Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
I was swatting mosquitoes while sitting on the Northern Bus Station in Vientiane. It was 7:30pm, 30 minutes before my boarding time and I started applying a mosquito cream lotion on my exposed skin. There were several buses online and I wondered which one would be the VIP bus I would be taking. I saw other foreigners starting to move on to the last bus on the right. Yep it was our bus, “Luang Prabang” as the sign says. I placed my large pack at the lower storage and hopped in.
After getting cozy and comfortable at Lao Heritage Hotel, I set excitedly off to the streets of Vientiane to start visiting the sights. Unlike Pakse, Vientiane is many times larger, sprawling and streets are a lot busy. Tuk-tuks rules the streets here and my first foray with them was a hard (and expensive) at first but I learned to adapt as always and learned to travel the way the locals do and somehow minimize how the drivers here charge on a tourist basis.
I really had a pleasant stay here in the Chapasak Region of Laos. I was able to visit some of the waterfalls of Bolaven Plateau, visit the UNESCO Ruins of Wat Phu and has a pleasant stroll around the city of Pakse. On the night of the third day, it was time to head to Vientiane. I already booked my bus ride the day before to make sure I already have good seats. The main VIP bus station is near the Dao Heung Market about 2km from the city center. But after strolling around the City I found that there is another VIP bus nearby which is walking distance from my guesthouse just along the same side of the tourism office near the Sedone River.
My next destination in Southern Laos was one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in the country, the khmer ruins of Wat Phu Champasak. But like Bolaven Plateau, the site is at least an hour away, 46km from Pakse going south. It was still dark when I left my inn to head to Dao Heueng Market, where most of the transportation heading in and out of Pakse originates. I was planning to take the public transport this time but what worried me was my way back since I had to catch my 8pm bus ride to Vientiane that night.
Laos has been under my radar for quite a while as I continue my quest to visit some of the UNESCO heritage sites in Asia. So it’s just a matter of time until I finally get to step on this land, popularly known for its “Laid back Lao Life”. Originally I had planned on visiting sights both on Thailand and Laos since it’s so close together. Coming in from Bangkok up to Sukhothai then Chang Mai then Chang Rai. Border crossing to Huay Xai taking the Slow Boat there to Luang Prabang, Laos. That’s the usual route going there, but after thorough planning there is just so much to see in Laos that I decided to drop Thailand altogether and focus on Laos itself. Thailand is just a flight away from Manila but Laos is a different story so I decided to take a different route.
Tawi-Tawi is a hard place to reach and its jump-off point is Zamboanga City. The most common means of traveling to and fro Bongao, the capital of Tawi-tawi is by sea. Curently, there two options, the Aleson Shipping Lines Ferry and the Weesam Fastcraft. The former is slow but it’s how the locals do it and can be quite interesting and the latter is fast and comfortable.
Camiguin Island has captivated not only local travelers but international tourist eyes as well. It has even earned itself a place on Lonely Planet’s Blue List 2008 on its Next Tourist Attractions list. It has also been a target destination for me for quite sometime as well since I got an art map of the island before. This small island which is second only to Batanes in land area and population is found in Northern Mindanao just off the coast of Misamis Oriental. Here’s an easy guide on traveling to Camiguin Island.
