千里之行 始于足下

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Rainy:)

Distance covered today: 20km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 2,632km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 2,472km

Fact of the day: Driving is on the left side on the Friendship Bridge because the project was sponsored by Japan.

While I was checking out, Song (the Mandarin-speaking receptionist) was outside the guesthouse waiting for his neighbors. Apparently his neighbor accidentally knocked over his motorcycle while reversing a vehicle (one of the many Toyota Hilux-es in Laos) and the neighbor wanted to take some photos of the damage (for payment of damages). Song asked me where I was heading and told me that I could go with him (he was heading the same way) if I didn’t mind waiting a bit.

Song and I began to chat. He is from southern Laos and is currently studying while helping out at his relative’s guesthouse. His girlfriend is studying in Kunming now and he hopes to join her in studying there. As his mother is originally from Guangdong, he is able to speak Cantonese and Mandarin in addition to Lao, Thai and Vietnamese. An effectively bilingual me felt so inadequate talking to these multilingual people.

He would take me on his motorcycle to the main road where we would get a bus to the Friendship Bridge. He even paid for my bus fare but I insisted that he shouldn’t. He showed me around the duty free shops and wanted to introduce his friend to me. His friend, a Chinese businesswoman, wasn’t around then and I bidded farewell to him amid the light rain that started falling.

The immigration was painless; I didn’t need to pay any departure tax but the locals and some of the foreigners are required to. Then I changed all my remaining kip to baht at the currency exchange booth after the immigration counters and caught the shuttle cross the bridge for 4,000 LAK.

Passing Thailand’s immigration was equally painless but I lost my way walking to the train station. It was about 15 minutes’ walk but I missed the turn and was even chased by a pair of dogs. After much trial and tribulations, I managed to get to Nong Khai (KM 2632) train station.

I checked with the station officer about prices of the train tickets and went to the ATM outside the station. After finding out that I would be charged a service fee of 150 THB, I decided that it would make more sense to go downtown and exchange money instead.

The tuktuk ride cost me 40 THB; I didn’t have any small change and I had to exchange some with a shop-owner. The kind lady told me that a more reasonable price would be 30 THB and I would get a fair price on my way back. After changing some money and lunch, I made my way back to the train station and got my train tickets.

State Railways of Thailand has a central reservation system which means that one can buy tickets for any trains within the next 60 days from any stations. I bought the tickets which would bring me from the Lao border at Nong Khai all the way to the Malaysian border at Padang Besar.

[Details of the day's train]
SRT Train 70
Dep: Nong Khai 6.20pm
Arr: Bangkok 6:25am
Distance traveled: 624km
Time taken: 12h05m
Cost: 538 THB (2nd Class fan sleeper lower berth)

View Larger Map

The map shows the approximate route.

It was only early afternoon when I finished all the necessary stuff and I had hours to kill. I could have gone to Sala Kaew Koo, sister park to Buddha Park in Vientiane but the rain killed the mood. Remember the book that I bought in Hanoi? I lost it and I don’t know where I did.

Somehow the time didn’t pass as slow as I had imagined and it was time to board the train.

My berth was on the front end of the compartment and it was kinda irritating hearing the doors slamming at times. If the door wasn’t closed properly, I could have a whiff of the wonderful fragrance emitting from the toilets.:(

Shortly after leaving the station, the train attendant started making the beds. There was something hard protruding from one of the cushions and the padding was too thin for me not to feel it. Somehow I managed to get the attendant to give me another cushion; the problem wasn’t solved completely though. I would lie in early, in anticipation of an early arrival to Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Bloody hot!!

Distance covered today: 0km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 2,612km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 2,492km

Fact of the day: During the 19th century when Laos was under the French rule, the boat journey from Saigon to Vientiane on the Mekong took a longer time than the ship journey between Saigon and Metropolitan France.

I spent the morning walking on Vientiane’s (KM 2612) main street and then onwards to Patuxai.

Some of the sights along the way:

Just before reaching Patuxai on Avenue Lane Xang, I witnessed a motorcade which required traffic policemen to stop the traffic for them. Must be some Lao big shots.

Patuxai in its full glory:

Then I plotted my way to Xieng Khuan or Buddha Park. First I got to Talat Sao bus station where I would take bus no 14 to the park (5,000 LAK). The other passengers didn’t seem to understand me but somehow I got onto the correct bus.

