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The Land of Laos was next on our list. We met wonderful people, saw some beautiful sights, and had a blast. We spent the most time in Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and the 4,000 Islands
Slow Boat on the Mekong to Luang Prabang
This is a two-day journey with an overnight in Pak Beng where we stayed at the Monsavanh Guesthouse. We crossed into Laos over the Mekong via the Friendship Bridge which is the border at Chiang Khong, then took a minibus to the slow boats. The seats were basically car seats dropped into a boat. They are big and can easily hold 50 people, but we stayed away from the back to avoid the engine noise and enjoy the sights along the river. In Pak Beng, we had a great Indian meal and our first Beerlao at the Hasan restaurant. Every once in a while, you’d see a very small boat heading upstream — and those things go scarily fast!
Luang Prabang
As a UNESCO site, development has been very closely controlled in the Old Town. We stayed at the Singharat Place Hotel, which was perfect for a few days. We had a great time walking around, climbed Mt. Phousi, enjoyed some wonderful sunsets, and great meals at a small restaurant (Bounchareune Riverside) on the shore of the mighty Mekong. We also went to the UXO Lao Visitor Centre, which is an eye-opener about what happened here during the American War. We visited the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, explored several temples, and rode around on pedal bikes. We rented a scooter for a couple of days and went to Kuang Si Waterfall, where we hiked up top and Paul enjoyed the secret pool.
Vang Vieng
We took the minivan through some beautiful mountain scenery to Vang Vieng. We had a great first night with an English couple who’d been traveling for months; they were at the end of their trip and heading back to England after living and working in the Middle East. We also had a great surprise meeting with Nok from Koh Lipe. We decided to go tubing and had a blast with our tubing buddies, Ronnie and Sarah from Switzerland. I came in second in a water balloon tossing contest, and Paul and Ronnie won a few games of beer pong. The next day, we rented a scooter and headed into the countryside, where the scenery was gorgeous. We ate a lot of good food at the Green Restaurant and stayed at the Vang Vieng Boutique Hotel.
Vientiane
We only spent one night in Vientiane, but we made the most of it. We had an excellent Indian meal at Jamil’s Pakistani Restaurant, saw the sights, and later had some fantastic pizza at Tyson Kitchen (run by a guy from Vancouver). We even saw Nok again! Our bedbug experience at the Vientiane Backpackers Garden Hostel (total dump) had us fleeing our hostel at 10:30 pm to the beautiful Hotel Khamvongsa nearby – well worth the extra few bucks. Helen noticed them just as we were falling asleep, so we got out without a single bite. Agoda refunded us after seeing the photos, and we took a lot of hot showers afterward!
Thakhek
We were all ready to do the famous motorcycle loop here, but weren’t able to because Paul caught a bad sinus infection. So instead, we spent a week at the very nice Le Bouton d’Or Boutique Hotel. We were able to spend more time with Nok, ate some nice food, and went on a random, somewhat questionable walk (that was me — thanks to Google, I got lost in the countryside!). Afterward, we headed off on the local bus to Pakse, where we’re pretty sure we were offered BBQ’d rat (country, not city!) to eat. We had a great meal at a local restaurant, then took another bus ride and a boat the next day to 4,000 Islands.
4000 Islands
We went to Don Khon and stayed at the Dokchampa Guesthouse. We had amazing food at The Garden and Chez Fred and Lea. We did two bicycle rides: on the first day, we had a flat tire and got caught in a rainstorm, and on the second day, there was a wipeout into a rice field and a visit to a huge waterfall. Guess who was involved in both the flat tire and wipeout? Yes, of course it was me. We rode over to Don Det where we re-connected with Nok, Ronnie, Sarah, and met Rhys from Oz. The next day, we moved over to Don Det and checked into the Little Eden Hotel, where we had a great night playing drinking games and having fun. We spent two more nights there before heading off to Cambodia and Siem Reap. While staying at Little Eden Hotel, we even planned a trip to Hong Kong to watch Liverpool play a pre-season game for Paul’s birthday! 😃
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