Arrived to Vientaine, Laos by accident, I flew to Bangkok (BKK) with a friend that needed a visa to enter Thailand and we had to spend the night at the airport to fly the next morning to Vientaine, Laos, get the visa and go back to BKK ! .....
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I decided to stay in Laos and explore it a little before going back to Thailand, so we stayed in Vientaine, took a guesthouse for about $8.00 with A?C and cruised the city for 1.5 days. Next morning we departed by bus to Luang Prabang, norht of the capital. The capital has some interesting sites, and very interesting architecture from their french colonial time, but that's about it. At night there are lots of riverside cafes that pop-up by setting simple tables in the side of the mighty Mekong, trowing a power cable to the power lines and get some free power to light their cafes and they're set ! . people loves to eat duck eggs with the embrio inside and you see them eating that stuff all day, and at night too on those cafes. The best time to be there, at sunset ! . You get a cold, cold Laobeer for about US$0.75. have some cobra liquour, liquour with a litt'l cobra dead inside ! .... good !. Exotic fruits, mangosteen, snakeskin pear, leechs, mangoes of different kinds ! , etc. Since I didn't have too much time, we departed for Luang Prabang by bus. * out of the 9 hours of the bus ride nothing but curves. When we first boarded the driver helper passed by looking at the people and if you were a local, you would get a plastic litt'l bag, if not, no. I thought what were those bags for, and why we didn't get one ?. The whole bus ride everyone burffs into the bags their last food and more ! ... all the way !. We stopped and everybody eat, and when we continued everybody got back to their burffing business; puke !. Luang Prabang was the capital of this part of Indochine for a long time and it's colonial architecture tells it. There are boat rides on the Mekong, you can go to some Hmong villages, a great grotto-temple filled with Buddhas from a couple of centuries. The town is about the only part of Laos that has any kind of infrastructure for tourism, in the rest of the country you're perceived as an invader, or at least that's the way I felt in most places ...
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| Favourite spots: |
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-The night food market in down-town. Great cheap food !!!. -The day market. -The temple on top of the hill right in town. (I'm in my office, working and do not have the names, and I'm not going to a web site and pull them out. so I don't remember names of temples or most places !). -The cafes on the Mekong for diner at night, or any other meal !. -Just strolling the streets at night, or early morning !.
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| What's really great: |
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Mmmmmh ! .... everything ! ........... -Walking, and visiting the waterfalls near by ! ... spectacular ! .......
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| Sights: |
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Tour the Mekong in a slow boat, I heard that the fast boats are very dangerous ! .
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| Accommodations: |
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Can't even remeber the name of my guesthouse, but it's near the riviera of the Mekong, one street up ! ... I guess you have plenty to choose from, most are great ! .
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Published on Monday June 7th, 2004
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Tue, Feb 12 2008 - 11:28 AM
 by krisek
| Jorge, perhaps you could try to take notes next time for the names, etc. :) I know I sometimes forget to do that. Thanks for sharing, I like your report. |
Tue, Jul 20 2004 - 10:26 AM
by yeikloen
| hahahaha.... this trip does reminds me of my trip there and truely miss the peaceful life there....!!! hope to go back there very soon |
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6 votes