Photos/Report from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
 

Hi - We just got back from 3 fabulous weeks in SE Asia -- thanks to everyone who helped us plan our trip!

Here's a link to the photos. http://picasaweb.google.com/alan.jud...mail#slideshow

Trip report will be coming soon.

Lovely photos! Looks like you had a great time. Thanks so much for sharing! Will await your trip report.
Carol

Great photos.

Love your photos!!!
Luang Prabang looks idyllic...

Lovely pics - we are going to the fishing village tomorrow I think, can't wait!

fantastic pics....i enjoyed seeing each place...

Great photos - makes me want to go back to SE Asia right now. Banyan Tree Phuket looks awesome...

Hey, the spanking new forum seems to be back! Here's the first installment of my trip report. It actually covers the Luang Prabang portion. I'm sorry it's not in chronological order -- I was writing parts of it during the trip (mostly on flights), and this part got finished first. I'm still not done with the whole thing, so will post in chunks.

Day 8: Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang

We arrived early at the airport to make sure that there's no snafus' with the first use of Bangkok Airway Discovery Pass. The Lao Air checkin was slow but uneventful. Flight was on a propeller plane, with a snack box and the usual drinks.

We arrived in Luang Prabang around 4PM, filled out several forms, and got the visa, and picked up our bags. The whole process took about 30 minutes and was a total breeze. Taxi to town was a flat $6, and we arrived at our guest house, the Lotus Villa, around 5PM. The rooms were simple but nice, encircling a beautiful courtyard with tropical plants including some huge banana plants. We got a couple of glasses or chardonnay, and then were ready to go off and explore!

Luang Prabang is absolutely lovely, one of the most romantic towns I've ever visited. There are really only about 3 main streets, the one down by the Mekong, Koung Xoa (our hotel's street), and the main drag which changes name several times. We walked down the main drag towards the market, and started checking out possible dinner options. But first we stopped for a drink and appetizer at Tat Mor, a beautiful bar/restaurant that would not look out of place at the Four Seasons Hualalai – it was that stylish. The back of the restaurant was a wall of stacked bricks, with plants and orchids hanging from it, and floor to ceiling French doors opened out to a beautiful patio. They had very reasonable prices for drinks, with 2-for-3 during happy hour :). We had drinks and some terrific spring rolls, and this place became a regular part of our days in LP – we went there every day.

We took a quick walk through the night market and decided to have dinner at Tamnak Lao, a place that supposedly does traditional Lao food. We ordered a pork casserole, eggplant with tofu, and a noodle dish. The food was very good, closer to Chinese/Vietnamese, but with some Thai spices. It's very flavorful but not hot-spicy. We really liked Lao food and had it nearly every meal.

Day 9 Luang Prabang

I woke up at 6am and got up to go see the monks receive alms. Our street is on their “route” so it's as simple as just walking out the door. It was still dark, and there were no tourist out, but some of the locals were starting to set up. Mostly they were women who spread a blanket on the ground with a bamboo basket of cooked sticky rice. As it started to get light, someone banged on a chime, and a long line of bare-foot monks started to walk down the road, pausing to receive alms. They came in groups, probably from different temples, led by a senior monk followed by the novices – some were kids. We later learned that for a long time, the monastery was the best place for a young man from a poor family to get an education, and they often leave the monastery when they become adults. It's a quiet, solemn, peaceful experience.

We had breakfast in the courtyard, and it was a wonderful combination of warm baguette with butter and jam, fresh fruit, eggs, and Lao soup noodle. The soup noodle is only available after 8am since someone literally runs out to the market to buy the noodles and fresh herbs. It was very delicious – like pho but with ground pork and tomatoes and a bit spicy.

After breakfast, we walked down to the morning market, and then around town to the different temples, stopping for fruitshakes whenever the mood struck us. They say that time slows down in Luang Prabang, and that's really the case. There's not much to do, but one passes the time extremely pleasantly!

We went to lunch at Tamarind, which is very near our hotel and directly across from what we started to think of as “our wat”, Wat Nong. The food was cheap and delicious. Alan had a watermelon/chili granita (you've got to try this), and lemongrass stuffed with chicken. I had fish steamed in banana leaf, and a lemongrass/ginger drink. We learned that the owner was one of 11 children, and his father sent him to a temple with 50 cents because he couldn't afford to feed him anymore. Among other things, he learned to cook, and opened the restaurant along with his Australian wife after leaving the monastery.

