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. 

Laos: South, Don Det 19-22 May

Today it was crossing the border to Laos, exciting! It’s really easy to get the minvan from Ban Lung to Laos. It cost $16 and takes around three hours to get to Stung Treng right on the border, leaving at 7.30am and getting there at around 11am. There you have to wait for the next minvan to take you across the border, the whole trip to Don Det in Laos is included in the ticket price, you don’t need to book further transport at the border.

Stung Treng is set right on the banks of the huge Mekong River and is an alright place to kill two hours, there’s also an ATM here if you need USD for the visa at the border. (The cash machines in Cambodia spit out USD, it’s only when you get change from shops that you get Riels). The next minivan we got was pretty fun too, it was packed to the rafters right up until the one row of seats before the drivers seat, where there was space for two people but we had to squish in four. The driver sat in his seat, and in the other front seat Stu and monk practically sitting on each other’s laps which was hilariously cute. Amongst us were all the bags, luggage, boxes, sacks. The drive was only another two hours so not bad at all.

The Laos / Cambodian border is just a collection of little shack shops selling colourful snacks and fried animals on sticks, and the border post was nothing more than a tiny crumbling building with some guards, waiting to stamp your Cambodian exit form and collect $2 ‘for the stamp’. You then walk about 30m to the next tiny little broken up building, where the immigration officials hide behind a tiny blacked out window, so you have to stoop really low to hear them and to see a glimpse of a hand come through to take your passport. The visa here cost $36, and is issued for one month. A French lady we were on the bus with said that a person she met managed to get a two week one for $2, but we all tried to ask for that but they said that didn’t exist. The next window you also had to pay $2 ‘for the stamp’, which Stu flat out refused to and they said he had to go back to Cambodia. Eventually he met them half way and paid $1, but he wasn’t happy about it. Haha.

Laos border - Stu's pic

The currency in Laos is Riel. 8000 Riel is $1 USD, and you don’t get USD from the ATM’s although it’s accepted everywhere. It’s meant to be the cheapest country out of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam but I’m pretty sure it’s on par with Cambodia and maybe even Northern Thailand when it comes to things like food in restaurants.

If Cambodia seemed poorer directly after the border from Vietnam, then Laos seemed poorer still. The houses and business lining the main streets are merely very simple wooden boxes on stilts, with a platform halfway down underneath the house raised up from the ground where the families would sit and eat, protected from the sun. You could see straight into all the houses as you rode by on the big bus. There were children running from house to house, teenagers playing volleyball (actually a really popular pastime in SE Asia it seemed, everywhere you went there were groups of boys playing over a rickety net). I could see big sheets of plastic, twice the size of a double bed, spread out on the ground in the sun absolutely covered in red chillies, whether these were for the families personal use or to sell I couldn’t tell as everyone seemed to have them. In under an hour we were at a small town on the river that was the push off point for the 4000 Islands. They must have been used to tourists because the streets were lined with people selling sunglasses, hats, and snacks, although now it was low season and there weren’t many tourists at all. It was scorching hot when we got out the van and walked up the road to the ferry where the traditional Laos long thin ferry boats were waiting to take about six of us to Don Det. The whole journey from Ban Lung to Don Det only took around eight hours and so it’s a good first stop in Laos, especially if you are coming from somewhere further south in Cambodia like Siem Riep.

Don Det is the main place to go in the 4000 Islands, and is known for being a super chilled out and slightly more underground traveller’s Mecca. You can add something ‘happy’ to pretty much anything... cakes, shakes, pizzas. It has cheap bungalows and is set on the awesomely beautiful Mekong river with stunning sunset views, surrounded by the ‘4000 islands’ which are little jungly tufts floating on the great Mekong. It’s not very big, and if you want something even more laid back you can go to it’s sister island, separated by a small bridge, Don Khong. This is the slightly more ‘grown up’ island, with less happy in the food and drinks.

We arrived on Don Det at sunset, on the tiny beach that served as the drop off point for boats. It was baking hot and so we just sat down at the first place on the beach for something to drink, before going on a mission to find a hut. I wanted to find somewhere really nice where I could properly relax, so we walked for quite a while first on the east side of the island where you could see the sunrise, and then on the west side on ‘Sunset Boulevard’ where all the best sunset view bungalows were. Sunset was in full swing by the time and we found a place with five really cute bungalows with balcony’s and a hammock, in perfect view of the beautiful sunset. They were 30k Kip each with a shared bathroom set just behind them, so just under $4. Stu and I got a bungalow each side by side, and heaved a big happy sigh.

