Travel in Laos

Laos: photo and travel diary

Laos is a paradise of jungles, mountains and poor villages but rich in life and smiles; Here we present an itinerary, with lots of photos and a travel diary, which touched Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang and Nong Khiaw.
(For general information on prices, climate, transport, etc., visit The General Thailand and Laos Travel page ).

Laos: photo and travel diary

To get to Laos from the south of Thailand without spending a fortune, you can take a cheap flight from Phuket to Udon Thani, a city in northern Thailand. From here, for about 5 euros each, a pushbone in an hour of travel leads to the "Bridge of Friendship", on the Mekong River, which is a border between Thailand and Laos. Once the bureaucratic procedures (and paid the entrance visa is completed) you can reach the center of Vientiane, the capital, a good point from which to start your travel itinerary in Laos.

For evening outings it is convenient to stay in the center of Vientiane, where there are good restaurants and the night market on the Mekong. In early morning, instead, I am worth visiting the "morning market" and the very animated and characteristic market of fruit, vegetables, meats and various foods, located walking by Talat Sao to Mekong.

If you have fascinated us a lot, for the rest the city at all, for the rest the city was not at all memorable, so at 10 we were already at the airport to pick up the rental car booked on the internet with Sixt Rent-a-car, with We would have accomplished our travel itinerary in Laos.
Once withdrawn the Toyota Vios Automatic, we left towards Vang Vieng. Between holes, carts and cows, the road was in very bad condition.

Arrived at the Sengkeo Guesthouse by Vang Vieng (well 9 euros the double bathroom for one night, one of the cheapest places in our travel itinerary), we walked for the country and then explore the first villages to There of the river song. Here the views were exceptional, with the mountains that suddenly rose from the plants cultivated.

The city was full of bars and restaurants, from true vacation destination. Years ago Vang Vieng was a favorite destination along the itinerary of American and Northern European boys who wanted to fall in alcohol and cheap drugs; Today, instead, it is very busy with eastern tourists (including the inhabitants of Laos) and by nature lovers and outdoor activities.
The next day we rented a quad and visited the villages, the countryside and the caves on the opposite shore of the Song river compared to Vang Vieng. As already mentioned, splendid destinations! (And muddy).

For lunch, the food symbol of Vang Vieng, the pancake (typically banana crèpe, but good even the chicken one). We then continued our vacation driving towards Luang Prabang. We found the road 13 from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang long and winding, but in very best conditions than that between Vientiane and Vang Vieng. In addition, the views were fantastic. Along the journey we stopped, sometimes, to take pictures of nature and the villages, or to browse in the markets along the way: every tot km changed the specialty, and passed from the mandarins to dry bread to handicraft objects.

We arrived in our guesthouse at 7 pm. Luang Prabang is the most touristic town of Laos, full of restaurants and a huge and nice night market. By day we visited the Kuang waterfall yes. We arrived there, by car, in the morning soon enough, and we found it without tourists.

You can walk along the Kuang waterfall yes. Inside the park there is also a center where the victims of the frodo hunters are saved.

We then returned to Luang Prabang to visit the city following a typical tourist itinerary. Luang Prabang, positioned at the confluence of two rivers, Mekong and Nam Ou, is rich in colonial buildings and Buddhist temples.

From the hill to the city center you can enjoy a beautiful view, especially at sunset.

Tourists photographed the Buddhist monks clothes of Orange by Luang Prabang, but also they are technological.

At the night market there are numerous stalls where you can dine tasty and economic .

Near the near there was a beautiful village that sold fabrics, clothes and other objects; When we arrived there were still no tourists, but he would probably be filled in the afternoon. After visiting the caves, along the dirt road to Pak Ou also met a "reserve" where the elephants carried out tourists. A true classic for a travel itinerary in Laos.
We admired the scene, which was very nice because the bathroom could also be done in the river together with the elephants; Soup came out, but it was a walk.

With the rental car we headed to the mountains of Nong Khiaw in an increasingly farmered landscape. We ate good and simple noodles and arrived in the afternoon to the beautiful Nong Khiaw. This town is crossed by the ou river that links itself between majestic verdant mountains. An impressive very high concrete bridge over the river is the ideal place to admire the fantastic panorama.

The river view room, in simple wooden rooms, had prices starting from 6 euros per night at room, and we were in New Year.

At Nong Khiaw there were two Indian restaurants, a diversion compared to the typical noodles eaten along our travel itinerary in Laos. In agenza we managed to organize a boat trip to the traditional villages that overlooked the river upstream of Nong Khiaw. On the first leg about traditional long boats (together with two other American tourists), he followed the visit of the villages with a guide that explained to us for example that the wooden houses of Bamboo rose from 5 to 10 years.

We walked in the fields, in the forest up to a waterfall, and in the villages, where we tasted whiskey Lao offered by a lady, very kind as all the inhabitants of Laos. We returned to Nong Khiaw by paying by canoe on the ou river.

Among the many kayak trips made in my life, on that trip it was the first next to buffalo and pigs!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at a Lao party in the country of Nong Khiaw.

Our travel itinerary in Laos forces us the day after leaving Nong Khiaw and head to Luang Prabang, where we visited the traditional villages on the opposite bank of Mekong.

We shared by car towards Vang Vieng, though through road number 4 (and not 13) and then a new mountain road that took us to Kasi. Thus, we saved two hours. Vang Vieng was invaded by eastern tourists. The next day I ran again for the Vang ViGG campaign, this time by bicycle.

By car, we headed to Vientiane, but instead of following the whole boring road 13 Turn to a certain point towards the beautiful artificial lake called Nam Ngum, along the road 10. Here the countryside and the lake itself with its islets were pleasant. Lots of "local" tourists, inhabitants of Laos, were on Lake Nam Ngum, as in Vang Vieng. The whole country was on vacation.

We arrived in Vientiane in the late afternoon and we took the last bus (at 6 in the afternoon) to cross the border with Thailand. The bus to Udon Thani was full, but there was room on that for Nong Khai, Thai town overlooking the Mekong, just beyond, therefore, the border with Laos.
Thus ended our travel itinerary in Laos, and The holiday continued in central Thailand. What to say ... Laos is rustic, wild, relaxing. He would have deserved traveling and wandering a long time for the streets of Laos, which are slow and take time, but they deserve to be visited by car, trying to get out of the most frequented destinations by tourists.

(Pssst, from here the journey continues to Bangkok and central Thailand ).

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