Luang Prabang - Trip Report
Oct 27th, 2008, 01:54 AM
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Luang Prabang - Trip Report
LP trip report
I am in LP right now....and want to get this report started so I don't get behind and forget the great things we have seen, done and eaten. So I will start it now and hopefully finish it as our trip here winds to a close.
We left Hanoi on our Vietnam Airlines flight to LP at 9am. The flight was on time and a very smooth and short 50 minutes to Luang Prabang. As the airplane neared the airport terminal, I knew LP was going to be very different experience. The airport is very small...and our plane, also small had only about 25 people exiting at LP. We did not have visas, so I quickly filled out the form, gave them $35 and one passport photo. It was a very fast and easy process. My husband and I grabbed our bags off the belt and walked out to a taxi desk outside the airport. For $6 a taxi will take you to your hotel in LP. I paid the fellow and he yelled at a group of sleepy men lounging nearby. One of them roused and came over and grabbed our bags. He took us to a very nice, new minivan. We loaded up our stuff and were off. Wow.....I was amazed. Why? Because last week we too the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai and experienced bedlam when the train arrived in Lao Cai and we wanted a minivan to Sapa. Needless to say, our entry into LP was quick, quiet and very very easy. It took less than 30 minutes from "wheels down" to our arrival at the hotel.
HOTEL
We stayed at the Lotus Villa hotel. It is small, very quiet and has a wonderful location. As I write this report, I am sitting on the balcony of our room listening to the gongs from the WAT located about 1/2 block away. I wake each morning to this sound and also to the chanting of the monks. Location, location location is the crowning jewel of this hotel. It is located right along the path the hundreds of monks take each morning. You can roll out of bed, stumble to the balcony and watch the scene unfolding right below you. This road is not the "main drag" so traffic is almost non-existent at night. Walk one block and you are on the banks of the Mekong. Walk one block the other way and you are on the "main drag"
The rooms are small, but comfortable. There is a queen bed with a fairly hard mattress--which is typical for most Asian beds. It is October--still warm, but we are able to keep our windows and the door to the balcony open and night and thus do not have to run the AC. There is a large ceiling fan and it seems to do the job.
The bathrooms are the only downside of this hotel. They are small with no counter space for any personal items. But the worst problem is the shower. It is located right as you walk into the bathroom. The shower consists of a shower head sticking out of the wall. The floor area has a drain and is slightly lower than the rest of the bathroom. So...no door...no walls....no curtain...nothing. Just the showerhead. This isn't a big deal...but if anyone showers, the floor area gets soaked and stays wet for a long time. Thus you have to walk through the water to get to the sink and/or toilet. Not a nice thing in the middle of the night for those necessary trips as one gets older! I talked to someone and they said this arrangement is typical for Laos--so I guess it isn't just a poor design. Anyway, we just toss a used towel on the floor in front of the sink and at the bathroom door. So if you walk in or out, you can dry your feet on the towels.
The hotel price includes breakfast and it is wonderful. Coffee or tea (try the ginger tea!), several types of juice--all fresh squeezed. Fruit, omelets or eggs the way you like them, and a large french baguette. It is really a good start to the day. Watch the monks parading by....then get dressed and wander downstairs for a great breakfast. They have a central garden area where everyone eats. They also have free WI-FI...and we are making good use of it. Two computers are in the entry area for people to use to check email or catch up on the news via computer. They even provide headsets and a microphone if you want to Skype.
I would highly recommend this hotel. It's price is about in the median for LP--I think we are paying $80 for one of the larger upstairs rooms. What I liked was that when I made the reservation, the owner requested that I pay the bill using PayPal. I did this and everything worked perfectly. I don't know what his cancellation policy is, but we were lucky and didn't have to worry about it. The owners are very nice and the house staff is very accommodating. Anything we needed or asked was quickly gotten or answered. They keep a pot of hot water available and have tea or instant coffee if you want something during the day. They also have juices and beers that you can purchase if you want something during the day....although all you have to do is walk 20 meters and you will find other places to purchase drinks, water or any other food you might need. The location is also only about 50 meters from the Tamarind Cafe...a jewel of a restaurant in LP.
Bells from the Wat are bonging...which tells me it is time to get moving and do soemthing! So more later....
I am in LP right now....and want to get this report started so I don't get behind and forget the great things we have seen, done and eaten. So I will start it now and hopefully finish it as our trip here winds to a close.
