Lost in Laos

On the first week of June, I went on a holiday trip to Laos with Lydia, Audrey, their mom and Kayla. Everybody had been looking forward to the trip and it was most obvious with Audrey and her mom.

I didn't know what to expect. I know nothing about Laos and I was too busy with work to do any research about places to visit in Laos. When I asked, Audrey also mentioned that she had no idea where we were going to visit. There were plans to go to Luang Prabang but it was a 10 hour van ride north from our hotel located in Vientiane so there were doubts within the group about going there. I had suggested going to the Plain of Jars but it was also a 10 hour van ride but south. So we decided to check the rates of the travel in Laos before finalising any of our decisions.

We put the night in KLIA2 like when we went to Cambodia two years ago and in the morning, we caught our flight to Laos. Upon arrival in the Laos International Airport, we changed our US Dollars into their local currency Lao Kip, because in Malaysia our forex companies don't exchange for Kip. Their currency is mostly in the thousands with 500kip being the smallest denominator and 100,000kip being the largest. They don't have coins so that makes things somewhat easy to carry money around. Most of the time during our trip, using Lao Kip has been a confusing episode. I was able to quickly understand the exchange rate to our Ringgit quickly however.

At the airport, we took a van to our hotel. The driver spoke to Lydia's mom and as expected, he was trying to strike a deal for us to hire him as our driver to take us around to visit tourist locations. Lydia's mom didn't agree to the rates he was offering so she told him that we will think about it after he dropped us off. In the car, the driver spoke to me in Lao but at the time I wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or talking to me but it seemed more like the latter.

We checked into the hotel and we went to our rooms. Lydia and Kayla got a room to themselves, and Audrey, aunty and I took the other room that had a double bed and a single bed. We rested for a bit before heading out. Lydia and Audrey stood out a lot because of their fair skin and also because they're pretty to begin with. I soon came to understand that I however, appear as a local to the locals there. A lot of the locals speak to me in Lao and after I respond with English or a shrug with a confusing look, only they realise that I am not Laotian.

Our first itinerary is Buddha Park. Lydia's mom said that we can't trust the tuk tuk drivers in Laos because unlike in Thailand or Cambodia, the drivers here charge at a high price and they don't like haggling. If you haggle, they'll drop you off at a random location, and leave you there to find your own way to your intended destination. So all of us started to walk. Kayla's research pointed us to go look for the local bus station to take the public bus. Our hotel didn't have a map to provide us with so we had to just walk without any certain directions. On the way, we stopped at the Talat Sao Shopping Mall to have lunch and try to get directions to the bus station but not before stopping to have a look at the Hor Kham or in English, the Presidential Palace (or Office or Building). The mall however, is not what I'd expect. It's called a mall but it's only got two floors and only the ground floor is relevant, on top of that, there are only two eateries. After a small disagreement, we decided to eat at the restaurant instead of the road side stalls (because flies are swarming everywhere on the food and stuff). Not a single staff in the restaurant speaks English so ordering our food was a little problem, luckily the menu had English translations for the items so we just pointed to the name. However, the waitress still got Lydia's order wrong and served her the wrong drink. We decided not to ask to change because they probably won't understand anyway.

After we paid for lunch, we went to the cafe in the mall (the only other eatery) and asked for directions to the bus station. We saw some Westerners at the cafe earlier so we figured that maybe someone at the cafe could speak English and thank goodness we were right. After getting directions, we made our way there but we weren't sure to take the bus. After escaping some persistent van and tuk tuk drivers, we somehow figured out which bus to take and we hopped on. The bus ride took about an hour before we reached right outside Buddha Park. The bus conductor was kind to hold the bus and inform us that we have arrived at our destination.

We paid our entry fair and walked into the amazing park. Statues and idols of various Buddhas and figures scatter around the park, each one telling a different tale. One of them is something like a monument of some kind. We walked into it and climbed to the top. I was scared out of my wits because we were so high up with minimal safety support. We made it back to the ground and we walked around the park to check out each of the figures.

We spent some time there and after that we took the bus back to the city centre. However we were still not familiar with the place and this time a bus conductor was no where to be seen. Lydia saw a building she thought familiar and so we all got off at this one stop. After that we walked in the direction of Mekong River so that we can get an idea of where we were and we walked towards the night market. It was raining and it looked like it will rain again so a lot of the stalls were not open. We bought some food and we made found our way back to our hotel. Before going back, we stopped at a restaurant along the same row as our hotel and had dinner. I tried the local beer, Beerlao. It is similar to the Cambodian local beer, Angkor Beer. After dinner, we checked the rates for going to Luang Prabang at our hotel. The rate was pretty damn high, as we couldn't come to a decision, we decided to do more research at other tour service providers the next day. After that we went back to our rooms and we called it a night.

