Luang Prabang province - transport information

- errors, suggestions & contributions - kindly email: laomeow at gmail dot com
- last modified on 27 September 2012
- old version (23 November 2009) here

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LUANG PRABANG TOWN

Luang Prabang northern bus station
Located at IU224 on this map.




May 2011 - photos by snowinjanuary

Timetable (June 2011 - no change as of August 2012) (hobomaps):

To Bokeo
- 5:30PM, 7:00PM (VIP)
- 120,000kip / 145,000kip (VIP)

To Luang Namtha
- 9:00AM
- 95,000kip

To Oudomxay
- 9:00AM, 12:00PM, 4:00PM
- 55,000kip

To Sam Neua
- 8:30AM
- 130,000kip

To Nambak
- 9:00AM, 11:00AM, 1:00PM, 3:00PM, 5:00PM
- 35,000kip

To Nong Khiaw
- 9:00AM, 11:30AM, 1:30PM
- 40,000kip

To Vieng Kham
- 9:00AM, 2:00PM
- 90,000kip

To Paksaeng (Pakxeng)
- 9:30AM, 2:00PM
- 35,000kip

To Phonthong
- 10:00AM
- 79,000kip

To ເມືອງໂພນທອງ Muang Phon Thong 'including' ປາກອືມ Pak Oum & ນາຊອນ Na Son (70,000kip) - 1000, daily. This new service was announced in a notice at Luang Prabang northern bus station (08 December 2009). There was also a sign indicating the berth for 'ວັງຊຽງ Vang Xieng & ປາກອືມ Pak Oum'. No idea where this particular Phon Thong & Pak Oum are, but there is a Vang Xieng town along a minor road that branches off from HWY 1C at Phou Thid Pheung (between Nong Khiaw & Vieng Kham) & leads to a Na Son, a locals-only Laos-Vietnam border crossing (top part of this map). Anyone with more info on this route, please update the cat.

To Phonexay
- 9:00AM, 12:00PM, 3:00PM
- 30,000kip


Old info for reference:

Photo taken at Luang Prabang Tourist Info Centre (17 December 2009)
Bus fares (May 2011) (snowinjanuary)


Photos of Luang Prabang-Bokeo VIP bus (17 December 2009):

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Luang Prabang southern bus station (Ban Naluang) (photos)
Located at KE197 on this map.

Timetable (fare info June 2011, timing info August 2012) (hobomaps):
Ordinary bus = black font
Express bus = red font
VIP bus = blue font
sleeper bus = green font (photos of Luang Prabang - Vientiane sleeper bus)

To Vientiane
- 6:30AM, 7:30AM, 8:00AM, 8:30AM, 9:00AM, 11:00AM, 2:00PM, 4:30PM, 6:30PM, 7:30PM, 8:00PM
- 110,000kip / 130,000kip / 150,000 kip

To Vang Vieng
- 9:30AM, 12:30PM
- 90,000kip / 105,000kip

To Phonsavan
- 8:30AM
- 95,000kip

To Sayabouly
- 9:00AM, 2:00PM
- 60,000kip

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Luang Prabang to Chiangmai International Bus
- 5:00PM
- 310,000kip
- AC bus
- via Oudomxay, Luang Namtha, Huay Xai, Chiang Khong & Chiangrai
- arrives at Chiangmai Arcade bus station

Old info for reference:

Timetable (February 2011) (hobomaps)
Fares (February 2011) (hobomaps)
17 Dec 2009 info

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Ban Naluang tourist bus station
Located at KE197 on this map.
Tel.: 071-212979, 071-260298 Fax: 071-260296 Email: souknasing@hotmail.com

Timetable (August 2012) (hobomaps):

To Tat Kuang Si (Kuang Si waterfall)*
- 11:30AM, 1:30PM
- 40,000 kip

To Luang Namtha*
- 8:30AM
- 110,000 kip

To Nong Khiaw*
- 9:30AM
- 55,000 kip

To Vang Vieng*
- 9:00AM, 10:00AM, 2:00PM
- 105,000 kip

To Phonsavan*
- 9:00AM
- 105,000 kip

To Kunming (China) sleeper bus
- 7:00AM
- 420,000kip
- daily


To Vinh (Vietnam)
- 6:30PM
- 200,000kip (seat) / 250,000kip (bunk on sleeper bus)
- daily except Tuesdays


