Sabaidee Vientian

I feel like its been forever since I last travelled. This trip was planned since last year due to Airasia free seat promotion. It suppose to be solo travel at first but suddenly my friend decided to join. Well I'm looking for 2 things in Laos 1) tubing party in Vang Vieng, 2) larb ( Laos cuisine, famous in northen part of Thailand as well).

In Laos , they accept both THB and KIP someplace accept USD as well, I prefer to use THB instead, as any currency with too many zero often confused me. We arrived at the airport after almost 3 hours of terrible flight (bad weather), even I love the idea of travelling, I always I have the image of myself as air crashed victim sometimes. At the airport I took a taxi, which cost THB 240 / USD 7. If you want to go to Vang Vieng directly from the airport, there's taxi that cost USD90 per car, worth it if for more than 2 travellers.

It was 9 am, hence we were not allow to check in yet, we walked around the city. The city was pretty small actually, can cover by foot! We had early lunch at nearby hotel 'Noodle house' , its look a little bit 'high so' and hipster kind of place. I ordered Luang Prabang Noodle and chicken skewer bbq , it was just okay, nothing to shout about and its cost around MYR17, its common price for restaurant at tourist spot I guess. After meal, its already 11 something, still early to go back to hotel, we walked to Lao national museum. The museum was pretty small,  when we about to buy the ticket (THB150), the lady at the counter said the museum will closed at 12 noon for lunch break. its kind of weird for me. I felt its a waste of time if we decided to go the museum, we asked the local for direction to famous temple of Wat Sisaket, but we were told that its closed during lunch time as well. As its nothing much to do, we walked back to the hotel and just chilling at the hotel lobby with free wifi. The hotel receptionist was so kind to gave us early check in. I guess they knew that we were planning to go to Vang Vieng, the offered bus ticket at THB200 the next day. We stayed at the Manorom Boutique hotel, booked via www.agoda.com around MYR100++ for superior twin. For that price, the room was really great, comfortable bed, TV, wifi (wifi very slow most of the time can't even connect, but that's not the big issue), hot shower, and breakfast. I was about to write a good review about this hotel, my friend already wrote in on Tripadvisor, but somehow I woke in the morning and walked to the toilet, there was a big RAT on top of the toilet seat!! Most of the tourist will scream at the hotel receptionist or call Agoda hotline and make a big fuse about it. Well, for me just give some feedback the hotel receptionist so they can do something is good enough, its not worth it if you want to waste your energy and spoilt your mood over a rat.

Room at Manarom
 

Lao people are very nice, even they can't speak good English, they will try to assist you. Everywhere you go, you will here people said 'Sabaidee'. Sabaidee in Thai language mean I'm fine , its confused me at first when random stranger keep saying 'I'm fine' to me, then only I realized its the way they greeting, same with Sawasdee in Thailand. Lao language pretty much similar to northern Thai Language, language its not really a problem for me, as I grew up with people speak in northern Thai around me.

Sunset of Mekong River

Fisherman at Mekong

 

Our initial plan was to relax in the hotel room for 5 minutes, however we were so tired and sleepy, end up took a nap until 5 PM instead. From the hotel room, we walked all the way to Mekong river along the way there's many backpackers hostel and tourist restaurant served European food. The sunset view along the Mekong river was to die for! We had local food at the stall nearby the Mekong River. I was assuming that roadside food is the cheapest place to eat, end up we paid THB 600 for lousy green curry, larb pla (was really nice!) , crispy grilled chicken, too spicy papaya salad, sticky rice, steam rice, 2 bottles of water and pineapple shake. I guess this is how tourist in KL felt like when they paid for meal in Jalan Alor.

Laotion dinner, from top left: larb pla, somtam, grilled chicken and sticky rice

 

After dinner, we walked around night market at the river side. The night market was really clean, can't even compare to KL downtown market or Petaling Street. We bought some souvenir, if you are looking for fridge magnet like me the choice was really limited and the price around MYR 5 - MYR 10 per piece. Its expensive for as usually the price in Thailand tourist spot only around 3 for THB100.

 

 

Silk shawl at night market

 

There's so many things I wish to see in Vientiane such as Buddha Park, Wat Sisaket , Musee' but the time was really limited. After came back from Vang Vieng, I got a fever and flu (probably due to rain and cold weather), so we were just in the room whole day until dinner time. Next day early flight back to KL already :( . Yes my mission was to find the best larb and tubing party, but instead of that I get something else, the honesty of Lao people and to die for  nature scenery, I can't even believe my own eyes. So, come to Laos while its still less commercialized , the nature is still preserved for you to explore more.



