Laos is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the region with 50 officially recognized groups and over 80 languages spoken. I didn’t know much about this country, other than it was the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, and that I was excited to spend time in the mountains. Despite some ups & downs (mostly due to disappointing hostels), I ended up really enjoying my time in Laos. Definitely worth a stop for any backpacker.

CITY: Vientiane

HOW LONG: 1 NIGHT

ACCOMMODATION:

I stayed at Nana’s Backpackers and it was one of my least favorite hostels I have ever stayed at. It just felt so dirty, like I worried about getting bed bugs immediately. Also it was oddly not social for how many people were there. Very dead vibe. I hated every minute of being here honestly haha. Couldn’t get out of here fast enough. Originally I was going to spend 2 nights in Vientiane because I thought the capital would warrant some time, but nope, there’s not much to do here so I quickly left the next morning.

WHERE TO EAT:

Nothing notable other than the night market here had some yummy looking options, but I had already eaten by the time I found it 😦

WHAT TO DO:

I went for a walk along the pretty dried up river (maybe it was low-tide?). Nothing of note. I then treated myself to an hour foot massage for $4 since I needed to pass the time and didn’t want to spend literally any time at the hostel.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Maybe I am being dramatic, but I just had a visceral reaction to Vientiane and just really, really didn’t like it. Luckily the next two stops made up for the rough start in Laos!

CITY: Vang Vieng

HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

I stayed at Vang Vieng Chill Hostel & Vang Vieng Backpackers Hostel. Both overall sucked, but it didn’t seem like there was a great hostel in Vang Vieng if I am being honest, and it seems like the consensus was that Chill House was the best of the worst. I hadn’t booked any accommodation here since after my bad experience in Vientiane, I wanted to physically see the hostel before committing to booking a room. I met a girl, Jess from the UK, on my bus from Vientiane who was staying here so I just followed her here. There was only room for me for one night so I moved to the other hostel for my 2nd & 3rd night. Luckily I had already made friends with Jess so it didn’t really matter that it wasn’t super easy to meet people at either of the hostels.

At Backpackers, the rooms were cramped, dark, filled with random moisture (& mold). The bathroom was gross & never was clean (even though I literally saw women cleaning it each day so not sure how that works). I tried to avoid spending time here as much as possible. Wifi was decent though haha.

WHERE TO EAT:

Unfortunately I wouldn’t say any restaurant or food experience was particularly memorable in Vang Vieng, but here’s a list of what we tried!

Naked Espresso– cute cafe with mediocre food

Bon Appetit – I needed a break from Asian food so I had a yummy pizza bread from here. Probably my favorite meal from Vang Vieng.

Kiwi Kitchen – A kiwi man opened this cafe up on the other side of the river. Jess & I had rented a scooter for the day so we just rode here, but it’s not too far on foot either. Food was pretty good but nothing spectacular.

Happy mango– This place is a top rated spot in town, and besides Bon Appetit, this was my other fav spot. I had pad see ew and it was delicious!

WHAT TO DO:

Lots of fun, outdoorsy activities to do in Vang Vieng. This is where Van Vieng shines! Jess & I rented a scooter for the duration of our time here. Made it easy to run around and do everything we wanted!

There are over 5 blue lagoons that you can check out while here. We visited #1 & #4 and by far #4 was superior. It’s the furthest so it means way less people go! There’s also a zipline & rope swing you can enjoy. I don’t think #1 is worth going to. Very busy and nothing special. Water feels dirty since there are so many people in it with you.

I didn’t go hot air ballooning since I had just gone in Turkey, but apparently Laos is one of the cheapest place you can go hot air ballooning in the world. Jess went and raved about it! It seems like it would be an incredible landscape to see from above.

