千里之行 始于足下

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.