Northern Laos Travel Guide

If you take a two day slow boat trip from Luang Prabang to the border of Thailand up the river Mekong , it's better to buy tickets on the boat. Some agencies in town offer you joint tickets that sum up to around 270.000 kip, other agencies offer tickets just till Pakbeng (half way) and that is 120.000 kip, then you can buy the ticket for the rest of the journey in Pakbeng, that should be another 120.000 kip... eventually it turned out that the best deal was for those who bought the tickets on the boat in Luang Prabang, then again on the boat in Pakbeng, 100.000 kip each, so it adds up to 200.000 kip. Well, you don't save a fortune, but it's a part of adventure:)) I did that trip in November. Read a lot in Lonely Planet that boats get overcrowded and are very uncomfortable... Didn't have this experience... The seats where fairly comfortable and the boat was empty (maybe because of November and it is not as popular as two day trip down the river)... around 20 ppl... But when the day before I tried to buy a ticket at the local agency, I was told that there are only few seats left and if I come like 10 min later I won't be able to get on the boat... well I decided to take a risk just because in Laos I had this feeling i cannot trust locals... and 100 % I was right... I guess you just have to listen to your guts.

Very peaceful town of temples. Everywhere you turn you see groups of Budha monks. Extremely well preserved, but it's enough to go further away from the main streets to see the reality of locals living there. Breathtaking event takes place at around 6 am when monks go out to pick up alms from locals who are kneeling on the sidewalks of the streets. I was lucky to watch this happening on 450 years anniversary that the capital of Laos has been transferred to Vientiane. On that morning most probably all the locals where giving out alms as well as some tourists mixed in among them. They seemed so excited:) To see this endless orange line of monks and locals kneeling... it was magical and totally worth getting up before 6 am:) In the evenings a night market takes place in the center of Luang Prabang. Wonderful handcrafts, food place is amazing and ridiculously cheap and fruit shakes... all kinds of fruit shakes... and cakes... yummy:) It's absolutely not suitable for night life lovers as there is basically almost nothing. But it's definitely worth stopping, talking to some monks, going to a local ballet, that doesn't look anything like the ballet we know :))) maybe booking a 3 day trecking excursion visiting some local tribes and getting to know what they live.

This place is full of travlers and it is known as 'Paradise for Travelers' among Western travelers who travel in Asia. The place has no electricity at night, but about two guesthouses offer 24hour electricity and hot shower.You can take van from Luang Prabang(It should cost around 6,7dollar) to Nong Kiaw and from Nong Kiaw you can take a boat. It's great to walk around the village and see local people's life. Some people might not like the main part of the village coz it has been commercialized and the main road is pretty loud and noisy at night coz of travellers drinking and partying. However, if you don't like noisy places, I'm sure you'll like this place: Don't forget to check out the cave(you need to bring a flash light to enter the cave) and if you walk a couple of hours more from the cave, you'll reach a real local village.  You can sleep there one dollar for a night, they also have restaurants, their Beer Lao cost a bit more than those in big cities, but if you think of transporting, you should be glad that you can get beer at that place. Anways, I absolutely love this place!