With busses in Laos, as we should find out, you never know what you’ll get until you actually enter the bus. We booked a VIP bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, which we expect to look something like a regular European coach. This is correct, but arriving at the bus station we learn that there are not enough people to fill a coach, so we are going to travel on a shrunk version of a coach. About thirty people are crammed into the bus, and off we go, six hours of fun. The ride is not too bad. Sure there’s not a lot of space, but the driver has a very tame driving style and nobody on the bus is vomiting. We are still pretty happy when we are dropped off at our destination – everyone else on the bus still has about four hours to go until Vientiane. We are delaying the fun by spending a day in Vang Vieng.
Tubing used to be the main draw for party hungry tourists to come to this place. The game was to tube down the river, stopping at every bar along the way, to drink anything from a beer to a happy milkshake. As you may guess, this did not always end well and at some point, the government decided to forbid tubing. Nowadays, you can do it again but the river is no longer lined with bars and we mostly saw Chinese and Korean tourists being driven up the river. We don’t have any particular interest to throw ourselves in the river and opt to explore the surroundings. The town itself has no charm whatsoever, so we take a motorbike direction one of the caves. The landscape is stunning – karst rocks define the scenery, peaking out in the middle of lush rice fields and buffalo herds.
The visit to the cave is interesting. It is located next to the Blue Lagoon, which at this time of year is more brown than blue. We climb up steep barely there stairs and enter into the cave.
Red arrows painted on the walls encourage us to follow the way and we heroically climb over and under rocks, avoiding water puddles more or less successfully. (Imagine us humming the Indiana Jones theme song.) All this, in vain, as the path leads nowhere near daylight. Grudgingly, we climb up the same way we came down. Surprisingly, nobody breaks any bones on the way out and down and we get away with a few scratches. After all this adventure, we are ready for lunch and find a lovely spot in the middle of the countryside. On the way home, we take it slow and stop a few times to take pictures. Our friends both brought their fancy cameras, so it’s different from our quick GoPro/iPhone photo stops.
We enjoy a relaxed dinner by the river, and get our stuff ready for our departure to Vientiane the next morning. We booked a VIP bus again and sure enough, we find ourselves on a minivan because there are not enough people for the bus. The only advantage of the minivan is that it goes faster and we arrive in Vientiane after three hours. We have a day and a half in the Lao capital before, guess what, we have to take another bus.
After a much needed lunch, we go out to explore Vientiane. We find many pretty temples, many tour agencies, and a large night market right next to the Mekong. The market is filled with locals enjoying their Saturday night. There are some small amusement parks for kids and some open air aerobic is also going on.
Our day ends with some Egyptian food (why not) and maybe a few too many gin and tonics. The next day we are determined to check out a few of the main sights of Vientiane before taking our night bus to Pakse. We head to the Pha That Luang monument, which is basically just a gigantic golden stupa.
Next stop, the way more interesting COPE – a small exhibition documenting the horrors of the Vietnam war and how 2 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos, to cut the supply chain to the north of Vietnam. This resulted not only in many immediate victims, but until today, unexploded ordinance poses a big problem in the country. COPE supports victims of unexploded ordinance, as well as any other people with reduced mobility.
Our final destination is the Sisaket Temple, also one of the city’s main sights. It’s beautiful, and a young monk starts to chat with us – a very interesting opportunity to learn a little bit about the life of a monk in Laos. He is from northern Laos and came to the capital to go to school. Next to the teachings of Buddhism, he is studying English and will remain a monk in Vientiane for three years.
We get lunch in the busy Talat Sao mall before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our night bus ride to Pakse. We opted to book the bus via the hotel, as many agencies were closed on Saturday afternoon. We read a bunch of pretty disturbing stories about the rides to Pakse, but unfortunately the night bus is the only way besides flying or taking a few local busses during the day, that will take even longer than 12 hours. While the hotel assured us that the bus company they use is the best, we haven’t found the name of the company anywhere. The Vientiane South Bus station is located a few kilometres north (makes sense) of the city. We are picked up more or less punctually and taken to the bus station to check in. Our bus is not there yet, so the suspense goes on. When the bus shows up, we are relieved: it reads “King of Bus” on it, which is one of the companies that has a fairly good reputation. We board and find that we have something like the presidential suite of the bus – the four of us all get to share the space at the back of the bus which is a bit more spacious than the double bunks. Downside: it’s just above the engine. Nevertheless, we are quite comfortable (at least better than expected) and off we go. As you can imagine, we survived the ride to Pakse. However, it was definitely not a lot of fun, neither did we feel safe. The driver did not care the least about the potholes or road conditions, so every couple of minutes we were thrown a few millimetres in the air. We pull into Pakse sooner than we thought (around 6am), and it is probably one of the happiest we’ve ever been to get off any vehicle. We made it! We grab our backpacks and walk 10 minutes to our hotel, exhausted but happy to breathe the fresh morning air. Our rooms are available, which is one of the best news ever! Minutes later, we snooze away in our comfy beds.
