Backpacking Laos - Our Travel Photo Diary

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Months on from our travels in Laos, I find myself looking back at our photos every couple of weeks and it always leaves me with a massive smile on my face. Before our travels we were never really people to take many photos, but of course we made sure to document our trip as much as possible this time around, so as to retain as many memories as we could! Laos is a beautiful country, that offers so many diverse experiences. We found ourselves zip lining through a jungle, kayaking down rivers and enjoying many amazing sunsets. I have put together a collection of our best photos of our time in Laos, which was a pretty tough task seeing as we were pretty photo happy in those few weeks! I hope my travel photo diary of Laos inspires you to make the journey there too.

If you are looking for a more detailed travel guide make sure to head on over to my Laos in Three Weeks Backpacking Travel Itinerary for all our accommodation recommendations and travel tips!

TRAVEL SUMMARY

Day 1: Cross the border from Thailand to Laos at Huay Xai

Days 2-3: The Gibbon Experience zip lining through the jungle and sleeping in a treehouse

Day 4: Return to Huay Xai from the jungle

Day 5: Slow boat from Huay Xai to Pakbeng

Day 6: Slow boat from Pakbeng to Luang Prabang

Days 7-9: Luang Prabang

Day 10: Minibus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

Days 11-12: Vang Vieng

Day 13: Bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane

Days 14-15: Vientiane

Days 16-17: Bus from Vientiane to 4000 Islands (Don Det)

Days 18-19: Don Det

Day 20: Crossed border to Cambodia

CROSSING THE BORDER FROM THAILAND TO LAOS

We found ourselves in a tiny town on the border of Laos called Huay Xai. There were really only a few shops around, and we felt like celebrities being waved at by all the locals! This small town is home to The Gibbon Experience office, where we managed to book a two night unique experience in the jungle.

THE GIBBON EXPERIENCE

As you can tell from the above photos, this was a very sweaty few days! It was a struggle constantly trekking up and down muddy pathways, but then we would reach the start of a zip line and be able to cool off whilst gliding through the treetops. In the evenings we would enjoy meals of sticky rice and card games to pass the time. Before settling down for the night in our make shift beds in our multi-storey treehouse! But then not being able to sleep because of the strange jungle noises all around, and dreaming of animals creeping into our bed! An experience I will never forgot, of course made so much better by meeting this incredibly cute puppy!

You can read all about our experience in more detail here!

SLOW BOAT FROM HUAY XAI TO LUANG PRABANG

A chilled few days chugging along the Mekong river! We had to make sure we stocked up on snacks and drinks each day, as the boat didn’t stop anywhere during the journey! Despite the surrounding scenery being so beautiful, after a short while taking photos you will want to have something to do to pass the time. A good book or Netflix series was perfect for us, they made the 6-8 hour days on the boat go by quickly!

LUANG PRABANG

Luang Prabang was the destination in Laos that had the most to offer for us. Amazing views can be enjoyed from Phou Si Mountain, and you can also cool down at the spectacular Kuang Si waterfalls! It is also a lovely city just to wander the streets in, and admire the quaint French style buildings.

VANG VIENG

Vang Vieng is known for its history of being a party town, where tourists would go on drunken tubing tours along the river. There is still the option to tube down the river, although we opted to kayak! Even me, as lazy as I am, managed to kayak with ease, as the river did most of the work. We even had to manoeuvre our way through some pretty choppy parts, and managed it without capsizing! Go us!

VIENTIANE

Sadly this was the only real attraction that we could find in Vientiane, this structure slightly resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris! Our journey from Vientiane to our next destination in the 4000 Islands was a long one. Comprising of a night bus, followed by a couple of overcrowded tuk tuks and finally a boat to reach the quiet island of Don Det.

DON DET (4000 ISLANDS)

I finally managed to ride a bike in Don Det without nearly crashing into someone! But there wasn’t actually any other traffic of any sort, so this would have been hard. Although, I still wouldn’t put it past me to fall off for no reason.

We were so spoilt with the sunsets in Don Det, and luckily our little bungalow was the perfect place to watch them from! There is even the option of watching the sunset from on the river itself, on a sunset tubing tour!

I have really enjoyed putting together this travel photo diary, it is a little different to the usually word-heavy travel guides. Ideal for those days when you just want to look at pictures, which is pretty much every day for me!

WHAT’S IN MY BACKPACK