Laos trip in November 2022- report

[vinapu]

This visit to Laos was fourth part of my trip to SE Asia which started with very short stay in Bangkok reported here:

 https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38515-shortest-trip-ever-but-still-blood-pressure-rising-report/ 

Followed by 10 days in Cambodia reported here:

 https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38619-guys-and-ruins-ruins-and-boys-trip-to-cambodia-in-oct-2022 

and then 8 days in Thailand reported here :

 

Part 1 -Luang Prabang

 

It was my second visit in the country , last time there in 2013 they did not have a centimeter of rail. Now thanks to LaoChina railway they have most modern trains in all ASEAN I guess.

 Taking a ride  on this train from Luang Prabang to Vientiane was my goal nr 1, still railway man at heart after working for railways many,   many moons ago. I reported that ride  in almost real time and  link with report is here  to avoid repeating more of the  same ( my part starts on Nov 8 ) :

https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38209-a-ride-on-the-laos-china-railway/

 

I spent 4 days in Luang Prabang and then 2 in Vientiane. It was tourist tip not boy hunting one but it will be a boy, why not ?

 

Flight from Bangkok was smooth and so was immigration. I had e-visa already. In the airport I exchanged money , for 50 USD at 17 500 kip per dollar I received 875 000. Now I know how rich have it ! As most of that money was in 100 000 notes I had concern that it may be difficult to get a change but unfortunately or fortunately it was not a case. 100 000 is about 6 $ so hardly princely sum even in cheap country like Laos. While in Cambodia  USD is practically main currency and lots of prices , specially on tourist trail are quoted in dollars it’s not a case in Laos. In my week there I don’t think I was quoted dollar price more than 3 times , even for expensive goods. To finish money matters  exchange rates in airport are very similar to ones in the city ( 16400 to 18200 )so changing money there makes sense.

some view from airport

Getting to the city was well organized , they sell tickets for vans, I don’t exactly remember was it 50000 or as much as 80000 and  I was, along with 5 other travelers taken to our hotels. I was last in line , not that it matters as Luang is not a big city. My hotel was one of villas along Nam Khan river which is joining Mekong 300 meters downstream. Interesting and bit unusual thing is  that waters of both rives have different color, Mekong’s being muddy and yellow.

. Breakfast was included but it was in different hotel so every morning I had nice 6 minutes 23 seconds stroll there with voucher furnished by reception in hand. In the first morning receptionist actually walked me there to make sure I find the place. (Easy , on main street , breakfast was excellent, eaten under watchful eye of Buddha statue in wat across the  street) .

 Luang Prabang is small , very walkable city and practically in every corner is some temple, more or less impressive.  Then there’s Mekong  and Kuang Si waterfall as well as Pak Ou thousand Buddhas cave so it’s easy to fill week or more there. In the evening on main drag there’s Night Market with souvenirs and food section -only place in Luang Prabang which is very busy . Oh, no, there’s one more. Phou Si mountain in middle of the city with temple atop  becomes very busy at sunset , impressive from there indeed.

 

 

For waterfall I took afternoon tour on the first day which turned not such a good idea (afternoon , not tour ) as by time we arrived it started cooling down and bathing underneath the falls  was not as pleasant as it would be in heat of the day. Heat it too big a word by the way as mid Nov weather was very pleasant in Luang and in the room I did not turn neither fan nor A/C even for  a minute during whole stay. But my advice for waterfall would be morning tour.

On way back we visited Hmong village and were invited to see traditional house  for small donation. Bit of tourist trap but still interesting

In  hotel I checked Grindr and there was question from very good looking guy if I want massage. Massage may be not but to meet that yummy guy certainly yes . In such small city it did not take long before he arrived waving at me standing on empty verandah . We had good time for  princely sum of 500 000 but something was missing, can’t say what, spark perhaps. I made internal note to re-hire him only if he will be interested and contacts me again but it did not happen so it was my only contact with naked male flesh this trip in Laos. But certainly there were guys available on Grindr, just not my types and obviously not interested in KFC man as I did not made not got further inquiries. Which was good as well considering that I still had few days in Thailand upon return. They say best Chinese food is in San Francisco and best pizza in Stockholm and it looks best Lao guys are in Thailand.

