Leaning In

With Thailand behind us it was time to visit Laos; the relatively forgotten and lesser travelled country at the heart of South East Asia.

Our plan had always been to start our journey with the slow boat down the Mekong River. This involved crossing one of the Thai-Laos friendship bridges and booking on to a 2-day boating extravaganza! In the end it was a bit of a mission, but we did it and have no regrets! If you want to read more about it you can on the blog post Olivia wrote about it, here.

Anyway, now we were in Loas. Time to get started! 

Our first impressions of the place were a bit mixed. Having come from the tourist destination that is Thailand, Laos was like jumping backwards in time. Here things move slower, the people live a simpler life and everything is quieter. Tuk Tuks however will never change!

The final slow boat drop off was Luang Prabang. Our first sight of it was the drive in, huddled in the back of our crowded Tuk Tuk! It was hard to believe it was the second largest city in the whole of Laos. To us it seemed more like a large town! First things first, we checked into a great little guesthouse with a man at reception who turned out to be a god send – more on him later. 

After the full day on the slow boat travelling the only logical thing to do was to head around the corner, get a bowl of noodle soup and a few local Luang Prabang beers to celebrate the crossing. Then, naturally, we slept!

We spent the next few days exploring Luang Prabang on a scooter. The city and country has a long history coloured by colonisation and as such a large section of the riverfront in Luang Prabang is still full of older colonial style buildings. It was beautiful. We enjoyed walking along here, dipping into the odd park and visiting many of the colourful Wats that are sprinkled throughout. 

Coming from the flash of the buddhist sites in Thailand the more traditional temples here had a really authentic feel to them. Wat Sensoukharam in particular is a real sight to behold. That night we headed to the night market in the same area. We managed to bump into some friendly faces from the slow boat and had dinner with them which was nice! This was a great first day here but the next was to be one of the highlights of our entire trip through S.E.A.

Up early we headed to Kuang Si Waterfall. This is a series of 3 stepped pools leading up to one of Asias most beautiful waterfalls. We got there early to avoid the midday heat but given how bad the road surface was on the way there we were glad not to be in a rush! We spent half the day here, most of which in one of the pools that you can swim in. Being earlier meant we pretty much had the place to ourselves, it really was getting busy by the time we left. 

On the way back we stopped in a little restaurant that served wood fired pizza – swimming always makes you hungry after all! It really was one of the best days we’ve had, we both loved every minute of it! Highly recommend! A great way to finish Luang Prabang.

Next on the agenda was Vang Vieng, the hot air ballon capital of Laos apparently! We had contemplated getting a sleeper bus here, but our hotel receptionist came in clutch and managed to get us tickets on Laos’ new high speed train, a much more civilised way to travel I’m sure you’d agree. It only took 45mins to get us to Vang Vieng (compared to 4.5hrs on a bus). 

We stepped out of the station and couldn’t get over the heat that greeted us. What makes this place spectacular for hot air ballooning also makes it so hot – the mountains!  The town is basically encircled by them! We sweated our way to the hostel and dropped the bags. Here they managed to organise a scooter for us to pick up later that afternoon. 

When it was ready we decided to take the plunge and drive out to a lagoon. There are many here in Luang Prabang, it’s kind of what this place is known for (and balloons). There will be a lagoon to suit everybody, whether you are looking to party, relax or something in between. We chose Lagoon 4 as it seemed a bit more out of the way and suited our vibe. We didn’t get there until later in the evening. The timing was ideal however as everyone seemed to be clearing out – perfect! We spent a few hours diving into the blue water and floating about, exactly what we needed to cool off! The man who ran the place even lit us a fire later on to keep us warm as we dried off – what a guy! (He did try and get me to fish which went as well as you could imagine – Olivia enjoyed watching that though!)

The next day we had hoped to get a sunset hot air balloon ride, unfortunately, this was not to be. Remember those mountains I spoke about? Along with trapping heat they trap clouds and when it rains in Vang Vieng – it pours! It started at about midday and rained for the rest of the time we were there! Luckily, we were leaving the next day, so it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. We had never planned to take a hot air balloon here but still, sad to have missed it! If you want to read more about the experience of taking a hot air balloon in Vang Vieng our friend Steph has a great post blog post about it here!

The following day a short 2hr high speed train ride brought us to the capital, Vientiane. As far as major cities go this place is tiny! We think this is a great analogy for Laos as a whole, the lack of major industry and maritime links leaves this country somewhat isolated in Asia. There is more investment coming from China (they built the railway and are building most of the roads) but they are still behind their neighbours.

There are sights to see here but at this point Olivia and I were ready to take it a bit easier. We visited Patuxai in the centre of the city which is impressive if not a little out of place. A bit strange that something built by the French is a symbol of Laotian freedom, but anyway. Other than that we had a nice Indian for dinner which was a change from the diet of the last few months! We only stayed in the capital here for a night.

After a restful night in the city we got up the next day and took a very long (13hr) sleeper bus to Pakse. This was a bit of an endurance but it’s Asia, what are you going to do! 

Some of the best travelling experiences we have had involve being in areas where you are the only outsiders – Pakse felt like that. From people stopping to look at you to kids losing their mind when you ride past, being here made us feel like we were really in the Laos countryside – seeing the country through the eyes of the locals. 

We spent our time here exploring the local area on a scooter with one of the days taking us outside of the town to Wat Phou, described as “Little Angkor Wat”. We can see the similarities, but it really is a small sight. We found it to be very beautiful and very quiet, there were barely any tourists. 

The main issue with Wat Phou came down to the amount of litter. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Mekong and anything littered in the river must blow up onto the site, to be honest it was quite upsetting. If Vientiane is an analogy for the poverty of Laos, Wat Phou is an example of the issues facing it as a tourist destination. The country has such promise, but there is still such a long way to go before it can fulfil its potential.

Our last stop in Laos was Don Det and wow, what a place. This area is known as the 4000 islands and that’s not an exaggeration. Situated in the Mekong River are quiet islands where you can really take a step back and relax. We actually stayed on the sister island to Don Det, Don Khone and given the scale of the place and how easy it was to get between the two we would recommend this to anyone. We may have had a small scooter crash here that put a bit of a dampener on things towards the end of our time here, but as a whole it was a great place to come and relax. We took a few days to rest, recharge and reflect on Laos as a country. 

Closing Thoughts:

Laos really is a place with the potential to be something great. The landscape is stunning, the people are some of the friendliest we have come across and the cost of food/drink/experiences rivals anywhere else in South East Asia. But the issues facing the country are hard to solve. In our time there we saw a lot of widespread poverty. In Thailand we felt the average household income was low but the Thai people seemed content. In Laos it really looked like poverty. Shacks in the countryside and along rail lines, agricultural activity (and cows) everywhere and rubbish wherever you look. There is a lot that needs to happen to get it where we know it can be. We are very glad to have visited the amazing place and if you are travelling in Asia and have the time, it’s definitely worth a trip. Measure your expectations, prepare your butts for horrendous roads and amazing trains. Laos is a complex place, a country in transition.