Me and my partner rented a 4WD in January and drove north towards Phonsavan via the eastern route. We made an overnight stay in a small village along the way. Roads were fairly good, save for a few kilometres with gravel roads due to roadwork. But, with the road full of chicken, cats, dogs, cows, and children we could hardly drive faster than 40 km/h. After Phonsavan and looking at some of the jars, we took the western route via the banana pancake town of Vang Vieng on the return to Vientiane. Here, the road up until it joined highway 13 (Vientiane-Luang Prabang "highway") was surfaced, but it was a long and winding road. We stopped in a small town about 54 km north of Vang Vieng, and spent the night in a local hotel. No English spoken in neither of the small towns. Road 13 is in a dismal state (picture below), and the heavy truck traffic made it worse. I believe this is the main transport route from Vientiane into China. We did it in three days,, two nights, all in all a lovely trip.