Tien Giang- Mekong Delta's Projected International Jewel

Have you ever been to Mekong Delta in Vietnam? Mekong Delta comprises of several provinces and cities but I’ll narrow down my story to Tien Giang or My Tho City.

My Tho is the most sellable destination among independent travelers joining an organized one day Mekong Delta tour, the fact that it is quite near Saigon. With the newly opened express highway the travel from Saigon to My Tho City is now just an hour and a half or a maximum of two hours.

This city was projected to be the venue of Ms. World but by the twist of fate the Ms World project in that area has folded. I’m one of those expats supposedly in the frontline of promoting the project to the international market which could have a good impact to Vietnam’s tourism industry but a lightning from the media society struck its main player that sent all expats packing and I’m the last one on the line.

Now as I am packing my bags getting ready to move to my next destination in the tourism and hospitality industry, I’ll share the place to all of you who have never been there. In fairness, Tien Giang deserves this note as it is quite a rich area with or without the Ms. World project.

The province Tien Giang itself is the fruit basket of Vietnam that mainly supply the countrywide demands for mango, durian, rambutan, mangosteen , longan and other tropical fruits. And that alone is an attraction for travelers who want to explore the countryside where they can see fruit plantations.

How to get there? If you are not going to book a tour to travel agents or get a private car in Saigon then you have choices of public buses from Mailinh, Phuong Trang , Phu Vinh Long or those that park Miendong bus station.

But if you want a comfortable travel through public transport then I suggest you get on Phu Vinh Long in District 10 or call Mailinh, they’ll pick you up at your hotel but of course the fare is a bit expensive than those at Miendong bus station.

In the course of promoting Tien Giang as Ms. World venue in China, I remember someone from a corporate world in Russia asked me what to do in My Tho should she bring 100 guests. Of course at that time I was braced with information on the project I can talk a lot, convincing her that the guests have to stay at least one week to explore the place.

Indeed, with the Ms World concept you need to explore My Tho for at least one week but in the absence of that, I can only recommend a maximum of two days stay in the area.

For two days, you can explore the rich river of Tien Giang- traversing it will give you a view of the different islands- see the stilt houses, the fishing village, learn the culture of Vietnamese in the countryside, its lifestyle and means of living. You can go around see the real beauty of the countryside, its fruit plantations and the rice fields – an abundant green background that sooths your eyes.

One of the attractions in the area is the visit to the family run factories of coconut candies, rice paper, bee products, and those small shops that sell coconut product souvenirs.

There is also that supposed to be venue of the Ms. World which has been developed partially, the Thoi Son RAAS where you can go around and explore the fruit garden. In Thoi Son you can take the famous sampan rowing of Mekong Delta with that conical hat while traversing along the small canals leading to the river.

If you want fishing either in the canal or in a developed pond where you can cook the fish you caught, Tien Giang is just a perfect place for that. What is more exciting in staying at Tien Giang for two a night is the fact that you can go in its nearby province where you can watch fireflies glittering at night as well as learn the culture that the coconut religion has adopted before its monk died in 1990.

What I love most in staying there night time was the experience I had with the fireflies watch, which is a combination of fear (traversing in a foreign canals at night with just fireflies as light) and the fairyland feeling while locals paddled the sampan along the tiny canals with nothing but fireflies to light the waterways.

A farewell holiday in Vung Tau

I’m feeling a bit under the weather today, so I thought it might help to divert my attention in putting into words the latest trip I took outside of Ho Chi Minh City with my friend, Rachel Clarke. Our destination was Vung Tau – a popular beach destination.

I’ve been into this place several times, so thinking about it doesn’t give me a thrill. Living in Saigon though doesn’t give me a choice, we want beach and the closest is Vung Tau.

There are two options on how to get to Vung Tau and it's either by land or hydrofoil.

If you want the fastest way of going there then get on hydrofoil at 160,000vnd or $8.50usd and after over an hour of traversing on the water you’ll land in Baria port.

I’m not keen of travelling on the water, so we took the Hoa Mai mini van at 44 Nguyen Thai Binh in District 1. And with our 55,000vnd ($3) fare, we arrived Baria public market after more than two hours on the road.

