35 Days in Laos

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35 Days in Laos

Post by Earnest » August 25, 2014, 3:12 pm

reddevil wrote:I think you will find that Farangs can drive in Laos on a tourist visa I have done this several times and had my name put on the insurance Lao side. Never been stopped by Lao police but have stopped to ask directions and never been asked even to show my license. By the way this was in my Thai car and also if you can not drive as a tourist over there how do all the Thais get over with there trucks/cars.
There you go, I stand corrected.


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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » August 25, 2014, 3:18 pm

I agree with Rufus about the satellite tv. It was everywhere through the places I visited including very poor villages.

I do not know much about the telephone system as I bought a cheap Lao Telecom just for placing and receiving calls. Almost all of the Lao I saw on buses had a telephone of some kind. Samsung seemed to be reserved for young people and I only saw a few with it. Unitel or something like that was the most widespread in use among the people. This, remember, is just an observation when riding the bus.

Peanut butter is more expensive in Laos than in Thailand but the French bread, which is really good, is not expensive at all. I only really went to one grocery store like Tops. It was in Pakse and there were a fair number of western items.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Earnest » August 25, 2014, 3:25 pm

Ah yes, this is what I read.
Retirees staying in Laos on a tourism visa are also officially forbidden from using a motor vehicle in the country or applying for a driver’s license. As with many of the other regulations in Laos, this rule is also somewhat flexible and dependent on the mood of police – many foreign tourists in Laos buy cars and drive without issues.
http://www.retireinasia.com/visa-requir ... e-in-laos/

Many thanks for the info, chaps. Interesting how they have 4G up and running.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by rufus » August 25, 2014, 4:07 pm

Laan Yaa Mo, great report. I enjoy reading this.

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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » August 25, 2014, 5:04 pm

Thanks. Laos was great. I haven't had this much fun and adventure since I was in my 20s many, many moons ago.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by rufus » August 25, 2014, 7:02 pm

When you are in Vientiane next, pm me and we will have a beer, (or wine, or Lao Lao).

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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » August 26, 2014, 11:36 am

Shall do, but it will be next year as I am returning to Canada on Friday. The flight path coming to Bangkok went over the Ukraine and Iceland. I am hoping an adjustment will be made. 55+

I will probably fly to Phongsali next year, and will be in Vietiane for sure. Thanks.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » August 26, 2014, 10:30 pm

There was a change of plans again. My original plan was to take the bus from Nong Khiaw to Xieng Khouang (Phonsavan) via a stopover in Vieng Thong as this is supposed to be one of the most scenic routes in all of Southeast Asia. However, the idea of constant rain made me think the opportunity to make the best use of this journey would be lost in the mist. So, I decided to take the bus to Oudomxai for two nights and take one day to tour waterfalls, hot springs and the village of Lam Ta. Then I would go back to Luang Prabang for another few nights and travel to Xieng Khouang from there. The trip from Nong Khiaw to Oudomxai was supposed to last about 3 and a half hours.

The first hour was in a sawngthaew (truck with wooden planks to serve as benches) to a junction where I would get bus transport to Oudomxai. It was a interesting and pleasant ride as I befriended a few people and their children.

The bus was a small thing, probably from China. There were 25 seats. As I learnt later this was increased by placing stools between the aisles for more passengers. By the time we got to Oudomxai, the bus was packed including 3 farang girls that were picked up along the way. My seat was near the back on the aisle so I had a bit of leg room.

The journey was over a pot-holed non-paved road that twisted around curves and hillsides. This hit some children the wrong way. I heard a bit of a commotion at the back and turned to see a young boy fast asleep with shrimp thrown up all over his clothes. Meanwhile his mother was trying to breastfeed a younger child. It was awkward to say the least for her.
I gave her the kleenex I had whilst the ticket-collector gave her a few plastic bags from her plentiful supply. It is common for people to throw up as the bus twists and turns on its route.

About two hours later, the baby beside an Australian girl (she was sitting on one of the stools) vomited. The lady with the two young kids had already left so I told the girl to take a seat at the back, which she did. But, she sat where it was still wet as she did not want to sit close to a Lao man. Up to her.

