Laos...

CountryWise

Hi all,

Looking for peoples experience on Laos, while most recommend it for a fun bit of tubing the problem i seem to be having is getting to and from it.

Il most likely have to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Vientiane as I dont see anyone that flys from thailand to Vientiane, then I hope to go from Vientiane onto Vietnam(Hanoi) but I dont seem to be able to find an airline from Vientiane to Hanoi....anyone done this before and whast best way to get around?

Thanks

nialinho

Havnt been to Laos(but going in May) so I cant help you with info about it, however I do know about flights:

Thai airways and Lao airlines fly Bangkok to Vientiane.
www.laoairlines.com
www.thaiair.com
Lao airlines also fly Vientiane to Hanoi as do Vietnam airlines.
www.vietnamairlines.com

Be aware that Lao airlines have a poor reputation re safety

Straight Flush

I haven't been there either but I may be travelling in that direction soon. However, the Rough Guide to South East Asia says that most western embassies advise against flying with Lao Airlines, due to safety concerns.

CountryWise

Straight Flush wrote: »

I haven't been there either but I may be travelling in that direction soon. However, the Rough Guide to South East Asia says that most western embassies advise against flying with Lao Airlines, due to safety concerns.

:eek::eek::eek: Thats not good

shrapnel222

i would recommend flying from bangkok to luang prabang. you can then bus it south to vang vieng and then on to vientiane. it saves you doing the same routes twice. you can then fly from there onto hanoi, or depending how much time you have, i would also then recommend following the mekong south and then crossing the border into southern vietnam. this is more off the beaten track, and you'll see parts of laos which are still very much unspoilt (most of it is unspoilt anyway apart from the luang prabang vientiane axis... or just checked the map, you could also do vientiane- luang prabang and then bus it, adventure it from there to the west vietnamese border. never heard of anyone doing that so could be really cool.

breadmonkey

i would also then recommend following the mekong south and then crossing the border into southern vietnam. this is more off the beaten track, and you'll see parts of laos which are still very much unspoilt (most of it is unspoilt anyway apart from the luang prabang vientiane axis.

Is Pakse the place in the south? Never made it there unfortunately. I heard it's amazing though; would you recommend it?

you could also do vientiane- luang prabang and then bus it, adventure it from there to the west vietnamese border. never heard of anyone doing that so could be really cool.

We were going to do that but opted not to as it would have required a silly amount of travelling time.

shrapnel222

breadmonkey wrote: »

Is Pakse the place in the south? Never made it there unfortunately. I heard it's amazing though; would you recommend it?


We were going to do that but opted not to as it would have required a silly amount of travelling time.

yes pakse is the place, but like you i never made it that far south, but all the people i know who did it said it was amazing. i think with all these things, when you have time to go 2 weeks or whatever inland in a country like that, then you will see that country for what it truly is and laos is a very special place. I was lucky enough to go to laos about 10 years ago, just after the borders opened up to tourism, and even luang prabang and vang vieng only had a dozen guesthouses to choose from and for a $1 a night. my wife went back there last year and said it had just mushroomed and there were hotels, 3 and 4 stars everywhere etc, but the people and the country was still as magical. hence laos is a great country to visit off the main tourist highway as the people and countryside are just amazing.

CountryWise

Cheers lads,

I did think about getting the Bus from Laos to Hanoi but there is just way too many horror stories out there, yes the scenery is spectacular but the route is meant to be quite terrifying and the bus breaks down alot and it takes 24 hours where as a flight is an hour, not the most adventurous i know but safety first and all that its not just me I have to consider.

So you guys have been to Luang Prabang is it commercial or beautiful....I hear its a bit of a bus journey from Vientiane?most people seem to go to Vientiane to do a bit of tubing or other activities on the river and these days its completely geared for westeners with bars and restaurants showing Friends twenty times a day...fair assessment?....apart from the beautiful scenery what else is their to do( the tubing is the selling point for me the surrounding scenery is meant to be amazing) .

