Sanjiang Market: Chinas growing influence in Vientiane

See the location on Sanjiang Market Google Map ຕະຫລາດຊັ່ງຈຽງ

Laos’ economy quadrupled in size between 2002 and 2010. Its traditional investors have been Thai and Vietnamese, but in 2010, by investing $344 million over the course of just six months, Chinese companies overtook them both. Iain Manley writes this in an interesting article about the Chinese merchants of Vientiane. When staying in Vientiane he discovered a large community of immigrants from China who had arrived recently around Sanjiang Cheng (ຕະຫລາດຊັ່ງຈຽງ) – Three Rivers City – a wholesale market, also known as Xang Chieng Market. Its the largest mall for Chinese products in Southeast Asia, writes Manley. The market is located in Oumong, opposite Wat Tay Yai, and the Lao people call it Talat Jin (Jin means Chinese). A more detailed report has been published on oldworldwandering.com. And a guide to Vientiane's chinatown has been published on travelfish.org. Read also: China Gives Southeast Asia’s Poorest First Time Access to Consumer Goods.

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Nightlife in Vientiane

See the locations on Vientiane Google Map

Blue Sky Bar:

Déjà vu:

Future Night Club: Luang Prabang Road (near Novotel). "It follows the Thai format and there is no dance floor. Revelers stand around their table laden with Black Label and Beer Lao and jiggle about madly", comments travel.nytimes

Le Club Disco: Lao Plaza

Lunar 36: Don Chan Palace Hotel. "A night out here is a great opportunity to mix with Laos’s university students and office workers over a few drinks", according to visit-mekong.com.

On The Rock Pup: "Those who venture in will be within arms reach of the band playing a range of western, Thai and Laos covers", notes visit-mekong.com.

Snow White & One Dwarf: Jazz.

The Jazzy Brick: 47/1 Setthathirath Road. "Customers will only be allowed in to sip expensive cocktails if they are properly attired; no shorts or sleeveless shirts allowed.", notes Frommers. "The atmosphere is very relaxed and the interior exactly like it should be in a jazz bar; dark, wooden en smoky", adds Nice to Share.

The Bor Phen Nyang: Fa Ngum. A rooftop bar with great Mekong View. "A combination of drunk backpackers, ragged commercial sex workers, and some unsavory-looking types on visa renewals from across the river makes it all feel a little rough", notes travel.nytimes.com.

Read more: Vientiane Nightlife - What to Do at Night in Vientiane

What about the bus from Vientiane to Luang Prabang? Be aware of spirits!

Picture by Catherine Murray
The bus can look like this...

... and also like this...

Picture by Thaths
... because also pumpkins have to be transported

Should you fly from Vientiane to Luang Prabang or should you take the bus? Well, the busride will not be a too easy one. But first this:

In Vientiane buses leave at Northern Bus Station. You have the choice:
VIP buses: Depart 08.00, 9.00, 20.00. Costs: 140 000 to 170 000 kip one way, 10 hours. You will get a bottle of water, a small snack and will stop for a lunch.
Air-con Buses: 06.30, 07.30, 09.00, 11.00, 13.30, 16.00, 18.00, 19.30. Costs: 120 000 to 130 000 Kip, 10 hours.
Local Bus: 11 hours, 70 000 Kip
Mini Buses: To Vang Vieng, there you have to catch another Mini Bus to Luang Prabang. Ticket includes pick-up from hotel or guesthouse at around 10.00 or 14.00. Costs: 60,000 Kip).
See laomeow.blogspot.com

In Luang Prabang buses leave at Naluang Bus Station.
VIP buses: 08.00 and 09.00.
Express Buses: Depart 06.30, 08.30, 11.00, 14.00, 17.30, 18.30, 19.30.
Mini Buses: Only to Vang Vieng (09.00, 10.00, 14.00, 100,000 kip).

And what's your experience on this bus ride? You will see a breathtaking landscape, mountains and valleys in all kinds of green colour, Lao rural life with waterbuffalos and playing children - if mist or clouds don't cover everything and prevent you from seeing anything...

Picture by sarahstarkweather
Near Vang Vieng

But why does the bus take 10 hours for 384 km on a road, that is mostly paved? "It soon became clear", notes Safari mkubwa sana!: "There are numerous deep pot holes scattered randomly around. Some pot holes take minutes to cross and the bus driver generally needs to drive quite slowly to spot them before it's too late."

Worse: During the rainy season there can be interruptions of the road by land slides or trees falling on the road. In august 2011 a land slide has entirely swept away a stretch of road. "Buses are forced to stop on either side of the landslide, and passengers walk across to join another bus on the opposite side. As the buses have to stop at points where they can turn round, the total distance to walk is around 1.5-2km", writes lhm on Thorntree Forum. This seemed to be between between Kiew Kacham and Phou Khoun.

