Itinerary Ver 2

The journey from Jinghong to Kunming is a mere 8 hours by bus; 2 days was the older route (my apologies; thanks Seth!). Since there are even overnight sleeper buses, we can fit the new itinerary (personally I support this one!) into our 18 days of travel. Read, comments please.

*Both itineraries are similar from Day 1-11 as we would have to cover these places anyway; note the changes from Day 11 onwards which is a pretty drastic route change. This itinerary is a worst case scenario already i.e. overland trvaelling by day if we cannot find overnight transport to our next destination.

Note: Charter – private bus, motorbike/tuk-tuk or taxi

Bus – Public transport

Day /Time	Morning	Afternoon	Night	Comments
Day 1 – 04/12/08	-	SIN (1735 ETD, Meet at 1615 budget terminal!)	HANOI (2000 ETA in Hanoi)
Day 2 – 05/12/08	HANOI-MAI CHAU (approx. 2 hours by charter, 4 hours by bus)HoursH	MAI CHAU-NA MEO (approx. 4.5 hours) NA MEO-VIENG XAI (approx. 2 hours by bus)	VIENG XAI
Day 3 – 06/12/08	VIENG XAI (Pathet Lao Caves)	VIENG XAI	VIENG XAI
Day 4 – 07/12/08	CIP (VIENG XAI OR SAM NEUA)	CIP (VIENG XAI OR SAM NEUA)	CIP (VIENG XAI OR SAM NEUA)	Note: approx. 1 hour by charter between both villages
Day 5 – 08/12/08	SAM NEUA	SAM NEUA	SAM NEUA	Can be based in either village given close proximity for CIP
Day 6 – 09/12/08	SAM NEUA-PHONSAVANH (approx. 10-12 hours by bus)	SAM NEUA-PHONSAVANH (approx. 10-12 hours by bus)	PHOSAVANH
Day 7 – 10/12/08	PHOSAVANH (Plain Of Jars)	PHOSAVANH	PHONSAVANH	Given only one attraction worth seeing, we may leave in the afternoon for Luang Prabang and spend the night there instead of Phonsavanh.
Day 8 – 11/12/08	PHONSAVANH-LUANG PRABANG (approx. 8 hours by bus)	LUANG PRABANG	LUANG PRABANG
Day 9 – 12/12/08	LUANG PRABANG-UDOMXAI (approx. 5 hours by bus)	UDOMXAI-LUANG NAM THA (approx. 5 hours)	LUANG NAM THA	If possible, we would get a straight ride to Luang Nam Tha and avoid Udomxai except for lunch. Night buses are available too, have to play by ear and ask around.
Day 10 – 13/12/08	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA	Given travelers’ accounts,2 full days is already the bare minimum to spend here.
Day 11 – 14/12/08	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA
Day 12 – 15/12/08	LUANG NAM THA-BOTEN-MENGLA (approx. 1-2 hours)	MENGLA-JINGHONG	JINGHONG
Day 13 – 16/12/08	JINGHONG	JINGHONG	JINGHONG
Day 14 – 17/12/08	JINGHONG	JINGHONG	JINGHONG	There are overnight sleeper buses (8 hours, Dog) but irregular.
Day 15 – 18/12/08	JINGHONG-KUNMING (approx. 8-10 hours by charter)		KUNMING
Day 16 - 19/12/08	KUNMING-LAO CAI-HANOI (2 days by train? Overnight sleepers OR 10 hours from Kunming to Hekou by bus then overnight sleeper from Lao Cai to Hanoi)			Have to check exact time and train route beforehand!
Day 17 – 20/12/08
Day 18 – 21/12/08	HANOI	HANOI	SIN-HANOI (0400 ETA)
Day 19 –22/12/08	SIN

MAPS

Luang Prabang map

Luang Nam Tha Map

JingHong Map

Option: Travel to JingHong

Getting In

This is the first big city for travelers coming from Laos. This is the first place with banks that accept foreign cards, but most travelers will have to change buses in Mengla to get here.

Getting out

Getting from Jinghong to Vietnam can prove to be a bit of a problem, with two imperfect solutions. The obvious one is to go back to Kunming and start from there. This can cause problems in that you may have to wait for a day or two to get a train or bus ticket to the border.

The second, marginally preferable option is to take a sleeper bus from the North bus station to Mengzi. These leave every day at 2pm, cost ¥170 and arrive at Mengzi at 6am the following day. A taxi will be ready to take you to the town's second bus station where a minibus leaves for the border town of Hekou at 6.50am and gets there at 11am. From there you can cross over the bridge into the Vietnamese town of Lao Cai.

