Description
Culture Cruise
Explore the area surrounding Vientiane, visiting ancient ruins, Lao’s largest lake and bizarre markets.
Main info
Sightseeing
Private Minivan
Lao food
Highlights
Explore ancient ruins dating as far back as the 8th century and learn about the ancient empires of the Khmer and Lane Xang
Explore the largest lake in Laos and one of the largest man made lakes in Asia. Learn how hydropower is transforming Laos as well as the opportunities and the challenges this can create for communities
This tour offers you the chance to be in nature, take a boat trip in one of the largest man-made lakes in South-East Asia, visit local villages and the ruins of a 8-11th Century Mon-Khmer site. It is a full day, filled with interesting things to do and see but at a relaxed pace.
What Will You Do
We leave Vientiane and drive to a Hmong village to visit the local market and meet some of the villagers. From here we travel to the archaeological site of Vang Xang which was built by the Khmer Empire between the 8th and 11th century. We then drive to Nam Ngum Reservoir in time for lunch. Our lunch will be served on a floating restaurant on the edge of the lake.
After lunch, we board a boat and set off to visit a small island that has a market selling handicrafts made by prisoners held on a nearby island for re-education. We will spend some time cruising around the lake and taking in the sights before heading back to our vehicle for the return journey.
On the way back to Vientiane we will visit a traditional salt abstraction site and another market where local people sell some interesting foods including a large selection of insects. If you are feeling brave you can try these exotic snacks! We then drive back to Vientiane to arrive in the late afternoon.
What to expect
This is a sightseeing tour and does not require a high level of fitness. We will be transported to each location in a air-con minivan or a local boat.
Details
| Departure | Roughly at 8:30 am from Green Discovery office/your hotel |
| Return | Roughly at 4 pm to Green Discovery office/your hotel |
| Locations | Vientiane |
| What to bring | Comfortable clothes, hat, sunscreen, refillable water bottle, a small amount of money |
| What is included | English speaking guide, transport, lunch, drinking water, all entrance fees, taxes and permits. |
Help us to become 100% single use plastic free company!
We try to avoid plastic as much as possible, that is why we encourage you to bring your own refillable bottle.
We have water refillable station at our office where you can fill up your bottle. If you don’t have one we sell the 0,75 L Green Discovery aluminium bottles at our sales office. At the moment we will still need to use plastic bottles in some of our tours but we hope to reduce it as much as possible. Together with The Green Discovery Sustainability Fund we are working on installing water filters in all the villages we are visiting and we hope in the future we will not need to use plastic bottles anymore.
Still not suit you?