I'm heading back next year just for vacation and graduation from HS. Live in Viengchan when I was in my childhood years. Need to go back to learn how to write in Lao and get a little bit away from the Western World, forgot how to write, but I can fully understand and speak Lao perfectly.

Anyone going to Lao soon?

Nope... but someday i will go

not in the near future .. i probably won't have any money unless my parents pay for me

i'll definately go within the next 3-5 years, that's the time my cousin should be getting married

I will probably go there in the next 3-5 years aswell. I cant speak, read or write any bit of lao. But I can understand it.

I just got back yesterday D
and i miss it *sniff*
i'll go back next yr in the summer and probably attend school there for a year and come back :]

scratch that...ill be going on Feb 1st 07. I persuaded my mom and brothers.

btw xxxxmoogle did you take pics?

lol attend school there wtf?

Sofaking, I'm glad to hear you will be going to Laos soon. Khoi si bpai muang Lao, bpi naa. (I will go to Laos next year). A group of my friends are going in April for Sabbai dii bpi mai (Lao New Year---April 13--15). Two of them go every year. This time 12 are going, including myself.

I believe you can learn Lao easily if you can already understand it. Remember: There are 5 steps to learning a language. Speak--Read--Write--Listen--Understand. Understanding is the second most difficult (Speak being the most difficult).

Understand that speaking is the most difficult of the 5, only because it involves confidence and that can only come from the encouragement of others who already speak what you are trying to learn.

For myself, The reason i speak Lao better than the other languages I know (Mandarin Chinese--Thai--Tagalog very little of a few others), is because of the support I've gotten from my Lao friends. With all due respect to the Chinese, There are so many different ways each group speaks. Mandarin, being the official dialect, is one of (I think) 47 different dialects. Some will even say there are more but they are just different versions of some of the same dialects.

With Lao, there are different dialects as well. However, the different dialects are at least similar to each other. I have some Lao friends whom I don't understand immediately but, if I ask "wao sa-sa kwa nee" (please speak slower) I usually understand them. Afterwards, the longer we speak, the more I understand. Remember: I still have a great deal more to learn. I am, by no means, an expert.

The main thing that helps me is that I have learned to read and write. I can read any Lao, even if I can't define the words. It's all spoken just as it's written. That's what makes it easier. The other thing is that , so far, I have not met a Lao person who is not surprised, but in a positive way, when I speak.

Chinese (again, with due respect) is not met with the same reaction. I have met some Chinese who appear to be offended when I speak. They are far less trusting of Westerners. Though I can understand their feelings, I don't totally agree because I would never harm any of them in any way.

I would suggest that you learn the alphabet first. Your learning will be much faster than mine because you have a head start. it will not be difficult to learn. Also, surround yourself by people who will be supportive. Again, this should not be difficult because you can already understand them.

Above all, be patient with your learning. I think you will be well on your way within a year.

Sok dii der (good luck)

Troy: Khon dam

I just got back from a 18 day trip in Laos, it was a pretty cool experience. EVERYTHING is extremely cheap, in some places they charge tourists/foreigners more, like a couple of the motels we went to told us that if the customer was foreign, they'd charge double for the room. we went to a really nice motel for 50,000 kip a night (almost aprox. 5$). Laos has plenty of good looking
girls especially in La Pra Buang . steaks are 30,000 kip on avg. However in Laos they don't seem to have baths or anything that protects the whole bathroom from getting wet when taking showers.

Be sure to eat out a lot. At the buffets they have plenty of seafoods and meats. It's also a lot of fun. you grill the food yourself. a bowl of pho on avg. is 3,000 kip (30 cents!). Drinking water is just 2,000 kip - 3,000 kip If you're going to visit Vientenne, there'll be PLENTY of buffets. it's like at most 50,000 kip a person at a buffet excluding drinks. we went to a buffet with 10 people and the bill ran up 340,000 kip (34$). even if you go to a non-buffet restaurant it's still really cheap for everything.

depending on where you deplane, if you're going to visit VangVieng or La Pra Buang, be prepared for a long car/bus ride if you deplane in Vientienne. From Vientienne by bus it's roughly 4 or 5 hrs to Vang Vieng, then from Vang Vieng it was 10 hrs. through the moutains to La Pra Buang by car. bus would probably take roughly 12-16 hrs. The moutains are amazing. they have a moutain formation called the "noomh moutains" (breast moutains)

We did so much traveling. After we got to La Pra Buang we left the next day to go to my grandfather's home town/village (I forget the name of the town/village). We rode a pretty big boat for 8 hrs. we then took a speed boat that cut the trip by 6 hrs and only took 2 hrs. I'll post some pics up some time in the near future of the trip for forum viewers to see.

