The best of Laos in a week
Laos is the only country in the region without access to the sea. Does that put it at a disadvantage compared with Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia? Absolutely not! The country has a great deal to offer. I spent 8 days in Laos, and I will suggest a route that you can follow too. It covers the country's three biggest attractions: Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane.
I began my journey around Laos in Luang Prabang. Many tourists fly there from Bangkok or from Chiang Mai, in the northern part of Thailand bordering Laos. If you are considering that option, I have written about northern Thailand here and also here). You can get a Laotian visa at Luang Prabang airport. You will be able to read about visas and other tips in a separate article.
Luang Prabang is to Laos what Kraków is to Poland. It is not the capital, but no tourist can miss it. Since 1995 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its preserved historic architecture, the number and importance of its temples, and its faithfulness to tradition. The town's architecture combines brick buildings from the colonial era with traditional wooden village houses. The daily morning alms-gathering ceremony of the Buddhist monks ("alms giving") is cited as an example of its faithfulness to tradition.
The morning alms-giving ceremony in Luang Prabang
And truly, anyone who has not experienced this ceremony cannot say they have been to Luang Prabang. During my four days in Luang Prabang, I devoted two mornings to watching the ritual. You set your alarm clock depending on whether you are staying near one of the monasteries and whether you want to freshen up before going out. In my case it was 5 a.m., because before 6, still before dawn, the monks in their orange robes, led in single file by the most senior of them, silently leave their monasteries. In the surrounding streets the donors wait for them, barefoot and kneeling. This is how they show respect. Everything happens in silence. The gift is usually a ball of sticky rice squeezed by hand, but also toiletries, money and even chocolate bars. The monks later shape the rice they receive into small discs and dry them by laying them out on the fences around the monastery buildings. Unfortunately, on the town's main street, Sisavangvong, hordes of tourists - mainly Chinese - have turned this religious ceremony into a caricature. It is much better to choose monasteries further from the centre.
Watch on YouTubeThere you can feel the solemnity and spirituality of the ritual. The first time, I was among organised Chinese groups who had been brought in by minibus. It felt very commercial: plastic stools so people didn't have to kneel, ready-made portions of rice sold by vendors, noise, lots of filming and photographing. The second time, I went to the area around Wat Aham temple, where I was staying. The experience was completely different. It was very intimate, with just a few individuals in a handful of places giving alms to the monks. In my opinion, the best place to watch the ceremony is around the tourist information office; there are no organised groups there, but a lot goes on. That is where you will meet real Laotians and several groups of monks receiving alms.
Sisavangvong, Wat Xiengthong and colonial patisseries
Luang Prabang combines history and modernity. Just take a walk along the main street, Sisavangvong. At one end it comes to a dead end at the bank of the Mekong, and at the other it turns into the road out of town. Strolling unhurriedly along this fairly wide street, you pass temples, shops, guesthouses, a school, Phousi hill and the grounds of the National Museum. This street is home to the most famous temple in the town, and perhaps in the whole country: Wat Xiengthong.
I have seen a great many temples, so perhaps I don't fully appreciate how special it is; nevertheless, the whole complex of wooden buildings is very picturesque and worth spending a few moments in. Something else intrigued me in the town: the sight of refined patisseries on the ground floors of painstakingly restored colonial houses. Their range of goods and decor are breathtaking. All of them have their shutters thrown wide open, letting you watch street life. Many of them could be moved to Paris or other European cities. No one would notice that they were of Laotian origin. The done thing is to sit at a table with a coffee and watch the street.
The town's charm is enhanced by seasonal bamboo footbridges thrown across the Nam Khan river. The other river, the famous Mekong, is too wide and has too many large boats on it to be spanned in a similar way. There you have to cross in a narrow boat with a powerful engine (a "long-tail boat"). On the small Nam Khan, when the river level is low and the current lazy (December - May), you can use the bamboo structure to cross from bank to bank without getting your feet wet. The families who specialise in building and maintaining the footbridge charge a fee at the entrance (about PLN 2)
Lao cuisine, laab and the night market
Luang Prabang has plenty of bars and small restaurants. I ended up at Pha Khao Lao twice. Although it is a little off the beaten track, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays you can watch Lao dance shows there (19.30, free). Three young girls, amateurs from some dance club, dance with great earnestness to music played from a USB stick. They are very committed and authentic: between performances they practised their not-quite-polished routine off to one side. While they danced, I ate. Lao cuisine draws on the culinary traditions of its neighbours: China, Thailand and Vietnam. You can taste local versions of Thai Tom Yum soup or Vietnamese Pho. The Lao national dish is Laab (there are many transcriptions, such as Larp or Laap): minced meat, hot and sour, with sticky rice and fresh vegetables.