We left Hanoi on our Vietnam Airlines flight to LP at 9am. The flight was on time and a very smooth and short 50 minutes to Luang Prabang. As the airplane neared the airport terminal, I knew LP was going to be very different experience. The airport is very small...and our plane, also small had only about 25 people exiting at LP. We did not have visas, so I quickly filled out the form, gave them $35 and one passport photo. It was a very fast and easy process. My husband and I grabbed our bags off the belt and walked out to a taxi desk outside the airport. For $6 a taxi will take you to your hotel in LP. I paid the fellow and he yelled at a group of sleepy men lounging nearby. One of them roused and came over and grabbed our bags. He took us to a very nice, new minivan. We loaded up our stuff and were off. Wow.....I was amazed. Why? Because last week we too the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai and experienced bedlam when the train arrived in Lao Cai and we wanted a minivan to Sapa. Needless to say, our entry into LP was quick, quiet and very very easy. It took less than 30 minutes from "wheels down" to our arrival at the hotel.
HOTEL
We stayed at the Lotus Villa hotel. It is small, very quiet and has a wonderful location. As I write this report, I am sitting on the balcony of our room listening to the gongs from the WAT located about 1/2 block away. I wake each morning to this sound and also to the chanting of the monks. Location, location location is the crowning jewel of this hotel. It is located right along the path the hundreds of monks take each morning. You can roll out of bed, stumble to the balcony and watch the scene unfolding right below you. This road is not the "main drag" so traffic is almost non-existent at night. Walk one block and you are on the banks of the Mekong. Walk one block the other way and you are on the "main drag"
The rooms are small, but comfortable. There is a queen bed with a fairly hard mattress--which is typical for most Asian beds. It is October--still warm, but we are able to keep our windows and the door to the balcony open and night and thus do not have to run the AC. There is a large ceiling fan and it seems to do the job.
The bathrooms are the only downside of this hotel. They are small with no counter space for any personal items. But the worst problem is the shower. It is located right as you walk into the bathroom. The shower consists of a shower head sticking out of the wall. The floor area has a drain and is slightly lower than the rest of the bathroom. So...no door...no walls....no curtain...nothing. Just the showerhead. This isn't a big deal...but if anyone showers, the floor area gets soaked and stays wet for a long time. Thus you have to walk through the water to get to the sink and/or toilet. Not a nice thing in the middle of the night for those necessary trips as one gets older! I talked to someone and they said this arrangement is typical for Laos--so I guess it isn't just a poor design. Anyway, we just toss a used towel on the floor in front of the sink and at the bathroom door. So if you walk in or out, you can dry your feet on the towels.
The hotel price includes breakfast and it is wonderful. Coffee or tea (try the ginger tea!), several types of juice--all fresh squeezed. Fruit, omelets or eggs the way you like them, and a large french baguette. It is really a good start to the day. Watch the monks parading by....then get dressed and wander downstairs for a great breakfast. They have a central garden area where everyone eats. They also have free WI-FI...and we are making good use of it. Two computers are in the entry area for people to use to check email or catch up on the news via computer. They even provide headsets and a microphone if you want to Skype.
I would highly recommend this hotel. It's price is about in the median for LP--I think we are paying $80 for one of the larger upstairs rooms. What I liked was that when I made the reservation, the owner requested that I pay the bill using PayPal. I did this and everything worked perfectly. I don't know what his cancellation policy is, but we were lucky and didn't have to worry about it. The owners are very nice and the house staff is very accommodating. Anything we needed or asked was quickly gotten or answered. They keep a pot of hot water available and have tea or instant coffee if you want something during the day. They also have juices and beers that you can purchase if you want something during the day....although all you have to do is walk 20 meters and you will find other places to purchase drinks, water or any other food you might need. The location is also only about 50 meters from the Tamarind Cafe...a jewel of a restaurant in LP.
Bells from the Wat are bonging...which tells me it is time to get moving and do soemthing! So more later....
Oct 28th, 2008, 01:06 AM
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Wanderings around LP--trip report continued
If you read the Asia forum regularly, I was the person howling about the cost of tours in LP and other locations. The quote from a reputable travel agency in Hanoi was over $1000 for guides and tours ONLY (no hotel) while in LP. Everyone on the forum chastised me and said do it yourself. So, I took your advice and quickly pulled together a DIY tour. What wise people you all are! It was wonderful advice because we structured our trip to our whims...the weather....and the opportunities that crossed our path. If we had done tours, we would have been up and gone at 8am...and back exhausted in the afternoons. Instead we roll out of bed and watch the monks silently walk outside our hotel. We then linger over breakfast and decide what we want to do for the day. Yesterday we met a group of doctors who just returned from two weeks in Bhutan. They were regrouping here before leaving for home. We all decided to rent a minivan for the day and travel to several villages in the area and see the Kuang Si Waterfall about 35km from LP. We had a glorious day and it was very interesting to learn about their work in Bhutan.
