Laos: Vang Vieng and Vientiane

For travelers exploring SE Asia, both Vang Vieng and Vientiane are likely to be part of any itinerary going Southwards through Laos. These contrasting destinations provide very different experiences and reasons to visit, with the first having a long-lasting hedonistic reputation and the latter being the rather low-key and sleepy capital of Laos.

With only 10 weeks of traveling in SE Asia, we allocated about 3 weeks for Laos. Having already spent two days on a slow boat from the Laos border town of Huay Xai (overnighting in Pak Beng) to Luang Prabang, where we stayed for 4 nights, our plan was to continue traveling overland and avoid flying whenever possible since we felt that it was the best way to really get to know the country and its people. There are long distances to travel in Laos, with less-than-great-roads, being one of the least developed countries in SE Asia. 

The next two destinations on our journey South required two longish bus journeys, something that we were not particularly looking forward to.   

Our VIP Bus Experience 

Rewinding a bit back from my last blog post, we decided to book the next leg of our journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng through our hotel in Luang Prabang. Having heard many horror stories about bus journeys in Laos, we were keen to avoid those kinds of scenarios.

We were reassured that our “VIP” bus was going to be great…so what could possibly go wrong?

We left our hotel at an early 7 am pick up, on the back of a songthaew (local taxi) towards the Luang Prabang main bus station. Our shared ride went on to collect other travelers on the way. We were first joined by a lovely couple from Thailand who spoke some English and soon introduced themselves to us. Next, we picked up a couple who currently live in Provence, France (although she ( Juliet) was originally from Zimbabwe and he (Francis) from Switzerland). Lastly, we picked up a Chinese couple before finally arriving at the bus station.  

Once at the bus station it did not take long for us all to realize that our bus journey was not going to be anything like what we were promised. We soon learned that “VIP” does not mean much in Laos. But since we had no other transport option available, we all boarded the old rickety van, just as our luggage was being hauled over into the rooftop. We were crammed in like sardines with very little legroom. Both Brian and I quickly swallowed an anti-sickness tablet before the start of what was set to be a hard long trip. Poor Francis sat on the single-seat by the door, this is the seat that blocks the aisle so you need to move should others need to get on or off.

Our VIP bus was not what we expected. We stopped here for a WC break (squatting toilets), and were charged 2000 KIP for the privilege.

The scenery was pretty, through the mountains, passing rustic Lao villages, up and down the winding, dusty roads. We stopped twice for toilet breaks (costing us 2000 KIP or 20 cents to use the squatting WC). We also stopped for a one-hour lunch break, but it was chaotic and we couldn’t understand why there was no food on offer for us. The Thai couple, who we befriended earlier ended up buying us lunch since they could speak the local language and managed to persuade them to cook us something. The kindness of total strangers has been something that we have encountered many times during our travels. 

Seven hours later we arrived in Vang Vieng, where the rickety old bus dropped us at a side of a dusty road in the outskirts of the town. Juliet and Francis (the couple who currently live in Provence) were also dropped here, the Thai couple (who kindly paid for our lunch) continued on for another 6 hours to Vientiane, so we say our good buys to them and leave the bus.   

Our first introduction to Vang Vieng did not do much to endear us towards this adrenaline-fuelled adventure destination, with our first challenge being to find a taxi to our hotel. 

Vang Vieng  

Deep in the jungles of rural Laos, this riverside town gained notoriety, but not for the right reasons. This once tranquil farming community was not too long ago the epicenter for backpackers behaving badly. Cheap booze, drugs, and river tubing debauchery fulled its reputation as the best party town in Asia. Unfortunately, young people started dying on a worryingly regular basis and back in 2011 about 27 backpackers died on the river, forcing the local government to start enforcing some regulation. They cleaned up all the illegal bars along the river and things have greatly improved since then.  

The Nam Song River has claimed many young backpackers’ lives.

This area is surrounded by towering limestone peaks, with the Nam Song River meandering through the beautiful landscape. There are lagoons, caves, mountains, and forests to explore. We are visiting during the Chinese New Year Celebrations ( 2020 is the Year of the Rat ), the celebrations go from the 25th of January to the 4th of February 2020. The town was buzzing with activity. 

Here are some of the things we got up to in Vang Vieng:

Amazing Sunsets – With a backdrop of mountains, the sunsets were spectacular. Our hotel (The Jasmine Hotel) had a lovely balcony with views of the beautiful landscape. We also lucked out with having great neighbors staying right next door, so they joined us in the evening for our very first balcony sunset drinks and exchanging of many travel stories.

Golda took this photo of us enjoying the sunset from our hotel balcony.

Views from our balcony, Vang Vieng is a great place for hot air balloon rides. We would watch them lift up in the early morning or late afternoon.

