Wandering around night markets in Vientiane

Wandering around night markets in Vientiane

In some of our last articles, we have shared you the list of top night markets in Phnom Penh – the capital city of Cambodia. Our journey to night markets in Southeast Asia countries now continues with experience top night markets in Cambodia’s neighboring country – Laos. To help you out, we would like to share you our list of Top 3 night markets in Vientiane – Laos.

1. Vientiane Night Market - Riverside Night Market:

Vientiane Night Market is located at the riverside promenade, upstream from the Chao Anouvong park. This is the reason why Vientiane Night Market has another name of Riverside Night Market. The night market is featured with red awnings illuminated with reddish light bulbs. Vientiane Night Market offers great choice for clothes (shirts, blouses, pants, mini-skirts, Lao skirts, swimsuits), textiles, small crafts, accessories for mobile, music player.

Plus, the market also sells statues of Buddha, crafts, paintings, headphones, etc. Salespeople in the market are able to speak in English, French, Thai and Vietnamese so it makes easier for tourists to interact with local sellers. If you are seeking some souvenirs for your friends and family, then Vientiane Night Market is totally an ideal place.

Vientiane Night Market

There is one thing you may notice when visiting Vientiane Night Market is that, you may not see food sold here. But good news is, you can easily find many restaurants in just some stones’ throw away. A few years ago, the government decided to build a flood wall to help protect the city. They then moved restaurants away from the water’s edge to reduce the amount of trash being littered into the river and made a more communal area. Thus, the market is very tourist-friendly with clean, tidy and well-organized setting. In the evening, you can see plenty of locals go jogging through the nearby area.

Vientiane Night Market opens from 18:00 – 22:00 daily. So if you wish to see the bustle of a typical Southeast Asian night market, head to Vientiane Night Market at around 22:00.

          2. Ban Anou Night Market:

Coming next in the list of top night markets in Vientiane is Ban Anou Night Market. This is a well-known market set up every evening along the Khoun Boulom Road near the corner of Chao Anou. Ban Anou Night Market is a great place for you to enjoy Laotian food. When in here, take the chance to try out the best famous and yummy Laotian foods. Let see how much your body can take.

Food in Ban Anou Night Market

There are grilled meat kebabs, sausages, deep dried frogs, chicken and fish wrapped in banana leaves then skewed in hot charcoal grills. Then you will enjoy those foods with jeow (dipping sauce made from stalks lemongrass, fish sauce, soy sauce and lime juice). Do you hear your stomach calling?
To balance the taste with those dried grilled dishes, you are highly recommended to try out something sweet. Take some bubble tea and jelly or mung bean desserts in your menu when wandering around Ban Anou Night Market. The market opens from 17:00 – 22:00 daily.

          3. That Luang Night Market:

That Luang Night Market is the newest night market in Vientiane giving tourists more choices for nightlife escape. Located at That Luang Kang Hom 8, Vientiane, That Luang Night Market with likewise setting of two walking sides offers a quite spacious alley for tourists to walk around.
Products sold here vary from local to daily product with clothes, souvenirs, toys, electronics, etc. Interestingly, there are many food stalls set up here giving a variety of choices for customers. Polices close the area at exactly 17:30 and this place then turns into a walking area until 22:00.

That Luang Night Market

Just by walking along, tourists can see Vientiane New World Complex which serves cocktails and music making the place more vibrant at night. That Luang Night Market is a brilliant idea for both visitors and locals to spend a night enjoying the atmosphere, gathering with family and friends.
That Luang Night Market opens from 16:00 – 22:00 every day.

As a common saying, if you wish to learn the local lifestyle, the smart way is to head to its markets. With this list of top night markets in Vientiane, we hope you can now have more suggestions for your nightlife experience in the capital city of Laos – the country of millions of elephants. Some other articles below can give you more ideas to fulfill your journey in Laos:

1. Things to do in Laos
2. Laos itinerary in one week
3. Top 10 Laotian foods