So...with that said, what did we end up doing in LP. Well, not much. We walked and walked and walked around the town. Seeing all the Wats would take several days alone. We were able to visit many of them and learned that visits in the evenings around 6-7pm meant we could listen to the chanting during their evening prayers. We would sit on the steps outside and just enjoy the sounds and scents coming from within. It was very peaceful and enjoyable. Living close to a Wat has us in tune with their day. The bonging and drumming begins at 4am.... then at sunrise they being their walk through the streets of LP. We try to stay off the main street because we don't want to see the scrum of tourists taking pictures. That is one of the reasons this hotel is such a glorious place. This event occurs right outside our door.
Boat Trip on the Mekong.
We decided one morning to take a boat trip to some caves on the Mekong. We left our hotel about 8:30am and wandered down to the river. There is a ticket office where you can purchase boat tickets for 60,000kip....(8500 kip to the dollar). There were about 25 other people who also had purchased tickets and we thought..oh, oh. big boat group. They have a pretty interesting system. They divide up the people into groups of about 6 each. Then your group is assigned to a boat and driver. In groups you walk down the steep steps to the river....and walk a small plank to get onto "your" boat. Some boats are fancy and have old car seats to sit on. Our boat was older and had wooden seats with pads.....big or small, fancy or plain, the boats are all get you there! The trip up river took about 2 hours and was the highlight of this day. The Mekong river is grand. It reminded me a bit of the Missouri River--which we live near. It is wide, shallow in places and seems to have a current of around 7-10 miles per hour. It only took one hour to return to LP, so it is somewhat strong. I am a geographer, so I was very interested in the small villages and garden plots along the river banks. Much of the way, the river banks are occupied with small gardens of intensive agriculture. They seemed to be growing beans, squash, the green river weed eaten at many meals and many other types of food for their tables. We passed giggling groups of naked children playing and swimming in the river. Men were fishing in small narrow two person boats--flinging nets into the water at a slow steady pace. Women were washing clothes along the banks. Everyone waved and were very friendly.
We reached the caves and paid another 20,000 kip each to gain entry. You get off the boat on a narrow dock and climb up some steep steps to the first large cave. It is filled with old Buddhas and is somewhat musty. I wouldn't classify this as a beautiful cave, but it was interesting. We also climbed many steps to the upper cave. You need a flashlight if you want to go inside and see the statues.
Little children line the walkway to the upper cave..they want to sell you little baby birds in cages.....large bugs in bottles....or a variety of other snacks and "goodies". I also needed to use the toilet and found one along the way. From a distance the toilet looked pretty grim, but once I got closer, it was fairly clean and cost 2,000kip to use. I was somewhat desperate, so I would have paid ANYTHING at that point! After viewing the caves (30 minutes or so) we climbed back on our boat and headed downstream to LP. Along the way we stopped at a village that specializes in making rice wine. I found the village very interesting. We stopped on the way back to LP, so we were the only group of people there. I wandered around the small village and watched women weaving silk scarves and other items. I kept walking "deeper" into the village away from the river and ended up in a central cooking area of the village. Many women were gathered there and were cooking huge pots of sticky rice and something made of coconut over large fires. They were chatting and talking and having a grand old time. I stopped and "chatted" with them....at least I was trying to chat. I wanted to know what they were cooking and still am unsure of what they were making. But again, I am a geographer and seeing local village life was really amazing. But...to do this you have to be brave and get away from the tourist houses selling goods for the masses. Walk the back streets.....avoid the tourist areas and suddenly a whole new world unfolds.
This village also makes rice wine and although everyone wanted me to taste it and to buy some, I didn't try it. I had a friend try local food in a village in Mexico and she ended up being medi-evacuated back to the states. But the stills they had to make the wine were pretty amazing. Large barrels of brew being distilled over large fires. The clear liquid was drip..drip..dripping off the crusty pipe into a large jar. I was told the rice wine was 50% alcohol. If that is true, several sips would have probably knocked me on my.........!
We arrived back in LP about 1pm.....and climbed up the bank of the river and plopped our bodies down at the Mekong River Fish Cafe - a place right on the banks of the river. A large Lao beer and order of Mekong fish cooked in coconut milk and some sticky rice was very, very good. We tottered back to our hotel (200 meters) and took a long nap! Needless to say, it was a wonderful morning and afternoon.
