The bus ride was a topic at our last guesthouse in Vang Vieng, whether to Luang Prabang in the north or to Vientiane in the south. There were adventurous to frightening reports about very bad roads, very curvy sections and crowded buses on both routes. Allegedly, the tour to Luang Prabang is the more challenging one for drivers, vehicles and passengers. Therefore, we decided to spend a bit more money and instead of taking a big local bus, we took a minivan to our next destination.
We were picked up on time with a tuk-tuk and taken to the starting point of the minivan.
Overall, the minivan made a very well-kept and tidy impression. That's how we imagined it.
The highlights of this exciting and eventful trip should of course be captured in pictures. Our seats were quite suitable for that. Unfortunately, the field of vision was not always optimal. On the one hand, the upper area of the windshield was slightly darkened and the driver had various amulets hanging on the rearview mirror, which occasionally swung through the frame.
We were tense and excited about these 235 km. The first few kilometers continued just like we experienced it from Vientiane to Vang Vieng. So nothing new, until we came to a bigger construction site.
There was no proper traffic regulation and so the Laotians regulated the flow of traffic according to their own discretion and it looked like this.
One-way traffic! (The vehicle on the left side was off-road capable and then merged back into our lane before the road construction machine.)
Unfortunately, this didn't help our minivan much, because the existing lane width was too narrow for it and it couldn't drive over the piled up gravel. So, we had to reverse, as you can see on the camera display in the rearview mirror. However, all the vehicles behind us also had to reverse first.
Somehow we continued, even if temporary traffic on the opposite side of the road was introduced.
Then we passed various construction vehicles and the good journey continued.
Again and again (felt every 500 m) the asphalt was missing. It became dusty and the cars maneuvered around the potholes. The road is in good condition, but there is the next challenge for motorized traffic in the form of cycling school children. I would like to mention here that the Laotian drivers behave very considerate and defensively in such traffic situations. They simply drive slowly and calmly.Somehow we turned off from National Highway No. 13, which leads to Luang Prabang, and continued on a country road. Not only our minivan took this route, as we noticed during the break. Then we really went into the mountains. With gradients and descents of 10%, sometimes even 12%! That also explains why there were few trucks and big buses on this route, but many minivans and very little regional traffic.Except for a few spots, the road was in good condition. However, it was quite curvy, with many uphill and downhill passages. Therefore, we weren't driving really fast. For this, we drove through a magnificent, almost deserted landscape. We are now on National Highway No. 4 and about 40 km before Luang Prabang we got stuck in a traffic jam! Thank God not because of an accident, but because of... road construction measures. There is also a traffic jam in the opposite direction. You could tell that we were back on a major artery. The condition of the road worsened and the number of construction sites increased again. The whole journey, actually since Vientiane, we have been accompanied by a gigantic construction project at a distance. The construction of a railway line from the Chinese border to the Laotian capital, financed and built by the Chinese! The road is not only for driving, but if necessary, it becomes a loading zone (here coal is being unloaded). Shortly before Luang Prabang, the fearless drivers of these two trucks blocked the road. With this arrangement, they created a working space for the repairs on the yellow truck. The fact that they forced the other drivers to detour over an unpaved property apparently didn't bother them or the other drivers (only us 👎, we still need to work on ourselves). After a good 4 hours of driving, we reached our destination in Luang Prabang with an average speed of about 50 km/h. Our conclusion:The journey was less exhausting and exciting than we expected. It wasn't a hell ride, just a long trip with some unusual and unimaginable situations for us Europeans.We felt safe and unharmed throughout the entire journey.- We found the route from Vientiane to Vang Vieng much more strenuous and problematic, but also not dangerous. -