And why did it happen? "A lao friend told me that the landslide was caused by spirits/ghosts who were not happy that the people in a village nearby ate a very big snake", notes tictocchoc on Thorntree forum.

So if you cannot take easy situations like these, if you cannot sleep in a bus, because the way onward is not open, if you cannot live without air-con, when the air-con is broken, if you are afraid of ghosts, you will remember this journey as horrible...

But see the views you miss, when you don't go:

Picture by taylorandayumi

More views on videos on youtube 1, on youtube 2. Or have a look at pictures on this blog.

And well, if you want to fly, there are daily flights by Lao Airlines.

Eco-Lodges near Vientiane

See the locations on Vientiane Hotels and Guesthouses Google Map


Rivertime Ecolodge Resort: 29 km northeast from Vientiane. in the forest on the south bank of Nam Ngum river. Seven private lodges and two 3-bed dormitories, all lodges with wide balconies overlooking the river towards the mountains of Phou Khao Kwai National Protected Area.

Picture by Rivertime Eco Lodge
See more pictures on their facebook gallery

Picture by Rivertime Eco Lodge
Nam Ngum River, seen from the resort


The Garden Restaurant with a big organic vegetable garden is adjacent to Rivertime Resort. It has also a floating restaurant. See the location on Rivertime Ecolodge Resort Google Map. Read reviews on tripadvisor.com: what you can await and what not.
Activites from Rivertime Resort: Try the 20-minutes-forest-trail from the resort. Riverboat trips, cycling to a village of the Lao Loum ethnic group (Ban Thadokkham with a highle revered temple) or a Lao Soun ethnic village (Ban Jut Nung). Across the river from the resort is another Lao Loum village called Ban Na Taer (with a temple with turtles. Visit to a local traditional healer, traditional Lao massage. The resort also organizes visits to local schools and to the main agricultural research centre of Laos.


Ban Pako: Bungalow Resort on an ancient temple site on the banks of the Nam Ngum river about 50 km from Vientiane. Closed now, reopening after upgrading (new bungalows on the river) around april 2012. Good reviews on tripadvisor.com. See the location on Ban Pako Google Map

Tours from Vientiane: Join the nature at Phu Khao Khouay National Park

See the locations on Phu Khao Khouay National Park Google Map

Phu Khao Khouay National Park: By greendiscoverylaos.com. Phu Khao Khouay means "Buffalo Horn Mountain". Mountains, rivers and forests of this National Protected Area offer great opportunities for exploring the nature and inviting for trekking, canoeing, wildlife watching, picnicking and camping. There ist also a very interesting Phu Khao Khouay National Park Facebook Page.

The village Ban Na for example is famous for watching wild Elephants. For that you spend a night at the Elephant Observation tower. Read more about Ban Na. If you want to go on your own: Pick-ups from the southern bus station in Vientiane leave[ from 9a.m & 5p.m every 30minutes. Families in Ban Na offer homestays. If you go on your own call Mr. Bounthanom (phone 020 220 82 86).

Picture by Atar Shadmi Elephant tower in Ban Na

The village Ban Hathkai is starting point for trekking tours into the mountains or to the twin waterfalls Tad Xay and Pha Xay. The area is also rewarding for its orchids,ferns and flowering plants. Most trips include a boat trip on the Nam Mang River. Ban Hatkhai can also be reached by boat from Thabok (in just over an hour). You go there negotiate for the price. Families in Ban Hathkai offer homestays. Call phone 020 224 03 03. Read more about Ban Hathkai.

Picture by Art Vogel Rhynchostylis gigantea - an orchid

Tad Leuk is a waterfall within the Nam Leuk, The Tad Leuk Visitor Information Centre offers an exhibition of the flora and fauna of the area, informations in Lao as well as English and with a small library with reports about the regional plants and wildlife. It's starting point of the "Houey Bone Nature Trail" (1.5 kilometres). A small restaurant offers Lao meals and a guidebooklet for the trail. And you can walk in two to three hours to Tad Xang waterfall. Read more about Tad Leuk.

Picture by Anannya Deb Tad Leuk

Ang Nam Leuk is an artificial dam lake, where you can do boat trips. Read more about Ang Nam Leuk. There is criticism about the dam project.

Find links and informations about tour operators offrering trips to Phou Khao Khouay

Orchid-Trek: By exotissimo.com

Vang Xang - Buddhas carved out of stone

Picture by thomaswanhoff

Vang Xang (Vang Sang) means "pond of elefants". The Buddha reliefs on cliffs here are said to date from the 10th to the 12th century after Christ, from the Angkor peroid. Near Ban Phone Savang. Read more about Lao Buddhist Sculpture.

