Laos Travel Guides
Vientiane is the capital of Laos. It’s a quaint, quiet city with a number of Buddhist temples and stunning architecture. Look at picture 2 – what does that remind you of? Paris’ Arc de Triomphe maybe?
I don’t know what it is about cycling big distances, but I love it. My heart and soul just loves riding a bike for a long time and covering ground. It doesn’t bother me if it’s made easier from flat roads, tail winds or perfect weather conditions – my heart still sings.
Deciding not to go to Luang Prabang (LP) wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right one. Tired from the hills we decided to made tracks to the party town of Vang Vieng.
The roads in Loas are quite a mixed bag, they have everything from dirt roads to newly paved roads and everything in between. Overall cycling here is quite nice but the mixed road surfaces can slow you down.
In Phonsavan you’re just 6 miles (10kms) from the Plain of Jars and we’d been told we must see it. Honestly, from everyone’s description I wasn’t that enthused, but a must-see is a must-see!
At first it was just a dusty street with cafes and a few shops, but if you looked around you could find some spectacular sights! Slide through to see how unexploded missiles are used in Laos, and for perspective see Stew (6ft4 / 193cms) stood next to one.
I speak for myself when I say this, because I don’t think Stew has the same experience, but I don’t have any problems getting enough calories on this trip. Well that was the case until we reached Laos.
In Vieng Xai, a small, cosy village in Laos Stew and I visited the most eye-opening, remarkable and solemn historic sight of our trip.
Laos and Vietnam have been good countries for meeting other travellers and cyclists, meet Jörg, Angela and Teinhard. We’d cycled from Vietnam to Laos with Jörg, a German cyclist who’d had the same visa problem as us. We met him in the hotel on the Vietnamese side
You know those stunning travel shots people take with their exotic fruits in far away places? Here’s mine 🤣
I think Laos might be the most beautiful country we’ve visited so far. It’s a bit early to say for sure, but the views are breathtaking. The cycling is tough – we’ve had some of the hilliest days of the entire trip.
We had 7 days on our Vietnamese visa when we got to the border. We expected to get a visa on arrival, but you can’t do this anymore at Na Meo! Rules changed in 2020 and different borders have different rules. It took us 3 days to cycle from Hanoi, so we decided we’d play it safe and head back to Hanoi via public transport.
A cycle tour is full of surprises. At the moment we’re taking a sizeable detour for the third time and heading to Laos, a country I’d never heard of before this trip – a country we never planned to visit.