To Hanoi (Vietnam) sleeper bus
- 6:00PM
- 350,000kip
- daily except Thursdays

Notes:
* these are served by minivans, not buses
- more on Luang Prabang - Vietnam bus services here (jp_geckozy, October 2011)
- Luang Prabang - Kunming bus service: see replies #6 & #8 here (jp_geckozy, April 2010).
- more on bus stations in Kunming here (jp_geckozy, April 2010).

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Luang Prabang speedboat & slowboat landings
Photo taken at Luang Prabang Tourist Info Centre (17 December 2009):


Click here for full size version

August 2012 updates (hobomaps):
- express boat to Pak Beng = 110,000 kip
- speed boat to Huay Xai = 400,000 kip

June 2011 updates (hobomaps):
- express boat to Nong Khiaw = 110,000kip
- tour boat & speedboat to Buddha cave = 65,000kip

Note:
For Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw & Nong Khiaw to Muang Khua - boats run only on demand (when there are enough passengers, or when chartered), not necessarily daily as stated.

Luang Prabang slowboat landing to Ban Xieng Maen - cross-river ferry (07 December 2009):
Passenger boat - 2000kip/person (local fare)
Vehicle ferry - 5000kip/person (excl. vehicle)

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NONG KHIAW

Nong Khiaw town is also known as Muang Ngoi (capital of Ngoi district), Muang Ngoi Mai (new Muang Ngoi) & Muang Ngoi Tai (south Muang Ngoi). Not to be confused with the village of Muang Ngoi Neua (north Muang Ngoi) aka. Muang Ngoi Gao (old Muang Ngoi), which is ~1 hour upriver by boat.

Nong Khiaw songthaew/van station
Located at JF217 on this map.

Photo from 17 December 2009:



Nong Khiaw bus station
Located at JB205 on this map.


May 2011 - photo by snowinjanuary

Timetable and fares (February 2011) (hobomaps):



To Sam Neua - bus from Luang Prabang should pass through Nong Khiaw ~1130++, & bus from Vientiane passes through ~2100-2200++.

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PHOU KHOUN

(info from 17 October 2008)
Ask at any shop/restaurant/guesthouse at the 3-way junction, locals will point out the man who will sell you tickets & flag down the correct bus for you.
To Vientiane - any bus passing through, 80,000kip
First Xieng Khouang-Vientiane bus passes through at ~1030.
First Luang Prabang-Vientiane bus passes through at ~1130.

261206 Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang bus

Previous 2 days' route in grey, today's route in blue:



Together with three of the Sunset Guesthouse kids, Mr Belgian 2 & the cat made their way through the thick fog & across the bridge, the kids on their way to school, & us to catch the morning bus (32,000kip, approx 3h) to Luang Prabang.

There are always parts that used to work a long time ago, & holes where there used to be parts a long time ago:




The cat cannot recall seeing any of the speedometer or fuel tank gauge needles it saw in on Lao buses ever moving beyond zero. Front seat passengers must take care not to let their legs interfere with vehicle function:



The upper left part (above) is always functioning. When resources are limited, the Lao have to prioritise, & a constant source of mor lam music must never be compromised ;)

Vehicle insurance in the form of white baci string tied around the steering wheel:



& photostated copies of 'yan' (ยันต์ charm/spell diagrams, from the Sanskrit word yantra?) stuck above the windscreen:




Anyone who wants the original size version of these images to print out for their own vehicles, feel free to contact the cat ;)

Such 'designs' also appear in tattoos, on 'seua yan' (เสื้อยันต์) shirts worn by Lanna men in ancient times for protection in battle & during hunting, Lanna 'phaa yan' (ผ้ายันต์) cloth talismans, & on mulberry paper that is rolled around the wick of beeswax 'thien yan' (เทียนผ้ายันต์) candles that Lanna people burnt when they needed 'supernatural' help.

