The Taste of Vientiane
Saving the ‘best’ of my Vientiane post for last and the best I’m talking about is food! The major importance whenever we travel to a foreign country is to try the local dishes. Right? Sadly, when you follow tour guides, they tend to bring you to places where you eat food you can always eat back home.
The 1st night I arrived in Vientiane, the only place I went to was Nazim Restaurant where they basically serve Halal food which is really not what I like. Everyone who knows me well knows that I love my porks and Halal restaurants don’t serve pork. Well, can’t really do anything about that since I was there with some colleagues. Left with no choice, it was the Tandoori Chicken that I choosed. You can read more of that in the previous food post. (more…)
Sights & Sounds of Vientiane, Laos Part 2 of 2
Here is the continuation from the previous post on the place I’ve visited in Vientiane, this place I visited was located on Lane Xang Avenue with it’s entrance facing Ho Phra Keo, it’s the only temple to survive the Siamese invasion and popularly known as Vat Sisaket to both locals and tourist. The Vat or Temple holds several thousand statuettes of Buddha of various sizes while funeral urns was placed along its walls.
Sights & Sounds of Vientiane, Laos Part 1 of 2
One of the captivating aspect of Vientiane, Laos is the beautiful architectures, I am not talking about their modern buildings but the beautiful temples and monuments that was created very very long ago that still survived til this day. Some people asked me whether it’s advisable to take a tour package to visit all these places and my advice would be, Yes, if you want a structured tour of Vientiane and not getting lost. It would be the safest way to travel and see the beauty of this city. Personally, I prefer to get take my own time to see these places and to keep my cost low, I rented a bike for the duration of my stay there.
A brief background on the city,Vientiane is known locally as Viengchan with a population of 600,000. It’s a city where you won’t find much towering sky scrapers. It is a change especially coming from a country where all you see when you look up towards the sky are tall buildings. Currency used there are Kips (their local currency) but you can also use USD at the shopping centers and restaurants. Do note that Kips are worthless outside of Laos so change only as much as you need or remember to change back to USD or your local currency before leaving the country as you won’t be able to trade the Kips outside of Laos. If you kick off your tour, most important thing to have even when you have a Tour Guide with you is to arm yourself with the maps! It’s not that the Tour Guides are not reliable in Vientiane, it’s about taking charge of where you want to go and what you want to do. After all, you paid for it right? As for those touring by themselves, it’s about not getting lost and know where you are going. The maps really helped me a lot in planning my trips. Be prepared for a very long post with a lot of hi-res photos after the jump. (more…)
Off the Beaten Path in Vientiane, Laos
In this 2nd installment of my visit to Vientiane, Laos, I’d like to bring you back in time, in time to the age where modern technology has yet to have it’s influence to the way of life.The place I’m talking about is called Dane Song, about 30km from Vientiane on the Luang Prabang Road. My initial plans to go there was to visit some of the caves near Dane Song (advisable to go there with a Scrambler bike as you won’t have a comfortable journey moving about with an underbone motorcycle or more popularly known as ‘Kapchai’ in Asian countries.)
About 22km after I left Vientiane on the Luang Prabang Road, I turned off at Ban Hua Khoua (it’s just a small 2 lane road so follow the arrow as you can easily overshoot that junction). Turning off the main road towards Dane Song is like heading back into the past. 3 Decades in a so called modern city known as Kuala Lumpur was thrown out the window as village with zero modern technology (except for the huge satellite dishes) start to appear. (more…)
Setting Sun over Mekong River
The 1st set documenting my holiday in Vientiane, Laos. I am not touching on the places I’ve visited for now but share with you some of the beautiful sun sets I’ve seen along the Mekong River on the 4 nights I was there traveling.
At certain parts of the river, the Mekong was so dried up that we can practically walk on the river bed and that is exactly what I did. The locals have made some small path that allowed them to go down to the riverbed to play and that’s exactly what I did as well after finding such a path. Getting the sunset from a high ground was nice but being in the middle of the river and getting closer to the beauty of it was just breath taking. (more…)
The Work Experience @ Vientiane, Laos
I know I don’t write much about my line of work/business and I prefer to keep it that way, after all, this site is about myself, not what I do to earn my keeps. But once in awhile, I do come across some stuff that I’d love to share even if it’s about my work.
For those that knew me, they’d have known the industry I’m in, for those that don’t know me, well, let’s just say that some think that I print money for a living. Anyway, what I’d like to share here is just a small part of my work experience while I was at Vientiane, Laos, covering the SEA Games that was held there. It was the first time this country is hosting a major sporting event, it’s my first time after a long while since I was involved in a job that spans many countries. It was truly an experience I’d remember. (more…)
Twitter SEA Games Updates
With not much time to update my blog, I shall do it the cheater’s way, by copy and pasting all the updates I’ve done via Twitter.
11:42 PM Dec 5th : 1st thing that we see checking in at the airport. http://flic.kr/p/7kPqDL
The 25th Laos SEA Games Opening Ceremony
It’s the 25th SEA Games and it’s held at Vientiane, Laos. Even though the games had started some time back, the Opening Ceremony was only held last night (9th Dec).
The opening ceremony started at 5pm local Lao time with songs and music but officially started at 6pm with the two MCs counting down with the crowd in the National stadium. (more…)
Nazim Restaurant @ Vientiane
Sabaidee! That’s the Lao’s way to say Hello. Just an update from Vientiane, it was at Nazim for dinner. Located just beside the Mekong River, Nazim Indian Halal Food restaurant serves up some nice indian dishes we can eat back in Malaysia.
Having malays as part of the team, we have to make sure that the place we go to is Halal as most of you know, muslims can’t really eat pork. (more…)
Day 1 in Vientiane
Officially the first day at the International Broadcast Center.
It’s all busy busy busy setting up the station ready for our first broadcast from the venue.
Here’s where I’m working from, about 30min drive from the hotel I’m staying in but near to the stadiums. (more…)
Onward to Vientiane!
The Opening ceremony’s about 24 hours away. If you’re seeing this page, that can only mean one thing. I’ve gone to Laos and for the next 2 weeks. I’m going to be there cheering the Malaysian team on, irregardless of how many medals they are bringing back.
An estimate of 300 to 400-member Malaysian contingent is already there getting themselves used to the food, weather and the sports village. 2 games: the Water Polo and Football has already begun.
Chef-de-Mission for Laos, Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz had indicated that the Malaysian contingent would participate in 21 of the 25 sports hosted. I wonder how many medals will the Malaysian team bring back. No matter what, I’m looking forward to seeing our boys and girls do well. Will try to update with details and photos here (if I can find an internet connection to upload them). If I can’t get online, I’ll see you guys and update mikeyip.com in about 2 weeks time. (more…)