While the mornings and evenings were very pleasant, mid-day was very hot. We went back to our room to rest and relax, and came out in the late afternoon for our daily chardonnay in the courtyard. We went to our Wat to hear the daily chanting by the monks, and then had a cocktail stop at Tat Mor before heading to the night market to do some serious shopping.

The night market in Luang Prabang is “very ambient”, as they say in Lonely Planet. It's artfully lit and mostly sells Lao handicrafts. There are mostly textile items – beautiful raw-silk scarves, woven wall-hangings/table runner/placemats, quilts, bags, and Lao clothing. Most of the stuff is the same from one vendor to another, but I challenge anyone to leave without at least a few scarves. Expect to pay 60-70% of the initial asking price (going rate for a silk scarf seems to be around 40000 kips, or a bit less than $5). I bought several – some to keep and some as presents. Note that later I saw similar Lao scarves selling at the Phuket Banyan Tree for 3000 bhat – a 200% mark-up!

That night, we decided we need to try dinner at the Tat Mor. They had two set menus each for 50000 kips, so we tried both. Mine was deep fried morning glory, a Lao curry, and a pork and vermicelli salad. Morning glory is a very common leafy green vegetable in Asia (in Chinese it's called “kong xing tsai”) though hardly ever found in the US. Usually it's stir fried with garlic, but this was breaded and then deep fried. I've never had it like that but it was delicious! The Lao curry was also very good – mild like what you would find in China or Japan. Alan had spring rolls, a Thai curry, and some stirred fried veggies. We enjoyed everything and went back to the room very happy.

Day 10 Luang Prabang

After a slow morning of monks and breakfast, we thought we would go down to the dock to get a boat to visit the Pak Ou Caves, one of the two common excursions outside of town. On the way there, we heard loud chanting and banging of gongs. Turned out it was a wedding procession with the groom leading the way, holding a candle. He looked happy but embarrassed to be receiving all the attention. Unfortunately they turned onto a side street and we never saw the bride.

We found the dock for the boat, but as it turns out, all the tourists go at 8:30 (where the cost is 60,000 kips per person), so to go any other time of day, we would need to rent the entire boat for 300,000 kips. Now, granted, 180,000 kips ($25) is not an enormous amount of money, but we quickly started thinking in Luang Prabang terms: 180,000 kips would by like 36 fruitshakes or about 5-6 cocktails. Hmm... let's see, it's not like we have any plans tomorrow, so lets wait!

So, without any plans, we walked along the river checking out the boutique shops. Many had lovely things but prices were easily 5-10x of the night market. Some of the stuff you can't find at the market, but most stuff is the same. We stumbled upon a photography exhibit and bought a couple of beautiful photos of LP. We found the cheapest fruitshake (5000 kip) at the Hive down by the river and made this a regular stop as well.

Alan decided we should walk up Mount Phousi. Given that we've done nothing but stroll, eat and drink since getting to LP, I agreed this would be a good idea. It's around 350 steps up, but turned out to be quite short and easy. Note that they charge you 20,000 per person to do this, but the ticket booth is very strategically placed half way up, after you've already made the commitment of about 130 steps.

It was quite hot doing this in the middle of the day, so we rewarded ourselves with fruitshakes and lunch at the Restaurant Luang Prabang. This places is near Mount Phousi, and always packed. But I thought it was the worst food we had in LP, plus the shakes were way over-priced :). After lunch, it was the usual, rest, chardonnay, Tat Mor, and market. Alan bought some Lao shirts that will come in handy during the rest of our travels.

We decided we had gone too many days without a bottle of wine, so decided to visit the most attractive wine bar in town, the Pack Luck Wine Bar. This place is lovely with very reasonable prices. They don't serve food, but you can order from the Pizza Luang Prabang next door. We were very happy with our Chilean Cabernet and pizza margarita.

Day 11 Luang Prabang

I went out to see the monks as usual, but this time without a camera. It's quite interesting difference -- several monks made eye contact with me, and a few smiled shyly. This morning there was a particularly intrusive group of French tourist who really got in their face, and I think they appreciated someone who just watched quietly.