Is Vang Vieng a place for party lover?

The journey from Vientiane to Vang Viang took 5 hours with VIP bus, the fare was THB 200. Seriously it was not a pleasant journey at all. The bus supposed to depart at 10 am, but was delayed until almost 11, that’s was nothing since we were on holiday and what’s the rush anyway. Along the way there was no proper road at all, it was all bumpy, uphill and downhill, I still curious how did the guy next to me managed to sleep since before the bus departed until we arrived I have to wake him up!

Why I want to come to Vang Vieng? There was one day I was googlying about fun place in south east Asia, and this place came up. I’ve been living in south east asia for all my life and I felt kind of embarrassed when most of European know about this place and I don’t. Hence its time to see, what’s good in Vang Vieng.

When I arrived here, its very small town, not really town but like a small farmer village. Its remind me of my grandfather place in Fang, Chiangmai  http://wikitravel.org/en/Fang , nearby the hills side was the settlement of Lao native people (Hmong). Don’t expect Starbucks or McD here, the local can speak a little bit English, well some of them. As I’m typing this the whole village has no electricity, the hotel owner said its happen many times.

We stayed in Laos Haven Hotel, its cheap around MYR90++ via www.agoda.com inclusive of breakfast. Room was pretty basic but comfortable with air conditioner and hot shower (not really hot, not even warm but its okay). What’s great about this hotel is the hotel owner, Mr.Michael he’s very friendly and kind. I don’t think he’s a local, he speak in English with Malaysian accent (u know the ‘lah’ word), I assume he's Malaysian but he's Singaporean actually

That evening we ride a bike to explore whole Vang Vieng, it took less than 20 mins and we explored all of it! What I read about Vang Vieng was, the place is the greatest tubing party, even better than Koh Phangan in Thailand. We were looking for party places, its really nothing! We walk to one bar with hammock, only 2 British guy (more like boys), we asked them where the party place is and they took us to one place. Its not a party place at all, it’s a bar that selling weed/opium/magic mushroom/happy pizza, you know the chilling kind of place with reggae music. Those british boys look very high on weed, since we already there we tried mushroom shake and opium. Seriously I don’t know what’s went wrong, but nothing happen to us. We walked to the hotel feeling sober than ever!

Then only we found out that since 2012, the Laos government has banned party activities in here. We were told that a lot of tourist get drunk / high and swim and tubing end up drowning and died. Some of the local said that the spirit of the river were angry with the bad tourist culture (drunk people walking with bucket of liquor, girls walking around with bikinis). Well, we were disappointed of course, but that’s alright because there’s a lot to offer in here.

Next morning after breakfast we decided to do 1) tubing along the river 2) caving 3) swim at Bluelagoon. On the way to Bluelagoon with motorbike was really challenging, it was raining last night the road was muddy and slippery , the bumpy road all the way for 7 KM. We felt from the bike once, it was really funny! Along the way the view was magnificent! The mountains, the paddy field, everything just awesome. When we reach blue lagoon, the water was really blue! I never seen something like that before, it was really amazing. While I was swimming suddenly its rain heavily, after the rain stop we went back to the village for lunch then back to the hotel for shower. We can’t go to the cave due to the rain the pavement was really slippery and I just wore crocs shoe. We can’t do tubing as well, as the river flow was really strong after the rain. It was really the wrong season, because middle of the year is raining season in here, the good time to come is during dry season which is October on words. Mr.Michael told us that dry season its not hot season its winter! In the morning the weather could be as low as 10 degrees! 

The place is not for the faint hearted

The view along the way, trust me in real life its better than this picture

 

Blue Lagoon, its really blue!

 

Jump from the top of the tree if you dare! The water was really deep.

Since we got nothing to do, we went to traditional Lao massage, the massage cost KIP 60,000 ( MYR 24) for 1 hour, its was good after walking around for 1 day. Its similar to Thai massage, but I think I like Lao massage more! After massage we went for walking around nearby river, the river flow was still very strong, we wouldn’t dare to take a risk.

Hmong (hill tribe) lady weaving the fabric

 

Its only THB200 per piece, I was not bargain at all, its already cheap, its a hardwork and its art!