The next morning, we woke up and got dressed before going down to have breakfast. Our itinerary on this day is to see the Patuxai Monument and Pha That Luang. Like the day before, we made our journey by foot. We sure did cover a great distance walking to Pha That Luang from our hotel. First we made our way back to the Hor Kham because directly opposite the place was Patuxai standing majestically in the distance. Even though the monument looked near, the straight road ahead wasn't that near. The straight road ahead was lined with governmental and ministry buildings on both sides of the road. Just outside the monument was also a school. I noted that there are a lot of people wearing uniforms here. We went to the top of Patuxai and had a look at the view over almost the whole of Vientiane. After taking in some sights, we went back down and headed for Pha That Luang but it had started to drizzle, so we took shelter in a random restaurant and decided to have lunch then. We had these noodles that is similar to Vietnamese pho.

After lunch, we continued our walk towards Pha That Luang. When we got to the temple grounds, we were not exactly sure if we were in the right place because there was barely anyone else around and obviously, no English signs, but we were in the right place after all. There were three different temples within Pha That Luang apparently, with the golden one as the main attraction. We walked around and took photos before going in to see the golden one. There wasn't much to see as it was just a square shaped area with the stupa in the middle. We can't climb up to see the inside as it was sacred so we just hanged around the outside and took photos. We did a group jump shot before leaving. As we were leaving, more tourists arrived so it was a slight relief to know that we weren't the only tourists around.

As we made our way out of the place, rain clouds can be seen nearby and it was raining just a few blocks away. We quickly tried to make our way back but the storm cloud arrived and we had to take shelter in one of the buildings' shaded parking lot. The rain was heavy but there were no lightning or thunder. After a short while, the rain stopped and we continued our walk. After a really long walk back to the Hor Kham, we changed directions and tried to see the other temples around but there wasn't much to see because one wasn't that much to see and also it was closing time so tourists can't visit the temples already. We decided to walk towards the night market again along Mekong River.

After the rain completely cleared up, the beautiful sky remained. We sat at this wide open area and watched the sky and waited for the night market to open. While watching the river, it dawned on us that the huts we see across the river was in fact Thailand. To me, that was really amazing, to be able to see another country on the other side. As the sun set, this group of locals had set up this sound system and a started working out. It appears that it's some workout class of some sort as a huge crowd of people in exercise attire joined and started working out in almost perfect synchronisation. Lydia's mom noted that there was something to see down by the river and she wanted to go down to see it, but the rest of us didn't really want to. At first I thought maybe it was some kind of immigration stop because we also saw a soldier with a firearm walking down there but later on, we saw a Westerner walked there, talked to a guy by a signboard and then continued in. So Lydia's mom insisted that we go down and see and so we kind of reluctantly went down. Turns out it was also a tourist attraction but it wasn't well received and because of so, it wasn't maintained. Regardless, we went in to see anyway. Some locals were also going in so it shouldn't be a problem. There was a gallery of sand sculptures (we saw the huge elephant one earlier on before the sun set but I thought it was an attraction that wasn't ready yet) where apparently some kind of sand sculpture festival was held. There were a few different sculptures from various South East Asian countries participated such as Cambodia, Vietnam and even Malaysia. As the place wasn't maintained, weeds and weather has damaged the sculptures but as the sun set and the sky turned a mix of purple and orange, Lydia and I took the opportunity to take nice photos of the sky. We made our way closer to Mekong River until we were at the bank. The evening sight was breathtaking. Some local boys were playing football by the side and some couples were taking photos. We stayed until the sun went down before heading back to the night market.

We walked around the night market checking out the stuff. Most of the things on sale were apparel, somewhat to my disappointment. Before we went further into our windowless shopping, we went over to the side of the main road where the food stalls were to have dinner. We got some kebabs in the form of burgers which were by far the best burger kebabs we've had in Laos (the only burgers and/or kebabs we had in Laos). At this point I realised that for some reason I didn't have an appetite in Laos, maybe it's because I can't get used to their food or because their food tastes so bland or overly sweet, depending on what food it is. After our fill, we went back into the night market and walked around to shop. After a long time walking with nothing we went back to the hotel. Before heading back in, we stopped at a nearby tour service to check the price to go to Luang Prabang to compare with all the other rates we've seen so far during the day. After a really long discussion, the vote to go to Luang Prabang lost and we started to consider going to Vang Vieng instead as it's a 4 hour ride, which was much closer. However we needed to do research on what to do there and Lydia was especially concerned about the weather conditions there as most of the weather reports reported it as heavy rain. We could potentially spend a lot of money to go to this location and only enjoy the sights of rain in a shelter. We then went back to the hotel and called it a night. Lydia's mom was certainly upset with our decision as she had the intention to see the sights despite the expenses but the two sisters were adamant about spending too much money and I can't help but to agree because the price for the van ride to Luang Prabang or Vang Vieng was pretty high and much was to be considered for us who are either still studying or doesn't have a good enough salary.