We had to hustle to get ready to be at the boat by 8:30 (so sadly, no noodle soup). We bought our tickets, and waited for our assigned numbers to be called. Soon, a man started to call out numbers in roughly groups of 6, and we boarded a small long tail motor boat to the cave. The trip took about 2 hours, and was quite scenic, with good views of the village life along the Mekong. The cave itself was interesting, full of buddha statutes that had been placed there by worshippers. We stopped for about 45 minutes and then boarded for the return journey. Enroute, we stopped at a “whiskey village” where we saw how lao lao, and local rice liquor is made. It's quite touristy and sold the usual scarves and handicrafts. I did see a scarf in a swirly pattern that's reversible. It's so pretty that I bought it on the spot for 40,000 kips. I did not see this particular scarf anywhere else, so if you see it and like it, buy it at the whiskey village! Make sure you walk past the vendors to the “real” village for at least a quick glimpse.

We got back to Luang Prabang around 1:30, and wanted to go to Tamarind for lunch, but unfortunately it was closed on Sunday. So we went back to the Hive for fruitshake and lunch. Afterwards, we decided to try a tuk tuk to visit some of the local handicraft villages. The closest one was a weaving/papermaking one about 20 minutes away. It was an interesting ride on the tuk tuk, but 20 minutes is about my limit in one of these vehicles – quite dusty and bumpy. The village was ok – it was interesting to see the artisans at work and some village life, but there wasn't really anything particularly unique to buy.

Back in LP, we had the usual rest and went to Tat Mor for our final drink. The waiter, who looks to be about 15 years old, knew us by now and brought us our “usual”. We decided to go to the 3 Nagas for our last dinner in Laos. This restaurant prices in dollars and is a bit more expensive then the others, but the food was outstanding. We had a pork and banana leaf salad, a green curry with pork and chicken, and chicken stirred fried with basil. The basil was neither Thai nor Italian, but had a wonderful, unique flavor. All three dishes were delicious with the sticky rice and washed down by some Chardonnay from Argentina. For dessert, we had tapioca and fruit in coconut milk. Yummy! I highly recommend this restaurant.

loving the report....hating this new forum look and find it awkward to use

Nice job with the photos.

Hmm... no comments... hope people are finding this interesting. Here's the Bangkok installment

Bangkok

After months of planning, we were so excited to finally leave for our trip to SE Asia! We had cashed in a bunch of miles and got business class seats on ANA from SFO to NRT and then onto BKK. The flight was terrific with great food and service (see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...o-nrt-bkk.html for my opinion of ANA vs. UA). We got to Bangkok around 11PM, got through the airport with no problems, and got in a taxi for the Royal Orchid Sheraton. The trip only took about half an hour, except once we arrived, the driver said we should pay him 500 bhat. I was like, the meter says 350, why should I pay you 500? We got change from the hotel and paid him 350.

We woke up late the next day and barely made it down for the breakfast buffet. Now in retrospect, I think this was probably the best breakfast buffet next to the Phuket Banyan Tree. Great fruit, eggs, pastries, but the best was a made-to-order noodle bar with your choice of fish, shrimp, pork, tofu balls. Plus you have a great riverside view of all the activities on the Chao Praya. After breakfast, we set out to see the main historical sites.

We walked a few feet outside the hotel to the Si Phraya boat stop, and hopped the tourist boat. We got off at the Grand Palace stop, but must have made a wrong turn because we couldn’t find the entrance. Soon we kept encountering men telling us the palace is closed and that we should go visit some other site. I had been warned about this so did our best to ignore these people. Luckily we came across some English tourists who pointed us to the entrance. While we enjoyed Bangkok, the constant scamming attempts were annoying

The palace was grand (of course), ornately decorated in gold and jewel tone colors. We walked all around and went inside the temple to see the emerald Buddha. After that, we took the boat one stop in reverse and saw the Reclining Buddha at Wat Po. This was one huge, long Buddha!

The humidity and heat were starting to get to us so we took the boat back to our room. As I’m writing this, it seems like we’re barely doing anything before stopping for a rest. But you can’t underestimate the weather. It was quite hot (probably high 80’s/low 90’s), but worse is the humidity. It does not take much to get completely drenched in sweat. Since we’re from San Francisco, this takes some adjustment!