Part 2 to follow tomorrow

 

 

[vinapu]

report from this trip continues here :

https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38752-laos-trip-in-november-2022-report/#comment-347383

 

[vinapu]

disregard note above , it should be posted in another thread 

[fedssocr]

I love LP. Kuang Si is one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have been to. I like how small the town is. But there's so much history packed in there.

One of my favorite charitable causes is Big Brother Mouse which publishes children's books in Lao and some tribal languages to get kids interesting in reading. They also run their own school called Big Sister Mouse. Great organization. http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/

[vinapu]

44 minutes ago, fedssocr said:

 

One of my favorite charitable causes is Big Brother Mouse which publishes children's books in Lao and some tribal languages to get kids interesting in reading. They also run their own school called Big Sister Mouse. Great organization. http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/

I saw their stand on Night Market in Luang

[vinapu]

Part 2

Most of Luang’s many temples are free but few most impressive and most popular require ticket for 20000 -30000. Popular attraction in Luang is alms giving ceremony at sunrise but I did not partake not only for being lazy to wake up that early but also I don’t believe in converting religious ceremonies into tourist circus. I rather leave to to believers. 

 

bit different type of temple

 

Pak Ou caves are in quite  a distance upstream so I took a boat  tour for that as well, pleasant trip of more than hour. We had luck of seeing shiny train crossing the Mekong. After caves we went to whisky village to taste local moonshine, then to elephant feeding center   where before feeding elephant we feed ourselves with  a very tasty lunch served there. Then it turned out most people are going to waterfall by the bus but few who did not purchase this option like me  got invited to get out in the city . Not that they just dumped us, no , there was van which took us to our hotels free of charge.

 

[vinapu]

part 2 continued

For last two days of my stay there was no night market all of the sudden, only food section was opened. It turned out that it was owing to dispute between vendors as to which place belong to whom  , police got involved to settle issue but souvenirs seekers all of the sudden had very little choice. Day before I saw some carving I decided to buy to no avail as that vendor along with other did not present his goodies for sale.

 

Walking along the river  boat cruises along Mekong are offered , actually quite pleasant idea. Since price is per boat it’s better to join other tourists is there’s opportunity but those are not that expensive  at 200 000 (12 $ ) so I splurged twice just to support local economy.

 

Across  the Mekong ( ferry 5000, circulates constantly ) there are few temples , rarely visited even if they are so close and rural walk from ferry landing , well marked , between them is pleasant. It’s about 2.5 km so hardly tiring , even in mid day. I was expecting to walk back from the last one but industrious guy with boat eyed me , waved screaming “ city 100 000” so I decided again to support locals although probably overpaid by 50000. Boatmen seeing such stupid and naïve guy took pity and actually awarded me 30 minute cruise along the river before delivering me to the city.  Luang is hardly tiring place but I recommend that trip across the river just to relax and see what’s hidden there as you can see below.

 

 

[fedssocr]

completely agree with you about the alms giving having been turned into a tourist circus. The last time I attended it was really awful. Russian tourists shoving their cameras in the faces of the monks...

I was quite lucky when I went to Pak Ou. My guide brought along a big pack of candles and set them up all around the cave. Having it lit up by candle light made for some very pretty photos.

I've always been fascinated by those decorations on the top of Lao temples

[bkkmfj2648]

On 12/19/2022 at 8:19 AM, vinapu said:

This visit to Laos was fourth part of my trip to SE Asia which started with very short stay in Bangkok reported here:

 https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38515-shortest-trip-ever-but-still-blood-pressure-rising-report/ 

Followed by 10 days in Cambodia reported here:

 https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38619-guys-and-ruins-ruins-and-boys-trip-to-cambodia-in-oct-2022 

and then 8 days in Thailand reported here :

Vinapu - firstly, compliments on your thread handling for all of your trip reports.  I would suggest that your trip reports serve as models for us to be the standard - as you provide for proper navigation between segments - especially when you have many trips (multi country) occurring in one single visit.  It makes for great navigational continuity and more importantly, will be useful as the years pass and we need to recall the history and/or trip report out of its archive as we are going to plan our own trip to the related areas.

