"Highway" through Hell... - Road to Luang Prabang

Bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang

If you really need an adrenaline rush, we can recommend a bus ride / minivan ride in Laos. We've already experienced a lot on our world trip and our pain threshold has moved down quite a bit, but our minivan ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang completely surpassed everything we've experienced so far and was actually at the limit of what is bearable and acceptable. We've had bus rides on the gravel roads of the Argentine Andes, on the more or less well-maintained roads in Myanmar, night bus rides in Thailand, all gravel roads in New Zealand, and potholes that more resemble craters in Australia, and as much as possible, we've already gotten used to overtaking on blind spots, driving at the limit, and constant honking. But the Laotians really topped it all off.

A brief report...

The journey started at 7:00 in the morning in Vang Vieng with a seemingly well-maintained minivan. The first hour was characterized by extreme speed on poorly maintained roads and overtaking maneuvers with poor visibility. As if that wasn't enough, we almost hit our heads on the roof of the minivan due to the unevenness and potholes. We tried several times to slow down and asked the driver to drive slower, but unfortunately, the good man didn't speak English or didn't want to understand us.

After the first break, he calmed down a bit and actually drove a bit more calmly, which gave us about 30 minutes of relaxation. But then we went into the mountains, where a pass crossing in Austria would probably seem like a children's birthday party, because at points where the road is heavily damaged by fresh landslides and seems to be about to fall down the slope, a makeshift "gravel road" has been set up on the compacted rubble. However, you have to drive up this road with full throttle and all-wheel drive, without getting stuck. All we could do was hope that it wouldn't start raining, because otherwise continuing the journey would have been unthinkable or the remaining road under us would collapse. After we actually survived the pass, it was back to stepping on the gas pedal and overtaking as much as possible. After what felt like an eternity and about 4 hours, we finally arrived in Luang Prabang in one piece. We noticed how different the perception could be in the minivan. While our 7 fellow Asian passengers tried to sleep and seemed unimpressed, we just wanted to see the end approaching and simply leave the minivan alive. The fact that the entire journey was horrible is shown by the fact that we didn't take any photos or videos of the breathtaking landscape, we only managed to take 1-2 snapshots during the 30-minute break.

What we unfortunately only found out afterwards is that the new "highway" is really not for the faint of heart and it would be better to use the old road between Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. This is a tip for other travelers. On our way back, we will definitely take the 2-hour longer old road. ;-)

Arriving in the beautiful city of Luang Prabang

In Luang Prabang, we immediately moved into our guesthouse that we had booked in advance. Luang Prabang is definitely one of the most beautiful and most relaxed cities in Southeast Asia. On every corner of the city, you can see the influence of the French due to the former colonial rule. The houses, alleyways, and buildings resemble a cute European town, if it weren't for the numerous beautiful temples and the Mekong River.

For the first time on our trip, we could admire Buddhist temples amidst palm trees. We didn't research the temples extensively beforehand, but chose the most beautiful ones to visit during our city walk. The most famous temple is Wat Xieng Thong, but we liked other temples much better, which also don't charge an admission fee. For example, we can recommend the Wat Sene Souk Haram temple and the former royal palace right next to the National Museum.

We took it easy during our days in Luang Prabang and let ourselves be infected by the relaxed atmosphere. Therefore, we finally had the time to catch up on our blog posts and Lisa's travel diary. To do this, we chose a few very nice cafés (Viewpoint Café and the Bellerive Terrace :-)) with a great view of the Mekong. Who wouldn't want such an office where you can also admire the local flora and fauna ;-))