We arrived at Oudomxai a few hours late, and it was pouring rain. I got a tuk-tuk to my hotel; however, the Chinese hotel owner refused to recognise the Agoda reservation and wanted thirty dollars for the night. I refused and walked down the street near the bus station where there were a string of Chinese hotels. I got one for $8/night on the main floor. It was clean and very spacious.

After eating I decided to take a tour of the town. One point to note about Lao towns is that there is not much in the way of lighting. So, I got lost. I walked around looking for the bus station since it was near the hotel, and asked a few people for directions. They pointed to an area I had passed about 30 minutes ago so I thought they must have misunderstood my question which is understandable as I am not fluent in Lao. By the time I got to a bridge it was pitch dark and the bullfrogs where out in full force. This prompted me to turn around and head back in the direction I came and try another street. It was now ten and I reached the bus station just where the people had said it was. I must walked right by the station. I did note that there were two young ladies in short-shorts hanging out by a hotel at a tuk-tuk stand in conversation with a number of men. I made a mental note of the name of the hotel.

Owing to the heavy rain there would be no waterfall, no hot springs and no Lam Ta, thus the next morning I took the small bus to Luang Prabang. The 5 hour trip lasted 8 hours as we were slowed by road construction. The bus idles whilst a truck gets filled with sand and mud and moves on. The operation takes about 20 minutes, and there were four delays like this. Meanwhile, we were going through the mountains so it meant another ride with children and some women throwing up. It is good that the bus attendants keep plastic bags for this purpose. Other delays were a result of many pee breaks, and women halting the bus to purchase fruit and vegetables. One cannot deny that a ride on a Lao bus through the mountains is colourful. And, as usual, the bus was packed to the gills with people, food, and various odds and ends.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Lao-miner » August 27, 2014, 7:40 am

Great post laan yaa mo
they are an interesting bunch the Lao. ive been in laos 8 and half years now, married a Lao girl and we have 2 little Laosys ( Lao aussies) Some things about Laos still piss me off , like the rule of not driving with your headlights on in the day time, i always forget to turn it of, Yet its not illegal to drive without wearing a seatbelt, Go figure? all minor irritants however, and i do sometimes forget that i live here because its "different" Laos is changing rapidly and modernising yet still remains quite authoritarian in the communist way. I think theres always been a sort of so called high class here but the growing number of middle class is steadily rising as evidenced by the expensive cars on the street, i was amazed a few days ago to drive past a newly built super car showroom , all kinds of luxury cars in there, where do they get the money? having said that you can still see a lot of grinding poverty and consequentially it appears the crime rate in the capital is going up with what the law like to refer to as anti social activities, bag snatchings , muggings, etc.

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35 Days in Laos

Post by Shado » August 27, 2014, 8:47 am

As usual, enjoyed reading your report Khun Laan Yaa Mo. You reminded me that we still have to be a bit careful when we take some of the village dek dek for a trip in the car. Some of the little ones are not yet used to the motion.

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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » August 27, 2014, 4:06 pm

Thanks to you both. When I was in the capital the English-language paper noted that the use of drugs in Vientiane (Viang Chan) was a growing problem among teenagers.

I forgot to mention that the hotel I stayed in at Oudomxai did not ask for my passport or any other information. They just wanted cash, and did not give a receipt. They handed me the key to the room and that was that.

The growing tourist industry must be adding cash into the pockets of some people, and there seems to be illegal logging and so on. This must be contributing to the growth of a middle class. I could not gauge how much of this new wealth was reaching the Lao and the minorities, but it was evident that some Chinese, and I would suspect Vietnamese, are moving upwards and forwards.

The first time I read the Vientiane Times the headline was that budget goals would not be reached in a number of ministries owing to a lack of transparency. I took that to mean the government bureaucracy is riddled with corruption, and money for modernisation, education and much else was destined to end up in the pockets of certain officials.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » August 27, 2014, 5:02 pm

This was my second stay in Luang Prabang, and I quite like the place. It has tons of atmosphere and the many tourists add to the scene as most of them are very curious, enthusiastic and happy to be there. I spent the two nights and one day at the Philalack Villa 1 guesthouse. It cost around $12/night. Breakfast was not provided but that is no problem as Luang Prabang has many good restaurants, and it is always nice to eat at the morning market.