After we recuperated, we decided to go to the Sky Bar for a drink and watch the sunset. It’s about a 15 minute walk from the ROS to the Lebua State Tower, so we decided to walk. It was not too bad and it was fun to look at all the jewelry shops that lined the street. We got there just before 6pm and the Sky Bar was not open yet, so they took us to Distill, on the other side of the Sky Bar. Personally, I thought the view was just as nice but had these big comfy settees for seating. We watched the sunset and moved to the Sky Bar. There’s definitely a wow factor here, and we noticed the temperature is at least 10 degrees cooler than on the ground. If only the food were not so incredibly expensive (and poorly reviewed), it would be quite pleasant to have dinner there. But I actually liked Distill better – more relaxing atmosphere and not so full of tourists.

We backtracked towards the hotel and stopped to have dinner at Harmonique. We had basic Thai food – pad thai, chicken with basil and fried fish. It was delicious, especially the noodle. We thought the noodle was the best we had in Thailand.

We were still a little jetlagged so got to breakfast very early. We wanted to take a longtail boat to go through the klongs, and was ready around 9, but found out that on a Sunday it doesn’t run until 9:30. We decided to take one right from the Sheraton pier. It was probably marginally more expensive but it was nice to hang out at the waterside bar at the Sheraton.

The boat drove down the river and took a left to enter the klongs, but we had to wait quite a while for the locks on the canals to open since it was high tide. It was actually quite interesting to see how the system worked to regulate the water levels in the klongs. It wasn’t Venice, but driving through the klongs was interesting, mostly for the view of daily living along the river. It was a Sunday and Chinese New Years eve, so many families were out preparing food or just hanging out.

After our allotted 2 hours, we asked the boat driver to let us out at Wat Arun, and climbed to the top. Be aware that the stairs are very steep, but the views are worth it! We then took a walk through the flower market to China Town, and walked through the markets and the streets, where many people were putting out offerings of food for new years.

After all that it was only about 2pm when we got back to the hotel. I booked a massage but wanted to go to the gym beforehand (one must deserve one’s massage ?), and Alan took a swim in the pool. The Sheraton has 2 pools – a horrible concrete one baking in the full sun, and a nice garden one with many shady trees. The hotel had a Mandara spa, and the experience was nice, though I thought the therapist a bit inexperienced.

This day we decided to go across the river to the 360 Bar at the Hilton Millenium for our cocktail. We really liked this bar – great views, nice atmosphere with soft jazzy music. It was very nice and relaxing. The hotel itself was quite impressive in a very modern sort of way. I think it would be a nice stay, though while we were there it seemed really deserted.

We had wanted to go to Patpong to walk through the night market (and get a glimpse of all the go-go girls), and were planning to take a taxi after the Hilton boat ferried us back to the other side. But we got on the wrong boat and ended up at the Sky Train stop, which worked just as well for getting to Patpong.

The market itself was pretty uninteresting. In general, I didn’t find anything worth buying at these Bangkok street markets. It was early so the go-go bars were all empty – kind of sad to see all these bikini-clad girls dancing listlessly on bar tops all by themselves.

We decided to go to the Mango Tree for dinner since it was so close to the market. It was a nice Thai restaurant located in a beautiful old building, with a very pretty outdoor garden area. The atmosphere was very nice with live traditional music, but the food was really touristy. After dinner, we took a cab back and had an early night to get ready for our tour with Tong the next morning.

On our last full day in Bangkok I had booked a tour with Tong to visit the Floating market and fishing village. We had confirmed via email while in Bangkok, and Kung was waiting for us in the lobby at 7am sharp. She’s very vivacious and energetic and we enjoyed her company. I had not known this, but our first stop was the Railway Market about 30 min out of town. This turned out to be quite interesting. It’s a local food market, but set up on an active railroad track. A warning would sound before the train, and everyone would pull back their awnings and merchandise. And then this train would come barreling through, but within a minute, everything would be put back as it was! We had to wait a bit for the train to come, but it was worth it. Funny enough we got to meet Tong at the market as she was guiding on the same itinerary.

