See trip index here, Northern Thailand index here and more photos from Northern Thailand here

We awoke our last morning in Laos with slight trepidation, as we loved our earlier time in Thailand and we didn’t know if we would think the same now we are a bit more experienced.  Leaving Houei Xai turned out to be quite simple, just go to the immigration hut and “check out” – the only problem is being forceful in your place in the queue…  Then a 10,000kip (80p) boat across the river to the Thailand immigration.  A simple case of filling in a form and handing it in with your passport and then getting it back, though you still need to be forceful to prevent local queue jumpers.  We already had a visa so we didn’t need to get a VOA.

From the immigration, a tuk-tuk is 30 bhat (60p) for 3km to Chiang Khong (as opposed to 80p for 1km in Laos).  We were going to get the bus direct to Chiang Rai, and the tuk tuk took us directly to the bus, showed us the conductor, and very quickly we got on and left 5 mins later with the conductor charging the correct amount.  So nice to be back to fair people and honest pricing, though we know it isn’t always that way in Thailand!

The 2 hour slow local bus was quite fun with interesting views, and on arrival in Chiang Ra it was a simple walk to our guesthouse which was perfect for a few days.  For a nice change we got some decent free town maps and a 2 hour walk that took in most of the sites, temples and the impressive clock tower which is golden but changes colour at night. 

On our walk we headed into the Hilltribe museum which is an informative place, and almost certainly worth a visit if you are considering visiting the ethnic tribes.  It did underline our views on visiting some villages, and also mentioned that the Long-neck Karen tribe are actually not indigenous to Thailand, but imported by a businessman ONLY for the viewing by tourists – so in effect it is a human Zoo!  Sadly, we then crossed a visit here off our list.

The evening market and night bazaar was also great – loads of nice and different food, and amazingly all priced even though the market was mainly locals.  Food seems to be a lot cheaper than Laos, but beer is a lot more.  Going to miss Laos beer!

 We decided to do a biking tour with 50km of cycling and a few miles walk which took in the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) and another waterfall.  We were promised decent bikes, and indeed they were.  Trek brand and perfectly maintained making the 50km as easy as possible.  The tour was just the two of us (plus guide), and even so we had the support truck following just in case we ran out of steam – which we almost did as the last 4km or so was up hill. But we made it!

The White Temple really is a “wow” and a “must see” which incidentally was designed by the same artist as the colourful clock tower.  Yes, we’ve seen loads of temples, but this was hugely impressive despite being modern and not yet complete.  Our bike guide explained the meaning of various bits, but even without this the artistic elements are astounding.  Outside it is all white, with heaven and hell depicted, and inside (no photos allowed) is some amazing art work – and this is untypically modern.  For instance, the back wall shows events and things in the current time, so pictures of Angry Birds, Terminator and even George Bush and Bin Laden.  When it is all explained to you it tells a story, and with other bits pointed out it is most impressive and it must be unique in the world – no idea where else an Angry Bird is inside a religious building – especially as it was flying towards the twin towers…  More pictures are in our album (linked at start of post) – but none of the impressive interior that makes it worth a visit alone.

Finally, at the White Temple there is an exhibition of the artists impressive works.

The waterfall at the end of our trip was reasonably impressive, 70m drop, but we are now waterfalled out and have no intention of seeing any more waterfalls for the rest of the trip.

Chiang Rai did have a nice homely and comfortable feel about it, so we’re pleased we still like Thailand, and waved a fond goodbye as we headed on our 3 hours bus ride to the old walled city of Chaing Mai.  We arrived safely (though feeling a bit sick as the driver wasn’t the smoothest on the mountainous twisties) – and got to our guesthouse.  All the top recommended guesthouses were booked up well in advance so we had to resort to an OK one – still – glad we booked ahead as most seemed to have “full” signs up when we arrived – including ours….

See next installment here

Laos Costs and Review

See our general tip page here.  Note the costs here do not include external flights, vaccines and insurance etc – this will be detailed at the end of the trip.

