Coffee In Laos

Where on Earth Is Vientiane?

By Cecil Laguardia

 

When I wrote Vientiane as my current address, the bank employee asked, "Is this city in Europe?" Maybe he was thinking of Venice?

I sort of expected the question. I get it all the time. I've been doing a lot of briefing about the place since I came - friends, acquaintances and people I get to sit with in flights. Those blank stares look familiar. Let me do it one more time. Vientiane is the capital city of Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR), otherwise known as Laos, the (once) Land of a Million Elephants. It's not anywhere near Europe but right here in South East Asia - idly draping the historic Mekong River.

Languid and quiet, Vientiane is an icon of friendliness and warmth. All you need to get by is to wear a nice smile and say "sabaidee", a local greeting that covers almost everything from welcome to good morning, evening and night. The Laos would return that in a jiffy. A kind of warmth that does not come easy in many places nowadays. Only in Vientiane. Only in Laos.

When I boarded my flight for my first trip to Vientiane, I was filled with so many misgivings - and a prick of excitement that one usually gets when visiting a new country. But I didn't anticipate fireworks to go with it (much less a marching band). I've been traveling like crazy around Asia but it took me years to drop by. Ah, I thought it wouldn't work. I cannot stay for six months, much less two years. I am beginning to eat my words as I speak. A joke going around is that the country's national motto is "Please slow down". I haven't thought of the words for a long time. In this age of multi-tasking, who can run and hide from the frenzied world. Nah, it doesn't exist.

It does! I was floored. Surrounded by all the frenzy of growing Asian cities, it has managed to hold on to its own comfortable footing. It's like the rest of the world rushes in full speed - as Vientiane takes a stroll and gets the privilege of enjoying the view. The world is almost on full-stop. Almost. On Sundays, you can walk all you want around the city with very rare annoyances of crowding and speeding cars.

I always smile (that's almost daily) when the ever-patient Lao's bring up the morning "traffic". You can't call that traffic when the car stopped for five minutes, can you? Just watch out for the tuk-tuks, the drivers could drive like crazy. Once when my friendly tuk-tuk driver zoomed in and out of big cars like a jet, I howled in fright - all I got was a baw pen nyang (no problem) with a huge grin. He's right. I survived.

Then, there's Joma. I suggest it be considered part of the city treasure - and I am not talking of Joma in Luang Prabang yet. A favorite hang-out of yuppies and expats and bums (that's my future dream, to become one and afford it), their coffee choices could give Starbucks a run for its money. Not counting their BLT, quiche (spinach for me), taco salad and cookies. Between the two - I'd spend my hard-earned dollar on Joma, anytime. A Laos trip won't be complete if you missed a visit. If you are on a diet, you are in big trouble as soon as you hit the door.

Ah, well, so we end this up momentarily with coffee in our minds. Lao coffee is one the best, and I agree with a government executive's final word. He downs four large cups in a day. Only Lao coffee or nothing. There's more to life than running after deadlines, lugging bags in airports, catching-up with emails and watching your day start and end with tons of reports. Even before I got half-way with my Lao tour-of-duty, I woke up realizing a lot of better things we can do to fill our days - like doing nothing in between napping and reading the books accumulated in airport bookstores unread for months.

Your Lao world does not just turn around Joma, of course. Let's be clear on that. There's khao jji paa-tee, French baguette with Lao fillings that you can buy even at the bus station, the khao niaw (sticky rice) paired of with ping pao (grilled fish) and the absolutely heavenly avocado shake in Sabaidee Cafe.

Other restaurants abound serving international dishes. Swedish Pizza does the best pasta and pizza in town. My mouth waters.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cecil_Laguardia

Café Lao in Luang Prabang


coffee in laos

Laos Wetter

laos wetter="laos wetter"

Conquering Fansipan Vietnam to be the champion

In late September, we went on a tour called "Conquering the roof of Indochina" held by Local Tours to climb Mount Fansipan, 3,143 meters above sea level. We met at Hanoi railway station at 8:30 p.m. to catch the train to Lao Cai. That night we could not sleep and the weather was very bad.

At 9 a.m. the next morning, we transferred from Sapa Town to Tram Ton pass, which is at an altitude of 1,900 meters, where we started the climb. Dressed in proper mountaineering gear, we were eager for the journey ahead. On our shoulders were light backpacks with water, cookies and fruit and clothes and we carried the "Truong Son stick". The local porters took the tents, sleeping bags and food ahead of us.

