All about Vientiane, Laos

This post is about:
Laos Visa, where to stay in Vientiane, sightseeing Vientiane, Cope Centre, Buddha Park, etc.

Old Stupa in Vientiane

It was time yet again for another visa run for us and because Air Asia had a good offer on, we decided to go to Vientiane, Capital City of Laos. On arrival visa is pretty easy, all you need is 1 passport picture, two forms to fill out (one you get on the plane the other at the airport) and some US dollars. A German pays 30$ a British citizen 35$. Why the difference? No idea.

At the Mekong River in Vientiane

Bronze statute of a former king

After we had immigration behind us we shared a taxi to the centre of town which cost us 7$, which is the normal price and as we had not booked any hotel in advance we went on the search which turned out much more difficult than expected. Vientiane is by no means
a sleepy communist town with only backpackers visiting, instead there were so many tourists which we did not expect. Due to this fact the hotels were either cheap and dirty. full, or fairly expensive maybe not for European standards but definitely for asia.

Traffic jam all day in Vientiane

We decided on the Mali Namphu for 300.000kip a night, as it had a lovely court yard and was right in the city centre. After 3 nights we moved and stayed in the Mixok guest house for 130.000kip, room was small but not too bad considering it was less then half the price of Mali Namphu.

Court yard at Mali Namphu Hotel

Entertainment at the fountain in the centre of town

If you travel in season to Vientiane it might be an idea to pre book a hotel and if it is only for the first few days and then look around whilst there.
Sights in Vientiane are quite rare, mainly the morning and night market, That Luang stupa (biggest in Laos) buddha park

Vientiane Laos

We are currently in Vientiane Laos and are staying in a lovely guest house called Mali Namphu. I shall update this blog as soon as we get back to Langkawi. If you want you can follow us on Facebook for short updates on our journey, just search for FionaUdo inasia on Google.

Bowling, Paddle Boarding and a Birthday

You have to wait for the last picture of "Hans in Lederhosen"

(video contains sound)

Well, a birthday is  another reason to have a good day with friends on our tropical Island. When we got up the other morning there was another fabulous display of balloons outside our little house but this time it was combined with a treasure hunt.

The first clues to the treasure

Would not be a birthday without a yummy cake

Alana and Richard made a lot of effort to invent rhyming notes as to where the next clue was hidden.

Langkawi-Phuket-Krabi-Satun-Langkawi

It was time for us yet again to go on another Visa run and some of you who follow us will know we were lucky enough to be invited by Captain Gina from the SY Titania to join them on their delivery run to Phuket.

For more photos click on the link below this post

For Fiona and myself this was the first time we ever had the chance to sail on one of these super yachts and to actually experience what it is like to stand at the helm and steer the boat. We met at the wharf where Titania was anchored and were picked up by Sally in the tender and once on board were shown our cabin and then the ropes! 

Titania waiting for high tide

Sally picking us up

We had to wait for high tide before leaving so had dinner on board and retired to our bed and bunks until setting off at around 09:00hrs. Sat. morning

In the Harbour

This is Titania docked in Phuket after our journey

Our Route to Phuket

We have, after a night with a stiff breeze and good waves, finally arrived in Phuket, Thailand. We did not stop in Krabi or Koh Phi Phi due to the weather. When we are back on Langkawi I shall add more photos of this incredible journey.

Dinner on Titania

This is beautiful and the company is great.

Our Trip on Titania to Phuket

We are starting our journey to Thailand on the beautiful Yacht Titania tomorrow morning. We are at Kuah at the moment staying the night. On board are Captain Gina and Ricardo, Fiona, Sally the chef and Tracey. I shall post more pictures later. As this is updated via mobile, the posts will be short.

Smog on Langkawi

Todays view 12.08.2012 on the beach of Cenang

First of all I would like to say, I think my entries about Malaysia and Langkawi have always been positive and we still love living here. What we have been experiencing in the last few days though, I would like to write about, as people reading our blog may want to see this. We have had smog on the island as we have never seen before anywhere else in the world and it is very worrying to us. The fires in Indonesia are burning and because we have had very little rain or wind lately the smoke is coming over here. You can smell it, and wherever you go you breath it in. The tourists might think it is haze due to the high temperatures and you see them jog on the beach, kids playing outside all day and people relaxing on deck chairs maybe not realising what they are breathing in. I shall let the following pictures speak for themselves.

