Vientiane in a nutshell

Underwhelming.
Didn't have expectations coming here and I was still amazed by how devoid or bereft of character and atmosphere this place is.


Had checked up lonely planet's top 10 things to do here and it's somewhat of a joke.
Skip Talat Sao mall. It's a mall with hardly any retail stores and I'm not sure how that ranks under top 10.


Putaxai or the Victory Gate was in central Vientiane but the Buddha park (only thing I wanted to see) was too far out for my 24hrs in Vientiane.


Ate at Yulala cafe and Vieng Sawan the latter being the only highlight and it was basically Vietnamese food and ended at a mixed Lao/expat bar called Bor Pen Yung which was "nice"


Don't like speaking badly of places but if you can, skip Vientiane and don't waste your money on a hotel :/


Unfortunately I'm pretty excited to get on a 12hr bus ride to Bangkok after these 24hrs :)

Temples are pretty right? 

Only landmark worth seeing in our 24hrs there

Will was hungry. So were we...but were we pouting? :)

Vang Vieng, tubing and alcohol

Soooo..my temporary travel companion Liv and I were rather skeptical about Vang Vieng as it basically sounded like spring break. We had to pass Vang Vieng on out way south and booked 2 nights at Pans house for 25000kip in one of their bamboo bungalows.


The 4hr drive from Luang Prabang is a very fast, bumpy, scary but beautiful drive. I recommend it!


First evening - tired and sober we disliked the drunk teens and bars. Was too overwhelming.


Day 1 - Tubing
Was SO much fun. Apart from the landscape I fell in love with, tubing was a lot more chill.
If you didn't like the bar/music or people, you just floated to the next.
People were more chill during the day and we welcomed all the free shots, beer ping pong etc.


Day 2 - The blue lagoon
I'd take a scooter or walk next time. The roads in Laos aren't dirt roads but more like stone roads.. ;)
Took around 30min but we unfortunately fell for one scam. A big yellow sign claiming to be the blue lagoon distracted us from tfe actual correct sign and we ended up coming to a murky lagoon that underwhelmed us. Fortunately we were only half scammed as we paid 5000kip instead of 10000kip each ;)
Once we got there - sweating from our bumpy bike ride, we jumped right in and chilled there.


Day 3 - Tubing again


We had to attempt to tube down the entire river. As you lose your deposit if the tube isn't returned by 18:00 we started off earlier and with some friends who joined us in VV.


Unfortunately like the second night, we didn't want to go out to party/drinking again so there was little to do as all restaurants close 23:30-00:00 and our guest house had no wifi.
Only draw back in VV!


Here a sum up in video!


Anyway, going to have a second shower in my TILED bathroom, meet up some folks here in Ventiane and check out the night life before heading to Bangkok tomorrow in yet another sleeping bus ;)

PS:
Price for tubing 55000kip + 60000kip deposit.
Bus Vang Vieng-Ventiane departing at 9:00/13:30 50000kip

Biggest chocolate cake slice ever :)

First bar at tubing central

And another bar...

Biking to the lagoon

As warned - it took us a while to find, but the one and only Blue Lagoon everyone talks about. Ice cold water, Koi fish and caves if you wish to venture...

The drive to and from Vang Vieng was breathtaking...

Luang Prabang in a nutshell

We arrived by slow boat and were pretty hungry do we had some touristy food in some random restaurant.
We regret doing so when we discovered the food alley :/


I paid 60000kip instead of 10000kip. Oh well :)


Day after I barely made it through one temple and I went back to Spicy Laos because something felt off. Caught the travel bug and was in bed the entire day, but probably lost some weight I gained :D


Luang Prabang is a sleepy little picturesque town catering to tourism.
I didn't really think the food was especially authentic. It was sandwiches or western food for breskfast if you didn't feel like combing Luang Prabang for less western food stands.


I did manage to have a chicken laap along the Mekong Delta which is probably the only proper Lao food I had.
Kudos to the Lao coffee though!


The nature around here is amazing so if Luang Prabang is too touristy you can always take a slow boat to remote villages or head south on the Mekong to 4000 islands and other gems like Khoun Xe cave. The landscapes are beautiful especially heading to Vang Vieng (next post :)


Definitely check out Utopia Bar, Icon bar and The Hive if you can (close 23:30).
Remember that there's a curfew at midnight do most places will be closed by 23:30 but you can go to the local discotheque too if you like mixing with the locals more or to the bowling alley where everyone meets.
It's ok to be in a tuk tuk but don't walk around at night :)

Blue Lagoon

At Utopia

Thailand to Laos

So every guest house in Chiang Mai offers a package of bus and slow boat to Laos. I paid 1700 baht at Junior guest house.
This includes bus ride to Chiang Khong, overnight stay/dinner & breakfast and a very tiny lunch on the slow boat the first day.
It's recommended you have more food, water and toilet paper with you on the boat as food and drinks are overpriced. It's a long but enjoyable ride but not everyone with a ticket gets a seat!
We did hear that if one complains they will be forced to use another ferry though...




Watch the video if you plan doing this trip. Last part is our guide on the Laos side of the border and he's the first person who didn't bullshit us :)



Night 1 - Chiang Kong
The first house at Chiang Kong tried to charge us 30USD to check us out at immigration but left us under the impression this was for our visas in Laos.
Had we paid her, we'd have to pay another 30USD at immigration in Laos :P


Day 2 - Crossing the border


One of the many things our tour lady said was that there is a lot of people queuing at the Thai border and that the boat leaves at 10 do it was risky if we wanted to check out ourselves. BS. Boat leaves between 11:30-12:00


The meals we had in the tour package are small so it's recommended to hunt for some street BBQs.
Once in Laos there were great street stalls to stock up on sandwiches etc so don't do it in Chiang Kong. The guide in Laos was probably the only person who did not bullshit us despite his hangover, so check it out before crossing to Laos.


We were somewhat unlucky that we got to the boat so late, so we ended up sitting in the engine room
Pros: it's warm so if the sun isn't out, you can lie down and sleep, play cards etc.


Cons: it's loud. Check the video ;)




Night 2 - Pak Beng
To our surprise the rooms were really nice, clean and comfy.


It's a lovely atmosphere and there's a Thai bar further up the main road if you wanna sing karaoke with the Thai girl in the bar or request songs :)


Day 2 - Pak Beng to Luang Prabang


Pros: we got seats in the front so no engine room!!


Cons: it was overcast so we were freezing our asses off. Wrapped my head in a cardigan cause I already got semi sick in Chiang Mai and lost my voice twice within 4 days of being out at night in skimpy clothing :P
Had one of those annoying Asian toilet holes. What a curse for women!


When you arrive in Luang Prabang you literally hit a plethora of guesthouse s so no need to book one in advance.


We stayed at Spicy hostel but it's very low budget and not the best location!

Boarding our ferry

Looking happy huh?

6hrs on this ;)

We came to terms with our situation ;)

Second day we got seats but it was pretty cold for 6hrs. bring warm clothes peeps!