Conquering Fansipan mountain Vietnam

Fansipan is the highest peak of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, so it is called the "Roof of Indochina" while the local people call it Huasipan, which means large tottering rock. Located in Lao Cai Province in the northwest of Vietnam, 9km southwest of Sapa Town in the Hoang Lien Son Mountain Range, Fansipan is approved as an eco-tourist spot of Vietnam, with about 2,024 floral varieties, over 700 medical herbs, 66 faunal species, 347 bird species, 102 species of reptile and amphibians. Vietnamese people are proud of Fansipan and consider it the Garden of Eden that God gave to Vietnam.

From afar, magnificent and surrounded by white clouds, Fansipan looks proud and as charming as a mountain girl in waiting. In the cold wind, we passed along the tortuous roads through forests where trees wore moss coats. We smelled the different scents from the moss, grass, cardamoms, wet soil and many kinds of flowers.

On the way, we saw some huge dew-worms, 40 centimeters long and as thick as fingers, and heard frogs and birds. We had staffs for walking but sometimes we had to climb with our hands and feet. At noon, we stopped at a rest-point for lunch. After that, we continued our way upwards and the paths got wetter and more slippery. The beautiful scenery, however made us forget our tiredness. Many kinds of flowers displayed their beauty. The cold wind rustled the groves of bamboo. We reached the top camp at 17:45 p.m. After dinner, we put on extra coats and crept into our sleeping bags. It was raining outside and the strong winds were screaming.

In the morning, we started climbing in the rain. We encouraged each other and went on with a sense of excitement. At 10:45 a.m., we were on the top and feeling happiness all around, we hugged each other tightly and took pictures beside the metal triangular marker written "Fansipan 3,143 m – Roof of Indochina". Anyone who has conquered the summit of Fansipan or other summits will never forget the happy moment, when we find out that we can scale the height, the difficulties and ourselves.

Recommendation :
Heaven Gate Route
Cat Cat Route

About the Author

ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA (ATA) offers a wide selection of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar adventure tours, including hiking and trekking, biking, motorcycling, overland touring and family travel packages.

"Fazit Laos" Vera_und_alex's photos around Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep


laos wetter

Newspapers In Laos

newspapers in laos="newspapers in laos"
Need help finding Laos writting?

I am doing a project for school and i need a passage, like a newspaper article, written in Laos. HELP!

I hope this helps you....Here are some references also....Good Luck...



Notable features
Syllables are based around consonants. Vowels are indicated with diacritics which can appear above, below or around the consonant letters. When they occur on their own or at the beginning of a word, vowels are attached to the glottal stop symbol (the final letter in the third row of consonants).
Lao is a tonal language with 6 tones. The tone of a syllable is determined by a combination of the class of consonant, the type of syllable (open or closed), the tone marker and the length of the vowel (see below).
For some consonants there are multiple letters. Originally they represented separate sounds, but over the years the distinction between those sounds was lost and the letters were used instead to indicate tones. Various offical reforms of the Lao script have reduced the number of duplicate consonants.
There are no spaces between words, instead spaces in a Lao text indicate the end of a clause or sentence.
Written Lao is based on the dialect of the Lao capital, Vientiene.
There is no official Latin transliteration system for Lao. In Laos, French-based systems are used and there is considerable variation in spelling, particularly of vowels. In Thailand, the Royal Thai General Transcription is used. Educated Lao people can also read written Thai.
Used to write
Lao, a Thai-Kadai language spoken by approximately 15 million people in Laos and Thailand. It is closely related to Thai and speakers of Lao are able to understand spoken Thai without too many difficulties. Thai speakers find it more difficult to understand Lao due to lack of exposure to the language.

Lao alphabet
Consonants
Consonants are divided into three classes which help to determine the tone of a syllable (indicated by the numbers below). The sounds represented by some consonants change when they are used at the end of a syllable (indicated by the letters on the right of the slash below). The consonants can all be used at the beginning of a syllable but only some can be used at the end of a syllable.



The consonants in the final row are compounds and conjuncts used as alternatives to the basic consonants.

