Map, Journey and Costs

Note: prices are for 2 adults with baggage

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From	To	Mode	Duration	Cost
🇱🇦 Luang Prabang	🇱🇦 Vang Vieng	Train	01:10	£22.96
🇱🇦 Vang Vieng	🇱🇦 Luang Prabang	Train	01:10	£26.21
🇱🇦 Luang Prabang	🇱🇦 Nong Khiaw	Minibus	03:00	£39.29
🇱🇦 Nong Khiaw	🇱🇦 Muang Khau	LongBoat	08:00	£29.47

The next stop in our Laos adventure was Vang Vieng, the drunken tubing capital of the world (we didn’t partake).

A super fancy new railway line opened relatively recently, it goes all the way from Lao’s border with China down to Vientiane (the capital).

It squeezed what would otherwise be a 5hr coach journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng down to a measly 1hr20 minutes.

As with most travel in Laos, working out the logistics can be confusing. There is limited infrastructure for tourists to plan their own travels:

• You can only book a ticket within 3 days of your journey
• Because of this, there can be long queues for tickets
• Tickets can only be obtained from the train station, which is 20 minutes by bus out of town

So the usual advice is to surrender your passport to a local, and pay them to go queue for you. Parting with passports didn’t sit well with us, but luckily our hotel manager had a mate who works in the ticket office - so he could get one by just sending him a photo.

We got to the swanky new station, and were pleasantly surprised to see Helen and Ben there - a couple who we had spent some time chatting to on our slow boat journey.

After arrival we exchanged numbers so we could meet up later.

From Vang Vieng station we had to get a tuk tuk to our accommodation. It was another place that I was in charge of booking, and yet again I dropped the ball.

I was a bit smug about the booking as it was cheap, had a fancy pool, and good reviews. Alarm bells started ringing when we were the last ones left on the 10 person tuk tuk, and the driver was heading further and further out of town.

When we finally arrived we were greeted with the news that yes, they had our booking - but no rooms were available. And we’d already paid hotels.com the full cost upfront. Balls.

We found somewhere else (that was actually in town) to stay. Hours of chatting with hotels.com lead only to me pulling out the little hair I have remaining. In a last ditch attempt I went back to the hotel in person, the manager was actually very reasonable and gave me back cash for the booking in full - including hotels.com’s commission. After a little bit more complaining, hotels.com also issued us £25 compensation on top.

So a bit of a win 💪 💪 💪 But my accommodation selection skills definitely leave a lot to be desired.

Helen and Ben got in touch, and asked if we’d like to team up for a hike up one of Vang Vieng’s viewpoints.

We did a few viewpoint treks during our Laocation, they roughly consist of:

• A mileish of pure ascent
• Mostly aided by makeshift steps
• Ending with a scramble to a peak
• Getting really sweaty

Some also have motorbikes mounted to the summit:

It was a sweatfest, but we made it up in good time and enjoyed chatting with Helen and Ben.

They were due to depart Vang Vieng the next day, so we met up with them in the evening for some drinks and have remained travel pen pals since.

The next day we decided to try to tick off another viewpoint.

Laura’s beady eye noticed that whilst it takes a good 30 minutes to get to viewpoint-ville by tuk tuk, we could probably get there on foot quite easily using a slightly questionable bridge that is only open to pedestrians and motorcyclists.

It paid off, and on the way we noticed a farmer’s field that was advertising a cave and spring that tourists could visit.

It was cheap, so we thought why not. The paths within lacked good sign posting, so we got very lost and relied on the farmer’s kids to guide us through.

They ferried us over a bridge that it was best not to question too much, and through a forest to a cave. We didn’t go too far in, as the whole endeavor felt a bit unofficial.

We tipped the kids with a packet of Oreos, they were happy with the payment and immediately scuttled off.

Eventually we found our way to the road, then proceeded to jaunt up the viewpoint.

We didn’t dilly dally at the top too long, and headed back towards town to a bar with good sunset views.

We wanted to visit the mountains to the north of Laos. Logistics required us to get the train back to Luang Prabang, spend a night, and then get an early minibus to Nong Khiaw.

Bit annoying, but it did give us the opportunity to see Luang Prabang’s alms-giving ceremony.

Every morning at sunrise, as is Lao Buddhist tradition, lay people take to the streets to offer food to the monks. Lay people sit on the pavement, and monks visit each one. They whack whatever is offered (usually rice, fruit, snacks) into their basket, then head back to their temple to tuck in before fasting starts again at lunchtime.

It’s an important tradition in Lao Buddhist culture, and we set a 5am alarm to have a look.

