I walked around Vientiane for 3 days in a row at one time. I saw everything there was to see. But unlike others, I didn't go ga-ga over the "famed" Mekong sunset - I remember the guidebooks saying the same thing about the sunset over Angkor Wat, and sunsets in Bali, and sunsets, well, pretty much everywhere in this part of the world.
No, I didn't go ga-ga over the sunset over Mekong. I've seen it all my life. I grew up by the river in a land conjured as 'the cradle of Mecca'. So I didn't see what everyone else sees in the Mekong sunset - but I see what the tour operators see in that, especially in Angkor Wat.
Anyway, the other thing I didn't see in Vientiane was beggars. The poorest country in Indochina, and there are no beggars - at least I didn't see any.
Maybe only the rich beg then. Because nothing is ever enough for them. So they beg for contracts and titles.
I wouldn't bother giving them anything any more. Other than my sympathies for their ailments. And their ungrateful children.
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