It's pretty dirty in Loas though, littering is definitely a problem in Vientienne. Anyways I guess if you want more info you can always ask me here and I'll post a response.

did anyone take pics? lol

ohh yeah yeah yayyyy ur gonna go back and see it hehhahahah take me with take me withhh!!!!11:D
yeah i took pics during our travels probably mostly the waterfalls since i filmed most of everything instead XDD

1.we went to go see this cave full of around 200 buddhas discovered in 2004 by a fisherman,i didn't take pics of it cuz theres this wood thingie that has about 18 rules or so and u cannot film anything or take pictures but hey when you left the cave you got to get a cd on it and it shows the inside and stuff.
the way u get in is by boat,a person with a canoe will paddle u to the area of where the cave is(during the ride i discovered a leech had bitten my toe..),but before you go in if you're a girl u have to go borrow a sin,and u have to pay for it ..then u go up the stairs(it use to be a bamboo ladder) and go down the cramped stairs,for what happend to us there was a dude in there and he phook khaen all of us while chanting and allowed only the men to go behind the counter thing to see the buddhas and uhh right when you exit the cave there will be someone selling a cd all about the cave for 10,000 kip(1$)


2.we when to the tham nang ene cave somewhere kinda near by there i guess ahh it was hard to cross cuz there was this river in the way down to my knees and it was strong,not to mention the floor of it was really slippery..!!! the local kids who come and swim there everyday seem to have no problem with it either infact they go clean their bikes in the middle of the river..
moving on theres a road ahead of u about probably 1 mile to walk and see the cave!
i slipped right before i went up the stairs,but inside is very nice waterfalls,buddha's,nice lights..
ahahaha i had to get out of the cave after 5 minutes cuz my mom was affraid i was gonna slip and fall into the water ..
(1 and 2 was in the same day)
3.we went down to the outskirts of pakse or we went to champasak (i forgot where we are cuz all the signs mostly were the signs for the baan's) to go see the pearl of the mekong river,khon pha pheng falls it was so prettyyyyy i saw fishermen go onto the rocks of it not fearing the strong currents,then my mom said there was another waterfall called lyphii in the sip phan don area(from what i heard theres a spiritual tree there,you can see it but when you take a picture of it with a camera or film it you cant see it on film),we went into this ban i forgot the name of it but there was a dude offering to take us there for 30 bucks and the elderly lady living near the water where the boats were docked told us it was like a tourist place,lots of falangs,so it was about a 15 minute trip to the island that has lyphii falls when we got there the elderly lady was right,lots of english and german people,it was nighttime we're all tired so we rented guesthouses and toured to lyphii the next day! you either bike or take a tuk tuk or walk we took a tuk tuk theres 2 bridges you cross by to get there,then theres lots of stores to shop at,but everyone ran to go see where the tree was,we all got frustrated and then i saw a string connected to a tree that lead to a rock...I wonder who did that and if they ever came back cuz how it looked if you go to the rock u cant come back up...but anyways my bro went to ask a store keeper about the spiritual tree there and she said it was in khon pha pheng falls and that its like a branch and only SOME people could see it...ahhh we wondered if she was lying cuz we ALL heard it was lyphii from popular belief..i guess next time i'll get to see it ^^;; but either way Lyphii had very beautiful waterfalls :3 if anyones gonna go to laos you should go see those places !!
(was 2 days after 1 and 2)

ahh and how can i forget..the ladies along the road selling bpeeng gai are crazier than ever!!! geebus theyre like sliding ur car window open and pushing it into the car and good lord...it was scary i just woke up before it happend...

ohhh the pictures first these are scanned post card pics my mom bought

1.Khon Pha Pheng Falls

2.Ly Phii Falls(aka Somphamit Falls)

3.Views Of Champasak

4.Sip Phan Don,Champasak








now these are pics that were taken by me i'm too lazy to label what is what but the waterfalls made me lost...very lost...i didnt kno which was which ^^;;








(last one is my house there )


yeah thats it i guess...! are ya happy u got to see some pics now sofa i scanned them just for ya:D

AF wouldn't let me post it with my previous post...
and Reagan,even if i move there im gonna have to finish school there

I went to those when I went to Laos, where's the place with all the water?

