Blogs from East, Laos, Asia - page 10

Today we drove all day to our Home stay in the small town of Hin Boun. Stopping shortly before the town, we let the min-bus go the rest of the distance while we boarded former B52 fuel tanks and cruised along the river during the setting sun to our home for the night. Hin Boun is a small village of only 45 houses. As we disembarked from our boat we were greeted by children who led us up the dirt track to their village. There was one main dirt road, with houses along both sides. All the houses were build on stilts, which we learnt was to protect them against the evil sprits. Most of the houses were made of wood, with wooden floors, wooden woven walls and either corrugated iron roof or thatch roofs. I ... read more

Sorry about the lack of blog postings lately but we've been very busy entertaining our visitors who have come and gone since we wrote last! So after we left Vietnam and said our final goodbyes to Kat & Jay our nam travel buddies...who have since got engaged (!!)...we headed on to Chiang Mai in Thailand to make our way into Laos. We spent 2 days on the slow boat down the Mekong River stopping off at Pakbang a little town...alot smaller than knockcroghery....with no electricity but yet still found out that Michael Jackson was dead....! Slow boat was great, about 130 backpackers on a boat the size of a Dublin Bus and a big cooler full of beers, so lots of fun! Arrived in Luang Prabang with our new travel companions Roos and Lydia from Amsterdam. ... read more

Day 361: Thursday 25th June - The Secret War After an 8 hour journey to cover only 200km through twisty, mountainous roads surrounded by lush vegetation, dodging cows on the road (a typical Laos journey), I arrive in Phonsavon, the capital of Xieng Khouang province. Unsurprisingly the bus station is 5km from town so I will need transport to get there. I manage to blag a free lift into the town, on the proviso I check out a couple of guesthouses that they are touting. The second is decent, but I told Ross and Yo-Hun that I was heading to King Keo guesthouse. As I am getting a lift there I spot Yo-Hun and Ross in the town checking out tours. I check into King Keo, where the other two arrived an hour or so ago ... read more

The Road of a Thousand Turns Heading to the Western border of Laos, Lee and I experienced road travel for the first time since entering this country. Loading into a small bus crammed with bags of grain, caged chickens, and staring locals we mentally prepared ourselves for the long 8 hour trip ahead of us to Sam Nuea. We were the only white people onboard, and the unblinking fascination of the other passengers made me feel as though I must be a recognized celebrity in this part of the world. Perhaps my pseudo-identity of Jenny Lopez is beginning to precede me. Rambling out of town, we began climbing up the winding roads of the surrounding mountainside. I start up a mumbled chant of “I think we can, I think we can” to encourage the rundown bus ... read more

We were the last to get on the minibus and ended up the weird foldy end of the row chairs which proved violently uncomfortable through the very windy and mountainous roads. We stopped off for food after a few hours but neither of us trusted our stomachs enough to consume food, while we were drinking the industrial strength Laos coffee the owner produced a dead flying squirrel for our lunch! Luckily we managed to get away with just taking a photo and got back on the bus for the rest of the vomit inducing journey! We arrived in Ponsavanh with our stomach lining intact and checked into the aptly named nice guesthouse, which was very…… nice. We went down to the food market had a steaming bowl of noodle soup, booked our trip to the jars ... read more