I have taken my time writing this blog post, for one reason or another, but mostly I think because Laos was just such a special experience for me, that I find it extremely hard to put it into words and do it justice (as it deserves). Laos for me was all about connecting with people. I experienced the strongest bonds with locals in this country without going on crazy adventures, just simply through interacting and observing. Funny, because most of them do not even speak English, which shows, that sometimes it doesn’t need words to connect.

Laos is a country in Southeast Asia, surrounded by China, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia. It is especially famous for its lime stone mountains, their Buddhist temples and architecture, which is influenced by French colonial times. We spent two weeks in this beautiful country (and could have spent at least two more to see the entire country and discover the south) and I will give you some insights to all of our stops.

Luang Prabang 

From Manila, we flew over to Luang Prabang with a short stopover in Malaysia, where we picked up my sister, who joined us for a couple more days. I am not even sure if there are direct flights, you usually always have a pit stop in either Malaysia or Thailand. Luang Prabang is the old capital of the late kingdom Luang and is famous for its many buddhist temples. in Laos, we met up with Rom, who we already got to know during our time in Vietnam. We all stayed in Sabai Sabai hostel, which had nice dorm rooms (everybody gets a fairly big bed with plugs and light), breakfast and a pool. Even though the hostel is a bit out of the way from the night market and such, its only a 15 to 20 minute walk or a few minutes by tuk tuk.

We spent 2 nights in the city, which I would say is definitely enough to get a good impression of what Luang Prabang is all about. The night market is definitely a must do, if you want to try local food and stroll through aisle of street vendors, that are trying to sell you any kind of souvenir there. I can also highly recommend to take a stroll along the river or to cross the bamboo bridge leading to a tiny village on the other side. Even though this bridge might not be an actual attraction, it was fun to walk over the shaky construction and even more fun to watch the local kids playing in the river bed.

We also went on a tour to Kuang Si waterfalls, which is a fairly touristy place, but the waterfalls as such look quite nice, so its a good activity to fill an afternoon and a very refreshing dip in very cold water (and be aware of these tiny fish that are nibbling on your feet haha). Another thing to do in Luang Prabang is to walk up Phou Si Hill to watch the sunset. Halfway up there, you can find the temple Wat Tham Phou Si and at the top of the hill is Wat Chom Si, another temple. It is just a short climb away and the view is quite nice.

Also, in Luang Prabang we went to one of the coolest bars and even though the service was at times very slow (it was pretty crowded so understandable), I would love to go back there. Utopia is a bar and restaurant with a view over the Nam Khan river. You can either sit or lay on matts or beanbags in the bar area or chose one of the tables in their cute garden. But the coolest (and for me still scariest) place to sit and enjoy your drinks is on their balcony or maybe better to call it their bamboo platform (which has no railing of course, why would it haha).

Nong Khiaw

After a 3 hour van ride, we finally made it to our second stop of the trip – Nong Khiaw, located on the Nom Ou river in the Luang Prabang Province. We stayed at Mexxai guesthouse and had two double rooms, which were very basic but comfy for the time being. They have a restaurant at the guesthouse, however I would advice to walk to the main road and get something to eat there, you will definitely have some good choices. I think we went to have lunch and dinner three times at Q Bar & Restaurants, they have a very chill platform, where you can relax and dine and their Lao BBQ was awesome. And, if I remember right, they had a pretty nice happy hour deal going on.

My favorite part of Nong Khiaw was probably walking around the village and interacting with the kids there. We had some girls running up to us, giving us flowers, boys wanted to play soccer with Rom – overall it was just very neat to get in contact and get a feel about how life in Laos can be. There really aren’t a lot of commercial shops and that’s what makes it so appealing. You get a glimpse into their local businesses, women creating nets for the fishermen, pharmacies or boatbuilder. I am still so disappointed at myself that I missed doing a local Perspective episode in Laos, because it really felt like we had the greatest interaction with locals, but English is really rare and sometimes you just need to enjoy it without having socia media on your mind. Amen.

