laos - one year

one year in laos by tim franco



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOK1uxY-ck&hl=en

VITVO - SAN TRE (6).flv

VIETNAM BAMBOO FLOORING AND FURNITURE Friendly Environmental and Ecological Products Alternative Material to Hardwood for Your Home and Office Bamboo flooring can give you the natural beauty of hardwood floors in your home without you having to feel that your choice in home improvements is having a damaging affect on the environment. As one of nature's greatest gifts to mankind, bamboo has been used in many useful ways since the beginning of time. It's highly appreciated by many people! PINCTADALI is professional supplier and installer of high quality bamboo flooring, wall and ceiling covering as well as bamboo furniture, housewares and decoration. We are the first mover and leading company in Vietnam in producing furniture and houseware of press bamboo. In local market, we supply and install Bamboo Flooring to different projects and buildings, such as Pacific Place, The Manor, Ciputra in Hanoi and Sailing Tower in HCM city; tourist boats in Ha Long bay (Jasmine Cruise, Victory Cruise and White Dolphin Cruise); different Foreign Embassies offices in Hanoi and hundred other residence and houses... Recently, we have been installing bamboo flooring to different resorts, hotels and restaurant in Hanoi, Phan Thiet (Sailing Club), Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hue, Hai Phong... Our products are also exported to different countries : France, Germany, Hollands, Luxemburg, Czech, Russia, Australia, Laos... It's our great pleasure of introducing a range of bamboo flooring and bamboo ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX2RKYbajpY&hl=en

Banyan Tree Luxury Hotels & Spa Resorts

Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts manages premium luxury resorts, 5 star hotels, top golf courses & the world's best spas in the world's top luxury vacation spots. See the best resort vacation promotions & holiday packages in Phuket, Bintan, Maldives, Seychelles, Mayakoba, Bangkok, Sanya, Lijiang, & more. Video brought to you by Travelindex Network and Travel & Tourism Foundation. More travel and tourism information at the World's largest travel and tourism directory: www.Travelindex.com www.TravelFoundation.org



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAEUUNvO5DE&hl=en

Plain of Jars Site 2 Tour with Sousath Phetrasy Part 4

I just found out today (1/20/2010) that Sousath died about five months ago from untreated high blood pressure. That's a shock, and his presence will be missed in Phonsavan in Xieng Khuang Province. I guess it makes this interview series even more important/historical... I think there are many reasons to travel to and through Xieng Khuang Province. Probably the main reason for most tourists though would be to visit the Plain of Jars. While most people visit Site #1, there are two more sites fairly accessible. In this video, Sousath Phetrasy, owner of the Maly Hotel and tour guide extraordinaire traveled with us and we recorded what he had to say about the Plain of Jars. We were there in December, which is a couple of months into the dry season, and you can see that the grass is brown and the wind is blowing, as it often does on the plateau where the Plain of Jars are situated. The Xiangkhouang Plateau or Tran Ninh Plateau is a plateau in the north of Laos and the highest peaks of the plateau are between 2000 and 3000 meters high. Several tributaries of the Mekong originate in the Plateau and of course it is the location of the Plain of Jars featured in this video, which is a collective name for several sites with archeological remains. The plateau is also one of the most heavily contaminated areas in the world from unexploded cluster munitions. As I found written on the web, Perhaps 2000 years old, the jars are one of the oldest archeological wonders of Southeast Asia ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5KhoLdN-3E&hl=en

Visit to Vientiane, Laos - Orgasmic Toilet, BeerLao, BBQ Chips, and Sex Workers

It was an adventurous foray into the heart of darkness in Laos where the encore was a peeper into my room and 2 of my underwear stolen by the Laos maid at the hotel. Here's some stuff I wanted to show you from the hotel room - originally the video was about the orgasmic toilet, but then I kept finding stuff I thought someone might want to know. Laos is a great place, but I don't feel as comfortable there as I do in Thailand. There is this look Laotians give me that makes me believe either they - or I, am from another planet. I don't get that look (often) in Thailand. Vientiane is an expensive place. I don't know what they pay hotel maids there, but obviously NOT enough. Hold onto your briefs if you go guys.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4xZrdkC-AY&hl=en

Experience the Beautiful Mekong River on a Boat Cruise

Image : http://www.flickr.com

The Mekong Cruise activities include participating in the lives of the agrarian communities as they go about their daily routines, and even shopping at a floating market. Visitors are encouraged to take the two-day Mekong Cruise to enjoy the region to the fullest.

Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City - Vinh Long - Cantho

The Mekong Cruise starts from the small town of Cai Be. One has to drive down to this small town through the Mekong Delta and board a private cruise boat from its well known floating market. The Mekong Cruise boat takes the tourists along a maze of waterways and canals to Vinh Long where lunch awaits along with the company of a Bonsai gardener. During lunch, tourists get to savor Delta delicacies, especially the much favored 'Elephant ear fish'. The Mekong Cruise continues there onward taking tourists through more tributaries and canals finally reaching Cantho. Tourists get to spend the night at a Cantho hotel (chosen by the cruise provider) with the river as their closest neighbor.

Day 2: Cantho - Ho Chi Minh City

The second day contains more cruising and yet more exploration, but after a sumptuous breakfast. The Mekong Cruise follows the waterways of Mekong River to the Cairang and Phongdien floating markets where one can buy fruits, vegetables, fish and handicraft items off boats jostling around in the river water. The whole market is afloat and alive. The Mekong Cruise ends at the lush orchards where tourists are treated to a wide variety of delicious tropical fruits.

Usually, the Mekong Cruise rates includes an English speaking guide, all transportation and transfers, boat excursion, lunch (day 1) and breakfast (day 2), admission fees and permits where applicable. Since the Mekong River flows from the Tibetan plateau through China's Yunnan province, the river runs across Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Mekong Cruise is popularly offered in Cambodia and staying at a Siem Reap hotel nearby will help you catch the cruise on time. Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor is one of the luxury hotels in Cambodia that you can experience an amazing stay before embarking on this wonderful Mekong Cruise.

Motor scooter benumbed in Chiangrai Thailand

We stayed at Laluna resort -- a definitely great place with little bungalows, swimming pool. The city and province of Chiang Rai host some of the Thailand's oldest civilisations. The province borders Chiang Mai. From Chiang Rai city, home to some 100000 persons, to the outstanding surrounding areas intrepid visitors are bound to find something of interest. Doi Thung and Mae Salong are both revered and naturally beautiful. Mae Sai a Burmese border town hawks unbeatable bargains in crafts and consumer items from Taichalek, across the river, and is an interesting place for a stop. Chiang Saen established over 1200 years ago, has had primitive residents for over 500 centuries. The towns many ruins offer a fascinating glimpse of an ancient civilisation. A small, but well kept museum has interesting artefacts or tribal and Lanna culture. The Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Laos and Burma converge at the mighty Mae Khong River affords awesome panoramic views whilst Chiang Khong is the breezy town with access to the world's seventh longest river. There are also river crossings to Laos an the opportunity to further travel in this landlocked country. Activities, in Chiang Rai, include jungle trekking, boat trips and hot spring settings. Resorts abound and, as with city and river hotels afford the visitor with a memorable, if not unique, natural setting. Town restaurants tend to be simple with a focus on value rather than the latest fads in cuisine presentation.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqesn3Zui7I&hl=en

Luxury Holidays in New York

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Be surrounded by pure elegance when you stay at any luxury hotel in New York, With lobbies so pleasing to the eye you'll linger around for a while. Marble foyer, areas to sit in, king size beds and a mini-bar, these fine hotels don't leave anything out. You can make New York anything you want it to be. With all the endless possibilities of things to do and places to see. There's plenty of culture in this town. Luxury hotels are pretty much close to just about anything your want to do.

Luxury holidays in New York are pretty immense. With a wide variety of big name chains to explore and fashionable boutique properties. Lavish rooms, superb facilities and excellent service will make your stay at any of these hotels a perfect luxury holiday. First thing in the morning enjoy the exciting views with a fresh cup of coffee. Spend the day sightseeing and shopping at any of the fine boutiques that are close by and end the day relaxing in the hotel spa. For dinner, enjoy any one of the award winning restaurants cuisine by candlelight or with a group of friends.

Look over Central Park or the Manhattan skyline when you stay at any one of the awe-inspiring luxury hotels in New York. Most of these award winning hotels have spectacular views from all the rooms. If you are looking for leisure then New York can accommodate all of your interest. Most luxurious New York hotels have spas and gyms. And of course there is the pool. Indoor or outside, relax by the pool with a nice cool glass of tea or mixed drink.

