Throughout July, I’ll be writing about my post-trip accounting and evaluation of my Southeast Asian month-long backpacking trip. This includes the costs of each leg of the trip and reviews of accommodation and transportation.
First up is my travel expenses in Vientiane, Laos. I planned on staying in the capital for four days, but I left for Bangkok early, taking the bus instead of the train. Vientiane can be easily done in one day, two days if you plan on going to places in the outskirts of town.
| Vientiane 2009 | |||
| June 11 – 13, 2009 | |||
| Exchange Rate: | US$1 = LAK 8,500 | ||
| US$1 = Php 48 | |||
| In LAK | In PhP | ||
| Land Transfer | |||
| Luang Prabang to Vientiane | LAK 140,000.00 | PHP 790.59 | 1 |
| VIP bus | |||
| Accommodation | |||
| Saylomyen Guesthouse | LAK 120,000.00 | PHP 677.65 | 2 |
| Double, fan, ensuite T&B | |||
| Transportation | |||
| Tuktuk | LAK 90,000.00 | PHP 508.24 | 3 |
| Food | |||
| Meals and snacks | LAK 294,000.00 | PHP 1,660.24 | 4 |
| Miscellaneous | |||
| Map | LAK 20,000.00 | PHP 112.94 | 5 |
| Internet | LAK 49,500.00 | PHP 279.53 | 6 |
| Laundry | LAK 15,000.00 | PHP 84.71 | 7 |
| Admission fees | LAK 10,000.00 | PHP 56.47 | 8 |
| Exit fee | LAK 2,500.00 | PHP 14.12 | 9 |
| Total | PHP 4,184.47 | ||
| The peso equivalent was computed by dividing the amount in Lao Kip by 8,500 (the dollar conversion rate to kip) then multiplying by 48 (dollar conversion rate to peso) | |||
| 1 The bus fare from Luang Prabang to Vientiane includes a tuk-tuk pick up from the guesthouse, a light snack, a bottle of water, and a lunch coupon at the stopover. | |||
| 2 Urgh. | |||
| 3 There’s no set tuktuk fares for fourists. Before you get into one, agree on a price with the driver. But Vientiane is small enough that you can walk from one tourist spot to another. | |||
| 4 Meal include a very filling Mexican lunch, a very rich French dinner and a great value breakfast set. | |||
| 5 A map is a great buy in Vientiane so you can easily get around. Once I had my map, I just walked around the city. | |||
| 6 Considering that I spent half the time in Vientiane than I did in Luang Prabang, this is rather troubling. | |||
| 7 Bloody expensive for a small plastic bag of dirty clothes. I did get my laundry on the same day though. | |||
| 8 Both Wat Sisaket and Ho Phrakeow charge 5,000 kip admission. | |||
| 9 This is interesting. Nobody in our group knew of an exit fee upon leaving Laos, yet there were signs all over the immigration counters. The girl ahead of me paid 20 baht, because she has already changed her kips to baht. She never got any change. However, when it was my turn at the counter, the guy pointed at the 2,500 kip price in the paper. Surely, 2,500 kip does not equal 20 baht. | |||
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Posted on July 10, 2009
Filed under Laos, Post trip accounting
Tags: laos budget, vientiane budget, vientiane costs, vientiane travel expenses
Visited 1280 times, 4 so far today
I appreciate the labour you have put in developing this blog. Nice and informative.
Nina, super pangit yung tinulugan mo sa Ventiane?
Thank you for providing us with this information, i’m looking forward to further articles!
It’s a really good article
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