Thanks really useful info so far

shrapnel222

tubing is done in vang vieng which is 2 hours north of vientiane. personally, i really liked vientiane, it just had a very nice vibe to it, but at the end of the day, it's just another capital with plenty (some people will disagree) to see and do, but yes it has loads of bars etc... vang vieng is built around tubing and the caves which are pretty impressive, but that's it, and it's great fun. tube all day then watch movies in really funky bars lounging around all night. luang prabang for me is one of the most magical places i have been to (although as mentioned it has been built up quite a lot), but the temples are amazing and there are dozens there!!! and the people are just brilliant. you can also take a boat up the mekong to visit the buddha caves which alone is worth the visit, and take a day trip to the waterfalls for a swim, brilliant!!

so, going to laos, just to vientiane, would be a no for me, but add in vang vieng and luang prabang is a definite yes.

here's my little story for what it's worth. travelling down from luang prabang to vang vieng. 2 buses, one leaves at 5am the other at 7am. we opt for the 7am one to get a bit more sleep. we get on the bus and about 3 hours into the journey, big delay. we ask what's happening, someone tells us the bus before us has been attacked by the hmongs. an hour later we set off and pass the bus. it had been burnt to the ground, and they had killed all the passengers who were lying next to it, charred. close call!!!

breadmonkey

shrapnel222 wrote: »

here's my little story for what it's worth. travelling down from luang prabang to vang vieng. 2 buses, one leaves at 5am the other at 7am. we opt for the 7am one to get a bit more sleep. we get on the bus and about 3 hours into the journey, big delay. we ask what's happening, someone tells us the bus before us has been attacked by the hmongs. an hour later we set off and pass the bus. it had been burnt to the ground, and they had killed all the passengers who were lying next to it, charred. close call!!!

Don't think that happens anymore but we had a dude with an AK-47 on our bus for "protection"!

I did think about getting the Bus from Laos to Hanoi but there is just way too many horror stories out there, yes the scenery is spectacular but the route is meant to be quite terrifying and the bus breaks down alot and it takes 24 hours where as a flight is an hour, not the most adventurous i know but safety first and all that its not just me I have to consider.

Took us 28 hours! Our bus was a bit crap alright. Most of the passengers were from Laos or Vietnam. There were about 10 tourists. The bus operators were right pr1cks. i.e. bus stops, he announces to the Laos & Vietnamese what's going on and then just shouts some incomprehensible sh1te at us! Then when we arrived in Hanoi it was 1 in the morning or something and we got nailed by one of those arseholes coming on the bus with the "you come to my hotel very nice..." speel. Had no real choice because everywhere was closed at that time but then they lumped on some stupid "tax" the next day which we soon found out didn't exist. So watch out! Obvious benefit is that it's about $25 which is nothing really.

So you guys have been to Luang Prabang is it commercial or beautiful.

I don't think anywhere in Laos could be considered very commercial. It's what I imagined Thailand would be like! Luang Prabang is a great place and although there will be a lot of tourists it's not like Koh San Road in Bangkok etc. I wasn't mad about Vientiane tbh.

CountryWise

shrapnel222 wrote: »

here's my little story for what it's worth. travelling down from luang prabang to vang vieng. 2 buses, one leaves at 5am the other at 7am. we opt for the 7am one to get a bit more sleep. we get on the bus and about 3 hours into the journey, big delay. we ask what's happening, someone tells us the bus before us has been attacked by the hmongs. an hour later we set off and pass the bus. it had been burnt to the ground, and they had killed all the passengers who were lying next to it, charred. close call!!!

Ah how long ago was that?:( wont be telling the missus that story

With the info provided here and on the travel sites I am now looking into visiting Luang Prabang and then making my way south to Vang Vieng to Tube, then their seems to be an option to be able to Kayak down river from Vang Vieng to Vientiane now that would be cool....takes less than the 7 hour bus journey too......problem is getting a flight into Luang Prabang from Thailand

shrapnel222

was about ten years ago- i think there's only been one attack since then.

you can fly into luang prabang from bangkok, or take the boat from chiang mai up to luang prabang, or actually fly from there (not 100% on that one but pretty sure)

