Nilesh’s Posterous

25/12/2008 - After the morning market, I still had about 6 hours before my flight. Did not want to waste it being idle. So I decided to rent a bicycle and cycle around Luang Prabhang to the temples I had not yet seen (so many of them in LP). I got the bicyle for 20,000 kips and set off to visit some temples. I first stopped at Wat Xieng Thong, which was built by King Setthathirat in the golden days of the Lao Kingdom. The temple has the Royal Funeral Chariot which was used to carry the bodies of kings when they died. The charriot is pulled by golden red-eyes dragons. Gold Carvings along the temple walls depict the hindu stories from the Ramayana and there are many representations of the hindu monkey god Hanuman as well. The temple was very peaceful and beautiful and barely any tourists. I spent some time there checking out the nice architecture and serenity of the place. Aftert that, I biked around more to other temples, which i don't know the names, but they had very beautiful sculptures and wall murals and by then it was already time to return the bike, get back to the hotel and take a tuk tuk to the airport to catch my Lao Airways flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.

I GPSed my bike ride of today, click on the link below and press play to see the ride route, speed and directions in real time on a google maps.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/7517623


Pic 1 : Novice monk at Wat
Pic 2 : Monk's Clothes Drying
Pic 3 : Nilesh on Bicycle touring LP
Pic 4 : Funeral Chariot of King Sisavangvong at Wat Xieng Thong
Pic 5 : Buddha at Wat Xieng Thong
Pic 6 : Bridge over the Mekong
Pic 7 : Tree of Life mosaic at Wat Xieng Thong
Pic 8 : Ornate Temple Door and Mural depicting Buddha's story
Pic 9 : Nilesh being a tourist
Pic 10 : Monks Working in the temple yard
Pic 11 : Jade Buddha
Pic 12 : Buddha

                       

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25/12/2008 -- Today is Christmas ! Sure doesn't feel like it at all around here. Its my last day in Laos. I have a flight around 2:00p.m to go to Hanoi, Vietnam. I have about half a day of sightseeing. Decided to wake up early to go catch another glimpse of the monk alm giving ceremony and after that catch the morning market, which is mostly for locals.

Any country that I go to, I believe that visiting the local markets is where you truly get to see and experience the 'real' country. This morning market was no different. It was for the local people by the local people. It was more a farmer's, hunter's and producer's market.

You could find lots of fresh vegetables, fresh fish fished early morning in the Mekong River on the next street, all sort of game animals the local people hunted (squirrels, birds, frogs, possums etc..), farmed meat and all sorts of produce and food. Lots of the meat on sale, I had no idea what they were. Many animals even I don't know what they are, but as the local guide was telling me the day before in the tuk tuk to kayaking, lao people eat mostly anything. The country is poor and I beleive if I was in same situation, I'd also have eaten anything from which I'd get my proteins.

After strolling around, I sat down at one of the food stalls at the market itself and had a nice grilled chicken for breakfast. Anyways, won't be too long in this post. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


Pic 1 : Flowers, Squirrels, Starfruits anyone?
Pic 2 : Vegetable Seller
Pic 3 : Chicken Seller
Pic 4 : Game animal.. not sure what animal this is
Pic 5 : Smoked Dried something
Pic 6 : Grilled Sticky Rice Seller
Pic 7 : Grilling Fish and Chicken
Pic 8 : General Store
Pic 9 : Breakfast

                 

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24/12/2008 - After the elephant ride and kayaking back to Luang Prabhang, the tuk tuk dropped me at my hotel around 4:45p.m. It was perfect time to get a quick shower and go to see the Sunset on top of Mount Phousy. They have a wat on top of the mountain and also supposed to have beautiful sunsets reflected on the Mekong River.

Along the way down, they had numerous buddhas and a cave with a buddha footprint. They had buddhas for every day of the week and many other Buddha statues depicting various teachings of Buddha.


