Laos forum

hi kif,

i think this is too much for such a short time. in places like laos, travel times are very slow. from the intinerary you have, you'll be spending about half of your waking hours getting from place to place.

two quick suggestions might be to cut out the side trip to phonsavanh, and work in a flight within laos - possibly even a long one like luang prabang all the way down to pakse. otherwise, you'll be spending your entire holiday in a bus, which is no fun at all......

"But... will my girlfriend have good reasons for NOT stepping into a Lao plane?" Why? Is your girlfriend so objectionable they won't let her on a plane?

By the way I agree with Exacto; there is too much travelling in your itinerary. Chill out a little. I mean, you are note even staying one day in Savannakhet. I might cut the 4000 islands.

Less is more...pick out the places you really want to see i.e. LP, Angkor and cut your itinerary in half.

My suggestion is to spend a couple of days in Vientiane, bus (12hrs) or fly to LP and spend a few days, fly to Pakse and spend a week around the 4000 islands, Bolaven plateau, then head straight to Phnom Penh, spend a few days, head to Siem Reap, spend a few days, then a few days in BKK at the end.

If you had extra time you could always head down to Sihanoukville for some beach time before heading up to Siem Reap.

Your first itinerary had you traveling 7 of the first 10 days, your GF will love getting on a plane after that.

It still seems like a lot of time on buses/flights but to each his own.

You could always add a day in BKK at the end to do some shopping. I also don't know that i would spend anytime in Kratie unless you are really keen on seeing dolphins in the river. Personally I'd rather have the time in the 4000 islands, LP, Siem Reap, PP, BKK.

I believe you can see dolphins around the 4000 islands as well.

The sleeper bus from Vientiane to Pakse was not a very restful experience for us. There are different buses and I have a feeling that we didn't get one of the better ones.
I am not much for overnight travel as even if I am flying biz class to Asia I don't get a lot of sleep such that the first day is a write-off.

Here is a link to our trip on the overnight bus from Pakse to Vientiane in May 2009.

http://mekong.kuchtaworld.net/2009/05/so-tired.html

smkuchta, just read your blog. There are 600,000 people in Vientiane, not 250,000.

Don't believe everything you read in Wikipedia. As far as Laos is concerned, I find it a really poor source.

#12. LOL thanks for the "advice" Rufus. Should I not believe LP as well since they say the same thing?

#13. I agree that populations in some of these countries aren't very accurate, but honestly don't care either, I simply referred to what Lonely Planet had as the population.

Either way VTE is one of the quietest capital cities in the world at least in my humble opinion.

Yep we were pleasantly surprised with Vientiane and enjoyed it immensely. Some good restaurants, nice atmosphere not a must see but definitely a pleasant place to spend a few days.