We had lunch at Baria public market then get on the bus to Hotram Beach Resort. There are several beach resorts in Vung Tau but after a day of travelling like a local, we opted to stay at a luxury resort in Ho Tram Village- the Hotram Beach Resort &Spa.

The resort has two swimming pools, tennis court, fitness gym, grandiose bathroom, internet cable, wifi, restaurant, bar and a beach where we can just lay down to relax.

Let me just say it this way, the amenities and resort’s architectural design were worth the money we spent for.

As for food, it may not be the best but it’s nicely prepared and healthy considering that they were using organic produce. The prices too were not so expensive, so Rachel and I were having great time with the abundance of our meals.

Rachel was scheduled to head off Malaysia the day after, so we can only afford to stay one night. We, however, maximized our time lying on the poolside until the required checkout time. After that, we get on the bus again back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Rachel is a good friend I enjoyed partying with in Hanoi and our trip to Vung Tau was our last moment together as she already ended her contract in Vietnam.

To Rachel, cheers girl! Good luck to your new life back home in England.

Night Walks - Saigon

My prolonged absence here manifests how lazy I become nowadays. It's just today that I finally got the desire to scribble down few notes of my night walks. Saigon is not the city I really took fancy of but since I live here I might as well share my experience. Writing about Saigon and my experience here is quite complex though, so let’s narrow it down to my night walks. The thing is no matter what colour is your skin it is quite safe to walk around the city at night.

If you want to capture colourful images then go around the city’s main area for tourists. Use your imagination and join me as I came out from the office at Saigon Trade Center walking towards the direction of Le Duan Street.

An expensive pizza at Hard Rock Café would be a good start to get ready for a long walk around the city. Hard Rock Café is located at the ground floor of Kumho Asiana building. I was walking along Le Duan Street and when I saw the newly opened Kumho Asiana building I remember Tim Scott, a good friend I met in Hanoi. He is working at Hard Rock Café, so I thought it would be nice to say hi. I went down but Tim was not there and my pride told me I shouldn’t go out not buying anything, so I ended up having an expensive pizza. Had it not been good I’m sure I’ll never stop complaining about it but because it was the best pizza I ever had in Saigon, I came out smiling. It’s not that it’s very expensive though but my point is I can get a pizza buffet in Pham Ngu Lao for the ones I paid at Hard Rock Café.

Lost on what else I want to do after that pizza stop, I sit down in one of the benches in front of Notra Dame Church where beggars and persons with disability were hanging around. Looking at them made me feel so privileged in life. Besides the lights from Diamond Plaze and the old post office across plus the elegant beauty of HSBC building behind me were nice backgrounds to the activities of the people around me. It made me think about life, how cruel and sweet life could be for various individuals.

A lottery ticket offer from one of the vendors though sent me off from my chair. Vendors can be very annoying they won’t leave you alone, so I left and walked towards Dong Khoi Street. In Dong Khoi, there’s the new Vincom building with expensive shops and spacious park outside. When it comes to shopping I am quite cheap, I don’t go for expensive one but I went inside Vincom building just for the sake of entertaining my eyes to that expensive display. Ten minutes staring at 240usd-worth of dress was enough for me to get bored and left heading towards City Opera. Few snap shots of the significant buildings around kept me busy. Then I decided to stop by few bars otherwise I can’t help spending money collecting fancy handicraft bracelets, my weakness.

In Dong Khoi Street, there’s Ice Blue Bar where I can describe as bar for old expat executives, the boring type. Few meters from Ice Blue there’s Hi Fi disco, 2nd level of the Russian market building. Then there’s also Jaspas worth spending the entire night with its cozy atmosphere. However, my trip for the night was to go around check places, so I just had one glass of lemonade at JASPAS then go around Ton That Tiep Street.

At Ton That Tiep I passed by Phatty’s Bar where most of the native English teachers working in prestigious language centers are hanging around. Spending 4usd for a drink was not my cup of tea, so one drink at Phatty’s then I had enough. Like I said I go for cheap prices except perhaps when I’m buying fancy handicraft bracelets.

From Phatty’s I went straight to Pham Ngu Lao where I spend the rest of the night sitting and chatting with friends at AK Hideaway Bar owned by an English young lad, Mat.

