My little place

The journey begins...

Before we are heading to the detail on my inside trip to Viantiane, Laos PDR. Let me refresh my memory on how it happened first...
It begins with my friends and I wanted to travel somewhere near Thailand and it should be affordable. We came up with yeah...our neighbor as Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia and Singapore. Laos was where we chose and we agreed as it's the good place to start our trip since people there can speak and understand Thai. As the matter of fact that we never been there before so we had to plan the trip carefully; got a book and review trips' forum on pantip website to make sure that we would be in Viantiane. Why Viantiane? because my friends could get only the border pass and they are allowed to stay in Viantiane only. That's the begining of our journey...

Ready, Set, no no don't go yet LOL

Tips for you who would like to get just a border pass (NOT a boarding pass lol) to our neighbor. You have to work on your document at the city hall (in this case) and then keep all document to hand in at the border again. It takes, I think not more than 1-2 hours to get the border pass but you have to make sure that you got your photos and money ready lol...well, let's go then.

Getting on a bus...

We caught a bus from Khon Kean bus station where is closed to Khon Kean Wittayayon School. The price was 185 thb per person, yes 185 not 180 as it said on the ticket booth...meh. The bus timetable is 08.15 am and 15.15 pm, only 2 time here but if you don't want to bother on tight schedule like this, you could catch a bus at Udon Thani. I saw there are more trips to choose. Oh, and don't forget to eat breakfast since the bus would stop only once in the middle of nowhere...I'm joking the bus stopped at the gas station and there was a minimart but yeah, I was starving before we reached there lol...

It took us around 5 - 6 hours to reach to the Thai border. For the border pass holders, you should make 3 copies, one for Thai border, one for Laos border and one for yourself. For passport holders, don't forget to ask for and fill in an immigration form both from Thai border and Laos'...because I forgot haha I had to get in line twice :P

Ok, first stop...Nong Khai border, Thailand. No pictures lol then next stop was Viantiane border...yeah pictures...Kaboom!

I could read but I'm not sure about the last word. Direct translation "Laos PDR, be healthy!"

Smiley friends in this trip.

We went to exchange money; for 2000 thb, we got around 504,000 kip but this was at the border...so we got ripped off woo hoo, never mind since we forgot to exchange in Thailand. Deal with it!

Don't worry, we have to pay and just for the entrance fee.

Surprisingly, I found this Aesthetic clinic...yeah beauty issue is coming to Laos.

Before talking about hotel and stuff, transportation is one thing that tourists have to face.
After we reached the bus station, we had to have get a tuk tuk to the hotel since we didn't know how to get there...yeah 150 thb for three...deal with it!

And welcome to our hotel, Mali Namphu. It's located near the 'Namphu' or fountain; the toursit attraction but now it's under construction to be a hi-class center like siam center in Thailand...

Free computers, internet and WiFi

Where we will have breakfast

Here was our room, 4th floor !!!

Triple beds...it costed us 350,000 kip a night with amenities as water and towels. Of course, there were a/c, hot water, TV haha don't worry, we were fine...

Yeah, that's me!

After taking a little break at the hotel, we decided to wander around to see if the rumor is true; do not need to spend time more than a day visiting Viantiane.

Ok, let's go!

Day 1

Since once Laos was colonized by France we saw French language used in every official signs as road, government offices. It's nice to explore and refresh my French language...well, now I can only read haha.

This is a supermarket where I found a cute boy trying to hide his mom. He hid near me and I helped his mom by pointing that his son was hiding. I should have take his picture :(

I will talk about food later, this girl, we met her at the restaurant for our dinner. At first, she talked to his dad that she wanted to eat on her own. Then, we asked the dad for taking her photo. The dad was very nice, he told her to make cutie acts for us to take photos...and yes...as you can see....so cute.

This is called Thad Dum or Black Chedi...sorry, I would love to tell you the history of this Chedi but hehe I have to do some research.

Just don't bother lol

It was a nice surprise since I saw the delivery guy on his scooter. Then, we found out that there are pizza and ice cream shop here and they were the same shops in Thailand and the same service no.! I saw a local ice cream shop too and it belongs to WALL :D

We would like to go there too but it closed...

You know what, we saw these kinda cars in Viantiane not many but yeah more than I see in Khon Kean lol which means people here have nice income :D

This boy, he's lovely French boy...

After we walked (around), we decided to take a break at the Anuwong's park where is the public park for everyone. We could enjoy talking, riding, and shopping at night too.

We got this from the supermarket where I've mentioned above...

it's soda blackcurrent flavored and it's yuck!

This is His majesty Anuwong who governed Viantiane.

Food on the first day

We didn't know what to have so we wandered around 2-3 alleys where there were tons of foreigner since we assumed that there would be places to eat which was true.

Well, guess what we chose...Fujisan was where we went to haha don't blame us since we weren't sure that the remen shop was ok or not...so going where we are familiar with is better, right? :P

Talking about price, it's the same as in Thailand...so we were ok and full hehe

Before we went for dinner, we found this drink station where was interesting. You may find that they were just tea recipes but if you could get a closer look, you would see recipe no.13-15 were yeah...strange for me because I never known that whiskey and beer could blend with tea. I immediately ordered no.13 with 50% sweet and strong whiskey :P

Note: you could order how much you would like them to add syrup as 30% 50% and 70%

Our dinner was at the local reataurant called '3 sisters'. There were plenty of local food such as papaya salad, spring rolls, noodles, etc. Suggested menus are spring rolls and Laos papaya salad hehe they were rock!

Then, we went to the park again to see if there something to see more and then we went back to the hotel because it's humid and hot in the day time...we really tired and need shower and yep watch Olympic game esp. boxing :D

Will come back to you again on ep.2 the second day in Viantiane.