Thread: Luang Prabang to Vientiane with Pops

I took this trip with my Dad in November 2007. He had come to stay with me for 3 months and as I had never been to Luang Prabang before we decided that would be a good place to start.


I momentarily thought the slow boat would be nice but decided against it. There really is only 2 options of getting to LB: an expensive flight or a slow and grueling 2 day trip on a floating sardine can packed with backpackers. We took the flight. We left Chiang Mai on Laos Airlines and an hour later we were in Luang Prabang.



^ Flying into LP


I got my first laugh of the trip when we were going through immigration. You get a 30 day visa and depending on where you are from the cost is around $35. So we’re waiting in line and here are the Canadian’s bitching about the cost! Why? Because Canadians have to pay $50 and Americans only $35!

We walked around town for a bit looking for places to stay. Seems that they have plenty of accommodation but all we found were high end, $50+ per night and low end under $20. I talked my dad into staying at the low end place just to give him a crash course on living on the cheap.

Here are a few pics of the Mekong. It was crap weather we had and was raining or drizzling the entire time. It was also quite cold, something I didn't pack for.

LPB seems to be full of the rich European travelers. Everywhere you turned there were couples dressed up as the Steve Irwin family like they are some modern day Stanley and Livingston out to explore the new world.

LPB is also full of cafes and artsy shops; crap like that. Needless to say it wasn’t really my kind of place so off we went to look for the nightlife.


We found this great Tuk Tuk driver and he was our guide for the night. I told him to take us to a bar or club and our first stop was the local bowling alley. Turns out he is quite good. He acted like he didn’t know how to play at first then saw we could hit the pins and started cleaning the floor with us.





We also went to one disco and some type of lounge bar. There is some nightlife but it is few and far between and not in the city. We drove for about 15-20 minutes before finding any bars. Most of the girls speak no English and the Laos guys constantly forget to smile in your direction.



The town also closes down at like 10pm. I had to bang on the door of the guesthouse for 10 minutes before the guy woke up and let us in.

The next day we went out to see some temples.

The entire town of LPB is a world heritage site due to the many old temples and history of the city. The most famous temple is Wat Xieng Thong built in 1560, previously a royal temple.



^ This house some royal Buddhas and other items

The temple grounds consists of about 3 structures and the main temple has some pretty impressive artwork.






^ this scene was very intricate and depicted different aspects of life in LPB back in the 16th and 17th century.


Below I believe is the tree of life also impressive when the light hits it just right and reflects off of the ceramic and glass.

One thing I noticed was the state of disrepair of the buildings interior. Seems they don’t make any effort to restore or even clean this important monument. Every visitor pays 20,000 kip so there should be some maintenance going on.





^ Some Royal artifacts.




If you like temples Luang Prabang is a great place. I have seen plenty in my time so a few hours was enough for me. I found the town to be quite boring; not just the nightlife but the lack of decent food or even a nice place to have a beer. Laos food is really bland and boring and the attempts at "western" food fall far short of even the Thais interpretation.


I will say though the Beer Lao was good and the fish is recommended.

The next day we were off on what we were told was a 3-4 hour bus ride to Vang Vieng.

I will never take this bus again!!!! The Fckn bus from hell! I don’t know how many of you have ever experienced sea sickness. I used to do a fair bit of fishing in the Atlantic off New England and have had my share. The feeling is indescribable. The misery, pain, all you want to do is throw yourself off the boat. Once you get it there is no cure except to get off the boat.









Well I got seasick on this bus. Probably due to being hungover and the winding, curving, ups and downs, potholes, bumps, I don’t know how but I got it. And the buss will stop right? Pee break? Nope. No stops. A horrible 6 hours of feeling like sh_t. My father had a great time teasing me though and I was not happy. I said in not so kind words that if I spew he is going to be in the line of fire.

^ The scenery was nice though when I managed to open my eyes.

As we started to descend you can see how the landscape changes from high mountain ridges to steep karst mountains. At this point I knew we were getting close to Vang Vieng and I couldn’t wait.

Finally we arrive in Vang Vieng. This town is about a 3-4 hour bus ride from Vientiane and a great place to come while you are waiting to get your visa processed. I have been a few times before and after this thread I will start another from Vang Vieng to Si Phan Don or the 4000 islands in the south near Cambodia.





The entire region is covered with countless caves and these karst or limestone mountains. During the war these caves were used as bunkers and most are not even on the map.

There are loads of stops along the way. Here is a small restaurant and beer stop.




The river during this time of year is free from the scourge that plague this part of Laos: The Backpacker. My next thread will show this in more detail.




^ It was so quite on the river. Although as you can see they are planning mass development for this area. I was just here 6 months before and during this time the amount of development was noticeable.

If you want to see it in all its beauty you'd better get here quick as it will not last. The signs of mass development are everywhere.

that looks ace
ive done the overland trip on the back of a tobacco wagon, murder it was
but didnt stop at vang vieng

This is one of the many recreational stops. You can get drunk as a skunk climb 25 feet up a rickety bamboo platform and swing off into the river with no idea what’s below of if the Laos engineering will hold!

Great thread! Thanks!

Good stuff...I love especially the 'floating down the river' part...reminds me of younger days back home...except that South Island rivers are a bit colder than what you experienced...

Originally Posted by thegent

any number of unpretentious outdoor cafes

So you didn't enjoy them then?

I rather think the moronic comment thread is taking place elsewhere.

Originally Posted by thegent

Think of Noel Coward and a touch of Somerset Maugham and you will get a rough idea of the style of the place on a good night particularly when the rains are falling.

No offense Gent, but as I said before the place is crap. The snobby well to do Brits that infested the place really put me off. And the arty, stuck up folk on the $4000 week long tour to see "remote and untouched" Asia were a bunch of twats. I really wish I would have got a pic of the many couples in matching expedition gear. They really thought they were headed into the unknown.

I couldn't wait to leave.

None taken chum but one wonders what experience has provoked your prejudice.

Or is it just a dreary class thing?

We get up bright and early the next morning and go and rent some peddle bikes. My father wanted to rent a motorbike but due to previous experience renting them in VangVieng and having it breakdown 3 times before I just left it on the side of the road, I decided against it.

It takes us about an hour to find the right road as there are no legible signs around. So we’re off now and after around 5km of peddling these bikes we see a sign that just says “cave 1 km”. So we follow it to the left. There are so many caves we had no idea which one we were heading to.

After about 3 km of peddling down a dry river bed we come to a bamboo shelter with some guy a sleep and two kids no more than 11 years old. We pay the $2 fee and our youg guide brings us up into the mountains.

Still following the river bed which has now turned to bedrock heading up to the mountains there is this guy trying to break the stones with just a sledgehammer and iron bar. I think he was trying to make the cave more accessible but geeze, tough work. We also came across some hilltribers transporting goods on there backs and heads going somewhere.

About another 1.5-2km of hiking we finally come to the cave entrance.




^ The entrance is just behind me.

With our seasoned guide we start our spelunking expedition.





I am really glad we brought our own lights. Our guide had some sort of homemade flashlight attached to what looked like an ATV battery. Some of the time we even had to use the LCD on the camera to give us more light.