My boyfriend and I had a plan to move to California for a year and then to Colorado. Eventually over time we decided to scrap Cali and go straight to CO. I am extremely thankful for that right now because I would not know what to do if I was moving to a state that was on fire.
We decided to take the opportunity of leaving our jobs to travel somewhere far away for an extended period of time. We chose to explore Laos and Thailand. I had friends that went a few years ago as well as friends that went last year so they were all super helpful and helped me plan my entire trip! Thanks guys!!
*I am going to break this blog up by city because a month is too much to cover. *
We left our jobs on a Friday and our flight to Vientiane, Laos was on Tuesday. The first flight was Tuesday morning at around 11am. The flight was 16 long hours with a stop over in Guangzhao, China. Our next flight was a 3 hour flight. Our stop over was under 2 hours so I was convinced we were going to miss our flight. By some miracle we made it, even having to go through security again. While going through security I was annoyed because I had just bought a bottle of water and feared I would have to throw it out. I was surprised and amused when the security guard opened my water bottle, sniffed it, and then handed it back to me. Thorough.
Even though our flight was Tuesday morning, we didn’t land in Laos until Wednesday night. I watched so many movies on the plane. I was so anxious, not only because of the month long trip but on top of that anxiety was the anxiety of the turbulence. You might not know it because I have a travel blog, but I am terrified of flying. My heart was pounding and I was breathing heavily. I was wired. My boyfriend and I watched Rampage to keep my mind calm. We both slept through the entire second flight. I was so exhausted that it was painful to be awake.
Once we landed in Vientiane, we took money out of the ATM and got a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Khamvongsa. We had to pay the hotel in cash once we arrived, which I had put aside in USD. Mark and I both counted the money and handed it to the two clerks. While signing papers one of the men told us we didn’t give them the right amount of money. I insisted I did because I put aside the exact right amount in my wallet for this hotel. He handed the pile back to me. Mark and I both counted it and sure enough, it was short $20. Okay, I see how Laos is going to go. I checked the floor but it was no use. I knew they stole it and I had to pay them another $20. I was pissedddddddddd.
Also throughout our three days here, we noticed our stuff in the room was moving, stuff that didn’t need to be moved in order to clean the room. We never noticed anything missing but we were certain the staff were going through our stuff. We made sure to not leave any valuables in the room at all when we weren’t there. Besides that we really did like the hotel. It was basic but pretty.
Something I liked about our hotel was that a hallway was used for their offering each day. It was very cool to see and pretty too.
After the paying fiasco we go up to our room and immediately go to bed. Laos is 11 hours ahead of NY and we had just ended a 24+ hour journey so we were all out of sorts. At 4am I was wide awake.
Thursday morning I was up at 7am. We went to the dining area for breakfast. Breakfast was included and I enjoyed every moment of it. The food was delicious and the pineapple juice was amazingly delicious. Every morning my meal was better than the last. I got crepes and swedish waffles and “The Traditional”. Yum, yum, yum.
We were then ready to walk around the city to explore. I didn’t make many plans for Laos. I just made note of the particular things I wanted to see but figured we would mostly just wander around.
On our walk we came across a park that we walked through. It lead us to a very cool statue.
Something I loved about Laos was all of the offering statues everywhere. They were always so pretty and well cared for. I wanted to photograph every one I saw throughout the trip but they were everywhere! I couldn’t believe how many there were.
We decided to walk to Patuxai Monument. You can pay a few Kip to walk to the top.
On the walk up, each level has stuff to buy in it. Everything was overpriced though so we didn’t get anything.
Once we reached the top we had quite an adventure. Two men asked Mark if he could take their picture. One motioned him to an area to take the picture. Mark went to take it but they said, “No, we want to take your picture.” Mark was confused and then noticed one of the men’s hand reaching into his pocket. Mark yelled at them. They said “Oh sorry.” But later came up to him and said, “We’ll see you later.” After that we made sure to be extra careful with our money.
Look, I actually have a picture of one of the pick pockets behind me!
Besides that incident, we really enjoyed the monument. It was beautiful and had a cool view of the city. It was a killer walk though. It was so incredibly hot!
Once we were done exploring the monument, we decided to walk back to the hotel and find some lunch.
On our way back we passed That Dam, a large stupa.
We stopped at a place for lunch. It was so delicious! We loved almost every meal we had in Laos.
Because it was so hot, nearly everyday in the afternoon we went back to our hotel to either shower or nap for a few hours. After 12pm each day it became nearly impossible to be outside. We decided to wake up very early each morning to explore. We were also still battling jet-lag and the time difference so we were tired in the afternoon each day anyway. The sun is so powerful that on our very first day we both got sun burnt even though we spent the day trying to stay in the shade. We wore sunblock every day from then on.
Later that night we went to KK BBQ for dinner. Sadly this was one of my worst meals in Laos. I ordered Papaya salad. It smelled so disgusting that I had a difficult time putting the food in my mouth and then when I finally did, I discovered they mixed up my order with Mark’s. They made mine super spicy and his not spicy at all. It was completely inedible.
After Mark finished up his dinner (which he loved) we stopped at a night market on our way back to our hotel. I LOVE night markets. This definitely wasn’t the best one we saw in Laos but it was still fun and I still bought stuff.
We saw many children sleeping in their parent’s stands.
The next day we went to Buddha Park. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of our entire Laos trip. It was a park full of statues and monuments. It was just so beautiful.
