"wonderful town with elephants" Muang Hongsa by picek

Hongsa is prehaps one of the nicest places in remote Sayabouly province I have been to. It is now easily accessible from Thailand since they opened the international border crossing only about an hour and half driving away. That means many people on visa-run will now enter Laos there and maybe stay overnight in Hongsa before they travel on to Luang Prabang. It's charming little town with friendly locals, has good atmosphere and lovely mountains with jungle forest above the rice plain.

In short this is the list of reasons why you may consider visiting it:

- great landscape: from flat rice fields to spectaculary high mountains covered with lush sub-tropical forest
- very friendly locals, some of the friendliest in Lao
- beautiful little temple with wall paintings in and outside of Vat Vingkeo
- a lot of elephants (they once hosted an elephant festival here and then again in 2010!), some guesthouses can arrange elphant riding and many roam free in the forests, perhaps some tiger too and myriad of birds and other wildlife
- beautiful hand woven sarongs - by Lue minority, these you won't see anywhere else
- tasty local foods and lively market
- quiet place here, so no nightlife and loud parties which are limited to most touristy Lao towns - and you will get great sleep :)
- delicious watermelons

If you are interested on elephant festival here's the site:
Elephant fest

I wish I was there when they had it :)

Vat Vingkeo in Ban Vingkeo

If you come from Thailand you can enter border from Houey Khone and cross the border to Muang Ngeun on Lao side. Visa on arrival is available on Lao side. Take a shared taxi to Hongsa - 1,5 - 2 hrs ride.

Enjoy!

• Pros:elephants, landscape, friendly locals
• Cons:difficult to access within Laos, dusty roads