Traveling through Southeast Asia. Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia are all on the list of places to visit. There will be sights to be seen, treks to hike, beaches to relax on, and food to be tried.
We took the train from Vientiane to Bangkok, well actually a hard seat car from Thanaleng station outside of Vientiane to Nongkai, Thailand and then a sleeper train to Bangkok. The whole ordeal cost 560,000 kip ($68.18) per person and 12 hours. It is a farther distance than taking a bus, but it gets in quicker because the boarder formalities are easier and only costs a few dollars more. We didn't know how expensive food would be on the train, so we brought snacks, but had to buy beers at an inflated train-price. Interestingly enough, time flies when you drink several 640ml beers and play 12 games of UNO.
Renee got the bottom bunk, which was our seats folded out and it was slightly roomier than my top bunk. My bunk folded out of the wall like a Murphy bed and was fine for what it was, but the light came through the curtain and made an eye shade a life saver. Generally everyone kept to themselves and no one was loud after the sun went down.
The bathroom was a toilet that gave an excellent view of the tracks below and several wash basins were provided for simple freshening up.
All around this was a pretty good introduction to trains in southeast Asia.
Renee poses for a stolen picture of the US Embassy; big no-no.
Random sight in the city
Eh, boring city, but kind of nice in a boring kind of way. We spent several days at Loas Silk Hotel for 160,000 kip ($20) a night. The place is the nicest we have stayed at since we started the trip. Air conditioning, wifi, plush bed, etc. We liked this place and it was close to the river. The first night we ate along the river at a stand that served fresh caught river fish. Very good as it was grilled in front of us and for only a few bucks with beers. On another night we tried the Loas hot pot from a street vender, of course it was delicious. We added the ingredients to the broth as it cooked on the clay pot grill in front of us.
In terms of sight seeing, you are limited to buildings and oddities. Nothing too interesting, but something to do as you pass though. The Patuxai, is in the center of town and has a nice park and Buddha Park shows an eclectic's desire to show off.
The place was pretty small, but everything you would want was there. Our room was 90,000kip ($11) a night for a a double room that had a balcony facing the river. A great treat is sitting in one of the many restaurants that serve cheap Laos food and show popular TV shows. It was easy to pay $3 for fresh juice and fried rice while watching seasons of Family Guy. A random pillow kitten that was hiding makes it even harder to leave.
A lesson learned and I knew it would happen. The rental was only 40,000 kip ($4.87) for a day, but I didn't use it. Within 15 feet for twisting the handle, I had put the bike into a bodegas glass display. I had my doubts when the renter couldn't tell me how to operate it. Luckily no one got hurt and the total damage to the shop and bike was only $75 dollars. The only rub was paying the shop owner $100 extra because he had to close his shop early, "not call the police." Our hotel owner tried to smooth things over and acted as out translator, and he even said that the hush money was excessive. Lesson learned and just another case where money solves everything.
Cheap and easy fun with a splash of buckets. Tubing in Vang Vien is a popular past time and one that is well toured. 55,000 kip ($6.7) per tube with a 60,000 deposit that includes a drive upriver. There is one official rental place in town and they have a real racket. You can buy your own tube from a store and take a tuktuk up river to save a few bucks, but the official place is fine for a onetime why-not trip. The river is only 3km long and all the bars are kept in the first click. So, most people just hang out around bars 1-3 and then float down at the end of the day. The bars have cheap buckets, 20,000 kip ($2.44), and attractions: slides, zip lines, dancing, whatever. You only need about 2 hours to float straight down the river with getting their and walking from the end to get your deposit back. Protip: the river is fairly dirty and seeing people with bright red eyes is common as the bacteria causes conjunctivitis. Luckily, drops are available from any pharmacy for a few bucks without a prescription; just show them your symptom.
Mini bus to Vang Vien from Luang Prabang. About $14 and six hours later. The ride was ok, but cramped as it was just a large minivan. We stopped a few times for the driver to eat, but the views were nice as we wound through the mountains.
There are pretty much three think you can do when visiting Luang Prabang: drink, see the city, and get out of the city. After six nights there, we did pretty much everything.
Loa Loa whiskey from the source
As with most places in southeast Asia, drinks are cheap and abundant. That doesn't mean, however, that there are a ton of places to drink. LP was way to relaxed to have a good bar scene and this was the only place that the midnight curfew seemed to be enforced; which made watching World Cup matches difficult. Loas does have a few unique brews and LP is a great place to experience them. For beer, Beer Laos was pretty much standard and not too bad when cold. What is even cheaper is lao loa whiskey that can be mixed with anything. 5,000 kip ($0.62) was standard for a shot or simple cocktail of Loa Loa. The secret to LL is that it is more like a glorified moonshine made in the jungle. This keeps cost down and varieties plentiful. We were lucky enough to be taken to a vendor on our elephant tour. We got to try several "flavors" of LL however, the basic is the best. Besides using different types of grains for flavors, other ingredients would be added to mix up the palate or add herbal remedies. Snakes and lizards aside, the "jungle" option included twigs and grass that tasted terrible and it took several basic shots and a cola to dull the aftertaste.
If trying the local brew doesn't fancy you, then a jaunt around the city can be interesting. The whole town isn't so large that you cannot walk it, but a loop around the city does take a bit of up and down through the hills. Renting a bike is a pleasant option as the streets are generally free of traffic. We rented beach cruisers for 20,000kip ($2.44) for 12 hours though mountain bikes ran a bit cheaper. Around town there are more than half a dozen vats to visit, though after you have seen one, you feel like you have seen them all and paying an admission fee started to add up. The best vats were also close to the main street atop hills, so transportations isn't necessary to visit them.
Climbing to the top of Vat Phousi was worth it for the view and sights alone. There are also three different vats on the mountain along with Buddhist shrines and Buddha's footprints; all were included for one price.
Getting out of the city allowed us to ride elephants, visits waterfalls, and see the cave of 1000 Buddhas. Of the two waterfalls in the area, only one was flowing and that was included in a day tour that included elephants and a cave for 250,000kip ($30.44). I'd say that swimming with the elephants and the beautiful waterfall pools were the best part and worth it alone. The drives were under an hour to get outside of the city and the scenery made up for any lull in action.
FYI, our tour guide used to train elephants and we went to his family's elephant business. He said that they have four elephants, but only two work at a time while the others are off eating in the forest. The tours are easier on the animals as they would otherwise be dragging logs or falling trees all day. The family makes more money training elephants for tours than for manual labor, so the pachyderms only work several hours a day each rather than all day. Plus they get to go play in the water every now and then.
