Laos and Sabah

[Cossie]

After visiting Laos last year and loving it we decided to go back this year as well, with a side trip to Sabah on the way back. There won't be many food shots!

Last year we went in the first week of April and it was hot! So when the special deal from LE allowed March with no surchange was aimed to be in Luang Prabang on the 1st March.

QF Canberra to Melbourne then QF to Singapore, cheap ticket so no chance of upgrade, except we paid for exit row seats.
Breakfast in the J lounge in Canberra is consistently good, then brunch in the F lounge in Melbourne, not many people, I didn't recognise anyone famous.

Nothing memorable about the flight to Singapore, especiallly the food, hotel was the IBIS Styles on MacPherson St. newish hotel with that bugbear of small rooms that all cheapish hotels in Singapore seem to suffer from. Dinner and a couple of beers at a local place just down the road, certainly not 'high end', but good food.

Next day flight to Vientiane on an Airbus A320. Not many people on board, a quickly dispensed meal and a few Ber Lao (3 hours) later we were in Laos. No IFE, even though screens were in the back of the seats.

My Canberra Lao friends said that 4 nights in Vientiane would be too long, they are probably right, but we filled in our time visiting temples and just wandering and well as taking refuge in aircon when we could.

 

[Cossie]

Arrival at the airport was a bit annoying, we had visas issued in Canberra, but picked the wrong line (as usual), people getting visas on arrival were through before us. Bags were waiting when we got down stairs and and 10-15 minute taxi ride later we were at the Mecure. In my younger days I would have caught the 'airport bus' that does a circuit including right past the Mercure, but these days fortunately I don't have too worry about how much we spend (within reason of course!).

Check in was quick, we got an upgrade, but when we got to the room the room key was bent! So the porter went back downstairs, and when he came back we were moved to another room, which was facing east rather than west. One thing I really like about this place is that no-one has their hand out waiting for something extra. Nice old style hotel, colonial feel, would love to know about the building history. Photos seem to be a bit sparse, think I may have mislaid some!

Walked down the the Mekong, it's the end of the dry season so the water level is low, plus those darstardly chinese are building lots of dams up steam, big issues with Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the future I think.

We ate at the Via Via restaurant, pizza, yes I know what you may be thinking, but the pizza I had was one of the best ever, but of course I haven't tried one of Steady's pizzas! Erika had chicken with noodles and was quite happy with the food. My pizza had Italian mozzarella on it, it taks 3 days for it to arrive from Italy. I told the owners (a French) couple about the article I had read in the Lao inflight magazine, Lao Buffalo Dairy in Luang Prabang, they were very interested.

The night markets are under going a big change, rather than creating a market everynight, a more permanent structure is being built on the banks of the Mekong. Sure I had photos of that as well, oh well.

 

[Cossie]

Wandering, we went into another temple and there was funeral happening at Wat That Phoun, very elaborate, I'm guessing they were well known/important.

 

[Cossie]

Saturday morning visited a few temples, first one is Wat Sisaket, it's meant to have a couple of thousand Budhas. As usual no photos allowed inside the temple .

 

[Cossie]

More temple shots,





Close by is Vientiane's version of the Arc de Triomphe, story goes that the cement used was a gift that was meant to be used at the airport. Vientiane is flat!










People at the bottom of the arc.

 

[Jacques Vert]

On board for the ride; what's happened to JohnM?

 

[RooFlyer]

Oh, I see 1A is free.

<sits>

Now, that's comfy - looking forward to this TR.

 

[LadyC]

Thanks for posting Cossie - looking forward to reading more

 

[love_the_life]

I wondered if there would be a TR after all those great shots in View from my office! Eagerly awaiting the next instalment.

 

[Cossie]

Had a bit of a fiddle with the photos, hopefully they now won't lose as much definition! Also, I might include some shots of LP from last year later on, it seems that i didn't take anywhere near as many photos as I thought I had!

Eating in Vientiane, as well as Via Via, we ate at Phakhao Lao Restaurant and Lao Kitchen, breakfasts were at a fabulous patisserie called Le Banneton Restaurant, breakfast here was enough to see us through to dinner.

A few beers enjoying the sunsets overlooking the Mekong towards Thailand and of course some cat photos. You can see how low the river is, not sure if that new restaurant will stay there, or be moved out on the water somewhere.

 

[Cossie]

Vientiane to Phonsavan, the airport is actually called Xieng Khouang Airport, this is the Plain of Jars, somewhere I've wanted to visit since I first read about the place.
Flight was Lao Airlines and was failry full, 45 minutes in an ATR-72, entry from the rear of the aircraft. Vientiane airport is under going major redevelopment and the domestic terminal is basic, to put it bluntly! But as long as they get you there.

