Laos just before moving on
Laos in March
the new fast train from Vientiane, Laos goes to Kunming in China. It is incredibly difficult to get tickets (Lao inefficiency with China’s communist paranoid super control mentalities mixed). The result is long lines in the city to buy tickets and the only pay methods accepted are Lao resident bank account payments (no tourists can get a bank account in Laos) and a Chinese credit card. Any tourists/non-residents have to hope there is a fellow standing by the window to accept cash and then use his local Lao bank account to transfer the money to the train company. All of this is done while people stand in a long line waiting to buy tickets. Some people are taking 15 to 20 minutes to buy tickets for various reasons. Then when you get to the train station you have to show your ticket and your ID to get inside the building to wait for the train. Then when they call the train you have to stand in a line to wait to get onto the platform. Once you’re on the platform you have to stand in line at the correct train car to wait for the doors to open to board the train. It seems to me like control freak obsessive compulsive disorder – China Communist Party! This is what Lao gets for letting China pay for the train.
Laos in February
Vientian has very few attractions, but they do have quite a few restaurants out in the suburbs made of individual huts where you can sit and relax for hours, having a lunch, drinks and enjoy with friends some local music or possibly some modern pops.
pakse is in the south and it’s famous for the entrance to the mountains to the east which are famous worldwide for coffee beans, mostly arabic, as well as beautiful scenery and some fantastic waterfalls, some with swimmable pools. Rent a motorcycle and go around this area.
Luang Prabang is a world heritage site and it’s a very walkable town with some more distant attractions as well. It is now very accessible by train as well as plane and is probably the most sought after vacation destination in Laos.
Koh Chang – 2022
Wat Pak Nam Laem – Chantaburi, Thailand
Luang Prabang Day 2
Laos – Vientiane and Luang Prabang
Pattaya – Playground of Thailand?
if you can picture Las Vegas with smaller casinos like clubs, a lot of drinking places, very raunchy entertainment venues, people pulling you into their establishments and a very large arrangement of visitors from all over the world…and a beach that isn’t quite clean enough to swim in, you have Pattaya. It isn’t as much a family place as a large single’s bar with hundreds of restaurants. Phuket is much more family oriented while Pattaya absorbs most of the fringe elements from around the world; some rich and quite a few are just looking for a cheap place to be entertained in almost any form imaginable. This is the wild entertainment center of Thailand where it takes some doing to find Thai cultural treasures. One stands out, The Sanctuary of Truth, an interesting and encompassing introduction to Buddhism and influences from many other ideas from many places on earth. Pattaya is an hour from Bangkok and originally started as an entertainment beach for US military personnel during the Vietnam war. It has it’s attractions, the lights and noise, but for people traveling to Thailand for culture it probably isn’t a place to visit. Go and enjoy if you are looking for wild fun, but hold on to your valuables!
There is such thing as a free haircut
in Vientiane we saw a sign reading “free haircut” so we stopped since I needed to get a very serious trim.
These guys most likely have finished some training and are doing free haircuts to get experience with different types of customers’ hair. They set up a little space on the side of the road where people can stop and get their free haircut. Their next step will be to get a job in a barbershop or hair salon. But of course we bought them each a nice cool drink.
