Driver Man apparently doesn’t know that the Lao Museum isn’t open, because he takes a left out of the President’s Museum to take us the half block to the Lao Museum. We tell him it isn’t open, and he finally gets the picture when we get to the entrance, and it’s all blocked off – heck is really isn’t even much of an entrance yet. Yeah, it is definitely not ready for prime time! So now it’s off to the President’s Monument, better known as his home.
We tell Driver Man that we just want to go to the President’s home, but even though we explained this to him this morning, with Sullen boy there, he doesn’t get it. We finally realize he’s never been there and doesn’t know where it is. Thank you Lonely Planet! My app tells us exactly how to get to there from the Museum, so I direct Driver Man to the entrance to the memorial. While he is skeptical, he follows my instructions, almost missing the entrance, but after questioning the guard at the gate, finally accepts that this is a new place to add to his repertoire of visitor sights. Add another new experience for our travels: teaching the taxi tour guide driver a new tourist destination!
Originally called “Six Klicks City” when it was allegedly the USAID headquarters as well as CIA base in the 50’s and 60’s. Subsequent digging finds that it may have simply been the residence area for Americans living in Laos during that time. Regardless, it is designed to resemble an American neighborhood with wide streets and small little ranch and 2 story homes. The complex was totally self-contained with bars, restaurants, tennis courts, swimming pools and an American school until the President moved in after the 1975 takeover of Vientiane. Occupied from 1975 until his death in 1992, President Kaysone lived quite simply in this small little compound outside the city.
Driving into the compound, it does look like an old American neighborhood. Little fences around houses, small concrete driveways with carports in front of the house. Old air conditioning units hanging out the windows. Its sort of weirdly creepy in a way, especially because we are in Laos, not some suburbia in the U.S. Definitely a time travel thing.
We pile out of the cab and enter into the serene little homestead of the President. Upon entering the compound, we are greeted by a duo of lovely girls,one of whom speaks English and will be our tour guide. We pay our small fee, and she begins to tell us about the buildings. (She is adorable, and speaks incredibly well, but apologizes for her language skills and giggles throughout the entire tour. I only wish I had taken a picture of her!). We start in the welcome center where there are chairs and a stage set up for presentations. It was a traditional little ranch home, but I think they’ve just converted it into offices for the memorial now.
Next, we walk outside and down the little sidewalk to one of the houses that the President used for his residence. Here we must take off our shoes to visit, and no photos are allowed. Which is a darn shame, because it is so wild – definitely just like stepping back into the 70’s. It is a traditional little 2 bedroom house that was used as his office, with the bookcases and desks in one large room, the President’s sitting room in another, and a simple dining room situated in an old screened in porch.
All along the way, adorable guide girl shows us pictures of the President when he was in residence here. It’s adorable, and again, I wish I had asked if I could take pictures of the pictures, but I didn’t think of it until we were long gone.
Moving on to the next house, the President’s residence, we see the table and chair that he used in the garden to take his breakfast and read his morning newspapers. Here, we do have a picture of the President, taken from the brochure we were handed as we left, which can be compared to the current view (think they’ve done a bit of pruning since the original picture. 
Under the carport in front of this house is the President’s car, a Mercedes, up on blocks, pristinely clean and gleaming. Inside, the house is a traditional two bedroom ranch, with a breezeway that has been converted into a gym type area, and the President’s sandals and tennis shoes still sitting in place by the door. (He was obviously a real fitness nut, because he has this gym in his house, another full gym in a house behind this one – where he actually died – and lots of pictures of Kaysone performing Tai Chi or boxing or something. Our adorable guide shows us a picture of Kaysone exercising, and he is wearing the same shoes that are sitting here in the door. Beyond the exercise room, there is a den, with half filled whiskey bottles still sitting on a credenza and then the bedrooms – with closets still full of his clothes and his glasses on the night stand next to the bed. Amazing that they have kept everything just the same as the day he died in 1992.
Back outside, we walk through the complex, getting the history, looking at the gym/house where he died with the tennis court out front…
…as well as the 50’s era office building at the rear of the property.
The last stop is the building where the Politburo met. Here we are allowed to take pictures, of the sterile room, the microphones at each place, and the little kitchen in the back with the original coffee and tea service. Here again, Adorable Guide shows us pictures of the meetings in this room with the President and other dignitaries (which surprisingly I could not find on the web later when I searched).
We have come to the end of our tour, and as we head back through the complex we get a chance to really look around and take some good photos.
It truly is like stepping back in time to a very different world – made all the more surreal by the fact that we are indeed in Laos. The most interesting aspect is that Kaysone did live very simply here in the complex – but all his life. He is revered by the Lao people, and means to Laos what Ho Chi Minh meant to Vietnam, or what Fidel Castro meant to Cuba. He served as the first Prime Minister from 1975 to 1991, and while he was only President for 1 year before his death, this country idolizes him, even though he never promoted the cult-like fervor that his people feel for him.
Back in the “welcome center,” Ed gets to sign the guestbook, looking like Politburo member himself, sitting up on the stage, royally signing our names to the book.
Then we say goodbye to the Adorable Guide and her counterpart, and walk back out into the heat to find Driver Man waiting. This was one of the best experiences we have had – and one of the most cost efficient – only 10,000 Kip ($1.20 USD) for both of us and a guided tour. You can’t beat the price, not the mention the intriguing look into the personal side of a revered leader. Fantastic.
Driver Man happily takes us back into town and to Lani’s House, driving us right up to the gate (as opposed to the other taxi driver from the airport). He’s obviously been primed by Sullen Boy, because he asks about when we are leaving – we tell him tomorrow – and agree for him to come pick us up at 5pm to take us to the airport. Works for us – nice car, good driver, good price – we’re all set for our last days in Vientiane.
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