Yes! today we'll be heading to Luang Prabang!!! Yipee!!! =P
we woke up veary early around 5am. Coz the Taxi will be coming to pick us up at 6am. Coz from Hanoi city center to the airport will take about 45min to reach there... and somemore we're not sure if we'll be caught in the traffic conjestion or not... so we've got to be a little more 'hardworking' and i kept assuring the glas that we'll be able to catch a 1hr sleep on the plane... hahaha... pretty patethic i mean 1hr of sleep only... but better than nothing right?? muhahahaha.... =P
because we bought our plane tickets from the agent and they took a super long time to give us our tickets and also increased the price of the tickets (coz they told us that we pay 1st class for Lao Air but will be taking Vietnam Airlines economy coz they kept reassuring us that these 2 airline companies are code sharing), i was a little skeptical abt this and checked the flights again on the niternet on our 2nd & 3rd day in Hanoi... coz u can't really trust the pple there......
anyway, we managed to board the plane with no problems... initially we thought we'll be taking the Vietnam Airlines blue planes then when we saw our plane, i almost want to faint.. hahaha.... coz the plane look pretty beaten up lor... and with all those things u read form the reviews from customers and the fact that there is a possibility of plane crashes of old planes...
u're really terrified whether u'll be able to land in Luang Prabang in one whole piece. so throughout the flight (when i'm awake) i would be praying very hard for us to have a safe journey to Luang Prabang.when we're flying above the Luang Prabang prefecture, u can see endless mountains and the majestic Mekong river below the plane.... it then struck me that Laos is a very beautiful country with so much vast lands...
once we landed at Luang Prabang airport, we took a tuk tuk to the city center....
and started hauling our heavy bags walking the streets knocking on guesthouse doors. Coz the guesthouses listed on the websites & guidebooks do not have any emails... so no choice, i was not able to make any booking of rooms for us before we reach there... so wat to do??? have to go door knocking session lor...
finally we managed to find a guesthouse, Thalin Guesthouse, that was up on a hill, but right in front of it was the main street and it was super near to the Handicraft night market! and the woman offered us USD 22 per night for the 5 of us (for 2 rooms)!! but bathrooms had to be shared... but the rooms were squeaky clean and the owners are very very nice and friendly! The owners, a retired French professor (but Laos native) and his wife ---- gave us some tips, food and places where we can go and visit. =D so once we've found our accomodation, the next thing we did was to look for food, followed by changing USD to Laos Kipp, then book our day tours & bus to Vientiane on 23rd Dec. (so much to do on the 1st day) So we managed to book a tour that will bring us to visit the famous Pak Ou caves in the morning the next day, followed by Tat Kuang Si (tat's Kuang Si waterfalls) in the afternoon & also our bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane. after that we went to visit the Royal Palace musuem as we've still got some time before we climb the Phousi mountain.
we woke up veary early around 5am. Coz the Taxi will be coming to pick us up at 6am. Coz from Hanoi city center to the airport will take about 45min to reach there... and somemore we're not sure if we'll be caught in the traffic conjestion or not... so we've got to be a little more 'hardworking' and i kept assuring the glas that we'll be able to catch a 1hr sleep on the plane... hahaha... pretty patethic i mean 1hr of sleep only... but better than nothing right?? muhahahaha.... =P
because we bought our plane tickets from the agent and they took a super long time to give us our tickets and also increased the price of the tickets (coz they told us that we pay 1st class for Lao Air but will be taking Vietnam Airlines economy coz they kept reassuring us that these 2 airline companies are code sharing), i was a little skeptical abt this and checked the flights again on the niternet on our 2nd & 3rd day in Hanoi... coz u can't really trust the pple there......
anyway, we managed to board the plane with no problems... initially we thought we'll be taking the Vietnam Airlines blue planes then when we saw our plane, i almost want to faint.. hahaha.... coz the plane look pretty beaten up lor... and with all those things u read form the reviews from customers and the fact that there is a possibility of plane crashes of old planes...
u're really terrified whether u'll be able to land in Luang Prabang in one whole piece. so throughout the flight (when i'm awake) i would be praying very hard for us to have a safe journey to Luang Prabang.when we're flying above the Luang Prabang prefecture, u can see endless mountains and the majestic Mekong river below the plane.... it then struck me that Laos is a very beautiful country with so much vast lands...
