Thursday 9 April 2015

SLEEPLESS IN VIENTIANE

I had to attend a meeting in Vientiane, Lao PDR last month. This is my 4th time in Lao and I can see how it has developed and how the development has changed the life of the local people.

My first time in Vientiane I think about 6 or 7 years ago. At that time, Vientiane was very quite. The people have a  very relax life. Petang petang dalam pukul 4, dah ramai bentang tikar, picnic tepi Sungai Mekong. The women will wear a skirt made of their traditional cloth. You don't really see the local young girls mix around with mat saleh. They were very much close knitted community with strong cultural background.

Now, more hotels, modern buildings around. Most of the hotels are small boutique hotels. Tourists ramai mostly from western countries. And you can see already a lot of massage parlour, bars and western restaurants to cater the tourists. And dah nampak local girls hanging around with the mat saleh.

By the way, to go to Lao from here, AirAsia has a direct flight on alternate days rasanya. I took MH to Bangkok and took Thai Airways to Vientiane for this trip.

Apa ada kat Lao? Tak de apa. They said the famous place is Luang Prabang which you can either take a local flight to go there  or several hours journey by land. If in Vientiane itself, I must say, nothing much except for the night market near the Mekong River which sell a lot of local crafts and baju baju moden ni. Tapi.... size baju nya.. alahai... kecik kecik semuanya. Dulu tepi Mekong River tu was just a strip of padang tapi now dia dah buat macam dataran and I think they reclaim the land lah sebab rasa macam sungai tu dah jadi kecik pulak.

Halal food kat Vientiane ni dari dulu sampai sekarang sama je. Yang famous is Nazim Restaurant.

 
 
Dulu Nazim Restaurant ni depan Sungai Mekong tapi sekarang dah berpindah ke dalam sikit. Tempat baru ni lebih besar dari dulu. Menu mostly Indian food tapi ada menu Malaysia jugak macam nasi goreng dan mee goreng.

 
Nasi Goreng Ayam

 
Dosai

 
Chicken Masala dan Dry Chicken Masala with Pepper
 
Depan Mekong River tu ada pasar malam. Start dalam pukul 6.30pm. 


 
The dataran infront of Mekong River. The local offering manicure and pedicure service at the dataran.

 
Tengok sunset sambil urut dan manicure. You can see the river dah nun jauh ke tengah.

 
Tuk tuk in Vientaine.
 
For me, nothing much nak cerita pasal Vientiane. May be becasue I was there for work so tak jalan jalan.
 
As usual, when I travel alone, I cannot sleep well. Hence the reason for the title hehehehe