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Laos is a landlocked country in South East Asia, bordered by China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. The oficial name of the country is Lao P.D.R, officially meaning Lao People’s Democratic Republic; but after one month in this place we agree to define it as Lao Please Don’t Rush.

Lao people, and life in Laos, takes time for any activity they have to realice. If you go to a shop to buy some cookies, to one restaurant to order sticky rice with veggies or to one guesthouse to ask for rooms, you will always get to wait for a while. Having a plate in a restaurant will take you half an hour easily.

Most of them have a basic subsistence economy and for them has no sense our hurry. It’s their way of life, and after a couple of weeks you get used to and you forget too the Western standards

Laos is a country of smiles. Without any doubt is the most original and real place where we have been, where one smile is autenthic and not a prelude for asking you money or offering their for-paid services.

Walking, cycling or motorbiking around the country give you lots of salutes, being usually in local language: Sabaidee! Sabaidee! Kids, babies, moms and dads wave you when you pass by.

Cycling to Wat Phu

The national drinks are the Lao Lao, a kind of rice whisky; and Beer Lao, the local brand of beer. Any meal in Laos should come with a bucket of sicky rice, which they tighten in their fists and use as we do with bread. In the most remote places your only meal option could be noodle soup with any almost-raw meat.

Driving motorbike without helmets neither license is the usual thing; seeing constantly 10 year old kids on motorbikes, and carrying with them another two or three buddies is a risk you will not be able to avoid. Get used to find bikes with four or five people on it.

The public transport is not much better, it’s very slow and the cargo area will be shared between your backpack and tons of alive chickens and pigs. The stops in the local buses are constant and the trip usually animated by karaoke videos on the TV and speakers of the bus, a nice detail for making your sleep easier.

Waterfall of Tad Lo

The bedding of the hotels and guesthouses is very particular in Laos. In any double room, you will usually find one huge and wide towel; if you try to take it to the river for pic nic, may be you will be stopped by the staff and be explained that’s a a blanket! We got to call them Lao tankets.

In the top of the bed you will have to deal with the pillows: one is hard and high, the second one is much harder and higher. Probably you will have a pillow fight with your love one every night for deciding who get the “softer one”.

The oficial currency in Laos is the Lao Kip, but Thai Baths are accepted everywhere with a fair exchange rate: 10.000 kips are 40 baths, what would be something like 1 euro. If you pay in baths you will get the change in kips and, sometimes, even the opossite depending on the area where you are.

The loop in motorbike around the center of Laos

Our arrival to Laos was from Thailand, and our route by local buses and songthaew, which are local pickups fulled by passengers, pass through Pakse, Champasak –where we cycle to Wat Phu-, Don Det –one island on the Mekong river-, Tad Lo and Thakhek.

In this last city we rent a motorbike and make the loop around the center of the country, where we enjoyed a boat trip through the 8 kilometers long cave of Konglor and a homestay night at Ban Natane, one isolated town with the cave as only access.

Back to Thakhek we used again the local transport for going to Vientiane and Vang Vieng, and back to the center of the country for crossing to Vietnam using the border crossing of Lak Sao.

Sunset in Don Det

One month full of experience, sharing smiles and sabaidees, eating sticky rice, fighting for the softer pillow and enjoying colourful sunsets.

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Champasak town is settled in the center of the Champasak region, but not the capital. That right is for the boring transit city of Pakse. This town is extended through several kilometeres on the side of the Mekong river.

It’s just a small fisher and farm city, with boats and farm animals all around. But has become more touristically important recently because of the proximity with Wat Phou; this is the reason for the increase of guesthouses on all the main road, all of them with a small familiar restaurant attached. There you can rent or bicycles for riding to Wat Phou in the morning.

The main income, far from the subsistence farm economy, it’s the money arrival from tourists. Anyways, due to usually any guesthouse is full, you can easily bargain to 25.000 kips per night.

I will remember you the exchange rate in Laos, where 1 euro is 10.400 kips, so 25.000 kips are more or less 2,5€.

Views to the mountains

The cost of the meals is more reasonable than in Pakse, so quantity and quality are, but the variety is almost none. It’s fun when you start to check the menu in the different guesthouses and restaurant, and after a while you figure it out that they are not just similar… They are the same! The main difference can be the prices, that can change to half from the most expensive to the cheapest ones.

Kinda Pad Thai

Even with the proliferation of touristic offer, the town remains mainly untouched by the foreigners; so locals still seem curious about Westerns and almost all of them reply you with one big smile, local kids wave you and almost everybody say you hi in Lao (sabaidee) when you cross with them.

One of many tuk-tuks

For going to Champasak we headed to the market situated 2 Km from the center of Pakse, where we took one of the local public songthaew for 20.000 kips. I think it’s nonsense to take one of the VIP buses for so short trip, and having to pay 2 or 3 times more money for the ticket.