We enjoyed sunset in a field across the river, which was only more spectacular with all the sunset hot air balloons in the air 🙂

Nam Xay viewpoint is a short, but steep 30 min hike up to a gorgeous 360 view of the valley. There’s also randomly two motorbikes that you can take photos on. Definitely worth doing this, but go earlier in the day to beat the heat & crowds!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

While I liked a lot of the activities in Vang Vieng, the town itself felt very inauthentic. It basically felt like a town that sprung up only to cater to the backpackers/tourists. No local people were milling about or mixing in. It was only hotels/hostels, restaurants, & tour operators in town. It just felt a little contrived. But the scenery was stunning, so I’m glad I got to experience it.

CITY: Luang Prabang

HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

Given the hostels were so gross in Vang Vieng, I had asked Sonja (who I had planned to meet up with here) if she wanted to share a private room somewhere instead of staying at a hostel. Once I met Jess in Vang Vieng, I also asked her if she wanted to join us. Unfortunately the hotel we booked kinda messed up our booking and then Jess ended up getting sick. Sonja & I ended up just walking around and finding a homestay to grab a room at (so Jess could recuperate on her own without worrying about getting us sick). It was much cheaper than anything we found online & we loved our little spot.

Don’t be afraid to just show up & walk around to find accommodation here. There were so many hotels + homestays in general, & plenty didn’t seem to have an online presence so we found many hotels with availability of varying price points. Ours ended up being around $50 per night.

WHERE TO EAT:

Saffron – my favorite cafe! I spent a few afternoons catching up on planning here! The ginger tea was delicious too!

Night Market – I loved the night market here! Great food options + decent amount of seating.

Two little birds cafe– small, family cafe with very yummy breakfast food!

WHAT TO DO:

The main thing to do is go to Kuang Si waterfalls and it is NOT to be missed! It might’ve been one of my top 5 waterfalls I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot of them at this point!). The roads weren’t great so instead of renting a scooter (which is an option), we just booked a tour (which basically just provided transportation). Sonja & I walked around the different levels of the waterfalls, grabbed a fresh coconut to help cool us off, and even went swimming in the falls! Absolutely a highlight of Laos.

We ate at the night market for dinner each night & loved strolling around the goods part of the market. I think this was my favorite for this aspect as many other markets seemed to just sell trinkets made in China. Like each stall had more or less the same thing. In Luang Prabang, it seemed like it had far more variety & craftsmanship. Lots of art & hand made goods. They even had lots of jewelry & other goods made from unexploded bombs (sad, but it was cool to see the creativity of repurposing the available resource).

Sonja & I honestly spent a lot of time catching up & playing cards in cute cafes as well as just meandering around the cute town. I also loved my morning runs!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

This was by far my favorite stop in Laos! I fell in love with the European vibe of Luang Prabang. It was slower, cleaner and felt far more “real.” There were locals AND tourists around town. The architecture was very charming. I loved the size of the town, as it wasn’t so big that you needed tuktuks to get around, but it wasn’t so small that you got bored in 2 days. I can’t tell you how nice it was to be able to run along the river in the mornings too! There was even a sidewalk for most of it – can you believe it?!

BUDGET FOR 7 DAYS IN Laos:

Accommodation: $144 ($20.5 per night) – This got very skewed because I paid for two private rooms for 3 nights in Luang Prabang – not ideal haha but luckily Laos is fairly cheap so it wasn’t too bad!

Food: $119

Groceries: $0

Activities: $35

Local Transportation: $45

Visa- $51

Total: $394 (Daily average: $56)

Transportation to next destination: $150 (flight to Vietnam)

Feb 2020

After finishing up in Borneo, I flew straight Georgetown, Penang. I opted to skip Kuala Lumpur as I knew I would be seeing other big, metropolitan cities later on my trip (or so I thought… thanks Covid 19 😦 )

CITY: Georgetown, Penang

HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

I met up with my Australian friend Max, who I met while in Sepilok in Borneo. We stayed at The Frame Guesthouse, which was in a perfect location near Love Lane and many other great restaurants. The free breakfast was fairly basic, but no complaints about anything free. The beds were comfy and the rooms were clean. Also, the AC was great!

