Laos Trip Day 1．Fly

Lost in Laos - Day 1
23 September 2007
Singapore ->Bangkok -> Luang Prabang

Photos: http://www.fotop.net/headless/20070923
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Since there are lots of assignments and exams coming up after the break, I was busy writing reports all the time before the trip, I didn't have time to pack for my trip until several hours before I had to go to the airport...

I took budget airline from Singapore to Bangkok, so the departure time was 0630 which means that I had to leave from my place at 3:30am so that I can reach Changi airport by 4:30am!

At the porch of my school residence, there is a taxi stop. There is a sign right there with some numbers of the taxi companies so that we can call for cab when we need, of course you have to pay additional cost for that though. I was prepared to call a cab since it was 3 something in the morning. But when I called, this is what I heard on my phone.....

"Sorry, the system is under maintenance, please call again several hours later."

Several HOURS!? Several hours later, I should be in Bangkok boarding another plane to Laos already! Alone in the dark, with the very huge backpack.. I begun to sweat.. and didn't know what to do..

It is quite impossible to flag a cab in any places nearby the place I live, not to say it was 3 in the morning! I saw a few cab passed by but they were all occupied. And all the taxi drivers stared at me....

Just when I was about to cry... (not really..).. miracle came! An occupied cab drove in the residence carpark. I ran towards the exit of the carpark and waited until it came out again! After a few minutes, the cab did come out! The driver was a bit shocked to see me standing there!! haha

Just like my past few experience, the taxi drivers in Singapore are generally nice and talkative. This nice uncle is one of them. We chatted along the way and he took me to the Budget Terminal of Changi Airport at about 4am.

Singapore Changi Airport opened the Budget Terminal in 2005 to cater the increasing needs of budget airline business. This is my first time using this terminal. In my opinion, the Budget Terminal is a normal terminal without the "unnecessaries". For "unnecessaries" I mean things like air-conditioning (which they have fans instead), and the little connecting bridge from the boarding gate to the planes etc. Other than that, I don't see anything lack in Budget Terminal. There are bookstores, convenient store, souvenior shops and free internet access.

If I have to say any differences between the Budget Terminal and the normal terminals, maybe I'd say it's the service quality of the immigration staff. As far as I remember, the immigration staff I encountered in other terminals during my last few times using Changi Airport were quite nice.. I won't say they provide "excellent" service.. but at least they are not rude. But this morning when I was departing Singapore.. it was quite a nightmare..

In my own common sense, I always need to show two documents to immigration staff whenever I depart - my passport and the boarding pass. Anything other than that, e.g. departure form, usually will be given to me when I check-in at the airline counter. I didn't get anything from the airline staff when I check-in this morning, so I just gave my passport and the boarding pass to the auntie at the immigration counter.

Perheps it was too early in the morning (it was just 6:30am), once she got my passport and boarding pass, she was stoned, seems that she didn't know what she supposed to do...

She didn't say anything to me.. 5 seconds later, I tried to break the ice by giving her the only ID I have on hand - my Student Pass. I wish it would help. A Student Pass is a little card which serves as a student visa in Singapore. I supposed I only need it when I enter the country.

Once she saw my Student Pass, I saw a light bulb on her head!! She knows what to do!! But!! before she did anything, she started to yell at me... scold at me.. do whatever she can to embarrass me. The main point she said was I didn't take out the Student Pass at first, so she didn't know what to do.. and I'm wasting ALL the people's time.. etc....

I looked at her as she was yelling.. I tried very hard to hold my laugh.. I think she kept yelling me for about 2 minutes.. I felt really sorry for the people waiting behind.

What I was thinking at that time was the immigration staff in Hong Kong.. I really miss their service. Immigration staff is the first person a tourist will encounter when they visit a country. Everyone knows how important is first impression. If Singapore really wants to continue boosting her tourism industry, immigration staff would be one place to be improved.
The journey from Singapore to Bangkok was about 2 to 3 hours. Due to time differences, I arrived Bangkok at 7:50am Bangkok time. I needed to fill in an arrival form for the Thai Immigration. There was a field called "Hotel" in the form. Since I was going to take another plane later, I don't know what to put there, I left that blank. Will I get scold again?

Once the staff got my form and passport, he quickly noticed that I didn't fill in that field. Then he said something to me in a language that I don't speak.. and he suddenly realised that I don't understand what he said.. he looked at my passport again. and changed his channel to Cantonese but with a quite funny ascent. "Hong~Kong~AR? Hotel!" and he pointed to that field. I explained my situation to him. He taught me to write down 'transfer' instead of a hotel name.

In just a several hours, I did something wrong in the immigration counter of 2 different countires! However, in a country that is generally perceived as highly educated and developed, I was scold and embarrassed for 2 minutes. On the other hand, in the less developed country, I got smile and friendly faces. What do these indicated?

