Loving Laos (Part 3 - Vientiane)

Last instalment of our Lao trip. We flew from LP back to Vientiane via Lao Airlines. The service was decent and the plane new. Mind you, Lao Airlines is not a budget airline - we were served water and a packet of fruit chips for a 40 min flight! To us, the flight was worth every penny. The same journey done by bus would have taken 10 hours!!

We arrived back at AV hotel in the afternoon and strolled along Lang Xang Avenue to see the Patuxai monument, the most prominent landmark in Vientiane. Patuxai is also known as the Victory Gate, and it resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. We had fun doing jumping shots right in front of the Patuxai.

The next day, we took a local bus to visit Buddha park, with its eclectic collection of Hindu and Buddhist sculptures. The local bus was old and rickety and packed to the brim with locals and goods. We squeezed on board quickly and managed to secure seats at the back of the bus. The ride took 1 hour and traversed a dirt road with sporadic potholes!

A striking sculpture in Buddha Park is that of a giant pumpkin with a tree at the top (bottom right picture). It has three stories representing three levels - hell, earth and heaven. Visitors can enter through the mouth of a demon head and climb steep staircases from hell to heaven.

Our tragic faces as we made our way down from heaven to hell.

These village kids are so adorable. We asked them to pose and they readily obliged.

There are many wats (temples) scattered about Vientiane but one of the oldest (and nicest) is Ho Phra Kaew. As we were inappropriately clad in shorts, we were made to wear the Lao skirt before entering! The temple used to house an emerald buddha statue which is now sitting somewhere in Thailand.

As Laos used to be a French colony, it is no wonder that some French influences are still present till today. Road names start with "rue" and "avenue" and French restaurants serving delicious French fare are plentiful. We managed to visit 3 French and 1 Italian restaurants while we were there - L'Adresse de Tinay, La Scala, Le Silapa and Le Central. In order of preference, I loved Le Silapa best, followed by L'Adresse and Central. The chef at Le Silapa was very creative - we had scallops with fried riverweed drizzled over with creamy tom yum sauce and grilled fish with butter sauce and some fried veg crispies at the top. La Scala was somewhat disappointing and not worth the 1 hour walk to get to it! Prices are in the range of US$10 to US$20 for a 3-course meal, which is very decent.

As there wasn't much to do in Vientiane, we repeatedly visited a beauty salon called "Holiday", which was recommended in wikitravel, for various treatments. The prices are ridiculously cheap - an oil massage costs US$5, hair treatment US$7.50 and foot spa (which includes pedicure) US$9. While prices are cheap, I encountered the worst masseur ever here! The other services were OK though. Check out our grimy feet (Vientiane is a dusty town) before and our clean and healthy feet after.

At the end of our trip, we were sad to leave AV Hotel. I highly recommend this hotel...it is run by a Singapore guy who chats to you every morning over breakfast. He is assisted by a Lao manager, who is one of the most sincere and attentive hotel staff that I've ever met! He never failed to pick us up at the airport and greet us with his shy smile. Other perks include free wifi and the best fried beehoon for breakfast!

Some of my favourite (and parting) shots of Vientiane.

Loving Laos (Part 2 - Luang Prabang)

After our short stay in VV, we took a minivan to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site. The ride was long (7+ hours), butt numbing and back breaking. We were glad we took the van as the journey involved long, winding and mountainous roads. Thank goodness we made it to LP safely, for we had an aggressive driver who was overtaking trucks and buses at high speed despite the narrow winding road and dark driving conditions.

We stayed at the Apsara hotel along the bank of the Nam Khan river. It's a lovely hotel, the best we stayed in during our entire Laos trip. And it wasn't expensive at all - only US$95 per night for 3 pax including breakfast!

Some pics of the hotel with us girls posing.

The hotel never failed to surprise us at breakfast with their delightful variety of homemade preserves. We got 2 different flavors every day for 3 consecutive days - pineapple, tomato, tamarind, mango, papaya and banana! My personal favourite was mango while SY & Gan loved the tamarind!

We spent 4 nights in LP and I felt that we could have stayed another day or 2, easily! In terms of sightseeing and activities, LP had a lot to offer. The town has retained its old colonial charm despite the hordes of tourists visiting. There is a night market every night from 6pm to 10pm selling traditional handmade ware and knick-knacks. We shopped there for 3 consecutive nights and bought stuff every time! And if you fancy a hike, climb atop Phou Si hill for a breathtaking view at sunset! Of course, one cannot leave LP without witnessing the procession of monks in the alms-giving ceremony taking place every morning at dawn.

LP at dusk

Monk-parazzi fever hits LP!

