Rivertime Resort & Ecolodge in Vientiane, Laos

February 6th, 2012

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Day 1 ~ Rivertime Resort & Ecolodge in Vientiane

Posted on Sep 02 in Laos, Rivertime Resort and Ecolodgeby ShelynPrint

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My first impression of Laos is that it’s similar to Thailand, but less developed, like the rural areas in Malaysia. The weather in Laos is as hot as the weather in Malaysia, probably hotter.

According to most of the travel guides, the cost of living in Laos is as below:

Meals

Budget: US$0.50 – 1
Mid-range: US$1 – 3
Top-end: US$3 and upwards

~~~

Lodging

Budget: US$2.50 – 8
Mid-range: US$8 – 15
Top-end: US$25 and upwards
~~~

Look reasonable huh? But we were shocked when we were told that the taxi fare was USD 22 to Rivertime Ecolodge which is 30km away from the airport. There was no tut tut in the airport so we decided to take the taxi to Vientiane town and look for cheaper transportation to Rivertime Ecolodge. Even the taxi fare to town costs us as much as USD 6 for only few minutes drive.

When we were in town, we visited the market and spotted many stalls selling this French bread sandwiches. It’s like their specialties that you can see them in almost every stall.

Their stalls are built with bamboo sticks covered with boxes papers. The sandwich costs 8000 KIP to 10,000 KIP, which is around USD1. So I guess the budget meals estimation listed in most of the travel guides are kind of extreme. USD 0.5 to USD 1 for a budget meal? Impossible to fill up the stomach.

It’s very interesting that all types of meats are displayed like this in the stalls.

Hawker stall that sells noodle soup.

We bought a sandwich and 2 bottles of green tea. The green tea costs 6000 KIP each, which is USD 0.7 or MYR 2.4. Isn’t that cheap actually.

Without wasting much time, we tried to look for cheaper transportation to Rivertime Ecolodge, but the transportation fare here is kinda standard, about USD20 for 30km. We had no choice and paid that amount of money in order to get to the destination.

Here we are, Rivertime Resort & Ecolodge (http://www.rivertimelaos.com/), completely spotless from the main street and surrounded by the nature.

Initially, we picked this resort because we saw that the reviews were really good (See URL here: Review from Tripadvisor). But one has to take note that this is an ecolodge, which has a different approach to tourism and how resources are preserved and utilized.

One really big thing about this place is that the whole place was built without cutting down a single tree. The entire design of the resort is integrated into the existing space. Still, visiting an ecolodge also means roughing it out a little. For starters, there is no air-conditioning in any of the rooms. Only fans and natural ventilation. There is hot running water but Don doesn’t really see the need to have hot water if there is no air-conditioning. It’s quite hot and humid here, like any typical tropical forest.

The ecolodge, while a bit rustic, adopts a lot of sustainable management practices, such as employing local staff both in during the construction as well as in the daily operations of the resort. The staff here are also compensated fairly or better, typically receiving 20%-40% better compared to other resorts. The restaurants here also serve food grown in the organic gardens surrounding the grounds.

Rivertime has friendly staff and in addition to a cute dog, there is also a nice cat (they’re both friends). And since none of the trees were cut, there are other little ‘friends’ crawling and flying all over the place too.

While this place aims to serve a higher ambition and a noble one at that, a few things should be noted. The claims on sustainable practices are those made by the resort, and while we do not doubt the resort operator, claims on sustainable practices should be substantiated/certified by third parties.

Still, this place is quaint but not the most comfortable and certainly not for those seeking a luxurious resort with all sorts of creature comforts. It is a great place for those who would like to see more of and support sustainable tourism.

We have our own banglow with 2 beds and a private washroom.

The resort is right in front of the river, but I don’t really enjoy the brown color river.

But the downside about this resort is that it’s lack of maintenance. Even though the resort is only 2 year-old, but it looks pretty old. Besides, we were the ONLY customer of the day. So it’s quite boring staying here. We thought we can make some friends here but all we had were dog and cat, lizards and ants.

A very cute dog that was never afraid of stranger. She came right into our room and refused to go. So we just let her rest in our room.

It was a very hot day but also very cloudy. Should expect the rain very soon.

There is a floating restaurant in the resort overlooking the river. Again, we were the only customers here so we felt quite lonely enjoying the river alone.

I guess the life here is just too simple and lonely that when the cat saw the dog, she looked so excited and immediately approached the dog.

We had both our lunch and dinner here. The most popular plate of rice being ‘Khaoniao’ steam cooked sticky rice. It’s Laos’ traditional dish. According to the driver, only sticky rice can satisfy their stomachs. Normal steam rice is simply not enough to fill up their stomachs.

We ordered barbecued fish and and it came with the typical Indo-Chinese raw salad and a sweet chilli salsa.

But the salad was too raw that we were not sure how hygienic it was, so we basically skip the whole plate of salad.

The food along with a large bottle of mineral water and a small bottle of 7-Up came up to 60,000 Lao Kip or 7 USD (That’s about 25 ringgit). So it’s considered top-end meal according to the travel guide. I think we can get cheaper price here in Malaysia with better food.

The electricity and water were cut off in the evening for at least 2 hours. We had nothing to do and hung around in the restaurant and had early dinner. This is one of the Laos’ specialties also which is called ‘FEU’, a noodle soup with meat and vegetables. It’s a very healthy dish with plain clear soup and loads of vegetables. Don loves it a lot while I thought it was quite plain. So I ordered their bloody spicy light green chilli padi. The chilli was so spicy that it made the dish so tasteful.

