Holidays in Laos

If you’re thinking of visiting Laos, which is between Vietnam and Thailand, you would do well to visit the Four Thousand Islands. 

Laos is a land-locked country, through which the Me Kong river runs.  The river is vast, and in the middle of it are these Four Thousand Islands.  When these were described to me I sort of pictured lots of little piles of sand in the river because I just couldn’t grasp the scale of the river itself.  However, whilst most of the islands are very small and could be traversed on foot in a matter of moments, there are two significantly larger islands that are usually used by tourists to stay for a night or two (kayaking tours are widely available to explore the others).

Those islands, one of which is Denang, are around five miles long by a mile wide, and are covered in trees, grasslands, temples and oxen.  They’re very picturesque and can be cycled around if you want to do a bit of sight-seeing.  If you stay on the islands, you can stay in beach huts for around $3 -$8US pppn. 

On the mainland, you could visit Pakse, which is home to the largest cave in Laos and is woth a visit.  The capital of Laos is Vientiane, which is built in French Colonial style and is a pleasure to look around.  It’s quite a modern city in spite of its architecture, and if you’re craving food commonly available in England then this is the place to come for cafés serving tea, coffee, paninis etc.  The capital offers a fab water park, which is a rather nice place to cool off, and the Vanguienne River offers tubing (where you climb onto a rubber ring at the top of the Me Kong river and float to the bottom) and the blue lagoon. 

Another town worth a visit is Luang Probang, at the centre of which is a temple – you can see monks strolling there in the morning and they will gratefully accept gifts of food. 

Laos is a lovely destination for hikes, swimming, lagoons and waterfalls, and it’s worth hiring a motorbike to explore the countryside.  Most hotels and hostels will also offer traditional cooking courses, which is a nice skill to take home with you.