Hotels and Guesthouses in Vientiane with reviews of people, who have been there

See the locations on Vientiane Hotels and Guesthouses Google Map by #treasuresoflaos


Hotels in Vientiane


Ansara Hotel: From 125 USD. Close walking distance to Mekong river, restaurants and night markets. very good reviews on tripadvisor.com

Picture by Ansara Hotel

Picture by Ansara Hotel
Savvy Room


Beau Rivage Mekong Hotel: From 50 USD. Very good reviews on tripadvisor.com. Just around the corner you find Papapya Spa. "Note that some rooms have a glass shower stall in the bedroom — a romantic touch if you're a couple or quite awkward if you're not", adds travelfish.org

Picture by sarahstarkweather


Chanthapanya Hotel ***: 138 Norkeokoummarn Road. Phone (856-21) 244 284. Large rooms and a pool. Very good reviews on tripadvisor.com


Green Park Boutique Hotel: From 195 USD. The hotel ist situated a bit outside of the city centre.

Picture by dalbera


Salana Boutique Hotel: From 90 USD. There might be some traffic noise, according to reviews on tripadvisor.com

Picture by larique


Setha Palace Hotel: From 179 US-Dollars. For lovers of the French colonial style. Very good reviews on tripadvisor.com

Picture by iambents
The pool

Picture by iambents
Room 111


Guesthouses in Vientiane

Lani's House By The Ponds: 281 Setthathirat Road. Old house in a small lush garden. Charming place with great location according to very good reviews on tripadvisor.com.


Mali Namphu Hotel: 114 Pangkham Road. Phone 856 21 215093. Critical reviews on tripadvisor.com


Villa Manoly: 29 Ban Phiawat. Away from town centre. Quite good reviews on tripadvisor.com. A "charming colonial villa set amid rambling green grounds", according to travelfish.org. Picture of the pool on travelpod.com, another picture by nicinchiangmai.


Villa That Luang: 109 Route 23 Singha; Nongbone Village; Xaysettha District. Good, but too far out of the town according to tripadvisor.com.

Is there a future for the Mekong Dolphin?

Picture by The Great Trip
A Mekong Dolphin, seen near Kratie in Cambodia

Mekong Dolphins are "on the brink of extinction", the WWF warned in June 2009. The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) population inhabits a 190km stretch of the Mekong River between Cambodia and Laos. Since 2003, the population has suffered 88 deaths of which over 60 percent were calves under two weeks old, the WWF counted. The latest population is estimated between 64 and 76 members, the WWF said. "Researchers found toxic levels of pesticides such as DDT and environmental contaminants such as PCBs during analysis of the dead dolphin calves". High levels of mercury (suspected to be from gold mining activities) were also found. It affects the immune system making the animals more susceptible to infectious disease.

Canadian conservationist Ian Baird has studied the Dolphin population on the Lao side of the border. Between 1990 and 1998 he counted many deaths of dolphins, because they "got entangled in nylon fish nettings set up by local fishermen to catch other fish, and drowned", he is quoted in an article by Wiwat Pandawutiyanon. He thinks, that only around ten dolphins still live on the Lao side of the border, chased by the tourists on Don Khon and Don Det.

The Livestock and Fishery Department has started a project for further protection of the Irrawaddy Dolphins in collaboration with Japanese experts, "The Mekong River" noted in january 2010.

The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2004.

See a video on vimeo.

Read more background by WWF Cambodia

In Cambodia and Laos there ar old myths about the Mekong Dolphin, collected by Canadian conservationist Ian Baird.

The Irrawaddy Dolphin species is also found in parts of the Bay of Bengal.

Picture by jimdavidson

Picture by romancrowley


Read more:
Don Sahon Dam project threatens Mekong Dolphins

Vat Phou - the Site and its History - from Hinduism to Buddhism

See the way through the complex of Vat Phou in pictures.

This is the text from the Museum of Vat Phou:

The Archaelogical Site of Vat Phou

The temple complex is located at the foot of Phu Kao, overlooking the floodplain of the Mekong River. The shrine itself is built on a natural terrace of Phu Kao where a freshwater spring gushes out of the rock, just below 200 m asl, but the temple complex as a whole is laid out on a linear plan stretching out for 1400 m along an east - west axis, rising up the lower slopes of the mountain from the plain below. The whole was designed to be approached from the east and to impress the worshipper with the sanctity of the place. This linear axial layout is rare for a pre-Angkorian or Angkorian temple and clearly reflects the conscious use of the natural terrain and the focus of the Lingaparvata to their maximum effect.