Secondly, thanks for augmenting your trip reports with your lovely photos - as the images help reinforce the words being expressed.

[vinapu]

I segmented that trip report for simple reason - I did not want threads to be too long. Trip was month long so if I packed everything into one thread  I sensed it may be too much

one more part of Laos segment is coming and then third. last part of Thailand segment.

By Christmas I should be done 

[vinapu]

7 hours ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

Secondly, thanks for augmenting your trip reports with your lovely photos 

it's only thanks to my Samsung , all my long life  I was lousy picture taker and proud of it

[vinapu]

Part 3 - Vientiane

After 4 days it was time to take a train although I could easily spend 2-3 more days there. Interesting yet relaxing place.

 Ticket was arranged  by travel agent in the hotel, she also charged me 50000 for a van to railway station so getting there was smooth affair. Luang has distinction of having it’s  airport much closer to the city than railway station.

Train trip is described there:

https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38209-a-ride-on-the-laos-china-railway/

 In Vientiane I noticed public bus with sign “Central Bus Station “ so decided to take it instead of fancy vans. I knew that my hotel is walking distance from station but still tuk tuk driver offered mi ride for 50 000 , when I smiled knowingly  showing him where hotel is he dropped it to 20000 , now we are talking, for that amount I can travel 2 blocks in style. At hotel we both laughed.

 

 I spent 2 day there, Vientiane is not big city and has that provincial feel  but main avenue connecting presidential palace with  Victory Gate quite impressive. There are several wats spread  across the city , at least two of them are a must, oldest in the city Wat Si Saket with thousands of Buddha statues and Wat Phra Kaew , now converted to museum,  original site of Emerald Buddha , now in Grand Palace in Bangkok.

 

 

 

Close there is walled compound of French embassy and big sized Ukrainian flag on one of walls reminded me about nasty war  there . Across the street I found Sacred Heart Catholic cathedral  and friendly nun there told me it’s only Catholic church in whole country.

 

Another landmark ancient stupa That Dam was close to my hotel and not far from there is still one more landmark Nam Phu fountain but at that time was in process of renovation and whole place around her was deserted.

 

 

Central  bus station looks half finished but has quite good information desk where staff speaks some English.

 

Morning market with many stalls is just across the street.

Stroll along Mekong is very pleasant with rural Thailand on other side. Nong Khai is several km downstream.

 

For those who want to cross to Thailand by bridge to Nong Khai or want to visit Buddha Park there’s half hourly , well posted bus from Central Bus Station taking you to both.

 

Of course I visited most venerated landmark in Vientiane, Golden Stupa That Luang , symbol of country featured on coat-of-arms and every banknote (there are no coins in Laos). It’s about 3 km from city center, I just walked there but took tuk-tuk-back.

 

 

I had feeling that those 2 days were just enough to see everything, certainly is wort to stop there on a way to or from Luang Prabang , specially now with train whisking between two in just 2 hours.

 

Airport is almost walking distance from the center , probably 6 km from my hotel but when time came to leave I took tuk -tuk for 200 baht from  my hotel, this was only time in Laos when I was quoted price in 3 currencies : 100000 kip or 200 baht or 6 dollars. I opted for baht since I  wisely run

out of kip that morning. Airport is last place one can exchange kip back to dollar or baht, outside of Laos nobody will exchange it.

 

 

Flight to Don Muang was short and smooth and upon landing I started third and final Thai part  of this trip.

[vinapu]

Third Thai leg of this trip is reported here:

https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/38766-back-in-thailand-from-laos-november-2022-trip-report/