Pic 1 : Sunset on Mount Phousy
Pic 2 : Sunset on Mount Phousy
Pic 3 : Saturday Buddha
Pic 4 : Tuesday Buddha
Pic 5 :  Reclining Buddha
Pic 6 : Buddhas on Mount Phousy
Pic 7 : Buddha Teaching

             

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12/24/2008 - After watching and participating in the Alms giving ceremony, I went back to the guesthouse to have some coffee and wait for a tuk tuk to come and pick me up for the tour I booked for today. The tour was a day tour that included elephant riding, waterfall swimming and kayaking back to town. Tuk Tuk came and picked us up. Each of the people were signed up for different events, but we'd all kayak back together in the end. A couple was signed up for Mountain Biking and another for hiking for the first half of the day and me and a chinese guy (Bob) were signed up for the same Elephant riding and waterfall in the morning. The next half of the day would be kayaking. Picked up the kayaks in a small village warehouse and off we went the rocky roads to the elephant park, while dropping the others on the way to do their activities.

Me and Bob were on the same events. So we both geared up and kayaked for some 30 minutes to the Elephant park. Elephant park was very nice. We had a 1 hour or so elephant ride through the jungle, passing on rivers, waterfalls etc... It was a good experience and interesting to see the Mahut talking to the elephant in its ear and guiding it what to do and where to go. One thing we noticed throughout the trail, was giant elephant shit from place to place.. I guess with an animal that size, it ought to be big :)

After the ride, we went elephant feeding. They were selling a bunch of bananas for 5000Kips (50 us cents or so), that we could buy and feed the elephants. Feeding them was a thrilling experience. loved it. It was amazing to see how dexterious their trunk is, such that they could just hail it and catch these tiny little bananas from my hand. They like to play around. Got some nice pictures and some good elephant time.

After feeding the elephants, we went to the take a swim in the lake/pool by the Tad Se Waterfalls. The natural pool is shallow, crystal clear water and a bit cold.. but with the high noon sun, it was just perfect. Took a nice long dip  in the crystal clear water. was so relaxing and soothing. Swam to the waterfalls and got a nice high pressure water massage. When we finished swimming, the guides had lunch boxes for us. No fried rice this time as in all my other trips. This time it was a cold sandwich and bananas. We chilled out a bit there after lunch and went back to the Kayaks to kayak down to the city.

As we were kayaking down, we encountered a Mahut (Elephant driver) Training class going on in the river. We stopped our kayaks by the riverside to watch the students learn the different maneavures in handling elephants and play around in the water with the elephants. The elephants were pumping water at each other. It was fun to watch. I had seen brochures about that mahut training class at the travel agency the night before. The Mahut training course is mainly geared for tourists. Its a 2 day overnight course where they teach you the basics of how to ride and talk to the elephants. I think it costs around $150 usd, including accomodation and food and class. 

We then kayaked back downstream for about 2 hours back to Luang Prabhang. We did not have too many white water strong rapids. Very mild current downstream. So, had to paddle pretty hard at times to even move, in the scorching hot sun. We finally reached our ending point though around 4:00p.m and the tuk tuk took us back to town. Just in time for me to shower up, clean up and go and see the sunset from the top of Mount Phousy !

Pic 1 : Feeding the Elephants
Pic 2 : Riding the Elephant
Pic 3 : Tad Se Waterfalls
Pic 4 : Nilesh under the falls
Pic 5 : Single Kayaking down to Luang Prabhang
Pic 6 :  Mahut Training Encounter while kayaking
Pic 7 : Mahut sitting proudly on his elephant
Pic 8 : Nilesh standing with Elephants

               

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24/12/2008 - Luang Prabhang is considered a holy city in Laos. Within the city, there are maybe some 30 wats (buddhist temples) and Luang Prabhang is not even big. According to ritual and tradtion, the monks living in the wats are not supposed to work and are supposed to live on the alms of other people. Every morning, there is a ritual in Luang Prabhang, where the monks leave from their wats and go around the streets of Luang Prabhang to collect alms.

They usually start walking down the streets at sunrise. So, I got up around 5:30a.m today to be able to go and be sure not to miss the alm giving ceremony. I showered and managed to walk down the street to Santi Villa, where usually they start their procession. On my way there, many street vendors were trying to sell me alms to give to the monks.

The alms consist of sticky rice, fruits and something made of coconuts. The monks are supposed to eat only from the alms they receive. I bought some fruits and as everybody else was doing, I sat down by the side of the road to wait for the monks to come and give my offering. The crowd waiting to give alms was very mixed - many local people just sitting down in front of their porch with their offerings wearing a band across their body, and tourists that their hotels had brought and were explaining the rituals and etiquette and the backpackers like myself on our own, looking and learning from what the other people were doing and doing the same.

