Vientiane is the quietest capital you are likely to meet, a low, tree-lined city on the northern bank of the Mekong where the river forms the border with Thailand. About two hundred thousand people live in the city proper, and the pace is so gentle that visitors often forget it is a capital at all. Monks in saffron robes walk the early streets, and in the evening the riverbank fills with people jogging, eating and watching the sunset over Thailand.
The city's symbols are religious and national. That Luang, a great golden stupa, stands on a broad plaza and is the emblem of Laos, with the current structure dating from the sixteenth century and rebuilt after damage. Patuxai, an arch inspired by the Arc de Triomphe but decorated with Lao motifs, was built in the 1960s from cement donated for an airport, which led to its nickname the vertical runway. Wat Si Saket, from the early nineteenth century, is among the oldest surviving temples in the city, with thousands of tiny Buddha images in niches along its cloister walls.
Outside the city, Buddha Park, about twenty-five kilometres east, is an odd and charming collection of concrete sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities, built in the 1950s by a mystic-sculptor. The Friendship Bridge, opened in 1994, links Laos to Thailand's Nong Khai, and a ride over it connects to the Thai roads toward Udon Thani. Roads around Vientiane are flat and broad, with scooters everywhere, though drivers are courteous by regional standards.
The heat and humidity are heavy, especially from March to May, and the rains fall from May to October, so the cool, dry months from November to February are the best. Petrol is easy to find, and so is food: sticky rice, laap, grilled river fish, and French bread with coffee. Beerlao is the national drink. Evening is the best time to be by the river, when the stalls light up and the heat finally lets go. Nothing here hurries, and it is easy to follow suit.