How to Visit Laos

I can proudly report that I’ve been to Laos PDR. Not many people can say that…but then again…not a lot of people are insane. I was endlessly excited about this trip because it sounded like exactly the sort of place that I would enjoy but never go without the added motivation; beautiful but inaccessible, remote yet uniquely so.

Overlooking Luang Prabang and the Mekong

The real reason I went to Laos was for my work’s annual regional retreat. However, my four day travels before the retreat was my motivation for going. I went early to visit Luang Prabang which is a 12 hour bus trip or a 45 minute flight north of the capital Vientiane. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site.

However, getting from Phnom Penh to Luang Prabang took 30 hours of travel across three countries on two planes, one sky train, several metros, one night train, two buses, and three taxis. This is how not to travel to Laos.

Train Station in Bangkok

From Phnom Penh I flew to Bangkok, about an hour away. I hadn’t been to Bangkok since Thanksgiving 1998, so I was delighted to wander. I went to the Weekend Market (good choice), went to the famous Siam Paragon Mall (good choice), went to Starbucks and bookstores (good choices), and ate Pad Thai and Thai green curry. Bangkok is big and developed and modern. Phnom Penh is not. So the contrast played tricks with my mind.

At 8pm, I boarded the night train to Nong Kai Thailand on the Thai-Laos border. It’s a 12 hour ride on a decent train and when you sleep on the lower bunk, you sleep pretty well. Sometime in the night it started to pour rain. When I woke at 6am, it was still pelting rain. I learned from another passenger that Nong Kai was flooded out which completely made sense so we were instructed to disembark the station before Nong Kai and they would bus us to Nong Kai.

Night Train to Laos!

So maybe 75 backpackers and myself got soaked to the skin scrambling to get on a pink-tasseled bus. The driver wasn’t clear. He left some people in Nong Kai town, he left some people at the Nong Kai station (flooded out, as expected), and some of us he left at the Friendship Bridge border crossing. I got off at the border crossing, and was quickly re-soaked in the process of leaving Thailand and entering Laos. I had specific directions for getting to Vientiane via the train, but in this wet-wasteland border crossing, I was tired, nauseous, displeased and lost. 

I learned after entering Laos that Vientiane is essentially a border town which was a relieving discovery. So I got a taxi and went to the airport, just in time for an 11:30am flight to Luang Prabang. In Luang Prabang, it was sunny, and there were hills, and there were work friends, and there was a shower. And it was awesome. 

Boat Ride on the Mekong to the Caves

Luang Prabang is a medieval kingdom’s capital, turned French vacation town, turned backpacker’s destination, which then went chic. The town and its vicinity boasts over 65 wats which are beautifully preserved by monks is bright orange robes. The town oozes French charm fused with Asian taste. There’s nothing like it anywhere in the world. Located on the “Mighty Muddy Makong,” there’s a tall “hill” in the middle with a stunning views of the countryside. 

Luang Prabang is meant to be relaxing. So we visited wats, and coffee shops, and road bikes in the pouring rain. We took a boat up the Mekong to visit caves with thousands of Buddhas, and stopped at cultural villages to buy scarves. We ate at street markets, browsed through tasteful art galleries, and shopped at what many consider Asia’s best night market. Best of all, we took long walks in the temperate climate. You can’t walk in Phnom Penh. People just think you’re strange. But in Luang Prabang, we were just more white backpacking tourists. I’ve never been happier to be a white backpacking tourist.

 Night Bus to Vientiane

After almost three days in the beautiful mountainous mecca, our work responsibilities summoned us away from my favorite Asian town. Some of our group flew back to Vientiane. I decided to take the night bus, along with another couple from work. I had heard it was a terrible way to travel but it gave me a while extra day in Luang Prabang. Sure enough, it was 12 hours long. For six of those hours, I was slightly aware of the switchbacks every 15 seconds, and that sections of the mountainous road were washed out. We stopped for watery soup at 2am, and after that I took enough motion-sickness pills to sleep through the parts of the ride where people through up continuously (according to a companion). 

Beautiful Wats in Luang Prabang

Vientiane seemed more like a village then a capital city. Apparently the government is very intentional about how they are allowing the city to develop. Until then, it’s like walking through…a super small town. We met with the rest of our group and road yet another bus yet another two hours to our retreat venue, on a dam, in the middle of nowhere. That’s the part of the trip where I got sick with the flu.

Going back after retreat wasn’t fun. The night train to Bangkok was considerably less pleasant, meaning going into a full day in Bangkok, I was tired and cranky. Some of my colleagues made the excellent decision to watch a movie. Theaters are a phenomenon which travelers from the outback of Cambodia drool over. So we went to a theater to Harry Potter, followed by Thai food, followed by a trip to the airport. We got into Phnom Penh at 7:10pm. By 7:37, I was home. It was only then that I was finally able to dry out my damp clothes.

I would go back to Laos. I would even live there. Because they make the best sticky rice.