The monks started walking around 6:30a.m. Each procession starting from their own wats. The elder monks were in front, followed by the younger ones. There were little kids in the end of the lines - novice monks. Everybody was dressed in their saffron robes, were barefoot and each had their ceremonial alm receiving basket.  They passed by and it felt very good to be giving them the fruits I bought. As I had bought only one portion from the vendor, I did not have too much to give to too many monks :(

Beautiful ceremony and ritual.. serene.. selfless and feels good !

           

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23/12/2008 - Today, I had booked a Pak Ou Caves tour for 1/2 day by slow boat. Pak Ou Caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pak_Ou_Caves) is famous in that all old Buddhas (buddha statues that become too old or break) go there to retire. It is a very sacred cave for Lao people.

Woke up early and had a quick Lao Coffee and French Croissant for breakfast and went to wait at the Slow Boat terminal where all boats leave to Pax Ou caves. There were numerous boats leaving and they divided us in group of 6 per boats. We boarded our boat and off we went for the 2 hour ride along the Mekong River to the Pax Ou Caves.

Before reaching Pax Ou Caves, the boat stopped in a Lao village where they make Lao-Lao (lao whisky) and we got to your around the village for 1/2 an hour or so. They had some interesting drinks - made by soaking up snakes, scopions, chameleons - on sale. Each of these had labels for what they were prescribed for. Some for better joints, some for better manhood, some for headache.. I guess each type of snake, insects have different effects on the body.

We finally reached the Pax Ou Caves. It consists of two caves - Tham Ting and Tham Theung. We had to climb a harsh set of steps in the burning sun to reach the upper cave. All along the way, little kids were selling caged birds. The idea was you buy them and set them them free and you get good luck.

Reached the upper caves and fortunately I had a headlight in my backpack, otherwise, they do rent/sell them in front of the caves. Went in to explore the cave and it was marvelous and very spiritual. Lots and lots of Buddhas all over the place, big and small, in all positions. Some were in very bad shape, eaten by moths or heads or limbs broken off, while some were in decent shape. Everything was in the dark cave and we could only see by flashlight. Enjoyed the serenity and spirituality of the place a lot.

Pic 1 : Snake Infused Drinks in Lao Village
Pic 2 : Scorpion Infused Drinks in Lao Village
Pic 3 : In the Slowboat
Pic 4 : Me inside the caves
Pic 5 : Buddhas
Pic 6 : Buddhas
Pic 7 : Little Girl Selling Caged Bird
Pic 8 : Slow Boats Waiting in front of the Caves
Pic 9 : Many Buddhas
Pic 10 : Happy Buddha and Little Buddha
Pic 11 : Reclining Buddha

                     

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22/12/2008 - Today, I had booked a mini bus to Luang Prabhang(LP) for 115,000 Kips. Had I taken a regular bus, it'd be 110,000. I decided to take the mini bus and save 1/2 hour or so for an additional 5000 Kips. The van crowd was very nice -we had a good group - an Australian dude and his Dutch girlfriend, 2 Japanese girls and a Taiwanese girls studying all at the same university in Singapore and two local Lao people. We had a nice language and culture discussion during the trip. We each taught each other words from our languages and cultural differences. We reached Luang Prabhang around 3:00p.m I think, after stopping mid way for lunch. Took a shared Tuk Tuk to centre of town as usual, for 10,000 kips.

Did not have a good map of LP, walked around quite a bit aimlessly and finally found a couple of tourists which I asked for advice on accomodation and they gave me a low-down on Luang Prabhang and where to find accommodation. I followed their advice and found a nice room for 90,000 kips (about $10USD) with air con, satellite TV and free coffee and bananas int the morning. Set my things down in the room, showered and went out to explore the city. Very close to where I was staying, there was a night market, where local people sell tshirts, artisanal stuff and local products. Browsed about the market and it was already getting dark.

A little girl came to me trying to sell me keychains and stuff. Told her I did not need any, then she asked me if I could buy her a pad thai at the street stand nearby. So, we went to the pad thai merchant and both of us had the most delicious pad thai ever. The girl was only about 10 years old and in school and sold keychains and stuff in the evenings to be able to buy school supplies etc.. 

