Laos? Yes! Two weeks traveling through Laos, a beautiful country.
- Ilene
- Mar 4
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 20
If you’ve seen our recent social posts from Laos, you may be wondering where this unique little country is located and how we spent just over two weeks traveling in Laos.
Compared to Vietnam, our previous stop, Laos was much more laid back. In fact, one guide told us that in the official name, Laos PDR (Laos Peoples Democratic Republic) the PDR stands for “Please Don’t Rush”, we like her version better as it’s more reflective of the laid back feel of the country. We spoke with a French restaurant owner who shared her experience that Laos is about 10 years behind Vietnam. We saw that in the banking, no ApplePay or GooglePay though they did have QR Code based bank transfers. The roads which were very poorly maintained, the lack of helmets on motor scooters drivers and passengers, and not to mention the roaming cows, goats, and chickens typical of agricultural zones. And yet what Laos offers in terms of experiences is also very appealing to many travelers, especially the backpackers from Europe, Australia/New Zealand of whom we met and saw many.
Our itinerary took us from the north to central Laos: Luang Prabang > Houyxai / Gibbon Experience > Luang Prabang > Vangvieng > Vientiane
We started our adventures with a big one… we flew into Luang Prabang and made our way to Houyxai in the northwest, near the boarders of Thailand and Myanmar. We were headed to the Gibbon Experience and though the route to get there was adventurous in itself, spending three days and two nights in the Lao jungle, zip-lining, trekking and sleeping in a treehouse was the real adventure. This part of the trip was not for the luxury or even mid-luxury traveler. We didn’t see a single western toilet on the 7 hour minibus drive from Natuey train station to Houyxai and definitely no soap or paper towels. Food options were very rural with stands along the side of the roads servicing travelers. Tomorrow’s food was often clucking around the tables or already plucked and soaking in water basins, near the bathrooms no less!
Not to scare you off, this was all manageable with the right expectations and to say we had low expectations for the journey is about right. Even the accommodations in Houyxai for the night before and after the Gibbon Experience were basic and not as clean as I’d have liked. This was a case where “money couldn’t solve it” because when you pick a top rated rated hotel in town at price of $16/night, there’s just nowhere up from there. Again, our expectations were set pretty low.
The adventure in the jungle made it all worthwhile. The jungle was beautiful, overgrown, thick and warm, really hot actually. Our group consisted of 6 others with whom we shared our treehouse, sleeping on mats in the worlds highest treehouse (30-40 meters above the ground) with very thick “tents” that draped from above. The shower was fresh spring water, cold as all could be and the water dripped straight down through the slats of the floor to the jungle. Food was zip-lined in by the local women and we sat around a low table with stools as all locals do in this part of the world. Our treehouse-mates ranged in age from 18 to 32 years old and were from England, Netherlands and Germany. It was a fun group and we became the American Parents of these youngsters, playing drinking games, card games and sharing travel stories.
After the Gibbon Experience, we spent almost a week in Luang Prabang, trying to slow down a bit while enjoying what we had heard was a nice little town. The city center is a UNESCO heritage site with the hope to maintain and preserve the old Lao and French colonial style buildings that sit side by side. There are a lot of Buddhist temples in this city, 32 if I remember correctly, and each morning the Monks make their way through the city collecting alms. We were humbled by the experience at 6am, participating in the alms giving, providing sticky rice to the Monks who cannot cook for themselves and rely on food from others. Though many tourists come out, locals do as well. During our time here we came to love the food, more similar to Thai than Vietnamese, spicier for sure, and more curries which were delicious. Gluten free was pretty easy, just needed to avoid soy sauce. We also took a cooking class and hope to replicate some of these flavors when we return home.
We also visited a couple of other sites including the Pak Ou caves were thousands of gold lacquered Buddah statues are placed and locals come during festivals throughout the year. Along the way via the Mekong River, we stopped at Ban Xanghai, aka the whisky village where Lao Lao Whiskey is made, more coming soon from David on this topic. And lastly the Kuangsi Waterfalls that are just beautiful, both in their layers and blue colors which reflect the limestone in the area.
Vangvieng was our next destination. This city has been backpackers central for many many years with adventurers of all sorts. From hot air balloons to ATVs, rock climbing, hiking, para-motoring and all the river activities from kayaking to (tipsy) tubing. The development is easy to see with big new hotels, tourist focused adventure resorts and Koreans seem to be a big part of the tourist population as well.
From Vangvieng we made a stop in Muang Fuang - not a typical stop on the way to Vientiane, but the travel company we were working with suggested it. This area is prime for development beyond the current Lao and Thai tourists. Along the river are hotel cabins that sit on floating piers. Simple rooms with shared outdoor bathrooms, restaurants floating in front. Most uniquely the monks here come via boat to collect alms and share blessings. We stayed about 5 minutes from the river as we heard it can be quite loud there and ended up at a Swiss family owned and locally run hotel with a beautiful view of the mountains through floor to ceiling windows and great air conditioning! It was an interesting experience to have lunch where there was no official vegetable dish and English was not going to help us. This stop wouldn’t be for everyone, but was interesting to see - the beauty here was real and the river with its own activities interesting as well.
And finally we arrived in Vientiane, the current capital of Laos. We knew there wasn’t much to see here and spent a few hours seeing Buddhist temples and national monuments before escaping back to the hotel AC to enjoy some western comforts in an IHG hotel with an amazing breakfast buffet, gym, pool, a great shower, and the holy grail of toilets in Laos with toilet paper flushing accepted.
And that's a wrap for our 18 days in Laos. Next up Cambodia for our final 16 days in Southeast Asia. Then onto Hong Kong, Japan (w/the Guadiamos'!), S. Korea (w/Rachael!!!), Indonesia and Taiwan before returning to LAX on July 1.
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