Laos: North: Vang Vieng to Huay Xai 23 May-2 June

Vang Vieng 23-28 May

The night bus from Pakse stopped at around 7am in Vientiane, Laos’ capital city. Its a city but feels like a big town, really relaxed making it a very apt capital of laid back Laos. I had already been on a boat journey, a three hour bus to Pakse, a few hours wait in Pakse and then a twelve hour bus to Vientiane. We then had to wait around two hours for the next four hour bus to Vang Vieng, arriving at 3pm that day... so we’re talking around a sixteen hour round trip and $30 from Don Det to Vang Vieng, but it was actually quite comfortable especially on the night  bus.

Vientiane bus station 

Vientiane drive by sites

Vang Vieng is one of the most notorious places on the SE Asia traveller’s map, famous for ‘tubing’. You get a big rubber tube, get driven out of town up river and then float back down, stopping at bars along the way who throw ropes out for you to grab on and pull you to shore to their bar. I use the word notorious because it’s honestly one of the craziest and wild places I’ve ever been, and I’ve seen a lot in my 28 years as an earthling. First of all, the immediate danger to your health is extreme. The river is fast flowing with very strong currents, and there are random patches of rocks just below the surface. Every time you arrive at a bar they give you free shots of Laotian whiskey, and then you drink buckets of alcohol and energy drinks (the ingredients of which probably include amphetamines amongst other crazy things that are illegal everywhere else in the world). You can imagine the state of the tubers after each stop, and then some still swim between bars or slide down ziplines into the water. There are also all sorts of other hazards everywhere you turn... live  electric wires hanging over rickety bridges in the rain, a friend accidentally brushed past one and got an incredibly strong and nasty shock. Another friend was crossing one of the flimsy slippery wooden walkways crossing the river and stepped straight through one of the planks and almost went straight in the river. There is readily available all kinds of things that you really wouldn’t find over the counter outside of the 18^th century – opium, mushrooms, marijuana. Although I’m certain the police control the sale of them, they are ready to bust anyone by hiding in bushes who dares exit the ‘designated’ zones for narcotic consumption, fining up to $1200 at a time for a half smoked spliff.

Dancing in the rain

Even pandas drink buckets in VV - Bucket Bar

Can I have a Sprite and some laughing gas??

Besides all this, the river and scenery is jungly and beautiful, with limestone cliffs overlooking the valley. It’s really a stunning location, and in the rainy season everything is bright green and glistening and fresh. The beauty of the place is probably what drew travellers here in the first place, but I have no idea how it developed into such a wild party scene.

There are some travellers that can’t think of anything worse than a beautiful place overrun with partiers, and there are others that come and don’t leave for weeks on end and it ends up being the highlight of their trip. I went there with to see what all the fuss was about and to blow off a bit of steam (telling myself I will definitely become more grown up when I eventually get home to London). I was kind of apprehensive that the place might be completely overrun with immature idiots, but really I had quite a serious amount of fun, and met some really cool people. Yes, everyone is there to party, and yes Western style restaurants and tourist shops have replaced traditional Laotian lifestyle in VV and some people can’t stand that kind of tourism, but you know what? I say why not. The town is one of a kind; the whole of Laos isn’t like that. The people there make very good money from all the tourists, it’s the main industry in the area and the reason that they are able to send their kids to school and university and afford cars and healthcare. People that had nothing before and no means of earning money now have a consistent and thriving industry to work in. If you’re looking for authentic Laos life then there are many other places to visit, if this kind of thing annoys you then just don’t go there.

Other than the bars on the river out of town, there are also some psycadelic night spots with bonfires and fire dancers just across the river from the centre of town that hand out free buckets and keep going until the wee hours. It’s not a big place, with a couple of main streets and accommodation dotted all around the place. I got a room first for 40k Riels ($5) in a place called Saysong Guesthouse right smack in the middle of it all, and then I moved to a quieter place just up the hill a bit for 30k Riels called Bountang Guesthouse. These were private rooms with double beds, bedding and towels with private bathroom, really nice and cheap. There is also free wifi everywhere, I can’t believe how well connected all of SE Asia is, and to think that countries like New Zealand and South Africa you’re still paying shedloads for painfully slow and inadequate internet. The main road facing the river is lined with restaurants with mats and cushions to lie on all either facing TV’s playing Friends or Family Guy episodes (servicing a town full of crazy kids on a constant hangover) or if you go out onto the deck they face the river and beautiful limestone cliffs. I spent many hours drinking coconut shakes, laying on mats looking at the gorgeous scenery talking about nothing and everything with  fun people.