Overall

Laos was completely unknown to us, and prior to the trip we probably never heard of it.  Of the countries we have visited, it is probably the least developed and the poorest we’ve seen.  We entered from the south and the first few days were quite disappointing as we didn’t really find anything exciting or really that interesting to us.

To be fair, the 4000 Islands would have been interesting and some old Khmer ruins would have been worth a look had we not come straight from Cambodia.

Laos’ unique factor is being so undeveloped, with most backpackers wanting to go trekking and seeing old tribes.  This isn’t something we’re comfortable with, so whilst these opportunities were abound, they weren’t for us.

Once we got to Vientiane things started getting better.  We very much liked Vientiane and we thought Vang Vieng was a superb fun place,even for us, though many non-mass-drinking backpackers hated the place. We enjoyed the fun elements as well as the scenery which was stunning, though fair to say it isn’t an authentic town!  Luang Prabang was nice and chilled and the boat trip to the Thai border was also nice and relaxing.

We’re glad we went from south to north – the other way round would have had the nicer elements first and then ended on a low…

In Laos, you do get the feeling you are being over charged for a lot of things – silly things like maps and temple entry are at European prices, and pretty much everything is chargable.  Of course there are reasons for this.

So we liked some of what we saw, but for our particular taste, Laos didn’t have a huge amount to offer us, though there were some unbeatable and unrepeatable experiences like the elephants at Luang Prabang and the fun in Vang Vieng…

Budget

We spent just over £40 a day, though we didn’t skimp on anything, and even had the luxury boat ride to Thailand.  In addition we stayed in an expensive (but nice) guesthouse for a week in Luang Prabang.  If you were on a budget you could easily knock off £5-10 without changing too much, and possibly more if you had cheaper food and accommodation.

Probably hard to spend too much more…

Security

Keeping small change (notes) loose is a good idea so you don’t get you wallet out.  Be wary of having “stuff” on display, or things dangling, as there are so many mopeds snatch-crime would be easy to do and hard to catch.

For us, we’d say we had no security issues – though we stayed alert throughout.

Useful facts:-

• ATMS:  ATMs in most towns, and in the first town near a border crossing.  Annoyingly most ATMs restrict you to 700,000kip or 1m kip per withdrawal which means you pay more charges   ANZ allows 2m withdrawal but not many ATMs around
• Currency:  Most big items priced in USD (e.g. trips and sometimes accommodation), whereas smaller items priced in kip.  8000 kip=$1. 
• Landry:  Most places around 5-10,000kip per kg
• 7/11:  None – local shops only, but water etc similar price everywhere.
• Transport:  TukTuks are typical – negotiate first. Avoid tourist minibusses as they put 20+ in busses meant for 16. (+luggage!). VIP busses (big) were okay for us.  Easily arranged near any guesthouse.
• Chemists:  Rare
• Food:  Street food easy to access but maybe not the most exciting.
• Language:  Knowing Yes, No helps – but English ok for normal stuff. 
• Power:  mains plugs everywhere so charging stuff is trivial (socket adapter may be needed, and of course make sure charger is 110/240v!). 
• Internet:  Wifi available in most guesthouse we used and in many bars/cafes in main towns.  Internet cafes and PCs to borrow also available free/cheap.  Limited away from big towns.
• Toilets:  Western style in all guest houses and in most “good” public places, there may only be one in a row so look.  Worth carrying toilet paper though seldom needed.

Stuff we took and didn’t use

(see our packing list here)

• Towels – they were provided by every guesthouse, even special beach towels
• Mozzie net – only needed in one place, and it was already provided.
• Loads of clothes – you only need 4-5 sets of undies – laundry is so trivial to do you do not need to carry as much as us.
• Spare batteries for stuff – power so available we kept things charged
• Main padlock – all guest houses had normal locks

Things we’d change

Savannahkhet isn’t worth visiting, and Pakse only is if you want to veg a bit and do some tourist waterfalls and the like.  For us, the North of Laos was far nicer and maybe the south wasn’t worth going to.  Perhaps an alternative loop route to/from Vietnam would be more fun – e.g connecting Hanoi and Hue via Laos – and Vietnam doesn’t have much between Hanoi and Hue to visit.

