We now have just over a month left of our travels, and have been researching where we want to visit in these last two countries. We have discovered that there seems to be less tourist spots to visit in Laos and Cambodia, so we will be spending a lot more time in places compared to other countries. This might mean that our blog posts will be further apart as there will be less to fill you in on, but we promise we’ll keep updating you right until we get home.

After a very busy three months, we also feel that taking some more time to relax and do nothing is not so bad! 

So far, we have had the warmest climate in Laos, and whilst I feel like I’ve said this before, it is definitely the cheapest. The 78p for a 640ml bottle of beer made Luke one very happy man, and it cost us £1 a litre for petrol to fill up a moped.

📍 Vientiane, Laos 🇱🇦

Being fresh off the plane from the chaos of Hanoi, we were pleasantly surprised at how quiet and calm Vientiane was. We stayed in a hostel right on the Mekong River with Thailand on the other side, and right in the heart of the city. We enjoyed a quiet couple of days walking around Vientiane and planning transport and accommodation for the next stop.

A key tourist attraction in Vientiane is Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan), which is an open air sculpture park full of Buddhist and Hindu statues. Xieng Khuan translates to Spiritual City.

The statues are made from concrete, and some can be climbed. The main one that can be climbed has three floors, and you enter into it through the mouth of a demon. The floors represent Heaven, Hell and Earth, and at the top you can enjoy a view of the park and a slither of the Mekong River.

📍 Vang Vieng, Laos 🇱🇦

Vang Vieng is a quiet town but packed with tourists here for good bars and activity trips. We instantly liked the atmosphere and the friendly nature of the people. Our accommodation was right on the main street and it had a really nice outside area that we spent a lot of our time people watching and enjoying a few drinks.

The accommodation had been advertised online as having a swimming pool. However when we arrived, we were told that this was not the case, and a quick look outside confirmed that a pool probably never existed. Our host offered a moped to us free of charge as an apology for this mistake. Not exactly the same thing, but a nice gesture, and we did take him up on his offer.

With the moped we drove up to Pha Nguen Yai View Point. The view point was reached after a very challenging 2 hour hike but the view of Vang Vieng was remarkable. We went out on the moped later as well, just to drive around and enjoy some more of the scenery.

During our time in Vang Vieng, we spent a day doing various different water activities booked through a tour company.

The first stop was Tham Nam water cave for tubing. Tubing is where you sit in a large rubber doughnut and float on the water. For our experience we went through a cave, and we had to pull ourselves along on a rope suspended above our heads. The cave was pitch black and the water was cool (not as cold as I expected it to be though), and whilst hard work, also really enjoyable.

We had a quick stop afterwards to visit Elephant Cave. This was a bit random as it was just a temple, but it is given the name due to the elephant shape made from rock in the cave.

After a spicy lunch, we set off kayaking down the Nam Song River. It was an 8km journey down the river, and at times we had to battle fierce rapids. Other times though it was completely calm and we sat back and let the current take us. There was time for us to enjoy a drink at one of the river bars, before the tuk tuk took us to the last stop.

Finally we went to Blue Lagoon 1. It was heaving with people all with picnics, drink and music. The family sat next to us gave me a glass of beer to have and cheers with them. The water was freezing and there were loads of fish waiting for the scraps from the picnics. The picnics did make us laugh as they were very different to what we class as a picnic. The Laotian people were tucking into snails, whole fish and spinach soup, whereas we’d be enjoying sausage rolls, crisps and sandwiches.

We were enjoying Vang Vieng so much that we extended our stay by two nights. However, we did move to another hotel that had a pool further down the street. Our fun in the pool did come to an end when I stepped on glass at the bottom, but it was perfect until then.

Today we arrived in Luang Prabang, home to a waterfall that I have wanted to visit since we first planned this trip 2 years ago. We took the train here – the train system in Laos is very easy to navigate but security is taken seriously. It was like airport security with putting bags through scanners, and you are told to stand in a queue to board the train. The journey to Luang Prabang was through beautiful scenery, and a lot more comfortable than we were expecting (we were booked into the ‘hard seats’ of the train).

We’re not sure how long we’ll be in Luang Prabang for, but we’re looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. Let us know if you have any questions about our trip in the comments! Lots of love, Caitlin and Luke