Lao Lao

I've been to that region about four years ago and I'd most certainly recommend Laos, it is truely a beautiful country. We were in Thailand before and from Chang Mai we travelled by bus to Chiang Khong (about 6 hours by bus) and entered Laos at Huay Xai, literally you cross a river on a raft and you've gone from Thailand to Laos. At this point, you have two options, slow boat or speed boat to Luang Prabang. The slow boat takes two days and you stop off in some town over night (might have been Pakbeng,but not sure) The speedboat takes 5 hours and we opted for some speed!! This long, very narrow boat (which only holds 6 plus the driver) quite literally speeds down the river to Luang Prabang. We should have known something was up when they gave us lifejackets and helmets with visors (trust me, safety is not something they are big on in Laos) Halfway through,the heavens opened up and we got soaked, thankfully the visors kept the rain from pelting off our face. After a few minutes the rain stopped,the sun came out and we were treated with some of the most beautiful scenery ever. Halfway through, we stopped for food and toilets etc and then we stopped to let some locals board. Seriously,we were cramped like sardines in the boat already,with our knees up around our chin but somehow the locals managed to literally balance themselves on the edge of the boat. When we got off,we read that about a dozen tourists a year die on the speedboats and we all agreed that it was the most uncomfortable thing we ever did.

Luang Prang is lovely and you've got to head up Phu Si for sunset,stunning and also check out thelocal sauna's - for only one euro,you can chill with the locals in thier cool saunas,nothing like it to get the dust out of the body! Another must is the Kuang Si Falls about 30k outside Luang Prabang.Don't go on the piss the night before and try get up at 6:30am to go to the waterfall, any tuk-tuk / taxi driverwill take u - We did it at 6:30am and had the wholeplace to ourselves, very surreal!!

From Luang Prabang, we made the 7 hour trip on the local state run bus service to Vang Vieng. The bus was built in the 1970's and we had some craic on it as we wished/prayed it would get up the top of the sandy mountain road and that the chugging noise it was making was just a special feayure of the bus. Think of the bus in the Italian Job with Michael Caine as they are going through the mountains. The bus was nicely mixed with locals and us falang - get used to that word, it's means tourist and when u hear locals shout it, you're going to be bombarded with selling pitches . In addition,the bus also provided entertanment,one of thelocals sang every singlesong in the Loas Top 40 for us,it was just like being on the set of Top of the Pops.

This is a cool little town that seems to have been purposely built around the river, tubing and caving market and I loved it. During the day, you can go tubing, caving, kayaking and at night, you can chill out around the bars and cafes. If you make it here you have got to check out a cool littlecafe called 'Give Pizza A Chance' - you can't miss it,it's run by Laos Rastas and has the Peace sign as it's logo. The pizza's are amazing but you MUST ask for a HAPPY one,lets just say that it'll come out with a certain green herbal topping and you'll be laughing for the rest of the night!!

There is an option to kayak from Vang Vieng to Vientiene and I think it takes about a day but we took the 4 hour state run bus.Again it was an old fashioned 1970's bus but it was cool,there was more locals than falang but we had great craic. Halfway through it, a loadof school kids goton and they were fascinated by us falang, especially me as I had a massive beard at the time,it was such good craic.

I wasn'tmad about Vientiene, it's a capital city and as capital cities go,it's not bad but it's no Luang Prabang or Vang Vieng. We visited the muesems, the markets and the temples all of which were cool and we also frequented the, ahem, odd bar or two!! Again, it's all about what you make of it, the locals are sooo freindly so get involved with them. We had two great days in Vientienne,one of which was when we came accross a group of local kids playing football on a big concrete square,rather than just ignoring them,we asked could weplay too, the criac we had was brilliant. The other days was at the local outdoor swimming pool, again kinda same thing,eneded up having a massive waterfight with the locals.