Hideaway has cheap drinks but the atmosphere is ok, maybe not cozy but for a bar yeah I’ll go for hideaway. If you’ve been to Hanoi’s Red Mau’s, Hideaway has the same aura, cheap drinks and nice people to talk to. I remember a statement from Mathias Baumgartner, a friend of mine in Hanoi. He told me once he doesn’t like hanging around at Red Mau’s because it’s full of backpackers and native English teachers who earned only few dollars for themselves. I hanged around with him to expensive places like Sofitel where one drink would cost at least 10usd. We used to visit 17 saloon to listen to Filipino band where a beer would cost me 4usd. If Mathias is reading this blog now I’m sure he’ll say you never change MicMic. Of course, I will only spend 1usd for a drink of vodka and orange not 20usd. Why would I spend much when I can have the same fun for 1usd? What do you think?

Easy Ride with Dalat’s Easy Rider

Alright here I go with my latest trip travelling like a local in Vietnam.

Pressure from work pushed me to get on Phuong Trang bus at 10:30 pm on Friday supposedly heading Nam Cat Tien for Safari watch at Cat Tien Park. However, I did not anticipate that we will be at Nam Cat Tien almost 2 in the morning where not a shadow of human being was visible.

For me, travelling within Vietnam is quite safe but for a solo female traveller who doesn’t speak fluent Vietnamese I was having cold feet thinking I’ll be alone walking on a dark street in the countryside of southern Vietnam with just the sound of crickets comforting me, so I decided to skip Nam Cat Tien and go with the bus all the way to its destination, Dalat.

For my $8usd bus fare supposedly for Nam Cat Tien, I landed in Dalat at 5am. I left Saigon with the temperature of around 34 degrees Celsius with unbearable humidity that I wore only tank top and skimpy shorts, which was quite comfortable for the weather. But that was a bad choice because when I get off the bus in Dalat early in the morning I was slapped with a windy 19 degrees Celsius weather temperature.

For an Asian who is not used to live in cold weather, the temperature was enough to make my bones and hands shaking as I walked on the streets with my lonely planet guide book map. Dalat is not an active city like Saigon or Hanoi, so at 5am there were no guest houses that are opened, which left me without a choice but to keep on walking, stretch my body to gain more energy to fight the cold. Instinct told me that the more I move, the more warm I get.

Finally at 6:30 am, I was able to get a room at Nam Hoa Hotel along Hai Ba Trung Street. No one understands English but I managed to get a $10usd room for early morning check in. The room was clean but the windows and the door gave me an impression that it’s not safe to get out of the shower naked. But I was desperate to change into warm clothes, so I ignored everything. Besides I won’t be staying in my room.

True, I went around for breakfast and that’s when I saw the signboard Easy Rider Café. Easy Rider is a group of bikers which has been established by some random Americans after the war in Vietnam and nowadays it became famous in bringing tourists to the countryside, giving a different perspective of how to explore the country.

I was at the Peace Café at Peace Hotel along Truong Cong Dinh St., where most of the members of Dalat’s Easy Rider were hanging around, waiting for potential customers when I decided to get on one of the bikes. I was given the option to either take the city ride for $18usd or the countryside ride for $20usd. The countryside ride itinerary looks more exciting, riding on the bikes up and down the hills to visit some tourist spots, so I took it.

It was fun riding up and down the hills on a bike heading outside the city of Dalat but at noontime I started feeling the heat of the sun burning my skin and the humidity made me sleepy that my Easy Rider guide, Lam decided to stop in every coffee shop we passed by, so I can rest. I even took a nap at the hammock in one of the coffee shops. Well, if you are in Vietnam you will see that hammocks are normally hanged in the coffee shop of the villages for farmers taking their rest.

At 3pm, however, rain pour hard that Lam stopped again in one for the local stores, so we can put on our raincoats.

By the way I will commend Easy Riders for their sensitivity on the needs of their guests from raincoats to stopover. Lam never utter a word of complain even we stopped by several coffee shops just so I can rest. Waiting was safer though than him rescuing me falling off his bike.

