Budgeting Laos

Travel dates: September 20-25, 2012

	Thai Baht	Lao Kip
Train:
Bangkok-Laos-Bangkok (non-AC, 2nd class, upper deck)	976
Bus:
Vientiane to Luang Prabang (sleeping bus)		150,000
Luang Prabang to Vientiane (VIP sitting bus)		130,000
Vientiane to Nong Khai (International Bus)		15, 000
Tuktuk:
Thanaleng station to Vientiane (with 4 others)	60
Vientiane city to Northern bus terminal		50,000 (solo)
LP  bus terminal to my guesthouse		5,000 (after I walked for 20mins)
Guesthouse to LP Bus terminal v.v. (4x)		40, 000
Accommodation:
Xayana Guesthouse and X3 Capsule hotel		35,000 (overnight)
Entrance fees:
Temple hopping		50, 000
Kuangsi Falls		30,000 (I paid for my Lao friend)
Motorbike Parking		2000
Food/ drinks in Laos:
Night Market plate buffet		10000
Baguette, Iced coffee, fruit shake (my meal for 2days in LP)		40, 000
Lunch in Vientiane		28, 000 (splurge! trying to spend the remaining Lao money)
Meals in transit: mostly in Thai railway station	60
Miscellaneous:		60, 000
Total:	1096  (x1.4)	642, 000 (x.0044)
Total in Peso:	3,069.00	2,825.00

Pattaya Floating Market

When I see a photo of a floating market – Thailand will always comes first to my mind. They’re like synonyms to me. Though, I’m more interested experiencing it in Bangkok, in the famous Damneouk floating market –, I think Pattaya’s version didn’t disappoint me either. Despite the expensive entrance fee of 200 baht.

We didn’t eat our lunch in in Nong Nooch Botanical Garden as the food didn’t look delectable that day. We were starving when we arrive in the floating market, so we instantly bargain for good food. There were a lot of choices. Others were sold on the boats, while some in the stalls and food carts.

 

Too bad, boat ride costs 600 baht (very expensive!), so we decided to explore the market on foot, which isn’t bad at all. You get to see interesting food being sold and bargain souvenirs in different shops. Though prices are higher compared to Bangkok, but it all boils down how expert you haggle.

Matching up to what I’ve read about damneoouk floating market, I think Pattaya’s less crowded, more organized and a little dirt free. The lake may seem dark and filthy, but it looked unpolluted to me.

 ****

On our way back to Sukhawadee Palace for our van pick up, Mr Toh, our driver for the day, brought us to a winery – Silverlake. It’s a vineyard slash restaurant. It’s just disappointing they don’t offer free wine tasting. Haha. But the scenery is great. You can get close to the plantation and the garden, for a fee of course. We didn’t bother. We just bought some grape-flavored cookies and pies.

Just few meters away from Silverlake is the very unusual Buddha Mountain. When most Buddha sits in a temple, this one is being carved into a mountain. They say this was a gift made for the King’s birthday. It’s also called as the Laser Buddha, because it was whittled by a laser and the spaces were loaded with gold. I wonder how it looked like in the evening. My companions didn’t make an effort getting an up close view with the Buddha, you can see from afar anyway. But I did – for maybe less than 15 minutes. 

Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden: Pattaya’s Royal Pride

This day trip to Pattaya is actually not part of my final itinerary. Simply because I know it’s far from Bangkok and I don’t think my companions will enjoy the long journey. So, I scratched it out from the plan.

But then a friend of ours who works in Bangkok convinced me to visit the town as it has a lot more to offer – of course she mentioned this beautiful botanical garden which I’m very familiar with, thanks to Google. She also helped us facilitate our transportation in Pattaya so we can visit the floating market, one famous palace, and two more extra sites. And the next thing we knew, we were inside the van, traversing the one of the expressways of Thailand. It was a grueling 3 hour ride. And yes, my companions complained about the long and winding journey. I was worried about the expenses for that day because it wasn’t part of my budget. But I think it was all worth it.

