The train saga - Part 1

Travelling across Laos is not easy at the best of times. You can fly in and out of major cities. However the roads and transport options are poor in places and quite limited as a result of Covid.

Between most locations you have to opt for the motion sickness vomit comet journey of hours jogging along in a 'VIP' or sleeper bus/minivan that is trying to avoid potholes where possible. Or in the rainy season - mudslides 😱

But hey we rejoice - a collaboration between Lao and China has launched a new train service between the Chinese border (Boten) and the the capital of Laos (Vientiane). The project has been funded by the Chinese at an estimated cost of $6bn. The project took approximately five years to complete and officially opened in December 2021. I will leave you to read online news about the construction and opinion on how this will benefit Laos. 

With this new train service stopping at many destinations in Laos it gives the tourists a far quicker way to travel. For example we travel from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng tomorrow. It will take around 1 hour on the fast train. Depending on alternative public transport, it can take between 4.5 and 10 hours! 

So naturally tourists are clambering over themselves to buy train tickets. However there are major hurdles and issues that make it a pain in the backside to buy a ticket. I list the current ones below:

1. There is a recently launched mobile train app. It is in Lao language only and is a beta version so no one can buy a ticket. 

2. There is no official railway website so no one can buy a ticket. 

3. There are ticket offices in the main towns. However you can only buy a ticket if you are a Lao national with a Lao bank account. 

So what can a tourist do to buy a ticket? 

1. Go to the train station no earlier than 2 days before travel to queue to buy a ticket. Foreigners can only pay in cash unless you are a Lao national using your local bank account. Travel forums cite foreigners sleeping outside the station all night or queuing from dawn in the hope of getting a ticket. Often only one ticket booth is open.  Each ticket sold requires checks against the passport so this takes even more time.  After queuing for hours tourists often leave empty handed as tickets have sold out. Train stations are often far outside the town so you will spend more money on transport than the actual ticket price. 

2. Pay a local Lao national to buy your ticket. Hotels, hostels, tour companies are now offering a service to go and stand in the queue for you to buy the ticket. This is subject to an additional fee for their time and transport costs to get there. And it's still not guaranteed they can get you a ticket. 

We were very lucky. Our hotel managed to buy two tickets for us yesterday at the train station.  I feel like we have Willy Wonka golden tickets. 

We have been pre-warned about the stringent security checks when we arrive tomorrow.

There are the usual dangerous items you cannot carry.  Also listed as banned items are aerosols of any kind (hairspray, shaving foam etc) and other items like nail scissors.  We will be carrying these items in a separate bag and will need to dispose of them if instructed.  One traveller recently said online that the station could open a beauty shop with all the banned merchandise thrown away. 

However on a positive note I may not be able to spray my hair but I can carry water and booze 😂

I will let you know how our journey goes 🚄