Amidst the heavy rain, we arrived Dalat City at 4pm and I paid Lam his $20usd with additional small amount for a good service. Tips, however, are not necessary but Lam was too cautious for my safety that the tips and food I offered were not enough.

Now, if you are in Dalat and is planning to take Easy Rider trip, take the countryside option and you will be able to visit the flower garden, silk worm factory, mushroom production, rice wine making shop, climb up pine tree hills, visit at least two temples, old train station, crazy house, and the elephant waterfall.
Here's the thing, there’s nothing to see in Dalat City unless you go for a countryside ride which can be fully experienced by riding motorcycle.

Siem Reap’s famous tuk-tuk phrase “lady, leedih, leedih”

I’ve never known hearing the word “lady” could be very annoying but trust me it was, in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

On April 24, 2010, I got the chance to pack my bag and crossed Moc Bai – the border between South Vietnam and Cambodia.

Among the borders I’ve crossed overland while living in Vietnam, Moc Bai was the easiest. If you want to get the cheapest bus, get on bus 703 from Benh Thanh bus station or say Cho Benh Thanh Xe Buyt, so the Vietnamese can understand. With bus 703 your $2usd will bring you to the immigration control at the frontier.

However, I did not take bus 703 with my recent trip to Cambodia, I took Sorya bus all the way to Siem Reap that cost me $15usd for a 13-hour marathon trip. I only have the weekend, so I have to go straight and avoid too much experiment in traveling like a local or else I can’t beat my schedule.

There are several buses that cross the border like Mailinh, Sapaco, and Mekong Express, among others. But I took Sorya based on its popularity in the lonely planet forum. Although most of the reports about Sorya in the forum were not good but I was too curious to try it for myself, so I took Sorya. Besides Sorya was the cheapest with $10usd difference from Sapaco’s $25.

We left Saigon at 7:15am against the supposed to be schedule of 6:45am. The road, however, was pretty smooth, so at 9am we were already at the border taking off our back packs from the bus for x-ray inspection and waited for our name to be called for the exit stamp on our passport.

Contrary to our expectation stamping our passports took so long as it was submitted late by the bus attendant. The bus attendant took all our passports and fill in the entry form on our behalf that took us so long with one person writing all the entry forms in Cambodia, taking all our supposed to be responsibility to fill in the entry forms.

In short, we were at the border for two hours as against the possibility of being there for only an hour. The Cambodian side, however, was pretty smooth. There were only few people on the Visa Upon Arrival (VOA) window, so it was quite easy for our western companions on the bus to process their visa for a fee of around $35usd. Being Asian myself though, I was given 21 days free visa entry.

We stopped for lunch at the border and has arrived Phonm Pehn at 2:10 pm. I thought the bus will go all the way to Siem Reap but no, I was told we all have to transfer buses, the same as other bus company. Unfortunately, since we arrived late the Sorya bus going to Siem Reap at 2pm schedule was already full, so we were told to wait at the next bus that leaves at 3:30pm. For me, 3:30pm with another 6 hours journey was too late already, I don’t want to arrive late in Siem Reap as I intend to walk around and look for the hotel that Mia, the Filipino friend I was with on that trip, has arranged. Mia went ahead of me as I won’t be able to get off work until Friday. She left Saigon Tuesday and I followed her on Friday.

On the 2pm bus schedule there were still few seats available, so I get in. But the bus attendant told me that everyone should stick with the group which doesn’t make sense to me since they will leave us all by ourselves anyway.

I have been traveling by bus and I know that the bus attendant just want us to stick with the group, so others won’t blame him for being late otherwise he’ll get in trouble with his company, Sorya.

There were 15 of us foreigners and the remaining sits were only 8, so seven were expected to bark at him if he let us go. I was angry that we were thrown off the bus to stick with the group, so I started bitching at the bus attendant, telling him we are not in an organized tour, so there was no reason for us all to stick together. True enough, I saw the counter stamp on the card he was holding then he was gone and never even said bye to us.

We took the 3:30pm bus and arrived at Sorya bus terminal in Siem Reap at 9pm where we were bombarded with “tuk-tuk” drivers literally offering their service on our face for $1usd.

