Qualla: Vientiane https://qualla.com/vientiane en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:05 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/0/y/vientiane-wp/vientiane-patouxai-laos.jpg Qualla: Vientiane https://qualla.com/vientiane Vientiane: Introduction https://qualla.com/vientiane/ Photo credit Kiran Jonnalagadda from Bangalore, India, CC BY-SA 2.0. Vientiane is the capital that forgot to hurry. Home to 900,000 people, Laos's largest city feels like a town, its rhythm set by the Mekong River sliding past at an unhurried pace. French colonizers of Indochina left boulevards and baguettes; Buddhists before them left temples still in active use; communists after them erected the monuments ideology required. Bangkok and Hanoi once shared this slowness, but development accelerated them long ago. Laos, lacking the resources to fuel such growth, has kept what its neighbors lost. Gold covers the That Luang stupa. The Patuxai arch resembles Paris's but celebrates different victories. Modest and charming, Vientiane remains utterly itself.

Read more: Vientiane on Qualla

Image: Kiran Jonnalagadda from Bangalore, India | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/0/y/vientiane-wk/w70y-vientiane-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Vientiane: The Pace https://qualla.com/vientiane/ Photo credit Mx. Granger, CC0. Visitors notice Vientiane's pace first. Streets empty at midday. Businesses close when owners decide to close, and urgency - so present elsewhere - simply doesn't register here. Poverty enforces this slowness; culture embraces it. Development would change the lifestyle, but devel...

Read more: Vientiane on Qualla

Image: Mx. Granger | CC0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/0/y/vientiane-wk/w70y-vientiane-the-pace.mp3 0:06 2 full Vientiane: The Mekong https://qualla.com/vientiane/ Photo credit Pakopakopapa, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Mekong River defines Vientiane's southern edge. More than a waterway, it doubles as the border with Thailand - at night, Nong Khai's lights shimmer across the current. Along the riverfront promenade, Vientiane gathers at sunset. Restaurants serve beer and food while the sun d...

Read more: Vientiane on Qualla

Image: Pakopakopapa | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/0/y/vientiane-wk/w70y-vientiane-the-mekong.mp3 0:06 3 full Vientiane: The Temples https://qualla.com/vientiane/ Photo credit Mx. Granger, CC0. Communism didn't destroy Vientiane's Buddhist heritage. Inside the wats, monks still chant and merit-making continues unchanged. Wat Si Saket's cloister holds thousands of Buddha images; the golden stupa of That Luang serves as the national symbol. Before colonizers arrived, temp...

Read more: Vientiane on Qualla

Image: Mx. Granger | CC0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/0/y/vientiane-wk/w70y-vientiane-the-temples.mp3 0:06 4 full Vientiane: The French Legacy https://qualla.com/vientiane/ Photo credit Phanousone lae, CC BY-SA 4.0. Administering Laos as part of Indochina, the French left traces surviving their departure - villas lining certain streets, baguettes in the bakeries, coffee introduced by colonizers and now grown by Lao farmers. But the legacy runs architectural and culinary rather than linguisti...

Read more: Vientiane on Qualla

Image: Phanousone lae | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/0/y/vientiane-wk/w70y-vientiane-the-french-legacy.mp3 0:06 5 full Vientiane: The Communism https://qualla.com/vientiane/ Photo credit Mx. Granger, CC0. Since 1975, Laos has been communist. The Pathet Lao brought this ideology when they seized power, and single-party rule persists - even as market economics has quietly replaced central planning. Communist monuments dot Vientiane: the Patuxai arch, statues of leaders, hammers and ...

Read more: Vientiane on Qualla

Image: Mx. Granger | CC0

]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/0/y/vientiane-wk/w70y-vientiane-the-communism.mp3 0:06 6 full