To ensure coverage from all possible angles, an Assurance General du Laos decal on the windshield behind the rearview mirror:



Throughout its two weeks in northern Laos, public transport never failed to get the cat to its destination, & at an average speed comparable to that of public buses in Singapore - strange but true.

Along the way, part of the route ran alongside a beautiful stretch of the Nam Ou. At some point the bus was stopped at some sort of barrier, & the driver had to hand over some kip to a bunch of uniformed guys (no idea for what). As the bus drew closer to Luang Prabang, the distances separating individual villages decreased as the scale of the Hmong New Year celebrations we passed by increased. Not long after the turn-off to the construction site of the Korean-sponsored new campus for Souphanouvong University (presently housed in an old secondary school in Luang Prabang), the bus pulled into the northern bus station.

The cat had arrived in Luang Prabang...exactly one year before this travelog post would be written =P

251206 Silent Night in Nong Khiaw - part 3

As a Christmas special, Mr Sunset Guesthouse got the boys to serve all diners complimentary salads of lettuce, boiled egg, tomato, cucumber, onion & other greens that the cat couldn't really make out in the candlelight =) We invited him to join us, but he was busy trying to fix something under the light of his headlamp.

Meanwhile, the cat discovered that none of the boys & girls working in the guesthouse were his kids...it had earlier assumed that they were, based on how it had observed him treating them. According to Mr Belgian 2, they were from nearby village(s). The kids (in their early to mid-teens) walk/cycle across the bridge to get to school on the opposite side of the river, & return after school to work in the guesthouse. The boys have been helping to build the new bungalows, but also help out in the kitchen & with babysitting Mr Sunset Guesthouse's toddler. All have picked up quite a bit of English & French & how to cook both Lao & falang food through their work & interaction with guests & their boss. In their free time they do their schoolwork in the restaurant area, sometimes with help from regular guests, & Mr Sunset Guesthouse pays their school fees.

At night, they stay over in the guesthouse, girls sleeping indoors, & boys in the verandah a few steps away from the cat's room...something the cat didn't realise when it had to make its way past what looked like two thick bundles of quilts in the darkness - the puzzled cat didn't recall seeing that many cushions or any quilts there earlier in the day...& definitely not any that moved!! The mystery was solved early the next morning when the cat watched the two bundles wake up...

A girl whom the cat had thought to be the 'eldest daughter' turned out to be a young divorced mother of the baby the cat had seen Mrs Sunset Guesthouse carrying around. Mr Belgian 2 said that giving her the guesthouse job was their way of helping her. Apparently, divorce rates in Laos are pretty high. A laomeow consultant would later tell the cat about a particular village in his province where the majority of the girls are divorced by the time they are in their late teens!

end of day 9 (251206):
noodle soup/pho/feu/khaaw soi eaten to date = 07 bowls

251206 Silent Night in Nong Khiaw - part 2

As for Mr Belgian 2's second statement, that 'Khmer men only want money - money money money'...the cat came across this blog post that quotes from one of Dr Meas Nee's books:

Meas Nee, a Cambodian teacher and activist who lived through the genocide, has written one of the few (the only one that I have been able to get my hands on) accounts of reconstruction and development from the perspective of Cambodian villagers of which he himself was one. In "Towards Restoring Life in Cambodian Villages" he writes:

"Even though we all say that we want to empower the people to be self-reliant, sometimes the work in the village begins with a westerner coming in with the Cambodian team. This is not a wise things to do. White skinned people are seen as rich and naturally the villagers hope they can get something. In one village where I work the returnees encourage the village people to ask the westerner for help as westerners in the border camps gave many handouts. The returnees said, 'This should be given free, not as a loan or as food for work. They are rich. They have the power to help.' If a Cambodian goes into a village with a Westerner the people will believe that the Westerner is the boss. This may be something that remains with our people from French colonial times." (p. 52)

Which basically sums up some of what the cat has been told about the long-term advantages of having local NGO leaders/staff (vis a vis the overwhelming presence of foreign aid organisations in certain developing countries), & the efforts of organisations like Village Focus International to 'build local capacity' & train local staff to take over most of the operations...while the barang (Khmer, not Malay meaning) or falang remain in the background handling stuff like fundraising, stepping in only to help with & pass on (usually technical) expertise (e.g. medical/surgical skills, UXO clearance, etc). & this local/foreign division need not necessarily be in terms of nationality - the cat has heard similar sentiments from hilltribe people about having hilltribe-run NGOs (e.g. AFECT) instead of 'city people' deal with their issues.