One highlight is that a seller at the night market hunted down a few vcds I wanted by the singer, Sengnapha Dalanoy. During the day, I visited a few wats (vats). I was still worn out by the long bus ride from Oudomxai so did not have much energy to do anything but chat with a few people I had met the first time in Luang Prabang.

The next morning I took the bus to Xieng Louang (Phonsavan) with the goal of visiting the Plain of Jars. This was the express bus and is the same as the Thai buses that go back and forth between Khon Kaen and Udon and other centres. The best part is that they have leg room and fans. The bus was not crowded at all, and surprise, surprise, it arrived on schedule even though it wound its way through the mountains.

I met a nice Sino-Indonesian couple who were on a two-week vacation. Previous years they have toured Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma.

My room was clean enough, but the lighting was dim and there was a large snail in the bathroom. And the shower hose was very short, thus it kept coming off the water pipe, which was slightly annoying. In addition, the evenings and nights were noisy owing to the karaoke bar next door. This potential problem was easily overcome by turning the fan on high.

Breakfast at the Dokkhoune Guesthouse was tasty and nourishing.

At night I discovered a number of good restaurants, and a small market where they had vcds for sale some of which I purchased.

The main problem was how to get to the Plain of Jars. There was no way around it. Owing to the heavy rain one had to go with a guide. Going alone would be expensive but I ran into the Indonesian couple and we were able to negotiate a price of 25,000 kip/person to visit Jar Site One and the small town of Muang Khoun. I really preferred to see Jar Sites 2&3, but owing to the heavy rainfall the guide would not go as he feared his van would get stuck in the mud as it had earlier in the week.

On the way to the jar site, I got the guide to stop so I could take photos of the rice fields as the plants seem smaller than normal. He explained that this is the best rice in Laos (kaao guy noy - little chicken rice).

The stone jars are scattered all over the Plain of Jars and seem to have been built about two thousand years ago. Scholars have suggested that they funerary urns. Anyway, the site is spectacular as is the scenery. We visited a cave used by the locals to hide from U.S. bombs. In the past, it could have acted as a kiln to create the stone jars. I noticed there were stone markers leading to and from the cave. The guide told us that this used to show that the small path, about 2-3 years wide, had been cleared of bombs, but the area outside the markers had not. Later, some trucks showed up with workers to clear the site. This takes place on a daily basis.

Subsequently, another tour group showed up, and I was intrigued by one young lady. She did not look Lao at all. She was with her sister and two young brothers. Anyway, she had her thick hair up in a pompadour and her face did not look Chinese, Lao, Vietnamese or like any other group I have encountered. We took a few photos of one another, and then she and her sister joined us on our trek for a half hour or so before they got tired walking up the slippery slopes. It was raining heavily by this time. I wish I had got her address. Her family is from Sam Neua, and had come to Xieng Khouang to visit the jar sites.

This is a very impressive region and well worth a visit for anyone interested in history and beautiful scenery.

The next stop was Muang Khoun. This was an ancient capital, and there are some nice attractions. One is of a Buddha, which is remarkably similar to the one at Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai. It turns out that they were built at the same time. This makes me wonder if there is some historical connexion between the two. Although Thais will say that Sukhothai was the first Thai kingdom in present day Thailand, some linguists and historians like Michael Vickery, point out that the inscriptions in Sukhothai contain many Lao words. He and others suggest that Sukhothai was actually Lao and not Thai. In any case there is visual evidence that the Buddha images, and the wat structures, at Sukhothai and Muang Khoun are copies of one another.

During our wait at a sala for the rain to abate somewhat, I struck up a conversation with a lady about 25 or so and her mother (they are ticket collectors at the temple). They were very nice and interesting.

Later, we visited the remains of a couple of Khmer temples, and a hospital. The hospital was large and looked modern. Maybe people need to upgrade their remarks that there is no health care available in Laos.

After returning to Xieng Khouang, I spent my time wandering around the day market, and walking down by the river striking up conversations with anybody I met (Hello, saibai dee), but mostly females.

Next up is the backpacker's paradise, Vang Vieng.

