The Monster of Concrete

Vientiane has no pretensions to being Paris. That's probably just a colourful lie told by foreigners. With enough imagination (or Beerlao, or preferably both), Avenue Lane Xang could conceivably vaguely resemble the Avenue Champs-Elysees, and Patuxai the Arc de Triomphe. Just in case somebody does actually try to imagine that, though, the introduction to the Patuxai, on a concrete slab on the ground floor, tells us that, because construction was "never complete due to the country's turbulent history", "[f]rom a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete." In this age of slick overmarketing of tourist non-attractions, that kind of frankness deserves some credit.