Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang ( Day 10 20-Feb-2010 )

It's another day in Laos, Jewel of the Mekong. Today we are heading further north to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO Heritage city. Distance: 200+ KM / Approximately 6 hours journey by MPV on a twisty, long & winding road throughout some very mountainous landscape. Nevertheless the scenery along the journey is breath taking with some of the unimaginable view of mother nature! 

We have our first stop after a grueling 3.30 hours journey eventually become our late lunch break and ciggie break. We stayed for about 30 minutes before continue our journey and arrived at Luang Prabang town approximately 3pm and hike a tuk-tuk to our guesthouse ( Rattana Guesthouse operated by 2 Loatian sister) some 50 meters from the Mekong river. We take some rest and a quick study on the Luang Prabang town map. We did a small tour around the town later in the evening and highlight of the day would be the Luang Prabang night market ( start every evening till midnight). 

Remarks:-  Luang Prabang is one of the most visited city in Laos and price of goods, foods, lodging etc can be slightly on the higher side. Nevertheless to add in another UNESCO heritage city in my journal is a remarkable achievement in traveling life!

Behind the Scene - Transindochina 2010 trip??

Imagine what backpackers do when they are on the move from point A to B? Sleeping, Reading, Dreaming, Eating and so on! These are what we usually do when we are on the move or when we are on our leisure time! Here it goes:- 

Reading

Sleeping

Cam-whoring

Day Dreaming

Writing Travel journal

Tips of the day:- Try to catch as much sleep as you can whenever you are free. try to update your journal daily so you don't miss anything important later on! Take as many photos as you wish with your camera as it's digital era...you do not burn your pocket developing those photos anymore! Day Dreaming anytime in the day as you wish...it's a holiday...free your mind and enjoy your life to the fullest! Most important of all drink more water and have enough rest!

How far is Vientiane from others city in Laos??

When you are in a country like Laos, you better be ready physically & mentally as their transportation system is still very much unreliable. In most case problem always occurred when you travel in the countryside of Laos. For instance when you would like to travel from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang....the total distance by bus is approximatively 414 kilometers.....but highway is non exist in Laos! The journey will probably set you back to about 14-16 hours by bus with condition the bus do not break down!


Therefore it would be wise to plan your journey in advance, take into consideration of the poor road condition, bus condition & traffic. Sometimes your bus will stuck behind a truck for hours.....or even worse your bus might only be able to travel at less than 40 kilometers in most of the journey! Reason......most of the road is winding, hilly and narrow! I calculate the time needed against distance with my own formula

100 km distance = 2 to 2.5 hours
let's say if you are traveling from Vientiane to Luang Prabang by normal express bus that would be: 400 km/100km x 2 to 2.5 = approximately  8 to 10 hours


Distance chart for Laos

Tips: Always ask & search around for the best option and mode of transportation available! In my case instead of taking bus all the way from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai and then Chiang Mai....we opted to fly to Chiang Mai from Luang Prabang. It cost us 4500 bath  for one way flight through Lao Airlines. In return we skip the 14-16 hours plus bus ride and probably more by the end of the day! Nevertheless if you travel by bus, you would probably need less than 1000 bath all in till u reach Chiang Mai from Luang Prabang! We don't have the luxury of time so we need to burn some money on this final league of our successful TransIndochina 2010 trip!

Vientiane - Vang Vieng ( Day 9 19-Feb-2010)

It's day 9 of our 12 days of fast & furious TransIndohina trip 2010. Today we are heading north to the paradise town of Vang Vieng. This town gained it's popularity in recent years when backpackers & tourist started to flop in to this sleepy & quiet town. Most people come to Vang Vieng for outdoor activities such as kayaking, caving, tubing, hill trekking and so on! However this town gained it's notoriety for being a heaven for drug abuse! Bear in mind any drugs related crime in Laos carried a mandatory death sentence is you are found guilty! 

It took us roughly 4 hours to reach Vang Vieng from Vientiane by this so called VIP Hyundai made bus!! There is a slight delay in our journey......due to the fact that our bus run down a Laotian woman when we passed by a small village! Eventually the bus turn into an ambulance and speeding all the way to hospital in Vang Vieng.....hopefully the woman is all right and healthy by now!

We have pre booked our hotel at Thavounsok but we are one day late when we are forced to overnight at Udon Thani, Thailand. so our room is not available anymore. We manage to find a room at a resort next door....."Villa Nam Song"! The reason why we wanted to stay here is because of the magnificent view of the red cliff and the Nam Song river. However that's a price to pay for everything.....the room for 3 cost us a whopping USD70 per night inclusive of breakfast! I told myself after 8 days of tiring journey...it's time to reward ourself with some luxury & comfort. 

