eulapanda: April 2016

Chiang Mai Series: The Spell of the Sunday Walking Street Market

by eulapanda - 10:09 PM

"I've never been to a walking street market this huge before. It was electrifying. Intense. It felt like I was on a trance the whole time I was there."

It was our first night in Chiang Mai and we weren't really that familiar yet with the ins and outs of the city. Luckily, the hostel we booked was at the south gate of the Old City, a few meters away from the night food stalls that sprout like mushrooms every night and just a short 10-15 minute walk to where the action of the night was - the Sunday Walking Street Market.

Armed with a few Baht and a camera, we braved our way into the unknown and little did we know that we were in for a pleasant surprise.

Senses overload. The night market was huge, long, and not to mention, really crowded.

Chiang Mai's Sunday Walking Street Market is a huge market every errr, Sunday, located right at the heart of the old walled city. Spanning roughly about 1 km or so, it covers the entire length of Ratchadamnoen Road and several side streets, including the Pra Singh Roads. It opens as early as 4 pm, with the crowd thickening at around 7 pm or so, and closes right around midnight.

Thailand, Chiang Mai, walking street market

The walking street market was huge. Electrifying. Intense. It was as if we were all under a spell as we explored, from one end to another, rows and rows of stalls selling various products from cute statement shirts, to bags, silk scarf, Lanna style clothing, shoes, jewelry, and so much more.

We saw quite a number of people, obviously tourists, sporting those "elephant pants" so my friends and I followed suit and bought one for ourselves (you'll see a picture of us wearing those in one of my future posts). For pasalubong, we bought some really good, colorful, and soft scarves for our folks.

Thailand, Chiang Mai, walking street market, Thai food

Who wouldn't love Thai food? Trying out the bugs and insects this country is known for.

And what's a street market without food? Every few meters or so, there were food stalls selling mostly Thai food and a few other cuisines that were ridiculously cheap. It was here where I tasted my first ever Thai milk tea and I've been in love with it ever since.

One thing I noticed was that most of the food stalls were grouped together somewhere at the end or intersection of the streets. Near every food corner was a makeshift stage where local kids and adults show off their talents in singing and dancing. We watched a couple of numbers and we didn't pass up the opportunity to meet other travelers, talk with locals, and just enjoy the night away while nursing our sore feet from all the walking.

Thailand, Chiang Mai, walking street market, arts and crafts

Getting a taste of Thailand's arts and crafts scene for the fist time in Chiang Mai.

Of all the places we've been to in Thailand, it is Chiang Mai that I love the most. There are so many reasons why (I'll write about it next time) and one of which is their passion and love for arts and crafts.

I'm not an artist but I do appreciate beautiful paintings, ingeniously crafted clocks, handmade notebooks and leather wallets (bags and shoes too), and even a croaking frog made of wood. And the best part is it is waaay cheaper to buy this kind of stuff in Chiang Mai compared to the other parts of the country. For example, the wooden croaking frog costs 200 THB in Phuket compared to just a mere 50 THB in Chiang Mai.

The Chiang Mai Sunday Walking Street Market was just the first night of our stay in Thailand and it was the perfect introduction to knowing the country more. :)

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They say: "Travel and let the world change you." For 17 days, four international flights, two overnight trains, and countless hours of bus rides, I let the universe do just that. And it changed me in more ways than one.

This post is part of my Malaysia-Laos-Thailand travel series.

Now up on the blog:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (In One Day): A First-Timer's Guide,

Vientiane, Laos: 10 Surprising Things About Laos
Crossing Borders: Vientiane (Laos) to Udon Thani (Thailand)

Other Thailand stories are still in the works so stay tuned!

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Immigration Scare: Crossing Borders from Vientiane (Laos) to Udon Thani (Thailand)

by eulapanda - 3:00 PM

international bus, laos, thailand, crossing borders

The Lao-Thai International Bus at the Morning Market.

"It was like a scene in the movies. Will we be detained? Will we get out of this alive?"

