After the opening of the China-Laos Railway, I have been thinking about taking the high-speed rail out of the country, but this year's May Day holiday did not grab a ticket, the plan can not catch up with the changes, at the end of November, I and my travel partner suddenly set a trip to Luang Prabang, Laos.
Booking, hotels, and strategies are basically finalized in one day, and the visa is sent to a local travel agency in Kunming to sign on behalf of the local travel agency, and it took 280 people to get it in 3 days (later I saw it at the Boding port, in fact, the landing visa is more cost-effective at 20 US dollars, but we are not very good at filling in the complicated**, or choose the agency).
The silky experience of the China-Laos Railway.
There is only one direct train per day (D887 08:08) to Laos, so we set off early to arrive at Kunming South Railway Station.
At the service station in the middle of the South Railway Station, I applied to the staff to exchange it for a paper ticket and a arrival card.
Tips: You can bring a pen, or fill in the pen with the conductor on the high-speed rail.
Attach a template for filling in
The second-class seats on the way to the trip were sold out and only the first-class seats were left, and there were not many people on the train at Kunming South Railway Station, so it took 7 and a half hours to start the journey of the China-Laos Railway
The stopover points are Pu'er-Xishuangbanna-Mohan-Boding.
Kunming was originally a little cloudy, but when I arrived at Pu'er Station and saw that the weather was clear, my mood brightened.
The temperature in Xishuangbanna began to rise slowly, and the slippers I changed into here were no longer able to wear winter clothes.
You need to get off the bus twice for exit and entry, and each time you need to take all your luggage through the security check and fill out the arrival card in advance.
Mohan menstrual stop (60 minutes), Boding menstrual stop (60 minutes).
The conductor will remind tourists to take all their luggage and get off the train, we are getting off the train and walking with the large army (elderly tour group), the station outside is exactly the same as the domestic high-speed rail station, and there are Chinese signs along the road.
tips: You can buy a ** card at Boding Station (we bought ** card in advance**, the traffic is no problem, but it can't be through**) to exchange money (the exchange rate is not much different from the urban area, you can change the fare about 100).
At 14:45 in the afternoon (Laos time difference, 1 hour earlier than Beijing time) successfully arrived at Luang Prabang Station, after leaving the station, there are a lot of vans parked at the door, you can bargain here with the driver to take a taxi to the city, we are in advance to contact the hotel to send a car to pick up.
We booked a luxury hotel for two nights, so there was a free pick-up and drop-off service from the train station, the driver wore black and white **, holding my name tag + hotel name at the station gate, and I saw it at a glance.
There is a high English penetration rate here, and there are many drivers who can simply use Chinese words.
After about 20 minutes by car, you will arrive at My Banlao Hotel and check in
After a brief pack-up, around 16:30 get ready to head out to enjoy the panoramic sunset over Luang Prabang.
In front of the night market, the sunset has slowly climbed onto the streets, forming a beautiful refraction through the leaves.
In the middle of the night market, the landmark building of the Luang Prabang Grand Palace Museum, is particularly beautiful and exotic with the sunset.
On the platform opposite the Grand Palais is a great viewing and filming position, but before you have time to enjoy it, the highlight of today's agenda is to climb to the top of Phusi Hill to watch the sunset.
Halfway up the mountain, there are already some tourists sitting on benches ready to enjoy the sunset.
Halfway up the mountain, I also saw the dim yellow light shining on the houses.
Tips: There are too many tourists on the front side of the sunset, you can walk around the platform to the back and take pictures
After descending the mountain, there is a super cheap freshly squeezed fruit smoothie and Lao "spicy hot" directly opposite, which tastes delicious!Chocolate shortbread is also very good, and the cost performance is also super high, 25+ per person. (Cailong netizens, where are you going today).