See trip index here, Laos index here, and more photos from Laos here

The journey from Luang Prabang to Houei Xai (or vice versa) has been in the back of our minds since before we left.  The internet describes it as an arduous journey, but on our route it is pretty much necessary.  Flying isn’t really feasible as it is both expensive and misses out a couple of places en route, and the speedboat option is dangerous and Mel ruled it out as she’d certainly be throwing up for most of it.  The bus journey is said to be up to 15 hours, and with stories of drivers falling asleep at the wheel, and brakes burning out on the mountain roads, we ruled this out.

This left the tedious slow (15-20 knot) slow boat which historically is uncomfortable, but more recently fitted with car bench seats.  These aren’t comfortable and can be overcrowded, though to be fair the boats we saw were full but not ridiculously so.

Our Shompoo cruise VIP boat, whilst more expensive, promised a more luxurious way of transport, and on cue at 6:30am our tuktuk collected us from our guest house and took us to our boat – a 30m or so boat, and to our surprise there were only 4 guests!   The only real shame on this boat is that we didn’t really click with the other couple on it, as good company on this sort of trip makes it special.  We’ve still got each other!

This meant we pretty much had a private boat all the way up – so full access to wander round, use the sun loungers and chill in a stress free environment for a couple of days.  The normal slow boats had maybe 60-80+ people in the same space.

There was no usable TV/DVD as we thought, but as we had movies on the laptop we were able to catch up on films as well as watch the Mekong life go by, with riverside dwellers doing their fishing; washing; and generally getting on with life.  Food on the boat was included, and was a pretty good 5 course meal.  Really no complaints about the cruise at all, apart from the time we needed to get up.  You also do need to wrap up warm as the first couple of hours are quite chilly and we were pleased to hide under the provided blankets.

The first day, Luang Prabang to Pak Beng took around 10 hours (upstream) plus some stoppage time when we stopped at Pak Ou caves near where we went elephant riding.  These caves are Buddhist caves with numerous Buddas in, and also showing the ridiculously high flood levels from 2006 and 1966.

The view along the river is interesting, with more rocks and mini rapids than expected, and even huge sand banks better than some beaches we’ve seen.

Pak Beng, the overnight stop, wasn’t really how the guide books describe.  We were expecting a few huts, naff accommodation and scarce electricity.  But over the last year or more there is now mains electricity which means full power in the main area at least, and enough interesting eateries, bars, and shops as needed – at least one selling Pringles cheaper than anywhere else in Laos!  Our guest house (£8 for double en-suite) was clean and perfectly fine for the night.  There was even (flakey) wifi in a couple of the bars.  Probably won’t be long before Pak Beng is suitable for a 2 night stop.

On the second day we stopped in a little Mhong village next to the river which almost like going back in time apart from the fact there is now electricity and a few large satellite dishes.  We differ from some other travellers and tourists in as much as we hate going to these sorts of villages just to have a “tour” around.  It doesn’t sit right intruding and we don’t walk around taking photos like it is a museum.  We know some will argue its seeing the real country, but unless we stumbled across it and were there to stay/eat or drink in a local eatery, then it isn’t really real.  Not sure Mel enjoyed being followed round by a group of girls trying to sell her crafty stuff.

