Vientiane in 3 days

Tak Bat (the morning alms-giving ritual — the saffron-robed monks collecting rice from the lay population at dawn): the practice (the Tak Bat (Lao: "giving rice in a bowl") is the most important daily Buddhist ritual in Laos: the monks (the bhikkhu — the fully ordained monks) walk barefoot at dawn from their temples through the city streets with their lacquered alms bowls (the phat — the black lacquered bowl (the "begging bowl" or more accurately the "alms bowl" — the monk does not beg; the layperson offers (it is the layperson who receives merit by offering food, not the monk who receives charity))); the offering (the lay people (the devout Buddhist householders of the neighbourhood) kneel on mats in the street with their prepared offerings — the cooked sticky rice (khao niao — the glutinous rice of Laos, steamed in the traditional bamboo basket (the huad)) and additional foods (the sweets, the fruit, the prepared dishes) — and place portions of rice into each passing monk's bowl; the monks eat the collected alms as their one or two daily meals (before noon); the most important location for Tak Bat in Vientiane (the streets around the Sikhottabong district at the That Luang end of the city, and the streets around the That Luang temple itself, at approximately 06:00-07:00); visitor etiquette (observe silently (no flash photography or selfies in close proximity to the monks); dress modestly (covered shoulders and knees); do not touch the monks or their bowls; if you wish to participate, buy sticky rice from the street vendors and offer in the traditional manner).

COPE Visitor Centre (the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise — the NGO-operated rehabilitation centre and visitor centre on Khouvieng Road, Vientiane): the UXO crisis (Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in human history: from 1964-1973 (9 years) the United States Air Force and US Navy dropped 270 million cluster bomblets (the "bombies" — the local Lao name for the CBU-24 and CBU-26 cluster bomb units) from B-52 Stratofortresses and tactical aircraft onto Lao territory as part of the "Secret War" (the covert US operation to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply route from North Vietnam to the Viet Cong in South Vietnam; the bombing was covert because Laos was a neutral country (the 1962 Geneva Accords had declared Laos neutral) and the US never formally declared war on Laos or acknowledged the bombing campaign during the Vietnam War); approximately 30% of the cluster bomblets (80 million submunitions — a "bombie" is a tennis-ball-sized cluster bomb bomblet that functions as an anti-personnel grenade) did not explode on impact and remain buried in Laotian soil in 25% of the country's land area; approximately 50 victims/year (2020 statistics) are still killed or maimed by unexploded cluster bomblets when they are struck by a hoe, a machete, or picked up by children; the COPE Centre (the centre provides free prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation to UXO victims and operates the visitor centre to document the UXO crisis; the exhibition includes the scale models of the B-52 bombing runs, the photographs of victims and the exploded vs unexploded cluster bomblets (replica safe props) for the visitor's understanding of the scale of the problem).

Buddha Park (the Xieng Khuan — "Spirit City") (the 25 km south of Vientiane on the Mekong River bank at the Tha Deua ferry crossing; accessible by tuk-tuk (40 min) or local bus): the park (the outdoor park containing 200+ large concrete sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu mythological figures, created by the self-taught mystic sculptor Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat (1932-1996) beginning in 1958): the creator (Luang Pu was a Lao-Isan shaman and mystic who claimed to have been taught by a Hindu hermit in a cave in Vietnam; he blended Theravada Buddhist iconography with Brahmanical Hindu imagery in a personal syncretic religious vision; after the 1975 Communist revolution in Laos (which outlawed religious practice), Luang Pu fled across the Mekong to Thailand where he built a second, larger sculpture park (the Sala Kaew Ku at Nong Khai, Thailand — 5 km across the river from the Vientiane Buddha Park)); the sculptures (the most striking: the Reclining Buddha (the 40-metre horizontal reclining Buddha — the largest religious sculpture in Laos); the Pumpkin Building (the giant concrete gourd-shaped structure with the three levels representing heaven, earth and hell (each level accessible through the demon mouth entrance at the base of the gourd)); the Naga (the 7-headed cobra figures that proliferate throughout the park); the giant Vishnu (the 4-armed blue-skinned Vishnu riding the Garuda)).

Talat Sao (Morning Market) and Vientiane street food (the daily market and the Lao street food culture): Talat Sao (the "Morning Market" — the main central market of Vientiane in the two modern market buildings at the intersection of Lan Xang Avenue and Khu Vieng Road: the electronics and mobile phone stalls (the most Southeast Asian type of market commerce — the phone accessories, the Chinese electronics, the power banks); the textile and silk section (the Lao silk (the "mat mi" weaving — the ikat-woven silk of Laos; the intricate geometric patterns created by binding sections of the silk thread before dyeing (the traditional resist-dye technique)); the food section (the Lao condiments, the dried herbs, the fermented fish paste (the padaek — the fermented freshwater fish paste that is the fundamental flavouring agent of Lao cooking; the equivalent of the Vietnamese nuoc mam or the Thai nam pla but made from freshwater Mekong fish rather than sea fish)); the Lao cuisine (the street food of Vientiane): the khao niao (the sticky rice — the staple food of Laos (Laos is the country with the highest per capita consumption of sticky rice in the world); eaten by hand, rolled into a small ball and used to scoop up the accompanying dishes); the larb (the Lao meat salad — the minced meat (chicken, pork, duck or buffalo) dressed with roasted rice powder, fish sauce, lime juice, shallots, chillies and fresh mint; the most characteristic Lao dish; the larb mou (pork larb) is the most common version); the tam mak houng (the Lao green papaya salad — pounded in the traditional clay mortar with the long pestle: the shredded unripe papaya, the lime juice, the fish sauce, the garlic, the chilli and the dried shrimp)).

