The Laos trip: Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, Intro

It was a long time plan to visit a bit further into Laos, then to Vientiane, which is only around 30km from the Thai border.
Since due to visa reasons I had to leave Thailand anyway, we decided to make this a family holiday and explore a bit more of Laos. Chose Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang for the trip, though I didn't make big research about the trip, I heard before they are places where you can spend the time and see things. Destination set, had to arrange the trip, at least the getting there part first, as there was no set plan at all.
We chose to buy a ticket to bus via a travel agency on Khao San Road, as they suppose to have cheaper prices, and could send us to Vientiane with no need to use taxis much.
We bought the ticket from ETC ( Educational Travel Center) and as it turned out exactly that was, educational! They were thicket reseller to another company, a common thing. Our son is 6, he still prefer to sit with us, sleep rather in our lap on the bus; a kid still. We bought 2 ticket because of this, as always on buses this far. But made sure, asked them.
The bus left next night, we are there, bag and ready, the people at the bus said that we need a ticket for my son!! Wow, shock rather, as ours was not too cheap neither, and I asked this prior, got the green sign. Some verbal fights, as I felt cheated, and also because I said that I pay, but I will need an actual ticket/receive then, I don't like this sort of pocket monies to pay for scams. Anyway, finally we got onto the bus, and was on the way, but after some bad start.
The estimated time they gave was 13 hours to Vientiane, from Bangkok. A long way, though I believe it can be a bit less. Actually I know, as coming home with different company took much less. Lesson learnt, never again with them!!
We arrived to Vientiane at around 9AM and there got to a local bus to continue the journey to Vang Vieng.
Local bus is a cheap, and sometimes fun way to travel, although a considerable slower way to. But there you can watch locals, if looking out the window inst interesting.
This trip took 5 hours, and it was mostly interesting to look out the window. Soon the bus left the town, the villages started to be smaller, and around 2 hours later we reach the first hills.
The stone/brick homes changed to wooden and bamboo houses mainly, less traffic on the road, and many more potholes. After 3 hours shaking it was real welcome to arrive finally.
We were around 20 hours on the road already, more then enough to travel at once.
Anyway, so much about getting there, and for prologue, then next post will be already about what we did and saw there.

I am back!!

I am back, being in Laos for 8 days, on vacation.
Soon I go threw the photos, and I will post all my experiences, as they all fresh.
Expect great photos, and maybe 3-4 Laos related posts soon!

Going to Vacation

In the next week or so, I will go to a little vacation ( well deserved I think) with my family.
The destination is Laos.
Though we will go Vientiane again, we don't plan to stop there this time, only to change bus, as we will head to Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. Something new to explore, and I looking forward to have some nice photos to share here when I will come back.
However, I am not looking forward to the bus ride, tonight, which takes around 13 hours, and maybe another 4 hours from Vientiane to Vang Vieng.
Well, did someone said travelling is fun??!!

Entrecard: a fun way to promote your blog

A few days ago, thank to an online friend from a forum, I found out about Entrecard.

Though I heard the name before, never really caught me, and never had a better look to see how it is. Now I know it was a mistake from my side.

Entrecard is great, and real fun.

If you have a blog, you don't usually want to write for yourself, be honest, you would want people to read it as well. But to find/reach reader, to let them know that your blog is there, and to get some traffic to your blog, these are not the easy tasks. There are millions of blog out there.

Entrecard works mainly like a traffic exchange, where you "drop card" for members blog, and they can drop on yours. For these you can earn credit.

You can design your card and use that. Some cards I saw are real pro, and I envy those who has design talents.

I just made myself a newer, V2 card, now it looks like this:

Still there is way to improve, I know, but this is a start.

With the earned credit you can advertise your card on blogs, and it works again the opposite way too. More members like to put ads on your blog, higher the "price" goes. It is like an entrepreneur game. I told you, it is fun. Most blog directories don't offer such features, thus sooner or later they become boring for you.

Entrecard is well organized, and those all little cards bring lots of colour to it.

Not to mention traffic, it is bringing me rapid traffic, fast becoming my biggest source.

I hope more success will follow.

I strongly recommend to all who has a blog, to try Entrecard. It is fun, and it is free.

I am happy I have listened to my friend.

Vientiane, the capital of Laos

I have the luck to visit Vientiane for 3 times in the past. It was partly of my curiosity and partly as the visa rules of Thailand. Not go to the matter, but they are a bit strange. But whatever.

All times I chose to take the night bus, which is not the most comfortable way to sleep, but since it takes around 12 hours the trip from Bangkok's Morchit bus station to Nong Khai, this way at least i didn't waste the day for traveling. From Nong Khai it is a few kilometers tuk-tuk ride to the Friendship Bridge, what connects Thailand and Laos over the Mekong river.

I am being lazy ( sometimes) I always get visa at arrival on the Lao side, then take another tuk-tuk to Vientiane.

Though Vientiane is the capital of Laos, after Bangkok, it seems a small town, and actually it is in comparison. I find it refreshing, that actually the air is better, there is no continuous traffic jams, and the whole place seems more relaxed, including the people as well. Vientiane didn't get commercialized as some other places of the World, though probably this will change as well in the future.

Always stay in some small guesthouse, close to the main place, the market/bus station, and Patuxai, the Victory Gate, in the middle of a small park. It is one religious style building, though in a different way, as it serves as a great lookout also, if you climb up to the 7th story, and there is numerous small shops along the staircase. The view is great, and can really see far, there is not many building to obstruct your view. The city has few tall buildings, and even those are less then 10 stories high I guess.

There is many things to visit, but most places to see in Vientiane are also connected to religion, just in the neighbor Thailand.

They have their Haw Pha Kaew Temple, where they once displayed that Emerald Buddha statue that is in Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaew now. The Lao took that from Thai one time, but later Thai got it back. Now the building not function much as a temple anymore, though it is still nice, and has a nice garden as well.

And there is Laos symbol, and probably their most important religious monument, Pha That Luang.
Pha That Luang is a 3 layered stupa, all golden, really look beautiful in the sunshine.
You can get into the inner layers, though not into the stupa itself, and it isn't a real building. Stupas built to house religious relics or bones.
They also feature Pha That Luang on their banknotes, I should have a little more about that in a separate post.



Finally, Laos brings back some little memories from my childhood, as my home country used to be communist until I was 14. Laos is still communist, so, you can see the kids in pioneer school uniforms some place, with blue, or red scarf/tie?, whatever is the right word for it, in the neck.
Deja vu, I used to have like that as a child too.

My son's latest: some photos to my mom+dad

Just got these photos in this week, they were taken in a mall, as a special after certain amount of shopping (no, we didn't have to go bankrupt to get it).
Since my parents are living around 10000km away, I would like to share these photos with them, so, they can see their grandchild. After all, the blog is not only travel, but an amount of me and etc as well. If someone not interested, just skip!

Red Alert 3 Premier Edition: my new PC game

I am not that much into PC games, as I was a few years ago, but sometimes I still like to play a bit with my friend, online.

We lately was playing Command and Conquer 3, but since it is getting a bit older, it is not the same fun anymore.

But finally came a nice new strategy game, so, all installed, tomorrow we can give it a try.

I already had a look, and Red Alert 3 seem as good as the previous version was, but with a much better graphic. Should have lots of fun playing in the coming weeks.