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Vientiane, a singsong set of syllables if there ever was one – the rhythm of the name and the feel of the place make it almost inevitable to consider some minor abuse of a minor song by a 60s UK band so as to murmur (to oneself) “Vientiane’s a pretty nice town / But she doesn’t have a lot to say”.

OK, enough of that. Vientiane is what the books all refer to as the modern capital of Lao. By which they mean only that it is the current capital, and not the ancient one. Seems that the king pictured sitting so jauntily above floated his court here, down the Mekong, to avoid the temptation of engaging with some bellicose Thais in the 16th century, and the rest is history.

The books also say that Vientiane is one of the quietest capitals in the world, meaning low key and not much going on, and they are probably right about that, even if you include Ottawa among the comparators. Our hotel was promoted as being in the heart of the action – what we obviously see as our sweet spot – but the reference to action was pretty much aspirational (neighbourhood view in the photo from the rooftop below) as the hotel was surrounded by the usual collection of tiny produce shops, food stalls selling late night and early morning street food, and micro retail of various kinds specializing in everything from construction supplies to what looked like rear view mirrors. The waterfront, a happening place in most towns and cities, was an unpopulated view from a busy road over a distant Mekong river, receded from the the quayside for the dry season.

But still. Every place has its own charm. We went to the Arc du Triomphe inspired Victory Monument. Irony alert: it was built as a monument to soldiers killed in WWII and the colonial wars against France, just after the French left, using US money and supplies meant for airport construction, but was renamed by the Pathet Lao after they took over in 1975. So, follow along: French inspiration and US money to build a structure that memorializes anti-colonial resistance and a freshly communist state. Hard not to love that.

And there are a lot of temples and stupas, both small and overgrown and needing a bit of paint and larger and iconic and glistening in gold. We went to Pha That Luang, the most famous, with its gold stupa apparently enclosing the much older and smaller one that preceded it. Richly decorated Buddhist temples surround it and golden funereal stupas abound, but what is rather lovely is that on the same grounds are animistic spirit houses, and people selling live sparrows in little bamboo cages that the purchasers release to fly away taking bad luck or bad feelings with them, and the decor features Hindu motifs like the monkey king of mythical lore. Vientiane may not get no respect, but was a very easy and welcoming place for us to spend a short time as our introduction to Lao.