For today's stroll, I will share our 26-hour bus trip from Hanoi City, Vietnam to Vientiane City, Laos. It is crazy to think of having a land trip for more than a day on a bus! It was a mix of exhausting and overwhelming experiences therein, where we had to endure our hunger, and grease feelings while being amazed by the scenery along our journey- and I will share this experience on this blog, candidly.
Previously, I shared the features of the bus and the process we went through before hopping on the trip in my last post, where I also shared our crossing borders experience from the Cau Treo Border Pass of Vietnam, and the Nam Phao International Checkpoint of Laos.
And now, I am pretty excited to begin sharing what anyone could expect to see and experience after being allowed to enter the country of Laos, by bus.
When we thought that we were about to board on a 24-hour trip, which initially we thought the duration of the trip would be, what came to our mind was to have an efficient internet data connection to be shared among the group of 4, which I purchased an eSim in Klook that can be used to any countries as we will be heading to Thailand after Laos. Never we consider the fact that there might be no mobile signal along the way, which most of the time the trip duration, we don't have a stable connection.
So, if in the future you'll be traveling to Laos from Vietnam by bus, I would suggest downloading movies, and mobile games on your phone first, or think of anything you can do offline on a bus.
Next, bring some Laotian Kip with you as you'll need some money when you buy some food and drinks at the bus stop or even at the borders. Unfortunately, there is no money exchange counter in the borders aside from this store which is next to the Nam Phao International Checkpoint of Laos where we almost got exploited by the very low currency exchange rate by the vendor.
Thanks to the fellow Filipina who tried to help us communicate with the vendor, and to Shiela who is very quick in converting our USD using her currency converter app- a must-app you need when traveling to foreign countries.
We badly needed some cash to buy some food at the next bus stop and for a taxi fare from the bus terminal in Laos to our hostel, after we realized that we would arrive at nighttime. Unfortunately, money exchange counters in Hanoi City wouldn't exchange Laotian Kip, which we of course tried. Well, there might be some in the other parts of the City but we haven't found time to explore and rather consider exchanging our USDs when we arrive in Vientiane City.
Thanks to the lady at the bus stop, she exchanged Jovy and Shiela's USD bill, I think she is a trader, and her rate was good enough compared to the store vendor at the border.
Our Laos trip has officially started.
We hopped on the sleeper bus again to travel to Vientiane City where we spent our Day 1 in Laos on the roads.
On the first part of the trip after the borders, we passed a series of mountains forested by trees.
Amazingly, Laos has some white sand rivers and even clear waters!
I wish some tour operators offered exclusive transfers from the borders to Vientiane City because I would like to make stopovers and take some dip on the rivers- lol!
The weather was so good that day that we saw the beautiful landscapes along the way, from mountains to rivers to Laos' vast farms.
The trip started with a bright and clear view from the window, which later progressed to a warm and nostalgic vibe of view from the outside.
Somehow, the warmth of the air of Laos has given a nostalgic and cinematic feel to the photos I took, which I believe is caused by the red color of the land of Laos.
Complimented by the blue sky, the landscape was filtered naturally by a vivid nostalgic tone.
Along the way, we passed by some farmers in their fields harvesting their crops, such a wonderful candid moment we witnessed from the windows.
I was fascinated by every field that we passed by, believing that Laos could sustain its people by the rich agricultural resources of their lands.
We barely see establishments along the way, but there are few stores in the communities of the remote areas that we passed by.
After four hours of bus ride, we had our third stop of this entire land trip. It was a lunch bus stop and restroom break. The restroom at this bus stop is much better and cleaner than the first one in Vietnam where it doesn't have any water on the toilet just tissue paper.
We had a bus stop at Nhà Hàng Thiện Huệ eatery where passengers could take their lunch, and the store could exchange VND or USD for Laotian Kip to pay for the food. We did not take our lunch here because we did not trust the food enough, we were more worried about our stomachs getting sick along the trip.
After an hour of bus stop, the trip continued where we passed the Pakading Bridge where I got a chance to snap at the Namkading River that connects to the Mekong River dividing the territory of Laos and Thailand on the other side (which would be seen on the left window, I am on the right one).
Looking at the map, we are traveling from the borders of Vietnam and Laos, and traveling along the borders of Laos and Thailand, by sight we are already reaching Thailand at the same time!
Finally, we have seen some lakes already aside from mountains as this part of the trip, we are traveling near the Meklong River already.
The first early part of the trip was merely sleeping and sometimes talking and eating with Jovy, Shiela, and @ybanezkim26 , but this part of the trip was us getting busy sneaking around the window and taking snaps of the beautiful scenery outside.
Seeing these photos in my gallery, is realizing that the scenes I took look like some settings in the Ghibli movies, do you agree?
Scanning these photos while watching a Ghibli movie, makes me a little bit emotional, lol, I am getting dramatic. But yes, I was really astonished as I revisited my snaps.
You can appreciate the beauty of your journey if you have tried a rough one.
On this part of the trip, is our rough ride, again. Laos is a less civilized country so most of their roads are undeveloped. Traveling by bus to Laos is not as comfortable as traveling by car for hours on a concrete road, it was rough, and a quest!
It was past 5 pm when we passed by the Nam Ngiap River which also connects to the Mekong River on the other side.
And then we got to see a beautiful sunset that day...
The warmth of the sunset compliments perfectly with the warmth Welcome of Laos as we enter the city. We knew that we were quite near to our destination when we started seeing structures like this below as gates to their establishments.
We arrived at the Southern Bus Terminal at 7 pm. We were hungry because we already eaten all of our food, and we had a very small amount of Laotian Kip, not even enough to pay for a taxi.
Good enough that there was a taxi driver who approached us to take us to our hostel at Mekong Riverside for 100,000 Laotian Kip or 4.54 USD or 260 Php for the four of us. The price was reasonable enough so we took the deal, plus, the taxi driver helped us exchange our USD to Kip through someone he knew.
We got a 22,030 LaoKip/USD rate, competitive enough as we compared it to the Forex app. If you're traveling to Vientiane City in the future, the taxi driver's contact detail is below:
And that was it!
Thank you for strolling with me today as we virtually got a bus trip to Laos. Until the next stroll to Vientiane City!
Xoxo,
Kim, thestrollingmind
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Crossing Borders by Bus: Vietnam & Laos | IndoChina Travel Blog Series
About the Author
Hi! I am Kim- The Strolling Mind.
I love to travel, I have been traveling in my beautiful country- the Philippines, and some Asian countries, as well. My pleasure to share them here in Hive.
I believe that our mind is so powerful that anything we think is anything we can reach and achieve.
It is our mind that'll lead us to where we are heading to, so....