We woke to the Wat drums rolling again....and headed 100 meters down the street to the Tamarid Cafe. Folks---this place is simply AMAZING. We have eaten either lunch or dinner here almost every day. Think lemongrass! Lemongrass and lime drink. Lemongrass and ginger drink. Lemongrass stuffed with Chicken. Lemongrass stuffed with pork--even better! After being in LP for several days, we have discovered that you can't beat the food.....and the ambiance is wonderful. They run a cooking school and people say it is one of the best in the city. So we now are "regulars" and laugh each time we enter because we see the same people. We usually do lunch here and then eat at other places each night.
[BOOM BOOM BOOM - drums rolling in the distance again! It must be 4pm! yep...it is. I am still in LP and I can set my watch by the drums and chanting] Well...that is enough for now. I will continue my report soon. We move to Siem Reap tomorrow....so I want to try to finish LP before we make the migration southward.
Oct 28th, 2008, 04:40 AM
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This is a great report, spoken from a geography major, by the way! Glad you enjoyed the Tamarind. Interestingly, Saveur magazine this month has an article on Laotian cooking and they cover restaurants in Vientiane and in LP but somehow missed Tamarind!
Oct 28th, 2008, 05:34 AM
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Wow, things have changed a bit since we were there 2-1/2 years ago. For the boat trip, we were approached by a guy on the street (the owner of the boat) the afternoon before we went. We were the ONLY ones on the ONLY boat going out at 8:30 am that day. When we arrived at the caves we pretty much had the place to ourselves as we did in the rice wine ("whiskey"
village.
Interesting that prices were quoted to you in kip both for the boat and the entrance to the caves. When we were there I don't think we even bothered to change any money the whole time we were there.
village. Interesting that prices were quoted to you in kip both for the boat and the entrance to the caves. When we were there I don't think we even bothered to change any money the whole time we were there.
Oct 28th, 2008, 06:52 AM
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I read online that the dollar was the accepted form of money here so we brought cash in dollars. The first day we used dollars and realized that we were losing on each exchange. People were giving us 8000 kip per dollar and the exchange rate was about 8500-8800 kip per dollar. We quickly found the best place to exchange money (little shack past the National Museum on the main street running through town) and used it several times. We brought dollars with us, so it was easy to change money.
With that said, we saw only two ATM's in town....and each of them had very long lines. I was told that they frequently are out of order--so this might be something to take into consideration. My suggestion is to bring cash and exchange it as you need it.
Again, all places (market--shops--stores--museums) will take dollars, but it is at a rate favorable to them, not to you. We were glad we had cash and did not have to rely on ATMs here. I saw no banks --except for the exchange "shack" we used. I think it was a branch of some Lao bank...but I am not sure. Tonight we needed more Kip and headed there about 5pm. It was closed...so we ended up exchanging money at a travel agent's shop on the main drag.
With that said, we saw only two ATM's in town....and each of them had very long lines. I was told that they frequently are out of order--so this might be something to take into consideration. My suggestion is to bring cash and exchange it as you need it.
Again, all places (market--shops--stores--museums) will take dollars, but it is at a rate favorable to them, not to you. We were glad we had cash and did not have to rely on ATMs here. I saw no banks --except for the exchange "shack" we used. I think it was a branch of some Lao bank...but I am not sure. Tonight we needed more Kip and headed there about 5pm. It was closed...so we ended up exchanging money at a travel agent's shop on the main drag.
Oct 29th, 2008, 04:34 PM
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Thanks for your report - its great to see how things have changed.
Like Craig I was there a number of years ago and our boat with just the two of us was the only one at the caves.
I was back in Southern Lao and Vientiane this June and also noticed that there has been a big change to using kip - with the change in the exchange rate a number of people have found themselves out of pocket as they have advertised their hotels (particularly its the hotels) in US and its now not enough! So even on the streets kip is preferred where once it was the US$
Like Craig I was there a number of years ago and our boat with just the two of us was the only one at the caves.
I was back in Southern Lao and Vientiane this June and also noticed that there has been a big change to using kip - with the change in the exchange rate a number of people have found themselves out of pocket as they have advertised their hotels (particularly its the hotels) in US and its now not enough! So even on the streets kip is preferred where once it was the US$
Nov 1st, 2008, 10:30 PM
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Final Installment!
I am in Siem Reap now and don't have internet access in our hotel...so it has been a bit more difficult to update. I left off earlier with our trip on the Mekong and the next day we headed out of town to the.....