You may be wondering why we took so many buses and why we went to Pakse – coming up in the next article: the Bolaven Plateau.
Vang Vieng
The little town itself isn’t really nice, but the surroundings are spectacular.
Getting there
Busses and minivans depart from Luang Prabang (and from Vientiane, if you’re coming the other way). We booked the ticket with an agent in Luang Prabang who didn’t care to mention that it is not guaranteed to get the VIP bus. The best thing would be to head straight to the bus station and buy your ticket there. The guy at the bus station was nice enough to reimburse us for the price difference, but not sure if they have to do that. We paid around 15ā¬/person, this includes lunch. The ride by bus takes about 6h. Car sickness pills are recommended.
Activities
We only had one day. Besides exploring the surroundings by scooter, we went to the Tham Poukham cave. Beware that you need to be relatively fit to climb up to the cave and also inside the cave. The cave is nice but we didn’t really feel very safe in there – no idea how you’d ever get out if you broke a leg. Definitely bring a torch (you can borrow one on site). You also have the blue lagoon where you can bathe and jump in, but it was more a brown lagoon when we were there (June). Of course there’s plenty of other things to do, including tubing and more caves.
Two of us also had a massage at the Healing Inn Spa, which was very nice.
Food
We went to the night market and it was possibly the first one we didn’t enjoy. As there are many Chinese tourists, there are a lot of hotpots. Generally, the market is very small. The second night, we ate down by the river. The food wasn’t amazing but the atmosphere is lovely.
Sae Lao
This place was delicious, it’s a couple of minutes drive away from Tham Poukham cave and the setting is wonderful. Proceedings go towards a project that provides free English classes and other education to locals.
Where to stay
Our hotel, Jasmine, was conveniently located right in the middle of town. It cost around 18ā¬/night. It was fine for the price and there was even a pool, though not super comfy to hang around. If you’re not interested in Vang Vieng nightlife, it may be worth checking out the hotels that are a bit more in the countryside.
Vientiane
We enjoyed visiting the Lao capital – it’s comparatively small but certainly we could have stayed a couple of days longer.
Getting there
We booked a bus and got a minivan. The journey is three to four hours from Vang Vieng and cost around 8ā¬/person. You can also fly here, of course.
Activities
Night market
As of four o’clock, hundreds of stands line the Chao Anouvong Park. There are some souvenir shops, but most shops sell clothes and accessories for locals. It’s super enjoyable for a stroll. There are a few snack stands but no proper food section. Crossing the street towards the river, you will find yourself on a nice promenade, excellent for people watching and getting a taste of local life.
Pha That Luang Vientiane
This Buddhist temple is considered the Lao national symbol. It’s a bit of a trek compared to the other sights of the city, you definitely need some kind of transport to get there. It’s a huge golden stupa and that’s about it. To us it wasn’t too impressive.
COPE
As described above, we really enjoyed visiting this centre and we learnt a lot about past and present Laos. No entrance fee, donation based.
Sisaket Temple
Lovely temple lined with thousands of buddhas. Close to the centre.
Food
Welcome India
There were many Indian places in the area of our hotel. We enjoyed a Thali here and bought some naan for the bus ride.
Easy Bar
Egyptian restaurant and bar in front of our hotel. Very kind and fun owner. Food was delicious, good drinks as well.
Bor Pen Nyang
You have a great view over the night market and the river from up here; the bar resembles a large American sports bar, so nothing local or cosy. We only had drinks.
Where to stay
The Vientiane Garden Boutique Hotel (around 18ā¬/night including breakfast) had comfortable rooms and a very nice swimming pool. In walking distance to many attractions, lots of restaurants and shops close by. Great place to chill when you need a break from visiting.
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