After that we went to the floating market, first stopping to get an iced coffee. As advertised, it was extremely crowded with tourists. At the start it was virtually impossible for the boats to move. But once we broke free a bit and got to the outlying areas, it was much nicer. We bought coconut pancakes, and Kung took us to a particular noodle-soup venders. Delicious! Perfect noodle soup. I thought the overall experience was too touristy, but I guess you had to do it once!

We set off for Tong’s “Secret Place”. I think this area is unfamiliar even to locals because the driver, new to Tong’s team, didn’t know how to go. We stopped at a cluster of buildings and were greeted by our host, a local fisherman who has turned to tourism to supplement his income. He was very gracious and took us onto his motor boat.

We set out through a Mangrove forest (these trees with its roots in swampy water), it was quite beautiful. Our host started to call for the monkeys, and tossing banana chunks. Soon, we were surrounded by monkeys who got into a feeding frenzy as we kept tossing banana chunks. After having been on safari, where it was “zero interference”, I’m not sure how environmentally sound it is to be feeding these wild monkeys this way, but it was interesting to see them interact. But I could’ve used just a fraction of the bananas.

We then went out into the ocean to see various fishing operations like farming for cockerals, mussels, oysters, etc. Our host was very diligent and proud of his operation, and did his best to explain the various steps to us. Even if one were not interested in fishing, the ride was relaxing and very beautiful. The water was quite shallow in places, and dotted with these picturesque shacks on stilts. Our host told us that farmers would sleep in the shacks at night to prevent poaching.

After a couple of hours (by this time we were starving!), our boat stopped at a more elaborate version of one of these shacks, and we climbed up to the deck to a terrific seafood lunch. Alan doesn’t like seafood so they prepared some chicken for him, so I ate a whole fish, crab, shrimps all by myself. Most of it was excellent! We relaxed in the shack for a while, imagining its possibilities as an awesome party space, and then went back to our car.

Kung took us back to the hotel and we settled up with her. It was expensive, but exactly what Tong quoted in the email. We really enjoyed the day, especially the visit to the fishing village. Normally we hate tours, but the fishing village was something that would’ve been very difficult for us to experience on our own.

For dinner, we decided that we needed a break from Thai food and went to V9, the restaurant at the Sofitel. We had been missing a getting a bottle of wine with dinner. While hard liquor is cheap, wine seems to be extraordinarily expensive in Thailand. At the Sky Bar, I was looking at the wine list, and thinking $200 for a Dominus Cabernet was not that unreasonable. And then I realize that I had done my math wrong and missed a zero. $2000! Yikes!

So it was ironic that at V9 the wine prices were reasonable (comparable to the US), but food was really expensive. But it was all very good. I had the “appetizer tree” thing – plenty of food, and Alan had a terrific steak. We had an excellent Chilean syrah/cab blend and were very happy to get our wine fix, though this was easily the most expensive meal we had in Thailand.

i loved this review of your bangkok time....interesting UA/ANA comparison....

did you think the day with tong was really expensive?? we have thought that we would pay twice as much for the experience....

Well, I guess it's all relative. We paid about 6400 bhat total for the whole day. This included 3000 bhat for the guide and the car, 2000 bhat for the fishing village/lunch, 400 bhat for the floating market boat, 800 bhat for gas, and 200 bhat for the monkey food. Tong was very upfront about all the costs, and I feel the experience was worth it.

To compare this with other "excursions" we took:

- 2000 bhat total in Chiang Mai for a full day of elephant ride, hiking, and rafting. But this was on a group trip of about 8 people (met some very nice/interesting people)

- $40 for driver and guide for a full day of Angkor Wat

- 120,000 kips ($14) for a half day boat trip to Pak Ou cave in Luang Prabang

- 7000 bhat (plus a generous tip) for the kayak trip in Phang Nga bay with John Gray's Hong by Starlight (absolutely awesome).

But as they say in the ad, the experiences were priceless :)

Lovely pictures. I'm enjoying your report - great tidbits, especially for LP. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! the report is not finished yet, so I need all the encouragement to keep writing :)

Enjoying your report. I was in LP in 2006 I don't recall the snazzy winebars....interesting how the place is "evolving".

Please continue with the rest of your report!

Please keep going! Great report and photos! Also, really thanks for the Tongs cost breakdown would love to hear more about the tour in Chiang Mai!