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 Laos travel tales
Our customers share their travelling experiences in Laos.
Read about first hand stories on travel tips and guides, events, entertainment,shopping, food, business and transportation.
Also, you might want to read our
Luang Prabang city guide,
and Vientiane city guide.
Pages (2 of 14):
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| D Parker |
26 September 2004 |
Stayed at Calao Inn, Le - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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If you like spicy food (thai for example) make sure you tell the restaurants so, because they asume that as a foreigner you can't take spicy and they will serve you the laotian food without it, kind of bland! This was our experinece in Luang Prabang.
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| M D. lynn |
27 August 2004 |
Stayed at Calao Inn, Le - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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The old center of Luang Prabang is small enough to get around on foot. Highly recommended activities include getting up in the morning to see the monks collect alms and a slow boat trip on the river.
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| R Hans |
19 August 2004 |
Stayed at La Residence Phou Vao - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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The Indochina restaurant has a nice atmosphere. The boatride to the budha caves was not really necessaey, since most of the larger Buddhas disappeared.
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| J Lou |
08 July 2004 |
Stayed at Calao Inn, Le - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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I only spent a few days in Luang Prabang but loved it. I managed to squeeze in most of the usual sights and activities - local temples, Royal Palace, Pak Ou caves, Kuang Si falls. But it would have been great place to hang out for a while - a Southeast Asian version of a European hill town. The locals are relaxed, genuinely warm and friendly and the whole town still has an authentic, 'un-touristy' feeling - hope it will stay that way.
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| J Herath |
10 April 2004 |
Stayed at Villa Santi Hotel, The - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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We enjoyed Luang Prabang - a relaxed town with friendly locals. Three or four days is a good length of time to see everything at a relaxed pace. The town is also compact enough to walk everywhere.
A climb up Mt Phousi in the centre of town is good for views of the town and also for watching the sunset. The relaxed night market in the main street below is worth a look too. We recommend a boat cruise up the Mekong. We had a 5-month-old baby with us, so we just did a 2.5 hour cruise (1.5 hours upstream, stopping at a traditional Lao village, then a 1 hour return). The cost was USD15/person, booked through the hotel. Other river tours visit caves, etc and are longer in duration and more expensive.
There was a very nice French restaurant near the hotel (L'Elephant). Ate there a couple of times.
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| A Eustace |
24 February 2004 |
Stayed at Novotel Vientiane - Vientiane, Laos.
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Laos is a very poor country but still provides good quality to traveller of all kinds. The quality of service from the area around Vientienne and the fabulous views of the Mekong make it an area well worth visiting. Plus a pair of socks on prime display in a museum is well worth a visit.
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| A Pomerane |
07 February 2004 |
Stayed at Villa Santi Hotel, The - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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Luang Prabang is a wonderful destination, and surely will be a touristic spot next in the future. Many places to visit or just to walk around the city and sit for hours to look at the people and let the time go on. The tours must be taken in the street, the hotel charges for exactly the same (Pak ou cave and Khouangsi falls) four times the price.
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| E Bagnall |
19 January 2004 |
Stayed at Grand Luang Prabang Hotel And Resort, The - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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Great food at Apsara. This is owned and run by an Englishman. It was such a relief when we walked in to be greeted by some beautiful classical music.
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| J Brownjohn |
06 January 2004 |
Stayed at Settha Palace Hotel - Vientiane, Laos.
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With wider knowledge of the visa on arrival scheme I expect the place to pace of change to increase. Just remember to pick up the VOA form at Bangkok or wherever and get to the front of the queue at Wattay.
My latest LP guide gave prices that are already out of date: jumbos won't easily budge below $1 (OK they ask $2 but you know they're trying it on) and car+driver is not easy to find for as little as $10 more than LP upper bound figures.
The morning market is being spoilt by busloads of rich US tourists (when they arrived the stallholders immediately ignored my Asian wife). Prices are rather high, almost comparable to Bangkok and bargaining, even by an expert is hard.
Eating out is very cheap and continental food is good; e.g. we were very impressed by Cote d'Azur. We did not risk the roadside stalls and my wife was not too impressed by the Lao food. For me, I could not complain at $1 for a litre of excellent laobeer, while watching sunset over the Mekong. Vientiane is peaceful, people are friendly and easy going and I had a very relaxing stay.
My wife enjoyed visiting the weaving commune (enchanting for me to watch the ladies at work). On the way back from a relaxing day at Nan Ngum lake we stopped at a market selling all kinds of animals and animal components.
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| D Furlong |
21 December 2003 |
Stayed at Settha Palace Hotel - Vientiane, Laos.
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One of the hotel staff organised a car and driver for us for the day to tour the region (Buddah park, temples, Morning market, friendship bridge, lunch, more temples...) Vientianne is quite primitive and there really isn't that much to do and see (1 or max 2 days will do you). Be careful walking the streets and pavements (where they exist!) as there are a lot of open holes. Everything (over)priced in US$ - generally prices are way way too expensive. Worth the detour: Phaeng Mai Gallery - for handwoven silks. Absolutely fantastic - expensive but definitely high quality. (take a taxi - 5 to 10 minutes from centre).
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