Kuang Si Waterfall
We joined forces with some people at our hotel and hired a minivan to visit the waterfall. It is about 35 km or a 45 minute drive from LP. The van cost 250,000 kip....and for comparison, single passenger transportation through agencies in town cost anywhere from 35,000 kip (for a tuk tuk) to 60,000 for a group trip. You can also book a more deluxe trip through agencies in town and they will provide lunch at the waterfall. We didn't want to stay that long and were back in LP by 1:30pm so we thought the 40,000 kip we each paid for the private van was a good value for us.
The drive to the waterfall gave us a chance to see the countryside outside of LP. It is rolling hills and mountains with dense forest land on the hillsides and agriculture in the valleys. The intensity of agriculture is far less than what we experienced in northern Vietnam. The population density also seems much lower here and is something I want to check once I am back home. The villages located along the road were very small, similar in appearance to those in Vietnam and the people seemed to be doing subsistence level farming.
When we arrived at the waterfall, our driver dropped us at a small "village" at the gate. The village consisted of places to buy more tourist type of merchandise and also lots and lots of places to buy food. If you want to take a lunch up to the falls with you, you could buy it there. We purchased some fried coconut rice things that were exceptionally good. The food looked good and I think would be safe to eat. We paid 20,000 kip each for entry to the falls and walked up the path to view the black bears that are kept in cages. These bears were rescued and although the cages look pretty grim, we are told that this facility is trying to rebuild the bear population. The bear's mothers were killed and these bears were their babies who would have been taken and used for harvesting bile to sell in traditional Asian medicine shops. I bought a T-shirt there to support the bears. We continued walking up an easy trail along a beautiful stream. We passed tons of flowers, butterflies and other interesting flora and fauna. Passing several wonderful swimming pools, we arrived at the falls--and they were spectacular! What a beautiful setting. My husband and I decided to climb up the path over the bridge to the top of the falls. BEWARE --this was a very steep, muddy, stupid climb to make for a couple of 60 year old fuddy duddies. But we made it and actually didn't see many others who did the climb. At the top, you can climb over trees, rocks and stumps and actually stand at the top of the falls and look down to the bottom. Again, it was worth the climb. I forged onward walking upstream right in the water....got to thigh level and wondered again if I was insane. My husband bailed at the top of the falls...he didn't want to get his shoes any wetter than they already were. But I finally came across a path. I followed it downward thinking it would give me another view of the falls. I was very surprised to discover that this path lead all the way to the bottom of the falls. The path was much easier and actually had steps built to make climbing easier. So here is our major tip for all people wanting to climb to the top. TAKE THE PATH (STEPS) ON THE LEFT OF THE WATERFALL. Do not cross the bridge and take the muddy, steep, slick path on the right! Think-Left!
After climbing down....I walked down to one of the swimming ponds and had a very refreshing swim. I was the only person swimming in that area. There are two pools...an upper one and a lower one. I found the lower one much nicer than the upper pool. They have some changing "rooms" --just a wooden enclosed area so you can change into or out of you suit right there.
On our ride back to LP we passed a group of Cambodian Soldiers marching on the road with guns and all. I managed to get a picture and realized that the guns they were carrying were pretty darn old.
These were our major trips while in LP. We didn't go to see the elephants or do much else because we were so content to just hang out in LP. We walked.....and when hot, stopped for coffee or a Lao beer.
Eating in LP
We ate and ate and ate and loved the food. But I must qualify our eating experiences by saying right off, we are not the "top-o-the-line" restaurant people. We like to eat local and try to eat at a "fancy" place once or twice while in a town. So....what we discovered was--the Tamarind Cafe became our home away from home. The food is spectacular. Try the lemon grass wrapped chicken and also the lemongrass pork. My husband almost swooned while eating the pork. He was in heaven! Their lemongrass ginger or lemongrass lime drinks are absolutely wonderful. We had several lunches and one group Friday night dinner here. We recommend it highly.
We also became fans of the many restaurants along the Mekong River. I think the view made the place perfect. We ate at the Mekong Fish Cafe several times....climb down and sit at the lowest level along the river. They have very clean bathrooms here which are nestled into the riverbank. Don't even think about where the "stuff" flushed heads....! The view from the hand washing sink is the best sink view I have ever had! Their beer is cold...the spring rolls are excellent...and their Mekong Fish dish is very good. Only one restaurant along the river was a bust. It was pouring rain one night and we looked for a place with a roof to protect us from the POURING rain. Stay away from the restaurant with a green and yellow tarp for a roof. Their menu highlights Thai food---yuk! It was HORRIBLE....we hardly ate, but did well with the Lao beer which made things less bad. A German man sat next to us and ordered a pumpkin soup. When it arrived and he tasted it he barked out at the staff...."I am not a dog and this food is fit only for dogs". That summed up our feelings too!