The rest of the journey to Houei Xai was uneventful and we arrived about 10hrs after we left.  We decided to say in Houei Xai for the night and got a reasonable place for 80,000kip (£6.50) and just settled down ready for the border crossing to Thailand which are generally eventful…

See Laos costs and review HERE

 See next installment, with border crossing, here

See trip index here, Laos index here, and more photos from Laos here

Luang Prabang has a reputation of being a chilled and special place in Laos – but with this reputation comes the growing menace of touts.  Even the bus tuk-tuk driver tried to get away lightly by not going where we wanted – so good old GPS sorted him out.  And pretty much from every corner you get “tuk tuk?” “boat?” – and even restaurant owners are a bit more pushy.  The town doesn’t have a free map, only one for £1 or more which in Asia is hideously expensive.  Instantly you get the feel that a lot of the locals just want to milk you for money – an experience not really felt elsewhere in Laos.

Our hotel was good though and we explored pretty much the entire old town on the first day, climbing the Phou Si hill to watch the sun set over the Mekong.  The price was steeper than the hill and though the view was good, the sunset wasn’t as special as it could’ve been – and the top was full of tourists.  The night market though is nice, lots of arts and crafts that seem worth buying, and no pushiness from the vendors.  Not quite sure on the authenticity of some of it mind!

The next day we rented another motorbike (twice the price as everywhere else) and went to Kuang Si Waterfalls.  The road was fairly good, hilly and windy, with not much civilisation not the sort of place you want to have a problem.  Which of course we did – the back tyre went flat after only 5km. But fortunately I noticed fairly early so we didn’t have an incident, and also it happened only about 1km from a tiny village where I saw someone with a big compressor.  I was only going to ask for some air, but the guy took the wheel off and fitted a new inner tube (the old ones valve was split) – and only charged just over £3 for his efforts.  He did point out the front tyre was also split waiting to go bang.  I did check the tyres for tread, but missed the split in the sidewall.  Got the feeling the renter wasn’t completely unaware, and they lied about how much fuel I needed which they drained for themselves.

The Kuang Si Waterfalls though were impressive and worth seeing.  Spectacular, though not quite as good as the Erawan falls in Thailand, but probably worth a visit if you aren’t too waterfalled out.  Next to the falls is the Free The Bear Fund Laos setup where an NGO charity rescues sun and moon bears from captivity and bile milking – a place Mel has been eyeing up since before we left.

In town we both had a long overdue hair cut, but think some details got lost in translation.  Mels hair was shorter than normal and the fringe was snipped off, and I pretty much got a Monks cut.  Now I know past 40 I’m due to lose my hair – but not like this!

Our next stop after Luang Prabang is heading towards northern Thailand.  The only real way of doing this are by plane (£160), 15+ hour bus on very windy roads, 7+ hours on a speedboat (complete with crash helmets and life jackets) which Mel ruled out, or a 2-day (8+8hrs) slow boat trip.  Typically these slow boats are over full, uncomfortable and you can’t move around, and very basic.  None of which appealed so fortunately we noticed another option…

A VIP slow boat (for about 3x price of slow boat) takes the same time, but limited to 40 people, has comfy chairs, tables, TV, DVD, toilet (!), 220v power, games, lounge, bar, and even includes a decent restaurant and free lunch.  Well – thats what the brochure says and we know how honest they are…  But we thought we deserved some luxury so booked this, with the only downside the boats don’t go daily so we’re having to stay in Luang Prabang for a couple of extra days.  A tough call especially as our hotel room was upgraded for free so now overlooks the Mekong… !

To be fair, Luang Prabang is a nice place to be stuck in – some very good places to eat and chill, and we even enjoyed spending  a day on our balcony watching the world go by.  The Luang Prabang old town is a UNESCO site with a French feel and has its fair share of Wats and Monks.  There is a famous Alms ceremony daily where traditionally locals would give the Monks food and items to sustain them, but at the moment it is more of a tourist show with no locals (bar the ones selling you stuff to give to the monks) and very inappropriate tourist behaviour.  Bit of a shame so we opted to skip it – not least because it also starts at 6am!

We did however visit the Royal Residence and temple which were worth a look around, but the royal residence isn’t as opulent and some – probably highlighting the previous Kings didn’t overspend too much.  The temple though was impressive with some detailed gold carvings inside.

