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A Temple in Vientiane
Of all the countries we visited on our Asian trip, Laos was probably the most chilled out. It’s often thought of as the newest addition on the SE Asian backpacking trail and there is certainly less to see here than in the other countries, but that can be a good thing.
By now we’d discovered that the route we were taking around Asia was a pretty common one; up through Thailand to cross into Laos, through Laos into Vietnam, down through Vietnam to cross into Cambodia and through Cambodia to get back into Thailand. A lot of backpackers we met were doing roughly the same thing (and most of those were also going the same way round this huge circle). But this is another great thing about backpacking—you meet awesome people and end up meeting them again and again.
The Border
From Chiang Mai in Thailand we took a minibus to the Laos border. The roads weren’t too bad but if I did it again I’d take a coach, not a minibus, even though it was cheaper and easier to book (as we did so through the hostel we stayed at).
We travelled through the night to the border. Once there we were taken into a VISA “shop” for a spot of breakfast and coffee before filling out our VISA applications and what-not (no doubt this bit will depend on the company you travel with). Then we changed bus, went to the border and queued to get our passports stamped.
It was $35 for the VISA (don’t forget to carry American dollars with you) but this price will be different depending on where you’re from. Here’s a good site for some info on that. Also don’t forget to bring some passport-sized photos with you (preferably of yourself :-) ). You’ll need two for Laos.
Also don’t be surprised if the officers charge you a dollar extra. On the window was a piece of paper informing us that overtime would cost $1. Exactly what overtime is to them is hard to understand; it was eight o’clock in the morning and we weren’t there for more than five minutes. I would wager it’s the officer’s way of making a bit of extra cash, and though corrupt it’s kind of business as usual. There’s nothing you can do unless you want another night in a minibus back to Chiang Mai.
And a quick note about the currency; it’s the Lao Kip and there’s about 12,000 of them to every pound. The quick calculation I used to convert was £4 for 50,000 kip. And if you have any left, change it before you leave – I’ve still got 150,000 or so because I couldn’t find anywhere outside of Laos to change it, not even back here in London.
Vientiane
Literally the other side of the border is the capital city of Laos, Vientiane. It’s literally a tuk-tuk ride away from the border and on that ride you’ll instantly appreciate you’re not in the comparatively rich Thailand anymore. Once we made it to our hostel we soon realised that Vientiane was a very small place indeed. Most of the bars, restaurants and hostels are within five blocks of each other. This is the city centre and you can walk around it in ten minutes. It’s on the bank of the Mekong River and if you stand there and look across you’re looking at Thailand.
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Pha That Luang
You certainly get a bit of a ghost-town feeling with Vientiane. There are nice places to go, but overall the city feels a bit run-down. The biggest thing to see here is Pha That Luang which is an impressive complex of temples, and aside from the price of a tuk-tuk is free to walk around. Sure, if you want to go inside the main temple there’s a fee, but it’s just as impressive from the outside.
We only stayed in Vientiane for a couple of nights, but that’s all you need really in this small capital city. Then it was an incredibly early start to get another bus (a coach this time, we’d learnt our lesson) to our next destination. As before we got the coach through the hostel we stayed in. It’s worth noting that if you’re travelling to south east Asia and at all worried about getting around, there really is no call for concern. No matter where you go there will be options and pre-booking is not only not needed, but probably a bad idea anyway.
Luang Prabang
The ride from Chiang Mai to Vientiane was nothing compared to this. This was the mother of all coach journeys. As usual the quoted travel time of eight hours was vastly generous and about twelve hours after leaving Vientiane we finally got to Luang Prabang. In the dark. Feeling really rather nauseous.
On the way the coach had stopped numerous times. We thought at first it was because the driver was being really thoughtful and allowing everyone to worry very little about holding anything in, but it became evident that these stops were needed in order to cool the coach down. At every stop a hose was shoved into the engine and clouds of steam bellowed from all orifices.
The coach was overheating not because of the heat outside (though it was somewhere in the mid-30s) but because of having to go up, down and around a new mountain every five minutes.
At the end of it you’re dropped off at the main bus station, but if it’s dark and you can’t see anything be assured this is nowhere near the town centre. And you want to be near the town centre. A ten minute tuk-tuk ride later and we got to our hostel which itself was about a ten minute walk from what is considered the main street of Luang Prabang, Sisavangvong Road (which turns into Sakkaline Road).
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The River in the Afternoon in Luang Prabang
The next day we discovered that this town is actually a really sweet, small, chilled out little affair. It became one of our favourite places we visited in all of Asia. Again there’s not a vast amount to do here but just the general atmosphere alone is something worth going for. It, too, is on the river and there are plenty of people offering you a ride. We didn’t take one but we went down to the bank which was good enough for us, as you can see.
There’s also a night market which is on every night. It stretches along the main street for about half a mile, though after the first twenty stalls or so everything just seems to repeat. Still, it makes for an intriguing walk seeping with atmosphere.
Onward Travel
From Luang Prabang we wanted to travel east into Vietnam. There was of course one other place in Laos that many people go to; Vang Vieng. It’s famous for its crazy river tubing where you float down river in a tractor tyre inner-tube, stopping at bars to get shit-faced. It’s now infamous for a spate of drunken deaths, but despite new regulations, word is it’s still going strong.
We swapped the fun of tubing down a river for getting to Vietnam. There are buses you can take, but after talking to some people who’d already done the trip it sounded ten times worse than what we’d already experienced. So, despite it not being the backpacker way, sometimes you’ve just got to accept the occasional need for a cheap flight.
So to Vietnam we flew, and it was a bit of a special country for us to visit because for my girlfriend it was kind of like going home.