Given its geographical position, it’s not surprising that Lao cuisine is heavily influenced by its neighbours. It is easy to find a Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese flair in their dishes. However, there are delicious eats that are Laotian in origin: larb, papaya salad, and their penchant for sticky rice cooked in bamboo to name a few. Of course, don’t forget to wash it all down with a glass of national pride: Beerlao.
We left Ban Nahin and bumped down beautiful highway 8 then headed north up highway 13 to Pak Kading. The bus was packed, cost us 50,000 Kip/$6.15, and was about 3 hours long. We were the only ones getting off at Pak Kading and were dropped off at the bridge that crosses the Kading River — not convenient since it was about a km from the centre of town (which the bus would be driving by anyway), but the river and its bridge is about the only sight in the town so we didn’t mind the sweaty trek across it.
We took a bus from the Savannakhet bus station to Thakhek for 30,000k/$3.70.
Thakhek Travel Lodge is a good place to stay as it gives travellers an opportunity to speak to people who’ve done “the loop” (or find people who need travel buddies). “The Loop” is a 400km, three- or four-day motorcycle tour of the natural beauty of the area: limestone karsts, lakes, and some caves including the 7.5km long Kong Lor Cave. This cave is traversed by hired motorboat and takes about two to three hours.
says) the visa on arrival to Laos at the Laos-Cambodia land border is available and costs US$40 for a UK passport and US$47 for a Canadian passport.
Cambodian food isn’t nearly as widely known as Thai food, but it is still one of the world’s most balanced cuisines. It’s simple but customizable. Rice is the staple — in fact, in Khmer there are over 100 words and phrases for rice.
For more information on Cambodian cooking, pickup this book: Cambodian Cooking: A humanitarian project in collaboration with Act for Cambodia.