National Museum of Lao History (the Lao National Museum on Samsenthai Road — the main historical museum of Laos; housed in the former French Résidence Supérieure (the colonial administration building of French Indochina (1925)): the collections (the museum covers Lao prehistory (the Plain of Jars prehistory — the megalithic stone jars (2,500+ jars ranging from 1 to 3 metres in height, weighing 1-14 tonnes) on the Xieng Khouang Plateau 200 km northeast of Vientiane — the most mysterious prehistoric monument in Southeast Asia; the jars (created between 1,500 BCE and 500 BCE) are thought to be Bronze Age-Iron Age funerary urns (the bones of the dead were processed and placed in the jars; the lids of the jars were lost in the US bombing of the plateau in the 1960s-70s)); the Lan Xang Kingdom (the Kingdom of a Million Elephants — the Lao kingdom that at its 17th-century peak controlled the territory from the Chinese border to the Mekong delta); the French colonial period (the Lao Protectorate (1893-1953) — the most obscure of the three Indochina territories (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) in the French Indochina federation; the Lao identity was partly created by the French colonial administrators who promoted "Laoness" as distinct from Thai and Vietnamese identity)); the independence and the 1975 Revolution (the Pathet Lao Communist revolution of December 1975 — the end of the 600-year-old Lao monarchy and the proclamation of the Lao PDR; the museum's coverage of the 1975 revolution is the official LPRP (Lao People's Revolutionary Party) narrative).

Vientiane French Colonial Quarter (the legacy of the French Protectorate (1893-1953) visible in the architecture of the central Vientiane streets): the character (Vientiane has retained more intact French colonial architecture than any other Southeast Asian capital (Phnom Penh's colonial quarter is smaller; Hanoi's French Quarter is larger but more commercialised; Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City has largely demolished its colonial buildings): the Vientiane French Quarter consists of the central grid of streets (the Samsenthai Road, the Setthathirath Road, the Phangkham Road and the Rue François Ngin) lined with single and double-storey French colonial commercial buildings (the "shophouse" type: the ground floor for commerce, the upper floor for residence; the arcaded ground floor walkway — the "five-foot way"); the villas (the French colonial villas in the residential streets south of the Mekong riverfront: the white-plastered two-storey villas with the wide verandahs, the louvred shutters and the tile roofs — the most intact French colonial villa landscape in mainland Southeast Asia)); the coffee (the Lao café culture: the Lao drip coffee (the Vietnamese-style drip filter coffee introduced by the French and the Vietnamese during the colonial period; the strong dark coffee served with sweetened condensed milk (the kafe dum khon (black coffee) or the kafe nom (coffee with condensed milk))); the Joma Bakery Café (the most established international café chain in Vientiane — the most popular meeting place for Vientiane expats, NGO workers and tourists).

Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan and the neighbourhood temple walking tour (the Buddhist temple culture of everyday Vientiane — beyond the major tourist temples): Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan (the "Temple of the Heavy Buddha" — one of the most important Buddhist monasteries in Laos: founded in the 16th century; housing the Centre for Lao Pali Studies (the monks' university where Buddhist monks study Pali (the scriptural language of Theravada Buddhism) and Lao literature); the ordination hall (the sim) contains the large 16th-century standing bronze Buddha (the "Ong Teu" — the "Heavy One") from which the temple takes its name (the Buddha is said to weigh several tonnes; it survived the 1828 Siamese looting because it was too heavy to carry); the temple compound as a living community (the Vientiane Buddhist monastery compounds (wats) are the social centres of the surrounding neighbourhood: the monks teach children, maintain the community calendar, perform ceremonies for births, deaths and marriages, and provide the communal open space that is otherwise absent in Vientiane's grid street plan)); the neighbourhood wat walking tour (the Setthathirath Road has the highest concentration of historic wats in central Vientiane: Wat Inpeng (the 16th-century temple with the distinctive carved wooden gate panels); Wat Mixai (the temple with the unusual nagas flanking the main gate in the Thai Rattanakosin style, built during the Siamese-influenced period of Vientiane's history)).

Vientiane Night Market (the Mekong River night market on Fa Ngum Road — the most relaxed and least commercialised night market in Southeast Asia): the market (the nightly market from approximately 18:00 on the Fa Ngum Road riverside promenade (the section between the Mut Mee corner and the Nam Phu square): the food stalls (the Lao street food night market dishes: the khao piak sen (the Lao rice noodle soup — the broad flat rice noodles in the clear chicken or pork broth with the fresh herbs, the bean sprouts and the lime; the Lao comfort food equivalent of pho); the khao jee (the Lao French baguette sandwich — the baguette (the French colonial bread-making tradition preserved in Laos and Cambodia after independence; Laos has the finest baguette tradition in mainland Southeast Asia after Vietnam) filled with pâté, fresh herbs, pickled vegetables and chilli sauce; the most common Lao street food for breakfast and lunch); the or lam (the Lao forest stew — the traditional stew of eggplant, dried buffalo skin, lemongrass, dill, coriander, galangal, phak khaeng (the bitter herb native to the Lao highlands) and buffalo or chicken; the most complex and characteristically Lao dish)); the ambiance (the Vientiane Mekong night market is fundamentally different from the Chiang Mai or Bangkok night markets: the absence of tourist pressure, the Lao families and couples sitting on the riverbank grass with the beer and the food, the children playing, the fairy lights, the fishing boats on the dark Mekong — the most genuinely peaceful evening experience in Southeast Asia).