Vientiane: Down by the Mekong

Thailand and the Mekong in the rear (it's the dry season so there's a lot of riverbank in the foreground)

In Vientiane the Mekong (pronounced mé-khong by the locals, not mee-kong) forms the border between Laos and Thailand.  There’s a park along the Lao side; in the mornings and evenings many Lao, and some falangs (westerners; apparently it’s derived from français), walk or jog along the river.  There's an area where, if you're lucky, some mornings the Lao do synchronised aerobics to very bad music badly played through old loudspeakers - the rest of the day it looks much more sedate, with a few Lao and communist flags flying.  There's also an area where gym equipment (presumably modified to withstand monsoon rains) has been installed along with, unusually, some fairly cautious instructions.  

 There’s a very large statue of a former king, Chou Anou, extending the hand of friendship towards Thailand.  I suspect this might be partly ironic (at least it would be if I'd been putting it up!): the Thais have a reputation in Laos for being aggressive (while the Lao are laid back and relaxed) and Thailand has, from time to time over the last couple of thousand years, invaded Laos when the fancy for more land/slaves/gold struck.

Along the Mekong, as in many other places in Laos, the rubbish bins are recycled from old tyres.  It’s an ingenious solution to what must be an otherwise big rubbish problem in its own right!

There’s a ground-covering plant along parts of the river (actually, it’s pretty common in the tropics I think – my friend M showed it to me and I’ve since seen it in Brisbane) which has small brushy-looking leaves.  It seems like it would be an attractive plant for low-grazing herbivores but it has a new-to-me defence mechanism against predation: when it’s disturbed (e.g. if you brush your shoe – or your mouth, I suppose – against it) all the leaves shrink down against the stems and it looks like a stick rather than a tasty plant.  Ingenious!

Unfrightened plants...

...frightened plants!

Also down by the Mekong is the Presidential palace: a very grand building, with imposing satellite buildings, at the end of the major avenue which runs perpendicular to the river and which is topped at the other end by a large monument, Patuxai.  Occasionally there's a motorcade in the streets around the palace: the first vehicle is always two uniformed policemen on a motorbike.  One drives the bike and the other waves people off the street and out of the way of the VIPs coming behind in their shiny black cars with tinted windows.

Near the palace is the hospital...featured in the Dr Siri books by Colin Cotterill which are set in the early 1970s (and recommended). The hospital is still going strong,,,if you can't afford anything else.  Most people aim to go to Thailand for medical treatment if necessary.