We then had a decision to make, head further south or move onto Vietnam, sadly due to time constrictions we had to head onto Vietnam and again we went with the bus option. It took twenty four hours and replaced the speedboat as the worst trip ever. We left Vientiene at 7pm and after about two hours in,the smell of opium was rife on the bus,it was packed with locals and falang. Suddenly, it all kicked off between the drivers assistant and one of the locals. The live chickens your man had in his potato sack were making too much noise so he got kicked off the bus and the assistant burned his ticket just so he couldn't get back on :eek: - We had our first pit stop at midnight and then another one at 2am. I kinda thought that it was weird that we were having another one so soon so Iasked the driver, turned out,we were stopping in the middle of nowhere for 5 hours waiting for the border crossing to open.The seats on the bus were madeor rock hard plastic so Iended up trying to lie on the floor. We eventually arrivedin Hanoi the next day at about 8pm after the most harrowing bus journey ever. There are no rulesof the road over there,whoever is drivng the biggest car/bus has right of way, jesus wept at some of the overtaking moves the driver pulled.

So, after that big waffle, a few conclusions....

1) Defo go to Laos

2) Do NOT fly anywhere, ALWAYS bus it. Sure, at the time,they were horrendous, scary trips but within two days you were laughing about it and recalling the trips to other back packers you met along the way. If I went back again, knowing what I know now, I'd still do everything the same, this is a once in a life time chance,these will be the stories that you tell your kids and your grandkids, if you want to go on a sh1tty flight somewhere, book a Ryanair flight to Glasgow.We met so many cool people travelling around, some of which are still best friends four years on. If you fly, quite simply you are not going to meet the same number/kind of people and you are not going to have the same expierences.

Hope you have a ball there and let us know how you got on!

Brian

Jugs82

Hi,

Spent a month in Laos last June/July on my way through SE Asia, was my favourite country beyond a shadow of a doubt

My twopence worth anyways:

I got the overnight bus from Bangkok to Vietianne, wasnt bad at all, got the visa very early in the morning and was in Vietianne for Lunch

I really liked Vietianne, i know many dont stay long there and find it a little boring but i really enjoyed the restuarants, great food, coffee shops and a reunion with Beer Lao (greatest beer in the world)

From here, i went south to Pakse and stayed for 2 nights, nice place and had a good time - then onto Champasak to see the temples which was amazing, really off the beaten track and wonderful scenery

Then onto the 4000 islands to Don Det - this is a little piece of heaven - we got a place a bit away from the boat landing where all the bars seem to be and it was so peaceful and serene - no electricity except for 2/3 hours in the evening, so be prepared to wait for your food

We got bicycles and wandered around to waterfalls, small villages, temples and to be honest, this was a real highlight of my year and a bit away - the sunsets are also magnificent

We went back to Pakse eventually and fly to Luang Prabang - went with Lao Air and had no problems whatsoever - free in flight food and beer loa and if i remember correctly, they were very comfy seats

Luang Prabang was stunning, so many monks we got a fablous place for $10 a night (that was splashing out) randomly got involved playing Badminton with Locals thena game of Keepy Uppy - they have these wodden woven balls that they try keep in the air for as long as possible - saw some amazing skill

We went off on a trek and homestay for 3 days - trekking was tough going, very hot, done a bit of rafting which was cool but the homestay was great, real experience, we had been on homestays before in Vietnam but this was different, lots of interaction with locals

Eventually left Laos and flew to Chang Mai, again with Lao air.
An amazing country and one i hope to see again soon
Enjoy your trip

CountryWise

Jesus lads thanks those stories are amazing and its definitely not a country im going to give a miss to now, by all accounts the scenery is amazing so look forward to that.
Couple of questions about the bus ride from Bangkok to Vientiane, how much was it and what kind of bus were you travelling on? and being honest was it a death bus?I had looked into a night train before and seems not too bad either.

Also anyone get to experience the "Gibbon experience"?

http://www.gibbonx.org/

Cheers for all the info much easier to plan things knowing the experiences of non Lonely planet guides as useful as they are

raemie21

hey, going to Laos for a while myself in the summer, this is a great post, especially Lao Lao, so much info - thanks from me too! That other story about the bus freaked the sh1t out of me initially, I'm going travelling on my own and worried about my body being lost in the case of a bad situation but I guess that was a while ago and I'll go with the "It won't happen to me" school of thought...