Villa Nam Song triple room

Why we really paid USD70 per night for this room? The view form this resort is excellent & for me its majestic! look how's the view from the resort's restaurant & garden:-

The red cliff of Vang Vieng

The Nam Song River early morning

Nam Song river in the evening

Remarks:- These are some of my favorite's photo snapped in Vang Vieng. If time permitted in the future, I would love to be back here again....laid back, relaxing & peace of mind. We only manage to stay overnight here but if you have the luxury of time I would say a 3 days 2 nights itinerary will be great! We are late for the tubing by the time we are here....even said so.....looking at the Nam Song river itself....really completed our day!

Vientiane, Laos (Day 8 18-Feb-2010)

What have we did in Vientiane in 24 hours? For me of course I snapped hundreds of photos.....hopefully these photos explain what we did in 24 hours:-

Pha That Luang, Symbol of Laos

Avenue Lane Xang

Smoking Is Prohibited in many tourist area

Laotian tuk-tuk

Laotian children in school

Laos Style Grilled Pork Ribs

Wai Si Saket Architecture Drawing

The infamous Patuxai

Remarks:- Laos has huge French flavor and influences. Laos has been colonized by French in the past and one of the few remaining Communist country in the world. The Laos government impose a very strict rules & regulations on this mass media and almost all the news reported is pro government. Laos remain very much unchanged since the Indochina war in the 70's.....some how albeit too slow for some people from the western & modern countries! 

Udon Thani, Thailand - Vientiane, Laos ( Day 8 18-Feb-2010)

It's a big day today as we are heading to Laos for the first time in our life! Morning call at 6.30am and we proceed to the bus terminal opposite our hotel at 7am to purchase our bus ticket to Vientiane. The bus ticket cost us 100bath each and departing at 8.30am. We had our very first Issan breakfast at a small stall inside the bus station. I was puzzled as the breakfast is something I've never try before in my life.....half boiled egg with pork meat & sausage, Toast bread with banana & sausage & black coffee. Nevertheless we enjoyed our breakfast so much. The Thai-Lao bus arrived on time and soon after we are on our way to Laos....approximately 2 hours from Udon Thani passing by Nongkai which is famous for it's Naga fire ball!

Our breakfast in Udon Thani

The Thai-Lao International Bus runs regularly between Vientiane & Udon Thani

We arrived at the border around 10.30 am and clear the immigration without much hassle and soon after we reached the capital city of Laos, Vientiane. After the bus stop at the bus terminal we hiked a tuk-tuk which is the preferred local transportation to our pre booked hotel (Aroon Residence). We arrived at the hotel at about noon time and it was a small yet cozy hotel with relatively good service. We check in and have some rest in our hotel before proceed to visit some local attractions as we will be in Vientiane for less than 24 hours! Therefore every minutes count and precious to us.....waste no time and we rock Vientiane!Tomorrow we will be heading to the backpacker's heaven town of Vang Vieng.

Remarks:- Its relatively save and easy to walk around the town area. If you don't mind walking around, most of the local attractions can be visited by foot. if you are lazy, hired any of the tuk-tuk available and the driver will act as your personal driver cum tour guide. If I am not mistaken we paid roughly 500 bath to hire the tuk-tuk from noon till evening. 

Siem Reap,Cambodia to Udon Thai, Thailand ( Day 7 17-Feb-2010)

This was probably the longest league of our journey in this entire TransIndochina 2010. We wake up early in the morning and get ourself ready for a long and tiring day. We had our usual breakfast at our hotel restaurant at 7 am sharp and to our amaze our pre-arranged car was already waiting for us. We will move north west to Poipet( Gambling heaven for rich Thai Chinese & Cambodian) in a 2 hours car journey before we could cross over to the town of Aryan, Thailand. From here we will take a bus to Korat for a pit stop before taking another bus from Korat to Udon Thani by pass Khon Kaen with a mind of crossing into Laos on the same day! We did our lunch break at 12pm in the sleepy town of Aryan.....we had some simple fried rice and coffee. We boarded our bus to Korat at 1pm sharp.

Border Crossing in between Cambodia & Thailand

Bus Terminal in Aranyaphet, Thailand

Our bus from Aranyaphet to Korat at the Korat Main Bus Terminal

Nothing much to say about the bus journey as we all try to catch as much sleep as possible realizing that it would be a long day. True enough we arrived at Korat Main bus terminal at about 4.30 pm and staright away we bought another bus ticket to Udon Thani as we understand that we would not be able to cross the border to Laos today........so we choose to make a non schedule pit stop at Udon Thani. Our bus schedule to Udon Thani is 5.30pm and we had our toilet and ciggie break at a small cafe located inside the bus terminal. We departed from Korat as evening fall and our journey to Udon Thani is a far and boring one with the bus making quite a number of stops in between to pick up and drop off some passenger.Our dinner was a quarter of grilled chicken(40 bath) shared among 3 of us.We reached Udon Thani about 10.30pm and check in to a motel opposite the Udon Thani bus terminal 1. We will rest for a few hours before we take the early morning bus to Vientiane, Laos. 

