Laos - Vientiane

You must be wondering "what about Taiwan?" when you see the title of this post. In order not to bore you, I've decided to blog about my Laos trip before I continue with my Taiwan posts. Yes, I know I am very considerate, you're welcome :p

The trip was done between 6th of January 2011 - 13th of January 2011. It was winter in Laos and also the best time to visit Laos. We started our Laos trip in Vientiane (capital of Laos), then flew to Luang Prabang the next day followed by a stopover at Vang Vieng and back to Vientiane again. 

We bought our air ticket to Luang Prabang from Laos Airlines once we landed in Wattay International Airport on the first day. After that, we took a cab to the city, found our guest house and headed out for our day in Vientiane.

Lao tuk-tuk, similar to Thailand's tuk-tuk

Had a walk next to Mekong river, construction going on here.

Sunset at Mekong.

Had our dinner at the road side.

The typical clear soup noodle in Laos (most affordable :/) and the local Beerlao. A bowl of noodles cost around 8,000 - 12,000 kip (around RM 3-5 ringgit). It's not cheap, apparently they have the "tourist price". Later we found out that locals only pay half of the "tourist price" -.-

Lao sundry shop. We drank coconuts here.

The next day,we went to Avenue Lane Xang to pay Patuxay (Victory Gate) a visit. It is a local rendition of Paris's Arc de Triomphe. It looks impressive from afar. Though, the structure and quality of the building is incomparable to the one in France and lacking of maintenance. Before that, we had our breakfast at a local restaurant. We had clear soup noodles for the 2nd time (more to come! The so-called most affordable food for us, what to do >.<) and some snacks.

Snacks that we had with our noodles. Taste exactly like the ham chin peng and yau char kway in Malaysia.

We paid 3000 kip each to climb the monument.

View from the top of Patuxay, Vientiane Avenue.

We boarded a tuk-tuk later to visit Pha That Luang (a Buddhist Stupa), the most important religious monument in Laos.

5000 kip entrance fee for each.

Pha That Luang

It was a sunny day, I couldn't open my eyes! So I bought a pair of fake Lac*ste sunglasses at the roadside stall :D. Right after the visit, we got our stuff and headed to the airport to board our flight to Luang Prabang!

Leaving on a jet plane ~

The journey continues ...

I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it. ~ Rosalia de Castro