From Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

I read that the road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng was bad and it was. Therefore, if you usually have a problem with being on a bus or in a car, save yourself hours of torture and fly.

If you take a bus (with tuktuk pick-up) there surely will be people throwing up around you. If you take a van, you might be lucky that it’s not full (most afternoon vans in the low season aren’t) and then the chance is smaller that others are throwing up.

I booked a van at 2 p.m. with pick up at my hostel in Luang Prabang. It should take 5-7 hours and so, I should be able to have a relaxed evening in Vang Vieng.

By van from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

The van then showed up at 2.30 p.m., driving around town for 30 more minutes to pick up other people. Some had booked the 1 p.m. bus and another one the 3 p.m. bus. Hence, this driver or his company just did whatever he wanted and not what the customer booked.

At 3 p.m. we finally left town only to stop at a gas station 20 min later, where the driver made a phone call and we seemed to be waiting for someone. When we urged him to go on, we finally continued. For about an hour we cruised up and down hair pin curves. Then, full stop because there was a traffic jam on the mountain pass. People had gotten out of the car and sat or walked along the road. Oh boy, that could take a while.

We also got out of the car and continued along the parked cars and trucks for about 10 minutes until we came around the bend from where we could see what happened. Probably, there had been a big landslide because there just was a huge pile of dirt and no road. It looked like that would take days. Several machines were working on pressing the dirt flat, that it would become a road again. Luckily, some roadside tables were set up where we could buy beer. Were they always there or just using the opportunity?

A motorcycle driver who spoke English informed us that the road would open again in 10 minutes. We couldn’t believe it! But indeed, cars were starting their engines again and so we walked back to our van.

After half an hour it was our turn to drive through the road construction site and then we were rolling again. Slow now, because we had all the trucks in front of us. But even without the trucks, our driver was only going at around 30 km/h. Which was good because that meant safe driving on those gravel, perforated curves but it also meant that we had long passed the four hour mark. At 8 p.m. we were still 100 km away and the road on my map didn’t appear as if it would straighten out from now on. We stopped in a town where we could have dinner and use the (squat) toilet. Up to now I had only seen Western toilets in Laos. The driver seemed to know the owners. Perhaps he extra slowed down his tours that we had to eat dinner here?

From now on, it should take two more hours, the driver said. I thought that was very optimistic. There still was no road and we were thrown around every bend and bump.

At 10.50, he finally stopped in front of Red Rocks Backpackers and I walked the 10 minutes to Army Barracks Hostel at the other end of the road. Luckily, someone was still awake and could check me in. Also, what I saw on my walk told me that one could have a few nice days in this town. Hopefully, it would make up for the 9 hour hell ride (at least we were all alive and nobody got sick in the car since we were driving so slow).
Like I said, if you can afford it, you should probably fly this bit.

What was the worst bus ride you ever took? Leave a comment.

Read more about Laos in my I love Laos travel guide which you can buy on Amazon in English and in German.