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Leaving for Vientiane
Aug 2, rain
Vientiane
Aug 3, swimming
Vientiane
Aug 4, Vientiane
Aug 5, Vientiane
Aug 6, Vientiane
Aug 7, Vientiane
Aug 8, sightseeing in
Vientiane
Aug 9, Vientiane
Aug 10, shooting range;
Aug 11, Off to Luang Prabang.
Aug 12, Luang Prabang, Evening Cruise
Aug 13. evening rib, Luang Prabang
Aug 14, Sports Hotel,Vientiane
Aug 15, Vientiane
Aug 16, Sports Hotel, Vientiane
Aug 17, Back to Saigon
Any questions ?
Use email
or
+47 901 83 492
+847 7753 6063
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Interesting and frustrating train ride.
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ViAnh and her swimming
instructor Bounchah, +856 2244
1741. He did a fair job teaching ViAnh crawling technique.
Saying farewell to the pool. The Chinese have
bought it and will demolish everything. Sad.
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Our last breakfast at
Sokdee hotel. A very nice stay.
The railway station in Vientiane. Nice,
modern building. |
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Outside the massive, modern, sleek, beer-free station building.
Finally leaving.
Going through security control. |
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The security confiscated
Martin's deodorant. They do it here. Why? Nobody knows. On airplanes you can
take deodorant with you in the hull. Hapless bureaucratic. And they refused
to give Martin a receipt since they hardly could speak English.
After this ordeal with the unsmiling,
unfriendly security cops that seemed uninterested in their job we settled
down. We couldn't drink beer. When did
Lao–China
Railway (LCR) become promoter of temperance movement?
They didn't sell beer and you were not allowed to drink your own. Not
customer friendly.
The building was
very slick, but paper in the toilets? No way. Martin's first encounter with
a modern toilet with toilet paper. This is a very bad idea. Then folks will
use whatever they have. And tissue paper is not well received by the sewage
sysstem. It becomes clogged . The price for fixing it runs in the millions
and it would be a wise investment to have toilet paper in the shithouses. A
very profitable investment indeed.
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The whole building was
modern, sterile and resembled a hospital. Not even knobs in the toilets.
Amazing.
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They
checked the tickets 5 times. This is the second time. When you are traveling
by air, they check it twice. Why this paranoia? What are LCR afraid of? That
someone should hijack the train and take it where?
Modern,
efficient, sleek, hospital train with no soul and no beer. |
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The
Lao–China
Railway (LCR) logos on the seats.
June and ViAnh are settling in. |
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These nicely dressed
female staff members couldn't speak English at all. And they didn't seem to
care. They were uncaring, unfriendly, unfriendly, arrogant and
condescending. Real B(^^%es. Obviously, they think they are the
best in the world. They are NOT.
Dragon fruits
are greaat and they taste very nice. |
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Here is a nice example
of a customer friendly person. Smiling, friendly and she actulallly looks
happy. Great service and the sausage was really nice. A lovely change from
the blue-dressed grumps.
June is enjoying her dragon fruit. Vietnam
exports dragon fruits for some 650 million USD to China every year. |
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Here is another nice
example of a customer friendly person. Why are only the blue-dressed staff
so unfriendly. The White=dressed ones were all as expected. Happy smiling
persons.
On the train, the toilets were well stocked with toilet paper. Nice, clean
and antiseptic. |
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But as on the stations,
no knobs anywhere to to hang your clothes on.
After two hours, half the supply was gone. It
was not refilled even though the train was impeccable clean with cleaning
staff in action all the time. |
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Arriving in Luang
Phrabang. The dismemberment was smooth and efficient. Very well organized
But then it was off to
the exit with another ticket check.
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There is a total of 5 ticket check, of which
3 are completely unnecessary.
- Entrance to the departure hall. Both
tickets and id-papers.
- Exit of the departure hall. Ticket
only. Unnecessary.
It has already been checked.
- Entry onto the train. Ticket only
- On the train, both passports and
tickets. Completely unnecessary.
- Exit from the station.
Completely unnecessary.
Why this extraordinary paranoia? What is
LCR afraid of? Martin hasn't a clue.
In Jasmine hotel with
and very efficient, Vietnamese manager. We got the biggest bed we have ever
seen and a spare bed for our granddaughter ViAnh.
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ViAnh enjoys her nice,
big bed.
Just outside our
door was an 11 meters long pool. Not big, but it sufficed.
At night, a trip to
Indigo restaurant just around the corner. |
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Martin had pork ribs,
the biggest he has ever eaten. Fortunately, June and ViAnh helped him. And
it was more than enough to go around for all 3.
The streets
where filled with vendors of all kind.
Watch the video. |
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On Saturday August 12th,
we went on an evening sight-seeing trip after a nice morning swim.
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