We also ate at Tum Tum Chen for lunch one day and it was excellent. Their chocolate banana crepe was a wonderful way to top off our meal. My husband and I have discovered on this trip that if we each order separate items from the menu, we get far too much food. So at every restaurant we ate at in LP we ordered one or two starters (spring rolls, samosas, Lao dips and breads) and one main dish followed by desert. At each meal we found that we had plenty of food and got to try several items on the starter menu. No one seemed to care that we did this and it has now become our standard operating practice.
Our last night we ate at a restaurant called Arisai. It is located right in town on Sakkarine Rd. It has a French chef who must have lived or trained in Morocco because several couscous dishes were on the menu. We had wine and shared an Antipasto appetizer. For our main dish we had the Royal Couscous--two lamb chops, a huge piece of chicken, two spicy sausages all served with couscous and many, many different types of vegetables. It was soooooo good! My only regret was that I ate so much (again one shared main dish) that I had no room for desert. We stumbled out of the restaurant and had to walk TWICE around the block to try to work off some of our dinner.
Shopping
We really worked very, very hard to support the local economy and our overloaded bags show our effort. I thought the shopping opportunities were wonderful. In fact, we managed to do all our Christmas shopping while in LP. The morning and evening markets are great places to buy lots of silk scarves, wall hangings, and bedspreads. We ended up buying 3 bedspreads-duvet covers as gifts. They all are hand made and beautiful. I think I purchased about a dozen silk scarves, about 20 handmade silk placemats, many silk wall hangings...and then we even found beautiful hand carved hanging rods for the silk wall hangings. I think our family members will be thrilled with these gifts. I am living in Vietnam right now and have to bargain for everything I buy...I hate it. But bargaining with the Lao people was fun and enjoyable. I knew when I was close on a price when they rolled their eyes and really started punching the calculator buttons. I usually had them quote a price...... I came back with about 60% of that price.....they countered and I countered again. I thought that I paid a fair price and that they made some profit for their hard work. My husband is Buddhist and he found some of the Buddha carvings and items very nice and we have a bag full of those too! There are several high end places in town that have exquisite items. No matter what your budget---everyone should find things of interest.
A Final Word
We loved LP and hopefully can return at some point. If we do return, I would do several things differently.
First, I would stay in LP for about 3-4 days....then I would book a trip up or down the Mekong to one of the eco-camps for three days. Or if those didn't sound good, one thing I wished we could have done was take a tour to the Plain of Jars. I think it was a three day event. You really don't have to book these tours prior to coming to LP. There are tons of travel agencies in town with trips everywhere--everyday. Just schedule 3 days away from LP and then return for another couple of days. We spent 6 days there and loved every minute. It was not too long.....but again, I think breaking our time up with a trip somewhere for several days in the middle of our stay would have been perfect. If you stay at the same hotel, they will store your luggage so you don't have to haul it all with you.
On our way to the airport I decided I wanted to take a tuk tuk because we hadn't ridden in one It was a nice ride, I got a picture of us and our luggage in this colorful three wheeler--and also received a rude surprise when we got to the airport. Our hotel called the tuk-tuk and told us that the cost would be 20,000 kip. A minivan taxi would have been 50,000 kip. When we arrived at the airport I gave the man 20,000 kip and he said no, it was 50,000. Whoops.....I realized we should have set the price at the hotel. Well, I looked at him and told him he was crazy.....it was 20K and that was it. He then threw a fit....and we went toe to toe for several minutes. I finally tossed him another 10,000 kip and walked away. Damn....I should have known better and set the price before we started. Oh well.......
We left LP on Vietnam Airlines and flew onward to Siem Reap. Dara picked us up at the airport and delivered us to our hotel. We will be here for 6 days and have booked Dara and a driver for 5 of them. So I hope to begin a new trip report on Siem Reap tomorrow.
LP was a grand place to visit. I was very sad to leave.........
anda the Siem Reap trip will be delayed a bit. No internet really limits the updating I can do...so stay tuned!
I am in Siem Reap now and don't have internet access in our hotel...so it has been a bit more difficult to update. I left off earlier with our trip on the Mekong and the next day we headed out of town to the.....