Entrance fee (foreigners – 500, locals - 200)

Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden is a 500 hectare garden centre and tourist attractin in Pattaya. Its also a major scientific center dedicated to cycads, with its own Ccyad Gene Bank. They once won the Chelsea Flower Show organized by the Royal Horticultural Society in London. - wiki

You cannot leave the premises of Nong Nooch without being overwhelmed with the scenic beauty of different flora and fauna. I know my mom, how she loves flowers and plants, and I know this place is like another heaven for her. It was indeed a treat, according to her. But it was just disappointing that I can no longer afford to let her ride an elephant as it was very expensive, 400 baht. The elephant will tour you around the garden which will only take less than an hour. They had another option though. That is to take a shuttle car for 100 baht each, for 35 minutes I guess. It has two stops, to give visitors chance to take pictures. I did not join them. I wanted to feel the amazing garden myself, be one with nature for a moment…

It’s easy to roam around the botanical garden as it is has covered walkways that makes it easy to get to one place to the other. Although, at some point, I had to walk in an open area, where, my skin and the sun kissed again. But with this view, who cares if I get tanned. *tan talaga!* (I still have tan lines on my feet from my flip flops..haha!) If it wasn’t too hot, I would love to walk all day in every corner of the garden to maximize my 500 baht entrance fee. I am not really a plant enthusiast, but seeing different plants and flower meticulously arranged into great, stunning landscape, it will surely take your breath away.

stonehenge!

Nong Nooch Botanical Graden isn’t just about flower and plants. They also have cultural show to educate visitors of the historic background of Thai traditions. Refer to their website for the schedule. After our garden tour, we went to their theater to witness the cultural show. It has Thai and English narration which is good, though you can hardly understand the English version of it. The show depicts the beginning of the rich culture of Thailand. From different forms traditional dance to sword fighting to drum beating to the origins of Muay Thai, kingdom battles and a lot more.

After the colorful cultural show, we transferred to yet another show – the famous elephant show. Personally, I had no interest watching it. I mean, I have seen them on TV, several times, in different shows, different channels. But since it’s a free show, might as well take advantage of it. Besides, my mom was so eager to witness it.

It's like these elephants are trained to extort money from the audience. They can smell money from your hands. Once you give it to them, they’ll hand it over to the one manning them. Bananas are being sold in the arena for 40baht – and in less than a second it’s already inside the elephants belly. Walang nguya nguya!  Mom had a chance to feed one of the elephant with 20 baht – and she was so excited and thrilled about it. Haha

It was fun watching the gigantic creatures doing amazing tricks like basketball, holahoops, bowling and painting. Yes, they paint – on t-shirts – and they’re selling it for 500 baht. They have a lot of elephant painted shirts displayed in an area (sa araw araw ba naming nagpi paint ang elepante sa show) but I think it’s just too expensive. And as their finale, they danced the phenomenal Gangnam style, that gave much delight to the audience. It was really cute.

Should you get hungry from touring around the garden and watching the shows, there are a lot of restaurants and food stalls inside the park to satisfy your stomachs… and more souvenir shops to empty your pockets. Haha.

We didn’t stay much long in Nong Nooch as we had to visit one more site in the town – the Pattaya Floating Market.

Bangok City Temple Tour

After checking in Bangkok City Hotel, we wasted no time and we headed to our first tour of the day – the temple tour, do-it-ourselves way.

Most travel agencies offer half day temple tours – but you can actually do it on your own, cheaper and it’s more fun.

From our hotel, we took the BTS from Ratchathewi to Saphan Taksin, where we need to hop into a ferry boat to transport us to the port near the Grand Palace entrance.

We purchased the rabbit card (similar to octopus card of Hong Kong MTR) and topped it up with 300baht to avoid hassle in buying tickets for the BTS.

From Saphan Taksin station, we took Exit number 2 proceeding to the pier. I know that the regular fare from the main pier to N9 Tha Chang – where the Grand Palace is near to - is 12 baht only. Apparently, when I asked the first ticket booth I saw, we were charged of 40baht. I was caught off guard – and handed them the money. It was then when I had the glimpse of the ferry that I realized it was the tourist ferry – and not the public ferry. Grhh..! (When in the same situation, try not to buy their ticket first and look for the public ferry just few steps away from the booth.)

It started to drizzle while we were still in the ferry. The next thing we knew, the rain dispensed all its wealth upon us. What a way to start our day?

That famous scam they have in the Grand Palace, where most tuk tuk drivers will tell you that the palace is closed? Yes, they still do that. I wonder, don't they know that their swindling style is all over the world wide web? Haha. We were just asking for directions at some point, when that old man interrupted and told us about the ‘closed’ thing. And my mom and two aunts reacted right away – haha. I told them it’s just a scam. I think, it would be better if you avoid asking the tuk tuk drivers around the area. We asked the vendors, and more safely, ask the man in uniform.