 

That night since we were so tired, we just bought baguette sandwich from the roadside stall, I must say that was the best baguette sandwich I ever had! Now its remind me that those British boys told me that they only eat baguette sandwich here , its so damn delicious, I just assume they can’t stand local food which is too spicy for them. A must try if you come here, any roadside stall sandwich.

Vang Vieng has a lot to offer, but if you looking for party place, don’t bother to come here, go to Koh Phi Phi or Koh phangan. There’s so many things I wanted to do but unable to do due to bad weather, so we’ll see each other again Vang Vieng.

Hostel Review: Pillow & Toast Heritage, Singapore again!

So I'm back from Singapore again for another job interview. I took Aeroline coach this time, and I like it compare with flight. 1) its cheap 2) its nearby apartment (you can choose either One Utama, Corus Hotel or Sunway, www.aeroline.com.my) 3)the seat was very comfy 4) food was better than airline food 5) most importantly, there's toilet inside! 6) in house entertainment was not bad. So next time to Singapore again no more KLIA.

So I took the coach at 5.30 pm, but arrived pretty late due to peak hour traffic in KL and also problem with Singapore immigration (long story, I will tell some other time). Arrived at Harbourfront around 1.30, I'm expecting my taxi fare would cost more than SGD 20 , but its only SGD12! So cheap consider it was midnight rate and its Singapore. Taxi driver has no problem finding the hotel, its really just in front of Chinatown MRT.

The room was booked via www.agoda.com , rate advertised on Agoda was SGD30.98, walk in rate was SGD33 for female 8 beds dorm. Even in Agoda stated front office 24 hours, but dont trust 100% on that. Most hostel only has front office operation hours until 11 pm, same goes with this place. You will have to notify your late arrival and they will provide special late check in instruction.

 

The hostel left me this envelope at the check in counter with locker key and access card inside. You need to use the access card to enter the room and also the main door.

 

 

Hostel decoration is very laid back but comfy, they have few selection of books and dvds for you to borrow. They so selling ticket to attraction places like Universal Studio, Night Safari etc with 10% discount of original price. The board with Instagram sign is the photobooth, the hostel provide props such as hat / Hawaiian flowers / fake suitcase / glasses.

 

 

The hostel provide whiteboard, which you may express your thought / feedback.  

 

 

After 11 PM, three's no hostel staff at all. Lucky no zombie that night.

 

The room was pretty basic, the hostel provides towel & adapter inside the locker. However you have to put on pillow case, bed sheet, quilt cover by yourself, the hostel will put on top of the bed. Since I arrived late, others already slept, so I didn't bother to put on bed sheet because its was dark and I don't want to make noise. Each beds has its own light and switch plug.

 

The toilets are outside, it was smelly. The shower rooms just next to the dorm, it was okay, as long as there's hot shower and hair dryer, good enough for me. The hostel only provide shower cream, so bring your own shampoo.

 

Breakfast start from 7 until 11 am, since its Pillow and Toast so basically the breakfast was just toast and 2 types of cereal, coffee a tea. Help yourself at the pantry, and you have to wash your own plate / cup after eating. There's sign board from the hostel 'if you don't wash your own cup, we will have to hire someone to wash it, and the hostel rate will increase. I'm sure you don't want that'. The hostel management really has sense of humour haha.

 

My interview location was in Pasir Panjang, so I asked the reception girl how to get to that place. She suggested to go to the website www.gothere.sg , the website was really helpful I managed to find the place, however she should at least show me the direction not just push away like that.

 

Overall the hostel was okay but not great, suitable for hippies like me. Its nearby MRT if that's what you are looking for and the chicken rice restaurant downstairs was really nice and cheap, SGD3.50 per meal. If you prefer something more comfortable and privacy and suggested the Pod in Bugis , its a little bit pricey (I think its around SGD10 difference) but you don't feel like a hostel.

 

 

 

 

Road trip to Danok & Hatyai : Are we there yet?

The original plan for this trip was to Koh Phiphi via KL - bukit kayu hitam - Hatyai - Krabi - Koh Phiphi. Unfortunately 2 of the team members unable to make it due to unaproval leave. Personally I'm not a big fan of road trip, because I have bladder issue, and its tiring. I will ask same question every half an hour 'are we there yet?', I know my beloved friends feel like wanna throw me out hahaha.