The same road where the night market was, was filled with many travel agents and internet cafes (100 kips per minute). I went into a travel agency and tried to find out day tours that they had. After browsing a few options and checking which tours already had people (if people are already signed up, you pay cheaper), I picked a half day tour to go see the Pak Hou caves, a cave where Old Buddhas retire. In fact, as the statues of buddha get old or break, they are are put in this one cave. That cave is about  1 1/2 to 2 hours by slow boat and the boats stop on the way to a lao-lao (lao whisky) making village for us to check.

 I was pretty tired by then and called it a night and went back to the guesthouse to sleep.

Pic 1 : Lunch (where the minivan stopped half way to LP)
Pic 2 : Many minivans stopped for lunch and passengers stretching
Pic 3 : Luang Prabhang Night market
Pic 4 : Umbrellas at Luang Prabhang Night Market
Pic 5 : Wholesale Orange Sellers by the riverside
Pic 6 : One of the many street side restaurants in Luang Prabhang
Pic 7 : Street Snack Seller

             

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20/12/2008 - 22/12/2008 : Took the early bus from Vientiane to go to Vang Vieng. Bus ride is about 3 hours. We were supposed to get an air-conditioned bus, but I think what they meant by it, is natural air-conditioning, by opening up the windows. Anyways, ride to Vang Vieng was good. I sat down next to some German Geneticicist working in Australia and we shared travel stories and in less than no time, we were already in Vang Vieng.

Reached Vang Vieng around noon and I met an Israeli guy - Benni, who was in the same bus as me who wanted to go and look for guesthouses together. We took a shared tuk tuk for 5000 Kips/person to drop us in the center of town even though it was walking distance. We checked out about 4 guesthouses and they were so very cheap - in the $4 - $7 range per room with own private bathroom and air-con/fan. Benni picked one and I picked another one. I picked the NguenPhanith Guesthouse and paid 40,000 kips per night for it (about $5 USD). I had a nice clean double bed room with fan, private hot shower bathroom and commode.

The guesthouse had a restaurant downstairs with bed style lounges, where one could lounge, eat and watch 'friends' all day long. Yes, 'friends'. A lot of restaurants/lounges in Vang Vieng play non-stop 'Friends' episodes over episodes on TV all day long. The settings of these restaurants are lounge like.. no chairs.. just cushions with low tables.. such that one could basically lie down full length at each table. Its exactly how the lonely planet guidebook mentionned it - 'VanVieng is just lazy bums watching infinite re-runs of friends drinking 'happy' shakes'.. yes Happy Shakes. So I came down to have lunch and immediately someone came and asked me if I wanted 'special' shakes or 'special' pizza. What it is is just shakes or pizzas, with magic halucinogen mushrooms or marijuana. Had some Lao lunch (non-magic), Watched a couple of episodes of friends and then met up Benni for some sightseeing.

We rented bicyles. These were expensive in Vang Vieng - 20,000 kips vs 10,000 in Vientiane and also had to return them by 7:00p.m, whereas in Vientianne, it was for 24 hours. We biked around the little town that was Vang Vieng. Checked out a few sites and went by the river to watch sunset and watch the returning 'Tubers'.. Vang Vieng is famous for river tubing. They have quite a few riverside bars with bamboo platforms and cushions, where one can lie down, watch the river, have some drinks and enjoy the day. I was looking at their menu and they had magic drinks for about 60,000 kips. Lao Beer is 10,000.

While having some drinks, met up with a local Lao guy who was also vacationing there. He told us of some the cool things to do and things to check at night. Went back to the guesthouse for dinner and later at night came by the riverside. All the bars by the riverside had a bonfire, loud music, cheap drinks and people dancing, partying around the fire. It was nice, but they all close at midnight.

Booked a whole day tour for the next day to do some caving for for the first half of the day and then tubing for the next half. Tuk Tuk came to pick me up and we went off to the Caving place. Our tour group was a varied nice group of people, a couple from Australia, an english dude, a thai lady, a french guy and his philipina wife and two tour guides. The first cave we checked was the Elephant cave where  there were some naturally formed elephant structures. After that, we walked through a Lao traditional village to go to our next cave.

