Pha That Liang!

...is not a command. It's a stupa. The most impo monument in Laos is a curvilinear spire, representing a submerged germinating orchid whose growth to the light symbolises the striving for, and achievement of, Buddhist enlightenment.

Moreover, it's surrounded by an architectural depiction of the Buddhist universe, symbolised by 30 more modest spires, several hundred lotus leaves, and other stuff that means something or other. I'm a bit sketchy on the detail.

We drove today through ever more densely populated areas as we approached Vientiane, the Lao capital. There were a few active rice paddies with carpets of six-inch long shoots poking up, but being the dry season, most of the fields were being burned and overlaid with plant material ready for next year.

Another dry-season ritual is more baffling. After the rains, there is a frantic erection of bamboo bridges that join up all sorts of bits of countryside normally cut off from each other during the rainy season. The bridge builders charge a toll because of the huge effort involved in construction, and make lots of money as people visit and trade with their neighbours, in the larger market towns. When the rains come again, the bridges simply get washed away til next year.

Here in Vientiane the civic atmosphere is pretty scruffy, and there are plenty of holes in the pavement above the sewers that are big enough for you to fall into, should you happen to be staggering home after dark. A game I'm looking forward to playing later.

Speaking of infrastructure, the Mekong, which I expected to look quite impressive, is a mostly dry river bed about half-a-mile wide. Maybe its more of a sight when the rains are on.

Yet the city has some good points, a major one being that it isn't Veng Viang. Another is the presence of Pha That Liang, and a third is that lots of proper local stuff is happening like markets and bustle and that.