Besides the restaurants, you can - indeed you must! - eat at the night market. From the crossroads where the tourist information building stands, the whole street towards the centre turns at night into a huge so-called Night Bazaar. It is worth a stroll, but don't overdo it. How long can you look at the same T-shirts and slippers embroidered with little elephants? The small, narrow lanes leading off the main street, on the other hand, are charming. The food is super tasty, prepared on the spot and very cheap. With your meal, you simply must have a Beerlao. The more daring can try Lao whisky, but more on that in a moment.
Renting a scooter and Whisky Village
After two days you know the town inside out. You can revisit your favourite places at different times of day and night, but you can also venture a little further. I decided on a day trip. You can rent scooters everywhere. Your passport is left as a deposit, the fee is about $8-10 plus fuel ($3-4), and you have the machine for 24 hours. I went to the Pak Ou caves and the Kuang Si waterfalls. Both places are about 30 km from town, but unfortunately in opposite directions. The roads are not bad, tarmac almost everywhere, and the traffic is heavy but safe - slow - so those 120 km are easily doable. I was a little disappointed by the caves, but the waterfalls were gorgeous.
As I was one of the first to rent a scooter that day, I got an almost new Honda Click 125cc. Plus a stylish blue helmet. The bike was also bluish, and my faded sweatshirt was greyish blue. All in all, it made quite a "look". I decided to go to the caves first. I had picked up a map at the tourist information office earlier, which turned out to be very helpful. Navigation is also helped by the fact that you can't go too far west, as the Mekong marks the boundary. That leaves only the other three points of the compass as a problem. I didn't want to keep reaching for the map loaded on my phone, so I relied on asking the way, and by asking several times I steadily headed in the right direction. Remembering the problems I had had in China, I wondered how to mime "waterfall" and "cave".....The problem is that Lao, like Chinese, is a tonal language, and the wrong tone on the right word can rule out any chance of being understood. But it was fine. I mentioned the Mekong, and it is key here. You ride along the east bank, and the cave is on the west bank. To get there, you have to cross the river. Before you reach the crossing point, you pass the so-called "Whisky Village". Well, the renowned TripAdvisor ranked it 69th out of 73 attractions in the area, which didn't promise great excitement. And indeed: it is neither a village nor "whisky".
The concrete lanes are lined with stalls where textiles reign supreme. Shelves of alcohol are a rare sight. Among the bottles with scorpions, small snakes, spiders, lizards and God knows what other creatures steeped in them, you will find the "whisky" in question. There are 3 kinds: rice wine, moonshine made from unhusked rice and, the crème de la crème of the whole range, a 55% rice moonshine. I didn't shy away from tasting, as you can ask for a "sampling" at every stall. The wine seemed too weak to me, and I had the feeling that not all the nasties in it could have died, but the moonshine was in every respect the right drink. Who called it "whisky", and why, remains a mystery...?
The Pak Ou caves and their Buddha figures
I reach the place where the road ends, by the village of Ban Pak Ou, and in the village there is a landing stage. By the river there are a few stalls selling clothes of some sort and a couple of small restaurants, including a floating one moored on the Mekong. At the entrance to the village, touts offer the crossing; here you have to pay both for that and for parking. If you ride right down to the river, you avoid the parking fee. It is ridiculously low, but we are the ones who should set the rules, and nobody, God forbid, is going to impose them on us!
The boat is entirely at my disposal; it takes me across to the other bank and waits until I have seen everything. First I head for the lower cave. Inside are dozens of Buddha figures; Laotians from the surrounding area make a pilgrimage here at least once a year and fill the interior with yet more images of the holy one. You have to climb the stairs to the upper cave, which is also a sacred place. Here, though, instead of a multitude of figures, there is an altar in the centre.
Kuang Si waterfalls and an evening at Utopia
After returning to the right side of the river, I set off back. The road runs through Luang Prabang from the caves to the waterfalls. There are several options. I chose a route that was not the shortest, but ran along the Nam Khan river; I then passed the spot where it flows into the Mekong and continued south along the Mekong. For several kilometres I had a high bank on my right with the river below, and on the left colonial houses, often converted into luxury guesthouses and spas. I stopped for lunch along the way, just 5 km from the waterfalls.