Wow...powerful rivers! Thanks for sharing your pictures.

How did you like Laos? What was worst/best part of the trip?

wow cool pix. i wish i can go visit laos.... bet it must feel good to be back in laos.. too bad my family r broke.

the waterfalls are located in champassak i think

Yes very powerful indeed Sirikittong along with the sound ! gwhahaha n/p ^^

I loved it there *sigh* i miss it so ahh it was nice to have family around D
lets see the worst part would be uhh the FIRST day when we got outta the airport ...we got pulled over by a cop 2 times,our car broke down half way to our destination(my dad convinced a tuktuk driver to tie a rope to the front bumper of our car to the back bumper of the tuk tuk for 50$ GOOD DEAL),when a leech bit me,how it would rain almost everyday,getting bitten by mosquitoes(they never bite me in america..why is that..),when some of our neighbors'(the poor ones) came and made stories up that our dogs bit their:goats,water buffalos,cows,chickens,ducks then demanding 20 bucks(recently one about a goat happend),and finally the day we had to leave T^T
the best parts was pretty much everything else heheh:D


yeah it did feel good just living simple life..but don't worry stickyrice you'll get to visit some day !!!!

wow. my uncle told me a story similar to this about some guys who tried to pull a fast one on him when he went. he says they think lao-americans are rich.

yeah for reals, thats what they always think. i guess its cuz they dont see how much expensive it is to live in america. what is the capital income per monthn there, like 30-50 bucks? family there would always ask for money for this and for that. one time my uncle asked my aprents for money to build a house, but when my mom went to visit there was no house built.

moogle what happened about them frauding u guys was pretty dirty. lao people now adays like to scam people for money. 50 bucks to tow a car? damn thats a pretty good deal for the lao guy. i would have done it with my civic for 50 bucks ha.

at this rate i don't think i'm gonna go take a nice stroll in the neighborhood because of that,and speaking of a scam...or uhh something i thot was interesting,when my family was going to look at the khonphapheng falls we passed by this area and u gotta pay 10,000kip i think or around there to pass PFTSHH...10k kip to see a waterfall! who thought of that...really now who thought of that...but but going on yeah dude it was a very good deal and keep in mind...it was towed with a simple ROPE XDD i found it surprising that the whole 4 hours it didnt break and the tuk tuk driver was driving pretty fast...thats what i like about laos theres open space and u can drive as fast as u want!!! unless theres a police stand near by but not likely ..heeyy u have a car?? how old r ya??


oops i typed too much again..

when my mom went they asked for cash....american dollars.

kinda sad to see the state of laos struggling like this

Those pictures were beautiful! I will be in Laos next year and I look forward to it .

In the fall of 2009, there will be the SEA (south-east asian) games to be held at Vientiane with participants from 10 sea countries. The event will be coincided with Boun Thaat Luang. That will be a lot of fun.

Thank You for all the Pics.

my brother mentioned something about the irawaddy dolphins that you can see by going into the waters of veunkham and when we reached veunkham and asked the local merchants' about the irawaddy dolphins and they said something about 2 or 3 cambodian people associated with bringing people to see the irawaddy dolphins told the town(i have no idea if the town is extended but its as big as 2 blocks) that no one is allowed to see it ..well the merchants told us they just wouldn't let anyone go for some reason.. then we went into town and at the end was where people got into the boats we saw a dude rowing a boat and people doing laundry so we asked them about it and they said the same thing *sigh* that was a disappointment..

http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeConte...ontent_Laos.htm

how funny they released the reason 1 week after i went there..or part of the reason

glad everyone liked the pics from page 1

Hey, I'm currently in Thailand, and in process of starting companies in Lao and Thai, speak Lao, Thai getting better and learning to write both. Give me an e-m at asneats21@yahoo.com i'll tell ya nice hangouts not were all the tourist go more locals. I was born in Luang Prabang.