🇱🇦 Laos – Vang Vieng: Travel and Backpacking Nov 2019

Disclaimer

The information in this blog is accurate as of November 2019.

🤔 – What to Expect
🌅 – Activities
🍛 – Food
🚇 – Transport
🛌 – Accomodation

🤔 What to Expect

Beautiful Greenery and Mountains
Lots of Construction Sites
Cute stray puppies.
Escape the heat as Vang Vieng is much cooler.
Great place for adventure based activities.
You can hire buggies!

🌅 Activities

Day Trip: Cave Tubing, Zip Lining and Kayaking

Bartered down to 190,000 from 200,000 kip.
You can choose from a variety of activities e.g. blue lagoon, caving however prices also then vary.
Life jackets, helmets, 10L waterproof bags and other safety/ activity equipment provided.

Tham Xang Cave

Also known as Elephant Cave due to a limestone formation inside.
An important Buddhist Temple where locals come to worship.
Not much to look at for the non-buddhist apart from a few Buddha statues, including a reclining Buddha.

Tham Nam Cave

Time to get wet by tubing into Tham Nam Cave (aka Water Cave).
Be prepared for cold water.
Take some shoes/ sandals you don’t mind getting wet as you’ll have to walk through parts of the cave.
Arran went bare foot.
All belongings are left at the café.

Zip Lining

Zip lining was so much fun! Some people waited around dependent on the package they bought.
Beautiful views of the mountains and surrounding landscape as you zip line above the trees.
Be prepared for a good laugh with cheeky guides pretending to push you over the edge and bounce on the line. 😂

BBQ lunch, fried rice and bread for lunch (included in the price). The rice was really tasty!
Non-sweet bread too! Hallelujah!!

Kayaking

Not the leisurely one hour kayak down the Nam Song River I thought, instead it felt like I’d entered a race!
Still great fun!
Requires some communication skills which we weren’t so great at – still, we didn’t capcise 🤗
Watch the sneaky tour guides and other tourists splash or should I say soak you with water!
I think the views were nice – though I was too busy concentrating 😅

Night Market

A smaller yet similar version of the night market in Luang Prabang.

Other Things To Do

Plenty of bars and restaurants to meet your needs.
Hire an off-road buggy for up to 6 hours costing around 300,000 kip for 2 people.
Hire a scooter and go exploring.

🍛 Food

A.M.D Restaurant

Laap – A Traditional Laotian Meat Salad.

Small, street style, family run restaurant.
Cheap and tasty food with plenty of selection.
Just further back than the main street in Vang Vieng.

Vang Vieng Pizza

Average prices but cheap pizzas for the size (39,000 kip for pepperoni pizza).
Cheap spirits including rum, Malibu and vodka at 20,000 kip with mixer.
Pleasant Staff.
Free WiFi.

🚇 Transport

We haven’t used any however there are the truck style tuk-tuk’s available. Unsure how much they are or where they go. Visitors usually hire a scooter or buggy for venturing outside the town. Otherwise, Vang Vieng is small enough to walk around.

We booked a minivan to Vientiane which cost 48,000 kip from Vang Vieng Green Morning Bus Company 2 (on the main street). There are other alternatives, most costing 50,000 – 60,000 kip.

Minivans and sleeper buses travelling to Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand are available from tour operators.

🛌 Accommodation

Army Barrack Guesthouse

100,000 kip per night (around £9) for deluxe double room with WiFi, fan and Aircon.
Private Bathroom with Hot, Hot Shower! 😍
Rooms can be cleaned and made daily on request.
Free Breakfast Included. The usual eggs done different ways and fried rice, all with fruit, tea or coffee.
Bus, Laundry and Trip Services are Available (although we went elsewhere).