Laos is not budget friendly

2/27/12:

Well after a very long boat ride to get here, we tried our best to get to know our new city - Luang Prabang. Last night we found another hotel and booked it online for about $20/ night which is cheap for this town. The place is called the villa suan maak and after some intensive detective work we actually managed to find it as its not on the main drag. This city isn't super complicated but finding a decent map or some directions is like trying to find gas back home for under $3.00. So we managed to get here, checked in and sorted ourselves out. The room is pretty nice so far. We've got a door (always a plus), a bathroom (equally important), a small desk (useful for piling dirty clothes on) and 2 beds. 2 twin beds which don't seem to move at all. Cozy time!!!!!!

We ended up renting 2 bikes from our hotel for a whopping 40000 kip (about $5.00) and went for a ride. We found a couple book stores last night and knew we desperately needed to get a Laos guide book. So we headed back to the bookstores with a couple books of our own to trade.

Quick side note: a lot of guidebooks and websites mentioned that its a good idea to buy or trade for your guidebooks as you get to each new country. This is false information for Laos as this is often a one sided travel route, there are hundreds of Thailand books but only one Laos book. We've been trying since Chiang Rai to get our hands on a Laos book and have been unsuccessful until today. We saw them in Chiang Mai new but wanted to wait until we got to Laos. Oh well. We traded a couple books in and got a filthy, old photocopied 2007 Laos guidebook for around $7.00 (which is way more then we paid for our nice Thailand book in Bangkok). Hopefully progress has been slow here.

Our hotel lady mentioned that we could ride our bikes to a small village where they make paper and silk. So we headed in that direction which took us over a river and into the 'country'. We went over a rickety bridge and around some dirt roads until we found the place. Nothing super exciting except some girls working in a sweat shop making scarves. I say it was a sweat shop cause sweat was pouring off me even before we walked in. It was pretty neat to see but not really a post card moment. We also saw some peeps making saa paper down the road so we went over there to annoy them a little and maybe get some pictures. The designs they make with the paper are amazing! We see them all over the night markets and waking streets but to see them being made was super cool!

Earlier in the day we decided we wanted to kayak the river and maybe see a waterfall. So we went to a couple tour agencies and asked around about pricing. Hahahahaha!!!!! So basically for a 2 hour kayak tour (where you're doing all the work!!!!), you'll be paying $50.00 / person and the waterfall is currently dried up!!!!!! WTF! I nearly fell out of my chair. Seriously I had to look around and make sure I wasn't siting in myrtle beach. We went to another tour agency and were quoted $40.00. It's at this point that we realize 3 nights may be too much. It seems Luang Prabang is a well traveled destination and the prices reflect that. Accommodations and food can be found for cheap. But that's about it.

Carolyn did some investigating and there's a different waterfall not far that you can take a tuk-tuk to. This is where tripadvisor.com comes in handy because we can read peoples reviews from the days prior so we know the information is still accurate. Should be a great time!

We ran into some friends from the boat and had dinner and a few drinks. The local beer is called beerlao and is supposed to be wonderful but I find it rather gross however at $1.50 for a liter I can't really complain. Got home a little while ago since there's a curfew of 12:00 here. The locals shut the city down at about 10:30. Crazy. On the way home I flagged down a tuk-tuk and asked how much .... 50000 kip ($6.20). Another WTF moment. We look at him, sneer and say no thank-you. The guy then follows us for a few meters reducing his price. He finally gets down to 15000 kip as his final offer. This is a good deal but at this point its principle so we keep walking. The part that angers us (and every other traveler we've met) is the scam or deception crap. I mean seriously we're traveling ... On a budget. Just quote us the actual friggin price and just be done with it. It's stuff like tohis (and yes it happens all day everyday) that makes you question everything here and distrust everyone.

Another WTF moment from tonight: at dinner Carolyn and I got the same meal and each had a beer except I had a large and she had a small. When it came time to pay the bill something didn't add up. We asked about it and the girl said our beers were different brands or something like that. During dinner we has both peeled off the label. We tried to argue to no avail. So my large (1 liter) beer was 10000 kip and Carolyn's small (500 ml) beer was also 10000 kip. So we bit our tongues and paid the bill. Carolyn unfolded the labels and they were indeed the same beer. Ohwell. I guess you can chock it all up to the inevitable 'gringo tax.'

Side note: we were able to wrap our heads around Thai currency fairly well and ended up thinking in Baht vice dollars. This has worked against us here as we now have to learn a new currency (Lao Kip) and how to budget for it. To give an idea, $1 = 8000 Kip. They also quote prices in US dollars here so we are working with 3 currencies. *sigh* the issues with traveling.

Pics:
1. Slow boat dock - Luang Prabang.
2. Rickety bridge - Luang Prabang.
3. Sunset over Mekong river.
4. Carolyn on a bike - Luang Prabang.
5. Beerlao.