Kuang Si Waterfall
We joined forces with some people at our hotel and hired a minivan to visit the waterfall. It is about 35 km or a 45 minute drive from LP. The van cost 250,000 kip....and for comparison, single passenger transportation through agencies in town cost anywhere from 35,000 kip (for a tuk tuk) to 60,000 for a group trip. You can also book a more deluxe trip through agencies in town and they will provide lunch at the waterfall. We didn't want to stay that long and were back in LP by 1:30pm so we thought the 40,000 kip we each paid for the private van was a good value for us.
The drive to the waterfall gave us a chance to see the countryside outside of LP. It is rolling hills and mountains with dense forest land on the hillsides and agriculture in the valleys. The intensity of agriculture is far less than what we experienced in northern Vietnam. The population density also seems much lower here and is something I want to check once I am back home. The villages located along the road were very small, similar in appearance to those in Vietnam and the people seemed to be doing subsistence level farming.
When we arrived at the waterfall, our driver dropped us at a small "village" at the gate. The village consisted of places to buy more tourist type of merchandise and also lots and lots of places to buy food. If you want to take a lunch up to the falls with you, you could buy it there. We purchased some fried coconut rice things that were exceptionally good. The food looked good and I think would be safe to eat. We paid 20,000 kip each for entry to the falls and walked up the path to view the black bears that are kept in cages. These bears were rescued and although the cages look pretty grim, we are told that this facility is trying to rebuild the bear population. The bear's mothers were killed and these bears were their babies who would have been taken and used for harvesting bile to sell in traditional Asian medicine shops. I bought a T-shirt there to support the bears. We continued walking up an easy trail along a beautiful stream. We passed tons of flowers, butterflies and other interesting flora and fauna. Passing several wonderful swimming pools, we arrived at the falls--and they were spectacular! What a beautiful setting. My husband and I decided to climb up the path over the bridge to the top of the falls. BEWARE --this was a very steep, muddy, stupid climb to make for a couple of 60 year old fuddy duddies. But we made it and actually didn't see many others who did the climb. At the top, you can climb over trees, rocks and stumps and actually stand at the top of the falls and look down to the bottom. Again, it was worth the climb. I forged onward walking upstream right in the water....got to thigh level and wondered again if I was insane. My husband bailed at the top of the falls...he didn't want to get his shoes any wetter than they already were. But I finally came across a path. I followed it downward thinking it would give me another view of the falls. I was very surprised to discover that this path lead all the way to the bottom of the falls. The path was much easier and actually had steps built to make climbing easier. So here is our major tip for all people wanting to climb to the top. TAKE THE PATH (STEPS) ON THE LEFT OF THE WATERFALL. Do not cross the bridge and take the muddy, steep, slick path on the right! Think-Left!
After climbing down....I walked down to one of the swimming ponds and had a very refreshing swim. I was the only person swimming in that area. There are two pools...an upper one and a lower one. I found the lower one much nicer than the upper pool. They have some changing "rooms" --just a wooden enclosed area so you can change into or out of you suit right there.
On our ride back to LP we passed a group of Cambodian Soldiers marching on the road with guns and all. I managed to get a picture and realized that the guns they were carrying were pretty darn old.
These were our major trips while in LP. We didn't go to see the elephants or do much else because we were so content to just hang out in LP. We walked.....and when hot, stopped for coffee or a Lao beer.
Eating in LP
We ate and ate and ate and loved the food. But I must qualify our eating experiences by saying right off, we are not the "top-o-the-line" restaurant people. We like to eat local and try to eat at a "fancy" place once or twice while in a town. So....what we discovered was--the Tamarind Cafe became our home away from home. The food is spectacular. Try the lemon grass wrapped chicken and also the lemongrass pork. My husband almost swooned while eating the pork. He was in heaven! Their lemongrass ginger or lemongrass lime drinks are absolutely wonderful. We had several lunches and one group Friday night dinner here. We recommend it highly.
We also became fans of the many restaurants along the Mekong River. I think the view made the place perfect. We ate at the Mekong Fish Cafe several times....climb down and sit at the lowest level along the river. They have very clean bathrooms here which are nestled into the riverbank. Don't even think about where the "stuff" flushed heads....! The view from the hand washing sink is the best sink view I have ever had! Their beer is cold...the spring rolls are excellent...and their Mekong Fish dish is very good. Only one restaurant along the river was a bust. It was pouring rain one night and we looked for a place with a roof to protect us from the POURING rain. Stay away from the restaurant with a green and yellow tarp for a roof. Their menu highlights Thai food---yuk! It was HORRIBLE....we hardly ate, but did well with the Lao beer which made things less bad. A German man sat next to us and ordered a pumpkin soup. When it arrived and he tasted it he barked out at the staff...."I am not a dog and this food is fit only for dogs". That summed up our feelings too!
