Overland from Chiang Rai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos

Getting a ride from Chiang Rai to the border is very easy. The are many local buses that depart from the bus terminal in the centre of town. The bus ride takes about 2hrs. At the border town Chiang Khong tuk tuks are waiting to take people to the border crossing for a fixed price of about 60 baht.

At the border it takes no time at all to get stamped out of Thailand so long as you have the proper documents and didn't overstay your visa. For about 30 baht per person you take a small motorised boat across the Mekong river to Laos. The ride only takes about 10 minutes. If you go to the Lao immigration on a weekend or after 4pm you'll be charged an additional fee of 1usd. At this borderyou can get a visa on arrival after filling out the immigration forms and paying the visa fee (30usd for most nationalities).

The Laos border town doesn't have much to offer other than the very highly rated Flight of the Gibbon eco-zipline experience. The weather wasn't good when we were there so we skipped on it. Most people take the slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, we took the overnight bus. It left from the bus park at about 5pm and took about 15hrs to get to Luang Prabang. The roads in Laos are in pretty bad shape and wind up and over mountain passes. It's almost impossible to driver faster than 50kph due to all the twists and hairpin turns.

There's a common scam at the the border where people say the boat isn't running and you end up spending night after night at the border. Don't be fooled!

Vientiane, Laos - Oct 2010

Arc de Triomph

Vientiane is the capital of Laos. With the help of abundant foreign aid the capital is actually not a bad place when compared with Phnom Penh. The streets are wide and paved and the buildings have a modern touch to them. The riverfront was undergoing a massive renovation back in October to create a beautiful esplanade when I was there. Along the waterfront there are some great street food stalls with seating serving up cheap food and beer lao.

Pha That Luang

There aren't many sights to see in Vientiane other than the riverfront, the somewhat disappointing Arc de Triomph and the Pha That Luang temple. Apparently the concrete used to build the Arc was donated by the US to build roads but someone saw fit to use it for other purposes. The city is however a great place to get some good food and wine. The French colonialism left behind a tradition of baguettes and wine all over Laos. I can't think of anything else left behind by the French that's any good. In fact, it was the French who introduced the squat toilet to Asia. Yep, that's right, the French. 

Sunset over the Mekong River, Vientiane, Laos

Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos - Oct 2010

I love tubing! Tubing in Vang Vieng is all about the partying. Whomever came up with the idea of sending people down a river in an inner tube and getting them drunk was a genius. You start by heading to one of the two tubing stations in town where you pay the fee for the tube in addition to a deposit. The deposit is returned in full if you return by 6pm. The total cost is about 10USD for the tubing fee + deposit. Once you're paid up and have signed the disclosure you're loaded up into a tuk tuk and chauffeured a few km down the road to the starting point / first bar.

The locals who work the bars are all really friendly and eager to throw a great party. At the first bar there's a water slide, body paint, and free lao lao (local whiskey)! The atmosphere is incredible as everyone starts up with a bucket, a shot of lao lao, or a can of beer lao. After everyone's had their fill here it's time to actually get into the tube and make your way down river to the next bar.

Mud volleyball getting underway!

The next few bars offer up more buckets, free lao lao shots, and water slides. Some of them have rope swings that start at about 6m above the river, "beach" volleyball, mud volleyball, and one even has a zip line! Although the river has a dangerously fast current during the wet season it's also at its highest level thereby making it the safest time of year to do the rope swings and slides. Despite this several people die here every year, usually because they're too drunk or can't swim or a combo of both. Regardless, if you can swim and you're not too drunk definitely do the rope swing!!

Sunset and tubing...what could
be better?!

While it's definitely not anything like the rest of Laos and has no cultural relation whatsoever to Laos, tubing in Vang Vieng is a destination unto itself. No where else in the world will you find a party scene quite like this one. And if you're too hungover to go tubing again the next day it's easy to spend your day at the many restaurants that are showing Family Guy or Friends all day long.

Vang Vieng is about 7 hours south of Luang Prabang and 3 hours north of Vientiane. It's possible to get here by private bus from Luang Prabang and by public or private bus from Vientiane. The party never stops...unless the local authorities show up.  

Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam

The only way to travel direct between Vientiane and Hanoi is via bus or plane. The flight costs about 130USD vs the bus which costs 40USD. We gathered more information about the bus and heard the 22 hour ride wasn't so bad so we went for the bus which also saved us a night of accommodation. We were picked up at 17:00 for the 19:00 bus but were taken to their travel agency to wait for others. We waited there for about an hour which seemed completely pointless since they could've just picked us up at 18:00 and we would've been fine. At about 18:15 a bus arrived from Vang Vieng and a load of people got into our minibus and we headed off for the bus park. There was quite a bit of confusion as to which bus to get on but eventually we found the right one and go on. Unfortunately since we were the last group to arrive we got stuck with the seats in the back of the bus, several of which were much smaller than the ones in the front. We squeezed ourselves into the sleeper seats and due to there being absolutely no space between any of us we got to know each other pretty quickly. I still can't believe how many sleeper seats they crammed into the bus. For the first time in my life I quickly located where the emergency exits were and how to open them.

We departed shortly after 19:00, stopped for dinner a few hours later, then I dozed off. At least one time in the middle of the night the bus stopped somewhere for a few hours so the driver could sleep. The only reason I figured out this was happening was because the engine and thus the aircon was shut off and it became really hot inside the bus. At about 06:45 we arrived at the border which was due to open at 07:00. In hindsight, we should have departed Vientiane at something like 23:00 with no stops. That would make a whole lot more sense. But it's Laos and usually what makes sense usually isn't what actually happens. 

It took about 2 hours total to clear immigration on both the Laos and Vietnam offices. The no man's land between the two borders was a 300m walk up a hill. The Lao side was easy to clear but the Viet side took a while, so long that the immigration officer asked us to take a seat. Also, this was the first land border I've ever crossed which charged a fee for the entry stamp. It's only 20000VND (appx 1USD) but the principle of it is still not cool. They did a cursory check of our bags and then we got back onto the bus around 09:00. At about 11:30 we stopped for food then headed off again. 

At around 16:00 we stopped in some city so that they could unload stuff including some finished wooden slabs that were behind my seat in the back of the bus. I joked that it was illegally logged Lao wood which now I'm pretty sure it was after reading some other people's accounts of the bus ride. Apparently each one of those slabs (about 80cm in length) is worth a few thousand USD. I guess I'm not surprised that there was some shady business going on. 

We arrived at the bus park in Hanoi at around 19:20 in the evening. Including the time from when we were picked up the entire journey lasted almost 26.5 hours but I was lucky enough to sleep about 20 of those hours. It was the longest bus ride of my life but altogether not a horrible ride. I was expecting far worse. And our driver was a pleasant guy and gave us accurate timings as to when we would arrive in Hanoi. However, if you have the money I recommend flying. 

My worst rides so far:

#1 - The 34 hour train ride in a hard seat from Xi'an to Lhasa (China)

#2 - The 13 hour overnight bus from Kathmandu to Sunauli (Nepal)

#3 - The 15 hour overnight bus from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang (Laos)

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Morning Alms in Luang Prabang

Every morning at 6am in Luang Prabang the local monks walk the main street collecting alms from the locals. The alms usually come in the form of homemade sticky rice and other foods. It's a local custom that's been around for ages. Tourists are welcome to witness the alms procession however from what I've been told it's best to witness it from a distance. There are plenty of women trying to sell sticky rice to tourists but you shouldn't buy it because the food they're selling is of dubious quality and also because you didn't prepare the sticky rice yourself. The monks also know that the sticky rice that they receive from tourists is of questionable quality.  
When we walked up to the main street I was surprised to see about 100 people lined up with alms to give to the monks and loads of tourists ready with their cameras for the monks to arrive. As we walked around some more I realized that the long line of alms givers were not local Lao people; they were Chinese package tourists. There must've been about 300 of them in total who had just arrived the day before. And even worse, they all brought their cameras and were being obnoxious Chinese tourists. Some were literally putting their cameras right in monk's faces and obstructing the procession. And just when you thought it couldn't get worse another bus full of Chinese tourists arrived.  
I managed to get away from them and their incessant photo posing and took some shots from a distance using my 18-270mm lens. The alms procession is a really beautiful thing to witness and thankfully even the hoards of Chinese tourists couldn't ruin the experience. 

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