Frequently Mentioned This Southeast Asian Country Has A New Railroad Bringing Travelers To Scenic Landscapes, Bustling Cities, And Lesser-Known Destinations

Not hanker ago, traveling betweenLaos’s most popular towns for visitant— the architecturally fascinate capital, Vientiane; dramatic karst landscape of Vang Vieng; and temple-filled Luang Prabang — required long drive on switchback roads. get over the bumpy 200-mile stretch between Vientiane and Luang Prabang could takings eight hours, on A road shared with world motorbus and minivan pack to the gill with live poultry and bag of rice. Of course, some traveller opt to fly to Luang Prabang, but in doing so girl beholding the ridiculously beautiful, mountainous countryside.

thanks to the launch of Laos’s first cross-country railway line service, there’s now angstrom better option. The 257-mile Boten–Vientiane railway open in December 2021, connecting for the first time the town of Boten, along the Northern border with China, and Vientiane, together with up-and-coming destinations along the way. With travel speeds of up to 99 miles per hour, the railroad train tin can trim down to four hours a journeying that would’ve taken, atomic number 33 of late as 2020, at least two days by road. The trip from Vientiane to Luang Prabang tin can glucinium done, station to station, inch atomic number 33 little as deuce hours.

“It’s make getting around Lao People’s Democratic Republic much fast and much cheaper,” say Ruben Derksen, of Asia-based tour operatorExo travel. The service be also opening up erstwhile hard-to-reach corners of the country, Derksen observes. “Getting to the tribal village around Muang La, for example, used to require A five-hour trip from Luang Prabang with A costly private car and driver.”

now travelers tin choose for angstrom short rail trip to Muang Xai, angstrom gateway urban center to the area, before leaving deep into the countryside. “It will stimulate the local economy,” Derksen says, “and new tourism development will provide work chance in these remote villages, which ar still relatively underprivileged.”

Construction of the new cross-country train Washington angstrom joint venture with China, which aims to link much of sou’-east Asia by rail atomic number 33 part of information technology monolithic Belt and Road Initiative. Plans call for A seamless connexion from Kunming, in southern China, all the style to Singapore, More than 1,600 land mile to the south, via Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. (Bangkok, for IT part, has just opened the largest railway station in Southeast Asia, the Bang Sue Grand Station.)

Completion of the huge project could take decades, merely volition potentially make possible epic poem rail journeys such atomic number 33 Singapore to Shanghai, Krung Thep to Beijing — OR even, pending geopolitical events, Lisbon to Singapore, via Moscow.

As for the onboard experience in Laos today, IT competitor that of the best high-speed trains inch Asia, with air-condition carriages, ample legroom, and power retail store between the seats. An online fine platform is slate to launch this year; for now, the easy manner to book is done traveling consultant such atomic number 33 those at Exo, World Health Organization can also recommend route that take advantage of the new railway.

A version of this story first appeared in the October 2022 issue oftravelling + leisure timeunder the headline “All Aboard in SE Asia.”