One of the first countries we visited once our home base of Asia reopened after COVID19 was Laos! We have always wanted to go, tempted by the emerald waters of Kuangsi Falls in Luang Prabang and ridiculously cheap tickets from Singapore via Scoot. So after spending more than a year in the other half of the world during COVID, we were more than happy to resume our adventures in Southeast Asia 🙂 Affordable travelling + awesome food = what’s there not to love?!
We flew into Vientiane for just under US$150 for return flights and had a lovely few days exploring this quaint city. Our LCR journey begins in Vientiane and continues to Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang before returning to Vientiane. I’ll go over the difficulties we encountered on our train travel, from purchasing tickets to getting to the train station/railway (I’ll use the terms interchangeably, but they imply the same thing) and how you might better prepare yourself for a pleasant ride.
We learnt that there are several ways to book the train ticket from Vientiane to Vang Vieng:
- Vientiane train station
- Online on 3rd party websites
- Vientiane Center Lao
We initially headed to Vientiane Center Lao, the city’s first mall, in search of the ticketing kiosk that sells train tickets. The booth closes at 4pm, and although arriving at 2pm, all tickets for the next day’s trip were sold out. The worker speaks poor English, but we were able to interact with her in Mandarin and learned that the ticketing kiosk only holds a limited quantity of tickets. As a result, you should only try your chances buying tickets there if your departure dates are at least 2-3 days away. Finally, we learned from another traveller that they only accept QR code payments and do not accept cash or credit cards, which is inconvenient.
We attempted to book online using a website called Baolau, which is not the railway’s official app, but rather a third-party website, because we already had accommodations booked in Vang Vieng. Prices are around 30% more than if purchased from a ticketing booth. One benefit is that Baolau provides transportation from your accommodation to the railway station. Unfortunately for us, Baolau’s tickets were also sold out due to a limited supply.
We have no choice except to travel 20 minutes out of town to the railway station to purchase the train tickets. We met two other travellers at Vientiane Center Lao who were also looking for train tickets. As a result, we shared a LOCA (taxi) from Vientiane Center Lao to the railway station, which cost us 170k Kip in total. We arrive at the railway station ticket counter 30 minutes before it shuts and were relieved to find out that there were no queues and that tickets were still available.
Based on our own experience, we recommend you either buy online on a third-party site like Baolau if you are ready to pay extra, or go directly to the train station to purchase your tickets. To save time, when you arrive at a new destination by train, such as Vang Vieng, remember to purchase tickets for your next destination at the railway station that you just arrived at. If you are staying in a higher-tier hotel, you can request that the receptionist purchase the train tickets for you, like our hotel in Vang Vieng did.
It is recommended that you arrive at the railway station one hour before your departure time, while we believe that arriving 30 minutes prior should suffice. Aerosols also were prohibited on the train, and all aerosols or combustible items will be confiscated. They were stringent about this, confiscating two bottles of our unopened hairspray and disinfectant (aerosol-kind).
The China-Laos railway station is primarily sponsored by a joint venture between China and Laos, with the Bank of China financing the majority of the money. The train station is relatively new in contrast to the surrounding structures in Laos. There is also hot water available at the railway station and on the train, so you may bring cup noodles if you need a quick meal. The railway has no shops, and its vending machines are generally empty. Therefore, before entering the station, have your lunch and prepare your own bottles of water.
A queue will form at the gantry 10 minutes before departure, so confirm your seats to ensure you queue at the correct entrance. Most of the time, the line gets quite aggravating as people swarm the train doors and disregard the regular queue.
The seats aboard the train are quite nice and clean, which can be expected given that the train was recently opened on December 3rd, 2021. The only drawback was that there was no WIFI on the train, but aside from that, travelling on the LCR railway was a fantastic experience. It’s worth bearing in mind that when booking your tickets, you can select either first or second class, and in our experience, there are little differences, except that in second class, you may face someone sitting opposite you (four seats and two facing each other), whereas in first class, you will only have one person beside you.
Remember to keep your train tickets with you until you exit the next destination, since the train staff will check them before you leave the railway station.
We forgot to purchase train tickets from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang at the railway station after arrival. Fortunately, our hotel was able to buy the tickets on our behalf. We stayed at the Amari Hotel in Vang Vieng, which I strongly suggest if your budget permits. They have a lovely pool and a luxury accommodation.
Lastly, for our train from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, we booked our tickets on Baolau, which were slightly more costly, but it included free delivery of tickets to your hotel and free transportation from our hotel to the railway station, which was quite far away. On Baolau, customer service was responsive, and they assured that our transportation came on schedule, giving us a peace of mind.
After travelling around Europe via train previously, I believe that the China-Laos railway is on the right track, allowing tourists to travel around Laos conveniently and comfortably. There may be a few flaws to work out, for instance the convenience of purchasing a ticket and WIFI onboard, but overall, travelling within Laos on the LCR was a fantastic experience.