Jamie and Golda were Canadian, living in Nova Scotia, and were traveling together for 3 months around SE Asia, and then Jamie was going to return home to work whilst Golda was going to continue traveling solo. They were such great fun but unfortunately, they left the next day bound for Vientiane. We did meet them again, but just very briefly in the South of Laos, and we also stayed in touch via Whatsup for the rest of our trip. They were quite ahead of us and very generously kept giving us great tips on hotels and places to visit as we traveled through many of the places that they visited. 

Hiking to the Pha Poak Viewpoint – The viewpoint was easy to reach by foot since it was not far from the town center, but don’t do it as we did, and take the rather long way around, instead just cross over the small bamboo bridge next to the Phubarn Cafe. On the other side, head towards the Banana Bungalows where you should see a sign pointing you in the right direction. The small tree-covered-hill looks quite small, but the climb to the top is not as easy as it looks. There is a small fee to pay (10 000 KIP/ £1 US$ 1.16) collected at the entrance. 

We are heading for the small hill, with a flagpole on top.

There are large jagged rocks to climb over and not very sturdy bamboo/wooden ladders taking you to the top, so make sure to test the handrails before leaning or holding onto them since these makeshift ladders were unnervingly rickety and did not feel very safe. Near the top, the rocks get a lot larger, sharper, and more challenging, and wearing sturdy shoes (no flipflops or sandals) is a must. There is a flagpole at the summit, with amazing views of the town of Vang Vieng on one side and the dramatic karst mountains on the other. We were alone at the top for some time enjoying the views, until a young German girl, called Hannah arrived to keep us company and take some pictures of us. 

Hannah took this photo for us.

Although there are other higher and more challenging hikes in this area, we were pleased to have done this not super hard, yet very satisfying hike. I would not recommend this hike to anyone who is scared of heights or suffers from vertigo. It took us about half an hour to get to the top. Getting back down can be even harder, so I would advise anyone doing this hike to be sure to take it slow.  

Hiring a Buggy to Explore the Lagoons – Our buggy hiring was a great way to visit the countryside, explore the caves, and search for some of the blue lagoons. We headed out of Vang Vieng by crossing a bridge, where we had to pay a toll of 10 000 KIP ( about £1 ).

Crossing this bridge by buggy was about 10 000 KIP (£1), it is cheaper on foot.

In the first part of the journey there were tarmac roads, but later on the unmade roads were not so nice, and although mostly flat the roads were very dusty. We were grateful for our face-covering buffs, although even then I don’t think we have ever inhaled so much dust in all of our lives.  Every time another buggy passed we were left in a huge cloud of dust, I would have hated being part of a tour group all following each other and eating dust for most of the way. At least going independently we were able to stay right back. We felt sorry for the Lao folk living along this stretch of road and having their homes permanently caked in thick red dust. 

There were also lots of animals on the road, such as cows, chicken, goats, dogs. Going through the small villages we would often pass the kids playing on the streets, riding their bicycles, balancing precariously with at least another one or two of their friends on the same bicycle.  

The buggy was good fun, but the roads were very dusty, wearing face coverings helped.

Beautiful countryside with mountain views all around us…did I mention the dust?

Soon after collecting our buggy, we started the day by first exploring the Tham Chang Cave which was located not far from the town center. We got there nice and early before the crowds and tour buses arrived, there were people from all over the world visiting Vang Vieng but in particular large groups of Chinese and South Koreans celebrating Chinese New Year.

To reach the cave, there were about 200+ steps taking us up to the cave entrance. The cave’s interior was huge, with impressive stalagmites and stalactites.  

Steps up to Tham Chang Cave.

Next, we drove to Blue Lagoon 3, about 14 km out of town and the least busy of all the lagoons. The turquoise blue waters are fed by a natural spring and looked very clean. We had lunch (vegetable stir-fried noodles) and a drink at the basic restaurant on site. It is a lovely setting, with lush tropical vegetation but neither of us felt much like swimming, in fact the water was just far too cold to tempt either of us.

Blue Lagoon 3 was not too busy.

Lastly, we visited the Blue Lagoon 1. Being the closest one to town it gets super busy, another victim of the double-edged sword of mass tourism in which a perhaps once-upon-a-time idyllic place becomes overcrowded and charmless. There are water slides, rope swings, and higher platforms for people to jump into the water. Since it was Chinese New Year during our visit to Vang Vieng, this lagoon was even more chaotic than usual. For us, it was not our favorite place.

