Luang Prabang to Dien Bien Phu via the Ou River

Luang Prabang to Dien Bien Phu via the Ou River

I found pieces of information about this trip before doing it, so I thought I would leave a summary of what we encountered. This is based on travel in early December 2009 with a moderate number of tourists around, dry weather, and moderate river flows. Prices are in KIP and are in thousands (k).

The bus ticket to Nong Khiaw was 60k including pickup from the hotel to the minivan station. Tickets are probably 50k at the minivan station (that’s what they cost at the Nong Khiaw station) which is out of town. Your hotel might try and charge up to 125k. We arrived in Nong Khiaw at 12:30, 4 hrs after the hotel pickup.

The boat to Muang Ngoi left at 2pm. You have to walk down the town street, away from the bridge road, for about 200 metres then turn left down the dusty lane which bends back to the ticket office. 20k for the 1 hour ride. This part of the river is beautiful – a must see if you are up here. It seems that there is only one boat per day in each direction, though we didn’t push this point.

Accommodation listings ranged from 40k to 100k. We later heard a guy say he had basic digs for 30k. We chose 24hr hot water over a view or low(er) cost. We stayed a couple of nights. More would be fine if you want to chill out or like trekking. To us this place had a very nice feel. The locals make most of their money from tourism but go about their daily lives quite happily. A walk to the cave amongst bush, and then on to a village through open fields was great We spent about 4 hrs on this. Another person we met said that the place is boring. It is not Vang Vieng.

We had been told that tickets to Meuang Khoua would be 250k, 150k or 100k depending on how many people (2-10) were travelling. On our morning, there were three of us, and we were each charged 150k. A fast-boat was leaving at the same time with one local passenger. The captain said same-same when asked about price. But why rush?

The boat tickets are at 9am at the ticket office, which is three quarters of the way up the steps leading up from the river, for a departure that is supposed to happen at 9:30am. Our boat eventually left at 10 a.m., with no obvious reason for the delay other than this is Lao.

The 9:30am boat going back down to Nong Khiaw was packed. People were crammed in like sardines. The trip down river this time of year would seem to be a misty one. The trip getting there in the afternoon is better for taking pictures of the scenery.

We set off up stream. After 40 minutes, the surrounding country changed from karst hills to lower hills – still very attractive. Many photos were taken. We passed a boat heading south with more people on it. After four stops for locals, we arrived at Meuang Khoua at 2:00, a 4-hour trip. The trip going south is probably quicker due to river flow. For me that makes the trip going north more appealing.

A woman who had arrived from Hat Sa said her tickets were 80k. We also met a woman who had just arrived from DBP after leaving at 6am.

The bus to DBP reportedly leaves daily at 6am. Hand-updated signs at guesthouses indicated to us that it used to run less frequently, and used to depart at 7am. You cross the river to buy the tickets and to get the bus – at the same time, not beforehand. The very short ferry ride costs 2k. The bus costs 50k to DBP.

The reality is that the ferry does not cross until 6am, and in our case, they simply used a small boat. Tickets are sold on the bus before departure. The bus left at 6:30, which seemed to be what the driver expected. The bus was a 25-seater. There was one other foreigner, seven locals, a conductor and the driver.

Even though there is traffic both ways every day, this is a dangerous road on the Lao side. There are slips from above, and in some places the road is also subsiding from below. If you like a bit of adventure then you’ll be OK.

I expect that in the wet season this road would be very slow going (as opposed to, slow going) and slips would be even more likely. Two and half hours in to our trip we came upon a landslip covering the road in two places. This delayed us for one and a half hours. Once the caterpillar digger had turned the slide in to a mound our bus driver gunned his engine and raced up the slope, only to stop half way up with wheels spinning. He rolled backwards beside the steep ravine but kept it on the muddy path. This was the most excitement we had had in laid-back Lao PDR. The digger ran over the mound a couple of more times and the driver raced at the mound again and made it over. Much the same happened on the next mound. He insisted in being the first vehicle over again, apart from a few motorcycles who he shouted at for blocking his way. Waiting on the other side of the slips we passed a bus heading for Meuang Khoua, which appeared full and had more foreigners aboard.

We arrived at the Laos border checkpoint at 11:40. There is a drive of several kilometres between checkpoints. The Vietnamese are building a new one further up the hill, but they will still be a few kilometres apart. We left the Vietnamese border checkpoint at 1:00. We arrived at DBP at 2:15, after one stop for a local passenger. The next day we met a man who had arrived shortly after 12 and had not encountered any slips. As they say, “your mileage may vary”.

soundsverygood / http://www.tripadvisor.com