laos in july

#1 has never been to Laos, thats why you get the blanket advice, and no details.

Depending on your interest, you should consider the 3 key highlights, as travel in Laos eats up time.

You most likely will need to fly from NYC to Bangkok, connecting thru Tokyo/Hong Kong or a direct flight via Singapore.

Many people like to access Laos via slow boat on the mekong from Thailand, a nice slow pace, and head to Lauang Prabang. This area is a really quaint town and a old French Colonial charm, fine cuisine, and lots of culture, outdoor activity, from treks, hilltribes, kayaking, waterfalls, and Wats/Temples. 4 nights is barley enough in this region. You can then catch a VIP bus to Vang Veing and enjoy outdoors, tubing on the river, and party for a few nights, as well as caves and springs. Then you can head to the Capitol on another VIP bus and enjoy some culture, shopping, beer gardens. If you want to enjoy 4000 islands area, and the waterfalls, ctach a flight to Pakse, and also go to the Bolevan area, waterfalls and great markets in Paksong and Salavan.

Logisitic wise, thats about all you have time for.

You will get a bit of rain but not all day generally. For trekking head north, I trekked around Phongsali, and from Muang Ngoi Nuea in Luang Prabang Province. Other popular trekking destinations are Muang Sing and Luang Namtha.

WeiLong in Laos

Phongsali will take too much time for your schedule; Muang Sing, too. I'd recommend a trek out of Luang Nam Tha, or the Muang Ngoi Neua/Nong Khiew areas - they can be reached in not too long a day from Luang Prabang. If time is short, you can get an organized trek not far outside of LP, but you will be visiting people who get lots of visitors. It certainly well-worth the effort to stay in a small Akha or other hill-tribe village - it doesn't have to be the remotest or greatest place to be a wonderful and engaging experience.

If you are well-prepared for some rain, then the only potentially big deal is that dirt road travel (e.g. Phongsali) can get very slow or stop for a day (or three).

Spending a half hour reading through some of these posts can provide you with a lot of info. Ignore our bulls**t (or contribute to it) - searching for "Muang Sing" or "trekking" or "tickets" can help...

My favorite place in laos is the village of BaNa about 1 1/2 hour hike out of Muang Ngoi. Take the boat up the Ou river from L.P. It is about 8 hours of superb scenery. Some people go to Non Khiaw and spend a night and go the other 1 1/2 hour to Muang Ngoi the next day. Bana is very sleep and quaint and in green rice field with beautiful karst mountains. A second choice, but I did not do the hike myself, would be out of Muang Phouka.

I wouldn't take the boat from northern Thailand to Luang Prabang.
It takes time to get up there and the 2 days on the boat are excessive - hard seats, hours of heat and the scenery gets excessive. I know it is the typical route but its not the best one.

If you what to see Laos, get there - bus/fly from BKK to VT or LP.
I would spend time up North- Luang Namtha, Muang Ngoi Neua/Nong Khiew etc. I wouldn't try boats UPSTREAM to these Muang Ngoi Neua/Nong Khiew; go by bus and boat downstream. Same scenery but much more tolerable trip.

Lew

thanks for the info. i just returned from ethiopia and the tt branch on ethiopia is fdull of touts and has lots of arrogant backpackers. glad to msee that this one is mellow