It was two in the afternoon on the 27th of February. Though the sun was shining bright that day, the cold wind still left us shivering as we waited for our turn to board the international bus to Thailand.

The delicious and steaming hot Beef Noodle Soup (pho) I had for lunch at the Morning Market (Talat Sao Mall) still lingered in my head. I just couldn't resist the urge to order one more and yet I was secretly hoping my tummy won't breakdown for the next three hours lest I'd be deemed as persona non grata of the two ASEAN countries.

It was our first time to cross borders by land and by no means we were experts. We were thankful that the tuktuk driver dropped us off at the Morning Market in front of the bus terminal for the international bus. But I was all the more thankful for the toilet at the terminal (though using it meant 2,000 Laos kip).

It could have been cheaper if we took the DIY route but given the circumstance, we chose the convenient, fastest, and hassle-free route of just taking one bus from Point A to Point B, though at a higher price. The process was relatively simple and I had this on a loop inside my head:

Vientinae (Laos) to Udon Thani (Thailand) via the International Bus

1. International Bus at the bus terminal near Morning Market (22,000 Laos Kip)

2. Laos Immigration (exit)

- Leave bags in the bus
- Fill out the Laos Immigration exit form
- Line up for the exit stamp
- Pay 50 Baht or its US dollar equivalent

(this applies to both entry and exit on the Laos border)
- Get back on the bus

3. Cross the Laos-Thailand Friendship Bridge

4. Thailand Immigration (entry)

- Bring bags
- Fill out the Thai Immigration (entry) form

- Line up for the entry stamp
- Customs check
- Get back on the bus

5. En route to Udon Thani, Thailand

Compared to the DIY way:

1. Tuktuk to Central Bus Station

2. Bus/shuttle to Laos border

3. Laos immigration (exit) process

4. Bus across the Laos-Thailand Friendship Bridge

5. Thailand immigration (entry) process

6. Bus/shuttle to Nong Khai, Thailand

**Aside from the DIY way taking a bit longer, there's also a higher chance you get ripped off especially when you are travelling alone because you'd have to negotiate for the shuttle/tuktuk fare at various points. Check this out for a more detailed process.

friendship bridge, laos, thailand, crossing borders

Crossing the Laos-Thai Friendship Bridge.
Laos on the left side, Thailand on the right.

But hey, you know what they say about nothing in life comes easy? Well.. I haven't really given much thought about it until this moment. I already had an entry stamp on my passport and was going through customs check (easy peasy, I thought) when I saw two of my friends (we were a group of four) leaving the Thai entry stamp line.

"Maybe they forgot something," I calmly told myself as I was leaving the immigration building to wait for them outside. I searched through the throng people lining up and saw my boyfriend with the immigration officer. I heaved a sigh of relief.

But there was something odd with the way he glanced at me. His time for entry stamp was taking longer than usual too. Something seemed to be going on. And where were the other two?

Pep talks of self assurance quickly turned to anxiety when the bus driver came pacing hard and fast towards me while pointing several times at his old tarnished watch, anger written all over his face.

Without saying any English words, I knew he was mad because we were already running really late. "Wait, sir. My friends are still inside" was all I could muster. He stormed out and went back to the bus while the touts took notice and kept pestering me to take their transportation deals.

The driver came back to me still pointing furiously at his watch. He must have noticed the fear I had on my face that he went marching in to look for my friends. He came back seconds after and told me my friends were inside and then left the building once again.

"He won't leave us here, would he?" Then all of a sudden, the immigration officer who stamped my passport called me back in, asking for my passport. Now this was becoming unusual. It felt like a scene out of the movies. Will we be detained? Will we get out of this alive?

As the immigration officer was about to return my passport, out came my two other friends from an inner office looking a bit shaken but relieved. There we discovered that they were subjected to secondary screening by Thai immigration and that the officer had to change the exit date they had initially given me.

With no time to lose, we all raced towards the bus just as the driver was starting the engine.

Tips When Crossing Borders
Aside from the usual tips of staying calm, looking cool, being polite and honest when going through the immigration process; here are the tips I find useful given our experience while crossing borders from Laos to Thailand.

