Savannakhet Getting there & around

Getting around

Savannakhet is just big enough that you might occasionally need a jumbo – or the Savannakhet equivalent, a sakai-làep (‘Skylab’). Apparently someone thought a jumbo looked like the famed space station that fell to earth, though we suspect that whoever drew such a conclusion was probably on drugs at the time. Sakai-làep tend to loiter outside the passenger ferry pier. Trips cost from US$0.50 for shorter trips to US$1 to the bus station, for the whole vehicle. Prices double after dark.

Several guesthouses and the Lao-Paris Restaurant hire out bicycles (between US$1 and US$2 per day) and motorcycles (US$7 to US$10 per day). When we passed, most were only willing to hire out motorbikes a day at a time, the Lao-Paris being the exception.