Ilze eating condensed milk spoon by spoon

Like most of the tourist, we were there just as stopping place in the way to Wat Phou, but the quietness and kindness of the place and the locals trapped us; so in the end we spent there 2 great nights before heading to Don Det, one of the 4000 Islands in the Mekong.

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Pakse is the capital of the Chapasak region and is the main transit city of the South of Laos. Due to his location close to the Thai border, and not far from some crossing points with Cambodia and Vietnam, Pakse has become an important center of transport for anybody trying to go in any direction.

Unfortunately, the touristic attractive doesn’t match, int his case, with the necessity of stopping there. Pakse is a boring city with overpriced restaurant and guesthouses, but you cannot do anything.

The worst guesthouses ask for 50.000 kips, but for 60.000 kips you will be able to find rooms with hot water and wifi. In our case we crashed in Lankham hotel, but there are others with similar price and quality.

Local money is Lao kip, 1 euro is 10.400 kips. So 60.000 kips are around 6€.

Views from 13 Road

Restaurants are average and, as the hotels, are accumulated in the beggining of the 13 Road. Near to the bridge, 2 Kilometers where the songthaews coming from Thai border would drop you off, and 8 Kilometers from the main Southern bus station; becoming a hassle place for tuk-tuk drivers.

Chicken with egg sticky rice, should be called egg sticky rice with small pieces of chicken

The only restaurant a little bit different to the rest was an Indian named Jamin. Anyways, prices were high, portions small and quality average. Much worse than any others we tried in Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore.

Watching the Mekong river for the first time

In the river side we found one small stand with tables close to the Mekong, and great and huge fruit shakes. The cost was affordable, just 5.000 kips.

But, really, in Pakse there is not much more to do than eating, sleeping and taking buses, bouts or songthaews. You could visit one of the temples (called Wats) in the city and talk with a few monks, take a look to the only museum in the city (not of our interest), walk close to the Mekong and see the sunset; may be try the gym in Champasak Palace Hotel or (our recommendation) get a few Lao beers.

Ilze with her first Beer Lao

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Finally we crossed the border between Thailand and Laos. It was just a while walking, 2 hours and a half hours and 2 shared local songthaews (kindda pick-ups prepared for transporting people). On the first ride we went from Ubon Ratchathani to Phibun for 35 baths/person; and from there to Chong Mek, a small market town on the border, for 40 baths.

After a quick view to the market, we crossed the Thai border without any waiting time and we got inside Laos after paying an extra 50 baths fee. I had read there were not way to avoid it, even after getting our VISA in advance in Bangkok, so I didn’t got too pissed off about that.

Once in Laos we just start to refuse all offers and hassling from the van drivers, until we arrived to a further songthaews parking. There we got one ride to Pakse for 50 baths. So, in the end, our trip took us 4 hours and 3 songthaews.

In earlier bargains we got van offers of 80 baths/person, so if you search for more confort without spending a fortune you can get it. Anyways, in those cases, would be better to get the direct bus form Ubon to Pakse for 200 baths.

1 euro is 41,2 Thai baths, so we spent 125 baths on transport that day, around 3 euros.

In an ATM I got 2 million Lao kips. I became millionaire!

In most of the first ATMs I found in Pakse I could use my Mastercard, neither any VISA. There were letters offering you to go to the bank and exchange inside, but the fee was a 3%, so I refused the suggestion kindly. Finally I got one ATM which charged 40.000 kips for every withdraw, being the maximum amount 2 million kips; that was a little bit better, 2% fee.

Here we had a new exchange rate. 1 euro are, nowadays, 10.400 kips, so 2 million kips are less than 200 euros.

After checking several times that my maths were fine -so many zeros scare a bit-, I decided to become millionaire! So I put in my pockets 2 million kip in “small” bills, cause the bigger bill the ATM gave was 50.000 kips. Laos is a country with a really devaluated coin; so devaluated, in fact, that there is no coins, just bills. Shops, drivers, guesthouses and restaurants accept Thai baths in all the country with a fare exchange rate. It’s able to pay with dollars or euros too, but the rate is much worse usually.

One of the first Lao typical temple we found

After getting dropped in the 2 Km market of Pakse we went walking all the way the 13 Road asking prices on hotels and guesthouses. In the end we stayed in one called Lankham: being the best accommodation we had in our Asia trip until that moment. Wifi, hot shower, electricity, fan, big and comfy bed, clean and 2 free water bottles every day.

It was a little bit more expensive than what we are used to: 60.000 kips; but the cheapest option was 50.000 kips in a dark and shitty room, so the extra expense deserved this time.