The bus would pass by Friendship Bridge, Laos’ main border crossing with Thailand.

Finally I reached Buddha Park after more than 30 minutes of bus ride. The entrance fee was 8,000 LAK.

To say that the place was filled with bizarre sculptures would be an understatement. There were hundreds of them. People who are familiar with Buddhist or Hindu mythology could probably recognize some of the characters.

I took plenty more pictures but the whole place felt really weird to me. Being a really hot day, I got an ice-cream while waiting for the bus back to city center.

Back at Talat Sao station, I went to check the bus departures’ to Nong Khai.

After that I grabbed a tuktuk to Phat That Luang, Laos’ national symbol, for 10,000 LAK.

It was really a hot day and I found a cafe to while away the afternoon. I could tap into free WiFi in that cafe which was a bonus. I also read Bangkok Post from few days ago.

Some more pictures along the way:

I spent my last night reorganizing my thoughts about the country. Laos is a small country relative to its bigger neighbors; Vietnam to the east, China to the north and Thailand to the South and West. Myanmar and Cambodia are also its neighbors but their influence are quite negligible compared to the other three. With no offense to the Lao people, I just feel that they are never going to have much say in international and regional affairs. Its neighbors are likely to remain influential in Laos’ development due to stronger economic/political links.

A lot of investments are pouring into Laos and improvements can be observed. For example rivers used to be the main highways but construction of new roads (mainly to facilitate trade between China and Thailand) has reduced the traveling time and improved the comfort level. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder whether most of the economic benefits are being distributed fairly. Some people benefit more than the others definitely; I could see their kids having expensive cakes and sandwiches at the cafe.

Furthermore the foreign investors are also likely to send back the money that they make in Laos to their home countries. From I read, the Chinese government loaned money to African states such as Angola for infrastructure projects on the condition that the contracts would be given to Chinese companies (which bring their Chinese workers). Probably the same arrangement exists between China and Laos as well. Obviously the money aren’t trickling down the Lao society under such arrangement and the Lao state would need to repay the debts eventually..

Meanwhile tourism brings in positive changes which directly benefit local people. ATMs which were unheard of a few years back are more common and WiFi is available in the main touristy places. While the tourism industry in Laos wasn’t as developed as Thailand’s, perhaps it would be more sustainable in the long run. Most of the Lao people I met were friendly and helpful. Even in touristy Luang Prabang, I didn’t meet any locals who tried to take advantage of the tourists. To me, this form of tourism is more sustainable in the long run.

Hopefully Laos will continue to remain unspoiled from the relentless stream of fascinated tourists to the country.

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Fine

Distance covered today: 389km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 2,612km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 2,492km

Fact of the day: Vientiane is the French transliteration of “Wiang Chan” which means City of Sandalwood.

Back on the road after one rest day in Luang Prabang (KM 2223). The guy at my guesthouse offered me a ride to the Southern bus station on his motorcycle which ran out of gas before setting off. No problem, he promised. He said that he would take his friend’s motorcycle first to buy some gas at the gas station.

No gas stations were open at 7.00am in the morning and I got on his friend’s motorcycle instead. The winds were rather cold as he pillion-ed me to the bus station. He tried to get me to pay more since he had to borrow his friend’s motorcycle; I reminded him that it wasn’t my mistake and gave him the agreed 10,000 LAK.

I queued up at the counter and exchanged my receipt for the bus ticket. I had bought the bus ticket the previous day at a travel agency in town. There were two types of buses available; I got the slightly more expensive ticket (VIP) at 125,000 LAK. The cheaper bus was an hour slower and cost around 10,000 LAK less.

There were two departures for the VIP buses to Vientiane; one at 8am and the next one at 9am. I took the earlier one and the whole journey would take around 8 hours.

Each passenger was given a snack and a bottled water soon after the bus moved out of the terminal. Not the Turkish bus’ kind of service but I still appreciated the freebies. The passengers were mainly tourists (>70%) and I didn’t expect the drama experienced on the road between Sapa and Luang Prabang.

We stopped at Kasi village for lunch at around 1pm. Lunch was included in the ticket; it wasn’t really fantastic but I ain’t complaining. It was rice with some vegetables. I noticed that most of the Caucasians tourists gave lunch a miss.

Opposite where we ate was a Chinese restaurant. There was a car with Chinese car-plate parked at the house behind our rest-stop.

