The Road Trip to Laos

May, 05 2008: I arrived home last night at 3am. My headache was gone but I could  barely open my eyes.  Look at my messy hair and my eyeglasses; I need to have a new one soon but not today. Today I just need a comfort bed and sleep tight. I would say the road trip to Laos was really exhausted but full of an adventure and fun.

 

I Left Bangkok on Wednesday, and arrived at Nong Khai on Thursday the early morning. We hire the van for the whole trip in Laos. We across the built Friendship Bridge from Nong Khai around 8am and head to Vientiane city.

 

Vientiane, capital of Laos is across the Mekong River; we visited the Temple called  That Luang The great Buddhist temple of Vientiane.

 

After that we were heading to Talad sao (Morning Market) to have a breakfast. Talad Sao is more like the department store. There were so many things you can find there such as foods, cloths, etc.  After we had breakfast, we alive again then we head to Patuxai (literally Victory Gate) at Lanchang Road. 

We didn’t have time much for Vientiane even that this city is really interesting but we could visited only 3 places as we need to go to Vang Vieng and it tooks us 3 hours drive from here to Vang Vieng

Vang Vieang for better or worse

 

Vang Vieang is the midway along Vientiane to Luang Prabang Road. The backpackers will stop here and spent the time with many activities such as caving and tubing down the river.) They usually spent the night or more here before going to Luang Prabang.

 

I think Vang Vieang is more like Pai - Mae Hong Song, Thailand. I really like it a lot. This place is a tourist magnet. I heard that some of the travelers even stay here far longer as their original planed.

We arrived there the late afternoon, after walk-in reservation and then had launch. I had headache because the lack of sleep on the bus and the road was basically going up and down. We could only manage our trip to the cave and then we had a dinner at the street’s food of Vang Vieang.

Sabaidee Luang Prabang

 

We left Vang Vieang the early morning after breakfast to Luang Prabang, which it takes 6 hours coz the road was very hilly.

We arrived at Luang Prabang the late afternoon. The City of Luang Prabang is doesn’t really feel like the second largest city of Laos at all but in fact luang Prabang is small enough where you can see same people popping up the same day.

 

Luang Prabang also has a wonderful night market selling the kind of handmade items. The lao are nice and friendly. We spoke almost the same language but sometimes the meanings were totally difference. Possibly 70 percent of the words in Thai and Lao are the same but many common words are different.

 

Sabaidee in Lao meaning “Hello” but in Thai it does mean “I’m fine” *haha* 

I visited “Patat Pusi” in the evening and spent the rest of the day cycling around the city. Where I can see Mea-khong river. We also had a very good coffee around there. You can easily find a coffee shop around Luang Pra Bang city. Many people suggest that Beer Lao has a very good taste, so don’t forget to try it also.

 I had a very wonderful night at Luang Prabang. I think I am fall in love with this small city already.

The daily alms-giving ceremony is a major attraction of Luang Prabang. So we woke up the early morning to join the ceremony. Along the quite street there were a hundreds monks walk by, we sated down on a mat at 6:30 am, with a bamboo container full of sticky rice. Each time a monk walks by we dips into the container and give him handful rice.

 

After we finished the ceremony, we had breakfast at the shop near ‘Dara Market’. After that we transfer the guesthouse coz last night we didn’t sleep well. You can easily find a guesthouse in Luang Prabang, there were many price starting from $x.

We visited Wat Xiang Thong, The one of the best-known images of Laos.

I really like the walls that depict a variety of tales including the Laos version of the Ramayana. 

 

We also visited Haw Kham (Royal Palace Museum), the opposite of Phu si hill. This was after the Luang Prabang kingdom became a French protectorate, so the building features a blend of Lao and French styles.

The late afternoon, we had a slightly problem with the van driver. The main problem was the lack of communication and the how phone-line networking  there works. As we transfer to the new guesthouse and try to inform the driver but we couldn’t contact so we couldn’t find him.

 

We spent many hours waited for him, fortunate Luang Prabang is a small city. He finally popup and then head to Tat Kuang Si Waterfall (30Km from Luang Prabang). You can hire the tuk-tuk from Luang Prabang. It was very beautiful waterfall. And we were really relaxed.

 

We spend last night shopping at Lauang Prabang night market. Sadly we didn’t have more time to explore the city. And we barely could walk the day time because it was so boiling hot.

 

The way back home the hills road make me feel dizzy, headache and vomits. I guess I am a little bit scare to take the road trip up to the hills for a while. But I still like Luang Prabang a lot. So next time, I'm going to take a plane!  ;)