Laos, like Thailand, also has its fair share of elephant camps.  Some of these have good reputations, some not so good with the internet citing abuse and overworked elephants, but we took our chance and booked a day-ish with some Elephants near Pak Ou caves.

We were pleasantly pleased to find there were only 4 people and 3 elephants, and about 4 or 5 Mahouts (elephant handlers) and guides, so our camp was hardly over busy.  We started on a jungle walk with a bench on the elephants back, and whilst not that exciting, it was a good introduction and showed how the young mahouts looked after their animal.  For us, the elephants were not regimented in a route, and if they wanted to stop and jump into a bush to eat something they were allowed with rather funny consequences.  Ours was a little nervous of vehicles so when we saw a moped on the way back she ran back!

After this, we were given basic training on how to talk to the elephants and get them to go where we wanted, and then took it in turns to climb on and just sit on the elephants neck and guide it around.  Clearly we weren’t very good at this but again the mahouts kept control whilst allowing the elephants to have a lot of scope to play.

Finally we doubled up and took them down to the river to give them a bathe – though clearly the consequences were obvious when asked if we could swim….  So with us both sitting bareback on the elephants neck we took them into the river where clearly the mahouts have a command to “shake them off” – which the elephant did!  What we can say though is the elephants really seemed to enjoy the bathe and playing with us and their keeper.  The keepers were chilled and laughing, and honestly, so was the elephant!  Happy for us to climb on and then try and dunk us off rodeo style!  The only concern was if we got squashed – but we didn’t.

We then climbed on and went back to camp.

We think we were lucky, the camp really did seem to keep the elephants well. They were always eating and are obviously eating enough judging by what came out of the other end too.  They were not over worked, and they looked in good health.  And their mahouts were giving them as much freedom as possible whilst ensuring there is income from the likes of us to keep them fed.  Far better than a zoo, and probably the best option available as letting them go into the wild here isn’t viable.

After the camp we stopped at a local Whiskey producers where they make rice whisky and wine, but in the whisky bottles they have snakes and scorpions…  Hmmm – probably not our taste!

Having done everything we wanted in Luang Prabang, we relaxed Laos style and got ready for our interesting journey to Thailand.  Annoyingly, only 3 weeks left now and even more annoyingly we are starting to think about things we need to do when we get back.  Argh!!!

For the next “slow boat” installment, click here

See trip index here, Laos index here, and more photos from Laos here

Vang Vieng is pretty much a nowhere place – its entire existence seems to be a travellers way point and has little Laos character, but the scenery and activities more than make up for it.  To be fair, its clean, easy to get around, and you are spoilt with many food choices and styles, and bars more like lounges where you can chill with a beer and watching funny TV.  The nightlife is very much how you’d expect a backpacker town to be, with lots of young people behaving like its their first time away from home.  Riding on roofs of tuktuks, being very drunk by 6pm, and wearing pretty much nothing.  Its not all bad!

The main attraction is the warm river and scenery with one of the main activities being tubing.  Here, you get taken in a tuk tuk 5km or so up the river and you go down it floating on an inner tube. Nothing special, but along the way there are many cool music bars to grab a drink and chill and pretty much its a party from the start.  Some bars have swings, zip-lines and some even death slides.  I use that term literally as two people a month dies whilst tubing, though mostly its due to too much drink or drugs.  It really has to be experienced, but it really is a good laugh from the start.  Sadly Mels shoulder still isn’t healed so she got out of the swings.

Our second day was spent playing on the river a bit more, a bit of tubing inside a cave (fun, but not as spectacular as Thailand), and then a long kayak trip down the river taking in some of the stunning scenery and, of course, popping into a tubing bar on the way down.  Some lovely natural views of people working the river, and even water buffalo bathing!  Our kayak had a hole in and thus almost sank a few times…

Kayaking probably wasn’t a great idea as the following day I did a day rock climbing, and with an aching upper body (and of course no natural ability) it was tough going.  Managed to do about half of the climbs attempted, mainly 5b/5c but failed on the 6’s.  Not enough stamina to make some of the moves   The limestone rocks were also pretty rough on the body so left there with a few more scratches than when I started.  Excellent fun, and again the scenery is superb.

