[Travel] Part 1 of 6, Laos – The Forgotten Land

It might not ring a bell to a lot of casual holiday makers if we tell them to pay a visit to Laos. As odd as it seems, it was an unforgettable experience (mostly good ones) that both of me and Canny had last May. I can really agree with Wikitravel’s article that Thailand are often associated with the Land of Smiles, while Laos, as a country situated right in the middle of the Asia continent with no direct access to the sea except the mighty Mekong river, it is easily known as the Land of the forgotten.

This will be a 6-part travel-log to two of the most developed city in Laos, namely Vientiane and Luang Prabang.Though at times you might find me exaggerating some of the facts, but you have to really try it out yourself one day. Although we have been informed that the best period to visit this place is during the year end, which is around the month of November to January, we chose May instead. What happened then? It was almost 40 degrees Celsius everyday in our trip! I swear my skins are all boiling/baked. It is really hard to justify the amount of heat we went through from the pictures of this travel-log. It’s something that you need to try at least once, if you curious. But all is good, as what I read from other blog/sites, Laos has a very chilly weather during November to January, which would be a good reason to pay a visit to this country again.

Out from all the trips that we had been through, Laos would definitely be one of the more rural one in our list, so far. At first I would have imagined that there wouldn’t be any paved road and it is all in a muddy watery land (really).

Being prepared is good

  • Currency : The people of Lao deal with USD (dollar), Thai (baht) and Lao Kip (their own currency). The rule of thumb in getting yourself in safe hand it to always have the currency ratio of 40% USD, 40% Thai Baht and 20 Lao Kip. Please note that you only can exchange your money to Lao kip within Laos, and it is only a legal tender in there. So make sure you finish all of your coins or exchange it back to USD/Thai Baht when you are leaving the country.
  • Lodging/Hotels : For starter, you might scratch your head and start to feel really paranoid on finding the “correct” place to stay, if you do not mind to stay at backpackers hostel, try SaySouly (pronounced as Say-Sow-Ly in their local tongue). Ignore the ugly looking website as the place is pretty decent (You can look at the pictures at the bottom of this log)
  • Budget : As a general idea, you can keep in mind that on average, 20USD per day would keep you moving around comfortably in Laos. The prices of in Vientiane varies depending on the place you are having your food. Generally, a bowl of noodle in Vientiane costs around 8000 kip – 13000 kip.
  • Internet / Wifi : It appeared that you will have a really hard time to find an open free wifi even in the town, except you pay for a subscription fee, either on a hourly or daily rate. But you do not need to worry since there is a lot of internet cafes along the main road.
  • Language : You can try practice on basic Thai, if you plan to travel between this two places as the Lao understands Thai :) . Though do not expect them will reply you with a full-proper English answer when you are asking them questions.
  • Power / Charging : Here in Laos, they are using the standard European 2-pin power plug that looks something like this below

So if you are anywhere from Malaysia or Singapore, your electronic device would mostly work without any problem except if it’s using a 3-pin plug.

Since I will never know what might fall upon us, so I had to do a lot of read up on the health condition inside the country and if there is necessary precaution. But there is one article that definitely shocked me when it suggested anyone that got hurt badly in Laos has to look for treatment in Thailand immediately as the health care in Laos is still developing.

Pills, mosquito repelleant (The green cover and blue can), Panadol, wet tissues, and some minor necessary medication in case we got into diarrhea

Though you might feel that it’s actually overkill, wait until you look at the picture below…

Yes, there is at least…not one but 4 types of mosquito-bite precautionary steps taken, but in the end we found out that only the blue-green stick that you apply it onto your skin and the rectangle shaped repellant is the most useful, mainly because we can take it anywhere. And yes, I didn’t use the aerosol can at all.

No matter how small it would be, a torchlight is definitely a necessity

And finally, you have to keep your passport in somewhere that you are able to access it easily while travelling, for example, a mini-A4 file holder.

Flying on the plane

Currently, it seems like AirAsia is the only one that provides the quick access to this country if you are on a budget. Unless you wouldn’t mind to travel by bus from KL to Thailand and to Laos via the Friendship bridge (more on this later).

Flimsy looking boarding pass (paper)

The immigration card (paper actually). Note the ASEAN logo on the left of the flag? It denotes any other countries that participate in the union? permits the resident from within the union to visit the country without a Visa. For example, a Malaysian would not need to apply for a visa at the Laos embassy to enter the country, unlike China.

The flight took approximately around 4 hours from the KLIA Low Cost Carrier Terminal. And as you can see, it is not really surprising to see there is this amount of barren land that is yet to be developed.

The airport!

Some local airline? But from what I read, though the reputation of the local airlines have been improved over the years, but it is always to expect the worst from them *gasp*

Welcome to Lao People Democratic Republic

As the sign says (will cover more on why it is mentioned as Lao not Laos)

Basic conversational phrase in Laos.

And so it seems a lot of tourist from Europe? And it is pretty rare to see any Asian. (especially at this moment of time, May – September)

The immigration counter. It didn’t take long for us to get past the immigration and the staff’s are pretty friendly, as what I read from the internet.