The best teacher is one who makes him/herself redundant, by teaching students how to teach themselves...likewise the 'ideal' aid organisation is one that eventually makes itself redundant' in a similar way? The above post & others on the same blog are worth a read. The 'colonial mentality' thing still makes itself felt in many ways here in Singapore, another former (British) colony.

251206 Silent Night in Nong Khiaw - part 1

Power lines cut = no electricity = no TV/radio/karaoke to mar the peace on Christmas day, hence the title of this post ;)

Back at Sunset Guesthouse, guests who had been looking forward to the hot showers 'promised' in the guidebook write-up had to contend with bathing in freezing cold water. Such is travelling in Laos - expect the unexpected! For more predictable experiences infrastructure-wise, the cat recommends destinations like Japan or Singapore...but bear in mind that even Singapore has had a few major power failures in recent years ;)

The cat was glad that the 'Ban Apa instinct' - to bathe in the afternoon during the cold season when the sun is still up - had kicked in earlier...in Ban Boun Tai (Phongsaly province) it'd seen some locals bathing as early as 1:30PM in the afternoon, at a standpipe right next to the bus station.

There must be something about Belgian men & 100% candlelight dinners (no artificial preservative, colouring, or electric source of light added) in Laos...6 days ago when the cat met Mr Belgian 1, he was cooking & eating his dinner by candlelight on the rooftop of Muang Sing Guesthouse. Tonight at Sunset Guesthouse restaurant, Mr Belgian 2, Mr & Mrs French & the cat sat down to enjoy a candlelit Christmas dinner in what might be the most 'puritanical' sense of the word - food was not just eaten, but ordered, prepared, cooked, served & paid for & the dishes washed by the flickering glow of candles as well.

Mr Belgian 2 spends several months a year in Laos & Cambodia, & was pursuing some rural development project (construction of wells in villages, etc) in the latter with his own funds, hoping to make a small difference to this world. He had plenty to tell us about Khmer society & corruption in 'Kampuchea' (been a long time since the cat last heard this name used). He would often lapse into French as Mr & Mrs French didn't understand English really well, but the cat managed to catch bits here & there, which it could piece together with stuff it had heard from Singaporean friends who have been involved in some projects in that country.

The cat has never been to Cambodia before, but the first film it ever watched was The Killing Fields. At that time it was just a toddler sitting on the cinema floor with rats scurrying around, watching images of a guy eating a lizard & plenty of people wearing black carrying guns & killing other people on the big screen. Years later, it read a condensed version of Haing Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey, learnt the expression 'dam doeum kor' (lit. plant a kapok tree), & realised that the author (who shares the same surname as the cat) was the actor who 'ate' the lizard.

Roughly two months from now back in Singapore, through some strange twist of intertwined fate linked to the people it had met in Laos, the cat would meet with Dr Meas Nee, who had lived & worked in the refugee camps on the Thai border during the years when 'being deaf & dumb' was the way to stay out of trouble with the Khmer Rouge & alive.

As Mr Belgian 2 spoke, two statements kept recurring, about how 'Khmer women are very strong' & that 'Khmer men only want money - money money money'. The first statement seemed rather redundant to the cat, because of the kinda society(ies) it was brought up in - isn't that the (traditional) expectation of Asian women? (Strong or not, you just have to be, since when was it a choice? Like it or not, you are the one who has to hold the family together come hell or high water. & if you're not happy with that, well too bad, you were born a woman...& other lofty stuff preached by the older generation...)

