The Laos most people skip
North of Vientiane gets the crowds; south of it, the buses empty out and Laos slows to its true speed. The south is built around three experiences, a river that flows through a mountain, a highland plateau of coffee and waterfalls, and an archipelago in the Mekong where the country simply stops, and two weeks connects them into the most relaxed stretch of travelling in Southeast Asia.
Thakhek and the river through the mountain
Start in Thakhek, a sleepy Mekong town reachable by bus or train-plus-bus from Vientiane. Most travellers here rent a semi-automatic bike (around 8 to 12 dollars a day, check the brakes, photograph everything) for the famous three-to-four-day Thakhek Loop through karst country, but even non-riders can reach the loop's crown jewel by minivan: Kong Lor cave. A full river flows 7.5 kilometres straight through a limestone mountain, and for about 6 to 8 dollars, boatmen take you the entire way in a longtail, headlamps sweeping over cathedral chambers of stalagmites, until a coin of green daylight appears and you burst out into a hidden valley of tobacco farms. It is one of Southeast Asia's genuinely jaw-dropping moments. Homestays in Kong Lor village cost 6 to 10 dollars, and staying the night means doing the cave at 8 am, alone.
Pakse and the Bolaven Plateau
Buses run south to Pakse, the unhurried hub of the deep south and home base for the Bolaven Plateau loop. Rent a bike again, or join a minivan tour if two wheels are not your thing, and climb into coffee country, a thousand metres up, where the air cools and everything smells of wet leaves and roasting beans. The small loop takes two days; the big loop, three or four. Tad Lo village is the backpacker heart of it, three waterfalls within walking distance and guesthouses with hammocks from 5 dollars, the sort of place that quietly steals three extra days. Elsewhere the plateau delivers Tad Fane, twin falls dropping 120 metres into a jungle amphitheatre, swimming holes below Tad Champee, and family-run coffee farms around Paksong where a tour and tasting costs a few dollars and the owner will talk arabica until dark. Roads are mostly sealed now, but rain arrives fast; stash everything in dry bags.
Si Phan Don, the four thousand islands
South again by bus to Nakasang, then a longtail across to Don Det, the backpacker capital of Si Phan Don, the Four Thousand Islands, where the Mekong spreads 14 kilometres wide and shatters into channels around sandbars and palm islands. Life here is structural hammock time: riverside bungalows from 6 to 12 dollars, sunrise on the east bank, sunset on the west, bicycles (about 2 dollars a day) across the old French railway bridge to Don Khon, where trails lead to the thundering Li Phi falls. Kayak tours run to the Khone Phapheng cataracts, the largest falls in Southeast Asia by volume, and to channels where a small population of Irrawaddy dolphins surfaces at dusk; go with operators who keep engines off and distance respectful. The islands are also where you finally read the book you have carried since Bangkok.
Practicalities
Run the route November to February for dry roads and cool plateau nights; March to May is very hot, and the wet season turns the Bolaven lush but slippery. Day-to-day costs in the south are the lowest in Laos, 20 to 30 dollars covers almost anyone, with the bikes and boat trips the only real line items. Carry cash from Pakse onward, since island ATMs are few and moody. From Don Det, buses connect straight to the Cambodian border and on to Siem Reap, which is exactly how most people finally, reluctantly, leave.