once we landed at Luang Prabang airport, we took a tuk tuk to the city center....
and started hauling our heavy bags walking the streets knocking on guesthouse doors. Coz the guesthouses listed on the websites & guidebooks do not have any emails... so no choice, i was not able to make any booking of rooms for us before we reach there... so wat to do??? have to go door knocking session lor...
finally we managed to find a guesthouse, Thalin Guesthouse, that was up on a hill, but right in front of it was the main street and it was super near to the Handicraft night market! and the woman offered us USD 22 per night for the 5 of us (for 2 rooms)!! but bathrooms had to be shared... but the rooms were squeaky clean and the owners are very very nice and friendly! The owners, a retired French professor (but Laos native) and his wife ---- gave us some tips, food and places where we can go and visit. =D so once we've found our accomodation, the next thing we did was to look for food, followed by changing USD to Laos Kipp, then book our day tours & bus to Vientiane on 23rd Dec. (so much to do on the 1st day) So we managed to book a tour that will bring us to visit the famous Pak Ou caves in the morning the next day, followed by Tat Kuang Si (tat's Kuang Si waterfalls) in the afternoon & also our bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane. after that we went to visit the Royal Palace musuem as we've still got some time before we climb the Phousi mountain.
Wow! the Royal Palace museum is super golden and there were quite a bit of information of the town & the history in there... but we couldn't take pictures in the museum, so there are no pictures of the artifacts but we did snap quite a few pictures of the exterior building though... =D once we've finish touring the museum, we went to climb Phousi mountain so that we'll be able to capture the sunset views! hahaha... u can say tat we're pretty kiasu, coz we were at the mountain top (nah.. in fact its juz a hill and its super easy to climb) around 4.45pm... and we juz sat there and wait.
as time passes, u'll see more and more westerners crowding the area with their cameras on tripod stands ready to capture the perfect views... hahaha... u can say its pretty hilarious... and a little crazy... but saying this, the 5 of us are equally crazy to sit there and wait lor... =P
but during the waiting time, we talked to several westerners and they told us of their stories and tips as to where we should go next for our holiday... hahaha... very interesting... and also a very good form of net-working... seriously... when u talk to some of them... u'll be amazed there are so many people who live, sleep on travelling... hahaha... u can say that travelling is their life. =P but its really interesting... and this was also the town that we see more westerner tourists as compared to asian tourists... hahaha... perhaps the asians are still not that adventurous to venture to this part of the world yet! =P
once the sun-set was over, everyone all rushed down the hill coz as it gets darker, it will be difficult to climb down... and the 5 of us chose to go another route... and using this route we need not pay... i mean if we were to use this route from the start we would not need to pay for the entrance fee. but i din really check out my guide book until we were sitting on the hill waiting for the sun-set. we ended off our day at the Handicrafts night market... the things u see there will blow ur mind away! there are juz so many beautiful and wondeful things displayed at each of the stalls... and its really tough to make a decision as to what u really want to buy... coz seeing all the things.. u juz feeling like buying all... hahahaha... (tat a little exggerating)
Later that night, whilst talking to Harumi, someone came and knocked on our door. it was our 'neighbor'. She told us to lower our volume as there are no sound-proof in the walls... oops... seems like we were making a rackus unknowingly... we said our 'sorrys' and later when we did our evening gongyo, super tough.. hahaha... we had to whisper... but also very good training of team spirit and looking out for one another!
btw.. its the 1st time for me & the rest to do our gongyo (with more than 1 person) using whisper... hahaha.. like what keiko said 'muzikashi neh!' but we managed to pull through.. and tat was how we do our morning & evening gongyo throughout our stay in that guesthouse. =D
Later that night, whilst talking to Harumi, someone came and knocked on our door. it was our 'neighbor'. She told us to lower our volume as there are no sound-proof in the walls... oops... seems like we were making a rackus unknowingly... we said our 'sorrys' and later when we did our evening gongyo, super tough.. hahaha... we had to whisper... but also very good training of team spirit and looking out for one another!
btw.. its the 1st time for me & the rest to do our gongyo (with more than 1 person) using whisper... hahaha.. like what keiko said 'muzikashi neh!' but we managed to pull through.. and tat was how we do our morning & evening gongyo throughout our stay in that guesthouse. =D
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