There was a “tuk-tuk” association for Sorya inside the terminal but for the sake of experiment I decided to get out of the terminal and look around.

Luckily, the Irish girl I was sitting next to the bus wanted to walk, so I decided to stick with her. Walking in Siem Reap was not as pleasant as walking in Saigon at night time, the roads were dark and alleys were small that you get scared. Given the fact too that I was with a Caucasian girl, “tuk-tuk” driver won’t leave us alone. We found it creepy that “tuk-tuk” driver no matter how we say no and ignore them they followed us all the way with their common statement “lady where you go, lady only one dollar, lady very cheap”.

Emer, the Irish girl and I decided to cross the streets, so the “tuk-tuk” driver can’t follow us as it was a wrong side of the road for him already but we were surprised that he went all the way using the wrong side of the road just to follow us.

Emer said we had a “professional stalker” and I was already ready to run if worse comes to worse. Luckily, just as I felt like suggesting to run we saw a hotel, so we get inside and asked which direction was the nearest to go to Pub Street, the street where everyone goes for dinner and drinks. Pub Street was the most active street for tourist in Siem Reap, so we felt safe to go there.

We heaved a sigh of relief though to find the tuk-tuk driver gone after few minutes. But then again it’s Siem Reap “tuk tuk” drivers are everywhere and when you are with a white skin people it is an attraction for them to offer their service literally on your face, thinking white people is money. And this means that the “tuk tuk lady one dollar” offer didn’t stop after we successfully get rid of one “tuk tuk” driver. More offers came as we walked.

It is quite annoying as I could pass for a Khmer look and escaped all those as long as I don’t open my mouth and they won’t know I don’t speak their language. But I have no choice since it is fun meeting people too.

Mia and I joined Emer for dinner and that was the start of the

expansion of our social network in Siem Reap. We stayed at Pub Street going from one place to another and for that night, Mia and I made more 10 friends including the two Filipino bar tenders working at Angkor What bar, Clem and Shednie, and a cool chick, Tamelyn who was enjoying her last night in Siem Reap.

We went back to our hotel at 4am and woke up at 5am to chase the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, the weather was not smiling. Worse, at 8am rain started to pour that we got stuck up inside the Wat for like an hour. There are more than 10 ruined temples to visit but since Mia and I were pretty much knackered from the night of adventure at Pub Street, during the visit to the last few ruins we didn’t go down but take pictures outside and stayed at the “tuk-tuk”, take a nap while it’s moving and avoid the scourging heat of the sun.

Because we were too lazy to go down and explore the remaining few ruins we finished earlier than expected. At 4pm we decided to go straight to Bac Hai Mountain and wait for the sunset.

The sunset, however, was scheduled at 5:45pm yet we arrived on top at 4:30pm. We were the first tourists to arrive on top considering how early we finished exploring the Wat. We had more than an hour to wait, so we slept on top of the stones. We were just awaken by the voices of people started coming. Mia kept asking me to go and skip the sunset wait. On my part, the stones look like bed already, so we went down as everyone was going up.

The regular tour for “tuk tuk” within the ruins for one day was $15USD but we gave $20USD to our “tuk tuk” driver as he was so nice bringing cold water in the bucket for us, acted as tour guide, and keeping the vendors away from us as we took a nap at his “tuk tuk” while one of us take turns in going down to take pictures. I would recommend our “tuk tuk” driver, he is “tuk tuk” number 93 at Mekong Express terminal. The planned rest was gone as soon as we took our shower, so we went out for Apsara performance at the Temple along Pub Street and have our dinner too. Since it was our last night Mia and I decided to stay around and do some people watching where we enjoyed observing how prostitutes work, how tuk-tuk driver run to offer their service when they saw white people went out of the bar, how the kids as young as 5 years old made money from foreigners, tourists getting drunk throwing out on the streets, and white girls going out with Asian guys, among others.

It was fun and after three hours of people watching, we went to our favorite bar, Angkor What and met our new friends. Our eyes, however, would already give up on us, so at midnight we went back to our hotel.

We walked on the streets and as usual because they know we are foreigners we were followed by “tuk tuk” drivers with that annoying offer of “tuk tuk lady one dollar”, ‘lady tuk tuk”, “tuk tuk lady”. We heard those words in every corner that as I went to bed the “lady tuk tuk” phrase kept playing on my head.

