Southern Laos
 

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

Yes - if you count Oct 05 as recently.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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.