The only saving grace here was the amazing  Phu Kham Cave. We by-passed the lagoon and opted instead to climb up a steep trail with some very steep stone steps before getting to the narrow cave entrance, which opens up into a well-lit chamber. There is a bronze reclining Buddha at this main chamber, with the sunbeams coming in from the mouth of the cave shining into the Buddha image like a beacon of light. We walked on from here into deeper, darker chambers that continue on for many km. We brought our own head torches ( they do rent torches at the entrance if needed), which are a must since it is very dark inside this cave. 

The natural light comes in from the mouth of the cave, shinning into the reclining Buddha image. The rest of the cave is completely dark.

The cave is huge, the first chamber has some natural light shining into the reclining Buddha.

Exploring further inside the cave will require a guide, it is pitch-black (having a torch is a must) and it can be very disorienting. We ventured inside for a few meters but soon realized that going further on our own would not be a good idea. As we retraced our steps back to the cave entrance with only our head torches to show the way, we appreciated how easy it could be to get lost. After exploring the cave we drove back to our hotel for a good shower and getting rid of the thick dust that coated our whole bodies and clothes. 

Eating out – Our first night of eating out in this town was disappointing, to say the least, we waited for about one hour at a restaurant to be served, until the waiter informed us that they were having problems in the kitchen with just one chef to cater for a very full restaurant (did I mention that it was Chinese New Year?). We paid for our drinks and swiftly left, we then waited another 45 minutes at another restaurant to finally have our dinner. Called the “Happy Mango”, the food at this restaurant was excellent and at least, it was worth the wait. 

We also loved eating at the “Green Restaurant” (thank you, Golda and Jamie, for recommending it to us), situated in a beautiful setting with outdoor tables and views of the towering karsts.

Our favorite meal though was at a little restaurant run by a South Korean family called Tham Nada, not far from our hotel, though sadly no nice views here since it is located in a residential area. 

We also enjoyed eating lunch one day at the Phubarn Cafe on the shores of the Nam Song River, where we found ourselves meeting up again ( totally by chance) with our “VIP bus” traveling companions Juliet and Francis from Provence. One of the great things about traveling is the people you meet along the way, believe it or not, we bumped into Juliet and Francis 3 times during our stay in this town and of course, we exchanged contact details and have stayed in touch with them ever since. 

After spending 3 nights in Vang Vieng, we moved on to Vientiane. We braced ourselves for another “hellish VIP bus journey”, but to our surprise, we had a larger bus this time, the journey was a lot more pleasant and four hours later we arrived not too traumatized at our new destination. The bus left us very close to our hotel, so we strapped on our backpacks and walked to the Avilla Phasouk Hotel, which turned out to be a friendly hotel with a very spacious room and in an excellent location. The delicious breakfast was included in the price of the room. 

Vientiane

Vientiane is the Capital of Laos, situated along the shores of the Mekong River, and even though it is Laos biggest city, this place is no bustling SE Asian city. Described by many as pleasant, albeit slightly boring capital city, it does not have the charm and vibe of some other SE Asian capitals such as the Thai capital of Bangkok or the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. But there is beautiful French-inspired architecture, fascinating Buddhist temples, and plenty of delicious Lao food on offer.

We found it to be quite a chilled out city, a place to take it easy, particularly since we had both developed mild colds and were feeling a bit rundown. We decided to stay for 3 nights and explore it at a very slow pace, and here are some of the things we enjoyed about this sleepy capital: 

That Dam – We walked there from our hotel. That Dam also called Black Stupa,  is an ancient, large bell-shaped stupa believed to have been protected by a seven-headed water serpent. During its golden age, it was literally covered in gold, but according to legend, the Siamese took the gold when they invaded Vientiane in the 1820s.

That Dam also called Black Stupa, was once covered in gold.

Nowadays it is not that impressive, left unloved in the middle of a busy street. It is not worth making a trip out especially to see it, but since it was on the way to visit Wat Si Saket, we thought it would be worth a stop. 

Wat Si Saket – Built about 200 years ago, it has a unique Siamese Style, giving the appearance of a Thai Temple. 

The temple is most visited for its thousands of Buddha images made of silver, stone, bronze, and ceramic nestled into its cloisters. The Buddha statues are aged between 100-400 years old and form a striking display along the covered walkways of the temple. 

Wat Si Saket

There are thousands of Buddha images displayed along the covered walkways of the temple.

There is a daily morning alms ceremony that takes place here, where locals give their offerings to the temple’s monks.

Patuxai Victory Monument – Finished in 1968, it was built to commemorate all the Laotians who fought and died for their independence against the French, and ironically the monument was modeled on France’s Arc de Triomphe, albeit with an Asian feel. It was erected on the Lang Xang Avenue, a main road opposite the Presidential Palace. There are some great views over the city of Vientiane from the top of the monument. There is a small fee to pay, but the views are worth it, and I do recommend climbing up to the very top to fully appreciate it.  

