Laos forum

Two days in Vientiane
Three days in Luang Prabang
Five day round trip from LP to ?? via ?? river at mellow pace in January

In a perfect world, I would do something along the lines of:

Depart LP via slow boat in the morning on Day 1 and travel for 3-5 hours before stopping for the afternoon/night in a beautiful, mellow location. Middle of nowhere OK if you have a suggestion for a place to sleep and hire a local guide.

Day 2: Go hiking/walking/biking/whatever to see something cool and maybe camp a night or do a homestay. I LOVE textiles and weaving, festivals, ruins, architecture, cultural events, etc. And I love being able to participate in whatever it is that the locals are doing, whether that be observing or helping.

Day 3: Circle back to river, slow boat another half day or hike along river to somewhere else cool. Day 4 do something active - hike, bike, fish, whatever

Day 5 go back to LP via boat? bus?

I absolutely love traveling via river, and am not so much a fan of dealing with my husband on a bus for longer than four hours. If there are not enough people to pay for the boat trip, I will pay for the whole thing. We travel on a tight budget and sleep and eat cheap until we need something like a boat or a good guide. I will spend the money to make my trip work smoothly since we dont have a lot of time to screw around.

As far as the guide, I am also looking for suggestions. I want to find someone who understands the whole sustainable tourism thing, and speaks the local language in the event we end up in a place where the people don't speak Lao. I like camping and staying in people's homes and usually do that by earning my keep — helping someone fix their roof, cook, clean, build a canoe, whatever. In Italy, we helped harvest olives to earn our bed and meal; in India, we built an outhouse in a little village that didn't have one, then all the guys went fishing together for dinner and I stayed back and helped the women with the babies and the wash. I really like doing those things.

So, all that being said. If departing from LP on a five-day timeline, which river should we use, which direction should we head, and where should we stop?