I took a train from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, another town that is popular among travelers to enjoy the outdoors. Although there are several options to book train tickets, I recommend downloading the LCR ticket app on your phone to book tickets directly without going through third-party vendors (like 12Go or BookAway). LCR stands for Laos-China Railway and you can easily book tickets traveling from Luang Prabang > Vang Vieng > Vientiane or the other way around. It's much cheaper, and changing/canceling tickets is very easy too. My train was late for 30 minutes but it wasn't too bad. I took a tuk-tuk from the Vang Vieng bus station to downtown Vang Vieng, where my guesthouse was located.
# Side Note: I don't recommend traveling by bus in Laos. The roads are bumpy and it is not safe to travel by bus in Laos. The drivers are overworked and I heard some sleep while driving or they simply drive crazy. Also, it takes longer time to travel by bus so travel by train!
Tuktuk in Laos is different from tuktuk in Thailand, Sri Lanka, or Cambodia. tuktuks in Laos look like a mixture of pickup trucks and tuktuks in Thailand. Up to 12 people can get on the truck and surprisingly they are NOT cheap! If you are solo traveling, the best way to keep your transportation cost low is to find a group heading to where you want to go and split the costs. There are no Uber, or Grab here (well there is an app called, Loca, but it’s more expensive than tuktuks) or public buses. I wanted to go to Blue Lagoon 1 & Nam Xay Viewpoint so I used the Hostelworld app chat function to connect with people who are interested in going and I ended up organizing this trip for 12 people (myself included). It was a bigger group than I thought but it worked out and I met great people on the road.
Exploring Vang Vieng
Blue Lagoon 1
We chose to go to Blue Lagoon 1 since it’s close to Nam Xay Viewpoint. You can easily find tons of blue lagoons in Vang Vieng but the only natural blue lagoon in the area is Blue Lagoon 1. All the other ones are man-made but are less crowded than the Lagoon number one.
Entrance fee: 20k kip
<< Highlights of Blue Lagoon 1>>
- 5m diving area
- Places to eat and sit around the lagoon
- Zip lining (extra fee)
- Tons of fish in the lagoon
Nam Xay Viewpoint
Right after we finished enjoying the pool day in Blue Lagoon 1, we headed straight to Nam Xay Viewpoint (only 5-min tuktuk drive) to catch the sunset. The climb was very steep and rocky. You need proper sneakers or hiking boots to climb up as the trail is slippery. It was only a 20-25minute climb to get a beautiful view, so it wasn’t too bad. I highly recommend visiting the viewpoint especially during the sunset to get a 360 panoramic view of Vang Vieng and watch hot air balloons fly over the sky.
Entrance fee: 20k kip
I enjoyed Vang Vieng as much as I did in Luang Prabang. Vang Vieng had so much activities to do (paramotors, hot air balloon rides, buggy car experience, swimming in lagoons, hiking etc.). For me, blue lagoon & Nam Xay viewpoint were the only things I wanted to do while I was here so I felt great to have crossed both items off my list! Next blog post will be about heading to Vientiane, the capital city in Laos and catching a night train to head to Bangkok. Stay tuned!
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