Advice for a week hiking in Laos
Got a bunch of questions about travelling to Laos from Southern China, hope none of you mind.
Background: I'm going to be in Kunming at the end of the month, so I was planning going down to Laos and spending roughly 7 or 8 days on my own there before flying back to China. Still a lot of things up in the air so hope you can help me make some decisions.
My itinerary so far:
Sept 28th: Fly from Kunming to Jinghong arrive ~10:30 am. Spend the night in Jinghong or catch an evening bus to Luang Pamtha.
Sept 29th to Oct 1st: 3 (maaaybe 4) days of hiking around Luang Pamtha
Oct 2nd: spend a day traveling to Luang Prabang by bus
Oct 3rd: Sightseeing in Luang Prabang?
Oct 4th: Fly from Luang Prabang back to Beijing
Questions:
1) Any concerns about travelling alone in Laos? Safety / personal advice? I would find a buddy but it's a bit short notice.
2) Visas (I'm Canadian). My understanding is that if you cross from China at Mengla you can a get a visa on arrival for 42 USD with two passport photos. Has anyone run to any trouble at a land crossing fron the China border?
3) Bus into Laos: the information I've found is that there are busses from Jinghong to Luang Pamtha (or if not, there are busses from Mengla). Can you buy tickets for these busses online? Or are they easy to get in person? Information is a bit scarce.
4) Will busses from Jinghong use the Mengla border crossing?
5) Language. Better off trying English or Mandarin when getting around in Laos?
6) Any recommendations for trekking in Luang Pamtha? I'm in just okay shape, but I hike a lot so something fairly challenging (and rewarding) would be nice!
7) What to prepare/wear for when hiking in Laos' environment. I'm mostly used to hiking in Canada and Northern China so there might be more bugs than I'm used to?
8) Any experience on buying tickets and taking the bus between Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang?
9) The latter part of my trip is fairly flexible so if there's any must-see sites around Luang Prabang I would appreciate your recommendations! Just have to end my trip at the international airport so I can fly home.
10) How much cash should I carry? Keep some USD or change everything to Kip?
11) Hotels. Anything I should look to avoid when booking hotels?
12) photocopy passport and credit cards, bring extra underwear, any other advice of this nature.
Thanks to anyone who actually read this whole post.
Submitted September 12, 2017 at 09:23AM by 52178634805 http://ift.tt/2gYVtQy
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