WHERE TO EAT:

Max and I stopped by Halab for a delicious milkshake after eating some chicken fried rice from the street food stalls Georgetown is known for.

Max was braver than me on the street food front haha

Junk Cafe served up a great burger and some fun drinks!

I stopped in at Pit Stop Cafe for a solo breakfast my last day here and it was delicious!! Also, as a bonus the wifi was some of the best I came across in Malaysia.

Who knew I would get some crazy, yummy bagels in Malaysia? But Mug Shot serves up bagels a few different ways and I managed to have 3 while in Penang.

WHAT TO DO:

I had been complaining about the lack of ability to just meander my way through a city, but Georgetown is great for this! I loved exploring all the colorful buildings and street art you just naturally come across.

This was something I had never done before, but Max wanted to check out the Tropical Spice Garden. It never would have occurred to me to visit here, but it was a blast. Learned all about different plants that were local as well as from rare areas of the world. My favorite part was learning about all the poisonous plants 🙂

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Georgetown is a colorful, fun, small sized city that’s a joy to explore for a few days. I could have done with one or two more days here to try more restaurants and window shop a bit.

CITY: Cameron Highlands

HOW LONG: 2 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

There are not too many hostels around, but Traveller Bunker Hostel was great! The beds were comfy and had a curtain, plug and personal light. There are personal lockers (just bring your own lock!). There’s a couple comfy common areas to meet other travelers, eat some takeout, or play some cards.

WHERE TO EAT:

The Mossy Forest Cafe was a sweet find in this tiny town. I had a yummy burger for dinner and spent some time on my computer over tea the next day.

WHAT TO DO:

I took part of the 1/2 day tour offered through the hostel to see one of the oldest mossy forests in the world, a huge tea plantation and a strawberry farm! It was overall a great tour and an easy way to meet other travelers. There are also a ton of hikes in the area if you have time!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Cameron Highlands was nice spot to get a break from the humid, heat typical of Southeast Asia. Instead, because of the elevation, I needed my Patagonia jacket at night 🙂 It was lovely. I liked the focus on nature for this stop. It was refreshing breathing in the cold air in the forests and trying a fresh strawberry milkshake from the strawberry farm.

CITY: Langkawi

HOW LONG: 3 NIGHTS

ACCOMMODATION:

Langkawi Dormitorio was a great spot to land for 3 nights in Langkawi. The beds were comfy and the rooms were spacious. The hostel was near the beach and in middle of the strip with all the restaurants and shops. I, myself, enjoyed the spa downstairs, opting for a food massage twice!

WHERE TO EAT:

Huggin’ Hippo– A great spot right on the beach for cute, casual brunch.

My French Factory– This was my favorite spot to eat in Langkawi. I went back twice! I had both savory and sweet crepes and both were a treat.

I also ate at some of the local markets. Definitely stroll through and sample all the delicious food available at the many different food stalls.

WHAT TO DO:

I spent some time walking along the beach and the different markets throughout town, which was beautiful.

The highlight for me was checking out the famous Langkawi Skybridge, which is the longest free span and curved bridge in the world. While bridge itself is pretty cool, the most spectacular part is the Skycab, which the gondola that takes you up the mountain. The views are unbelievably beautiful. Also, don’t miss the 7 Wells Waterfalls which is around the corner. Great place to cool off from the intense Langkawi heat.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Langkawi was cool, but not my favorite spot. It was a large island and without the confidence to drive a scooter around, it was difficult to get around. Also, after the Skybridge, I wasn’t sure what I was to do all day. That being said, I am not a huge beach person, which means sitting at the beach all day doesn’t appeal to me, but I know a lot of the travelers at the hostel loved spending their days on the gorgeous Langkawi beaches.

Next up: Thailand!

Bonus content: I’d love to meet the person making the decisions on the interior of Malaysian busses haha