With pangs of sadness I’m packing. A part of me feels I could stay in Luang Prabang for weeks more, but I force myself to book my ticket on China’s high-speed train because I know there’s so much more to see and do in Laos and beyond.
This in itself is a great feat - it’s not like booking a normal train ticket because you have to pay for the ticket before you receive confirmation. Yes - very odd.
After getting no joy from travel agencies who say I’ll have to wait for 2/3 days to know if I’m booked on, I decide to try myself, online.
Credit card details typed in, I press ‘send’ and hope for the best,
I could go overland, of course, but I want to take this train to Vang Vieng for two reasons.
One, it’s so much faster than a minibus. We’re talking less than an hour - on a high-speed train as opposed to eight hours down some appalling roads (I’ve heard horror stories of enormous pot holes and people throwing up in their vehicles, all along the way). And two, because I want to see what all the hype is about. This ‘wonder of Laos’, linking southern China to Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane, is relatively new and was dreamed up as a way of boosting tourism in the country.
Amazingly, 14 hours after I purchase my ticket I get a confirmation text. (This doesn’t always happen, and many people end up forced to vomit their way down atrocious roads, south to Vang Vieng). Mission accomplished.
However, the train station is close to 45 minutes drive outside Luang Prabang - which involves another payment to another company for the ride there. They show up on time at my hotel but then we drive around the town for close to an hour, picking up other passengers. Outside the centre of Luang Prabang, just as it was when I biked it to the waterfalls, the road is terrible - I’m nauseous after 20 minutes and can only thank god I don’t have to endure this for eight hours.
The station itself is enormous, modern, glittering, all glass and Chinese platform attendants (all donning masks) who - 15 minutes before your allotted departure - direct you to your assigned seat. The train’s exterior is glossy, with tinted windows and in some odd ways it reminds me of journeying by Eurostar from London to Paris, save for the faint smell of damp in my carriage!
I’m seated next to a Chinese businessman who, in broken English, explains he’s been in Laos on a reconnaissance mission, as he’s thinking of making an investment in a hotel there. There are a few western tourists too, some Chinese families (with cute kids, all watching cartoons in on their tablets) and the odd local, but it’s not the lively atmosphere you’d find on Thai trains. The doors slide shut, automatically, 30 seconds before departure and, bang on time, we’re off.
It’s fast, efficient, with announcements in Cantonese and English, and attendants who come and check your tickets, but no buffet car or trolleys coming round, with drinks and snacks. At 160 km per hour, we whisk past fields, streams and hills, and I have to say that for $12, this is great value (it’s also saving me an arduous overland journey which is only $3 cheaper!)
And 49 minutes later, we pull into Vang Vieng, where I’ve decided to spend some time hiking, kayaking and generally taking in the view. More minibus taxis outside the station are waiting, and we all scramble in, handing over a couple of bucks and telling the driver which guesthouse we want to be dropped off at.
Ten minutes later, I’m unpacking in my room.
As someone who’s bumped across Africa, Asia and Latin America on appalling roads, in atrocious and barely road-worthy vehicles (think smashed windows and holes in the floor) this was easy peasy. In fact, the hardest thing was holding my nerve for 16 hours and waiting for ticket confirmation. By any standards, this was a quick and painless journey
And now it’s time for a coconut shake, a wander round town and a chat with the kayak operator…