After the ubiquitous chillie, the most important ingredient in Lao cuisine is smoke.

Combine the two and the result is culinary alchemy, infusing dishes with spice and deep charred flavours. Grilling over charcoal is an essential technique and is commonly used when preparing shallots, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, galangal, and lemongrass before adding them to jaew dips, soups and curries.

Here’s a quick quartet of quirky transport from markets in Laos.

There is always a rare assortment of vehicles in various states of disrepair, laden with anything from fruits and vegetables to ducks, chickens and pigs.

Whatever it is, it’ll fit on a motorcycle.

Over the past couple of years one of Vientiane’s most beautiful temples, Vat Si Saket, has been undergoing a steady process of renovation.

The roof of the cloisters have been retiled and now some of the inner walls are being painted. The image above is how they have looked for as long as I can remember. Below shows the work being done. I assume this is how they believe they were originally painted.

I’m not sure if the intention is to do all the walls. If it is, then it’s a mammoth task but should look stunning when completed.

Vat Si Saket is one of the oldest and most atmospheric temples in Vientiane. It was built in 1818 and is one of the few to have survived an attack on Vientiane by the Siamese army a decade later.

The temple’s central ‘sim’ or ordination hall is surrounded by a walled cloister. In addition to rows of large Buddha images, recesses in the cloister walls house 6,840 wooden and ceramic images.

The temple is open daily from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Lotus flowers left as prayer offerings leaning against a wall at Tat Luang, Vientiane.

Here’s a quick black and white snapped in a Vientiane temple during prayers to mark Boun Ok Pansa, the end of rainy season retreat.

Lao food gets a bad press, and I think it’s undeserved. Granted, the competition from neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam is stiff but there’s certainly plenty of delicious and interesting food worth discovering in landlocked Laos.

Unfortunately the restaurant scene hasn’t really developed and until relatively recently very few people went out to eat. Most of the country’s best cooks, therefore, are in the home. In the last few years a few night markets have popped up in Vientiane with home cooks selling a wide variety of jaew or dips, curries, soups and grilled meats and fish. This is where you will find the best food. Restaurant menus on the other hand still tend to be limited to standard fair with uninspired and oversized portions prepared with little care.

In common with northern and northeast Thailand, Lao eat mainly glutinous rice, a malleable steamed grain served at the table in woven baskets, although boiled fragrant rice is also eaten. Central to the Lao diet is a wide variety of freshwater fish which are steamed, grilled and fried, or made into a salad called goy pla. It is similar to the Thai laap and made with chopped river fish tossed in lime juice, dried chillis, fish sauce, toasted rice powder and herbs. A fermented fish paste known as pla daek is also used to flavour many dishes.

In Luang Prabang, regional dishes include the delicious aw laam, a kind of vegetable stew thickened with broken sticky rice and gently spiced with the addition of pieces of mai sakarn or pepperwood. It is traditionally made and at its best using dried buffalo meat but pork is also common (as is smoked and dried bamboo rat further north). There’s also sin savan, thin slices of sun-dried beef served with jaew bong, a roasted chilli paste, ua si khai, lemongrass stuffed with pork, gaeng som, a popular vibrant spicy and sour soup with fish, and stuffed frog.

The culinary landscape of Laos is no less effected by its past than is its architecture or its politics. In the late 60s and 70s, during the American war on Vietnam, many Vietnamese sought refuge in Laos. Today, the culinary tradition that they brought with them is very much part of the Lao food scene.

Vietnamese dishes include the ubiquitous pho, a comforting noodle soup of beef, buffalo, pork or chicken with liberal additions of fresh herbs and vegetables and, of course, fiery chillis, and many other noodle dishes.

Vietnamese favourites also include naem neaung, tasty little ‘do-it-yourself’ rice paper wraps to fill with grilled pork balls, lettuce and herbs, ban cuan, steamed rice flour sheets stuffed with pork and mushrooms and yor kao and yor jeun, fresh and fried spring rolls.

If you are interested in learning more about Lao food, the book Traditional Recipes of Laos by Phia Sing published by Prospect Books is worth getting.

I was sad to receive a phone call around 8 pm last night telling me that Talat Tong Khan Kham, one of my favourite fresh markets in Vientiane was on fire. It was an enormous blaze that could be seen across the city and the entire market was destroyed.

I used to visit this once vibrant market every time I am in Vientiane and was only there very recently. I feel for the vendors who’s lives will be so badly affected by this tragedy.

It was a fantastic place to photograph. Colourful, chaotic, and a visual feast, the market was always full of friendly folks eager for a joke and a bit of banter.

The traders are a resilient, hardworking bunch and I am sure they will be setting their produce out on a roadside somewhere tomorrow. Let’s hope the site gets cleared and rebuilt as quickly as possible.

Vientiane has more than its fair share of stunning temples and monuments. The most significant is Pha That Luang, one of Laos’ most important cultural sites. Despite having communism thrust upon them, the people have remained deeply religious.

Buddhist ritual and observance remain part of everyday life. Pha That Luang is a glorious golden monument and the location of an annual festival held in November.

It’s worth wandering around outside the confines of That Luang as there are some interesting asides to see such as Buddha images in the shade of large trees.

Offerings are often made by putting small amounts of sticky rice directly onto the Buddha images.

As part of the recent celebrations to mark 450 years since the founding of Vientiane, Haw Thammasapha was constructed next to That Luang.

That Luang is open to the public daily from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. and costs Kip 5,000 to get in.

There’s a definite risk of Buddha image overload in the camera after a visit to Vientiane but it’s worth posting a few from Haw Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

Built in the 1550s, the temple housed an Emerald Buddha image but when neighbouring Siam sacked Vientiane in 1778 it was stolen and taken to Thonburi, the then capital of Siam. The revered Buddha now resides in Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok. The Haw Phra Kaew was also destroyed during the Siamese invasion and rebuilt by the French in the 1920s when they were the colonial power.

Today, Haw Phra Kaew is a museum and has some very enigmatic bronze Buddha images on display around the outside of the main building.  The temple is opposite Vat Si Saket on Setthathirath Road.

I’ve been a bit lax with posts just lately. Having recently returned from Vientiane I now have dozens of images to sift through and edit for a book project I’m working on.  They’ll be a few posts over the next few days but they are likely to be brief. All images and few words – but that’s not a bad thing.

While in the booming Lao capital I paid a visit to Vat Si Saket, one of the oldest and most atmospheric temples in the city.

The temple was built in 1818 and is one of the few to survive an attack on Vientiane from the Siamese army a decade later.

Vat Si Saket is located on the corner of Lane Xang Avenue and Setthathirat Road, close to the Presidential Palace and across the road from Vientiane other revered temple, Haw Pha Kaew.

Now a museum housing an impressive collection of Buddha images, the temple’s central sim or ordination hall is surrounded by a walled cloister. In addition to the rows of large images, recesses in the cloister walls house 6,840 silver and ceramic Buddhas.

If you are visiting Vientiane, this temple should certainly be on your itinerary.

Vat Si Saket is open to the public daily from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. and costs Kip 5,000 to get in.