At the lowest level, oriented east-west, there is a large baray, some 200 m by 600 m, probably built around the 10th to 11th century AD. It is flanked on its western side by an elaborate stone embankment, to the north are two further large baray constructed by building up earth dykes and not by digging down into the ground. One of those barays, immediately to the north of the first baray was built around the end of 11th and the beginning of 12th century AD. From the first terrace, by the stone embankment, runs the processional causeway, flanked by typical stone pyranidae pillars, used to embellish the ceremonial road.

The temple complex was built on six terraces. The first terrace is over 130 m deep from east to west. The front third is occupied by two large, rectangular stone buildings flanking an esplanade, 44 m wide. Each building is quadrangle of four galleries around a wide courtyard, with overall dimensions of 62 m by 42 m. Facing each other and parallel to the general axis, the main gallery of each quadrangle opens onto the esplanade through a projecting porch, with very elaborately carved doorways, and is connected to the other three galleries by doors located at its extremities. These buildings have been identified in the past as "palaces". However, the present research suggests that they might have been used for ceremonial purposes, praying for good fortune, and hosting a number of monks during the ceremonial period. Judging from the stylistic aspects of architecture - the style of Koh Ker - , is is dated the beginning of 11th century AD.

The western part of the first terrace is an open space rising sligthly towards the foot of the second terrace. On the main axis, a walkway is bordered by regularly spaced milestones, and by the foundations of former galleries which were covered by a wooden-and-tiled roof on stone pillars. To the south is a small, isolated, rectangular building in sandstone, with pillared porches at its north and south sides, traditionally called the Nandi Hall, dated to the mid-11th century AD. Field work in 1998 has shown a building of similar size symmetrically placed to the north of the axial path, never completed.

Raised about 2m above the first one by a retaining wall, the second terrace forms a landing on the main axis. This was flanked by two small structures which sheltered two Dvarapala (guard of temple). One of these is still standing. Both are therefore dated to the 13th century AD. The headless stone sculptures of two tall guardians are lying on the grass, together with other fragments.

A flight of stairs between retaining walls gives access to the third terrace, forming the next landing between two small stone pavilions (the north one mostly built with re-uesed blocks). On the main axis, a 75 m long ramp raises gradually by 15m, slightly elevated above the open space on both sides which follows the natural slope.

The fourth terrace, approximately 20 m wide, is retained by a higher wall. The original stairway to it, composed of 3 flights between lateral stone banks, is now encased by a later one made of re-used stones. There are 6 small brick towers, three on each side of the axial path. Those towers are aligned on a common, north-south axis. A linga was placed in each tower. The style of linga, together stylistic aspects of the towers, indicate that the towers were built around the 11th century AD.

The fifth terrace is also about 20 m wide but divided into two parts by a flight of stone steps, and slightly raised above the fourth one. A stone-paved landing with Naga-balustrades marks the main axis.

From this level starts e series of seven tiers of retaining walls, with a total height of 15 m. They are axially intersected by seven flights of stairs, of eleven steps each, separated by narrow landings.

The stiars end at a sixth and last terrace located about 75 m above the barays and commanding and impressive view over the whole complex and over the plain to the Mekong and beyond. The terrace is a rough square of 60 x 60 m, with the main Sanctuary (shrine) dedicated to Shiva, at its centre. Behind it, at the foot of a overhanging cliff which dramatically closes the whole sequence, is the spring which accounts for the sanctity of this precise site. The stream has been channeled so that it flowed through the main sanctuary of the temple itself and over the central representation of Shiva which originally would have been in the sculpted form of a Shiva lingam. Therefore, the linga was always kept wet by the holy water coming from the spring. To the south of the central shrine is a small ruined building, commonly known as the "library".

The western side of the terrace, below the overhanging cliff, was formerly closed by a galleried portico, of which some remains survive. On the north side, this terrace is extended by natural shelf of the mountain, on which stands a small modern monastery and, farther, several rock carvings and ancient stone structure, roughly dated to the 7th century AD. partly crushed at an unknown date by the fall of huge rocks from the cliff above.

Recent study of the brick part of the present shrine indicate, that it is probably dated around the 10th - 11th century AD. However, it is itself of two periods, with the brick rectangular tower at the back being the earliest. It is now fronted by a later (11th century AD) antechamber or mandapa. The quality of the carving of this building is very fine. The style of architecture shows that it may be classified "Baphuan Style" which is typically 11th century.

The whole complex developed over a long period. The earliest remains found are of the seventh century AD, as noted above, but much of what can now be seen is much later. There was a major rebuilding in the eleventh/twelfth centuries and the site was maintained by the rulers of Angkor down to the fourteenth century. It was converted from Hinduism to Buddhism in the thirteenth century AD and retains a local religious function down to the present day.

(Text from the Management Plan of Champasak)