Another ‘should do’ activity in Nong Khiaw is the hike up to Phadeng Peak Viewpoint. It takes approximately 1,5 (there are different path ways that differ in degree of difficulty). There are parts that can be exhausting, but it’s really not that long and the view is worth it (unfortunately mostly a little foggy). Unfortunately, the hike was our last activity with my sister (who has never been to Laos before – insider haha), because she had to return to Luang Prabang to then fly back to an undercover location that I am not allowed to reveal, because she wants to remain an undercover boss for life (you are welcome hahah). Henni, Rom and I continued our travels over to Muang Ngoi, which is just an hour boat ride away. Boats drive over there until 15:00 and cost approximately 25,000 kip. It’s not the most comfy ride, but Muang Ngoi is for sure worth it.

Muang Ngoi

I’ve had one of the best days of my entire trip in Muang Ngoi. And it wasn’t because we did something extraordinary special or unexpected. You might maybe even think that I am crazy, because it really doesn’t sound super exciting. But maybe the simplicity of this day was what made it so special and what I needed in that exact moment in time, who knows. For me, it was just incredible and is hard to put into words.

So, the day started early. Right after breakfast, we packed up our stuff, walked down the path to the river and climbed into the boat. I had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that we would go fishing with a few locals, organized through our guesthouse (Rainbow Guesthouse). The night before, I was a little apprehensive as I couldn’t imagine myself sitting in a boat the entire day, waiting for a fish to take the bait. But they assured us that we would not only sit around the entire time and explained, that we would visit a little village as well, so good enough for me to be on board (literally).

We got into the boat early in the morning, the three of us plus three super nice locals, and started to drive along the river. After around 15 minutes, we had our first stop (out of three that day). The way they fish is that they throw the fishing net out over a certain area and then, step by step start bringing it in. It was very interesting to see, how they managed to catch these fish with the simplest of tools. I wasn’t too crazy about bringing in the net, so Henni and I were responsible to hold the boat in order and to catch the fish, which the guys had already pulled out. By the end of the day, we had approximately 12 fish, which we then prepared over the fire to have a nice BBQ with some drinks on a tiny island in the middle of the river. It was just the best day. Eating this super delicious fish, which was just prepared over the fire with salt, sticky rice with chili powder, drinking beers, sharing stories and swimming in the river was just amazing. This was one of these day, when I knew even stronger than usual that what I was doing, traveling around the world over the last couple of years, was all so worth it. Being so close with people from different cultures that you would usually never meet in your familiar environment, sharing their way of life and just talking, laughing, living this moment with them is just incredibly humbling and gives you so much energy to keep on going.

Besides fishing, drinking and swimming, we also went to the weaving village, as promised. It is, of course, a super touristy stop, as this is the way they earn money (by selling beautiful scarfs, carpets, etc.), but as this is their source of income, I feel it is totally ok to support them. Also, the people over there were super friendly and the kids were absolutely adorable.

Also, if you get the chance and you are interested in doing so, ask the locals if you can join them to see their cows. This sounds so random, but I LOVE cows, I think they are so cute, and so I was, of course, super stoked, when they told us we could come with them to the other side of the river to watch how they vaccinated them (the cows were, btw not amused about that). Cow rage mode on.

Vang Vieng

A boat and a horrible night bus ride later (unfortunately not to compare with Vietnam this time), we made it to our next stop – one of the backpacker attractions Vang Vieng. The city is located on Nam Song river, surrounded by beautiful lime stone mountains and an hour away from the capital Vientiane. Backpackers are especially drawn here, because of the tubing and drinking activities on the river and other adventure activities.

We originally booked a different hostel, but switched to Rock Backpackers, because the other one was kind of nasty and super unorganized (Easy Go hostel – ok bye). Rock backpackers was super nice, the rooms were clean, their service was friendly and we booked a very nice hot air ballon ride and an ok day tour (caves, kayaking, temple) with them. For our last night in Vang Vieng however, we booked a night in yet another hostel ( Nana Backpacker), basically just because they have a pool and it was just way too warm (but also a nice hostel, very social and definitely more party vibes than in Rock Backpackers).