Most luxury hotels have plenty of great hotel service to offer you. Turn down service and 24 hour room service are always a plus. Fitness clubs that have swimming pools and a sauna to relax in. Concierge service to help make your stay much better. A lot of luxury hotels also provide free private car transportation if you request it. Fine dinning restaurants can usually be found in the hotel. Dinners for special occasions or even private dinning is also available to make your evening a more memorable one.

No matter which luxury hotel you decide to stay at, all of your needs will be accommodated. The dinners, entertainment and service will be of the best to make you want to come back every time.

If you are looking for some of the best hotels to visit in New York, make sure you look at Soho House New York, Hotel on Rivington & City Club Hotel.

Laos PDR - Please Don't Rush

Image : http://www.flickr.com

Laos

Imagine a sleepy French village on a drowsy afternoon at the end of summer. That is how Laos feels. Only less vibrant.

The land of crawling broadband and dawdling monks shatters - or at least quietly snuffs - the myth that southeast Asia is all tiger economy hustle and bustle. Every time a ripple of thunder breaks the stillness of the former French colony sandwiched between Thailand and Vietnam, the electricity goes down. Forget that fruit shake you ordered, which requires a blender's input. Better make it a Beer Lao.

Careful how you handle the currency, as Kip are next to worthless, meaning that it's necessary to keep track of lots of zeros.

All these surplus circles mean it's easy to get confused and tender an insultingly small amount or a fortune, then only realise the gaffe because of the look on the cashier's face. It's easy to feel rich with all those zeroes in your pocket, but beware, you may not notice that you accidentally blew a billion, until you don't have the million or so necessary to buy a packet of chewing gum.

Relax. Spend a while in Laos and you may find that you start to adopt the dreamy expression worn by many of the inhabitants. Aside from the non-too-insistent pestering of hawkers and tuk-tuk drivers, pressure scarcely exists. Time elapses at the speed of a lolloping ox.

Thank or blame Communism. No reason for rush exists in a state where enterprise is vaguely frowned upon. Just like sex outside marriage. It is illegal for a man to sleep with a woman who is not his wife in this, the highly regulated People's Democratic Republic, which even has a midnight curfew. Not that you would necessarily notice, because the curfew is enforced ever so softly and by the subtlest of soldieries.

Many travellers return repeatedly, hooked on a country that regularly wins prizes for being so laid back and enchanting, the epitome of oriental charm. Few observers have a bad word to say about Laos.

The so-called Jewel of the Mekong may, however, seem a bit constricted, given that it has a smaller population than urban Paris and few places to visit. Tourists flock to three main towns: Vientiane, the temple-infested cultural capital with the strange rhyming name, Luang Prabang, and Vang Vieng.

While Vientiane and Luang Prabang ooze style and atmosphere, Vang Vieng is rather ramshackle. If you miss the TV show 'Friends' and like it broadcast louder than the thunder that regularly deafens the village, this is the place for you. Younger and/or boozier travellers will enjoy its wildly popular signature activity, 'tubing', which entails drifting drunkenly downriver, slotted inside a tractor tube. Tubing is worth trying once, even if you are t-total, just for the peacefully panoramic views of the mountain-lined Mekong tributary, the Nam Som. Also for the amusement of watching the antics of the young and foolish, who swing from ropes across the river and do all sorts of inadvisable and dangerously daft things with ropes and ladders.

Alternatively, board the plane to Luang Prabang and be spellbound by the radiant temples and their saffron-clad incumbents. Watch the Mekong go by between drowsy spells half-reading a book in a river-bank restaurant, or just wander the streets absorbing the unspoiled antiquity.

Laos ranks as one of the world's poorest countries. What a pity it is not easier to throw money around, there being a limit to the number of silk scarves, stone Buddhas and bottles of snake wine you want to stuff in your luggage. Unlike most of southeast Asia, this place makes you want to spend your money.

The biggest draws are the charm of the people, the French colonial influence on the architecture and the mystique that enshrouds the old Indochinese outpost.

Laos' landmarks, for example Buddha Park, Vientiane's twisted sculpture theatre, are hard to fathom. Then there is the Plain of Jars. Laos' answer to Stonehenge, this Highlands plain is peppered with giant stone urns that defy conclusive explanation but serve as vehicles for informed speculation and fanciful guesswork. Be warned that this area contains a large amount of unexploded ordinance.