Always have your passport ready. It helps that you have a small sling bag or anything which you can easily get and monitor your important documents (compared to rummaging your backpack).
Ready all other supporting travel documents (itinerary, booking receipts, plane tickets, etc) and as much as possible have them printed out. My friends had the unfortunate experience of getting subjected to secondary screening by Thailand Immigration officers where an official questioned them and asked for their other travel documents. Good thing we had them printed before leaving the country so after the officer read through the papers, they just scanned them in together with their passports. Imagine the horror of not having anything to show because it's in your email and you don't have internet access that time!
Always have a pen with you. This helps hasten the process of filling out immigration forms by not having to borrow and waiting for others to finish theirs.
Have extra money with you in Thai Baht or US Dollars. As a Philippine passport holder (ASEAN member country), I was expecting not to pay for anything during the whole immigration process. However, Laos immigration (enter/exit) would ask visitors to pay 50 Thai Baht or its equivalent in US Dollars for the card fee of some sort.

passport, laos, thailand, crossing borders

The immigration officer changed my 30-day visa to 15-day visa.
New Thailand Immigration Policy:
15-day visa given for border arrival
30-day visa for airport arrival

Keep abreast of any immigration news and updates of the country you are visiting. As an ASEAN member country, I know that we are given a 30-day visa on arrival in Thailand. But this may not be entirely true today. Just recently, they made a few changes with their immigration policies to crackdown "visa runs" and illegal workers. If you are entering Thailand by land border (via Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Malaysia), you will be given a 15-day visa on arrival but if you are arriving by air, 30-day visa on arrival still applies. I didn't know about this until after I got home and read the news. I learned about this here and here.

Except for the little immigration scare of seeing my friends being whisked away for secondary screening while the whole bus waits, the entire border crossing process was fairly easy and fast. I hope this post will help those people planning to cross borders from Vientiane (Laos) to Thailand.

How about you? Do you have any scary immigration experience?

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They say: "Travel and let the world change you." For 17 days, four international flights, two overnight trains, and countless hours of bus rides, I let the universe do just that. And it changed me in more ways than one.

This post is part of my Malaysia-Laos-Thailand travel series.

Now up on the blog:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (In One Day): A First-Timer's Guide,

Vientiane, Laos: 10 Surprising Things About Laos

Thailand stories are still in the works so stay tuned!

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Vientiane, Laos: 10 Surprising Things About Laos

by eulapanda - 9:00 PM

It was just a short love affair with Laos. How short? As short as I am. I kid. Just four hours. Why? Because logistics wise, we would be sacrificing a lot of things in Thailand (our next destination) if we push our way from its capital city of Vientiane to Luang Prabang, a world heritage site. Was it worth it? I'm craving for more time in Laos; maybe next time. But four hours gave me 10 surprises so I guess spending just four hours was worth it.

MILLIONAIRES IN LAOS

We were millionaires in Laos, man! I repeat, we were M-I-L-L-I-O-N-A-I-R-E-S! Suddenly, Bruno Mar's song "I wanna be a billionaire so freaking bad" became a distant memory. Say what? Before you come and ask me for a share of my millions, let me explain:

We literally had more than a million of Laos Kip combined! I even had a hard time letting go of my 100,000 Laos Kip note to buy food thinking that it has of the same value back home. It took me a while to grasp the idea that their currency's value is so low (imagine, 1 Php = 175 Kip) due to inflation. Still having a hard time picturing this out? Just think that I paid 2,000 Kip as fee for using the public toilet. I'm rich, I know. haha

#2
SHOP WITH THAI BAHT OR U.S. DOLLARS

When shopping in business establishments, you can use Thailand Baht or US Dollars aside from Laos Kip. Another interesting fact? They don't have coins and their banknotes come in denominations of 500, 1000, 5000, 10000, 20000, 50000, and 100000.

