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 Traveller's Tales: Shopping suggestions in Laos
Get the best advice on shopping in Laos. You may read about shopping malls, souvenir items and best buys in the area. Also, you might want to read our
Luang Prabang city guide,
and Vientiane city guide.
Pages (2 of 3):
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| V Candra dewi |
03 June 2002 |
Stayed at Novotel Vientiane - Vientiane, Laos.
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The hotel shuttle was excellent. At night they drive us (eventhough it was a couple only) to the restaurant and ask us what time we wanted to be picked up. That was a great service. Places to go in Vientiane was not much, we prefer to go to Vieng Vang/Luang Prabang instead. Inside Vientiane, the best to go around is using the bicycle, so that u can enjoy the seen more and relaxly go around the city, beside time flies fast enough when your intention is to relax. the lime/lemon juices are excellent there, or should I say in general the juices are excellent. Getting a bus to go outside Laos is not difficult at all. Eventhough its not like bangkok, but Laos is still a place to shop with bargain!! Although dont expect to get a nice dress made in laos, vietnam is still much better.
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| E Kiuchi |
27 May 2002 |
Stayed at Villa Santi Hotel, The - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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Quiet and peaceful acient place with many temples to see. Good for shopping such as Lao silk and cotton.
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| K Vongsurakrai |
14 April 2002 |
Stayed at Villa Santi Resort - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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We enjoyed French food and wine at Elefant, just behind Villa Santi Hotel. Opposite the hotel is another cafe, I think the name is Ban Vat Sene which belongs to the owner of Elefant. Cafe serves wonderful country-style salad with pate. And what better way to end light meals with expresso and desserts. They're tasty. A beautiful selection of textiles can be found at OckPopTok nearby, other accessory items are of top grades. While in town, it's worth to pay a visit to the Royal Palace, Wat Xieng Thong, and Wat That Phusi which overlooks the view of Luang Prabang from atop. Get ready though, it take 109 steps to reach up.
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| C Fuerer |
05 April 2002 |
Stayed at Villa Santi Hotel, The - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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Laos is a very nice country. But consider going first to Cambodia and Burma which have more magnificent temples to offer. Luan Prabang's laid back attitude is however hard to beat. Note that Laos can be pretty expensive and that most Laos products are made in Thailand and can be purchased cheaper from any Bangkok market.
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| D Astley |
13 February 2002 |
Stayed at Villa Santi Hotel, The - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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There is enough see and do in and around Luang Prabang to occupy at least 2-3 days (compared to Vientiane in which you can see everything in one day). The safest and most comfortable way to reach LP is to fly Bangkok Airways (they use fairly new ATR72s). If you want to include Vientiane on your itinerary, and want to avoid flying Lao Aviation (which doesn’t have a good safety record), then do what we did and fly into Vientiane on Thai Airways, hire a car and driver to travel north to LP and then fly our on Bangkok Airways (or do that in reverse). This way you can see some of the rugged mountainous country between LP and Vientiane and experience some hill-tribe village life without getting too far off the beaten track.
We hired a four wheel drive and driver from Asia Vehicle Rental in Vientiane which cost us USD240 for the two day trip from Vientiane to LP and a third day for the driver to return the vehicle to Vientiane. It was a near-new Hyundai Galloper – very comfortable – and the rate included all fuel, insurance and the driver’s accommodation and meals. Based on AVR’s recommendation we took two days to do the trip, stopping overnight at Vang Vieng on the way, and we are glad that we did as it would have been a long day doing the 7-8 hours drive in one go, and would have left little time to stop off and explore places on the way. We took Route 10 first north to the Nam Ngum reservoir where there is a good lunch stop in Na Nam village from which there are spectacular views of this vast artificial lake with its picturesque islands. After that it is a short distance west to Route 13 which is the main highway north (and the only highway on which it is regarded as safe for tourists to travel in Laos). By mid-afternoon we were in Vang Viang which is an interesting small town on the Song river, surrounded by rugged limestone karst hills. Several guidebooks mention there are still opium dens in this town which occasionally get raided by the police (and any tourists caught in them are immediately deported!) There were quite a few tourists here, many tubing down the Song river, and an interesting market where you can see all sorts of birds, rats, squirrels and other mammals being sold for the cooking pot. Accommodation is fairly basic here with the ‘top end’ being the Thavansouk Bungalows right on the river where the most expensive cabins (USD35 a night) have air conditioning, hot water and great sunset views.