See the bags on the floor?

It might not be a big deal, but it is probably an interesting culture for me to see that these workers take the bags from the conveyor and place it on the floor.

What’s next?

The next best thing to do after you have arrive at the airport is to exchange at least an amount of 50USD or more in their local currency, Lao kip. Apparently, (though I might be wrong) I noticed that the best rate are being offered by this counter in airport. The rate usually fluctuates around 1 USD to 8300 kip.

It’s really amusing to see this money-exchange counter has 2 window. Yes, there’s actually a queue from each side.

I have never been to Indonesia, so having this much amount of Zerrrooooooos really excites me.

And yes, I have never seen an United States Dollar notes before.

Getting to town

So how do you go to the Vientiane town from the airport? You can :

  • Take a cab/taxi (costs around 6USD, and do not worry, there will be an official counter that sells the ticket)
  • Walk (it’s possible, but slightly far for casual walk)

The friendly driver

In case you need a transport in Vientiane, look for Mr. Vila.

You’ll know you are near the airport when you see this weird golf-shaped ball

Outside of the airport main road junction.

What really amazed me at first sight is there is like unlimited amount of temples spotted along the highway. Then, our friendly cab driver told us it’s a norm to see these temples are built everywhere in Laos.

The journey inside the taxi didn’t take long, most probably around 10 minutes to reach our destination.

At the guesthouse

Click on the map above to get the exact location in Google Maps.


And this is the outside of the guesthouse, known as Saysouly.

It looks really open, and not even the entire place is gated.

The reception counter.

It seems most of the backpackers come to Laos as part of their checkpoint before moving to other places such as Vietnam or Thailand. And there is plenty of option to choose from.

It seems like this guesthouse is built upon some 2-storey shop. There are rooms on the first and second floor, however I would strongly recommending you to get the lower ground rooms. Why? It is because if you are travelling under these condition of weather where it’s almost burning everyday (40 celcius), you hardly can even sleep or nap at night when the roof of the guesthouse starts to release the heat. I’m not really sure what I’m trying to say but it is really a traumatic experience to sleep under these heat at night until 5 am where you can finally rest peacefully. I stress, again, pick the lower ground/first floor room.

This is how the room looks like.

The room key.

House rules. Oh yes, there’s curfew, need to get back to your dorm by 11 PM.

Some really rundown place outside the guesthouse.

Moving around in Vientiane

There are several ways to keep you mobile around the city center:

  • You can walk (yes really), if you are able to stand the heat :)
  • You can rent a bicycle for around 15,000 kip per day
  • You can rent a motorcycle for around 80,000 kip per day (you need to leave your passport to the shop owner as deposit, in case you split their bike into two piece). With 10,000 kip or approximately 1 USD, you can fill up the motorcycle for a day-trip.

I’m surprised to see this calendar hanging around the bike shop. There’s some Chinese character on it. Does that mean they are indirect Chinese descendants?

Night market and dinner along the Mekong River

Not too far away from the guesthouse, you will realize that there is a lot of other options of lodging to choose from, and it is pretty near to this night markets that is located just right beside the Mekong River. And yes, you can see Thailand from here.

Nothing much except there is a lot of handcrafts are being sold here almost every night.

We wondered where would be the first best place to dine in Laos, perhaps we did set our expectation too high.

We stopped by this local stall that operates nearby the night market.

And ordered several dishes for 2 person. And the biggest mistake?

Is to order 2 bucket of Khao-Niao (Glutinous rice), because we thought it would be like rice, that each of us will need to have one plate each.

Note the amount of (glutinous) rice. It’s so much until it bulged out from the container.

The bad news? We didn’t even manage to finish the first bucket.

Tom yam. But it tastes really different from their neighbor. Why? As first we would assume Tom-yam has to be super-spicy, but this turned out to be sweeter than the ordinary tom-yam.

Minced chicken with Basil. An interesting meal again, which tastes different from the usual Thai dishes we tasted.

After a (really) full meal, we decided to pay our bills, but ended up with more than a confusion to all the notes we have on our hand. We definitely did try to converse in English but as a rule of thumb, most of the local here would understand basic English and even some understands Thai. So instead of calculating on how many zeros are on the written receipt, we asked (the guy on top with the shooting range target t-shirt) if it’s the x-amount in Thai, and he pointed to us a money note that looks like 2000, but instead it’s a 20,000 note. I felt really ripped off afterward and walked away, after paying them the “correct” amount.

Well, it seems however the people in a country is labelled as friendly, there might still be some precaution you need to take note of, or probably equip yourself with some research at hand. Not trying to be paranoid, but prevention is always better than cure.

That is all for the first day in Laos, a short one, due to the delayed flight by Air Asia. The weather didn’t really hit me until we touchdown on the airport, and that is when I start to sweat bullets all the time. Thank you for reading up to now. Will be finishing up the other 6 part of this travel-log on this interesting travel to Laos.

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