Our hotel set us up a driver to take us there, wait an hour and then drive us back for $30 USD. I would have liked to stay longer than an hour because I felt a little rushed but it was so hot that I was pretty dizzy so it worked out in the end.
As you walked in there were pretty flowers and butterflies everywhere.
The statues were just incredible to see.
One of my favorites in this park was this giant, leaning statue. It was so amazing to stand next to it.
A highlight of Buddha Park is being able to go through this statue and walk to the top. We got a kick out of going through it’s mouth. I found it to be hysterical. One of my friends said it was like Legends of the Hidden Temple in real life! haha
Once inside it’s kind of a maze. There are different floors that represent heaven and hell and purgatory I think. The stairs are kind of scary to go up and down.
The top of this statue gives a great view of the park. You can’t tell from my face in the picture but I am absolutely terrified! It was so high up and there’s nothing to hold on to and there are lots of other people up there!
We saw this funny billboard on our way back-“Big Ass”
After Buddha Park we stopped somewhere for lunch. The place was super cute and the food was amazing.
After lunch we went back to the hotel and went to sleep for a few hours. We were so pooped from the day! We weren’t hungry for dinner but we got some bubble tea and stopped in a grocery store where we saw all these crazy flavors of chips.
Our next and final day in Vientiane we went to Pha That Luang Temple. Again, our hotel set up a tuk tuk for us. They brought us to our destination, waited for us and then brought us home. This time I made sure the tuk tuk waited longer for us which worked out great because we took almost two hours to see Pha That Luang. There was so much to see.
We really enjoyed our first tuk tuk ride.
Pha That Luang consists of many different buildings and temples.
Many of the places we visited had different prices for us. We saw signs like this a lot throughout our trip.
We paid to go in. It was worth it. It was quite beautiful inside.
Outside of the temples we saw many people walking around selling live birds in tiny cages to release as offerings. It’s supposed to bring good luck and a long, prosperous life. I am unsure about this practice from an animal rights stand point. There were so many people holding tons of birds. Where did all the birds come from? What happens to the ones not sold for the day?
The coolest part of this temple was seeing the monks feeding chickens, peacocks and other exotic birds.
When we got back we headed to a place for lunch that was owned by someone from NY! The food was so good.
For our last night in Vientiane I wanted to eat somewhere in Namphou Park. It was pretty close to our hotel. When we passed it during the day there was a lot of outdoor seating and a water fountain so I thought it would be cool at night. Well I was right!
We ended up eating dinner right next to a show. It was so cool. There was a small band in front of the beautiful fountain and dancers.
My cold noodles came with a quail egg. Mark ate it as a shot. It was so funny and also gross.
For some reason I am just obsessed with Monks. I took pictures of them everywhere I saw them, no matter what they were doing.
One of the hardest parts about traveling in Laos and Thailand were all of the stray cats and dogs. I wanted to rescue every single one of them. Especially because in the US I ran my own cat rescue for 4 years.
I noticed that in Vientiane we mostly saw kittens. We very rarely saw adult cats at all. I suspect this is because there is so much traffic. I imagine the cats don’t have a very long life span here.
We saw so many cute, sweet, and cuddly cats. It just killed me! I looked up shelters but couldn’t find any. I tried to feed any cats or dogs that I saw. Strangely, the dogs weren’t friendly but the cats were.
On Sunday we began our journey to Vang Vieng, Laos. We booked the charter bus through our hotel which I wish we didn’t because they charged us a booking fee. We saw a bus place selling tickets for cheaper right down the road. At least it was cheap. It was only $14 USD each for the 4 hour bus ride and the bus was very nice too!
After about 4 hours we arrived in Vang Vieng! Blog about that part of the trip coming soon!
Here is a short video of our long and exciting 3 days. Check out the bottom of this post for tips about visiting and packing tips too!
Some tips:
-Take out cash from the ATM. Everywhere is cash only and places that take CC charge you for it. There are ATM’s everywhere.
-Don’t drink the tap water! Most places give you bottled water to drink because they know tourists can’t drink their water. I brought Aquamira with me. I always take it abroad. It’s a life saver. You just put drops in your water and you can drink the tap. I bring it with me on every abroad trip.
-You don’t need to purchase wifi or a sim card or anything. There is free wifi almost everywhere you go. We downloaded google maps on Mark’s phone and if we needed wifi we stopped in a cafe or restaurant.
-Bring a roll of toilet paper with you in your purse! Almost no bathroom had toilet paper. You also need to pay to use the public bathrooms.
-We felt sick almost every day just due to being tired and jet-lag and new food and water and I ended up getting really sick for about a week. Pack lots of meds! Dayquil, Nyquil, Sudafed, Ibuprofen, etc…
-Make sure when you order to specify if you want one item or more. Many times Mark ordered a coffee of bubble tea and the people assumed he wanted two of his order because they saw me with him. We often got two bubble teas by mistake. This also happened at a few restaurants when one of us would order but the other didn’t.
-Wear sunblock!
Packing Essentials: (everything is so cheap that you can buy anything you forget)
-A light summer scarf to cover shoulders and elbows to enter in temples.
-Sunblock
-Meds
-Sunglasses
-Light pants for temples
-Safety wallet
First of all I want to say great blog! I had a quick question which I’d
like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing.
I have had difficulty clearing my mind in getting my ideas out.
I do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10
to 15 minutes tend to be lost just trying to figure out how to
begin. Any recommendations or tips? Thank you!
Something that helps me a lot is that I joined an online writing accountability group. I never get as much writing done as when I join these meetings! Good luck!