Laos: Notes on where we slept, ate, and did

Mini-Mart sign in Huay Xai - A Grass Roots Entrepreneur

We spent 17 days in Lao. For the most part our lack of advance planning worked. A lesson from last year - don't travel doing Chinese New Year without reservations. We watched a steady stream of people walked from guest house to guest house in Luang Prabang looking for a vacancy. We had reservations, but finding an available restaurant was challenging.

Lodging:

To find hotels we relied on Agoda and Trip Advisor. In Vientiane and Luang Prabang we paid about USD40 for clean rooms with firm beds, no bugs, and a central location. Some had cable television others did not. Some included breakfast, others did not. None had elevators, but staff helped with luggage. Laundry was charged by the kilogram rather than by the piece, which I hope never changes.

Vientiane: Hotel Khamvongsa Perhaps the best value in the old section of central Vientiane. For breakfast we could chose from 6 set meals and fruit drinks (we alternated between banana shakes and pineapple juice).  The homey atmosphere at breakfast seemed to motivate visiting NGO staff to conduct business loudly over the phone. Aren't they trained?

Luang Prabang: Many comfortable guest houses that are relatively similar to each other. We stayed at the Ammata Ammata Guest House and Phounsab Guest House. The Phousab is located on Luang Prabang's busy main street, but our room in the back as totally quiet

Huay Xai - A hard scrabble city at the end of our Mekong boat trip. We stayed at a recommended guest house. We saw a bloody syringe in the lobby, which colored our opinion of the town and the hotel. Similar to Luang Prabang Huay Xia probably had a number of similar options, but a decidedly lower standard.

Food:

In Vientiane and Luang Prabang we primarily ate French food - it was well prepared and cheaper than similar foods in Kuala Lumpur. For breakfast we had baguette sandwiches made with fresh baguettes (at least once the waitress took our order, went off on a motor bike and returned with baguettes) or soup. Soups and pho were good, but spicying varied (chili sauce available on request) - a soup costing more than 15 kip (USD2) was enough for two.

As for Lao food we couldn't try Luang Prabang's better known Lao/fusion restaurants, because Chinese New Year celebrants had made reservations. Un Petit Nid became our "restaurant by default." Its varied menu was reasonably priced. One night we had tomato soup and pizza (comfort food night) and another Lao food. All were tasty. On Valentine's Day we were surprised to see it had a Malaysian flag (Malaysian owner)/.

Malaysian flag in Luang Prabang (Malaysian owner)

We ate at several places along the rivers. Mekong River places cost less with huge portions. I ordered a Croque Monsieur and received two sandwiches. Places along the Nam Khan were pricier and somewhat more upmarket..

A half salad!

In Vientiane we ate The Noodle People (next to the Hotel Khamvongsa) for its good, inexpensive noodle soups and the Viengkanphou across from the Lao National Cultural Hall to satisfy a sudden craving for a hamburg. At Viengkanphou we were rewarded with good baked potatoes; the hamburger was large but its texture wasn't to our liking.

Yummy baked potatoes - sometime you need a familiar favorite

Closer to our hotel we had lunch at Le Vendome. Doug chose the 22000 kip (less than USD4) lunch and I had an enormous chicken salad. Doug's arrived promptly - after more than 30 minutes we were ready to confirm that my order was in progress when it arrived.

Less than USD4 - chicken drumsticks and pasta salad

Enormous chicken salad - I enjoyed every bite

The favorite of the trip was L'Adresse de Tinay. On its posted menu was a cheese plate - a new craving motivated a sudden need for a mid afternoon snack. We made a dinner reservation and chose its fixed price menu. My dinner began with broccoli cappuccino style - it was amazing (far lighter than I imagined). The restaurant cost more than other Vientiane restaurants (at least the ones we ate at or checked out), but far less than KL. And the food was great - enough to encourage to plan for return visited to Vientiane and many more dinners.

In Huay Xai the general scruffiness of the town and syringe at the hotel ruined our appetite. We stopped at a mini-mart (on street side away from the river). We were looking for cheese-filled Ritz crackers. The shop had Ritz crackers but none with cheese. The owner brought out Laughing Cow cheese portions and a knife. How could we say "no"? He showed his sign (at the top of this posting). The next morning we returned to snap him holding his sign, but he was too busy making baguette sandwiches to pose. So if you are in Huay Xai look for the shop and reward this plucky Laotian by buying something.

Entrepreneur at work in Houay Say

A way to spot the shop - these are in front
An example that nothing goes to waste in Lao

What we did: Some tourist sites

We have talked about the major sites we saw along our trip: Green Discovery Tour of Vientiane, Elephant Conservation Centre in Sayaboury, Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre in Luang Prabang, and our trip along the Mekong (to be posted soon). On our last day in Vientiane we went to the Lao National Museum and bookstore. The museum was a bit of a hodgepodge, but an interest way to spend a few hours. The 2nd floor had a section on modern (post-French) political leaders - a reminder that history is written by the victors. Any reference to America or Americans was preceded with the adjective "imperialistic." There was a display by the various ministries that looked like a state fair display. No updating since they were created earlier in the 21st century.

We stopped at Monument Books - it had good collection of books on Laos. Overall a large and pleasant bookshop. We picked up some books and a calender