Mr Belgian 2 seemed particularly incensed by the use of the terms 'chicken' & 'chicken farm' to refer to female prostitutes & brothels in Cambodia, & the French appeared similarly appalled. The cat grew up with this slang meaning of 'chicken' (in Chinese, Cantonese, various other Chinese dialects, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, etc) bandied around in daily conversation & on primetime TV & Hong Kong-made movies, along with 'duck' as the slang for the male equivalent. The cat grew up thinking of it as a sort of euphemism. To the Europeans, it was an insult. On the other hand, some Chinese can be intrigued by the Japanese use of the character 妓 (Chinese for prostitute) for the word 芸妓 (geisha), which technically had no such negative connotation. If cultural baggage could be weighed, all of us could go bankrupt from excess baggage charges? ;)

251206 Nong Khiaw at dusk

Only now did it occur to the cat to try & take a 360 degree view from the bridge:


larger version here

The cat is lousy at such things & knows peaNUTS, cocoNUTS & chestNUTS about all that lighting stuff. It photographs fluorescent mouse & human cells for work, not scenery & people. & it travels with only a simple little but tougher-than-nails Olympus mju300 & no tripod.

Nong Khiaw Riverside Bungalows on the Ban Sop Houn side of the Nam Ou:




The cat had seen an earlier incarnation of their website when the bungalows were still under construction, where there was info & photos of how the bungalows were being built using wood salvaged from traditional homes that were being demolished to make way for concrete versions. Wished they had retained that info on their current website.

On the right is a signboard & the menu of Nong Khiaw Riverside's restaurant:



& behind the menu are logs with rectangular holes that used to be the posts of traditional wooden houses, probably belonging to Nong Khiaw Riverside?

Chill starts to set in as the sun gets lower in the sky:



People head home across the bridge on pick-up trucks, motorbikes, bicycles & foot as the first wisps of mist appear:



As it stood in the middle of the bridge, a pair of French backpackers approached the cat & were both surprised & relieved that it could speak English. They asked if there were guesthouses with hot showers on the Ban Sop Houn end...at that point in time all 3 of us were unaware that the electricity supply to Nong Khiaw (& many other parts of Luang Prabang province) had been cut off in the late afternoon when some powerlines were damaged. No wonder Mr Sunset Guesthouse had been complaining about not being able to charge his mobile phone.

Nong Khiaw sunset:



The Nam Ou turns to molten gold:



Could this pass off as some loch in the Scottish highlands?



Last of the boats head back to shore, engines softly chugging through the silence, the way home lit by flickering lamps:



As the cat walked back to Sunset Guesthouse, Ban Sop Houn was pitch black save for the glow of candles lighting up the grocery store across from the temple. 'Bor mii fai', grinned the grandma at the stall.

251206 life by the river - Nong Khiaw

Nong Khiaw boat landing:





You grow your vegetables & sun your laundry by the river...



& build even more boats & wash even more loads of laundry (bottom right) & bathe in it...

251206 Nong Khiaw tourism info centre

KS, who runs this place at the top of the Nong Khiaw boat landing, hanging out with 2 Nong Khiaw guys:



The cat had excused itself to walk away & take this photo (which it would have taken anyway) in order to get away from endless invitations to join a big fat Lao Lao drinking session with not just these 3 guys, but all the rest of the Nong Khiaw boatmen too. It worked, & when the cat stepped back into the verandah they asked it to join them for their evening drinking session instead, if it was free later on.

It was noon, & the wave of backpackers rushing from Muang Ngoi Neua to Luang Prabang had swept through & been carted off by a waiting songthaew. A lone tourist who wanted to do this journey by slow boat had parted with 1 million kip to charter an entire boat & set off. There was nothing else for the boatmen to do but sit on the boat landing steps to drink & play cards & then crash out in the shade.

Efforts by SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) to develop tourism in the Ngoi & Vieng Kham districts (where PS' village is) of Luang Prabang province, & Houa Phanh province:



Days later in Luang Prabang, the cat would meet some university students from Houa Phanh, & its guesthouse owner would ask it to visit Sam Neua (capital of Houa Phanh) together with her to see some of the best & most intricate weaving that Laos has to offer...this video of Tai Daeng weaving will make you think hard before you bargain with a weaver when buying her work ;) Unfortunately that invitation has to wait till another trip.

