A Lazy Week in Laos
We had a really lazy, enjoyable week in Laos. We started in Vientiane, the sleepy capitol city with less than 300,000 people. We saw a few sights and spent lots of time reading and planning. Midweek we took an eleven hour bus ride to Luang Prabang, which sounds horrible but was actually pretty nice. Despite broken seats and dusty air, we enjoyed the winding ride through the mountains. Luang Prabang is THE tourist spot in Laos, which meant there was lots of action in the tiny french colonial style town but not much authenticity. From Luang Prabang, we took a two day slow boat up the Mekong river to the border with Thailand.
1. Go
- Plane – 495 km. We decided to take the short flight from Hanoi to Vientiane instead of traveling by bus for 24 hours. It’s more expensive, but we saved on sanity.
- Bus – 345 km. Beautiful scenery through winding mountains sitting on broken seats and breathing lots of dusty air… sounds terrible, but it was actually pretty great.
- Taxi – 5 km. Transfer from airport to hotel in Vientiane
- Boat – 330 km. We spent two days traveling up the Mekong on a slow boat.
- Foot – 96,000 steps in 7 days (approx. 48 miles)
2. See
There is not much to see and do in Vientiane, but that was fine with us! We did a little sightseeing each morning, then retreated back to our room for the heat of the day. Wandering around town was easy since the sidewalks were large and the streets weren’t busy. We started with tradition by visiting Wat Sisaket and Paouxai. Wat Sisaket was reminiscent of wats in Thailand and Cambodia, but had it’s own personality. Paouxai is a monument modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and it sits on Lane Xang Avenue which is modeled after the Champs Elysees. It definitely felt like Paris mixed with Southeast Asia. On a more sombre note, we visited the COPE Visitor Center which is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of UXO’s (unexploded ordinances) left over from American bombs during the Vietnam War. They provide prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation. It was heartbreaking to hear stories of injuries left untreated due to lack of hospital resources, often resulting in amputation or death.
The old city of Luang Prabang is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is firmly on the tourist map. The old town has more tourist than locals. There are fancy hotels and restaurants lining the streets along with museums, wats, and souvenir shops. It’s a cute town, but it feels a bit staged – like a Disney version of Southeast Asia. We loved the wide sidewalks that made strolling easy and also enjoyed the cool temperatures, but felt torn about town itself. Do we love it or hate it? Maybe a little of both? On the upside, there are some great things to see and do. Our favorites were Wat Xieng Thong, The Royal Palace Museum, and Phousi (Sacred Hill).
If there’s one thing that every backpacker does in Laos, it’s the slow boat on the Mekong between the border of Thailand and Luang Prabang. There are a few options for the journey: speed boat, public slow boat, or luxury cruise. The speed boat option only takes one day, but looks like it would take years off your life. So, that left us with either the public slow boat or the luxury cruise, both take two full days. The public slow boat is cheap… really cheap… the kind of cheap that makes you wonder about the safety and comfort. It’s just transportation. There are bathrooms aboard (not the nicest) and some snacks/water for sale, but there are no stops. We heard that they fill the boats as full as possible, meaning sometimes not everyone has a seat. The luxury option was way over our budget, but included meals, tea/coffee/water all day, excursions during the trip, and an English speaking guide. Maybe our time with the Chadwick’s spoiled us, but we went with the luxury option called Shompoo Cruise (not a typo, shampoo with an “o” instead of an “a”). It was a great choice. We were happy and comfortable the whole way. We had a booth table to spread out on, but often moved to the lounge chairs to read and watch the world go by. We had an excursion each day, which were only ok but it was nice to walk around and get our blood moving.
3. Eat
Parts of Laos felt really staged to us. We felt this way in Thailand and Cambodia at times as well. In Laos (like Cambodia), restaurants are predominantly for tourists. Locals don’t really go out to eat, and if they do, it’s not where the tourists go. There is also a large expat community in Laos, so the restaurants serve all kinds of international food. Since we were only in Laos for a week, we wanted to eat Lao food as much as possible. We loved having sticky rice with our meals, but couldn’t really get use to eating with our hands and reverted to chopsticks. We did have non-Lao food as well, mostly in the form of pastries and other baked goods from the plethora of bakeries lining the streets. Our favorite Lao meals were anything wrapped in banana leaves (usually fish and/or pork) and bbq.
4. Drink
Like other countries in Southeast Asia, Laos has it’s own beer. This one is creatively called “Beer Lao.” It comes in regular, Gold, and dark. We did a taste testing night and were pretty impressed with the Gold and the dark. They weren’t too sweet and were different than the standard lager that we get everywhere else in SEA.
5. Sleep
We stayed in slightly nicer places than necessary this week. There were very few places with good reviews, so we had to compromise and raise our spending a little. In Vientiane, we stayed at a large hotel on a back alley a short walk from town. This turned out to be a great choice since the downtown area was very noisy. In Luang Prabang we followed the same rule and were generally pleased. The hotel had a nice breakfast, but some items went missing in the laundry. We noticed that one of Lindsey’s socks was missing, a bra, a pair of Pat’s socks, and shorts. Jeez! Luckily, we got it all back. Our final night was spent in Pakbeng, the halfway point on the Mekong cruise. It was clean and quiet and close to the docks.
6. Move
The mornings and evenings are nice and cool in Laos, which has meant that we can get out for more activity. Pat was able to get out for two early morning runs in Luang Prabang. We’ve been getting in a lot more walking. We basically walk all morning, then relax for the afternoon, then go out again for an evening stroll.
Check out Pat’s CADENCE Week 36 post (coming soon) for details about this week.
7. Etcetera
As we’ve mentioned before, our rough budget for this trip is $100 a day (for two people). Our daily average in Laos was $101.45. Laos turned out to be quite expensive for us! There are a few factors that contributed to this. First, we traveled more quickly than we usually do. Second, we could find beds for $5 but the types of travelers we would be surrounded by are the partying, drug taking, spoiled, inconsiderate type who would rather drink redbull and vodka until 2am than wake up at 7am for a hike… aka, not our crowd. We are happy to pay more to guarantee a quiet place to sleep and to be surrounded by other travelers who care more about traveling than partying. And third, our big budget buster was our choice to go with an luxury outfitter for the slow boat up the Mekong. It can be done for a third the price we paid. In the end, we are happy with our decisions to upgrade in Laos.
Check out our Flickr album to see all our photos from this week.
Nomadic Cadence 