, you can often see the egg flower, yellow, pink, in a spiral and scattered, that is also the national flower of Laos. There are few passersby on the streets where there are few motorcycles rumbling. During working hours, women dressed in traditional Laotian tube skirts sit sideways on the backs of motorcycles and pass you by. Well, it's beautifully dated.
2. Small town with lots of storiesWith just two main street neighborhoods, Vientiane is a town you can explore entirely on two feet. Living here is convenient. There's MiniC, a miniature version of Bangkok's mall powerhouse BigC, cafes and restaurants all over the place, and Vientiane CenterLao, the only shopping mall in the same town.
TalatSao, also known locally as MorningMarket, is not a sales market that doesn't open in the morning, but rather a comprehensive product sales market.
TalatSao, also known as MorningMarket by locals, is not a market that does not open in the morning, but a comprehensive market filled with a wide variety of stores ranging from home appliances to souvenirs, which not only cater to the needs of the local people, but also attracts many tourists to purchase goods.
Most of the products are of Chinese origin, especially electrical appliances and small items, and Chinese brands seem to dominate the market here. In fact, on the streets of Vientiane, you can see a lot of billboards advertising Vivo, OPPO and Huawei.
There is no clear signage in the early city center, but stores selling similar products are often grouped together, naturally giving rise to districts where it is very easy to find stores selling local specialties, such as traditional clothing, refrigerator stickers, rice cages and snacks, and one district that sells a large number of carved wooden handicrafts.
Here, in addition to seeing Vientiane's common people busy with their livelihoods and the bits and pieces of their lives, apart from their pious burning of incense and worshipping the Buddha, you can also see the golden temples of the Buddha. These golden Buddhist temples are the light of faith in this country, and here is the stage for ordinary people to live their lives.
3. The pain of getting rich overnightFresh from Vientiane, if you are not prepared, you may be y distressed by the matter of becoming a millionaire. Laos' digital currency is called kip, and the face value of Mrs. Kip becomes larger! Kip's minimum face value ... The smallest value of the kip is 500 (equivalent to 40 cents in rmb) and the largest value is 100,000 (about 80 dollars in rmb)! It's not unusual to spend over 100,000 or even 100,000 dollars on a meal here. So just start friends, pay fear to be able to understand. Come to Laos partners, to be careful!
4. As the drink goesVientiane has cafes all over the place, and the quality is shockingly high, which is Vientiane to the people who love coffee's biggest surprise. This is the biggest surprise for coffee lovers in Vientiane. It is not only because the soil and water of Laos are planted with one of the best Arabica coffee in the world, but also because the culture of coffee was y jeopardized during the French colonial era. If you are in Laos, you should order a cup of coffee from Arabica coffee beans. The Laotian way of drinking coffee is to pour it into a glass of water with condensed milk. The taste of coffee with condensed milk is soft and long, just like the life here.
How can you come to Laos and not try Lao beer, which is like Tsingtao beer, but with a little more malt sugar and sweetness. A bottle of 8,000 kip, about 6 yuan rmb. Another big surprise in Vientiane is the Somersbyapplecider sold everywhere (probably a serious influence of the cider-loving French). Keep in mind that it costs over 30rmb a bottle in Switzerland, but in Laos it's only 10 dollars! Without further ado, drink!!!
5. About SightseeingVientiane's attractions are few, silent Sisaket Temple, the golden Thalang, but also the Lao version of the Fortune Plaza. Patuxay, translated into Chinese as "Vientiane Fortune Plaza", is Vientiane's most iconic engineering buildings. Patuxai, which literally means "Gate of Victory", was built between 1957 and 1968 in honor of those who fought for independence from France. It is often referred to by many as the "Fortune Square of Vientiane" because of the similarity in appearance of this memorial building to the Fortune Square in Paris.
In fact, when you walk in, you'll notice that the building is small, but the molding and wall details have a strong Southeast Asian flavor. The figures above the arched door are from Buddhism, and the five pagodas on top of the project building are also typical of Lao Buddhist temples. The five pagodas are endowed with the Buddhist concepts of "thoughtfulness and kindness, flexibility, honesty and friendliness, and wealth and prosperity".
6. Mekong Night MarketIn Vientiane, the sun is so hot in the middle of the day that all you want to do is stay in a café and blow off steam. And at night, the riverside park turns into a children's playground for the whole city. At around 4 or 5 p.m., a number of people have propped up iron shacks and set up their products, preparing in advance for the day's operations, and by 6 p.m., the main road that runs down the Mekong River into the river is strictly closed to cars and transformed into a commercial street, with a bustling night market on one side of the road and a children's amusement park and music-themed restaurants on the other.
Naturally, the grandfather here is not as colorful as the night market in Thailand, where the night market is mainly for locals, but the 2-kilometer night market sells nothing more than some of the commonly used goods, specialty snacks and clothing, as a tourist, you can not even find the characteristic souvenirs of the tourists, although the lack of shock, but the life of the aura is indeed appearing unusually rich.
Slower and calmer living atmosphere, this is the slow life of Laos. Do you love this kind of life? If you can choose, will you choose to live in Vientiane? Or what do you think, welcome to leave a message in the comment section to discuss.