Vientiane is the capital city of Laos, situated in the Mekong Valley. The estimated population of the city is 200,000 (2005) while the number of people living in the Vientiane metropolitan area (the entire Vientiane Prefecture and parts of Vientiane Province) is believed to be over 730,000. Vientiane is located at 17°58' North, 102°36' East (17.9667, 102.6).
The name of the city is derived from Pāli, the literary language of Theravada Buddhism, and its original meaning was "The king's grove of sandalwood", this tree being prized for its fragrance in classical India. It is also believed that the original name of Vientiane (Viangchan) means "City of the Moon" in the native Lao language. Modern Lao pronunciation and orthography do not clearly reflect the Pali etymology. The romanized spelling "Vientiane" is of French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the hard "ch" syllable of the Lao word; a common English-based spelling is "Viangchan", or occasionally "Wiangchan".
Pakse has a number of comfortable places to stay and is a good base from which to explore the surrounding area. The town has one of the largest markets in the region. Within Pakse is the Champassak Museum where you can see relics from Wat Phu as well as from the Bolaven Plateau.
Lao Aviation was established and started operations in September 1976. The name was changed to Lao Airlines in early 2003. It is wholly owned by the Government of Laos.
Flying mainly to small airfields in mountainous, tropical Laos, the airline acquired a not-too-favourable reputation for safety, several flights being lost over the years. Lately, with better aircraft and airfields, this reputation has been overcome. Reliability is now complying to international standards, at least for ATR 72 aircraft.
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