Ok, everything is done. I even got my big backpack back on my back. It was still 8 something. The flight to Luang Prabang is 12:40.. what should I do?

The new Bangkok International Airport looks almost the same as the one in Hong Kong, especially the Departure floor. There were only a few very small shops, I don't really think I can go in with my backpack and my camera bag and walk for 2+ hours. So I went to the airline counter and asked if I can check-in "a bit" earlier than I supposed to..

To my surprise, they let me do that!! Although they felt very strangle for a passenger to check in 4 hours earlier than the departure time, they were still very friendly!! Ok now I get rid of my backpack and got my boarding pass, I could do whatever I want, especially I can get into the Departure Hall and walk around those shops!

First I got some Baht from the money exchange, then start planning how to spend my few hours at the airport.

If you know me well, you know the first shop I'd go. Yes, the bookstores. Although the one I found in the BKK airport was quite small, I still spent more than half an hour there until the staff started staring at me..

Then I went to Burger King, wanted to have some food and plan for my trip later in the afternoon. A meal in BK here costs 235 Bhat, even more expensive than Singapore. And it was upsized almost automatically. During my stay in the store, everyone (EVERYONE incl ME!) was having an upsized meal!

Long Live the King

Finally waited until 12:40! All other passengers and I board on a bus at the boarding gate. Our plane parked at a outer bay so we needed a bus to take us there. When the bus was about to stop, we saw two planes. One was a small jet, another one was a even smaller jet, a propeller-driven one... just when we were still guessing which one was our plane, the bus driver took us to the back of the propeller-driven one.. and we all laughed. Well, it seems that it's not only my first time taking this kind of aircraft!

My first time on a propeller-driven aircraft

Although the aircraft looks small on the outside, the seats are actually more comfortable than the usual 747 plane, of course I'm talking about the economy class! Once the flight took off, I tried very hard to catch some sleep. However, despite the time to spend on the in-flight meal, the nice lovely American lady sitting behind me kept giving her speech on "Women rights in the States" to the lady next to her, whom she just met on the plane. She didn't stop talking for the whole journey.. and I thought I only slept for about 10-15 minutes!

Ok..anyway, finally, I arrived in Luang Prabang at 2:40pm

Immigation time! Most of the visitors to Laos are required a visa to enter the country. Visa-on-arrival (30 days) can be applied at only 3 international airports (Luang Prabang, Vientaine and Pakse). The fee for visa is different according to the passport you are holding. Hong Kong is one of the most cheapest passport to get a visa to visit Laos, we only need to pay US$30. However, if you arrive there during weekend like me (this is Saturday!).. you have to pay an extra US$1 for the overtime of the immigration staff. The thing is, since most of us didn't have one dollar note, and they only accept US cash, the staff actually has to spend more time to find out how to give us the $9 changes!!

Once you got the visa done, it's very easy to get pass the immigration counter. I gave my passport to the staff there, they input some information to the computer. The staff were very nice and friendly. They even chat and share jokes with me.

This 'international' airport has only one bagguage belt. Since I spent very long time waiting for the visa to be done, when I get out from the immigration (which is just the room next door), the belt was stopped already. All the bagguages were placed nicely on the floor. Later I notice that other people from outside can actually come it and get the bagguages, but nothing was stolen.

Luang Prabang International Airport（shooting from the apron）

It only takes less than one minute to walk from the bagguage belt to the outside of the airport. Just when I stepped out, 2 men approached me at once and asked me if I wanted a cab to the town. I looked around, most of the tourists were gone except for one standing nearby. I asked him if he wanna share the cab with me. He agreed but he wanna check with the tourist information counter inside the airport for the normal cab fare so that we won't get cheated. We found out that the fare is all the same, we have to buy a 'taxi ticket' from the counter and get a cab. So we bought the ticket and hop onto a cab and started our way to the town of Luang Prabang.

The 'taxi' we took was not the taxi we usually see in major cities. It was actually a mini van. And it can mainly be found at the airport. In the city, people either walk or travel by tuk-tuk. It took us about 15-20 minutes to go to the town. We introduced each other during the short trip. He is Dan, a 31 American from NY. He's already an experienced traveller! He has been lots of places in China!! A lot more than me, a Chinese!!

We stopped at the guesthouse that Dan found out from his guidebook. We went inside and asked for the price, then we went upstairs and checked the rooms. The staff was very nice, never push us to stay there. He first showed us a room with 2 single beds, Dan knew that I was only staying there for one night, so he suggested us to share the room to save costs. That was a good idea, but this was also my first night of my first individual trip.. I still feel strange of sharing a room with a person that I just knew.. so I prefered to have my own room instead. So we went downstairs wanted to pay for the rooms.. but the staff didn't come down with us.. I think he thought we're not going to take the room!! haha.. After a while, he went down and saw us waiting there.. he was abit surprised. When we told him we wanna take 2 separate rooms, he was even more surprised!

