Goodbye Malaysia, hello Laos! 🇱🇦

29th – 30th September

Our flight was at 6.40am. Meaning we had to arrive at the airport at 4.40am + it was a 45 min journey to the airport = early start! All blurry eyed I met Simon in the communal area before 3.30am 😴. luckily the grab drivers were awake. I’d heard KL Airport was rubbish, but after finding it easy to get through security etc. and into a nice quiet shopping area I wondered why. Then I tried to get dollars out for my Laos visa – the only international ATMs didn’t work and none of the money exchange offices had anything but ringgit…… how useful when most people are clearly flying OUT of Malaysia 😒. They also sold no water bottles, just the odd weird cup of water with plastic film on top. Better than nothing I suppose!

I flew with Air Asia, one of the more reliable low budget Asian airlines. There wasn’t a great deal of space on the flight, but luckily I accidentally sat in the wrong aisle and when the flight attendant pointed this out, he told me I could also sit at the back. The flight wasn’t full, so both Simon and I had a full row to ourselves! As soon as poss I used all 3 seat to get some sleep! Comfy!

TIP: I worried a fair bit prior to travelling about having proof of exiting each country, as this is usually required to show you won’t overstay your visa. I didn’t have a set plan so didn’t have this evidence, but Ive found that this isn’t an issue, just don’t over stay and you’ll be fine! Well for Asia at least.

TIP: If a country requires a visa in dollars, they will only accept dollars in cash and it’s better to have near enough the correct notes. If you try and pay in a different currency they’ll make you go and get dollars out or convert your money, meaning you end up losing some of your precious budget!

At the airport we spent a while doing the usual ATM run to get some Laos Kip and get a local SIM card sorted. We also stopped for a coffee to wake up.

Is Vientiane even a city?!

The tiny capital city of Laos is more like a large town. There’s no big sky rises, most of the ATMs didn’t work for international cards and you can pretty much walk most places. Straight away I enjoyed the pace in Laos, slower and more peaceful. Lazy Laos.

We jumped on the airport shuttle bus, pleasantly surprised with the facilities, got off in the centre and walked to our hostel. The Sailoymen hostel was more like a mini hotel and will probably remain one of the nicest hostels I stayed in for my whole trip. It was modern, clean, the beds were awesome and the reception area was a really nice cafe open to the public. Laos has a big French influence and is famous for its French bakeries and restaurants. Unfortunately the wine was too pricey for a budget traveller ☹️.

We arrived too early to check in, so dumped our stuff and chilled out for a bit. It was here in the cafe reception we met Celine, a Canadian soon to be our new travel buddy for the next week +! Simon wanted to hire a scooter the following day to see a couple of places and Celine was keen to tag along.

After being able to check in and freshen up, Simon and I went to check out the sites of Vientiane, we walked to the Partuxai archway monument (similar to a mini Arc De triomphe), walked to the top to see the low sky line of this diddy city, then headed to Wat Si Saket temple, stopping to eat vege noodles on the way. The temple was interesting, not that I know much about Buddhism or Hinduism, but I like looking round at all the extravagant gold buddhas and God statues.

After this another freshen up and a trip to the night market, a bit further away than we were anticipating, but the great thing about the night market here is it’s not for tourists! It’s actually used by locals and the food stalls were filled with local food, barbecued meats and clay pots to cook your own noodle soup. We sat down on tiny table and chairs and were handed a basked filled with veg, herbs and an egg, as well as meat to cook (which I didn’t eat still being on my vege streak where I can). We also had some veg skewers. It was the first of a few!

We went to the supermarket on our way back to the hostel and grabbed our first beerloa each, the local beer of Laos brewed in Vientiane, not too bad!

After a good nights sleep, the next morning we got up to a lovely breakfast, finally some cereal and fresh milk! We then sorted out the scooters and headed off to the Buddha park outside the city (via the airport for Celine to get money out as this was the only ATM accepting her card!). Wow, these bikes were tiny in comparison to the ones Malaysia and were so uncomfortable! It was also a really hot day and the sweating continued with force.

Buddhas and the delta

The Buddha park was cool! (Not temperature wise). There was a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu statues, the main two features being a giant lying gold Buddha and a weird giant pumpkin that you can walk inside and climb up to get a view of the park. The health and safely in this part of Asia is……. interesting, and kinda non existent 😂. I also climbed to the top of another stone structure that was so steep and flat faced at the top it reminded me of the tingly arm and general stuck feeling I had the odd time climbing with dad when I was younger!

We headed back hoping to find somewhere for lunch and stopping at the beerloa brewery, we failed at both. But we did stop off at the COPE centre, recommended in Lonely Planet and by auntie Judith, this is a really interesting place to learn about the devastating effects of the UXO – unexploded ordnance – left from the Vietnamese war. I had no idea that it affected Laos so much, but there’s more in this country than Vietnam! The centre is also a rehabilitation centre for those that have lost limbs and it also make prosthetics. Really humbling and interesting place.

We went back and grabbed food from a small nearby restaurant, pretty sure I had noodles again 🤔, must have been that or rice! I then really wanted to go to this gym recommended, again, by Lonely Planet that overlooks the Mekong and Thailand on the other side! It was just outside the city and as we had to get the bikes back by 5, my only option was to get dropped off and walk back. I checked it was safe to do alone and got a lift with Simon. I had a good gym sesh in front of the river just pre sunset. Unfortunately no showers?!! So sweaty and red I started off back. The walk was one of my favourite moments of the trip so far. The journey was along the promenade of the Mekong Delta, and to my surprise I was descended on by a load of local runners! So after realising I didn’t actually need the gym, I enjoyed my sunset walk back, listening to music and watching the runners against the beautiful scenery. It was so sublime I didn’t even get annoyed that my practically unused dry bag broke.