Last Updated on March 17, 2023 by PowersToTravel
I had already selected Backyard Travel for our Cambodia portion of our 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey, so it was easy to carefully consider and select Backyard Travel for the Laos portion as well.
We settled on the “Traverse Laos” itinerary, adding in a three day detour to the Plain of Jars. I selected a travel agency because I saw Laos as a medical risk for myself, read that public transportation was not high-quality, and also had read stories of danger from armed robbery on the road between Luang Prabang and Vientiane.
Laos was the least comfortable, least happy, part of our 65-day trip in Southeast Asia.
In late December it rained a lot, unexpectedly, and was cold, also unexpectedly. Luang Prabang is in the mountains so I suppose when the weather gets bad, it’s not like being on the plains of Bagan!
The roads were bad and windy. I was not prepared for the impact of car-sickness, which I thought I had much overcome these past few years.
I highlight these problems to say that I know of course that the agency is not responsible for the weather, but they are responsible to communicate the nature of the roads, especially when we had requested the addition of the Plain of Jars, so we had not read about the nature of that road trip on their Traverse Laos page. A lesson learned is that I now Google “carsickness <country>” whenever I consider a travel destination, and I now plan medically to handle car-sickness. See my article Coping with Motion Sickness to learn more.
Our guide in Luang Prabang who also took us on the cross-country jaunt to Phonsavon and Vang Vieng seemed to be less in touch with us and our interests, and more “canned” in his approach than any of the other guides we encountered in Southeast Asia.
We were forced to listen to long lectures about the Buddhist stories depicted on the temples. We really did wanted to see the temples and art, and hear some of the stories, but our interest would flag and we would figit, and he would seem insulted when we tried to wander away or take photographs in other directions, rather than see that we wanted to see more or different, or take pictures from different angles. He seemed to have a detailed prescribed list of things to show and do, and weather, our comfort or our interests weren’t about to get in the way of his plan. That said, in many other ways he was a considerate person, holding the umbrella over my head as I tried to take pictures at the waterfall, and was very communicative, teaching us the culture and history.
The car provided by the agency was small – a Chevy Cruze. It carried the driver, of course, the guide, Greg and I, as well as all the luggage. Our luggage filled the entire trunk when they picked us up at the airport. When it came time to travel to Phonsavon we were amazed that they brought the same small car to fit their luggage as well. I don’t know how that trunk closed each time.
The Chevy did not handle the windy roads well. I would try to zone out and dream of the van we had in Thailand, the Saloon Car in Myanmar, or the large SUV in Cambodia. We don’t know whether the smaller, less comfortable Chevy was typical of tourism in Laos, or whether we had chosen a too-cheap agency. The car had no cup-holders in the back, nor lumbar support in the rear seat backs nor ventilation controls in the rear. It just wasn’t a car for sitting in the backseat for 6 hours!
Many of the agencies we have engaged over the years have personally called us during the trip to ensure our happiness. We used Backyard Travel in Cambodia, and were quite happy in Cambodia, and I gave them an excellent review in spite of not being in contact with us during the trip. However, here in Laos we weren’t as happy, and we didn’t receive any personal contact. It’s hard to tell a guide you aren’t happy and want to speak with his “boss.” It’s so much easier to tell the “boss” directly when he or she calls you on the phone to ask you how you are, as happened to us in Morocco.
After the first few days of this car in Luang Prabang we requested a larger car for the drive to Phonsavon from our guide, but he said that the Cruze was all they had. If we or Backyard Travel had engaged another operator in Laos would we have gotten a better car? We don’t know.
Our day trip out to Kuangsi Waterfalls, and the drive from Luang Prabang to Phonsavon were torture to a person who suffers from car-sickness. I had brought along my Sea-Bands, but even they couldn’t stop the nausea.
Many might say that I should have been better prepared, investigated more, considering that Laos is a mountainous country. The simple answer is that I felt that my motion-sickness had been lessening over the years, my Sea-Bands had been stepping in and filling the gap. I’d been concentrating more on my diabetic needs, and worries about Dengue Fever. The reality is that the swooping, curving jungle mountain side roads are very intense.
I almost totally rebelled in Phonsavon when I heard there was an airport with airplanes that could take us onward to Vientiane without having to backtrack along roads I knew were torture to my stomach. I was this close to booking plane tickets, but the Internet was so bad at Phonsavon I couldn’t access the ticket sites!
I am so glad I didn’t rebel because that next day’s drive back and onward to Vang Vieng, torturous as it was to my stomach, was actually the most enlightening and entertaining day in the country. Watching the children at the side of the road as they tied a string to a bat and let it fly around, like a toy, was disconcerting. Seeing the high value they placed on their crop and lesser value on their own living space was enlightening to say the least. We were allowed to participate in a local festival we happened to wander past.
Many of you who read this, and who don’t suffer from car-sickness might say that Laos was your favorite destination in Southeast Asia. I know, because many we met in our travels have told us this.
The hotels arranged by the agency were superior: Maison Dalabua in Luang Prabang, Vansana in Phonsavon / Plain of Jars, Inthira in Vang Vieng and Ansara Hotel in Vientiane. All were comfortable, exotic even, well-located for walking into the town center (except for Vansana, but there’s not much to the town center there!)
Our guide, San, short for Varasan, in Vientiane was amazing and wonderful and we were so sorry we were only with him one day. He was a former monk, now married with a child. He gave us an eye-opening peak into growing up in a monastery, going to University and moving on in his Laotian world. He showed us the That Luang temple complex and surprised us by saying that he had spent quite a number of years there as a novice. He told us stories of the young novices sneaking out at night to eat the food gifts left behind by the devoted.
For us, the less-than-stellar aspects of the on-the-ground agency in Laos: inflexible guide, poor car, and the missing Backyard Travel pre-trip communication about the roads, and missing during-the-trip communication, has not meant we would not consider Backyard Travel on our next Asian destination; it has meant that I need to be more forward thinking in my agency selection analysis: “What kind of car will we be given?” “What is the nature of the roads?” “I get car-sick – is there anything I should be concerned about?”
As I write this review, I am even more motivated to write about the individual locations and activities we experienced in Laos. Not all were accompanied by rain, cold and windy roads! And when they weren’t, oh, how amazing Laos was.
By the way, we learned that the country is Lao, not Laos. The language is Lao, not Laoian. The people are Lao, not Laoians.
We simply learned to say “Lao”: “Lao is Wow!”