Bungalow on the Mekong

Don Det was really quiet with hardly anyone around because of low season, which was perfect because I can imagine it can get quite packed and annoying in high season. You could hire a bike and ride around the island and to Don Khong, which had a great big powerful waterfall on the Mekong with a hot, grey sanded beach, a dolphin watching point (there are still supposed to be Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong here, near the Cambodia/Laos border). It was deadly quiet on Don Khong and a really cool place to cycle, totally flat with just some locals having their low season break from the tourists. I spent one night in my toilet-less bungalow and then found a great little place just a little walk away with my own bathroom for 40k Kip, only $5 and way more comfortable, with a real bed and everything. It’s called Sengthavan Guesthouse and I highly recommend it, clean comfy room with proper bathroom and hot shower, and a restaurant opposite with the really lovely family running it, delicious food and super friendly.  On the deck of the restaurant you could lie on mats and cushions on the floor, and where you could watch honestly some of the most staggering sunsets I’ve ever seen. It did rain occasionally, for sure, but it was nice when it did for a couple of hours in the afternoon to clear the heat and air. The rest of the time it was baking hot.

Drop off beach, Don Det

The Mekong

Sengthaven Guesthouse and restaurant

Sunset!

More amazing sunset

I met some fun people there too. Josh who we met in Ban Lung was there, a off the wall English girl who was animatedly talking about how huge and orange my aura was, a really cute South African couple and just some friendly nice people relaxing and playing music. As with most places in SE Asia, the family lived in the business. So all the guesthouses, shops, restaurants had the family around so the island had a nice feeling of not just being one side for tourists and then the locals another, everyone was just mixed in with chickens, children, pigs and bungalows.

One day we hired tubes and tried to float down the Mekong on either side of the island, but the current was so strong it dragged us too quickly down towards the waterfall and made really difficult to swim back. There are signs everywhere warning of the currents, but people take tubes out daily and float speedily towards the powerful waterfall, and I have no idea of their fate. A group of people I met told me to meet them under a huge tree a bit down the river one day and said just to swim there, so I just hopped in the warm Mekong water and realised that the short swim to the other bank would be pretty treacherous, and I couldn’t swim against the current. Some people floated towards me on tubes and gave me a ‘lift’ to the opposite bank, but I had to really swim and use all my power to get there. I finally managed to grab the roots of the tree and climb up, but I was pretty exhausted and I’m quite a strong swimmer, so I have no idea how someone would do after a few beers or something ‘happy’. Be careful! When we were ready to leave, we all tried to swim across the river to the other side but ended up much further down that we intended, and that was swimming with all our strength against the current.

Don Khong waterfall - Stu's pic

Don Khong island - Stu's pic

We stayed on Don Det for three nights but it could easily been more, if being horizontally laid back and watching sunsets and drinking fruit fresh fruit shakes and swimming without a care in the world is your thing. But there was much to see. I was heading to Vang Vieng next and Stu to Pakse. I needed a bit of serious party time while he couldn’t think of anything worse! To get to there from Don Det was a bit expensive when booked through an agent, $30 and included the boat back to main land, a three hour bus to Pakse which arrived at 3pm, and then at 8pm a ten hour sleeper night bus to Vang Vieng. On the minibus to Pakse when we stopped, women would run up to the van and stick whole grilled flattened chickens on sticks and grasshoppers deep fried on sticks through the windows to sell.

Pakse is known for being a base to hire a motorbike to ride the amazing three day Baloven Plateau loop. I was glad to stop there for a few hours to look around and to see Stu off, it seemed like a cool town with more adventurer type travellers there. It seemed a little expensive though, one of the cheapest places to stay had dorms for $5 and up. This Lonely Planet recommended place that Stu ended up staying in, Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse, definitely had that stuck up recommended by Lonely Planet vibe, not friendly at all and charging for showers and even extra for wifi which was unusual, although they said the money went to charity. I was really jealous of all the well worn, happy adventurer travellers that we bumped into that had already been on the Baloven Plateau loop, and I was very nearly ready to change my ticket and stay to do it. But I had to think of money and the fact that I couldn’t do it all, as much as I wanted to. But it was a good thing because after I left Stu told me that he set off on a motorbike the next day, but it was so rainy and misty that he couldn’t see a thing, and one of the bridges had washed away so he couldn’t get anywhere and had to come back to Pakse having not seen a thing anyway, which was a real shame.

I was really nervous about my ‘VIP’ night bus ride to Vang Vieng, as I had heard some accounts of girls having horrible experiences with Loatian men working on the buses trying to snuggle up next to them. I thought I was the only westerner on the bus, which had massive individual beds for everyone and was really empty. But then I met Beren, from Australia, a really nice guy who took the bed next to me to ward off any potential toucher’s. We had a good chat on the empty bus, and the beds were really big and comfortable too with blankets and pillows. I needed a good rest knowing what was waiting for me in Vang Vieng, adventure crazy town!

Here are the Laos pics.