Floating Restaurant on the river. Since it’s ecolodge and all resources are preserved and utilized, there are a lot of BIG RED ants crawling all over the places. Don was bitten by the red ant while I was occupied the whole dinner time to watch out the ants.

The setup here is actually pretty cool except the things here weren’t quite well maintained. The tableware was quite dirty and rusty. There was even stain on the teaspoon which I refused to use it to stir my coffee. I love nature but I dislike dirty.

There was really nothing much to do here in the resort. So we spent our night in the room reading, reading and reading, with the background music played by a band of insects.

~~ Expenses in the resort: ~~
Room Rate: USD 28 (with private washroom)
Lunch: USD 7
Dinner: USD 7
Internet Access: Free

~~ My rating for this resort: ~~
Value: 2 out of 5 stars – A bit pricey for the room and the food. But since according to the owner of the resort, Philip, the staffs here are compensated fairly or better, typically receiving 20%-40% better compared to other resorts, so I’m happy if our spending help to improve the local staffs’ lifestyle.

Room: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Cleanliness: 2 out of 5 stars – I know it’s not easy to adopt and maintain sustainable management practices, but to maintain the cleanliness shouldn’t be difficult.

Service: 4 out of 5 stars – There’s only one manager here and he’s very friendly. He even brought us a solar torchlight which can be hung on the ceiling when the electricity was cut off during night time.

Business Service: 4 out of 5 stars - Basically I just need internet access in any resort. So since the internet access there is free, I’m very happy. In fact there isn’t much business services, except internet access and a ‘library’, with few books on a table.

Food: 2.5 out of 5 stars - With the price they charged, the food can be better.

Surroundings: 4 out of 5 stars – Just simply love secluded place.

Our spending of the first day (for 2 person):
Transportation – USD 28
Food – USD 17 (with very simple food as described above)
Accommodation – USD 28
Total - USD 73

Did we over spent or the information from the travel guide isn’t that accurate?

About Shelyn

Shelyn is the founder and editor of Travel and Living Bliss. You may get to know more about Shelyn in About page or follow Shelyn on Twitter and Facebook. You may also click here for Email Subscription to RSS feed.

11 Comments

Monica says:

September 2, 2009 at 7:30 am

Wow…that certainly does look like a blissful life. Those are amazing pictures and I love the banglow.

Reply
- Shelyn says:
  
  September 3, 2009 at 12:57 am
  
  It’s a great place to enjoy the tranquility and to play with crawling friends
  
  I feel so jealous of you going to Istanbul soon. Hope I get a chance to visit there too.. can’t wait to see your photos. Have a nice trip!
  
  Reply
mylo says:

September 6, 2009 at 5:32 am

USD 6 for only few minutes drive? Whoa! That’s expensive. I assume the drivers are not using or don not have meters to gauge th cost of travel.

Those French bread sandwiches caught my attention. Is there any fillings for these breads?

My goodness, chickens on newspaper. Perhaps a cheaper way to absorb excess oil

USD 28 per night?? That is tad expensive considering the resort is not providing air con. But, then again, I really LOVE the nature concept in this resort. By the way, I’m curious here, is there any mosquito here??

Reply
- Shelyn says:
  
  September 6, 2009 at 6:19 am
  
  Wow… you have time to read the blog and leave the comment while traveling, cool!
  
  USD6 from airport to town is standard price. The taxis there don’t use meter.
  The fillings of the sandwiches are very healthy stuffs like different type of vege and hams. Very much like Subway. I should post a photo of it soon.
  
  In fact if you want a decent accommodation in Laos, USD30 and below is considered budget. Unless you stay in dorm, probably can get USD 8 per night. But I agree that actually Rivertime resort rate is quite high in comparison to other guest houses.
  
  Lot of mosquitoes lor… I got bitten when having dinner next to the river. But surprisingly there wasn’t any mosquito in the room.
  
  Reply
mylo says:

September 11, 2009 at 4:11 am

Thanks for th wonderful reply. Your picture of cascading waterfall is beautiful. Make me wanna fly to Laos now

Reply
Kendall says:

October 1, 2009 at 3:35 am

Ha, I like that you compared the food prices to Malaysia – I had the same reaction! When the prices in Laos are in US dollars, it makes Malaysia seem like very good value. I thought the sandwiches were great though – one was more than enough to fill me, and the way they pile in so many different pieces of cold meat and salad was delicious. We also took a taxi to Rivertime Resort for about $US 25 (after some bargaining), but on the way back the staff organised a local tuk-tuk so we only paid a few dollars to get to our hotel in Vientiane. I think I agree with Shelyn above – $US 30 seems about the minimum for decent accommodation. Laos certainly doesn’t feel like the cheapest South-East Asian country for travelling. If you’re interested, I have some photos of the resort: http://kendalllister.net.

Reply
- Shelyn says:
  
  October 3, 2009 at 9:53 pm
  
  Hi Kendall,
  
  I read your post about Rivertime Resort, you seemed to have a great time there. We were shocked when the manager in the resort told us it was only USD 3 for a tuk-tuk to get to Vientiane town from the resort. So never take a cab in Laos unless necessary.
  
  Reply
John says:

January 17, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Like always, your post is insightful plus wonderfully written

Reply
Toni Ansell says:

June 22, 2010 at 12:12 am

Very neat blog.Much thanks again. Cool.

Reply

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