Attractions - Luang Prabang

It's quite easy to move around Luang Prabang. So far LPB has not been overly manifested with pubs and bars catered for foreigners (like Vang Vieng). Hopefully it will still retain some of it's local culture in this city when I next visit this place again...















Cycling is one of the easiest and cheapest way to get around (other than by foot of coz)












Tat Kuang Si (Kuang Si Waterfall)
Approx 20km from city

Our Lunch @ Kuang Si










Pak Ou Cave
I think Pak Ou is overrated in guide books. There's nothing much to this place but 2 caves with lots of little Buddha statues, but the serenity of the place can be felt. The ride up took us about 45 mins of uneven and windy road from the city.

Pak Ou Cave










Slow boat that brings you across the Mekong to Pak Ou












Mekong River at Pak Ou












Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham (Wat Mai for short)
The walls of the temple have gold reliefs which recount the tale of Vessantara (Pha Wet in Lao), the Buddha's penultimate birth and scenes from the Ramayan & village life.

Some friends we made at Wat Mai. The monk at the back is learning Japanese at the temple and the monk in front is practising his English with us. Most of the Lao males get their education during their monkhood (the guys have to choose to either serve the army or become a novice for 4 years).


Wat Xieng Thong
One of Luang Prabang's most magnificent temple. It showcases the classic Luang Prabang temple architecture, with the roofs sweep low to the ground.


























The rear of the sin features an impressive "Tree of Life" mosaic set in a red background.











The Royal Funeral Carriage













Phousi Hill
Stairway up to Phousi Hill













The temple at Phousi













Sunset at Phousi (due to bad weather, weren't able to catch a shot of the sunset...)







View of LPB city from Phousi











Phra That Khong Santi Chedi

This is a monastry and also a favourite Lao tourist attraction. It's a yellow stupa with 3 levels and the view from the stupa is pretty impressive. I doubt many tourists go to this place, it sure is a popular picnic place among the Lao people. If you are into meditation, this is one place I would recommend.

Food in Luang Prabang

View Khem Khong Restaurant & Luang Prabang (LPB) Restaurant 2
These 2 restaurants serve pretty good food. Personally I liked View Khem Khong better. A good place to try some local food here, you will unlikely be disappointed. Both places have a nice view to catch the sunset.

Italian Food @ Dao Fa & Western @ Cafe de Arts
we just picked places to eat randomly, whichever appealed to us. So far none of the places we went have disappointed us so far.

Local Food - food street at Thanon Sisavangvatthana

You will find some of the cheapest foodies here. This is only a very short food street, so you may not be able to find most of the local food. For those on really tight budget, there is stalls offer "buffet" style non-meat meals. Basically you pay a flat sum, and you can pile as much as you can or want on the plate given to you; one serving only. They are all carbos and veggies, so carnivores, this is not quite the option for you.

JoMa Cafe

One of our favourite place for tea breaks. In scotching hot weather, this air-conditioned place enjoying a cup of Mulberry Ice Tea, would be the best indulgence ever.

Streets of Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a stop-over town for travellers going towards Vientiane or Luang Prabang. As the road trip to and from Vientiane to Luang Prabang is very long, it will take you almost 10 hours just to get there by their local bus, thus most people will stop by Vang Vieng for at least a night before proceeding on. Vang Vieng in itself do not have much attractions, however if you do take time to walk out to the older towns you will find yourself among beautiful scenes of padi fields with hills and caves forming the background.

The main street in Vang Vieng has unfortunately is now a street lined with bars, restaurants and cafes for foreigners. Basically it is like walking along one of the streets in Phuket. Sad.

If you are into canoeing and rafting, Vang Vieng is a good point to start out with for such expeditions. There are quite a few "adventure" shops around that cater for such tours. And of coz they don't come cheap, but it is affordable. If you are into taking in local flavours of towns and cities, Vang Vieng is definitely not the place to be at.

Tham Phu Kham

And this long walk down the road took us total of 7 hours under scotching sun to reach Tham Phu Kham, a cave in Vang Vieng. This is one walk I believe all 3 of us will never forget... And we also learnt not to listen to Miss E too much and also not trust the distances written on signs.

The long walk to Tham Phu Kham

Lake Pool at the foot of Tham Phu Kham














Inside the cave - Tham Phu Kham














Our dusty and tanned feet after the long exhausting walk... can't tell the diff which is dirt which is the tan-line.

North Laos (28 Sep - 14 Nov 2007)

Laos is one country I personally love. One of those place which I will never get sick of going.
Most people have a misperception that Laos, being a poor and undeveloped country, is dirty & filthy, bad sanitation, unsafe roads etc and the list goes on.... but these are so wrong. In contrary, it is much safer and cleaner than most parts the developed wealthy countries.

We started off our trip flying into Vientiane, stayed a night there to catch an early morning bus to Vang Vieng from the Talat Sao Bus Terminal. It's a gruelling 4.5 hours ride.... and I recall it was the shortest bus ride throughout our trip. From Vang Vieng we headed to Luang Prabang for a few days (5 hrs bus ride on winding roads) then another 8.5 hrs to Luang Nam Tha. Unfortunately due to the bad rainy weather we didn't go up to Muang Sing eventually. Having nothing much to see in Luang Nam Tha, we headed back to Luang Prabang to rest before heading to Vientiane as our final stop for this trip. That was pretty much the skeleton of the route for our North Laos trip.

We usually stay in Guesthouses in North Laos as they are one of the cheapest accommodation there. And of coz clean, this is one most important criteria when we select the GH. These GH are not that shabby as what most people would think. If you are not too particular with the kind of thick mattress to sleep in, basically these places will do.

Some sceneries from the Sunset GH in Vang Vieng, it is located 5-8mins walk away from the Friendship Bridge. (If I recall correctly. ladies correct me if I am wrong).















Will post up more pics of the various cities in North Laos which we went in the next few coming posts.

Port Dickson (30 Apr - 3 May 2008)

Guess it's going to take a while to get elfinchilde to start the blog going... so have decided to input some pics we've taken during our short and much needed getaway to Port Dickson, Malaysia.

Pardon my writing, this is obviously not my forte, I'm usually the mobile map among the 3 of us. Not that I have all maps in my head but eh well let's just say that it's better to not to have the 2 blind and blur squids lead the way (and that is another story for another time).

Over time you will come to realise alcohol is never an outsider in all our trips... believe this is one of the reasons to what Miss.E. has mentioned earlier, why we haven't killed each other so far.

This was the very first picture which we took when we got there. Yup, not even the picture of the place. haha that's how serious we take our alcohol.

"The Perfect Couple" of our trip
- Macallan Inspiration & No. 10 Tanquery Gin (think this beautiful fragrant gin is no longer found on shelves... if someone knows where to get, alert us!)

Here's where we stayed... The Legends















Our main activities there were: crabbing, drinking, eating, sleeping and more crabbing.

As now is not the crab season, most of the flower crabs which we caught were not that big. But we still managed to trap approx 60 of them over 3 days, which all of it has become the main delicacy of our meals.

This is my first time in one of Port Dickson's water resort. Am impressed with this resort though, the place was kept very clean till we came haha.

Of course there were also other sea sports at PD (i.e. canoe, jet ski, fishing, etc.). Being the lazy us, we didn't even step foot onto the beach. But we did have hell of a great time self-entertaining ourselves. Don't think the 2 of them would want me to placing those pics up here. haha

Sunset Shots of Port Dickson
























Catch of our trip