CountryWise

raemie21 wrote: »

hey, going to Laos for a while myself in the summer, this is a great post, especially Lao Lao, so much info - thanks from me too! That other story about the bus freaked the sh1t out of me initially, I'm going travelling on my own and worried about my body being lost in the case of a bad situation but I guess that was a while ago and I'll go with the "It won't happen to me" school of thought...

I guess thats the only school of thought to go with or you'd probably see nothing of the world.

Jugs82

Couple of questions about the bus ride from Bangkok to Vientiane, how much was it and what kind of bus were you travelling on? and being honest was it a death bus?I had looked into a night train before and seems not too bad either.

Cant remember exactly how much but not more than $10-12

Night train leaves you at the border - you then have to fidn your own way to Vietianne - no trains in Laos - probably more expensive and not as direct but could be fun

Bus i was on wasnt a death trap - none i was ever on were except for 1 time in Burma but thats a whole other story....

Dont worry too much about it, you shouldnt have any problems getting from Bangkok to Vietianne

CountryWise

Done more research on the night train and it seems a good option as you can get a sleeper train so you kind of save a days travelling plus some of the early morning scenery is meant to be impressive, it does drop you off short of the border but there seems to be plenty of options getting over to Vientiane.

Tuk tuk to Bus station from train,shuttle bus over Friendship bridge and into customs and then taxi the last 25km


Im presuming there is no hassle getting visa's on arrival there?

mac123

CountryWise wrote: »

I did think about getting the Bus from Laos to Hanoi but there is just way too many horror stories out there, yes the scenery is spectacular but the route is meant to be quite terrifying and the bus breaks down alot and it takes 24 hours where as a flight is an hour, not the most adventurous i know but safety first and all that its not just me I have to consider.

I took a bus from hanoi to vientien last summer, took 22hrs i think with 2 15min breaks and a stop at the border for about 2 hours. The bus was ok but the ac broke after about 2 hrs so the windows were open for the rest of the trip. they also stopped along the way and filled the aisle full of ceramic tiles for inport into laos, people then slept on top of these! there was only 6 tourists on the bus and the rest were from laos or vietnam. i was asleep for what the girl beside described as a terrifying windy road up a mountain:) on the plus side the scenery was quaility and the people on the bus with me were fairly sound too! it was also $140 cheaper than the flight!

mac123

does anyone know if its possible to rent a bike in luang prabang and drop it back in vientiane? hoping to travel laos by bike this summer! anyone done it?

CountryWise

mac123 wrote: »

does anyone know if its possible to rent a bike in luang prabang and drop it back in vientiane? hoping to travel laos by bike this summer! anyone done it?

If its motorbike then yes Im sure saw someone post a website on it here recently

youcancallmeal

Amazing thread, cheers for all the info guys!

raemie21

This is really great thread, much appreciated! I'm trying to get some plans in shape for Laos/Vietnam also but getting from Vientiane to Hanoi is hard to figure out. The bus sounds like quite the journey but I'm going to be under pressure for time. Then looking at flights, not keen on Lao airlines for the safety aspect but have read from other people's blogs even when they booked their flight in Vietnam airlines, the plane itself was actually Lao airlines at the airport.
I'm not the best flyer to be honest and the thought of being in one of those older, smaller, full noise from the propeller ones would be horrible, especially if it wasn't expected. But then, there haven't been that many accidents in recent years and presumably these flights go everyday as we speak. The bus journey would be a great experience, albeit uncomfortable but 24hours vs 2hours is the thing for me
Anyway, will just ponder some more. Actually does anyone know what's the story with booking flights a few days in advacne out in SEA in general? Would you get completely ripped off or do a lot of backpackers leave it til short notice?

CountryWise

think its ok , as a check you can try book a flight for next week see how expensive it is

mac123

CountryWise wrote: »

If its motorbike then yes Im sure saw someone post a website on it here recently

yeah i meant motorbike, think it would be a good way to do it!

mac123

when i got the bus from hanoi to vientien my mate flew and im pretty sure the plane was lao airlines even tho he booked with vietnam airlines;) as for last minute flights, tehy will be more but not much. air asia are good and cheap!

Vorsprung

Anyone got a tip for a good hotel in Vientienne? Gonna be arriving at about 8.30pm so one that's relatively easily to access would be better!