TexasSlim

Has anyone traveled around Southern Laos recently?
I'm interested in Savvanakhet, Champassak & Pakse.

fuzzylogic

Yes - if you count Oct 05 as recently.

Went further south too. What is it you want to know?

WeiLong

Savvanakhet and Pakse are both nice towns but there doesn't seem to be a lot to do there.

Most people head for Si Phan Don I think.

http://www.travelsinasia.com/Laos/Laos.htm

TexasSlim

I'm thinking about making a one-week trip mid Oct, would like to enter Lao from Mukdahan. Can I get a visa on arrival at Savvanakhet? And if so how much? And in USD?
Then I'd like to travel to Savvanakhet, Champassak & Pakse and see the sights. I'd like to travel by river as much as possible, so I would be very interested in anything you can tell/recommend about transportation, hotels/restaurants, places to stop & sights to visit. After Pakse I'll re-enter Thailand but would rather not backtrack to Mukdahan, so is there another entry point further south?

tnnc

I was in Mukdahan July 05 and they were building the bridge to Savonaket. I'm not sure if it is finished yet. It used to be that non-Thais couldn't get a visa to cross there, but that may have changed.

tnnc

I just found an article that said the bridge is supposed to be finished by December 2006.

fuzzylogic

I went south from Vientiane so can't help with any info on other entry points. I can tell you that it is easy to get back into Thailand from Pakse - though involves a few changes of transport.

Post again if you want more detail.

As for river travel. This was my big disappointment cos I am addicted to travelling by boat. Here's my experience - if you want more up to date info check out the Thorn Tree.

Arrived Pakse on overnight bus from Vientiane. Had read there was a regular boat going south. Had brekkie (it was very early) and made my way with new found friends to the landing. There was a boat - was this the one we should get?

No, No - only going over the other side to Thailand. We waited - no other boats came. In the end - by then there were 5 of us - we chartered a boat to take us to Champassak. Not expensive.

But we all wanted to travel on south by regular ferry. Would it ever come?

It didn't - did see a heavily laden boat going north!! Suspect locals now prefer to travel by road. And that, in the end, is what I did too.

TexasSlim

OK thanks guys, that should do for now, I'll have to check with Lao Embassy about a visa on entry at Savvanakhet, and I now understand I can re-enter Thailand into Ubon province, so that's OK. I had thought I could take boats way down into the Deep South of Lao but it seems that's not the case. A friend told me today that Thais operate boats down this stretch of the Mehkong, and of course if I did that then I'd blow my Lao visa, so it looks like buses. Anyway, thanks again.