35h bus journey from Hanoi to Luang Prabang
The cheapest way to get from Hanoi, Vietnam to Luang Prabang, Laos was to get a bus. There are also flights between these two cities but a bus is naturally 2-3 times cheaper.
Departure
So, I got the ticket from a travel agency for a price of 950.000 VND (35 €). The cheapest I could find. The pick-up from my hostel was supposed to be at 4 pm. Since the pick-up times in South East Asia are usually uncertain so I was thinking it should probably be between 4 pm and 5 pm. A motorbike picked me up finally at 6.30 pm.
It turned out to be a half an hour’s trip on the back of a bike to a bus station out of the city. When reached the bus station I boarded the sleeper bus, which appeared to be empty. So I asked around what time is the bus leaving and it turned out to be leaving at 9 pm! I decided to get some dinner and found a small “cafe” at the bus station building. I ended up having a meal and some drinks with the local bus drivers there. The long-distance buses in Vietnam are sleepers. The seats recline almost fully and it is possible to really sleep in them. So I boarded the bus and fell asleep immediately.
Border Vietnam-Laos
After a night of driving, the bus reached Dien Bien Phu at about 6 am, which is a town 40 km from the border point. The ride with a comfortable sleeper bus was over and it was time to change for a smaller bus. Bigger than a minivan but not as big as a big bus. After an hour of gathering people and loading the bus with some cargo, we set off towards Laos.
The drive to the border took the bus for about 2 h. The roads started to get more mountainous and climbing uphill was getting really difficult for the bus.
For Estonian citizens, it is possible to acquire a visa on arrival in Laos. The cost of the visa is supposed to be 30 USD. I filled in the visa form, gave some passport photos and paid the visa fee. The Laos border building has a row of small booths/windows that you need to pass through. So after the first window, I was directed to the next window to another government official to carry out some procedures which I was not really certain what were they about. That official charged me 2 USD. And then the same thing happened 3 more times. The visa fee of 30 $, stamp fee of 2 $ and temperature check of 2 $ was officially written down but the others in between were probably just a “bribe” for unaware tourists.
After all the procedures it was time to head on already in Laos. But for some reason, the bus did not leave for another 2 h after everyone was done. The reason still remains unclear to me.
Laos and arrival
The view from the bus windows was really scenic. Northern Laos is really lush and mountainous. At the same time, the roads are difficult to get through. They are paved and of decent quality but the road goes up and down and turns in the mountains all the time which made the movement of the bus really slow.
After a few hours’ drive, the bus decided to break down. Completely. The driver couldn’t figure out the problem so he ordered a replacement bus from Laos. It took in a total of 5h waiting on the road for the new bus to arrive and re-load the cargo.
So we set off to continue the drive towards Luang Prabang at about 5 pm. We made several stops along the way and also in Luang Prabang the driver was dropping off cargo and local passengers in different locations. As for foreigners, he dropped us off just in the centre of the city. For some reason, he did not want to take us to our hostels as he did locals. Anyways, I reached and checked in to a hostel I had previously booked, at about 3.30 am.
Taking a ride with a minivan is not the most comfortable experience in South East Asia, but it is all part of the experience 🙂 I do not recommend travelling by land in this region for the lighthearted.
In the next post already about the three main tourist destinations in Laos!