On one of the days, we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to Kuang Si waterfalls, about an 1 hour from town. Swimming in the icy cold waters of the waterfall provided a reprieve from the afternoon heat and we also enjoyed watching the ang moh boys taking swings and plunges into the pool. On our way back, we stopped by a traditional Laotian village. When they saw us, the young village lasses screamed and scuttled back to stand by their stalls as we walked through. Each pleaded with us to buy a little handmade something from them. Interestingly, we paid 5,000 kips (US$0.65) for a friendship band at the start, 2,000 kips (US$0.25) in the middle and a measly 1,500 kips (US$0.20) at the last stall!!

Kuang Si waterfall

Beautiful people at the Hmong village

On another occasion, we joined a half-day tour to Pak Ou caves and Lao whiskey village. The boat ride took almost 2 hours one-way! The Pak Ou caves are noted for their miniature Buddha sculptures. I recall reading in a guidebook that there are about 4,000 sculptures in total within the caves?! There wasn't much to do at the village but we did try the locally brewed lao-lao (whiskey), which tasted kinda grosse. If you're into exotic drinks, you can also buy a bottle of preserved wine made out of snakes, scorpions, bear paws, etc!

Please do not leave LP without tasting Laotian food! Somehow, the local food at LP seems to have been tweaked to suit foreigners' palates. We had traditional food at Kualao in Vientiane and the food was too herby for our liking. At LP, we enjoyed every dining experience. Go to the back alley near the night market for incredibly cheap buffets (only 10,000 kips (US$1.25) for all-you-can-heap-on-a-plate!), street snacks and grilled food. Tamarind and Tamnak Lao serve the best Laotian food, and Saffron cafe has the best coffee in LP.

Last but not least, a collage of my favourite photos. From top left, clockwise: Girls from a neighboring school engaged in a game of zero point, old shoes and peeled bananas sun-tanning on the pavement, scooter gal and her sister, old-fashioned bicycles with pretty baskets for rent, a comical looking dog and a little girl getting distracted while her mother was setting up stall at the night market.

Loving Laos (Part 1)

SY, Gan and I are back in SG after an awesome 10 day long vacation in Laos. Initially, we had doubts about spending so much time there. Questions in the line of "why so long" and "what's there to do" have been thrown at each of us separately, and we've had our fair share of dealing with quizzical expressions and remarks from others regarding our location choice!

In a nutshell, the trip was fabulous! It went beyond our expectations and save for the afternoon heat, the 10 days we spent there did not feel long at all. Perhaps all that quizzing and doubtful looks from friends succeeded in bringing our expectations down a few notches lower? Anyway, I'm really glad I made the trip with the gals...the thought of not going did cross my mind as I've to start my new job immediately after the trip if I went. Scarily enough, I almost let that miserable thought win me over...but I'm glad my love for travelling subdued that self-pity monster in me.

We flew from Singapore to KL via Airasia on 24 Feb 2011 and transited at LCCT (I think it stands for Low Cost Carrier Terminal) in KL. After killing 3 hours in Oldtown coffee (great food, btw!), we boarded our next flight to Vientiane, which took 2.5 hours.

We're not supposed to take photos on the tarmac but I snapped this photo before I gained possession of this knowledge...hehe

By the time we got to Vientiane, it was late afternoon and the friendly manager from AV hotel was there to meet us and escort us to the hotel. We didn't do much for the rest of the day except chill out at a cafe that eventually became our hot favourite - JoMA! Excellent drinks, sandwiches, cheesecake and free wifi! Despite being a relatively backward city, we were more connected in Laos than anywhere else in the world! There's free wifi in almost every hotel, guesthouse, cafe and pub in Vientiane & Luang Prabang!

Our preliminary exploration of Vientiane.

The next day, we took a bus to Vang Vieng (VV), supposedly a backpackers' heaven with "Friends" and "Family Guy" re-runs showing in every cafe. The ride took 4 hours and it wasn't particularly pleasant as some foreigners behind me had their feet up the back of my chair...eeewwww....When we arrived in VV, it struck me as a rather dead town. 2pm and hardly anyone in sight (we later read that people party and booze into the wee hours of the night and hence wake up very late the next day). Our guesthouse in VV was called Popular View but unfortunately, it didn't give us a good view of the Mekong river.

Despite the bad reviews about VV, we had lots of fun there! We went tubing, which basically means you sit on a huge rubber tyre and float down the Mekong river with a can of beer in your hands. Lots of bars along the way so no fear of staying sober! At your signal, the bar owners will happily throw you a rope which you cling onto and they will drag you in. No pics of tubing as we made a (wrong) decision not to bring our cams with us, lest they got wet.

We also went hot air ballooning the next day and though we didn't get the best pics as it was raining, the experience was worth it!

The picturesque view in VV.

How to blow up a hot air balloon.

So pretty!!