Laos forum

Hi vuh,

A couple of suggestions:


1) You're trying to do too much in the far south in my opinion. Two days in Si Phan Don (4,000 islands) isn't very long, and I'd say Champasak is more interesting than Salavan or Sekong. If you want to head out to the Bolaven, I'd suggest skipping Attapeu, Sekong and Salavan, add at least one day to Si Phan Don and then perhaps see Pak Song or better still, Tad Lo.

2) I'd suggest skipping Udomxai. The trekking is better organised out of Luang Nam Tha than Muang Sing.

3) For that crossing, you'll need to overnight at Sam Neua before leaving early the following morning for the crossing. It is a fairly popular crossing, but still sees barely a trickle of foreigners using it each day. Safety wise, it should be ok - there's a lot of solo female travellers in Laos.

I think overall your itinierary is a bit rushed. I'd suggest reconsidering how many places you're thinking of seeing in the south, and if you're heading to Hanoi anyway, perhaps look into flting from Luang Prabang to there to save you a few more days.

Hope that helps!

Hi,

The border crossing at Na Maew / Nam Xoi is open, we crossed there from Vietnam to Laos one week ago. We met several backpackers in Sam Neua and Vieng Xai crossing over to Vietnam, but very few are going the other way as we did.

There is a direct bus from Sam Neua to Thanh Hoa in Vietnam, BUT it only goes 3 days a week, so be sure you get there on the right day. From Thanh Hoa you there are lots of busses to Hanoi, 3h, 45.000 dong. You can make it there on your own but then you'll have to change bus a lot of times and the local transport is very infrequent.

It can be hard to find a good transport between the Vietnamese border and the closest town, Quan Song. The Motorcycle taxi guys charge you the absurd sum of 10$/person for the 50 km drive. So if you can, take the direct bus...

As to crossing from Vietnam to Laos, we took a minibus from Thanh Hoa to Quan Song (5 am, 6h, 7$) but there was no transport from there to the border. We refused to pay 10$ for a MC and finally managed to hitch-hike. :-) There are very few transports from the border to the closest Lao town as well, a friend had to wait 5h before a car came by.

Sam Neua is an ok town, a travel hub. But if you can, move on to Vieng Xai 30 min further. It's a gorgeous small town and there you can visit the huge caves where the Lao communist party leaders hid during the American bombardment. One of the best places so far in Laos! From Vieng Xai you can jump on the direct bus that goes to the border and Thanh Hoa.