The village was interesting. Lots of free roaming animals - pigs, chickens, cows, calfs, dogs, ducks and roosters. Lots of kids also playing around and people busying themselves at day to day activities such as weaving, farming, napping. We passed through this village to go the next Cave, where we would be tubing it out. We each got a rubber tube (from the inside of truck wheels) and we sat down in it and were to follow the guide into the water cave, each of us armed with a head lamp. There was a guide rope we can use to pull ourselves in the cave and follow the group. For as long as there was the rope, we pulled ourselves in the low caves and admired the various stalactite and stalagmite formations, the different cave insects and other darkness goodies.As we paddles through the caves, it was funny how the water temperature changed from very cold to warm and back and forth. We had a good 30-45 minutes cave visit and then finally got out.

Lunch was provided as part of the trip. The guides grilled some chicken and pineapple kebabs for us and we ate that with fried rice and bananas.

After lunch and chill out in the sun to dry out, we proceeded to our next event - Tubing in the Nam Song River.. Basically what the tubing consists of, is just sitting down in an inner tube and just let it go downstream by paddling with the hands or just letting the current take you down. Along the entire river, there are many bars. So the whole tubing thing is just a big drunk and chilling out festival. From our starting point, its about 4 km downstream. We had the guide come with us in a Kayak in case we needed some help etc.. + he kept our drybags for us. We started the tubing and stopped a few of the bars along the way. Each of the bars have got huge trapeze like structures where one could do some trapeze before jumping into the river. Another bar had a giant water slide, where you'd slide down and land in the middle of the river. I did not do any of these after my water incident the day before. After about half way tubing (2 or so hours), I got bored and was wishing  it would end.. as there was not much current and we had to paddle with our hands.. we did not need to paddle as well.. if we just wanted to chill in the sun and letting the river take us wherever. At some points along the river route, there were rocks and the river was shallow, where the rocks would give the bottoms a very good massage.

We finally reached the ending point for the tubing and we disembarked. Before going back to the hotel, I stopped along the way in a travel agency and bought a bus ticket to go to Luang Prabhan the next morning for 105,000 kips and also bought a plane ticket to go from Luang Prabhan to Hanoi on Lao Airlines for $115, after spending 3 days in Luang Prabhan.

After that, after a good hot shower, had a nice Lao dinner that night and watched maybe some 4 episodes of Friends before going to to the riverside bars to have a chill time. Tomorrow morning, got to catch the early bus to Luang Prabhan. I had a marvelous time in Vang Vieng and good experiences. The one difference here though is the crowd - most of the people were in the 18 - 23 year old age range. It seemed more a like a college spring break town than anything else. Felt kind of OLD but had lots of fun though !!

Pic 1 : Tubing down the Nam Song River
Pic 2 : Many Riverside bars have bamboo louges by the river
Pic 3 : Naturally Formed Elephant Structure in the Elephant Cave
Pic 4 : Me and the group getting reading to tube into the Cave
Pic 5 : Lao Village Home
Pic 6 : Free Roaming Pig enjoying the cool mud
Pic 7 : Streets of Vang Vieng in the morning
Pic 8 : One of the many restaurants/lounge bars having friends re-run
Pic 9 : Smile Bar at night (one of the few riverside bars)
Pic 10 : My $5 room
Pic 11 : Adorable Lao Kids Greeting us as we walk through the village

                     

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19/12/2008 : Today, I signed up for White Water Rafting along the Nam Lik River (as I had to stay one more day in Vientiane to wait for my Vietname visa). The arrangement was that they came to pick me up at my hotel and then put me in public transportation to the Nam Lik River (of course, telling the driver to drop me wherever). I was the only person coming from Vientiane for this trip and all the rest were coming from Vang Vieng.

So, they put me alone at the back of the pickup truck (yes, that's what the local buses consist of) among locals and off we went. The ride was long - about 2 hours to reach the nam lik river, but every interesting. The truck stopped everywhere and anywhere it could to pick up and drop pasengers. All the people spoke only Lao except for one guy who spoke some English. He was a civil engineer working in Vang Vieng and was on his way there. He even bought a sandwich for me when the truck stopped at rest stop and he proposed to show me Vang Vieng when I go there. Such nice and great people !!