BABY, I'M COLD

The minute we got off the plane, the first thing I noticed was how cold it was! I was thinking that since Laos was part of Southeast Asia, we pretty much have the same temperature in the Philippines. I was wrong. Or maybe I was partially wrong. We visited on the month of February and the 19°C was largely due to an unusual cold snap the country experienced along with several other Asian countries like Japan, Vietnam, and even Thailand. In fact, some areas in Laos had frost and unconfirmed snowfalls. Talk about climate change, eh?

According to Lonely Planet, the best time to visit Laos is anytime between November to March when it isn't too hot nor too wet.

Sunny yet cold. Us wearing jackets in Patuxai.

#4
SIBLING COUNTRY
I already had an idea that Laos is a developing country just like my country, the Philippines. But it never dawned on me the stark resemblance of Laos and the Philippines not until I saw that their tuktuk was pretty much the same as our tricycle, that their traffic could also get as worse as ours, and that there were people also struggling to make ends meet. Even their sport (Kataw) was similar to our Sepak Takraw.

Clean street near Patuxai (left). Enjoying our tuktuk ride (middle). Our tuktuk driver (right).

Though we more or less have similarities, I must say that their capital city, Vientiane, is way way cleaner than Manila in the Philippines (as seen on the photos above).

#5
BUDDHISM IS THEIR WAY OF LIFE
Buddhism goes beyond religion. It is a philosophy, a way of life. Laos has been one of the poorest countries in Asia and is surrounded by stronger, more powerful countries like Thailand in the west and Cambodia and Vietnam in the east. With this and their relatively weak central government, Buddhism became the main cement that glues all the people together.

Because of Buddhism, the Laos people find joy in minimalism and are known all over the world for their honesty and simplicity.

Vientiane, Laos, Haw Pha Kaeo, Pha That Luang, Buddhism

(L-R): Haw Pha Kaeo, Buddha statues at Pha That Luang, Sisaket Temple, Wat Neua Thatluang

#6
MADE OF REAL GOLD

Pha That Luang is regarded as the national symbol of Laos and is the most important national and religious monument in the country. Built in 1566 and standing at 45 meters, the stupa is said to house a relic of Buddha brought by Indian missionaries.

They also said that the stupa was covered with 500 kilos of gold leaf but was plundered on several occasions and was destroyed several times throughout the history of Laos. It was only at the end of World War II that Pha That Luang was restored to its formal beauty.

Though we didn't get inside (admiring the great stupa from the outside was already enough for us), we did, however, enjoyed exploring the surrounding palace, gardens, monuments, and temples.

Pha That Luang
Operating Hours: 8 am to 4 pm, Daily
Entrance Fee: 5,000 Kip

In front of the stupa is the Saysettha Garden where we saw a statue of the king responsible for the construction of the place. On the left side of the garden is an impressive palace of Thai architecture (see bottom left and right photos in the collage) which has an intricate and impressive design.

A few meters on the side of the palace was the beautiful Wat Neua Thatluang. A small and classic-looking temple with very complex design. Beside the temple were different Buddha statues under a big old tree (see second picture on the right).

And of course, we also saw the huge Golden Sleeping Buddha found on the other side of Pha That Luang. Beside the sleeping Buddha, there is also another temple and a mini garden.

#7
NO NAVY
The country is landlocked and is surrounded by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma. It is covered mostly with mountains and forests which explains why 80% of Laos people work in the agricultural sector.

It is also an interesting discovery that since Laos is landlocked, they don't have a Navy. And that their "beach" is not a stretch of sand by the sea but islands in the river.

Which also leads to:

#8
MEKONG RIVER IS LIFE
Running water is still a luxury in most places in Laos and some people even rely on the Mekong River for their everyday needs. Mekong River is the 7th longest in Asia passing through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam which eventually ends to the South China Sea.

Vientiane, Laos, Mekong River, Friendship Bridge

Crossing the Friendship Bridge aboard the International Bus.
On the left is Laos, Thailand is on the right.

The Mekong River also officially separates Thailand and Laos on each side of the river near Vientiane and the Mittaphab Bridge, more commonly known as the "Friendship Bridge", connects the two nations. We had a scary encounter with the immigration while crossing to Thailand from Laos and I'll talk more about it on my next post.