More Friends anyone?

You can hire motorbikes for $5 a day and so we did one day, driving to the Blue Lagoon (actually a little tricky to find, and there are some sneaky little old ladies trying to charge you to cross a bridge to the lagoon but is actually a road to nowhere, follow the actual road signs) which is a bit of river about 20 min drive through some rocky roads that has a big tree with rope swings and a really deep, cool pool to jump off into. It’s really beautiful landscape with limestone cliffs and jungle, and there is also a really beautiful cave a little climb up the mountain at the Blue Lagoon.

Jungle at Blue Lagoon

River playing

Sleeping Buddha inside cave at Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

Children in the river on the road to Blue Lagoon

Road to Blue Lagoon

I stayed in VV for five nights and really had a fun time, and was happy I stopped there to see this wild haven. I can’t actually believe some of the nonsense that goes on there, and was a little shocked to see how genuinely dangerous is can be. I hear a different figure all the time, but around eighteen people (mostly Australians) died therein 2011 from drowning in the river, and you can really see how. A couple of days before I arrived, a young Irish guy drowned trying to swim across the river after only a couple of drinks. I became friends with a cute Canadian girl called Kayla who knew him and was there when it happened. So please, please be careful and look after your friends, and if you go in the river don’t drink!! It’s not worth it. The healthcare system there is also shaky to say the least, so even small injuries can become big problems. I didn’t actually go into the river near the bars (only out of town at the Blue Lagoon) and it’s absolutely possible to party by the river and walk between bars without needing to go into it. Also be careful of the law... its true there is a controlled selling of illegal substances going on by the police, but they can also make a lot of money by fining you if you’re stupidly open about it all. Kind of a corrupt system, but then it is a touch of the underworld after all. BE CAREFUL!

Luang Prabang 28 May – 2 June

I left Vang Vieng for Luang Prabang with my new Swedish friend Calle. The bus ride was seven hours leaving in the morning and was booked through the guest house, it cost $8 as far as I can remember. The journey covered some of the most beautiful and dramatic landscape I had seen yet in Laos. The road climbed and climbed up a windy mountain pass, with mountain straight up on one side and the cliff drop on the other, all covered in lush greenness. It was so windy that you really flopped from side to side and rolled about on the ride, but it’s so worth staying awake for. The big old VIP bus ached and cranked its way up the mountain passes, and had to stop every now and again for the engine to cool off. Eventually after climbing for hours you drop into a striking green valley, where you can see Luang Prabang nestled in the distance.

Bus cooling down, road to Luang Prabang

Road to Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a world heritage site, and is maintained and protected from development because of it. All buildings have to follow strict regulation, and the entire town is a feast of historic architecture and ancient Laotian customs, such as the giving of alms to the monks in the early morning. Tourism is most definitely the main industry here, but it couldn’t be more different from Vang Vieng. All the guesthouses are very pretty, more expensive and the atmosphere is much more grownup. It’s also more expensive, and has its own airport so many people fly in to Luang Prabang and just visit that town and not the rest of Laos. We stayed in a really nice guesthouse that felt like a posh hotel compared to the other places I had been staying, for 80k Riels ($10) called Phong Philack Guesthouse.

Phong Philack Guesthouse

Its the perfect town to relax in and to detox after VV, and also to see some beautiful landscape and culture. It was hot in the day but then the rain came in the afternoon to cool everything down. There’s a really nice night market with some really good cheap food, but mostly the restaurants are on the expensive side. We just strolled around, saw some really gorgeous temples, walked along and dipped feet into the Mekong and ate some tasty food, for a full five days, and not much else. It was like being on a perfect holiday. There are waterfalls and boat rides and lots else to do around the town, but some of it can be a bit pricey and again I had to watch how much I was actually spending, otherwise things can really get out of control!