Vowel diacritics (with k)


Numerals


Tone indication
Open syllables Closed syllables *
unmarked short vowel long vowel
Class 1 low mid high falling high low falling
Class 2 low rising mid low falling high low falling
Class 3 high mid high falling mid high falling

* Closed syllables are those ending with p, t or k

Sample text


Transliteration
Manut thuk khôn kœ̄t māmīkẏat sâk sī, sitthi, sēlī phôp læ khwôm smœ̄ phôp thàw thẏam kân. Thuk thuk khôn mīhēt phôn læ khwômkhit khwôm hian swàn tôw khɔ̄̄ṅ phai khɔ̄ṅ mân, tǣ̀vồ manut thuk thuk khôn khwan paphʉt tàṁ kân khʉ̄ kân kâp pianốy nɔ̄́ṅ kân.

Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Useful phrases in Lao

Lao language courses, dictionaries, etc.

Links
Free Lao fonts
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Lao.html
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/lao.html
http://www.global.lao.net/lswin
http://welcome.to/laofonts
http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/Lang/Lao.html

Online Lao lessons and other useful resources
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/LaoLanguage/Lao_language_fp.htm
http://www.laosoftware.com

LaoNet - information on Laos and the Laotian language
http://www.global.lao.net

Thai-Isan-Lao Phrasebook
http://www.phrasebook.thai-isan-lao.com

Virtual Lao Keyboard
http://mog.software.free.fr/Lao/

"Vientiane" Rapturina's photos around Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep


newspapers in laos

Best Time To Visit Laos

best time to visit laos="best time to visit laos"

Travel Tips For Visiting Sapa In North West Vietnam

Located in the far side of Lao Cai province, North-West Vietnam, Sapa is a foggy little town nestled in the embrace of rugged nature scenery and rich culture diversity. In the early decades of 20th century, the French (when they came and claimed Vietnam to be their colony) has appraised Sapa as Summer Capital of Northern Vietnam. The place has been casting its nature-gifted charm in combination with special cultural diversity to lure locals as well as foreigners to it year after year, especially newlywed couples.

Coming to Sapa Vietnam, you will have a chance to experience the beautiful nature with mountains and streams and colorful flowers as well as colorful ethnic minority groups with diversified culture. Travelers can hop on a train from Hanoi, get off at Lao Cai station and hop on a local bus for about 45 minutes to get to the Sapa town. Travelers coming to Sapa can go in organized tours or independently. Though home-stay tours are getting more popular, Sapa hotels are still the widely used way to spend a few days discovering the nature and people here.

Most hotels in Sapa are of middle price range, which are affordable for most of the tourists. For four-star hotels, there are a few popular name such as Chau Long hotel (New Wing) or Victoria Sapa resort & spa. While Chau Long hotel meet the standard of 4-star hotel, its price rates are pretty affordable, if not saying cheap, with the prices from US $37/night. While being rated with the same 4-star standard, Victoria Sapa deserves to be rated as a more luxury accommodation and with a more luxury price, from US $161/night.

For 3-star hotels around the town center, there are Bamboo Sapa hotel (from US $42/night), Royal view Sapa hotel (from US $27/night) and Sapa Luxury hotel (from US $25/night).

Tourists traveling to this startlingly beautiful Northern West of Vietnam with a tight budget will have no worry finding reasonable accommodation in Sapa with many 2-star hotels and motels mushroomed in town. A few names can be mentioned are Sapa starlight hotel (from US $23/night), Thien Ngan hotel (from US $25/night) or Sapa emotion hotel (from US $21/night).

April and May are the best time in year to visit Sapa. If the visit time is one month earlier or later, the weather might be constantly raining or cold and foggy for most of the time. Thus, there is really not much scenery you can admire in the dull weather, much less to stay energetic and cheerful. In the two peak month, there's sunshine and the clear sky will allow tourists to enjoy the different flowers blooming colorfully or go trekking and visit a few hill tribes on the way. The weather is also ideal to visit the session markets of the ethnic minority groups here. Come to Sapa and see how rugged nature and diversified culture become an eye-opener experience of life.

About the Author

Allison Dinh works for a traveling company which specializes in Vietnam hotel, Vietnam tours, Vietnam cruise tours and other travel services. She writes about topics Vietnam traveling related with insightful knowledge of a local as well as a professional in the field.

With the advantage of being one among the Vietnam's top online portals for domestic hotel information and updated news, Vietnamhotels.net acts as a free-of-charge guiding resource for like-minded guests to review and rate properties, to be provided with recommendations, to get best world-class reservations, and to gather information for free for your trip via the online channel.

"4000 Islands" Bexnkizzasblog's photos around Don Det, Lao Peoples Dem Rep


best time to visit laos
best time to visit laos
best time to visit laos