Trip to Vang Vieng

I left Luang Prabang with regret - and I made a little tour through Phonsavan - the city which has nothing interesting except that it is close to the Plain of Jars. The Jars in question are mysterious: It is not known when they were made or what they were for, or who made them. The site is enchanting and magical as the fields of menhirs in Brittany or Stonehedge.

There were thousands of unexploded bombs that the Americans left all around Laos after the Vietnam War. That was because the U.S. wanted to resolve the problem of communism in Laos, and bombed the north of the country in an illegal war (what a strange concept). When you walked in the Plain of Jars, there are signs everywhere that indicate the areas that have been cleared - and those which are not. Each year, farmers and children still get hurt with these things.

For Christmas, I find myself in Vang Vieng which is the world capital of Friends videos. This is amazing! The TV bars show all episodes of the series, and all visitor under 30 glued to screens. But apart from that, the city is located in an enchanting place and I was offered a beautiful room in Christmas

Today, I rented a bike and I cycled around the city. I visited an organic farm whose owners are interested in developing the community. In particular, they organized English classes and cared for a school bus, library and a community center. They always accept volunteers. I had to leave tomorrow but I decided to spend a week at the farm to teach English. This is just my way of celebrating Christmas ... or to accumulate good karma points. In fact, I was charmed by the concept and the place. These are structured courses - but presented in an informal way for children and adults. The feeling of being helpful was so great ! I soon was loved by local people and somehow part of their community.

Impressions of Luang Prabang

After two weeks in rooms, bungalows, hotel which had rats, we came back to the civilisation, comfort and Internet. The Laos is definitely much more remarkable than Thailand, especially if they make effort to improve the off the beaten track. But now, here is the account of our impression of Luang Prabang.

It is the World Heritage City of Laos. The city is dotted with ancient temples and French colonial houses( which reminds of the architecture of the south of France). It lies on the Mekong river where you can see thousands of coconut trees and palms. This tranquil city of the largely unspoiled country. Laos is great and there are not many tourists so quickly go before it become completly touristy.

We came at the Christmas. We strolled along the bank of the Mekong river which is filled with ornamental street stand and decious food especially nem . It is agreeable to go for a walk for some hours. There are some stand selling good like wooden lively temple, a way of raising money for the Red Cross.

The tourist industry in a third word country brought us a lot of stupidity and negative feelings. For example, the driver of tuk-tuk tried to overcharge us ten time as much as the average Laotian. So our strategy is going up in the vehicle, waiting for the other to pay and giving the common sum of money and pretending not to understand what they wanted.


The driver of tuk-tuk are under the influence of the people in tourism industry. They pay so that tuk tuk only travel to tourist attractions or touritsty service. The only solution to tour the city and the interesting surrounding is to take an exceedingly expensive tuk-tuks, which agree to go only to places filled with tourists. Finally, they will make a fast drive in the city centre.

The bars and restaurants had so many tourists. Fortunately most of the luxiourious bar are in the main streets. We found it more pleasant to go to the neibouring village. The children there welcomed us by shouting" Hello, candy?" Perhaps a nice passenger had given them some candies out of compassion for their poverty. An American we met on the way told us that he had encountered 3 or 4 year old children who wanted to have fountain pens. Learning that he had immediately come back to the city to buy load of fountian pens to give the kids . His only regret was that there were not enough fountian pen for every body.

Discover Laos ( continued)

The second day we had breakfast at a Vietnamese pho inn. Its sign is in Vietnamse and many Viet people came to eat here. After the delicious Vietnamese typical dish, we continue our travel on a special car. It is plain red and so risky to travel on that our whole party just secretly pray for a safe journey. Due to the bad car we couldn’t sleep during our long drive to Vientien. The first day in Vientien, we decided to take massage for refreshing ourselves. While the guys had their body massaged, the girls did their feet. One hour later everyone felt more healthy and ready for an overnight trip. Our car first stopped the Don Chan Palace Hotel but found that not so many cars parked, so we made our way to the Novotel Hotel with an eye chatching bar called Future bar. The atmosphere inside was so exciting with beautiful Thai music on. This is because Thailand has such a deep influence on Laos’s culture from arts, architecture through religion. Gold lacquered temples and pagodas are common sights in Laos and Thai movies are also very popular here. The later it got the more crowded the bar was. At the bar, charming Laotian girls was sitting , from time to time dash their eyes to find a partner. We had a good time there until one hour in the morning. We had to save the energy for the next day’s visit around Vientien and decided to leave rather early. The next day, we visited some main attractions in the city which are covered in every Vientien tour. We took some photos of Vientien streets. They look alike streets in Hanoi( you can see from the picture above). There is little traffic on the street and a feel of tranquility hanging over the city. We left Vientien for Vang Vieng in the afternoon.

Discover Laos

I had a memorable and fascinating trip to Lao one month ago. Ten people of us, who knew one another through a travel forum decided to realize our desire to visit Laos. We were very eager and well-prepared for the trip. It was an 6-day unguided tour of major destination in Laos including Vientiene, Xieng Khouang and Luang Prabang. We set off at seven o’clock on October, 8th in Hanoi each bringing load of necessary belongings and food. When leaving Hanoi, everyone in our party were a little bit nervous, especially girls since this was the first time they come to another countries in the same region. Traveling to Laos is somehow an amazing idea as in general Vietnamese people know little about this neighboring country. We spent the whole night on the car heading for Vientian the first destination of our itinerary. We came to Vientian in the afternoon of the next day, Thursday. On the way to our hotel by tuk-tuk we came across a Vietnamese girl called My carrying a 30 kilo back-pack yet smiling all the time. She speak Laotian fluently with a perfect accent. Our whole party attacking her with questions all the way to the hotel. She make the girls of our party envious of her tattoos and earings on her nose or tip of her tongue. They dreamed of having such accessories someday to look real trendy and Westerner-like.

The tuk-tuk took us to the Youth Inn hotel where a friend of mine recommended.
It is located in the centre of the capital, very near the river Mekong and the Street Night Market is just a stone’s throw away. The Street Night Market is similar to the one stretching through Ngang Street and Dao Street in Hanoi. It run along the peaceful Mekong, which we can see Thailand on the other bank. Luckily, we visited Vientien on the occasion of the Buddha parade and and boat racing. The riverside area and all the stalled inside the market were glamorously decorated making Vientien more lively. And more and more Laotian streaming to the market and guys in our party have a perfect chance to watch beautiful Laotian girls. They all have healty dark complexion and big round eyes, gentle tiny nose that are typical of Laotian…..( to be continued)