| Wednesday, 12-Sep-2007 09:19 |
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LAOS VISIT
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I forced myself to do a new entry today after months of trying and after visiting so many countries after my last entry last year. Well, I have just visited Laos PDR last week and took a boat along the Mekong river to Pak Lay about 300 km upstream from Vientiane. The trip upstreams took us 4 hour 40 minutes and returned in 3 hour 25 minutes. So I was on the boat for about 8 hours...great view and got sunburned too!
It was rainy days in Lao PDR and the water level in Mekong was high, there were rapids though...the trip definitely not for the soft-hearted. We have lunch, fish of the Mekong river, we had fried fish and fish soup and some vegetables...nice and cost us Laos KIP 206,000, about RM 60.00. The boat rental cost us THB 8,000 or RM 830 for round trip.
In Vientiane we stayed at the Lao Plaza Hotel, nice and clean for USD 68 per night including breakfast. There were many Hotels in Vientiane, Novotel, Samsenthai,LV City Riverine, Park View, Doungsilipanya,Phoxay,Don Chan Palace, Dansavanh and Mekong etc. Meals not a problem for Muslim like me, there were three Indian Muslim restaurants near the hotel, Rashimi, Nizam and Fatima etc. Also Masjid Jame near the fountain..about 100 meter from the hotel. There are many local restaurants at the Mekong river bank..also Italian and French restaurants. There were also two golf courses....one near the dam and casino resort at Tulakhom District and one near the Friendship Bridge in Vientiane. Hope to play next time...
I took the Thai Airways from KLIA at 1.20 pm and the evening flight 7.20 pm by Thai Airways to Vientiane. There was a transit time of about 5 hour at the new Bangkok Suvarnabume airport. I reached Vientiane at 8.30 pm local time.  If you are departing from KLIA, you can also go to Vientiane through Phnom Penh or HoChiMinh city...
First day (6 September) in Vientiane, went to the riverside restaurants near Mekong river and checked out the nearby attractions. Nothing much, a lot of young foreigners in the city just lazying around in their backpacks. .. 
Second day (7 September) we went to Ban Phonesawat, Tulakhom District up North of Vientiane to check out the Dansavanh Golf Course and the Casino Resort near the Dam. Both were beautiful sights...and along the way we visited a furniture factory that manufactured wood carvings and furniture from Rosewood. By the way, the Resort was called Dansavanh Nam Ngum Resort overlooking the Nam Ngum lake. Well, what's you gonna do ? A lot, namely 24 hour casino, lake tour, golf, video game arcade, disco and karaoke bar, shooting range, nature trekking and water theme park...
Third day (8 September) we hired a boat to go to Pak Lay, a small town about 300 km by boat upstream. The journey was a bit scary as the boat was travelling at 80-90 km per hour. Most of the way Mekong river was the international boundary between Lao PDR and Thailand, so it would be better to carry your passport along ( just in case you have engine trouble and the boat drifted into Thailand...) and we stopped twice to go to Hong Nam...(wash room!). Yeah..learn a bit of Lao and Thai language...[i]where is the toilet? in Lao...hong nam ju sai? In Thai..hong nam ti nai? Anyway at about 2.30 pm we started the journey back to Vientiane...before it got too dark
Fourth Day (9 September) we took a flight to Pakse about 685 km from Vientiane near the Cambodia border using Lao Airlines, cost USD 95 each for foreigner. The flight was at 6 am so we left the hotel as 4.45 am. We stayed at the Champasak Palace Hotel, only USD 30 per room including breakfast. We have rooms overlooking the river...very nice. Since we left early...everybody went to sleep in their rooms until lunch time. We eat at the floating restaurant, fish again...and quite nice. For Dinner we went to a restaurant at the town center for a full session of reflexology..or foot massage. ( 2 hour for RM 24). Four persons eating fish, vegetable sour, telor dadar and fried shrimps..with white rice, only RM 47.
Fifth day (10 September) we visited some woodworking factories operated by Lao Government and private sector. Then we went out to have lunch at a place called Ban Moaung some 30 km from Pakse...along the route to Cambodia, very famous place..plenty of restaurants, we have raw fish and salad..steamed fish etc. and makan buah teratai...
Sixth day (11 September) we crossed the border at Van Tao (Thailand) and spent the night at Ubon Rachathaniin Thailand and stayed at the Nevada Grand Hotel for RM 100 a night. The town looked like auto city where showrooms after showrooms were seen along the road. We took the Thai Airways to Bangkok and then connected to another flight to KLIA. Take note that from Don Mueang airport to Suvarnabhume airport in Bangkok will cost you THB 600 for metered taxi and tolls. If you want to save some money...pay exactly to meter, taxi drivers always said no small change...penyamun!
The Bangkok new airport was really huge...and impressive. We boarded the aircraft Boeing 777 and took 1 hour 38 minutes to KLIA. Reached airport about 11.20 pm and waited for luggage for 20 minutes, finally I reached home about 1.00 am.   
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