There are 2 NBCAs (National Biodiversity Conservation Areas) where Luang Prabang & Houa Phanh provinces meet, Phou Loei & Nam Et, & perhaps some day they will become trekking destinations when places like Muang Sing & Luang Namtha have been 'trekked out'...

The beautiful posters with the Lao National Tourism Authority & SNV logos:



Similar posters sponsored by other NGOs hang in the Muang Sing tourism info centre. Behind this wall is a little room that serves as KS's office. KS had studied in Bangkok & Pattaya & landed this job with his above (Lao) average command of spoken English. There were maps & a bus/songthaew timetable on the wall, info on the Na Meo border crossing to Vietnam, & a big fat pyramidal metal rack with tourist info brochures, the printing of which were sponsored by even more NGOs (save for those that were leaflets advertising hotels & tour companies).

KS spent quite some time showing the cat around & pointing out how much the posters & metal rack & other stuff had cost, as well as the expense involved in transporting the metal rack here from the city...the cat lost track of the number of zeros in the large sums of kip mentioned. An interesting thing is how most Lao the cat has met or overheard tend to use 'sip phaan' instead of 'meun' when saying 10,000 e.g. 'haa sip phaan' instead of 'haa meun' for 50,000.

We laughed over how much easier, faster & cheaper it would have been to craft a 100% rust-proof (albeit not as insect-proof) rack out of bamboo or wood on the spot, & how they had provided him with a desk - but no chair =P Maybe that's a way to make him sit at the verandah & try to attract the attention of passing tourists ;)

A school girl reading about what falangs shouldn't do, as illustrated in the 'Ecotourist dos & don'ts' cartoon poster:



View from KS' workplace:

251206 Ban Sop Houn temple - 01

On the opposite bank of the Nam Ou from Nong Khiaw - Ban Sop Houn:



On the left (above) is a little grocery shop, & beside it is the path that leads to Sunset Guesthouse. Later tonight the cat would find its way back to the guesthouse in the darkness with the help of candles lit by the shop owner =)

Across from the shop is a flight of steps leading up to this little temple:



Possibly the tiniest the cat has ever visited. The interior didn't seem much bigger than the cat's 3m X 3m X 3m university hostel room. To one side of the building was a long shed for the village boat used for the rainy season boat racing festival. There seemed to be only two people around, an elderly monk, & a little novice whom he told to let the cat in...which he did, opening not just the main but also the side doors & windows & even turning on the fan.

The simple interior had a collection of small strange-looking figurines flanking the main Buddha image. Most appeared to be carved from wood or stone, & with rather large & elongated noses & ears & crude features, the cat couldn't tell if they were Buddhist or animist. Leaning against a wall was a large blue board with names of donors & the amounts donated painted in white - quite a few were Western names.

The entrance up close:



With a fierce-looking Kala (กาละ) painted above the 'gong khiu' (โก่งคิ้ว lit. arch eyebrow) to guard the place from evil:



Looks like Rahu, & Rahu & Kala both have no body. But Rahu lost its body when it was chopped off by Vishnu, & is depicted munching on the sun or moon...greedy Kala munches on itself! Another picture of Kala aka. Kirtimukkha (กีรติมุข) here.

The double-arch 'gong khiu' represents Buddha's eyebrows. Here it is indicated by the fifth (counting from the top) black line on the right. Looks kinda like how the cat used to draw the silhouettes of distant birds flying in the sky when it was in kindergarten.

White flowers, birds, squirrels, monkeys & other creatures:




Weird how the black & white round pillars are not 'free standing'.

251206 Nong Khiaw - mist-free version

Walking from Ban Sop Houn towards the bridge across the Nam Ou to Nong Khiaw proper:



A path on the right leads to Nong Khiaw Riverside bungalows:



Ban Sop Houn side of the Nam Ou:



The backdrop of Sunset Guesthouse:



The mountain behind Nong Khiaw boat landing:



Karst on Nong Khiaw side of the bridge:



Upriver - Muang Ngoi Neua is somewhere beyond:






The cat wonders why - but feels strangely relieved that - most of the tourists it saw in Nong Khiaw spent all of 10 minutes or less bypassing this place, hurriedly transferring between Luang Prabang songthaew & Muang Ngoi Neua boat.