With so many Chinese flooding in to Laos, I couldn’t help but feel that China is colonizing Laos economically.

The journey was uneventful; some tourists alighted at Vang Vieng (KM 2456), an important stop on the pancake trail. Apparently most tourists came here to do tubing and watch Friends at the cafes every night. Not really my type of place.

Somewhere between Vang Vieng and Vientiane, I reached point KM 2552, the exact halfway mark of my overland journey. No special thoughts though. I knew that traveling on the second half would be much easier compared to the first.

The bus arrived at Vientiane’s (KM 2612) Northern bus station at 6pm. My bag was in the cargo compartment and I had to wait for a long time before mine was pulled out. I was dying to get to the toilet by then and by the time I came out from the washroom, the songthaew for the city center had left. I had to ask around but the other drivers wanted 50,000 LAK for chartering the entire vehicle. In the end, I waited and got onto the shared one for 10,000 LAK.

Vientiane definitely felt busier than Luang Prabang. The songthaew dropped me in the area where most of the guesthouses were located. As I had no prior booking I went around the area looking for a bed/room.

To my surprise, ALL the rooms in ALL budget guesthouses were taken. Most of them had put up the ‘FULL’ sign at their gates. I was seriously considering the possibility of spending S$50 a night for accommodation before I was approached by a tuk tuk driver.

He asked me where I was heading and I told him that I wanted to find a room. He could find me one in the area but the ride there would be 20,000 LAK. I bargained down to 10,000 LAK which he accepted. A five minute ride later brought me to Chindamay Guesthouse. I was shown a room; 65,000 LAK per night with attached bathroom.

I decided to take it for the night before deciding whether to move the next day. It turned out that I got the last room for the night. The guy at the reception asked me whether I am Chinese when he was taking down particulars in my passport. I said yeah and he started to speak Mandarin with me!

Once again his name escaped me but I could recall his Chinese surname is Song. He is half-Chinese with his mother’s ancestors being from Guangdong. He was glad to find someone to practice Mandarin with him and gave me some helpful suggestions on where to have dinner.

Dinner was noodles at a eating place round the corner from the guesthouse. After filling my stomach, I went to an internet cafe as my iPod couldn’t detect any unsecured WiFi signal. I would found out that my time in Bangkok would coincide with my friends’ holiday there. It was great news as I won’t be alone and I could crash their accommodation there.

I was charged 1,500 LAK (25 Singapore cents) for almost two hours of usage; it was clearly a mistake but no complaints for me. A trip to the supermarket to grab some food and snacks ensued before yet another early night. The following day would be my last full day in Laos. Stay tuned.

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Sunny

Distance covered today: 0km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 2,223km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 2,881km

Fact of the day: There are more people who speak the Lao language in Thailand than in Laos.

The switch in my room didn’t cooperate with me and refused to switch off the light bulb. I had to resort to removing the key from the holder to break the circuit. It meant that there would be no electricity to charge my iPod or to power the fan. Fortunately the weather was cool enough at night to fall asleep without need for fan.

I had entertained the thought of waking up for the alms-giving ceremony in the morning but the warm bed coupled with the previous days’ traveling conspired for me to sleep in. I had late start to the day and began with a crepe (10,000 LAK). Yes! I was finally on the pancake trail!

Photos from the morning:

The road would lead me to Wat Xieng Thong, one of the most important temples in the country.

Later in the day I went to the Royal Palace.

I just lazed around for the remainder of the day. Luang Prabang had this effect on its visitors. I had seen many tourists who just hanged around the cafe all day.

Throughout the day, the electricity supply to my guesthouse (the whole of this part of the town in fact) was cut. Luckily the supply resumed by evening time to ensure that I did not need to take cold showers.

Evenings were reserved for the famous night market of course.

There is an alley off the main street where food vendors sell their meals to the hungry travelers. I was tempted to try the grilled fish but decided that it was too big for me. The picture below was a stall offering vegetarian buffet for 10,000 LAK.

You could tell that the wares on sale were mainly handicrafts.

Most of the vendors were ladies and on many occasions they seemed more interested to socialize with their neighbors than to do business.

While at the night market, there was a blackout. A collective gasp (from the tourists) were heard.

The vendors were quick to bring out their candles.

