Vietnam and Laos in twelve days

Day 1

Arrive in Hanoi

Met at Noi Bai and driven into the Old Quarter, about 45 minutes. Nothing is scheduled. One loop of Hoan Kiem lake at dusk and an early dinner is the best use of the evening.

Day 2

Hanoi on foot

Cha ca, which is one dish and one menu

The Temple of Literature early, the Museum of Ethnology mid-morning, and the afternoon free. An eating walk in the evening through four or five pavement kitchens, which is the piece of hand-holding we recommend without embarrassment because it teaches you how to order for the next eleven days.

Day 3

South to Ninh Binh

The Trang An boat, taken after three in the afternoon when the groups have gone

Two hours south of Hanoi the same limestone that makes Ha Long Bay comes out of flooded rice fields instead of the sea. A rowing boat through the caves at Trang An takes two hours and is worked by foot rather than by hand; Hang Mua is 500 steps for the view over the whole basin. If you would rather have the bay, say so and we will put you on an overnight boat instead and pick the route up again on day four.

Day 4

Ninh Binh to Hue

The citadel walls from across the river at dusk

A slow morning and an early boat, then back to Hanoi airport in the middle of the day and an hour and fifteen in the air to Hue. You are in the imperial city by late afternoon, and the walk along the Perfume river is the right way to end the day.

Day 5

The citadel and two tombs

The Reading Pavilion at Tu Duc, which is the quietest place in Hue

The Imperial City in the morning — much of it was destroyed in 1968 and what has been rebuilt is honest about being rebuilt, which is more interesting than a complete palace would be. In the afternoon two royal tombs rather than five: Minh Mang for its axis and its water, and Tu Duc for the fact that the emperor who built it used it as a garden retreat for sixteen years before he was buried in it.

Day 6

Over the pass at Lao Bao into Laos

The change of country at the top of the pass, which happens within a kilometre

The border day, and the long one. It is about three hours west from Hue to the gate through the Annamite foothills, climbing all the way. At Lao Bao you clear Vietnamese exit control on foot, walk across to Dansavanh and take a Lao visa on arrival at the window — cash in US dollars, one passport photograph, filled in there and then. The Lao e-visa is not valid at this gate or at any other Vietnamese land crossing, so do not buy one. A Lao car and guide meet you and Savannakhet is four to five hours further on the far side. Seven to eight hours door to door.

Day 7

Savannakhet, then south to Pakse

An hour in the morning walking Savannakhet’s French quarter — a square of shuttered two-storey houses, a 1930s church and a town square nobody is using — which is the whole of the sightseeing here and is enough. Then four to five hours south along the Mekong to Pakse, arriving mid-afternoon.

Day 8

Wat Phou and Champasak

The upper terrace at Wat Phou before nine, with the plain below still in haze

An hour south of Pakse, Wat Phou climbs a hillside below a spring and a mountain the Khmer took for a lingam. It is older than Angkor Wat — the earliest stonework here is seventh century — and the axis runs up six terraces to a sanctuary with a view back over the whole Mekong plain. Go at opening. The afternoon is free in Champasak or back in Pakse.

Day 9

The Bolaven plateau

Swimming below Tad Yuang in the middle of the afternoon

East of Pakse the land rises to between a thousand and thirteen hundred metres and drops about ten degrees. Coffee has been grown up here since the French period, arabica in the highest parts and robusta everywhere else, and the smallholder farms will show you the whole process from cherry to cup. The waterfalls are the best in Laos: Tad Fane falls 120 metres in twin streams into a gorge, and Tad Yuang five minutes away you can walk down to and swim below.

Day 10

North to Luang Prabang

The view from Mount Phousi at sunset, if you can face 328 steps

A flight north — direct when Lao Airlines schedules it and otherwise connecting in Vientiane, which costs the middle of the day either way. We hold the afternoon free rather than promising it. Luang Prabang in the late afternoon is the town at its best: the peninsula between two rivers, low tiled roofs, and the light going gold off the Mekong.

Day 11

Luang Prabang and Kuang Si

The lower pools at Kuang Si before the minibuses

The alms round happens at dawn whether or not anyone watches it, and our position is that you watch from a distance or not at all — a guide will explain what the rules actually are before you decide. Then the royal palace museum and Wat Xieng Thong. Kuang Si is twenty-nine kilometres out, about forty-five minutes, and the pools are the best half-day in northern Laos if you go at eight. Swim in the lower ones.

Day 12

Luang Prabang, and home

The airport is close, which is unusual in this region — fifteen minutes. If your flight is in the afternoon there is time for the morning market and the weaving villages across the river.