#laostravel Archives • Page 2 of 3 • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

March 12, 2023March 12, 2023

Laos – Vientiane and Luang Prabang

A poor farmhouse next to an extensive China funded development in Vientiane.

smog in Vang Vien — We tried to escape smog in Vientiane so went to the countryside. Even Vang Vieng was covered in smog.

Salad restaurant SOMTAM — RIGHT – Luang Prabang SOMTAM (papaya salad), Left – sticky rice, Luang Prabang sausage. Middle – grilled chicken and upper left – fried fish. Very delicious

Food Market crowds — Crowds are back at the food market – inexpensive food and drink.

fire on river bank — putting out a breakfast fire on the riverbank opposite the hotel. this adds to the smog.

smoggy luang prabang — very smoggy even in luang prabang, the UNESCO city in Laos

wedding party — guests lined up to greet the wedding couple

putting out the fire — now 4 people are watching the fire being put out

February 28, 2023February 28, 2023

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.

January 2, 2023November 22, 2024

New year-time for food

Lao ox skin with side veggies and Lao beer

Cockle buffet on kids chairs, easy and light to stack

Cockles buffet. Very nice. Spicy sauces for flavor

Everyone needs a mechanical gorilla to sell eggs at the gas station

Nice Quatro Formaggi at Babylon, Koh Chang

Stir fried veggies, TOM YAM seafood and sting ray

Chicken and kale, fried eggs on top are a popular thing

December 18, 2022November 22, 2024

Interesting things in Bangkok and on to Laos

A red and gold Chinese wish for good business along with many MANNEKI NEKO (Japanese welcoming cat)

to the top 35 years ago (not allowed now) and going back down was very scary.

do you think this is a nicely designed building?

finally a well organized bus line in Bangkok

Khao San Road has become a fairly expensive backpacker paradise? oxymoron. great place to buy a fake ID card if you feel you need one (don’t recommend using it)

a very active place even at night, maybe especially at night

You can ride all the way Laos if your train schedules match up

Duck/Beer restaurant in Vientiane. if you park on the street to the left you have no parking fee. if you park in the restaurant parking lot you have to pay a parking fee. seems to be reversed from logic.

November 17, 2022November 22, 2024

Pakse, Laos – And a highland paradise (coffee included)

Pakse is a beautiful small town in the southern part of Laos and right next to the entrance to the Paksong Highlands where they grow a lot of very delicious coffee and have some very beautiful waterfalls. It’s a really great place to visit and I recommend renting a motorcycle or car to go up into the Highlands and look around. There are also some beautiful temples to visit so just spend about four or five days there and enjoy.

lots of bread and sandwich makers in Laos (PATE)

some beautiful waterfalls have lost their support

beautiful Nagas welcome and protect temples

Wat PU, UNESCO site, old hindu temple unfinished

cooks scrambling to meet this restaurant’s demand

stay right by the view and have a beer. morning is beautiful

beautiful place to view the top of the waterfall

going to DAO HUEANG market, biggest market in Pakse district

October 9, 2022December 1, 2024

Thailand/Laos Fun Videos

September 20, 2022December 9, 2024

The song of coffee in paksong

The green and white flags are slightly east of the blue dot and represent the paksong area

Paksong is about 40 km east of Pakse, which is in the south of Laos and is known for its coffee plantations and excellent coffee beans. It’s very nice riding up there during the rainy season since everything is green, but traveling off the main road can be very tricky since the dirt roads are most often very wet and the fine red volcanic soil, good for coffee bean growing, is very dangerous for two wheel traveling. it’s extremely slippery. we slipped once putting a few scratches on the motorcycle.

At a local coffee shop, the baristo is very carefully creating a nice design on a cup of coffee with some milk.

The coffee processing factory.

Here are ripe red coffee beans on the bush.

Inside are two sections. One section has a very soft greenish gel like covering. the second section is a more dry brown half of the bean.

When you separate the two halves, as you can see here, you notice the dryer brown section is somewhat concave.

September 12, 2022December 9, 2024

Bopping Around Vang Vieng

To start out to this very beautiful place we booked a minivan to pick us up where we Dropped the motorcycle and drive us the next 2 to 3 hours to Vang Vieng. But the trip turned out to be a little bit more eventful and unusual than we planned. As soon as the minivan picked up all the passengers and then stopped off at their office in the center of Vientiane they change drivers and added a few more passengers. The new driver told the young Japanese fellow sitting in the front to move towards the back because they had a lady passenger who wanted to sit in front. After the Japanese customer moved to the back, the lady, Vietnamese, was told to sit also towards the back of the van while the driver instructed her male friend to sit in the front. From the accents we could tell that the new driver and the two customers were Vietnamese.

The driver spoke continuously in Vietnamese to the other passenger in the front. Nothing too unusual so far except the lie the driver told the Japanese customer. Then we got onto the expressway after going through the tollbooth, the driver pulled over and switched seats with the Vietnamese customer. I found this a little strange but, who knows, the passenger might’ve been an extra driver. Well, it turned out he wasn’t. After trying very nervously to get started in the minivan, continuing on the expressway, it seemed pretty certain he had no experience driving a minivan and was very uncertain on the road. After having almost 2 accidents driving the rest of the way to Vang Vieng I decided to ask the licensed driver of the minivan about the customer/driver. It turns out he was just a tourist, did not have a license to drive in Laos and could not speak Lao. What a strange trip. We survived.

told by the hired driver to drive in the middle when going through the tunnel

our driver so proud, sending a photo of the tourist driving to his friend

Blue lagoon one. A hair-raising experience. See the jumper entering the water?

From part way up the trail to the viewpoint. The path was too slippery and dangerous to make it all the way

Empty electric socket at the pool entrance. Shocking!

Meeting some Japanese tourists on the way back to Vientiane

just after we left Koh Chang for Laos the main road on Koh Chang was partly destroyed, slid down the hill and destroyed my former bungalow on the beach

August 15, 2022December 9, 2024

Parking in Pakse

Pakse, Laos, is a small city in the south, on the Mekong close to a coffee growing area. It is a place you should visit if you visit Laos. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakse)

This 10,000 Kip note shows the bridge and hills in the photo above this one.

Visit the Buddha on the hill giving you the view.

this was actually taken in Buda park in Vientiane area

so delicious I forgot to take the photo before eating. Great Korean food

this is the ruler who created this expensive temple site

a view from the top of the temple complex

a simple farm lunch; chicken with veggies and spicy sauce

so many people, in their spare time, weave material or create baskets for storage and cooking.

some of the finished product selling for less than US 10 cents to a wholesaler.

farm working shed complete with dogs, chickens, pigs and ducks

the road to this farm was all dirt but a lot of it was just a mass of holes filled with water, extremely difficult for a small motorcycle to travel through. It was quite a challenge getting here without falling off into the mud