Luang Prabang is the kind of place you’d take your parents as its so pretty and cultured, and the whole town has a curfew of 11pm as the monks get up really early, sweet! It’s also a perfect place for couples which can be annoying if you're not in one, and if I didn’t have a couple of friends there from VV I wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much, its not the kind of place where travellers all hang out together, although there’s a really cool place called Utopia which is right on the river banks where you can wile the day away playing cards or scrabble with a fan, watching the scenery.

On the banks of the river at Utopia

Calle and Jenga at Utopia

Ola and Rich playing Scrabble at Utopia

Border crossing Laos / Thailand 2 June

At this point I had used up most of the weeks I had originally allocated to India having too good a time elsewhere, and because of this I thought that I couldn’t give it the time and attention it deserved. I made the decision to leave it out this time as I only had around ten days spare for it and that would not do it justice, so I’d come back and give it three months one day. Because of this, I had extra time to go to Northern Thailand where I’d be before I flew to Nepal to my Himalayan/Tibetan adventure. 


I was really excited to go back to Thailand as I loved it when I was there before in the South, and I was happy I’d get to see the very different and more cultured North this time. The route into Northern Thailand was an overnight bus ride from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai on the Laos border, which was from 8pm to 10am. There you get a boat across the Mekong to Chiang Khong on Thailand’s side, where a bus left at 11am to Chiang Mai which was another six hours. The whole journey was meant to take around 24 hours if all went smoothly, and can be booked through an agent in Luang Prabang. It cost 330k Riels - $41 which is pretty steep but its a big journey. I’m sure you can get it cheaper somehow but with a journey that long and crossing borders I wanted to take the easiest route.

The ‘VIP’ bus was quite beat up, and after a few hours on the road I could see why. Mainly, because there was no real road to speak of, more like a ravine of rocks and gravel and some small bits of road. It was the craziest bumpy bus I had taken yet, and that’s saying something. It crashed and rumbled its way through the night and stopped in the middle of nowhere villages where you could get more fried small animals on sticks or other multicoloured bags of MSG. Someone had given me a Valium to take for the journey, and I’m so glad I did because I was right in the front on the top deck and if lack of sleep didn’t get me, then heart attack would watching the road and the treacherous driving. As it happens I slept most of the way, and the rest of the time was mildly amused and philosophical about it all.

Loas border control on the Mekong

The bus arrived too late for me to get my 11am connection to Chiang Mai, which meant a five hour wait on the Thailand side for the next one. The night bus ride was 14 hours, and I got off and wobbled my way down to the tiny border crossing post on the banks of the Mekong, only a two minute boat ride across the muddy river to Thailand. It was a Sunday and the generally layed back and unhurried people of Laos were so relaxed and out of it that they seemed to be sleepwalking, when you could actually find someone to help. As it happened, the border official on the Laos side was having his lunch when I arrived at the post, so I kicked back in the sun waiting until I could get my exit stamp (another $2 for the 'lunch fund') and then got on the little ferry boat to the other side. I was in Thailand once again!

Laos was really pretty and lots of fun. It’s cheap, has some good ‘off the beaten track’ options like the Baloven Plateau in the South and some other motorbiking loops in the North. I think the North was prettier but some people say otherwise. I stuck mostly to the main tourist areas in Laos, as I only had around two weeks and I knew some more hardcore travelling and trekking was coming up for me in Nepal, Tibet, China and Mongolia so I wanted a bit of a relaxing fun time. The people are nice, but don’t stand out for me as overly spiritual or friendly, and so didn’t make that much of an impression on me. I met some really nice people there, like Kayla who was going to meet me in Chiang Mai and travel with me in Thailand a bit more. Just stay away from Vang Vieng if you don’t like to party or Luang Prabang if tourists annoy you. Otherwise go for sure, you can have a really good holiday! 


Here are Laos pics.