Hello Dhane,
Well you are in luck because we did such a route in 2006. This is what I recall. Rough, lots of misinformation, missed connections, long border waits, "you can't get there from here", did I say misinformation?
Keep in mind the info is 2 years old.
Laos accepts Baht, US dollars and thier own kip. There were NO ATMS in Laos so be careful to take enough cash along otherwise you'll be doing an expensive exchange or (if you can find a place to do it) a cash advance. We were told we could not exchange Kip in China. Not true, money changers were eagerly waiting for us across the border. In fact, if you do end up with any Kip, get rid of it there. Make sure you have plenty of Yuan with you if you can get it in advance because you won't find an ATM in China till you get to Kunming. We made other stops along the way to Kunming and there were ATMs in Jinghang but not in Mengla.
ATMs in China are plentiful, it's just that they don't have any free standing ones, in other words they are always attached to a bank.
Vientiane has a lot of hotel options - we stayed at a friendly place that was higher in price than others, but it was nice, Hotel Dragon Lodge.
In Vientiane you can get non stop bus tickets at the VIP window to Luang Prabang, not sure if you can get one that goes all the way through LP and up to Kunming, though I did see signs for one. Just don't count on it. The bus is nice - be sure to get the VIP bus. The ride gets hairy through the mountains especially if there is rain - but it is beautiful countryside!
You will be stopping for lunch at dodgy roadside restaurants - dirty, but the food is great. You will most likely need kip to pay for the meals.
If you don't get a bus all the way to Kunming and have to stop in LP, you can get tickets there to the border town of Mengla. Go to the south bus station as that is for longer distance buses. Lonely Planet book gives the wrong info. Buy a ticket to Mengla - even though there are signs posted that there is a bus to Kunming, that bus does not stop in LP.
The bus from LP to Mengla will be a mini bus and will most likely not leave on time. This is an important point because it takes quite a while going through the mountains to get to the border and each side of the border has different hours. The Laos side closed at such a time that we could not make it to the Chinese side before they closed. Thank goodness they were both closed only an hour each but it did cause a long delay. Getting out of Laos is easy, getting into China took a while because the longer they were closed the more buses came in. Anyway, have your passport, visa and any other papers in order because they scrutinize everything.
Our minibus continued on to Mengla - a "smaller" Chinese city - friendly but no English speakers. The usual bad Chinese hotels available there. And no ATMs. We had miscalculated and had very little cash, just enough to get us to Jinghong (but that is yet another story). Anyway, the Mengla bus station has loads of buses leaving all day long and you can get one to Kunming from there.
The Kunming bus station we were let off at also houses the train station, so it is convenient for getting your rail tickets right away. We did not end up getting our tickets at the train station because the line was so long - our hotel had a travel service next to it and the price was no different.
If you plan to stay overnight in Kunming before you head to Chengdu I can recommend the hotel we stayed at - they had expensive rooms and cheaper ones. The cheaper ones were just fine, better than the usual Chinese hotels. The name of it is the Camelia.
A nice place to stay in Chengdu is the Mix - very friendly.
Once you get into China, the rail system is very easy to navigate even with the language barrier. Often times we bought our tickets through a CITS office - there is no additional fee and they are quite helpful. Though sometimes the government would decide that no one was allowed to buy tickets through an agency and then you would have to stand in lines...
As for train travel, bring your own food when you can. Some of the train stops have food stands and you can hop out and get stocked up with some pretty good stuff. Just don't buy any pre-packaged Chinese snacks, they are usually awful. The home made stuff that the vendors have is great.
Give yourself plenty of time for the trip as it will take longer than you think.
Not much English is spoken in China, so sometimes communication is difficult. But if you have a phrase book or know some of the language then you'll do fine. By the way, if a Chinese person approaches you and speaks very good English, they are most likely a scammer. Just smile and say no to whatever they ask, even if they ask just to practice their English.
Beijing is a very modern city, plenty of ATMs, great streetside food, excellent site seeing. Transporation is not so good but taxis aren't too expensive. We did not get a chance to use their underground so I don't know how it works...kind of like Los Angeles where they have one, but it doesn't go where you need to go...
Do you have a room set up there? I don't recommend the hotels, find a hostel - we found a good one, Downtown Backpackers.
That's about all I can remember at this time, but if you have specific questions I'll log back on in a day or so to answer them.
I don't have the addresses for the places I've mentioned, but I think if you google them you'll find what you need.
Good Luck!
Martha
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