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Chase Temple Ruins And Hammock Lounging With A Cold Laotian Beer

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Southern Laos more closely resembles its neighbors, with a flatter, rice-paddy covered landscape. Here, main attractions include Wat Phu Champasak, temple ruins in a stunning setting and Si Phan Don, the 4,000 islands, a mid-river delta in the Mekong.

Wat Phu Champasak, an ancient Angkorian temple built into a hillside, is about two hours south of Pakse by sangtheaw. The infrastructure here, and the tourism machine, deteriorates slightly, leaving more options for independent travel alongside Lao people. We rode in a truck with a week’s supply of produce and several old ladies who helped us understand prices and figure out our route, all without any ability to truly speak to each other.

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Stopping By 'Pha That Luang,' Like the Eiffel Tower Of Laos

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Vientiane, the capital on the Thai border, resembles a small, riverside town with wide, empty sidewalks and open boulevards that starkly contrast with the crowded madness of the region’s other capitals in Hanoi, Phnom Penh, and Bangkok. Even the waterfront remains curiously green and serene, with a few food stalls set up serving drinks and food to customers sitting on floor rugs along the river.

The main attraction in Vientiane is Pha That Luang, which symbolizes Laos like Angkor Wat symbolizes Cambodia, the Eiffel Tour symbolizes France or McDonalds’ golden arches symbolize the United States. The curved, golden building shaped like a lotus bud was actually only built in 1931, because Thai and French imperialism destroyed both previous incarnations dating back to 1566.

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Won't You Come Try Laos' Special 'Magic Mushroom Shakes?'

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Veng Vieng, a backpacker ghetto seven hours south of Luang Prabang by bus, is probably the seediest place along the travelers’ route, yet it can be easily skipped by people who don’t consider drinking whiskey and floating down river on an inner tube fun. Nonetheless, it's much beloved by those who do.

As I'm still in my twenties,I feel quite young, but not in Veng Vieng. The town exists for and because of 19-year-old English kids in body paint, faux-hawks and tank tops, so my similarly aged friends and I, when we left Veng Viang all with various illnesses, learned our bodies no longer have the capacity to handle spring break.

The adventure began when the bus from Luang Prabang dropped us off in the middle of the night on an abandoned road outside town. The noise of our conversation awoke angry dogs in warehouses as we walked past in the direction—we believed—of town. Heat lightning struck, knocking out the lights from occasional streetlamps. An hour or so later, we found the town and a guesthouse with an insomniac owner who could let us in.

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Laos Field Trip / Laos Travel / Luang Prabang Travel / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags

Buffalo Slim Jims And Waterfall Swims In Laos

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

When we arrived in Luang Prabang, we wondered if the plane had changed course somewhere and instead landed in a small town on the coast of Maine. Only the occasional Lao and the mountains in the distance told me otherwise.

Though considered the cultural capital of Laos, Luang Prabang is also called “falang city” by Lao people because of the ubiquity of tourists there. "Falang" means French, which thanks to colonialism is the ascribed nationality of all foreigners in this part of the world. And perhaps only through sheer Communist might does it still manage to retain its quiet charm, with an 11pm curfew staving off any debauchery.

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Heading To Laos To Discover The Best Of Indochina

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Gentle, quiet Laos exceeds all expectations, from its limestone mountains to meandering rivers and ethnic minority villagers whose outfits are so intricate and lovely they could pass as a winter collection at Fashion Week in Bryant Park. And Laos’ appeal comes without the drawbacks of traveling through its neighbor countries—Vietnam has too many tourists, double goes for Thailand, and the charm of Cambodia’s underdevelopment and unpaved roads wears thin after a 12-hour minibus ride with 18 butts to 10 seats.

Recently I traveled the length of the country, flying to Luang Prabang, then lacing south by bus toward Cambodia, stopping in Vang Vieng, Vientiane, Champasak, and Si Phan Don. This week, I will share tips on how to best explore Indochina's least-visited and loveliest country.

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Up In Smoke

How times change. Jeff Koyen is chronicling a foreign locale where there used to be drugs, as opposed to actively going there to do them. Vang Veng, in the north of Laos, has cleaned up its act and declared itself to be opium-free. You'd have to ask Jeff if the same is true for himself.

Laos is getting a lot of ink these days, and rightly so. It's now pegged as the next it destination in Southeast Asia, as Thailand gets more crowded and Cambodia reworks itself as a super luxury tourist spot, Siem Reap in particular. In part, this may be true because Laos is still cheap: $10 for a double room in a guesthouse with AC. Luxe digs go for about twice that price, and local food is also about a dollar.

Of course, now that its clean, it won't be long until a faux-opium den bar and restaurant opens in Vang Veng. That's how we know freedom is on the march.

[Image via TheRedLion/Flickr]

Related Stories:
·   Out From An Opium Cloud [NY Times]
·   Southeast Asia Overview [Tales of Asia]
·   Laos Change [Jaunted]