After waited for nearly 6 months since our flight bookings, we finally landed at Vientiane airport at about 9.30am on 4th Nov 2014. Contrary to previous golf tour, this time around we have decided to arrange the tour without going through any agent. Basing on review from TripAdvisor, we have booked our rooms at IBIS hotel and had asked them to help to arrange a van for our transportation during our stay from 4-8 Nov.
We faced our first hiccup at the airport because the car rental company had sent a 11-seater SUV with no rooms for our golf bags and luggages.
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| where to store the golf bags???? |
The hotel manager, Ms Rina was outside waiting to receive us as soon as we arrived. We can see that she felt very bad for the mistakes and had already arranged another Toyota HiAce van to take us to our first golf destination, the Lao Country Club.
Day 1 - Tuesday, Nov 4: Lao Country Club
After a hearty beef noodles on the way, we arrived at the club at about 11.30 with hardly any other players on sight.
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| Fresh veggie that comes with the beef noodles, Vietnamese style |
Previously known as Km 14 Youth Garden golf course on the road to friendship bridge, also known as Santisuk Lang Xang Golf Club but is now Lao Country Club. Apparently, it has been completely redone with new clubhouse, modern and clean changing room and every hole redone with imported material for the greens and bentgrass fairways (not Bermuda). This is strictly a walking course, but the club was very kind to offer a buggy for 2 of our oldest members, Mr Khoo and Kee, after noticing Khoo walking with a walking sticks. In the beginning, we were actually worried if he could walk the full 18 holes.
Lao Country Club is relatively flat course but with many water hazards. The fairways are well maintained with big greens but tricky to putt. Lee finished with 3 birdies, whilst Alex and Lim each settled for one! So our first outing did not disappoint us, however, the joyful feeling soon vanished at the end of the game due to the overly demanding caddies who insisted that we must pay 100,000 kips (RM40) on tips. Unlike caddies in other Asian countries who always appreciate whatever tips we gave, their attitude were really annoying. They even hang around our van until we left. We could see many conversation amongst them, although we don't understand a word they said; we guess there are not kind words!
Day 2 - Wednesday, Nov 5: Victory Park GCC
Since we had excluded breakfast at the hotel from our booking, which costs USD 10 per head, we left early and had a hearty baguette and local coffee on the way to the club.
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| Plus 2 half boiled eggs....hmmm |
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| Best breakfast........ |
Victory Park GCC is located at Nongkhai province on the Thailand side, about 1 and half hours drive from the hotel. As such, we have to go through the Immigration process of the two countries. Luckily, there were not many people at the border, so the immigration clearance was pretty fast.
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| The driver said..go take picture(immigration check point) |
This is a wonderfull championship course with very large, fast & true greens and many water hazards. There are OB lining 8 holes, 5 of them on first nine ; so keeping the ball on the fairway is key to good score. Probably, that's the reason all four of us (Dennes, Lee, Lim and Alex. ) played poorly on the first nine, however, Dennes and Lee recovered well on the 2nd nine to score gross 39 and 40 respectively. Lee shot 2 birdies in total.
Since we had a very heavy lunch after golf, we have decided to have something light for dinner; then proceed to the hottest karoake outlet in Vientiane, which is highly recommended by Alex who had a good time there during his last trip.
Surprisingly, karoake at the highly rated SanJiang Karoake Lounge; cost less than RM100 per head for a 3 hours session accompanied by a few GRO of your pick. For the first time, we saw Khoo and Liaw singing and dancing on the floor! Especially, when I noticed how Liaw quietly sneaked onto the dance floor with a dance move that reminded me of Tom, the cat sneaking behind Jerry on two feet and ever ready to pounce! Of course, he did not know that we were having a good laugh, at the same time, we were happy to see them enjoying the moments.
Khoo must also be in the mood that night after we gave him a surprised 77th birthday with a cake! Coupled with a sweet peck from the sexy mamasan! I am sure he will remember this day for a long long time!
Day 3 - Thursday, Nov 6: Long Vien GC
Also known as Long Thanh Vientiane golf course, is evaluated as the best golf course in
Vientiane. Unlike Lao Country Club, the rough are planted with Bermuda grass. The greens are relatively big but undulating in most holes and fairway well maintained.