We also ate at Tum Tum Chen for lunch one day and it was excellent. Their chocolate banana crepe was a wonderful way to top off our meal. My husband and I have discovered on this trip that if we each order separate items from the menu, we get far too much food. So at every restaurant we ate at in LP we ordered one or two starters (spring rolls, samosas, Lao dips and breads) and one main dish followed by desert. At each meal we found that we had plenty of food and got to try several items on the starter menu. No one seemed to care that we did this and it has now become our standard operating practice.
Our last night we ate at a restaurant called Arisai. It is located right in town on Sakkarine Rd. It has a French chef who must have lived or trained in Morocco because several couscous dishes were on the menu. We had wine and shared an Antipasto appetizer. For our main dish we had the Royal Couscous--two lamb chops, a huge piece of chicken, two spicy sausages all served with couscous and many, many different types of vegetables. It was soooooo good! My only regret was that I ate so much (again one shared main dish) that I had no room for desert. We stumbled out of the restaurant and had to walk TWICE around the block to try to work off some of our dinner.
Shopping
We really worked very, very hard to support the local economy and our overloaded bags show our effort. I thought the shopping opportunities were wonderful. In fact, we managed to do all our Christmas shopping while in LP. The morning and evening markets are great places to buy lots of silk scarves, wall hangings, and bedspreads. We ended up buying 3 bedspreads-duvet covers as gifts. They all are hand made and beautiful. I think I purchased about a dozen silk scarves, about 20 handmade silk placemats, many silk wall hangings...and then we even found beautiful hand carved hanging rods for the silk wall hangings. I think our family members will be thrilled with these gifts. I am living in Vietnam right now and have to bargain for everything I buy...I hate it. But bargaining with the Lao people was fun and enjoyable. I knew when I was close on a price when they rolled their eyes and really started punching the calculator buttons. I usually had them quote a price...... I came back with about 60% of that price.....they countered and I countered again. I thought that I paid a fair price and that they made some profit for their hard work. My husband is Buddhist and he found some of the Buddha carvings and items very nice and we have a bag full of those too! There are several high end places in town that have exquisite items. No matter what your budget---everyone should find things of interest.
A Final Word
We loved LP and hopefully can return at some point. If we do return, I would do several things differently.
First, I would stay in LP for about 3-4 days....then I would book a trip up or down the Mekong to one of the eco-camps for three days. Or if those didn't sound good, one thing I wished we could have done was take a tour to the Plain of Jars. I think it was a three day event. You really don't have to book these tours prior to coming to LP. There are tons of travel agencies in town with trips everywhere--everyday. Just schedule 3 days away from LP and then return for another couple of days. We spent 6 days there and loved every minute. It was not too long.....but again, I think breaking our time up with a trip somewhere for several days in the middle of our stay would have been perfect. If you stay at the same hotel, they will store your luggage so you don't have to haul it all with you.
On our way to the airport I decided I wanted to take a tuk tuk because we hadn't ridden in one It was a nice ride, I got a picture of us and our luggage in this colorful three wheeler--and also received a rude surprise when we got to the airport. Our hotel called the tuk-tuk and told us that the cost would be 20,000 kip. A minivan taxi would have been 50,000 kip. When we arrived at the airport I gave the man 20,000 kip and he said no, it was 50,000. Whoops.....I realized we should have set the price at the hotel. Well, I looked at him and told him he was crazy.....it was 20K and that was it. He then threw a fit....and we went toe to toe for several minutes. I finally tossed him another 10,000 kip and walked away. Damn....I should have known better and set the price before we started. Oh well.......
We left LP on Vietnam Airlines and flew onward to Siem Reap. Dara picked us up at the airport and delivered us to our hotel. We will be here for 6 days and have booked Dara and a driver for 5 of them. So I hope to begin a new trip report on Siem Reap tomorrow.
LP was a grand place to visit. I was very sad to leave.........
anda the Siem Reap trip will be delayed a bit. No internet really limits the updating I can do...so stay tuned!
Nov 2nd, 2008, 01:52 AM
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Gailmo - Great report. You made the same mistake as we did at Kuang Si Falls - climbing up the right side and coming down on the left. To make the climb even worse, my poor wife was loaded down with heavy camera equipment. I did mention this in my trip report but that was over 2-1/2 years ago.