This area also has the rather dubious honour as having been one of the most bombed places on earth. Of course a lot of the bombs didn't explode, or they were cluster bombs designed to explode later, still maining people 45+ years later. Plain of Jars - Wikipedia
This was a quick overnight trip, i would like to have stayed longer and seen more, it's now possible to go up to Long Cheng, once the second largest town in Laos and a secret CIA base. Long Tieng - Wikipedia

Hotel was Anoulack Khen Lao Hotel which was fine, pickup and return from airport included. We organised a quick trip, normally tours are done as a day tour, so we went to Site 1 that afternoon, then the sites 2 and 3 the next morning. It was a rushed trip because getting to this area by road is a long process, there are a lot of roads being upgraded and new ones built, so it will be easier in a few years.

Given the extent of the bombing and time lapsed, it's surprising that anything is left.

 

[Cossie]

Still quite a bit of conjecture as to why they exist. Wandered around phonsavan, the old runway still exists and part of it is now the market.



Seems to be quite a bit of money about, from mining?



Everywhere has the remains of bombs, it really is frightening to think of how many must have been dropped.

 

[Cossie]

Next to the ferris wheel is a driving range. The person that runs this cafe and the supermarket next door is quite a character, Erika says I could get a job working there if being cranky was a prerequisite.



Next morning we were of to sites 2 and 3. Site 2 is in a grove, again I would have liked to have had my own transport, but anyway.

 

[Cossie]

It was nice being the only ones there, short drive to site 3 and a bit of a walk through some fields.

 

[Cossie]

We were running short of time as Lao Skyways had brought the time of their flight to Luang Prabang ahead by a couple of hours.

Quick trip to a small village where they make items out of scrap metal, originally it was old military hardware, but now apparently it is anything that can be melted down.
Along the way you can see that as in a lot of other parts of the world, nothing is wasted, especially old metal runway strips.

 

[Cossie]

There was quite a bit of new work happening around here,this was interesting, the driver who spoke little English said it is a chinese financed factory. Anyone on here translate?



Time to fly to LP, very few flights are direct, Lao Airways goes via Vientiane, but Lao Skyway does a direct flight. I was expecting a chinese built Xian MA60, not a Cesna Caravan, anyway it was fun and as we flew quite low we could see a lot, this unfortunately included a lot of deforestationand some huge mines and dam building.



Some old Migs and a damaged plane, also a bit of an aircraft scrap yard, guess more spoons!



A lot of building work, not sure what this is going to be, bungalows over the water, fish farm with catch your own, who knows!

 

[Cossie]

So on it goes, shortish flight to LP, we even got a snack and some water, flew low, pitty the windows were such that it made taking photos not so good. Neither pilot spoke to us, one seemed to be under instruction. Would happily do it again!

 

[Cossie]

Good to be back in LP, we had one night at the Sanctuary Hotel before our LE package at the Sofitel. Sanctuary Hotel was quite good, closer to the sights, but no pool. Like a lot of other buildings in LP, it was the residence of a former prince. About | Sanctuary Hotel - Hotels & Resorts



One thing i didn't expect to see was a Sardinian Restaurant.



Nor did I expect to see Chinese campervans, it was towards the end of the Chinese new year celebrations, that was the reason given for a lot of the Chinese tourists visiting.



Then a bit of wandering, always something interesting to look at.

 

[Cossie]

Big Brother Mouse as mentioned previously, we visited quite early to drop off a considerable weight from our bags!




Various monk photos.



Dinner that night was at the Luang Prabang Kitchen Restaurant, can't fault the food, there is so much choice and it's all good!

We wanted to eat at one of the restaurants that help young people learn new skills, we had some great food there last time, but this evening it was full.

Khaiphaen Restaurant TREE Alliance

 

[Cossie]

Then the next day we were off to the Sofitel, I'll post some photos from last year as well, I didn't take as many this time. Early checkin as well.

For those that don't know, it was a fromer French Governors residence, but apparently it was also used as a prison for a few years after the events of 1975.

Luxury hotel LUANG PRABANG – Sofitel Luang Prabang

Rabbits, last year there was one, now two and they have produced several litters which we were told go to a friends farm, possibly the Lao Buffalo dairy, don't know, or it might have been a polite way of saying they got eaten.....

Our package included, full anything you want breakfast, afternoon tea by the pool, 90 minute massage, Lao set dinner at 3 Nagas and a cooking class, plus washing and free use of bikes.

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