Tomorrow morning at 10:30 in the morning I will be taking the Chan tour bus to Bangkok. My return flight to Canada starts at 1:20 in the morning to Hong Kong via Cathay Pacific where I have a 4-5 hour wait for Finnair to take me to Helsinki. I will switch planes again in Helsinki for the final push to Toronto. I trust the good people at Finnair have decided to avoid flying over the Ukraine and Iceland as they did on the incoming flight.

On Labour Day, 1 September, I was be at Varsity Stadium watching the Varsity Blues take on the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks. 55+
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » August 31, 2014, 10:01 pm

So I left the cool air of Xieng Kouang and began my journey to Vang Vieng. It was on one of those smaller buses in which every small space is used to sit passengers on stools in the aisles. I did not get a good seat this time and had to sit sideways for a bit of comfort. Again the scenery along the way was spectacular. This meant that the bus would be moving slowly to wind its way through the mountains and to avoid potholes. It also meant the inevitable handing out of plastic bags for women and kids who threw up along the way.

There was one unscheduled stop. This was owing to the fact that a truck got into an accident with a car. Since the roads are not wide, only motorcycles could get through. It was pouring rain, but everyone tumbled out of the bus to get a closer look at the accident. There was nothing anyone could do until someone showed up to fix the situation. Lao people, in a situation like this like to sleep or eat or both. I had some French baguettes that I had bought for the journey and gave one to the female ticket collector. Later, I distributed some crackers I had to her, the driver and a number of passengers, including a German couple.

A number of enterprising Lao from a nearby village set up some temporary stalls and sold fresh, delicious pineapples. There were now three buses trying to get past the accident so a brisk and profitable trade was made by the vendors.

Finally, after 45 minutes the way was clear for traffic to move. We did not get far when the bus halted so that the Lao ladies could stock up on lam yai from roadside sellers. The vendors appeared to be from one of the hill tribes.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and myself and the German couple were dumped by the side of the road outside of Vang Vieng. There was one tuk-tuk waiting to transport us into the town.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » September 1, 2014, 4:08 am

As usual, I left out something from this bus trip.

When we stopped for lunch, I found a vcd/cd store and bought a record by the famous Lao singer, Latsamy Phoudindong. On the bus an old man asked me what I got and he was suitably impressed by my purchase. He then announced to the other passengers that this falang know about Latsamy. This earned me nods of approval.

After making my purchase, I wandered over to a bridge to get some photos of the scenery. From a distance, it seemed a young lady was bathing in the river...and she was topless...and she was waving to me. Excited,I got out my camera as quickly as possible and took some pictures. Sure enough, when I viewed the photos with the zoom feature all of the above turned out to be true. If I had been younger I would probably have stayed in town and have tried to reach the young lady. Well, she was not that young, maybe in her mid-30s.

Sometimes one can be at the right place at the right time, and this was one of those.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » September 1, 2014, 4:20 am

This video will give you a bit of an idea of life in Laos. She is singing about the Phu Lao/Thai people,

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35 Days in Laos

Post by 430xc » September 1, 2014, 11:58 am

Laan Yaa Mo:

Thank you very very much for this wonderful trip report. Also thanks to others who live in Laos or have experience.

I admire your adventurous spirit. I am interested in exploring Laos in the future, but your bus experiences are not so inviting to me. I have seen a number of youtube videos about motorcycling around Laos and that may be more for me. What do you think about motorcycling through Laos? Is it better to rent a motorcycle in Vientiane or bring my off-road capable motorcycle from Udon?

How safe are the buses in Laos? With the apparent poor roads, are there a lot of accidents and injuries?

Did you set up your itinerary and hotel reservations before your trip, or did you do a lot of extemporaneous short term planning?

Thank you again and best wishes on your next trip.

430xc

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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » September 2, 2014, 5:09 am

Sorry, I have no answer to your questions about motorcycles as I have no experience with them. I met one guy at the Chinese hotel in Oudomxai who was motorcycling to Viang Chan (Vientiane). It was raining fairly heavily and he was worried about the unpaved roads, but he forged ahead anyway.

The Lao government does not publish statistics about bus accidents, but I would imagine it is like most countries in the world in that there are tragic accidents from time to time. I thought the drivers were excellent as they had to be alert all in the time, in particular, in the hills and mountains where they had to make hairpin turns, avoid potholes and try to get back on their side of the road when another vehicle was approaching. I enjoyed the bus travel even though it was slow as I got to meet a lot of people on the bus.