We did feel like a lot of other tourists were disrespectful:

• You’re not supposed to join in unless it means something to you, some did
• Others got very up close filming on smartphones, and must have made the monks feel uncomfortable

All in all it was interesting to see, and lead us to read up more on Lao monk lifestyle.

Nong Khiaw is a hustling, bustling village surrounded by some breathtaking mountain views. And one thing we’ll never forget is how many chickens there were 🐔 🐔 🐔

They were roaming everywhere, and it was very hard to sleep after the cockerel’s morning chorus kicked in 😂. We soon upped our chicken curry orders.

Mountains loom over Nong Khiaw, and we checked out a couple of viewpoints that are easily accessible from the village.

Our first ascent took us up a viewpoint revered for its sunrise beauty. We headed up late afternoon first, to assess how sketchy it would be to climb in the dark.

We found some swings on the way up and spent an inordinate amount of time playing:

The path looked good enough, so we enjoyed the view and planned to hit it early some other time.

On another day we found an alternative viewpoint that had some pretty sweet sights:

But the main things we’ll remember about this one were:

• Giant flying beetles
  • The sight and sound of them was terrifying
  • For those who are not faint of heart, this is what we were up against
• We ran out of familiar-branded suncream, and had a very hard time finding replacement in the village. We found something that said SPF 90 (did you know it goes that high?!) on it somewhere and slapped it on. We were leaking like sieves the whole way up :sweat_droplets: 😂

The day came for us to revisit the first viewpoint for sunrise. Alarms were set for 5am.

I often get alarm anxiety, where knowledge of a particularly notable (extremely early or important) alarm will lead to me getting no sleep whatsoever. This was no exception, and the crankiness lead to me grumping, moaning and huffing all the way to the top. Sorry Laura!

It rewarded us with some stunning sights, and was totally worth it:

Laura can be entertained by mountain views indefinitely. After a while I cracked out my kindle 😂

We booked ourselves on a day tour to cap off our Nong Khiaw adventure, a journey down the Nam Ou to see a few local highlights.

We boarded a long boat, and were quite worried about what we’d let ourselves in for. Laura was sat next to a random person who was an avid manspreader. I was the only person without a cushion, sat on a miniscule wooden stool.

Boat discomfort aside, it was a terrific trip.

After an hour on the torture boat we reached the riverside town of Muang Ngoi. The main event was a shortish hike up a hill.

On the way up we entered a really impressive cave. It was like the TARDIS, an inconspicuous opening lead through to a broad and tall cavey corridor that just. kept.. on… going…..!

It was really fun to experience. It was explained to us that during the war the town used the cave as sanctuary.

At the peak lay another viewpoint. There were some cool views along the river:

OK this part is isn’t anything too special, there was a really basic but tasty lunch - rice with veg and egg. We enjoyed that the guide carried each portion in a leaf in his rucksack:

20 mins on the discomfort dinghy and a short hike took us to Tad Mok Waterfall, with some beautiful surroundings:

Again, Laura was brave enough to jump in, and I wasn’t. Bit of a pattern there.

The route back to the cruelty catamaran took us through some rice paddies and an organic farm. We got some cool pictures:

And stopped off at the farm shop for a smoothie:

Another 20 minutes on the soreness schooner brought us to the tour guide’s village on the Nam Ou.

The village was interesting to walk around, but on the whole not very enjoyable as it felt like “poverty porn”. People on our trip were taking photos of people in their houses, and one walked into an ongoing lesson in a school to take some snaps 🤦.

After a while longer on the buttpain barge we pulled to shore and were given our own kayaks for the last mile.

We had a paddle into the sunset, and won by a fair margin. Unsure if the other couples were viewing it as a competition though :thinking_face:

Nong Khiaw was a small village but had a couple of culinary highlights for us

We really enjoyed a meal at Mama Laos. Great food, and dirt cheap: but the main thing was it made us smile.

It was the very definition of a family restaurant. Orders were taken by 12ish year old daughter, and we were served in their porch.

They didn’t appear to use any fridge/freezer for the restaurant. And whenever an order was made she’d get on her scooter to go buy the ingredients. When I ordered a beer she popped to the shop across the road to buy it for me 😂.

Something we’ve missed is easy access to cheese and carbs. We were lucky enough to find somewhere run by a couple of frenchmen with an ample access to blue cheese.

We had a couple of meals there and embraced the carb comas.

Phwoar. That was mostly it for Laos. It’s been our favourite destination on the trip so far. We’re now heading into Vietnam by boat/minibus. See you soon!