The whole Luang Prabang town was listed as World Heritage in 2005, it is one of the most important tourism destinations in Laos. Therefore the price of the rooms here is a bit higher than other places. The room I got this night costed US$13/night. Dan got a room without window, so it was one dollar cheaper.

After we settled down, Dan and I decided to have a walk around the town. We first walked along the Mekong River, it was very quite, we only saw a few locals walking pass. One the way, we made a visit to the Wat Xieng Thong (Entrance fee: 20000kip = US$2).

We walked till the end of the road and turn right to the Nam Khan River. There were lots of Wats on the way but we didn't visit all of them. We just walked very slowly and had a nice chat all the way. We passed by some travel agencies on the way, I bought the bus ticket to Phonsavan for tomorrow and Dan also asked some information about the boats.

We walked until dusk and we were at the bottom of the Phu Si hill. Dan realized that there was a Wat up in the hill and suggested to go up and have a look, so we decided to climb up the hill... of course there were stairs.. we climbed and climbed until we almost couldn't make it.. we reached the top of the stairs!! AND! we found the ticketing counter!!! There was another stair!! And the Laos are humorous enough to write down how many steps we had just climbed (130) and how many more we need to climb up to the top (190). Dan and I couldn't stop laughing when we saw those signs.. we rested for a while, paid for the tickets and climbed the remaining 190 steps!

Still 190 steps!!

Finally we were at the top of the hill! It was soooo beautiful up there! You can see the whole Luang Prabang from here! What's even more beautiful is.. we came just in time! Just in time to see the beautiful sunset!

Top of the world

There were some big steps on the hill just perfectly serve as seating space for tourists to view the sunset. Though the place is quite small up there, there were still 20-30 people sitting or standing there waiting to witness the sunset. At that time, I felt the power of the nature.. there were no signs, no guards on the hill, but no one speak a word. It was so quite.. everyone just keep silent to enjoy every second.

Sunset

I didn't expect to see this at all, so by the time I saw the sunset, I was so excited! This is not my first time watching sunset, but this was surely the most beautiful one! After the sun was gone, we didn't go immediately, we sat there and played with a kitten who has been sleeping there during the sunset!! Then a girl wearing some sort of uniform approached Dan and asked him to fill up a survey. She heard from Dan that I am not Laos (!!), so she also came and asked me. The survey was something about my consumption behaviour in Luang Prabang.

After that, we got back to the main street and ready to go for dinner. Dan is a vegetarian, originally he wanted to go to a restaurant suggested by the guidebook. But after we walked for a while, we walked pass and got attracted by a vegetarian buffet store on the street! The food looked delicious and the price was even more attractive! only 5000kip (US$0.5) per plate. So we changed our mind and had our dinner here! The food was really nice, we both cleared our own plate!!

Vegetarian buffet

It was only 8pm+ after the dinner! We head slowly back to the guesthouse, walked pass a night market selling all kinds of cooked food. After we reached the guesthouse, we sat down at the outdoor area of the restaurant, and we both tried the very famous Beer Lao! One thing we didn't know is that the bottle of Beer Lao is 650ml! So huge! Lucky the taste is very nice, i can easily finish it!

Beer Lao

We drink and chat until 9 somthing, I have to wake up at 6:30am tomorrow, so I headed back to my room after the beer. Dan gave me his name card and we said goodbye for now.

Somehow I think that I was very lucky that I actually met Dan at the airport. Otherwise, I definitely would not climb up Phu Si hill and I would have missed the sunset! And I would also just booked my bus ticket through guesthouse and never go and check with travel agencies. I really have to thank Dan!!

Dan and me

There was a little story happened later that night. Maybe I was too excited, I wasn't able to sleep so I kept reading on the bed until 11pm. Suddenly... there was a black-out... no more air-con, no more lights.. I looked out from the windows.. seems to me that the buildings nearby were all cut out of electricity. Electricity was back after about 15 mins.. but the room had already became very muggy. Besides that, I'm now very not used to air-con room since I've been staying in my non-air-con hostel for about 11 months. Adding up all these, my head started to feel very very painful... the serious headache stopped me from sleeping until I took 2 panadols.

The headache thus ended my beautiful day.

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Expenditure for today
Cab to Changi Airport：SGD16 = US$11
Burger King：THB235 = US$7.5
Visa for Laos：US$31
Cab to Luang Prabang town：US$4
Guesthouse：US$13
Tickets for Wat：20000kip x 2 = US4
Dinner：12000kip = US$1.2
Bus ticket to Phonsavan incl. tuk tuk：160000kip = US16
TOTAL：US$88