The third morning, we went to book a van to take us to our airport for our last day before going to look for breakfast. At the same time, we started making our decision to go to Vang Vieng. Google results couldn't show us any real interesting things to see or do there so we decided to just tour around the place and check out what we've missed. Lydia also wanted to do massage and spa hunting for the next day so all of us can relax. We saw a map on the wall of the place where we booked our van and there was a mall shown in the map, so we decided to go check it out. When we found the place, it was very disappointingly small so we didn't go in. Instead, we stopped to have brunch at a food stall by the road. The food there was surprisingly good! I had pork porridge while the others had noodles. These were by far the best local food (that isn't burger kebabs) that we've had in Laos. Lydia also went to a juice stall on the opposite of the road to buy a manga smoothie that was good as well. I went to get a kiwi shake from there. After that, we continued walking. We passed by a really nice looking hotel and we went in to have a look because Audrey wanted Kayla to help tie her hair up. While Lydia's mom pretended to check out the rooms and the rates, the girls got to work. Lydia and I played along and some how we managed to get a map of Vientiane from the hotel. When the hotel clerk wanted to show us a room, the electricity suddenly went out. Turns out the whole street had lost power. We then went out to continue our journey.

After checking out a massage and spa place that appeared kinda shady, Audrey and Kayla stopped to eat some roti prata. Lydia and Kayla told me they heard what sounded like men enjoying themselves (*wink wink) in the spa place. While the girls ate their snack, Lydia and I decided to head towards That Dam also known as the Black Stupa as there are some spa locations along the way, as shown in the map we obtained. Checking out spa by spa (actually massage), Lydia's decision was getting closer and closer to a final. After looking at That Dam, we headed south east past the Hor Kham towards a "Royal Park" that was shown in Google Maps but not in the map we have. Along the way, we came across a golden shrine called Citypillar. Lydia and Kayla noticed that there was another spa location after it but the uneven road was flooded. As a woman on a motorcycle was about to go in, Lydia stopped her and ask about the spa. The woman pointed it out and agreed joyously to take Lydia and Kayla across the flooded road in towards the spa and massage house. Lydia's mom, Audrey and I then waited for the girls to return. After some time, Lydia and Kayla returned and we continued towards the Royal Park. We stopped at a store to have some fried noodles that's similar to our Maggie goreng. Audrey commented that it's the best fried instant noodles she's had.

After food, we continued towards the Royal Park but soon enough, things started to look desperate, it appears that the park does not exist. Audrey and her mom are feeling really tired from all the walking and tension started to grow because we had just walked a long distance away to see nothing. After being a lost for a bit, we then managed to make our way to the pavement by the Mekong River again and headed up towards the night market. We spent the night again looking at clothes. This time Audrey bought the pants she was looking for and after having dinner at a different store near out hotel, we headed back to call the night. On the way, we found another massage place and Lydia made her final decision to come to this one because it's cheap and at walking distance.

The next morning, bad news ensued. Lydia's mom woke up with vertigo and she was really unwell. I went to call Lydia over and we tended to her care. So the rest of the day, all five of us stayed in the room and watched TV and played with our phones in silence as to not disturb Lydia's mom. It was only until evening that Lydia's mom started to feel better. Lydia and Kayla then went to buy some food for her. Audrey offered to stay back and take care of her mom while the remaining three of us go for our massage. *cough*

After the massage, we went back to check on Audrey and her mom. She was feeling much better now and insisted that she can take care of herself alone in the room. So Audrey followed us down to go buy dinner at a food stall at the end of the block. After buying the stuff, we went back to our room and had dinner together there while watching a movie on the idiot box. *cough*

The next morning we all woke up early and got ready to go home. Lydia's mom was feeling a lot better already but Lydia told me she was worried that her vertigo would come again during the flight. So I took it to me to make sure Lydia's mom is feeling well too. We got to the pickup point for our van and we headed to the airport. Turns out we were an hour too early, so we had to wait. After a discussion about the leftover money we have left and also about changing Lao Kip to Thai Baht and the forex in Thailand, we decided to change our remaining Lao Kip back to US Dollars at that moment because we were not sure if we could change Kip to Baht in Phuket. The money changers, along with a bunch of other stores were not open so early yet so we had to change our money with the transport service counter. We had a safe flight back to KL and I bought some chocolates at the duty free in KLIA2. I later had lunch with the Chin family after Lydia's dad picked us up.

I give Laos a four out of ten rating, would not recommend because the tourism there isn't encouraging and the food there is mostly bland and meh. The sights are good but at that's as good as it goes. If anything, I'd recommend Siem Reap over Laos, that's a city over a country, that should say a lot. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my trip to Laos. *cough*