The second day of our trip north was one of the most interesting days in Laos. The road climbs to about 4000 ft as it winds through the mountains, passing through hill-tribe villages, and offering spectacular views of the rugged mountain scenery in this part of Laos. There is an interesting town called Phou Khoun about half way which makes a for a good rest stop. This is at the junction of Route 7 east to Phonsavan (near the Plain of Jars) but most embassies recommend that travelers avoid Route 7 as it is still subject to attacks by bandits and insurgents. Route 13 north from here is now regarded as safe, as there have been no attacks on travelers for quite a few years, but embassies still advise to exercise caution when traveling on this highway. At Phou Khoun we saw women from different hill-tribes shopping in town – some in very colourful traditional dress. It’s about a 4 hour drive from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang, so you should be able to make it into LP by early afternoon depending on how many stops you make on the way.
There are so many temples to see in LP, you won’t want to visit them all, but Wat Xieng Thong at the north end of town is definitely worth a visit. One other worth a quick stop at is Wat Ho Siang on Thanon Chao Fa Ngum. I have not seen this one recommended for a visit in any of my guide books, but there is a fantastic mural on the front of the temple depicting some sort of war with naked women being cut in half and having their tongues pulled out whilst villages are plundered and burnt behind them - very gory but very unusual. Many of the guidebooks recommend a visit to Talat Naviengkham, LP’s biggest market, but it has now been moved out of town to a new brick and concrete compound, and no longer has the atmosphere of the old market. Give it a miss if you can visit the Vang Vieng market on your way north or south.
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| W Farb |
18 November 2001 |
Stayed at Muang Luang Hotel - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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Our visit to Luang Prabang, in spite of our bad experience at the hotel, was fabulous. We loved the Muong Market, the sites, and the people. We used a tuk-tuk to get us to the waterfall and hired a boat for the river trip.
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| K Bacon |
14 November 2001 |
Stayed at Settha Palace Hotel - Vientiane, Laos.
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Most people visit Vientiane on their way to Luang Prabang. However, Vientiane holds its own place in history and stops to Wat Sisaket, the Morning Market, and the banks of the mighty Mekong River should not be missed. There are several excellent world class restaurants such as Le Opera and the Nam Phu Bar and Restaurant. Vientiane can and should be experienced in two to three days.
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| R Pellino |
12 November 2001 |
Stayed at Novotel Vientiane - Vientiane, Laos.
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No much to see, try to eat in one of the restaurant on Mekong river, good food and very good value for money. There is on Sunday a very nice open market in front of the hotel where you can buy nice wood table very cheap.
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| H Meikle |
07 October 2001 |
Stayed at Settha Palace Hotel - Vientiane, Laos.
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Somewhat dull not much to see good for only a couple of days. Definately not a shoppers paradise unless you want the limited stuff that they have got. Quality goods hard to find, tourist tat pleantiful. Do not lose any parking tickets or 45 minutes of bearocracy gone mad descend on the luckless party.
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| G Sheps |
06 October 2001 |
Stayed at Calao Inn, Le - Luang Prabang, Laos.
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I highly recomend Luang Prabang - it is still not too terribly touristy, but that is changing fast (and will probably change faster if you take my advise and go see it). Eat at L'Elephant for excellent French food in a beutiful setting, and the Villa Santi for upscale Lao food. L'E makes great fruit shakes as well.
Just watch those textile sellers... asking prices for essentially the same things can range from US$6 to US$100!
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