The following day Mia and I found a phrase to tease each other and that’s “lady tuk-tuk, one dollar lady” which we pronounced as “leedih tuk-tuk, one dollar leedih” ” leedih tuk tuk”.

In Phonm Pehn on our way back to Saigon, every time a “tuk tuk” driver started approaching us we said our famous phrase of “leedih tuk tuk leedih” just to irritate the driver and leave us alone. I know it was mean but go to Siem Reap and you will know what I mean. “ Tuk Tuk” driver and vendors literally selling their stuff on our face with that title “lady” “leedih”, and “leedih”.

Mia and I wondered how they addressed the men, hoping they’ll do the same as we get tired of hearing the word “lady” ‘leedih”. Trust me you’ll feel how we felt once you get to Siem Reap. We arrived Saigon at 9pm and without caring our filthy look from a marathon trip of 12 hours, we sit down at Linh’s bar along De Tham Street in Pham Ngu Lao just to neutralize our system from the “leedih, leedih, leedih, lady” trauma we encountered at Siem Reap. Let me tell you then, ‘leedih” Siem Reap is worth a visit, so don’t skip it “leedih” if you are traveling Southeast Asia “leedih”.:-)

Shanghai at a glance

Alright, let’s take a break from my backpacking activities and hear what I have to say with my luxurious trip to Shanghai, China. I said luxurious because I stayed in a 5-star hotel combined with the pleasure of having a chauffeur driving us around, which were all perks from work.

To make this more helpful to travelers especially for Philippine nationals, I’ll start my story with my Chinese visa which I obtained in Saigon. Here’s one important thing to note, if you are a Philippine passport holder with a tourist visa in Vietnam applying for Chinese visa, forget it you’ll just be frustrated of being denied.

Before applying for a Chinese visa I made my inquiries to the Chinese consulate office through emails and I was advised to present some document, including proof of onward travel. The inquiries were made through email since the first person who screened my questions was the security guard who can hardly finish one paragraph of explanation. The Chinese consulate office answered my inquiries, a day after I sent them email. But by the time I finished preparing all the requirements, I don’t have much time left for the target date of travel, especially that they’ll only accept visa application in the morning. The regular visa processing is $30usd but mine was rushed, so I paid $50usd which was issued to me within 2-working days.

I left Saigon with a group at 1:30am on April 7, a red eye flight of Shanghai Airline which I was not fond of. I don’t mine the wee hour schedule but I have a trauma with turbulence, so red eye flight usually makes me uncomfortable. The flight, however, was not as rough as I was expecting and I was just too happy to land in the Chinese territory at 6:10am. I was happy too that the English literacy of airport people in Shanghai was high, it made things easy. Except for the nail nipper on my make-up kit alarming the airport security scanning machine, everything went smoothly.

I stayed at Grand Mercure Hongqiao along Xian Xia road with the group, a 5-star hotel but since my stay doesn’t cost me a cent, I don’t have to worry at all. The truth is I never stay in a 5-star hotel if I’ll pay. For a 5-star hotel, I can say Grand Mercure is ok. I have a room overlooking the city, which comes with basic kitchen amenities from microwave, kettle, fridge and stove. There was also washing machine and iron that I don’t have to pay extra for my laundry or fix my crumpled clothes. There was only one thing that bothered me, the water which I have difficulty adjusting between hot and cold. I am not used to cold weather, so having a hot shower was just great but the water fluctuated aggressively that I kept adjusting. Other than that, Grand Mercure was a nice hotel although not really located within the central area. However, it is just within walking distance to the zoo and the French concession area, which are recommended for sightseeing.

Shanghai is all about big buildings, a metropolitan place for shopping, nightlife, conventions, and meetings. In fact, Shanghai’s number one attraction is the Bund where the skyscraper, the Jin Mao Tower and the Oriental TV tower are located. The Bund depicts a well-developed Shanghai. Soon to open next month is the widely- talked Expo that again showcases a very developed Shanghai. I don’t have problem looking into the map as the street names and establishments have English translation below the Chinese character. Also, I took a taxi once and I don’t feel being ripped off or overcharged compared to taking a taxi in Vietnam.

