Category Archives: Laos

Vientian – Capital City

Along Laos’ highways are milestones marking the distance to the next places. The actual place may vary–the next village, or a major place further afar. When trying to make out the distance to Vientiane while on the bus I could never find “Vientiane” on the milestones…until one time we hat slowed down sufficiently for me to read one of the milestones saying “Capital City”. Apparently this is what Laos would like visitors to think of it. Reminds me of old pre-reunification signposts on Eastern Germany’s highways, reading “Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR”.

We’ve planned two and a half days in Vientiane, fairly many given our generally tight schedule–it’s about as much as we had in Hanoi. We thought it would be worth it. It wasn’t. But there are good coffee bars… Continue reading Vientian – Capital City

Phonsavan – Plain of Jars

We knew it before arrival: Phonsavan is not the most beautiful of cities. We couldn’t know that it would be so boring that the first thing we looked for was the fastest way out…and even accepted yet another night bus, simply because the next flight out of this incarnation of boredom was two days later only. In our original itinerary Phonsavan occupied three days: One day of bus travel from Luang Prabang to get there (that still took place on 30-AUG), one day for visiting the Plain of Jars (the main and for most tourists only reason you get here at all, 31-AUG), and one day to travel on to Vientiane. With the night bus option we could save that travel day and made it instead a travel night. Continue reading Phonsavan – Plain of Jars

Luang Prabang – Alms Giving, Pac Ou Caves, Mega-Wat

Alms Giving

The Alms Giving procession is part of Luang Prabang’s daily life (and actually of the life anywhere in buddhist countries). Here it is so photogenic and attracts tourists every day due to the many wats around, housing so many monks. And the monks live off alms given to them every morning by the locals. The locals kneel on the pavement along the streets (staying lower than the monks!), the monks pass by and open their jars for the locals to put in some food (mostly a small ball of sticky rice, but also cookies or whatever they feel like giving). Continue reading Luang Prabang – Alms Giving, Pac Ou Caves, Mega-Wat

Luang Prabang – Our Gate To Laos – Wat-Wanderung

Laos – Considered the country with the lowest development level in Southeast Asia. We haven’t been there before. And even before starting to travel we felt like we would go there only once. I write these lines in a western style cafe in Vientiane on our last day, only waiting away the time until our flight to Bangkok starts. And by now we know for sure: It was worth coming here! But once might indeed be enough for quite some time. And now we also know: Good that we started in Luang Prabang, which was by far the most beautiful, most tranquil, most inspiring place in Laos of those three that we have seen. I have select 24 photos just for the first day of walking around the town (calling it “city” would be slightly exaggerated). And there are two more days in Luang Prabang to come… Continue reading Luang Prabang – Our Gate To Laos – Wat-Wanderung

Long Time No See – And This Time I’m Not Alone

There has been some time of quiet here in this blog…you probably forgot over time, that you have a subscription here at all 😉 Welcome back!

But before we get too enthusiastic: It’s for 3 weeks. “Only,” you might want to think. Swallow it…it’s vacation this time, not time off. We are on our flight to Bangkok for a well deserved 3-week-vacation to Vietnam and Laos. And, yes, “we” is not pluralis majestatis, but means two pax: Nina and me. Continue reading Long Time No See – And This Time I’m Not Alone