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| cheap and nice.....get some more la... |
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| the fabulous 8 at Long Vien GC |
After last night's karaoke session, Dennes was all energized to fire 3 consecutive pars right from the 1st tee. It was a completely different story for Lee and Alex, whose drivers and irons seemed lifeless for the first 5 holes! Both had almost identical scores of 1 bogey, 1 double bogey, 2 triple bogey and even 1 double par on the par4 404yd 2nd hole. What went wrong? Cannot explain la!
Then all of a sudden, Lee's game began to charge up from the 6th hole with par-birdie-par-bogey to end the last 4 holes on even par. On the contrary, Dennes game was going downhill after triple bogey the 6th. He never recovered from there! Alex's game improved slightly on the 2nd nine, whilst Lim also had a dull back nine although he had the best score of 42 on the front nine.
Lastly, the caddies here were behaving just like those in Lao Country Club, although we had specifically enquire about tipping from the front desk!
Day 4 - Friday, Nov 7: Dansavanh Golf & Country Club
Originally, Friday was meant to be a free and easy day on the itinerary with option to play at Dansavanh for those interested.
From what is documented in the web, Dansavanh Golf & Country Club is created from a hilly land with elevations ranging from about one thousand to two thousand feet above sea level. It also encompasses a magnificent views of Nam Ngum Lake—“the Lake Geneva of Asia”.
This course has many interesting doglegs. Eight of the 18 holes, almost every other hole, is a dogleg. Five of them dogleg right while three angle around to the left. Dansavanh’s water features comes into play on no fewer than 13 of the holes at this fine resort.
That sounds challenging enough although some of the reviews were quite negative.
So only 4 of us (Dennes, Lee, Lim & Alex) were keen to check out the course, while we dropped off the rest near the market for shopping and look-see, look-see.
True enough, the 1st hole is uphill almost 90degree to the right. It is a totally different experience, when you tee off with horses grazing besides you. For this course, as long as the ball is on the correct side of the narrow and sloping fairway, it is quite easy to hit pars because most holes are relatively short. On the contrary, missing the fairway means that chances are your ball maybe lost in the forest! Since this course is nestled in the beautiful rain forests of the Buffalo Mountain range, the air was fresh and cool, unfortunately we could only enjoy this moment for 6 holes because of an unexpected heavy downpour.
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| the 1st hole, uphill horse-leg right....our partner on course |
We went back to the clubhouse and waited for almost an hour, finally had decided to abandon the game because it was clear that the rain would not stop soon. Although we did not managed to view the beautiful Lake, we were not too sad because the golf management was kind enough to refund half of the package cost.
Maintenance and improvement work was going on in the club house as well as on the course so I will not be surprised that this course will become another premium course in Vientiane in years to come. Lastly, the caddies here are totally different from the other two clubs, they are friendly and cheerful. The photos say it all!
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| my 15 years old caddy with my cap as souvenir |
Generally....
Except the Lao beer, food is definitely not cheap as what we would have expected from Laos. A breakfast of noodles or French baguette with coffee will cost between RM12-15, and a meal at restaurant is anything between RM 30-40 per head. My advice....Ask the price of chicken before you order!
Massage cost almost the same as in Thailand. Since the outlets are just about 5 minute walk from the hotel, some of us even had massage almost every evening.
Overall, I believe we had a wonderful and enjoyable times in Vientiane despite the unhappy encounter with those overly demanding caddies. Most importantly, we learned quite a lot from the experience of organizing this tour ourselves, besides saving at least RM400 for each person if the package is done through an agent. I am sure we will do this again!
Approx expenses per head....
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| Pasar Malam at Vientiane |
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| Any item 5000kip (RM2.00) |
Approx expenses per head....
| Total expenses approx: | |||
| RM | |||
| Air Ticket: | 355.00 | ||
| *Golf Package: | 1600.00 | ||
| Caddy Tips: | 110.00 | ||
| *incl hotel , meals, karaoke, tips for driver | |||
More photos.....click on the following link
https://plus.google.com/photos/107889453367436801158/albums/6088590544889630177?authkey=COHe04ytsfOeOQ
https://plus.google.com/photos/107889453367436801158/albums/6088590544889630177?authkey=COHe04ytsfOeOQ
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