We reached the point where the driver was supposed to drop me. They hurriedly came and gestured me to get down and that it was my stop and they hurriedly left. I was left in the middle of a Lao Village with nobody speaking english and no sign of kayaks or any outdoors adventure agency. I was like.. did they drop me a the wrong place and even my passport was not with me (left at Vietnamese consulate). I was little starting to freak out. Tried to talk to some villagers, but of course none spoke english. So I started to walk down the road towards the bridge. While walking on the bridge, in the middle of the bridge, I saw a Green Discovery truck with kayaks on top approaching.. I was releived !! It was the right stop :)

We unpacked and met each other. There were actually more people signed up for the trip. 6 more. 3 boys and 3 girls. The guys were from Holland and the 3 girls were from Canada, Holland and US  + we had 2 Lao guides. Cool bunch of people. We were supposed to fit in 4 double kayaks and 1 single kayak. We put on our life-jackets, helmets, got all our things in the dry-bags provided and got into our kayaks. My partner in the kayak was one of the guides.. great !

The river was nice and we did some nice rapids. At the biggest rapids, as I was with the guide, we were the first one volunteered to do it while the others would watch our course. It was fun and nice and I got the opportunity to take the pictures of all the rest as they did the rapids. All but one kayak flipped over. After the big rapids, we stopped for lunch and the guides did a nice bbq for us which we ate with fried rice in a banana leaf followed by a desert of fresh ripe dwarf banana. Excellent meal. We chilled out a bit and the guide proposed if we wanted to swin in the rapids.. i.e just jump into the rapids with the life jackets and let the currents take you.. he showed us white water safety position etc..and how to do it. We walked up the rocks upstream and dropped our bodies on the rapids.

Few people went before me and they were fine. When I jumped, somehow I got pulled under water and was under water for quite a while (based on what the people told me) and resurfaced some 50 metres or so downstream. that time seemed really short for me and all I remember is i was like in a washing machine being tumbled here and there and i was desperately trying to swim up to get my head out and get some air. I finally emerged back up (I guess that's why they call it a life jacket.. it saved my life) and did the safety sign to the rest of the people (put ur hand on top of your head). I think the people were a bit worried that they could not see me for so long. I did not think it was that long while under water. Anyways, it was all safe and sound, but I think it was a very close encounter. I am glad I did not hit any rocks or anything, as along the course, there were many rocks and such things.

After that, we kept on kayaking downstream. At one point, we stopped for cliff jumping. I think out of our group, only Valerie, the canadian girl had the guts to jump off the cliff. We all just watched and enjoyed her jumps.

After that, we kayaked back to the pick up point. The pickup point was at a village. It was amazing to see so many people there taking baths in the river. Some had brought their shampoos, some their soaps and were taking river bath. At the same time, others were picking up green weeds from the river (they make delicacies out of that) and little kids just playing around. We dis-geared, filled surveys about our day and then sat down in the back of the truck on our way to Vientiane. The people that had come from Vang Vieng, were finishing up their trip in Vientiane (that's a good alternative to take a bus or truck from Vang Vieng to Vientianne).

As the truck waved its way out of the village, so many kids were out of the streets waving us 'Sa Bai Dee'. Reciprocated back. Was so beautiful.. but the dream was soon to come to an end... our truck broke down and stopped at mechanic. They were having problem with the clutch. Spent a good 30 minutes to 1 hour at the mechanic, all wet (I did not bring any spare cloth.. so was still in the same wet clothes I was while kayaking and it was getting colder as the sun was setting). We finally got the truck fixed and it went on its way to Vientianne. We reached vientianne in the dark.

As I already spent one day in Vientiane, I helped the girls find a guesthouse. Many of the guesthouses were all filled up. They found something close to where I was staying. We decided to meet up for dinner. Went back to hotel, showered, dried up, went to pick up my passport and vietnam visa (yeahh.. i got it) and also bought a bus ticket for early the next day to go to Vang Vieng (was waiting to confirm the visa before buying). The bus in the morning leaves around 9:00a.m. After that, met up with the girls for dinner before going back to the hotel to crash..