We could easily spend more time in Vang Vieng playing and having fun but decided to move on as we have many more places to see before we get back – and with under 4 weeks left the end is getting closer.  So we say goodbye to the adult-less party town and head on an 8 hour bus ride north to Luang Prabang…. 

The journey is renowned to be awful – of the 8 hours about 6 are on very windy mountain passes with no crash barriers, and just about wide enough for 2 vehicles.  We opted for the bigger coach rather than the mini bus, but even so we both felt a little rough towards the end.  Not helped by seeing a baby bear in a jar at one of the stops…  The road was not the sort of place you want to have a tyre blow out lest you end up like the bus at the end of the Italian Job!

But yes, we got a tyre blow out! 

Fortunately our driver was very smooth and slow, not a madman.  Also the bus had twin rear wheels and we were going round a left hand bend when the left tyre went bang in style.  Could’ve been a lot worse as really it was without drama and only cost us some time as the drivers changed the wheel.  The spare tyre though looked in a really bad treadles way, but it is fortunately dry and it held out.

On arrival at Luang Prabang we got the usual necessary tuk-tuk vulture cartel and had to pay to get transferred into town to our pre booked hotel which is rather smart, and we look forward to exploring what is described as “The most charming city in SE Asia” in the morning…

See next installment here

See trip index here, Laos index here, and more photos from Laos here

Savannakhet is one of the first places we’ve been pleased to get away from.  Unless you are into Eco Treks and homestays then its rather dull, apart from trying to escape from the most aggressive dogs we’ve seen in Asia.  Lins cafe saved us with somewhere decent to drink, and she even let us spend time upstairs whilst waiting for our bus!  Not to mention some biscuits for the journey.  The bus was an overnight bus, and it is weird as it has fully flat double beds in it.  It’d have been a perfect nights sleep had the roads been smooth, but this is Laos, so we only got a bit of sleep before arriving in Vientiane – the Laos capital.

As typically happens, the bus terminates at 5am about 8km outside of town meaning you have to venture into the vulture pack of tuktuks to get into town.  Our hotel though was a good choice so we dumped our bags and explored the quiet, bright but small city.

The Victory Gate (Patuxai) is an Arc-de-Triumph type structure, but built “slightly” higher than the original just to annoy the French, and made with concrete given by the USA to make a new runway!  Hence they honestly call it a hideous concrete monstrosity.  The gardens are pretty and the road goes to the Pha That Luang religious stupa monument glistening in gold  Some guys were trying to sell birds in boxes that you let free and get “good luck” – but I bet they are all homers and the guy resells them tomorrow!

There are a large array of eateries near our hotel, some western and some Laos but full of westerners, but for tea we settled on a very nice street cafe with some impressive food. 

The following day we headed to the morning market where Mel fancied some new underwear and agreed a fair (but probably still tourist) price with the seller, only to then get confused and try and pay 40p for her purchase!  The seller obviously wouldn’t sell and Mel thought she was being ripped off.  Oops.  After counting the number of “zeros” on the notes she went back in and rebought with all of the staff having a good laugh.

We then headed to “Cope” – the rehabilitation centre for people with limbs missing, normally from bombs from the Vietnam war (in which incidentally the US majorly bombed Laos with cluster bombs which still kill 100’s a year.  Nice one USA – another “what were they thinking…”).  We were in 2 minds about visiting as clearly it shouldn’t be (and isn’t) a tourist attraction, but it was informative and shows off their amazing work.

There are millions of UXOs still in Laos which are either found accidentally or hunted for scrap metal, but many (especially kids) are injured and loose limbs.  Fortunately there is now a treaty against cluster bombs signed by most countries, but yep, not the good old US of A.   