However I found that , once in a while road trip could be the great bonding time. Yeah 8 hours driving, like it or not we have to talk to each other. Here some tips to make road trip more enjoyable:

• Avoid using your gadjet all the time, this is the time to interact with real human being!
• Play nice music that everyone could enjoy. It would be more fun to play the type of song that we all can sing along. 
• Bring something to munch.
• Play game! Anything that's not distract the driver.
• Chit chat / gossip / make joke.
• Don't sleep / be too quite , its make the journey boring and could put the driver to sleep.

The journey start from PLUS highway exit Kota Damansara with full tank petrol (RM 70) for Perodua Myvi, if you plan to drive you car in Thailand I recommend to fill up your petrol again somewhere nearby the border because the petrol price in Thailand double our petrol price. We departed around 1.30 AM with 2 pit stop at R&R (due to my small bladder issue). We arrived at the border around 8 AM, the same bus to Thailand arrived but the immigration queue was not that bad.

We parked our car at The Zon Duty free shopping, and we walked to Dannok, the hotel was only walking distance from the border. We stayed at Oscar Hotel , THB 800 per night for deluxe room. The hotel was really old, and its not decent place if you planning to bring family with minors. The hotel has Spa & Massages (it doesn't look decent to me) and also Erotic Karaoke! The room was very basic, the mattress and pillow was really hard, I'm not the type of traveller that like to complaint about mattress and pillow but this one really make my neck stiff!

 
There's mirror on the hotel room ceiling! Its freaky.
 

 
The view from our room, very near to the border.
 

 
Room 'decoration' , this place is so not child friendly , even the TV channel has x-rated channel.
 

 
We went out for breakfast after checked in , had my favourite Thai roadside food, fried chicken with sticky rice. I really can eat this everyday!
 
After breakfast we went back to hotel room, had some napped then went out for lunch at The Water View restaurant. We took the hotel van, which cost THB 300, the restaurant was nice and windy with a great music (oldies, rock, Chinese, even Hindi/Tamil!). The food was good too, we order 7 dishes just for 4 of us! The meal cost RM215, I think its cheap consider its was seafood meal.
 

 
The Water View restaurant.



 
The food was served using boat because the kitchen is on the other side.



 
Our table, the ambience was very laid back. They provide pillows for customers to relax.



 
Our foods! From top left; Prawn with young coconut (the waiter recommended this, but its taste just fine not great, probably we were too full), dried beef, tomyam seafood, deep fried catfish salad, deep fried seabass with sweetsour gravy, glass noodle salad, refreshing watermelon juice with angel wings deco! omelette with crab meat (not in the picture because we were too hungry lol).
 
We heading to Hatyai after lunch for a visit to floating market. I've been to floating market in Amphawa (Central of Thailand), so to compare with the one in Hatyai its like comparing KLCC with Selayang Mall. The trip from Dannok to Hatyai via mini van took 1 hour at THB 70, after heavy lunch, all of us slept in the van! Once arrived at Hatyai town, we took 'tuk tuk' to the floating market, its cost THB 500 return trip. After floating market trip, we were back to Hatyai town, I was not feeling so good (tummy upset, probably due to heavy lunch). We rented the whole mini van back to Dannok. The cost of transportation in Hatyai different during day time and night time, it was 8 PM the van to Dannok cost us THB800, during day time it would cost THB 500 only.
 
We arrived in Dannok and I straight away went up to the room, other friends went for Thai massage. The massage only cost THB 200 over here, but I was not well for massage. I slept whole night, felt like sore throat, fever and flu. Dannok is just a small town, like a cowboy town, but at night time its very 'loud'. Its the kind of place that men are looking forward to, cheap food, good beer, young hookers with good massage, what else would they need? The music was so loud, even my room in level 8 can hear that.  
 
We checked out from the hotel the next day afternoon, the hotel was not really particular about check in and check out time, when we arrived it was 9 AM, and they gave us rooms. After some light shopping we walked to the border (the weather was boiling hot!). Oh I forgot to mention, at the Thai immigration you must put RM 1 in your passport when you pass it to immigration officer. The corruption is everywhere in this part the world, its RM1 at the border of Thailand but probably thousand ringgit somewhere in our custom office. Its RM1, just put the money in your passport to make your life easier , don't think as corruption , think it s 'administration fee'. Will I come back to this town? Maybe , but just as stopover for road trip to other part of Thailand.
 