The rain didn’t bother considering that we were all dressed up (with closed shoes and long skirts for me and my mom) for the Grand Palace tour, and still heavily poured all the remaining water there is to spill out. While waiting for it to subside, we decided to just change our dollars to baht in a money changer near the entrance of the temple and entered into one of the restaurants.

my first pad Thai experience

We stayed a little longer inside the restaurants. It was already 3pm – and the rain showed no sign of stopping. Did I mention, only one of us has an umbrella? So there, we were forced to buy one more.

*****

A friend of mine told me once that there’s nothing much to see in Bangkok. She may be right. But if you have a half day to spare, a visit to the famous and grandest palace temple won’t be bad idea.

The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Entrance fee: 400baht (Free for locals. Pretend to be on at your own risk!)

Closing time: 330pm

Proper dress code is strictly implemented. (In our case, since it was raining pretty hard, we were allowed to wear our flip flops inside the area.)

  

It cannot be called the Grand Palace for nothing. My mom and my aunt eyes feasted with all the golden architecture and intricate structure in every part of the temple. The rain continued to spoil our afternoon, but that did not stop us from snapping photos left and right – amid the busy crowd.

the shining emerald Buddha

Just behind the very impressive Temple of the Emerald Buddha, you will see the one of the largest temples in Thailand –

Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha).

Entrance fee: 100 baht  (free bottled water)

Closing time: 6pm

Apart from the floating market, I think one of the most famous landmarks of Bangkok is the Temple Reclining Buddha. It’s like when you see it, you would right away think of Bangkok. Well, it’s a huge marker not to be noticed. Wat Pho is measured 46 meters long and is fully covered with gold. His feet are 3 meter- long, decorated in mother-of-pearl illustrations. It is said to be the oldest and largest Buddha in Thailand. It's so huge that you I had a hard time putting it on my camera frame. So I made a 'chop-chop' version of it.

There's more in the temple other than the reclining Buddha. While in the ferry on our way back to the BTS station (this time, we took the public ferry), we had a glimpse of the Wat Arun temple from afar. They say you can climb the temple to see a panoramic view of the city. I wanted to see it for myself, but my companions started to complain about getting tired – and so was my camera.

Temple-hopping in Luang Prabang

Legend has it that Buddha smiled when he rested here for a day during his travels. Prophesying that it would one day be the site of a rich and powerful capital city – UNESCO.Org

No wonder Luang Prabang is a home to more than 30 temples that houses hundreds of monks. Actually, there were almost 70 different temples in the town since the beginning of Lao history, but only few survived and now are being preserved.

Watmai Suwannaphumaham (The New Monastery of the Golden Land)

Entrance fee: 10, 000kip
It is the largest and most richly decorated of the temples in Luang Prabang.

Wat Nong Sikhounmuang 

Free entrance
Wat Nong Sikhounmuang is one of the bigger temples in Luang Prabang. It was built in 1729, during the reign of King Inta Som (1727-76), but was razed in a fire in 1774. The only thing salvaged from the fire was a bronze statue. A full restoration was carried out in 1804 by the Thais, thereby introducing some Thai elements to the design. - source.

Wat Sop Sickharam 

Free entrance

Wat Xieng Thong (Monastery of the Golden City)

Entrance 20, 000
Wat Xieng Thong is regarded as the most beautiful temple, not only in Luang Prabang but one of the most exquisite in all of Laos. It is one of the most important Lao monasteries and remains a significant monument of the spirit of religion, royalty and traditional art. - wiki

Wat That Chomsi/ Mount Phou Si/ Wat Tham Phou si

Entrance fee: 20, 000kip

Mount Phou Si is a 100m high hill in the centre of the town of Luang Prabang. It lies in the heart of the old town peninsula and is bordered on one side by the Mekong River and Nam Khan River on the other side. The hill is a local religious site and houses several Buddhist shrine. - wiki

Halfway up the hill, overlooking the Nam Khan is Wat Tham Phou Si, a Buddhist temple. At the summit of the hill, overlooking the town and surrounding countryside, is Wat Chom Si, which is also a Buddhist temple and is a tourist highlight of Luang Prabang. - wiki

I ended my temple hopping at the summit of Mount Phou Si, and waited for the beautiful sunset to wrap my beautiful day.

sunsets in Luang Prabang