The electricity supply was only restored to one end of the bazaar and the rest had to do business in semi-darkness. Although some tourists were still willing to shop, it was hard to look at the wares under the poor light conditions. Many vendors started packing up way before the usual closing time of 9.30pm. Luckily my place weren’t affected by the blackout.

Rested early as I would be on my way again the next day.

So long Luang Prabang. I got a feeling that I might return sooner than I expect

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Excellent

Distance covered today: 194km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 2,223km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 2,881km

Fact of the day: Luang Prabang was the royal capital of Laos until the Communist takeover in 1975.

Like the first two days of the new year, the third day would be spent on traveling. Comparatively, the traveling time for the day would be a relatively short at six hours.

I saw the three Frenchmen who had been with me from Sapa; we were going separate ways as they were heading north towards Luang Namtha. However, the French exchange couple would be on the same bus as me (50,000 LAK, ~6hours).

To show the extent of Chinese influence in Udomxai, Chinese characters are visible everywhere there.

Off we went on the minibus.

I would describe the journey as uneventful. The roads were in pretty good conditions and I couldn’t recall any roadblocks along the way until….

The minibus wobbled to a stop outside a village. Luang Prabang would be roughly 35km away.

All the passengers disembarked and the driver was trying to fix the problem.

The male half of the French couple asked me about my opinion of the situation. I thought it was obvious that the axle had broke and it was unlikely that the driver could fix the problem on the spot. One of the locals had already hitched a ride with a group of motorcyclists who had rode past.

Not wasting anymore time, the French lad waved down the next van which passed us. The van driver agreed to take the five foreign tourists on board. Besides me and the French couple, there were a Swiss lady and yet another Frenchman. The Swiss lady remarked that of all the transportation that she had taken in Northern Laos, the minibus that we took was the newest-looking. However she didn’t expect that it would be the only one which let her down.

It didn’t take us long to unload our stuff from the minibus’s roof and hop on to our new ride. We also had to share our space with other co-passengers.

Our benefactor dropped us at the Northern Bus Terminal as his vehicle couldn’t enter the UNESCO Heritage Site area (if I didn’t guess wrongly what he meant). He didn’t ask for any payment and was genuinely glad to help us. Laos was a welcome change from Vietnam as the Lao people seem gentler and friendlier.

Reaching Luang Prabang (KM 2223) represented a milestone. I was already a week on the road and half way through my travel in terms of time. The toughest region to travel in (between Sapa & Luang Prabang) was behind me. A week ago I was still in chilly Guangzhou. In a week’s time I would be back in places familiar to me. Passing through places in my journey so far made me wonder about how much I would miss if I took a 3.5 hour back instead.

Finding places to stay in Luang Prabang wasn’t difficult; finding one to match the cost and quality of the one that I stayed in Udomxai was next to impossible though. It was the high season and there were enough tourists to match the prices. After looking at several, I settled for a room with a double bed and no attached toilet for 70,000 LAK.

Luang Prabang is an alluring little town with plenty of charm. Moving at a languid pace like the Mekong River which it sits on, the town exudes the class and sophistication which only royal capitals are capable of carrying off.

Regardless of Lao-styled temples adorned with ornate carvings or French-styled villas designed with a touch of Lao influence, the buildings were all gorgeous under the setting sun.

As in Sapa, the tourists most probably outnumbered the locals in January but there was hardly any hard-selling seen or heard. I took a walk along the main boulevard before strolling along the banks of Mekong.

I would end this post with Luang Prabang’s beautiful sunset over Mekong.

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Fine

Distance covered today: 215km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 2,029km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,075km

Fact of the day: The Tay Trang/Sop Hun border between Vietnam and Laos (the one I used in this entry) was only opened to foreign travelers since May 2007.

The usual suspects all turned up at the bus station before the scheduled time of 5.30 am. Two more French turned up and brought the total to six. I would later find out that they were university students on exchange in Shanghai.

BP and I were browsing the stalls beside the bus stations before boarding the bus. They were open early for business and I decided to grab some biscuits as I was left with quite a bit of VND. This proved to be one of the best decisions for the trip.

My bus for the trip:

According to a friend who could read Korean (no prize guessing who), one of its former incarnation was a bus belonging to Hansei University.

The bus got moving before 6am but stopped off somewhere to pick up more passengers and cargo. Another French backpacker caught the bus which brought the total number of French to seven. Although the border was rumored to be 35km away, the bad conditions of both the roads and the bus made the journey seemed forever. Along the way I was treated to one of the most surreal sights in the world; felt as if we were above the clouds.

