To get around town I skip the local tuk-tuk on steroids known as a Jumbo and, like many visitors, hire a bicycle. Instead, much was diverted to erecting the Patuxai Gate - thus, its other nickname, 'the vertical runway'.Д®xiting through the inevitable gift shop, I notice they're selling redВ hammer-and-sickle flags, a reminder that the Lao People's Democratic Republic (the country's official name) still tips its hat towards that enduring oxymoron, communism with galloping capitalist characteristics. The oft-repeated local legend is that the cement used in constructing it was intended for concreting the US-funded Vientiane airport. Below you, the broad, Paris-inspired Lane Xian boulevard - playing Champs Elysee to Patuxai's Arc de Triomphe - stretches in one direction to the Presidential Palace and in the other towards Pha That Luang temple.Д«uilt between 19 (yet never quite completed), the victory arch is dedicated to the Laotians who died fighting for France in World War II or, soon after, against France in their struggle for independence. You can scan the whole city horizon, counting its modest skyscrapers on one hand. The 160 steps are easy enough but in the Mekong-fuelled humidity, also a shirt drencher. One of its two nicknames is the Asian Arc de Triomphe.Д«y submitting your email you are agreeing to Fairfax Media's That said, most visitors take a good look at, if not climb, the Patuxai Gate, a huge, ornate archway that straddles the central Lane Xian Avenue. It's a languid and friendly city where almost nothing is mandatory except to hang loose, eat well and wander at will. Vientiane (pronounced 'Viang-chan' in Lao, rather than the Franglaise-style 'Vee-enty-ahn') has been the Laotian capital for 453 years. The real Emerald Buddha is still here, inside us.' Touche, Siam. 'But we don't we ask for it back,' he explained, 'because the Thais have only the thing. In fact, years ago, on my first visit to Vientiane's graceful Ho Phakeo temple, a young guide told me that it had been home to Bangkok's famed Emerald Buddha until an invading Siamese army carried off the statue in 1779. It sprawls rather than soars and isn't burdened by being higher, holier or older than World Heritage wonders found elsewhere. To be fair, in the 'attractions' department Vientiane does have a large and very important Buddhist temple, its national icon known as Pha That Luang - the Great Sacred Stupa - that dates back to 1566. The Patuxai monument is dedicated to Laotians who died during World War II and during the independence war with France. That is, once you deflate the price by knocking off its thousands - 53,000 becoming a sober 53 - the trip costs less than $9. Fifty-three thousand Lao kip, the fixed price for the taxi ride, initially sounds preposterous, until you remember that the kip is three zeros over the limit of credibility.

Laos capital