The waterfalls are simply stunning. The most spectacular part is a great multi-tiered cascade that falls from a height of several dozen metres. It forms pools, bends and flat stretches. In one place the water drops several metres, in another it flows gently over a ledge a few centimetres high. There is greenery everywhere. Apart from the highest part, all the others are open for swimming. There are changing rooms. Once in the water, you will be attacked by tiny fish that love nibbling the flaky skin on your legs....that tickling sensation is not easy to get used to. Within the waterfall area there is also a separate enclosure that is home to Asiatic black bears rescued from poachers. They have spacious enclosures with streams, platforms and swings. If you go there, be sure to take a permanent marker with you. On one of the walls there is a list of "all the teddy bears in the world". It broke my heart, because among all the different fairy-tale and cartoon heroes I found neither Colargol nor Uszatek, two bears much loved by Polish children....They have to be added!
After a hard day, I ended up at Utopia. It is a place that probably everyone staying in Luang Prabang ends up at sooner or later. What do you do there? Ideally, nothing. Lying horizontally, you cultivate the "Please, don't rush" philosophy of life, because that is how Laotians like to interpret the abbreviation that completes the name of their country: "PDR". The correct expansion is, of course, "People's Democratic Republic", because Laos is a socialist country. Posters and murals sometimes remind you of this. At Utopia you can sip a beer, play chess, strike up a conversation or doze off, lulled by chill-out music. As in many places in Laos, remember to take your shoes off when you go in.
Vang Vieng - tubing, kayaking and the Blue Lagoon
The next stage of my journey was Vang Vieng. You need to book a van at one of the travel agencies or at your hotel. The ride to Vang Vieng takes 5 hours. When the van pulled up at its destination and the driver announced "Welcome to Vang Vieng", all the non-Laotian travellers looked at one another in disbelief. It seemed we were somewhere in a dreary suburb rather than in the town itself.
Vang Vieng is a chaotic jumble of houses of different styles, condition, size and colour. On the whole, the town is ugly. The centre consists of a single through road. But you don't come here to admire the town. It is a base for exploring the Nam Song river, the rocks, lakes and caves. The comforting thing is that when you come back to town in the evening, you will be so exhausted that you won't notice its ugliness. In Vang Vieng, after comparing the offers, I opted for a full-day package with lunch for 120,000 kip (about 12 EUR). It had everything: the Elephant Cave, "cave tubing", where you float on an inner tube with the cave ceiling just above your head, kayaking down the river, and the so-called "Blue Lagoon". Several charming little lakes share the same name, "Blue Lagoon", but they are numbered. You will probably end up at the one marked number 1.
On the full-day trips, you can also add a zip line for a small extra charge. If you want to do a similar programme independently, you can rent a scooter, a mountain bike or possibly a buggy. The latter are quite expensive, but for 400,000 kip (4 hours) you get a 4-seater machine with a 1.0 engine and automatic transmission.
Vientiane - the Presidential Palace and Patuxai
The third and final stop on the itinerary was the capital of Laos, Vientiane. Once again I book a van in Vang Vieng, this time for 50,000 kip, for a 4-hour ride. Every so often you catch sight of the construction site of a motorway that will soon make the journey much faster and more comfortable. Chinese engineers and workers should complete it within 2-3 years. When I settled into my seat and looked around, I saw nothing but locals. Something was wrong. But after a moment I spotted a broad-shouldered man, who turned out to be a Dane and became my travelling companion. In fact, it pays to travel with Laotians: they are shorter and slighter. When the van carries only people of a build closer to ours, it is terribly cramped.
Vientiane is a sleepy backwater, but it stands out from the rest of the country. The name Vientiane itself is the French spelling, and indeed French influences in the city are plentiful, such as the bilingual names of the more important institutions. There are road junctions with traffic lights, which you won't find anywhere else in the country. There are also shops. They are far from European standards, but they are no longer market stalls. There is the Presidential Palace: this pastel-coloured edifice is the grandest building in the country. There is a lot of greenery in the city. It is worth walking along the stately Lane Xang avenue all the way to Patuxai. Halfway along the avenue, between the Presidential Palace and the Victory Gate, you pass a very well-equipped tourist information office. Patuxai may remind you of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Like its French counterpart, it is surrounded by wide streets forming a large elongated roundabout. Again, there is plenty of pleasant greenery all around. The monument reminded me very much of the Gateway of India in Mumbai (I write about Mumbai here). There is an anecdote associated with its construction. It is said to have been built with cement sent by the Americans as a gift for building the capital's airport. Instead of an airport, a "Victory Gate" was built.
There are a few chain hotels in the city. Remember that what is often the cheapest option in Europe can turn out to be the most expensive choice in Laos. So the local Ibis is one of the most expensive, exclusive hotels in the city. In the evenings, when the traffic dies down, a few "ladyboys" hang around the handful of bars, which may testify to Vientiane's big-city aspirations.
Laos is a pleasant country with beautiful nature. It is very well prepared to cater for tourists, especially those without high expectations. Temples, food, nature, architecture. Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane make a great package for a week full of experiences. So what if there is no sea?