We also visited the Laos national museum which has a few objects and photos, but sadly misses an overview of what has happened in Laos and why – so we left none the wiser and a little more confused and will need to add to our Wikipedia to do list.

Vientiane is a nice capital, but not in any wow category, but nice enough to be worth a visit.  Leaving Vientiane we took a 4hr bus to Vang Vieng.  The bus was fine with a good driver, but the roads were the worst we’ve seen.  Tarmac in places, and then just rough rock in others – and bizarrely no reason as to why, but there would be 10m of smooth, then 100m of rough…  No wonder the busses are knackered.

Vang Vieng isn’t anything special – just a tourist/backpacker town, but the scenery is superb and there are loads of activities to do here – such as tubing, kayaking, and climbing – should be a fun few days!

For next installment click here

See trip index here, Laos index here, and more photos from Laos here

We only stopped at Pakse as it was a convenient destination when crossing into Laos, and to be fair it doesn’t have any must see sights.  However, as an intro to Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) it is a good start.  It does show why Lao PDR is called Lao Please Don’t Rush as it is incredibly laid back.

Wandering round, even in the markets, you don’t get hassled by anyone unlike most of SE Asia.  Driving is chilled (but still mental by Euro standards), and the pace is very gentle.  Even for our evening meal at a local restaurant on the Mekong we didn’t get any menu-hawkers, and even had to ask for a menu and make the effort to order!  The staff wouldn’t have got up otherwise.  That said, the meal was very nice and different from what we’ve had before, and we were also treated to some live music in a very local atmosphere.  Really a rather chilling place to be.

The next day we rented a motorbike to head to Pak Song and explore some waterfalls along the route, but we found out to our costs what the real road rules are.  Despite the locals having overloaded bikes; no lights; driving on wrong side of road etc, they don’t seem to have problems.  At the first set of traffic lights we got to I was in the wrong lane and to let a 4×4 turn right I moved out of the way crossing the stop line (but not entering junction) which of course was wrong, but as locals barely stop for red lights I didn’t think it was an issue.

But Mr Plod (and his mates in a road side hut) decided to pull us over and give us a telling off but then asked for payment of a fine.  Oops.  After pretending not to understand he demanded 50,000 kip  (about £4).  No way to get out of it despite me saying “is it okay to go”, and after more of my attempts to go I just asked for a receipt which he said no to.   So I said “no receipt, 20,000kip then” which he went for.  Clearly just beer money for them but a £1.60 fine is probably fair game – just be aware the Police favour stopping westerners.

The road was okay for the most part, but in some places was a mud/sand bath – perfect for mopeds on slicks.  Going all the way to Pak Song isn’t worth it, though there is a hotel at the far side with a clean western loo if you need it!

We stopped at two waterfalls, both of which were a legitimate 13,000 kip for 2 people + bike, and both were spectacular and well worth a visit.   Thamchampy Waterfall had a lovely swimmable pool, and Tad Yueang Waterfall was even more impressive.  The only downer, and typical for when we rent a bike, the heavens opened into a tropical downpour so we had to hide in a cafe waiting for the rain to abate.  Got a bit chilly so we decided to miss a few others and head back for a hot shower. 

Without much else to see we took a 4-5hr local bus to Savannakhet which was so full people had plastic chairs in the aisle, and the bus also had stuff strapped to the roof – including motorbikes.  One bus we saw had 10+ brand new bikes strapped to the roof!  The driver was a nutter, 65+ on narrow roads with ox and goats in the road, but at least we made it.

Savannakhet is just a stopover to break the journey up and wasn’t really a great stop though.  The town has a major French influence with many similar buildings and layout to a small French town, but it is a little dull non-happening place brightened only by a few temples.  As it was my birthday we tried to find somewhere special for dinner, but found nowhere worth going.  We found and almost lived in Lins Cafe – a lovely helpful place with good food, free wifi, and we saw the same westerners in there numerous times as they also struggled to find anywhere better! 