As for getting into the attractions in Shanghai, I can only say the hotels offer tours from half day to full day with prices ranging from $35usd to $50usd. I usually challenge myself in going into places on my own using public transportation but like I said it was a company sponsored trip, so the visit to different places was with a private vehicle. One thing I want you to remember though, Shanghai is getting expensive with the development that’s taking place. Take off the notion that because it is located in China, it is cheap from food to shopping but trust me it’s not, unless perhaps you know how to bargain seriously at the flea market.

Also, don’t forget to visit Yuan Garden if you want to see Chinese inspired design commercial buildings. It’s quite crowded but it’s a nice place to see real Chinese or let's put it this way, the Yuan Garden manifests the reality that there are indeed great number of Chinese population.
It's like a more enhanced China town in your place, if you have one of course or let's say a more authentic Chinese lifestyle.

And to end my story, there’s no facebook, no twitter, no youtube, and I cannot even access to my blog when I was there. I'm just too glad to be back in the land where I can see rice paddies and hear the unending horn of "motobike" while playing around with the so called social network in the cyber world. :-)

Messing around Laos

Laos is one of the destinations I have been eyeing in the past, and luckily today, I’m in Laos backpacking all the way from Hanoi.
I was planning on the route suggested to me in the Thorn Tree Forum, travel from
Hanoi to Dien Bien Phu by public bus - grab a “xeom” from there to Tay
Trang and cross the border to Luang Prabang.
Looking into Laos map, however, gives me the feeling that I need at least three weeks to get me to Vientiane on that route, unless I’ll go on a marathon trip overland.
For me, marathon trip overland is like “a journey to hell.”
Well, this is Southeast Asia and those that can stand long distance journey are mostly locals, which means, you will be with them 48 hours.

It’s not that I don’t like to be with them because I love Vietnamese and Lao people, after all I am Asian. It’s the bad habit that I can’t stand, like spitting a loogie everywhere. You can hear the sound “quack, quarst” from people every now and then that sometimes when I get off the bus I lost my appetite remembering all those yellow phlegm you can see on the floor, or worse on the wall.
It is that kind of experience that makes me decide to take the shortest distance in crossing the border of Vietnam and Lao, which was Hanoi- Vinh and cross the border of Nam Phou to Vientiane.

I’m a big fan of lonely planet, so I used its book as my guide in backpacking. The book says the Hanoi-Vinh-Nam Phou-Vientiane route is a 24-hour trip which for me is tolerable.
I bought a 20usd bus ticket in Hanoi and at 5pm on Wednesday, February 3, I found myself with a group of American backpackers. We waited for our ride to the bus station that showed up an hour after. The travel company said we will leave at 5pm but our ride came past 6pm. It was okay though since we started getting to know each other, sharing backpacking experiences and expectations of our trip, so we don’t mind waiting.
I was the only Asian in the group, so I asked them to back me up if I was thrown in the middle of the road walking to the borders as I read stories of tourists being dumped on the road. The group I was with, however, was quite warm and friendly that I don’t have trouble getting along with them.

At 7pm, the bus picked us up along the road of Tran Thu Do where we walked at least 10 minutes from the highway to get into that remote street. It was not the kind of bus that everyone was expecting but because this is Southeast Asia, we knew shits can happen, so we all decided to make the most of our journey.
We arrived at the Vietnamese Frontier in Vinh by 5am and we have to wait for the immigration people for an hour before queuing in to get departure stamp. At the frontier, we were all instructed to pay 1usd or 20,000vnd which we inserted to our passports.
We don’t know what was it for, but to be positive on everything, we just thought it was a departure tax. After getting the departure stamp we queued in outside the Vietnamese frontier building where immigration officer would check whether it is really us in the passport before they’ll let us go walk towards Laos border.
We walked around 500 meters to Nam Phou (Laos border) immigration building on a dusty road passing through a small bridge where trucks and busses passed by.
My advantage of being Asian was that, at the immigration building of Nam Phou, I don’t have to queue at the visa upon arrival window instead, I went ahead like locals or Vietnamese. The rest of my group were getting their visa and paid 36usd for it while I took mine for free, although, I have to pay an entry fee of 1usd or 10,000 Kip.

