Lots of Fun in Laos

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Nate and I have been having a great time in Laos. After Vietnam, which was crowded and crazy, we arrived to a much-welcome laid-back scene in Vientiane on Tuesday. Despite being the capital of Laos, Vientiane only has 201,000 people and the centre of town is a relative ghost-town compared to Hanoi. The town is right on the Mekong River with Thailand on the other side, and there are a number of small, cheap restaurants along the river where you can get a good meal. It was so nice and calm that I almost wanted to cry. We got a nice room at the Saysouly Guesthouse and began the unwinding process. The Beerlao is fantastic and dirt cheap ($1 for a 640ml bottle), and there may have been some sort of festival on because we found ourselves in the middle of carnival games, cheap food stalls, and clothing vendors aplenty.

After 2 nights in Vientiane, we headed north to Vang Vieng. We were there mainly for the tubing, which is the best in Laos. For $5 they put you in an inner-tube and you float down the river for 2 or 3 hours stopping along the way at any of many makeshift bars (we only stopped at one). The tubing was really what we came for, so after one night in Vang Vieng we headed to Luang Prabang.

I love Luang Prabang. It's simple quiet (except for our first hotel room), and it's very tourist-friendly. It's exceptionally clean and the roads are lined with market stalls. Our hotel, the View Khem Khong, is across the street from the Mekong and a whole bunch of riverfront restaurants decked out with fairy lights. It's gorgeous. We unfortunately woke up to a city without power this morning, but you didn't even notice it while walking around town. We went to L'Etranger bookshop, probably the best bookshop we've been to so far, and had lunch in the attic and read our new books. It was all very nice and peaceful. I like not having to seek refuge from the crazy outside city in our hotel room.

Anyway, we leave Laos tomorrow for Chiang Mai. We're flying, which we weren't going to do but changed our minds at the last minute. Our original plan was to take a speedboat to the border (8 hours) and then a minibus to Chiang Mai from there (another 6 hours). I was fine with this until we talked more to the travel agent and he said that the speedboats only leave when they're full, which can take an extra hour or more, and then they might hold you overnight in Pakbeng, again depending on how full the boat is, and then once you get to the border the boats are notorious for getting there just after the border closes at 5pm and force you to spend a night in the border town. All this could be avoided by spending an extra $30 on a flight and getting there in 1 hour flat. So that's what we did, and I'm not sorry about shelling out the extra bucks. Next post will be from Thailand!

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Photos

Me with the Beerlao
This was at one of the riverside bars - so fun!

Comments

[Roy]

Enjoyed reading about all the places you have been to, i will be in thailand on the 18/12 ,not sure how long i will be staying for but will be going to vietnam cambodia and maybe loas can't wait to visit Angkor wat now i have read your journal