Patuxai Victory Monument, local students are here taking some graduation photos.

From the top of the Patuxai Victory Monument, there are great views over Vientiane.

Pha That Luang – This beautiful golden Buddhist Stupa, located in the center of the city, dating back to the 3rd Century, stands as a national symbol and it is the most revered national monument of Laos. Legend has it that part of Buddha’s breast bone is buried here. The famous Boun That Luang Festival takes place on the grounds every year in November. The Stupa has been repeatedly plundered by various invaders and what is seen here now has been the result of sympathetic restoration in the 1930s. We had another opportunity here for a lovely long chat with monks, who were very happy to chat and practice speaking English, and for us, it was another chance to understand more about Buddhism and what it is like to live in a monastery. 

Pha That Luang and another chance to have a nice long chat with Buddhist monks.

We visited it after Patuxai and It would certainly have been possible to walk here from the Patuxai Victory Monument, but we decided to hail a tuk-tuk to save our tired legs and it was great that the tuk-tuk driver waited to take us back to the hotel afterward. 

COPE Visitor center – This visitor center is another of the many humbling places we visited in SE Asia. Similar to the one we visited in Luang Prabang, it exposes the dark history of Lao’s “Secret War” and the 260 million bombs that were dropped on Laos from 1964-1973. COPE provides artificial limbs and rehabilitation for people, many of them children, who have lost limbs due to UXOs, or unexploded ordinances. We recommend a visit to this place to learn about the impact of a war that was never “officially” disclosed, somehow Laos became involved in someone else’s fight, paying a very high price and continuing to suffer the effects of the neighboring Vietnam War. 

COPE provides artificial limbs and rehabilitation for people, many of them children,

COPE Visitor Center

Browsing the Night Market/ Chinese Market – Opens daily along the riverfront, it is definitely worth having a look at the many stalls selling traditional arts and crafts, clothes, shoes, bags, and other souvenirs for very low prices. Be aware of some fake items, you might recognize the label but the low price and poor quality will make it very obvious that it is not a genuine article. There are some food stalls at the market, but there is also is a food court very near the market with some great food and drinks available for very reasonable prices. 

We also really enjoyed going for a late evening stroll along the riverfront, after visiting the market. The Mekong River forms much of the border between Laos and Thailand and at night you can see the many twinkling lights of a Thai city just on the other side of the river. 

Walking around Vientiane it is very obvious to us that the relative serenity, slow pace, and small-town feel of this city might not last for long. There is a lot of foreign investment here, particularly from China. Construction is already underway of a train line to connect China’s southern Yunnan province with Laos’ capital, Vientiane, predicted to open in 2021.

Laotian officials are promising that the high-speed Laos-China railway will be setting about economic changes that will be good for the country, bringing better infrastructure and prosperity. But apparently local people are not so sure about these developments, there has been increasing concern about the real benefits of Chinese investments in Laos.  

Although this city is not packed full of must-see sights, we have enjoyed our time here and would recommend it as part of any Laos itinerary, 2 full days should be enough to get a good feel for this city. 

Our dilemma traveling onwards through Laos:

We were very keen to continue traveling South through Laos, with our next destination being Pakse and the 4000 Islands. But the question was how to get there? Should we continue to travel by land as it was our original intent or should we fly?

By Bus – With over 600 Km to cover, the journey South would take about 11 hours, knowing what the “VIP” bus journeys are like in Laos it was not something we were relishing. 

By Plane – Flying would take only about 2:30 hrs which did sound very tempting. Our friends Golda and Jamie (who we met in Vang Vieng) took this option and were already enjoying life in a hammock at the 4000 Islands. 

Decisions…decisions! Sorry, but you will have to wait for my next blog post to find out what happens next. 

Update on Coronavirus:

As we leave Vientiane, Capital of Laos on a Friday, January 31st, 2020 there are two main events grabbing our attention:

Back home we are no longer part of the European Union, Brexit has taken effect.

The other news is that Coronavirus has now been fast spreading throughout the world. Today, the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 acute respiratory disease were
reported in the UK, and for the rest of Europe, there are also 2 cases in Italy, 5 in Germany, 6 in France, and 1 in Sweden. 

There are 9,720 confirmed cases in China with 213 deaths from COVID-19, and there are 106 confirmed cases outside of China. The virus has now spread to 19 countries. WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. Almost 60 million people are under full or partial lockdown measures in Chinese cities. 

The UK is evacuating British citizens out of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak. There are 6 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US and the President has started imposing a travel ban on foreign nationals who have been in China in the past 14 days.

There have been no confirmed cases reported in Laos at this point, therefore our travels continue as planned.