Few days in Thakhek

Thakhek is the main town in Khammouane province, in Central Laos.

If you want to stay in a nice guesthouse I found the Mekong hotel, this is a really nice place in front of the Mekong river. The view is beautiful and the average price for a room 100 000 KIP with very good WIFI, comfortable bed and hot water (really hot water).

All the guides I read, and websites I saw were talking about the beauty of the city. In my point of view this is over rated. Thakhek is the ideal city to have one « day off » during you trip.

Not really easy to find you way in thakhek, the city center is very small and I couldn’t find the tourism center. I found one but it was close. The tuktuk are really expensive here compare to Luang Phrabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane. Never accept 20 000KIP for a lift. The price is 10 000KIP in the city and you can manage to negociate 15 000 KIP to go to the bus station.

Compare to other city in Laos you can not book a bus ticket from your guesthouse or a shop in town. Don’t lose money with a way and way back to the bus station because you can not book a ticket in advance even here. I will leave Thakhek for Paksé with a 7 hours bus trip, you have a bus every 30 minutes at the bus station, from Paksé, the plan is to join the 4000 Islands.

I spend nice time in Sabaidee Thakhek restaurant. There is a lot of foreigner here, the manager is really welcoming and the food is good. If you are a singer, you are more than welcome to share with us your voice. I recomand it. For enjoying good food and perfect service Mr Black Coffe is also a really good restaurant.

The Lao people a for most of them welcoming and if you are lost or wondering what to do don’t hesitate to ask. Most of the time they will not take advantage of you because you are a tourist and they give goods advices for where to eat and where to stay at night.

The best to see in Thakhek is the cave and landscape around. There a a ¾ days loop trip that you can manage to do in motorcycle. You will drive 300 km and enjoying laos. This not recommended if you never had drive a motorbike before. You can rent a tuktuk for a day trip around Thakhek and this is maybe the best option if you are not comfortable with driving a motorbike. Remember that road are not safe.

If you have to rent a motobike, I recomand you to go to Mad Monkey Motobike Rent. They will give you a bike, a map and goods advices for average prices.