“No plan is the best plan” (how I ended up in Laos instead of Vietnam)

Let me tell you a story of how I ended up in a slow boat to Laos when I initially planned to go to Vietnam.

Plans don't always go how you plan it - and maybe that's meant to be.

While travelling and meeting a lot of new people every day, I notice myself saying this phrase quite often. And let me tell you, it couldn’t be more true! I don’t like to plan ahead, because plans can always change and you could meet new people that tell you about awesome places you've never heard of before. For me it works best, if I plan the first few days and then let’s see what comes.

View from the 2-day slow boat trip on the Mekong in Laos

So now, let me tell you about the story of how I ended up on a slow boat on the Mekong river in the middle of Laos – when I actually planned to be in Vietnam at that time… I can say two things: always trust your intuition and sometimes things don’t come as you think they would.

Three weeks before me and my friend’s visa run out for Thailand, we spontaneously and precipitately decided to book a flight to Vietnam on the last day of our visa. We did some research and concluded that we both will get a visa on arrival for 15 days when arriving in Vietnam (me being from Austria and my friend being from Germany).

Well, one day before our flight, I decided to check the entry regulations again and I found out that the visa on arrival is only possible for Germans, not Austrians. Now it was already too late to apply for an online visa, as it would cost way too much money to get one last minute. I didn’t know what to do because I had to leave Thailand the next day because my visa was about expire. But I also couldn’t take my flight to Vietnam because I didn’t have a visa. The only option: Laos. Said and done, a few minutes later me and my friend booked a 3-day-journey from Thailand to Laos with the slow boat on the Mekong River and we had to cancel our flight (of course we got no money back as it was a cheap airline).

As I am writing this, I’m already sitting in Luang Prabang, Laos in a hostel and couldn’t be happier with how things turned out. Even if the original plan didn’t work out, the universe always knows what’s best for you – so just trust it, we’re guided.

Everything happens for a reason - even if you don't know the reason yet.

After we had booked that flight to Vietnam, there were already some signs that pointed to Laos – we just didn’t want to change our plans because the flight was already booked. And now it came exactly how it was meant to be. I really think there is a reason behind everything that’s happening to us.