I used Expedia and Agoda to reserve hotels initially. I got great deals as I did this about a month prior to arriving in Laos. Now, however, I would do it differently. There are some places that I wanted to stay longer but owing to the hotel reservation had to move on. Next year I will stay in a place for 5 days or so if I like it so I can get to know the town, people and surroundings better.
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » September 4, 2014, 6:45 am

At one time Vang Vieng was known as party destination #1 in Laos with bars and drugs (ganja, yaba and opium) readily available. Apparently, the locals complained about the loud and out-of-control foreigners who wore little in the way of clothing and often acted in a lewd way according to Lao standards. So, the government shut it down, and Vang Vieng is much tamer than in the past. There are still many activities available, but the focus is on the scenery and tubing, rafting and kayaking, not on getting stoned or drunk out of one's mind as in the past. It is a great place for family fun.

However, a number of Australian males did parade around the streets without shirts and shouted and hollered until they noticed no-one was paying them any attention.

I stayed at Ban Sabai right on the river in a cabins with a balcony and spectacular view. It is right across from a hospital. It is possible to bring Lao ladies to the cabins as they are situated in a dark area far enough away from the main office to notice. Breakfast at Ban Sabai was very good

Western, Lao, Thai and Chinese food is readily available from the many restaurants in town some of which were totally empty. I heard that many of the guesthouses were empty too since the government crackdown in 2012.

There are also a few quality internet cafes available for those who want to keep in touch with family and friends.

Again, heavy rain at times played havoc with hopes of visiting some sites. But, it did not stop me from walking the 3 km. to the market where a wide variety of goods were on offer including 3 stores selling vcds.

I walked to one attraction, Tham Chang, in which one has to pay a small fee to pass through the land of a resort. There is an entrance fee to view the cave: 15,000 kip for foreigners, 10,000 kip for Thais and 3,000 kip for Lao. There is a strenuous climb, up stairs, to the cave entrance. It is a big cave and easy to get lost inside. Of course, I got lost and walked around in circles a few times before finding the exit. There are some very nice rock formations, and a stream that you can jump in for a swim. In addition, there is a second cave mouth where one gets a magnificent view of the surrounding rice fields and hills.

On the way out I met a Lao guide from Viang Chan (Vientiane), and some Sino-Thai tourists. I took some photos of them together, and, in return, they took some of me and the Lao guide. She also had some older Japanese men in her tour group. It had started to rain heavily again so I shared my umbrella with the guide, and we had a good talk together and joked a bit.

The next day I took the VIP bus to the capital, Viang Chan. Most of the passengers on this bus were falangs, but there were some middle-aged young Lao on the bus too.

I am sure most of you know about the 'do not point your feet at people in Thailand' rule. This holds true for Laos too. So the ticket collector and baggage handlers were somewhat shocked to see a French woman point her feet about 2 inches from their faces. She was sitting in the first row and probably felt uncomfortable, thus she decided to stretch her legs over the metal bar directly at the workers. I took a photo of this. In due course, her husband let her know this was a faux pas, and she removed her feet from in front of the Lao men.

When we reached the bus station at Viang Chan some touts herded all of the falangs into a sawngthaew to deposit us at a central spot in town. One loud-mouthed young Canadian (not me)...he might have been from the U.S, started yelling at the driver for charging us 20,000 kip when he said 15,000 kip was enough since it was only a 5-minute ride into the centre. The difference, 5,000 kip, is equal to 20 baht. They the loudmouth started complaining because the driver would not leave until the sawngthaew was full.

As it turned out, the drive in to the centre of town took 20 minutes. Once on the street I did not have a clue where I was or how to get to my hotel. One kind Lao came over and helped me out. He told me that I was on the street of the hotel, and just had to walk 3-minutes to get to my destination. Welcome to the capital! 555+
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Zidane » September 4, 2014, 8:59 am

This has been an excellent thread,Uncle Tilo.....one of the most interesting on Udon Map for quite a while. =D> =D>
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35 Days in Laos

Post by Laan Yaa Mo » September 4, 2014, 10:14 pm

Thanks, it was the most fun and adventure that I have had in years. I almost feel young again.!
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