Foreigners vote Vientiane as the most boring capital city in the world !!!

Date: Aug 15, 2007

Foreigners vote Vientiane as the most boring capital city in the world !!!

chiip · Guru

I see that you are thinking like I though many years ago, yes, vientiane resident lost the opportunity to see fine view of the mekong bank if it has been properly managed, I dreamed of fine river bank with clean path along it from north to south, but the authority ignores the oppotunity to make money since 30 years some of the french villas were left there as it was 30 years ago : three near the US embassy, one near the Electricite du Laos another one in front of the french embassy...ignorance ? negligence ? lack of fund ? oh they have many excuses ! Hehehe !

Date: Aug 15, 2007

So, not a good article for tourism, but so what? I think Laos relies too heavily on the thousands of idiots who come here to eat pancakes, smoke opium and take pictures of colourful minority costumes. These people would never know how to appreciate a city as beautiful and complex as Vientiane. Sure it is bad if they dont come because they bring money, but most tourists never really experience Laos, and most dont really want to either, they just want a colourful tour, a time out from their work, or to enjoy the feeling of difference. They don't actually care where they are. Its just bad luck for all of those people who will never know how much of an extraordinary city this is.

Date: Aug 15, 2007

Yes, so awful! I think he is just crazy man whose expectation to see Vientiane likes New York, Rome, Paris, London and the likes. If so, the visiting to Vientiane for him would had meant that he reduced his life by 2-3 years life, if not 5. Why didn't he go wherever he wanted to see? When he compared Vientiane and Nongkhai, he made a bias. No way, Nongkhai can compare with Vientiane in terms of everything. He might get some thing for this expression for sure.
However, I am not upset at all that someone had such an opinion about my beloved country capital, Vientiane, simply because it was just his opinion, but the statistic ranked by experts. One the one hand, we know that the people's tastes are different; otherwise we should have married on the same men or the same women. On the other hand, you may have read lots of websites saying that they have good impressions and experiences on Lao people, Lao culture, Lao food and Laos as whole. But so far I haven't seen anyone posted the good one. I believe, this post was from oversea. To some extent, it's good also so that we can share some thoughts. Yes, maybe when I came to Vientiane there was a construction of road, of course it seemed to him ugly. In fact, nowhere on earth the construction site would be clean. This would apply to every city, including Rome where he lives, I guess.
In a way, as our country wants to be a tourist site, why don't we make use the critic to build our capital more comfortable to everyone? See what they don't like and what we think is suitable and what we can do based on our capability. Of course we will not build clean path in MekongRiver from North to South as someone mentioned earlier. Just make thing reasonable.

Best wishes,
TSP

Date: Aug 15, 2007

Hello all

Long ago i suggested Vientiane's City Council should have a good look at the area where people make a living by selling soft drinks, or beer and other kind of food along the Mekong bank, because it was not paved....and that area always has many tourists from overseas, and now you see there is some not very good comments about it. I saw new picture showing some parts of that area is paved but not all.

For me concrete that area is good why Vientiane's authority did not do it. It help to minimize the dust for people who sell things there, and make the area more clean. This matter should be in the priority list of Vientiane City Council. The sooner the better, get it done. yawn yawn yawn

Date: Aug 15, 2007

I would recommend to turn Fagnum road, the road near the Mekong in Vientiane, to night market like in Luang Prabang and remove all the non-standard beer shops out from the mekong bank.

Date: Aug 15, 2007

I think this story just made up by people who have an ill will to our country. Just forget it just let them talk rubbish. One day they will be tired to do when they feel nobody cares.

Date: Aug 15, 2007

most foreigner
they didn't know and understand in Laos's history
that's why most of them think of it that
vientiane should to be boring capital city

but .. for us
Vientiane is the heart of us

here is place for our history, our nation and our pride

I love Viengchan

Date: Aug 15, 2007

Lao temples replica of Thai temples? Isn't the other way around? When he made it to Bangkok, I guess he found what he was looking for! Ladyboys and prostitutes!!

Bluntman · Newbie

Jai Yen Yen !

This is no "article", it's just one guy on a blog... its not anything that "foreigners have voted" for.

So who cares?

Date: Aug 16, 2007

Bluntman wrote:

Jai Yen Yen !

This is no "article", it's just one guy on a blog... its not anything that "foreigners have voted" for.

So who cares?

You are right who would care with such comments. In fact, I keep thinking whether he is really crazy as someone mentioned earlier. The matter of fact is he was crazy before visiting Vientiane or after. Probably, he was crazy before his visiting Vientiane, why? He even confused here is Vientiane, but not New York or Paris. Usually, tourists come to Laos as they want to enjoy or get some experiences of our cultures and tourist sites. On the contrary, this guy really cared about French building. He seems not even foreigner, but Lao crazy man living in France whose propose is to discredit Lao image. Fortunately, nobody cares with such disgrace comment.

Date: Aug 16, 2007

you are right, this guy must be stupid.
he may see our Vientiane Capital is too peaceful with too friendly people, so I himself feel bored. because this guy may like traveling in Iraq or Afganistan that may be exciting for him. or his counrty is full of murder, rape, rope...which are exciting for him.
So dont care about him, now he may enjoy being kidnapped in Iraq or Afganistan already biggrin

Date: Aug 16, 2007

Hello everybody

I think the person who wrote these comments is Crazy or strange person, he stated that Bangkok's traffice was a paradise for him compared to the Vientiane's and Nongkai's one. Majority of toruists from the western countries always describe Bangkok's air and traffic as HELL, this fellow thought otherwise. He mus be mad boy. biggrin

Date: Aug 16, 2007

When I read this comment make me laughing alone and I want to say 'Bak phi ba biggrin

'

paris_vientiane · Guru

hum.... you cannot force everyone to like something.... to love your city

i can understand this guy consider Vientiane is boring, because there is not so much to do in vientiane for hobby/fun/tourism.