Outside of town there are a few Eco treks you can do, and homestays, but these don’t really appeal to us so we decided to take the night bus to the Laos capital Vientiane instead.

See next installment here

See trip index here, Laos index here, and more photos from Laos here

As mentioned previously, there is very little information on the Internet about getting from Cambodia to Laos via the route we are going.  What information exists is conflicting and though we hope all the good things we read are true, we really hope all the bad things we read are false.

In Kratie, we hoped we’d find more information on getting to Laos, but really not much exists!  There are no tourist offices with set trips to choose from (yet) and there is vague mention of “VIP” minibuses that are best avoided.  Phnom Penh PP Sorya 168 has an office in Kratie, and even they don’t mention anything about Pakse on any adverts or posters they have.  The guy there will sell you tickets to either 4000 islands in Laos or Pakse in Laos, but beyond that he (appears) to know nothing else.

We bought a ticket from Kratie to Pakse for $17 each.  It is scheduled at 13:30 but told to arrive at 12:00, and it should arrive at the border at 16:00.  Worryingly the guy didn’t know any information about the border crossing, visas or bus changes or anything else!  To the border, the bus is the same if you are going to 4000 islands.  The bus is due to arrive in Pakse at 20:00.

However…

In the morning I had another Asia instant-weight-loss bug which isn’t ideal on for a good 8 hour journey.  Fortunately we were able to change the tickets to the following day and found a slightly better hotel for another night just to stay in bed.  My body did a good job of ridding itself of nasties quite rapidly from both ends.  Valentines day in bed sounds like fun, but not like this.

So the following day we arrived at the office at 12:00 for the 13:30 bus, which arrived and left about 13:15.  Surprisingly the bus was a large and comfortable with a toilet (unchecked!) – and after a 20 minute lunch stop it arrived at the border about 17:15.  The guy on the bus gives all the necessary visa and immigration forms, and for a small fee will deal with it all for you – including filling in and signing the forms…!  UK visa on arrival = $35; Cambodian exit bribe $2, Laos immigration bribe $2 and guy on bus fee $1 or $2.  The guy on the bus does not force his service and some did it themselves, but we couldn’t be bothered and let him deal with it.  So don’t forget your USD in cash and a passport photo.

This actually meant we stayed on the bus (bar getting supplies from the market) and didn’t need to do anything at all or show our face to any official.  The same bus continues into Laos dropping the people off for 4,000 islands, and continued through to Pakse stopping at a bus station 2km east of town about 20:15.  You need a tuk tuk to get into town ($2 probably), and we paid in USD as we didn’t have any KIP and he was happy with that.

Clearly the journey and crossing with Visa on Arrival (VOA) is now trivially easy and you can ignore any blog or forum question/answer from 6+ months ago (thanks to Lonely Planet forum for telling us this route was possible, we may not have tried it without their input.).  Probably going to get easier too as the Cambodians seem to be constructing a large immigration building to replace their current shed.

We didn’t reserve a hotel, so when we arrived at our first choice we were a bit annoyed to find all the normal rooms full, and after quickly checking the nearby hotels and rejecting them, we had to pay for a posher/pricier room – though changed to a cheaper room for the second night.  Plenty of ATMs on “13 South Road” in Pakse, so getting KIP is trivial.

Pakse itself isn’t a must-see destination, just convenient, though it is a good base to explore the nearby countryside which we intend to do.  Walking around the entire town is easy, and there are a few temples to see as well as a large new market selling everything from clothes to hardware, and even food so fresh it was still breathing.  Including frogs.

The walk along the river is nice with plentiful bars, and we found out quite quickly Lao beer is both nice, and cheap!  No doubt this has contributed to a nice initial view of Laos, as being chilled and rather pleasant, so we need to get into the Laos swing of just being chilled and watching time go by….

See next installment here