I was exempted on visa payment since I am a Filipino national and under the bilateral agreement between Laos and Philippines we are given free visa for a month.
The departure and visa processing took us three hours at the border, so it was almost 9am when we left. Here’s the thing, if you go by bus bring food with you otherwise you’ll be starved because the bus driver won’t stop for breakfast and lunch. None of our group knew about it but fortunately we have cookies and snacks we bought in Vietnam that we shared until we reached Vientiane by 4 pm, an hour early than the 24-hour trip as published by Lonely Planet.
By the way, don’t drink a lot of water while on the bus because it’s not like the buses in Vietnam where toilet can be found inside. The bus has no toilet and worse the “pee stop” was just everywhere along the road. No proper toilet, so you have to go through the bushes and hide unless you are a man where you can just stand near a tree and that’s it.
We were laughing at it, making a joke to wait for civilization for personal necessities to avoid encountering snakes. Well, it was an experience worth laughing at.


In Vietnam it is easy to find accommodations because there are hotels, guesthouses, hostels and dormitories everywhere even during peak season, so everyone was confident to immediately find a place to live with, which means none of us pre-booked a hotel.
Unfortunately, it was not the case in Vientiane, hotels and guest houses were fully booked that it took me almost an hour walking with my backpack to look for accommodations.
I visited 14 guest houses before I found one available room for 100,000 Kip (around 12usd) at Youth Inn at the corner of Fa Ngoum Road across Mekong River. There are cheaper guest houses like Chantha as recommended by Lonely Planet but if you want to get rooms in those places better book in advance because it’s always full. My room at Youth Inn, however, was spacious and clean. I don’t have problem with AC and hot water plus the fact that I can view the sunset at the Mekong River from the window outside my room was perfect for me. My only complain is that they don’t have toiletries except toilet tissue but the rest are ok for the price I paid for.

Before coming here I research a lot about Vientiane and read a lot of nice stories about places to go and things to do. But here’s the thing everyone has different taste that sometimes those stories you read online might fall short of your expectations.
For example, I read a lot about massage and spas and after a day of walking around the city, I did register myself for a massage. And for me, it turn out that Philippines still has the best spas and massage, cheap but world class facilities.

I’ve been walking around Vientiane for hours with only a map on hand, visiting different places but my camera screwed up, so I kept going to look for camera repair shop. But all the camera shops I went into have no repair services, so I decided to go online and look for camera repair shop. My search led me to Samsung services in Vientiane, unfortunately I was told that their one and only technician often comes to work twice a week, if not will never show up for work in one week. Desperate to have pictures, I went around to all digital shops listed online but the common statement I heard, “bring it to Bangkok,” so I gave up. By the way, establishments here accept Thai Bath.

Anyway, to get rid of my frustrations for not having pictures of the great sceneries I saw around, I cracked a joke, telling myself “Ha! Micmic don’t mess around with men in saffron robes or your camera will be cursed and won’t work.” Ummm actually having just experienced winter in Hanoi I find Laos so hot that I decided to wear my t-tank top and shorts in going around temples. I know it is inappropriate dress for temples but I have no intention of going inside and get a close encounter with the monks, so I thought it’s alright since I saw a lot of tourists wearing shorts and sexy top anyway.
At the temples, I just avoided the look of the monks I encountered, so I won't feel guilty about it. I took pictures of the temples despite my inappropriate dress but then few minutes after, my camera stopped working.

“Duhh! My camera went straight to hell and saved the monks from distraction with my shorts and t-tank top.” LOL… well cracking a joke out of it is the only way to appease myself. Look, I’m here sitting in a café across the Mekong River, drinking cold Pepsi, waiting for the sunset which I have been dreaming to capture on my small camera since the day I arrived. How would you feel if you’re camera fails you? But then again, that’s life shits can happen, so the best thing I can do to avoid frustration is smile and crack a joke out of it. I took few shots though before my malnourished camera gave up on me, so have fun! I’ll just try to get some nice shots next time my feet landed in this country again. Cheers!