But i don't like the way he describes the city, as if nothing could be good in Vientiane.

I think he didn't understood the spirit and the value of this city.... he was just blind, unabe to open his eyes to see something different from what he knows

Personaly, i like this city as i like your country. Of course, many things could be improved... and may be improved in the next years, as Laos will get richer and develop. But this city is also peacefull, have long history, not bad living conditions, beautifull monuments...

If he doesn't like, he can go to another place... Laos doesn't need people who are unable to understand and appreciate the spirit of lao people and their countries/cities, reflecting their way of life.

-- Edited by paris_vientiane at 08:33, 2007-08-24

chiip · Guru

perhaps asian and european have very different opinion about french buildings for attracting visitors ... i once guided a french banker to his customers, the last one was Cassidy`s, ( an american invester in lao textile ) for me, the cassidy`s villa was a banal and old french colonial building but when the banker saw it , he was stunned and shouted out
" quelle belle villa, et bien entretenue avec ca ! " .what a beautiful villa ! and in his report in google web concerning old french building in vientiane dated 24 august 2007, Thomas Schmid said exactly the same thing, so, I see that there`s a huge difference between lao and european opinion.

regards.

askafalang · Member

First a couple of comments, then an opinion. The statement reflects the thoughts of one person and certainly not all foreigners. Most people call Vientiane sleepy, or laid back. Certainly not ugly. Of the people who go to Laos I often hear the suggestion to skip Vientiane and go straight to Luang Prabang or Vang Vien. The reason is both those other towns feel more comfortable for the falangs, in other words more like home. That’s good and bad. Good that those other towns can make some money off tourists, bad that some people only are interested in the familiar.

Personally I like Vientiane, I guess I could say I like it very much. My feelings run about 180 degrees opposite of many other falangs. The parts of Vientiane I like are Dalat Kua Din or out past Tat Luang in Ban Tat Luang, or way out of town past Dalat Sii Kai. Vientiane is sprawling and I seldom see other tourists anywhere. People are very nice. Those other towns I like ok, but I don’t like coming all the way to Laos to talk to other falangs. I like to talk to kone Lao. I guess if I had to name my favourite town it would be “ban nock” if you know what I mean.

samakomlao · Guru

Hi Farang,

Are you Farang from which country ? smile

askafalang · Member

I am American, but please remember, not all Americans agree 100% with what their government does.

Back on topic. I seem to like the kind of places where other falangs say there is nothing to do. I like the towns that feel very Lao. Udomxai and Xahyabuli spring to mind for big towns, but for the smaller places there are many. Recently I drove straight out past Dalat Sii Kai, out to Ban Kah leo. I’d love to spend a couple of months there in that hotel by the boat landing. Laos is so interesting, I’m afraid many of my fellow tourists miss some of the best parts.

chiip · Guru

bangkok is a hell that i surely cannot live in, big trucks run as fast or even faster than sedan cars and produced carbonic oxide that you have to wear mask to protect yourself from polluted air, in hanoi, too dense population and too hot ...cost of living is becoming very high... i think i prefer vientiane like you mr. falang.
regards.

Date: Aug 28, 2007

Hey, you don't sound very American. Maybe a quiet American? hehe. But you do not sound like a mainstream tourist. Most people who come to Laos don't know to see 'local' places. They follow the lonely planet all the time. If you have been living in Laos then of course you get boring with these things. But it is an industry. And maybe Viengchan does not support that industry very well. Maybe we have not made the best use of the riverbank. Before 1828 Viengchan was located on both sides of the river, which was a highway not a border, but since then we look inward away from the river. This is changing with boat restaurants but more could happen. I like the nightmarket idea, but when this was proposed for nam phu the big businesses complain. One problem is decisions are made in business interests of rich people. Like someone with lots of money wants to build a green monster on the riverbank and call it a hotel, then they can. The culture park near the friendship bridge could be made into something more exciting. That children's theme park near the that luang parade ground could also be made more exciting, but the problem here is that people with money compete with one another and argue over it. The big Inthavong building near nam phu is a great example. It is a wrecked building coz the family argue over how to use it. It is the best position in Viengchan but we cannot do anything with it (maybe madame vivian can) coz they argue. This is the problem, if we want to improve Viengchan.

Date: May 26, 2013

I love when fobby local people dismiss all their communities faults with the phase "u ar da fowiner u døn not unduhstan ower coture"

Date: May 28, 2013

Anonymous wrote:
I love when fobby local people dismiss all their communities faults with the phase "u ar da fowiner u døn not unduhstan ower coture"

The thread title was completely misleading anyway. It's not "foreigners vote...". It's one guy's opinion about Vientiane. No big deal.

Date: May 28, 2013

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I love when fobby local people dismiss all their communities faults with the phase "u ar da fowiner u døn not unduhstan ower coture"
The thread title was completely misleading anyway. It's not "foreigners vote...". It's one guy's opinion about Vientiane. No big deal.

yeah! one man show! million of tourists found Vientiane beautiful and so charming!