It was already bright (around 8am) when the bus arrived at the immigration building on the Vietnamese side (KM 1849).

The Vietnamese officials at the border were friendly and I got stamped out in no time. We would wait a while before everyone had their documents checked.

The Lao immigration building was several kilometers away. Laos would be the eight Southeast Asian countries that I visited. Only Brunei, Philippines and Timor Leste left!

The Thai guys and I didn’t need a visa so we handed in our passports after writing the arrival forms. One of the immigration officials asked us whether we had any VND which we wanted to get rid of. I didn’t think that the exchange rate was fantastic but I got rid all my VND for some Lao Kip (LAK).

I was charged 7,000 LAK for the privilege of entering Laos on a Saturday; part of it was “stamping fee” and the other part was “extra time charge”. I forgot the breakdown but there was a proper receipt. It seemed that these fees were ‘official’ so I wasn’t too unhappy. The Europeans had it worse as they had to pay extra time charge for their Lao visa-on-arrival (on top of stamping fee plus late charge).

BP and I chatted a bit more while waiting for the rest of the passengers to be legally checked into Laos. He thought that all the extra fees seemed to be a ripoff; my (weak) explanation was that corruption in other countries (Cambodia for instance) in the region was much worse. BP didn’t like Vietnam so much as well; the Vietnamese are generally less friendlier than Thais and hardly anyone speak any English outside Sapa.

The bus had to stop again due to road works after barely leaving the Lao immigration building.

Luckily we only needed to wait about 15 minutes.

We came across quite a number of bald hills on the windy road. It was kinda worrying as the lack of trees increases the likelihood of landslides.

I drifted in and out of sleep for the remaining journey to Muang Khua. Although the distance between the Muang Khua and the border was only 75km, the bus’s wretched conditions meant that we rarely went beyond 20 km/h.

The bus finally reached Muang Khua (KM 1924) at almost 2pm. We would need to cross the Nam Ou river for our onward journey.

One had to pay 2,000 LAK to cross the river in the long boat.

Across the bank, we met another traveler coming from the other direction. He had arrived earlier in the day from Udomxai and pointed us the way to the bus station. BP and some of the travelers needed some local money but the bank in Muang Khua was closed on a Saturday afternoon. Arriving at the station (sawngthaew from ferry crossing point 4,000 LAK per person), I bought myself a ticket to Udomxai. I forgot the time of departure but I was quite certain that it was between 3.30pm and 4.00pm.

It turned out that not all the travelers would get on the same minivan; BP and the Thai guys would have to wait for the next departure. As I was among the last to board the bus, I got a makeshift seat on the aisle along with a few others. The minivan was definitely in a better condition compared to the cross-border bus and so were the roads. We were in Udomxai in less than the three hours expected.

The minivan would pass through Udomxai town before the bus station and I was surprised to see that many of the shops there had Chinese signs. Apparently a large number of the residents there are Chinese. Once at the bus station, I checked out the timings for next day’s buses to Luang Prabang. After noting down the time of the earliest bus, I saw two guesthouses across the street. The guy outside the one without Chinese signboard beckoned me over and asked me whether I was looking for accommodation.

He showed me the better room first (is it an essential sales tactic?) which came with attached bathroom, two beds and satellite TV. As in Cambodia, the satellite TV in Laos came from Thailand’s True Corporation. I asked that if there was anything cheaper and I was shown a room with a large bed, no TV or attached shower. The choice wasn’t too difficult as I didn’t mind watching some movies to while out the night. It turned out that HBO was showing The Dark Knight and I ended up watching quite a bit of it before convincing myself the need to find some dinner.

I went to town and decided to eat some barbecue. The girl at the store couldn’t reply to my English and I tried my luck with Mandarin. She replied in very thickly accented Mandarin (almost incomprehensible to me) about the prices and I asked for rice to go with my food. It was a welcoming meal as my last proper one was the dinner the previous night before at DBP.

Like DBP where evenings are as exciting as watching grass grow, I retreated back to my comfortable room after dinner. HBO was showing Charlie Wilson’s War and No Country for Old Men after the Dark Knight.

I caught the former but was too tired for the latter. I also made a mental note to read up about Charlie Wilson when I got the chance.