Udon Thani Bus Terminal 1

Our hotel in Udon Thani

Street in Udon Thani at night

We did a quick tour of Udon Thani at night after our dinner(Braised Pork leg Rice@30bath per plate) at a street stall nearby our motel. Udon Thani is quite sleepy at night and the weather is chilling.....we don't even need to open our fan at our room.We called it a day at about 12.30 am as we need to board the earliest bus tomorrow at 8 am to the capital city of Laos, Vientiane. End of day 7 the longest day in the entire TransIndochina 2010 journey. 

Remarks:- Udon Thani is the last city in Northeastern of Thailand before you will reached the Thai/lLaos border. My personal preference is you stay here for 1 or 2 days to discover the city but I don't have the luxury of time during my trip. Drop by here if you are doing the same journey as me.....Udon Thani will surprise you with its charm!

Capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh ( Day 4 14-Feb-2010)

Day 4.....Morning of valentine's day(14-2-2010)....definitely a great day as we are visiting a local orphanage with my Cambodian friend Ms.Daly and her family members. The orphanage is located outskirt of the city and we took about 30 minutes to reach this place. A brief history of this place.......well started by missionaries from Hungary & French some 30 years back. The place used to be very run down with very little attention & support from Cambodian government but ever since donations started to pour in....the situation gradually improve!

My friend's brother is so kind to send us personally to the orphanage he once used to stay at when he was young. Poverty is a serious problem in Cambodia.......strange enough..... rumors recently that Cambodia government want to built the tallest building in the world....Oh Gosh...must be the biggest joke in 2010!!

The orphans lining up at the waiting hall to welcome us.....some of them is very young ans cute. I felt it when I see them. Trying to hold my tears most of the time and at the same time trying to talk to them even I can't speak Khmer language at all.

One of the bedroom belongs to the orphan at this center. Years back the children here sleep on the floor only.

The children started to wear our specially design T-shirt and eating sweets that we have brought it here together. We also distribute some instant noodle and potato chips to them. They smile like no tomorrow when they receiving their goods. It's good to see them enjoying their sweets and chips.

One of the orphan in this place. She looks cute....isn't she???? I just hope that she is alright!

Some of them is very young here and I just pray & hope that one day these children will eventually found their own world....a world which they preferred! good luck and all the best!

Kelvin In orange colour shirt is distributing the sweets and chips to the children with their eyes focused right to the goodies!

Remarks:- It is a remarkable experience to visit this place and interact with the children. At the end of the day We realized that  nothing much we can do.....but at least we do something.........to cheer up and brighten up their day! We decided to pass some money to my friend and she will come here and buy some daily necessities to them. We leave with a very heavy heart knowing that we are indeed very lucky to live in a country where our luxury back home is only a dream to most of them in this part of the world called Cambodia!!


Special Note: I would like to take this opportunity to thanks all the donors who help us make this visit to orphanage happened and on behalf of the children, once again thank you so much for your kind contribution.

Saigon, Vietnam - Phnom Penh, Cambodia ( Day 3 13-Feb-2010)

Once again we started our day early as we are travelling overland to Cambodia. Everyone wake up early and as usual we had our delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel. We wait at our hotel lobby for our driver to send us to the VIP bus that will bring us all the way to the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Our driver was late but once we see our bus....we are delighted as it was really a huge bus.....and...there was less than 10 person on board. Ticket price is USD 7.50 per person and for that price we have no complain at all! Not going much into the details of this journey.....but the 7 hours plus journey to Phnom Penh is a great but tiring one! Here are some of the photo's taken through the bus journey!

Remarks:- The journey from Saigon, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia will bring you to some of the remote & poor town in both countries. The border crossing in Vietnam is called Moc Bai whereas the crossing in Cambodia is called Bavet. Immediately after you step into Cambodia you will witness dozens of Casino and hotels lining up at both left & right hand side of the road. Normally after crossing into Cambodia, you will stop for a lunch at a local restaurant but the foods here sucks & very expensive. Be ready to fork out USD 3.50 for a plain wantan mee or USD 4 for a plate of fried rice. Nevertheless it is an eye opener experience of a life time and this bus journey is the longest yet I"ve tried in my life! The longest bus ride ever in my life.........Cambodia overland to Laos!!