Laos has been conquered and occupied by pretty much every country on the planet except Monaco, in a history almost as blood-soaked as neighbouring Vietnam's. After the communist Pathet Lao finally took complete control of the country in 1975 and sent the last King and Queen of Laos on a terminal visit to a re-education camp in a cave in the northeast of the country, they enforced a rigid closed-door policy that was to last more than a decade. The country has only recently opened up to tourism, so the inhabitants have yet to start to think of the visitor as no more than a mobile ATM. Laos is one of Asia's last tourism frontiers, a country with a fascinating and largely intact cultural heritage, peopled by mostly friendly, funny and gentle folk. It can not be more highly recommended as a rewarding and relaxing destination for all travellers, regardless of the depth of their pockets.

Laos has great adventure sports possibilities, with fantastic rafting, mountain-biking, kayaking, trekking, rock-climbing and motor-biking available on greendiscoverylaos.com. Laos' newest and greenest eco-adventure is at the Gibbon Experience, where guests stay in tree-top bungalows and use zip line cables to glide through the canopy of Bokeo Nature Reserve, in search of the elusive and playful Black Gibbon - gibbonx.org. Most visitors to Laos, however, do nothing much more energetic than knocking back a few cold Beer Lao while watching the sun set on the Mekong. Such people will simply explain the attraction of this lovely country lost in time by revealing the true meaning of 'Laos PDR':

'Laos - Please Don't Rush'.

Laos Travel Guide

Read Laos travel guide online today! www.laos-travel-guide.com Information including travel tips, travel yours, visa, hotels, attractions and much, much more...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoONt0ClEFs&hl=en

Alcohol is Being Forbidden-Limited in 80 Countries

Tourists should take into account native customs and traditions while traveling. The ignorance of national particularities and false "all-allowed" feeling, appearing within a vacation far away from home are two reasons which occasionally bring to tragic events with the tourists.
The arrest of a Swiss who has got 10 years in prison for the King insult illustrates the first reason. The second reason is reminded by the recent death of a seventeen year Danish tourist who has died at a Bulgarian resort because of alcohol abuse.

It appeared that about two thirds of the earth population lead sober lifestyles. About 600 peoples and nationalities on the earth do not smoke, do not drink alcohol and do not narcotize by force of their traditions, cultural and religious values. That's why a drinking or smoking foreigner causes at least their disapproval.

In many countries drinking or smoking abuse can cause various administrative or criminal penalizing.

The countries with alcohol being prohibited/limited:

Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Benin, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Bhutan, East Timor, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea - Bissau, Djibouti, Egypt, Zambia, Western Sahara, Zimbabwe, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Iceland, Yemen, Cambodia, Cameroon, Qatar, Kenya, China, Comoro islands, Cot-Devoir, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritius, Mauritania, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Maldives, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Arabic Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua-new Guinea, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, Seychelles, Senegal, Singapore, Syria, Somali, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Tanzania, Togo, Tunis, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uganda, Finland, Central African Republic, Chad, Sweden, Sri Lanka, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia.

Most numerous nationalities disapproving alcohol:

Chinese (1,125 billion people);

Indians (245 million);

Bengali (189 million);

Punjabi (99 million);

Bahraini (98 million);

Telugu (75 million);

Tai (70 million);

Marathi(67 million);

Tamil (64 million);

Vietnams (62 million);

Egyptians (55 million);

Turkish (53 million);

Gujarati (47 million);

Malayans (35 million);

Oreos (32 million);

Hausa (31 million);

Spamians (30 million);

Kuwiti (30 million);

Persians (26 million);

Soundians (25 million);

Algerians (22 million).

Religions and religious teachings/faiths convicting alcohol:

Islam (more than 1 billion adherents); Sounnhism (850 million); Hinduism (793 million); Buddhism (500 million); Vishnuhism (500 million); Hanafism (400 million); Pentecost (373 million); Malachite (200 million); Shiwaism(198 million); Schism (180 million) Imamhism (140 million); new century (100 million); a Calvinism (62 million); Methodism (60 million); God assembly (22 million); Amidaism (20 million); Adventists of the seventh day (16 million) and others.

Travelers should remember that even in non-prohibiting "cultural" or moderate drinking alcohol countries society imposes limits to many things - drinking alcohol in public places and in the street, driving being drunk, minimal age to purchase and drink alcohol and many other things.

The same regarding tobacco smoking, 5-10 countries annually accept a law limiting it.

But taking, storing or distributing drugs for the non-medical reason in the absolute majority of countries is prohibited under the law.