The journey from Bukit Kayu Hitam to KL feel faster even we make a long stop in Penang for a sinful lunch. You know why? there's a thing my late father told me, until now I still believe in it. He said 'when we heading the new place, the trees keep asking 'where are you going?', so on the return journey the trees already knew that's what make trip faster'.
 
 
 

Singapore oh Singapore

Finally, I've decided to do blogging! Lets start with our neighbour country, Singapore. Can't believe that I've been travelling to many places around the world but this is my first time to Singapore! And its for not for holiday just a job interview. I guess I would not have come if its not because of this damn 3 hours interview! Why I never been to Singapore? well here some lame 'excuses/reason'

• Singapore is pretty much KL, in fact its just clean version of KL - WRONG
• The food is same - I must say similar but not same
• Everything cost the boom! - Don't convert to RM, their inflation is much better than Klang Valley, I had lunch at Mall food court in Novena (duck rice with chicken ) for SGD 5, with RM5 I don't think you can get decent meal in Klang Valley.

Like we all know, public transport in Singapore is very efficient , you really don't need to own a car over here. Even its my first time but I manage to find the interview place easily with signboard and ask some locals. Its funny that the locals don't really know the name of the road, its the foreigner that guided me to Sultan street last night lol! I could understand because sometimes I know the place but I don't know the name.

Let's start with the airport. My friend from UK once told me that Changi airport is the best, but I keep saying Hong Kong airport is the best. He was right! Changi is the best airport I ever been. The sign board to the train station is very easy to follow. So from Changi I took the train to Novena, cost me SGD 2.5 (I must say its very cheap). You must change the train in Tanah Merah station, its pretty easy.

I arrived at Novena, but its still early for my interview so I had lunch at Velocity Mall food court, food cost SGD 5, drink SGD 1 after that headed to Starbucks for my usual after meal Americano SGD 6. The interview took 3 hours! I was planning to explore the city after the interview but was too tired. So  I went straight to hotel in Bugis. Oh yeah, the MRT card you can just top up according to your destination fare up to 6 times, just place the card to the machine and follow instruction.

I've booked The Pod Boutique Capsule Hotel, address 289 Beach Road Level 3 via www.agoda.com, great deal with my Agoda rewards points (Thank you Agoda). When I arrived at Bugis Station I asked few locals for direction (not sure if they are locals), but none of them know where is the Beach Road. So I use GPS from my phone (data roaming cost RM38 per day, thank you Maxis). The hotel actually very near to the MRT station but damn GPS make me walk for more than 1 hour! The moral of the story , don't trust the machine, get the real old fashion map!

Luckily the hotel is very nice! The hotel owner place the aromatherapy burner on every corner, so its smell like you in the spa somewhere in Thailand. The room comes with buffet breakfast, nespresso coffee, wifi, 1 item dry cleaning per night stay, washing machine and dryer, local calls and use of computers. If you don't mind staying in dorm/capsule kind of place, I highly recommended this place, besides its nearby all those 'nice looking' restaurants and its kind of tourist spot.

 

The key card, you must use this to enter the building, dorm and to open you locker.

 

 

The female 'side entrance' capsule, there's option between side and front, I prefer side. There's female dorm and mix dorm, but no male only. The dorm was air conditioned and towel provided, bed and pillow was very comfy. If you need some privacy, you can pull the blind curtain, I didn't use that , I feel like I can't breath.

 

Each capsule comes with individual hanger, light, plug port, locker, and open up table.

 

 

The toilet was very clean and smell like spa as well, shower cream, shampoo provided, hand soap, and hair dryer provided. Unfortunately this is mix gender toilet, I don't really mind.   

 

There's only 1 thing that's I'm looking forward to for this trip, apart from my interview. Nope, not Universal Studio but Sup Tulang Merah! This bloody looking soup is very famous in Singapore, the shop name is Ma Deen , located in Sultan Street, only 500 m from the hotel.

 

 

Look at those yummilicous , cholesterol goodness mutton bones. This is the smallest portion. Its really finger licking good!

 

 

You may order some breads to dip into the soup.

 

 

I'm very greedy when I wanted to try mee goring as well, its taste good but I prefer the one I had in Penang.

 

Overall this trip has changed my perception about Singapore, Singapore is Singapore, its not petty much KL or Penang or mini Hong Kong. It was very very short trip so I don't have chances to visit Orchard road, Universal Studio, Marina Bay, etc, but its good, that's mean definitely I have to come back for more, see you again Singapore!