As I already mentioned, Vang Vieng has a ton of tours to offer. One of the more popular ones is a trip to the caves and the cave temple. You can also rent buggies and cruise around the scenery or rent a kayak and enjoy a drive through the river. Best thing is to compare prices and pick from one of the many vendors over there. Same goes for restaurants, they have so much to offer, its hard to pick one. We had a very nice dinner along the river, I don’t think it had a specific name, but it’s one of the BBQS that come up after you cross the bridge.

Party wise, the city has one party strip that is especially popular. We went to listen to live music twice at Gary’s Irish Bar and checked out Sakura Bar, which is apparently one of the major party places. As much as I like backpacker life and partying, after spending a couple days in the remote areas of Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi, it felt a little weird being in full backpacker mode again, and Vang Vieng is designed exactly for that. But if you want a fun time and go on some adventures, it is definitely your place to go and a must stop when in Laos anyways.

Ban Phonsavan

After Vang Vieng, we were debating on whether to rush down to the south of Laos, as it was supposed to be super nice, or to pick another destination closer to Vientiane, our last stop in Laos. We compared prices and routes and finally decided on Ban Phonsavan. The van ride was definitely and adventure, including the breakdown of the vehicle, but eventually we made it there after approximately 6 hours. The city is a famous gateway to the Plain of Jars fields, the noodle village, their Sunday market, the stupa of That four and Wat Phiawat temple. It is also interesting, as locals there make jewelry and cutlery out of old metal, which was and still is collected from thousands of bombs that destroyed Laos during the Vietnam war, or better said the “Secret war” during this time in history, in order to destroy the Ho Chi Minh trail (also, Laos still struggles with unexploded bombs in some areas of the country, which is why it is so important to stay on assigned pathways when you go hiking).

Our overall stay in Ban Phonsavan was alright, but in the city itself there is really nothing to do and the tours are pretty overpriced and, for that, definitely lack a guide or information. If you have time to spare, this would probably be a stop you could consider, but I would rather go down to the South, if I were you. But regardless of that, interacting with the locals during our stay there was again really nice. I was extremely happy that we had Rom with us, who is very passionate about photography and not shy to approach locals to take their pictures. Therefore, we also got the chance to somewhat interact with them and got a deeper understanding of this country.

From Ban Phonsavan, we took a night bus to Vientiane, which marked our last stop in Laos. Thank god, this time we had a more comfortable experience and got to the capital early morning around 6am.

Vientiane 

We stayed in Ali Backpackers hostel and hotel (ok hostel, nothing special and dorm rooms weren’t particularly nice), which is located right around the corner from the night market (get fried fish – soooo good), a variety of other different restaurants, bars, massage places and Xieng Nyeun temple. Definitely a very good location if you want to walk around and explore (for the local bus station it’s a 15-20 minute walk). Especially in the capital, you can see the influence of French architecture in many of the buildings, which gives it a special charme.

During our time two days in Vientiane, we took a local bus down to the Buddha park, walked all the way to Patuxai Victory Memorial and further to the most famous stupa of the country – That Luang. It’s a nice little walk down there, just be careful with the heat, can be pretty exhausting, because of the lack of shade at times. Also, Henni and I had really nice massages there (we actually went there twice after a very awkward massage experience in Vang Vieng – and no it did not involve any kind of happy ending, just very weird stomach rubbing haha). Unfortunately, I just cannot find the freaking name of the place, but it was definitely in a side street closer to our hostel and a French restaurant. Very, very good massages, a good way to escape the heat and the prices are alright as well.

Overall, I really, really, really loved Laos. A lot. Even though the overall experience there was at times a bit difficult and bumpy (which had nothing to do with the country at all), the scenery, it’s people, the activities and the food most definitely made up for it all and still put a big smile on my face, when I think about it. I would go back there in a heartbeat to explore the rest of the country or just to sit on that tiny island again, fish in one hand, sticky rice in the other, enjoying the view with good company and great stories.