This is a very interesting indo china trip of Laos. We plan for 8 days Laos covering Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. We reach Vientiane on the first days at late noon. Then we took a taxi van to Francois Ngin and then we look around for guesthouse.
Based on recommendation, we went to Mixok Guesthouse for a night. There is a festival at Laos namely “Boun Ok Phansa” which held during the first week of October based on the Laos calendar. So the city has a lively night market or fun fair for the local’s celebration. We walk around the night market and the city after our local Laos dinner which we had sticky rice. We don’t really enjoy the sticky rice as we still prefer steam rice as for Asian food.
Then on the 2nd day, we are on our journey to Luang Prabang’s Laos world heritage sites. We booked the bus tickets from the local tour agent with pick up to the northern bus station which is out from the city center. The journey to Luang Prabang by bus is really a good experience as the road in Laos is still under development comparing to Thailand, Vietnam and even Cambodia. Imagine the distance of 150km can take up to 3 to 4 hours with the bumpy road. The road to Luang Prabang or Plain of Jars are even far as it is located around the mountain.
Anyway the journey from Vientiane to Luang Prabang took us 12 hours from 8am to 8pm. Once we reach LP, then we took the tuk tuk straight to Jom’s café side lane to look for guesthouse and we found Xayana guesthouse which I like it very much.
During dinner we tried the Laos local economical rice at the side lane of Luang Prabang hotel at the beginning of the night market entrance.
On the 3rd day, it is our first actual tour of Laos where we planned to walk around the city of Luang Prabang to enjoy the world heritage sites. I will elaborate it at “
My Luang Prabang walking tour” article.
On the 4th day, we wake up early morning at 5am to witness the morning alms which the monks walk around the town to get the food offering from the locals. It is a beautiful Buddhism traditional culture that shouldn't be missing from our attraction list.
Later in the noon, we try with a little adventure and also witness the other side of the historical value of Luang Prabang which is the temples across the Mekong River. Trying the local long boat to get across the river with visit to some of the temples especially Wat Chom Phet, which is the temple at the hill which we can look at Luang Prabang city from different perspective. In the afternoon, we break into 2 groups where some like to visit the Kuangsi waterfall which I am not interested. I enjoy the LP heritage town more. So I decided to stay at the town to have some Laos coffee and also sunset near the jetty.
On the 5th day, we departed Luang Prabang and going Vang Vieng for some river adventure. The journey took us 7.5 hours to reach Vang Vieng. We reach at 4:45pm and then proceed to look for a reasonable guesthouse at VV. All the guesthouse is charge by 40.000 kip per bed which I found it slightly more expensive comparing to Xayana at LP. We choose Sisavang guesthouse which is just average. There is nothing to shout about or complaint. BTW there is a boon ok phasa festival held on the day we reach Vang Vieng. At night there are fireworks and also locals are making wishes and sent a floating banana leaf to the river. They believe it will send the bad luck away by sending the floating banana leaf to the river. It is a good experience during our trip at Laos.
On the 6th day, it is an adventure day for me as I try the famous tubing at Vang Vieng at the Nam Song River. After my early breakfast, then I went to the tubing office and register myself and look like I am the first tubing customer. I just took the tuk tuk to the stating line for tubing. Before the tubing, I take a break at the starting bar for a Laos’s beer. I guess everyone take Laos beer quite frequent. I started at 9:30am and complete at 12:30pm. I would say the tubing is a must try attraction at Vang Vieng. It is quite cool as the tube is like a kayaking or rafting where you need to use your hand to paddle. The rest of the afternoon is a more relax day after the tubing like having a bottle of beer and see sunset at Elephant crossing hotel bar and restaurant. Elephant crossing hotel is rated top in TA.
We travel back to Vientiane on the 7th day for around 3 hours from 9am. We reach Vientiane at 12pm and then we took a van to Mixay Paradise guesthouse for our final stay at Laos. After check in, we took a tuk tuk and go straight to the Golden temple Wat Pha That Luang. It is a nice temple. Then we walk straight to the Patuxai monument before ending back to the fountain at the city center.
Our final day, we start with 2 more ancient temples at Vientiane, which are Haw Phra Keo and Wat Si Saket. Then walk towards the Talat Sao morning markets for some shopping but it is a little disappointed as there are NO souvenir at the market. Mostly for locals market consists of jewelry and some daily market stuff which is not suitable for tourist. We had a good lunch at a café before departing to the airport to fly back to KL. It is a wonderful Indo China trip for Laos which I will be looking forward to my central Vietnam next year.