On a clear day

Where are the hills?

Without smog

Smog today

Health hazard chart today for Langkawi

We are already above 101 i.e. the unhealthy part

with a 102 and rising

Please make this public!! Forward this link or "like" in Facebook. 

Tiger Temple Thailand

Fiona with a Tiger, check out where the chain is...

The Tiger Temple in Thailand was one of the things we definitely wanted to do whilst visiting Bangkok. We already saw a TV coverage about the temple when we were still in Germany, so it had to be a "must see" whenever we would get the chance to do so.

Fiona and a cub

Strange to know he has no chain on

On an evening out with Sara and Clas we decided to book a driver with a mini bus who would take us to the temple the next day. We were told it would be an hour or so journey, so booked the driver for pick up at 9:00 the next day. The driver pulled up in time and Sara Clas, two friends of theirs Fiona and myself started the trip which unfortunately did not take 1, but 3.5 hrs, so we arrived a lot later to what we expected. On arrival the girls were told: knees and shoulders were to be covered, but we could buy some trousers and shirts at one of the stalls outside the entrance. PFFFFT the fashion and prices were just ridiculous, but luckily our driver took us to a shop in the next village, which sold some cloth which the girls started to wrap themselves in, hahaha, but this cost us more time.

This was one of the biggest tigers

That`s one big Tiger

Once we paid the entrance fee and got the all clear where the clothing was concerned, we started walking up a path sweating our socks off (being polite!) where we could see deer, cows and wild boars roaming free and then... our first sighting of some tigers on chains, just lying in the shade under some trees. It was an impressive sight and it got even better when we went to the tiger valley where we were able to have our picture taken with these beautiful creatures.

Cute, but still dangerous

My hand soon moved when his head came close

Very unfortunately the feeding of the tiger cubs was sold out and this was a great disappointment for all of us, specially for Sara and Clas as it was the reason why they went on this trip. We all expected more of the Temple to what it actually was. It might have started off as a sanctuary for Tiger cubs whose mothers were killed by poachers, but now it is just another tourist attraction. We saw all of two monks sitting around, everything costs extra, i.e. picture of a group of people with a tiger, cub feeding, in the water with the tigers etc. We loved the experience though and to see how beautiful these animals are when you sit right next to them was just amazing.  Here you can see more Photos or watch the slide show below.

Our next post will be about our new neighbours and friends, the crew of the Super Yacht Silandra V. You can already have a quick look here.

Bangkok Temples and Markets

Bangkok`s amazing Temples and Markets

Nearly bought him

The lying Buddha

This was a difficult post to write as I just did not know where to start, but then it was just the same when we first got to BKK. What is there to see and where is it. How do you get there and is it worth seeing or just a tourist rip off. Where the temples are concerned we decided on the Grand Palace, which has the Jade Buddha in it, the Temple with the lying Buddha and the temple with the standing Buddha. We were told they are kind of the main attractions but there are surely more temples worth seeing. For us these were plenty and very impressive. I think you`ll agree when you look at the photographs.
Equally impressive were the different markets to us as there was not a thing you could not buy, whether umbrellas looking like guns, anything that crawls and fits in a frying pan, pets of all shapes or sizes plus all other goods you can think of. I think in this post I shall let the pictures speak for themselves, but you can always read the comments. On the bottom of this post you can chose from either more pictures from temples or markets. Contact us if you have any questions by all means. Enjoy...

First of all a short video of the monks praying (just to get you into the mood), I love the sound of this...

Temple pictures

Standing Buddha

Flowers at his feet

Lying Buddha in full

At the head

Inside the Temple

Peaceful 

One for each problem

Asian music band

Harmony

Applying gold leaf to holy statue

Hi hope you liked these, but now on to the market pictures, amazing...

Ahhh....cuty

Some different umbrellas

Eel?

Anything gets eaten

Frogs

What a job to do this assembly

Birds

Fish head anyone?

I like her hand in the blood

The smell was lovely too

We tried these, funny jelly beans, or....

As soon as Picasa have solved their upload problem I shall add two links here for more photos. Market/Temples