3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 1
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January 13th, 2010
After my visa issues and stopover in Doha, it was on to Southeast Asia for 3 and a half weeks. I feel very fortunate to be able to say that this is not the longest vacation I have ever taken (3rd longest, I think). I spent 3 days in Laos and the rest of the time in Thailand. This was my 3rd time visiting Thailand – its combination of beautiful beaches, great food, friendly people, and cheap prices makes it one of my favorite countries in the world.
Vientiane, Laos
I arrived in Bangkok on December 6th with one night reserved in Bangkok and no other set plans. I was on my own until Emily arrived five days later on December 11th. I decided to do a quick trip to Vientiane since Laos was the one place in SE Asia that I had still not been to yet, and I wanted to check it out.
To get to Vientiane you can either take an overnight bus, overnight train, or fly. I chose the overnight train from Bangkok to Nong Khai, followed by a quick train across the Friendship Bridge into Laos. Unfortunately, I made the bad decision to go 2nd class on the way there. The bed was fine but they left the lights on all night long so I didn’t get any sleep at all. So when I arrived, I was suffering from some serious “trainlag”.
Maybe it was due to my sleeping schedule being off or maybe because I got sick while I was there (cold), but Vientiane didn’t really impress me. I stayed in a cheap guesthouse near the river, or rather, near the riverbed. The Mekong river was extremely low (I assume just because of the season?) and it only filled about a third of the total riverbed. So instead of eating dinner overlooking the water, I had a rather unspectacular view of dirt. The food in Vientiane, however, wasn’t bad and was dirt cheap. I really enjoyed the chicken laap, a traditional Lao dish. Laap, or larb, is minced meat mixed with a lot of herbs and chilis and usually served with sticky rice.
I did get out and do some sightseeing in Vientiane one day. I took a tuk-tuk/jumbo to the Patuxai monument and then walked back from there. [Side note - negotiating with tuk-tuks is much more difficult in Laos than in Thailand because they are run like a cartel - the driver must get the price approved by the leader of the group before he can leave.] Patuxai, or “Victory Gate”, is Vientiane’s Arc de Triumphe. There is a funny story behind it; the US government gave Laos concrete to build a new airport in the 60s but the Laos government used it to build this monument instead, which is why it is often referred to as the “Vertical Runway”. After Patuxai, I also stopped by the Talat Sao market and the That Dam stupa.
Bangkok, Thailand
Emily and I met up in Bangkok, after she flew in from Zürich and I took the train back from Laos (1st class this time). We stayed in a guesthouse on Soi Rambutti, just off of the main backpacker strip of Khao San road. We had been there on our around-the-world trip so we were already familiar with the area. It is a bit crowded and chaotic there which was fun for a couple days, but then we were both ready to get out of Bangkok and down to the islands.
We did manage to get away from Khaosan road a couple times. One night we took a tuk-tuk to the flower market, and another night we went to Chinatown and ate dinner at T&K Seafood, which had been recommended to us by a friend. We ate outside on the crowded sidewalk and had a great meal. I had the crab curry and Emily tried the sweet chili fish. Both were great. Emily also ate a couple of the biggest oysters I have ever seen in my life. Even after cutting them in half, they were still enormous.
Continue to 3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 2