Pic 1 : Valerie and Marjo Taking the Rapids
Pic 2 : Boj and partner flipped over
Pic 3 : Stopping for Lunch
Pic 4 : Our Guides Preparing Lunch
Pic 5 : Lunch
Pic 6 : Cliff Diving
Pic 7 : Lao Kids at our endpoint
Pic 8 : Kayaking Start (should have been pic1.. i missed it)
Pic 9 : Laos Village Hut
Pic 10 : Truck Break Down with us still in there
Pic 11 : Village Transportation
Pic 12 : Local Tuk Tuk Stand

                       

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18/12/2008 - The flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Vientiane, Laos was very short - only about 1 1/2 hours. We arrived Vientiane around 9:40a.m and I was planning to get the visa on arrival. I realized that I did not have a picture and thought it'd be painful to get the visa and all, as that was a requirement for the visa, they were cool - no picture is an additional $1 usd, in addition to the $40 visa fee. Not too bad. Got my visa easily and picked up my bag and went for money exchange - I became an instant MILLIONAIRE !! The exchange rate was  1USD to 8469 Kips.  I then got a prepaid taxi coupon to town for $6usd. I should have rather gone out and gotten a tuk tuk rather than a cab and it could have cost me half that price.

I asked the taxi to drop me in the center of town and I walked around and checked out many guesthouses. Very Tiring endeavor with the midday sun and slugging around an 8kg bag. Finally found a guesthouse - Haysoke guesthouse. I got a single room with air con, TV and shared bathroom for 110,000 kips (about USD 12). Not a bad price for own room and it was in a good location too. I dropped my bags, showered and went off to explore Vientiane.

While walking around, I saw many travel agencies advertising visas for vietnam and they had same day service. I began thinking, that'd be an interesting country to visit if I can get visa (I had previously ruled it out, because of of visa difficulty). I went to one of them and left them my passport and visa fee ($55 for same day) and he told me to drop by in the afternoon to pick up my passport and visa. I was glad that was so easy !!

I went off to the riverside part of Vientiane and there were many restaurants along the bank of the Mekong River. I sat down at one of them and ordered a grilled Mekong River Fish. Had a delicious late lunch while admiring the beautiful Mekong. After lunch, I found a place that was renting biycles for $1.5USD for 24 hours or if I wanted a motorbike, that'd be $4. I rented a bicyle and wandered around vientiane.

Vientiane, even though is the capital of Laos, is very quiet traffic wise and very bicyle/pedestrian friendly. The city is not too big. I cycled along the main roads and checked out the sights, sounds and smells. I spent the entire afternoon cruising around town and really loved it. I checked out the local market and some local buddhist temples.

I was loving Laos more than any other country in South East Asia that I had just been to. Laos did not have any chaos as elsewhere. Everything was peaceful, quiet, and people were extremely nice and things were very cheap.

It came time to pick up my visa. Found my way back to the travel agent where I dropped the visa. Bad news. He told me they could not do the visa today itself, that if I wanted I could take my passport and he'll refund me or else for sure tomorrow he should be able. I had not planned on staying in Vientiane for another day.. so now I had to decide if I wanted the visa, I had to stay. After some thoughts, I decided that I really wanted to go to Vietnam and deciced to stay for another day. So I asked him to try to do it for me by tomorrow evening.

Now, I had to find something to do for the next day. Next to my guesthouse, is the office of Green Discovery, one of the recommended eco-agencies from Lonely Planet Guidebook. I went in and asked them about the different day trips they had. A white water kayaking trip grabbed my attention and I signed up for that (All trips cost cheaper if there are already other people signed up for it.. for this one trip the agent told me 3 other people had signed up from Vang Vieng). Price was allright for a whole day trip - $32. That included transporation (about 2 hours away), fresh cooked lunch on the trail, english speaking guides and the kayaking equipment and life jackets etc.. So, I was all set for how to spend my day tomorrow !!

Went back to the Mekong riverbank and had dinner there again before coming back to the hotel and calling it a night a bit early. (Talking to the local people, I hear there's a curfew around 11:00p.m.. when all restaurants, bars, discos etc.. are supposed to close.. but not confirmed though).

Pic 1 : Buddha
Pic 2 : Buddhas
Pic 3 : Mekong Riverbank House
Pic 4 : Haysoke Guesthouse, where I stayed
Pic 5 : Fresh Fruit Shake Seller
Pic 6 : Brahma
Pic 7 : Novice Monks
Pic 8 : I am a Millionaire !!!

               

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