Source: http://wikitravel.org/en/Jinghong

Itinerary 2008

Note: Charter – private bus, motorbike/tuk-tuk or taxi

Bus – Public transport

Day /Time	Morning	Afternoon	Night	Comments
Day 1 – 04/12/08	-	SIN (1735 ETD, Meet at 1615 budget terminal!)	HANOI (2000 ETA in Hanoi)
Day 2 – 05/12/08	HANOI-MAI CHAU (approx. 2 hours by charter, 4 hours by bus)HoursH	MAI CHAU-NA MEO (approx. 4.5 hours) NA MEO-VIENG XAI (approx. 2 hours by bus)	VIENG XAI
Day 3 – 06/12/08	VIENG XAI (Pathet Lao Caves)	VIENG XAI	VIENG XAI
Day 4 – 07/12/08	CIP (VIENG XAI OR SAM NEUA)	CIP (VIENG XAI OR SAM NEUA)	CIP (VIENG XAI OR SAM NEUA)	Note: approx. 1 hour by charter between both villages
Day 5 – 08/12/08	SAM NEUA	SAM NEUA	SAM NEUA	Can be based in either village given close proximity for CIP
Day 6 – 09/12/08	SAM NEUA-PHONSAVANH (approx. 10-12 hours by bus)	SAM NEUA-PHONSAVANH (approx. 10-12 hours by bus)	PHOSAVANH
Day 7 – 10/12/08	PHOSAVANH (Plain Of Jars)	PHOSAVANH	PHONSAVANH	Given only one attraction worth seeing, we may leave in the afternoon for Luang Prabang and spend the night there instead of Phonsavanh.
Day 8 – 11/12/08	PHONSAVANH-LUANG PRABANG (approx. 8 hours by bus)	LUANG PRABANG	LUANG PRABANG
Day 9 – 12/12/08	LUANG PRABANG-UDOMXAI (approx. 5 hours by bus)	UDOMXAI-LUANG NAM THA (approx. 5 hours)	LUANG NAM THA	If possible, we would get a straight ride to Luang Nam Tha and avoid Udomxai except for lunch. Night buses are available too, have to play by ear and ask around.
Day 10 – 13/12/08	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA	Given travelers’ accounts,2 full days is already the bare minimum to spend here.
Day 11 – 14/12/08	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA	LUANG NAM THA
Day 12 – 15/12/08	LUANG NAM THA-BOTEN-MENGLA (approx. 1-2 hours)	MENGLA	MENGLA
Day 13 – 16/12/08	MENGLA	MENGLA-LUANG NAM THA (approx. 1-2 hours)	LUANG NAM THA	We can choose to leave in the morning for Luang Nam Tha if nothing is left in Mengla
Day 14 – 17/12/08	LUANG NAM THA-UDOMXAI (approx. 5 hours by bus)	UDOMXAI-MONG KHOA (definitely within one day total)	MONG KHOA	MONG KHOA/ MUANG KHOA (different spellings)
Day 15 – 18/12/08	MONG KHOA-DIEN BIEN		DIEN BIEN
Day 16 - 19/12/08	DIEN BIEN-LAI CHAU		LAI CHAU
Day 17 – 20/12/08	LAI CHAU-LAO CAI	LAO CAI	LAO CAI-HANOI (overnight sleeper train)
Day 18 – 21/12/08	HANOI	HANOI	SIN-HANOI (0400 ETA)
Day 19 – 22/12/08	SIN (home sweet home, after almost 3 weeks! )

Research assignment

Transportation to downtown

Hanoi city bus number Kim Ma - Noi Bai(07) and Long Bien - Noi Bai(17) connect Noi Bai Airport with Hanoi city center. The bus stop is just on the right side of the terminal exit. Traveling by bus costs 3-5,000 VND (0.3 USD) per person and takes about one hour. However, passengers with too big luggages are known to be denied boarding. Buses run from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Airport taxi costs a fixed 250,000 VND (15 USD) for a sedan and toll charges are included in the price. A sign by the taxi stand outside the terminal will show the latest official prices. A taxi to city center takes about 30 minutes.

There is also the Airport MinibusNo. 1 Quang Trung,which is 22000-30,000 VND (2.0 USD) but only leaves after it is completely filled.

Minibuses and taxis park right in from of the airport exit gate. There are 3 companies operating several kinds of taxi/minibus and they are almost the same in price and service.

Lodging in Hanoi

Movenpick Hanoi, 83A Ly Thuong Kiet, Hoan kiem district,

Majestic Salute, 54 - 56 Hang Duong St. Hanoi

Army, 33C Pham Ngu Lao St., Hoan Kiem Dist.

Viet Anh, 11 Ma May Str., Hoan Kiem Dist

Platinum Hotel II, 57 Nguyen Truong To str Ba Dinh

and Greenpark hotel, 48 Tran Nhan Tong,

all range from USD 43 to 65 for the cheaper hotels

More hotels can be found in this website: http://injury2008.org/Visitorinformation/Accommodation/tabid/276/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Crossing into Laos from Vietnam

There is some info in this website on Na Meo-Nam Xoi: http://www.travelfish.org/board/post/visabordercrossings/3689_Vietnam-Laos-border-crossing--Na-Maew-Nam-Xoi-/0