#9
FRENCH PLEASE
Laos used to be part of the French Indochina from 1932 to 1946 when it was granted self-rule within the French Union. It wasn't until 1954 when Laos was granted independence after France withdrew from the First Indochina War.

PATUXAI (Vientiane's Arc de Triomphe)
Dedicated for those who fought for independence from France

Though French influence in Laos isn't as strong as in Vietnam, it is still felt and experienced in Laos to this day. I noticed that schools and government signage are in French and that some street names in Vientiane start with "Rue bla bla" (rue, means street in French). It isn't also surprising to find croissant and baguette being peddled on the street.

#10
MORE PARSLEY, MORE PARSLEY
Herbs like basil, parsley, dill, and mint, to name a few, had little significance to me when I went to culinary school. Though I've been growing basil, tarragon, and parsley the past few months, I haven't really experimented that much with these earthly gems except when I use them as occasional garnish to pull off that "chef-like look" on my what could have been ordinary dish.

The magnificent effects of these herbs in everyday cooking came as a pleasant surprise when we got to sample Laos' cuisine at their local market. After the quick city tour, the driver dropped us off at the Morning Market (Talat Sao) for brunch before boarding the international bus to Thailand. Aside for food (3rd floor), we also bought some ref magnets and keychains here.

Here are some tips when buying food at the Morning Market:

Tip #1: Have your cash exchanged to its equivalent paper money at the counter near the entrance.
I don't really know the reason why they practice this but I was surprised when I noticed that the customers were not handing the real money to the vendors. Instead, they gave those colorful paper money they got from the counter and if there were any change, they'd go back to the counter to have the excess paper money exchanged for real money.

Tip #2: Go where the locals go.
This is probably the best tip I could give you no matter which place you are visiting. We noticed that a lot of locals were buying from this particular stall serving big bowls of noodles. We followed suit and we were very very happy!

Tip #3: Don't forget to ask for extra side dish of more herbs, vegetables like sprouts, a slice of lime, and some sauce (if you're ordering noodles).

Vientiane, Laos, Laos Cuisine, Khao Poon, Kho Nom Kok, Pho

(L) Khao poon, (M) Kho Nom Kok, (R) Pho Noodle Soup

We ordered Khao Poon (Red Curry Noodle) which was curry-based (obviously) and a bit spicy to my taste, as well as the Pho (Beef Noodle Soup) which was originally from Vietnam. I prefer the latter so much that I ended up buying another bowl of steaming beef noodle soup.

The food in the middle, Kho Nom Kok, was a delicacy we bought outside of Pha That Luang. Those were Lao coconut cakes made with rice flour and coconut milk served hot in banana leaves. It was so good and yummy that we wished we had bought more than just one serving (that was divided by four people).

How about you? Did Laos surprise you too?

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ACTUAL ITINERARY AND COST BREAKDOWN
Here's the itinerary and cost breakdown of our short tour around Laos' capital city, Vientiane.

I could say Laos is definitely affordable and it's best to head to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and stay a couple of days more there. Though for us Filipinos, Laos is pretty much the same as our country in terms of nature and geography and some may feel that going there is the same as going to the mountain areas in the Philippines. But I guess this natural untouched charm as well as the delicious food and the Buddhist culture have attracted not only me (who has a penchant for simple living) but countless of mostly Western tourists as well.

Laos is worth your time, just give her time.

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They say: "Travel and let the world change you." For 17 days, four international flights, two overnight trains, and countless hours of bus rides, I let the universe do just that. And it changed me in more ways than one.

(This post is part of my Malaysia-Laos-Thailand travel series.
Our 2-nights Malaysia stopover is now up on the blog and Thailand stories are still in the works so stay tuned!)
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Chiang Mai Series: The Spell of the Sunday Walking Street Market

Immigration Scare: Crossing Borders from Vientiane (Laos) to Udon Thani (Thailand)

Vientiane, Laos: 10 Surprising Things About Laos

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