Pakse Travel Forum

Does anyone have recent experience with the VIP bus from Vientiane to Pakse?
Are there any overnight runs and would it be possible to catch some sleep?

How was it on a scale from 1-10 where 1 is "My kindneys was shaken loose, still ...sing blood and 10 "A treat, I slept like a baby"

My experience is not that recent, it's a couple of month old - but there it was almost impossible to get any sleep since they were blasting thai karaoke all night long. Full volume. Some busses even have disco lights installed ;) - so it depends on how tough you are whether you can get any sleep or not.
They also have that sleeper busses with real beds on it - that's not what you were talking about, right? I don't have any experience with those.

thank you! I didn't know that there were sleeper buses with beds and all.. Guess they're not so likely to have disco lights..

Anybody have experience with the sleeper buses?

Pakse-mark

I've used both the overnight VIP Bus with reclining seats and more recently, last month, the VIP sleeper bus. The catch of the overnight sleeper bus is that the VIP bus company we used did NOT tell us that it slept 2 to a bunk. Makes for a somewhat interesting bunk assignment with a fair amount of switching around the bunks since some local women were travelling alone and it's a major no-no in Laos for young women to be sleeping with men they don't know. But other than arriving at Thakek at 1AM in the morning, the ride was quite comfortable and I was able to get a fairly decent night's sleep. the bunk was relatively clean but cramped for 2 people.

If you're travelling alone, then the recling VIP bus is probably the better option for a female. I've used it some years back and managed a decent sleep as well. But much depends on your sleep patterns and how adaptable you are.

Just a word of advice with regards to buying your bus ticket--it's best to shop around a bit because in Vientiane, quite a number of the guesthouses and hotels and travel agencies really overcharge for the bus fare, some overcharging as much as 50%.

10 - valium