Today was all about biking the Luang Namta area - to explore the town, visit some temples, a few villages and one (so called) waterfall. Nothing new or overwhelming but definitely satisfying :-) Tomorrow i am starting a 3 days forest-trek in the Nam Ha national park. The group made up of 6 tourist (Australia, France and Israel), one or two english-speaking local guides and ethnic local guide (one that really live in the forest and villages we visit). During the day we will be hiking between the villages to meet different ethnic groups (like Khamu and Akha). At the first [View Full Entry]

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I can put it quite simple: Hop on the first plane to Bangkok, jump on a bus towards Vientianne and get here asap. Because if there is any country capable of inspiring men and cause tears of joy to well up in even the stoutest of hearts, it is Laos. Why this is so, is difficult to explain. it is like explaining the chaos of Mumbai streets to someone who hasn't been to India yet. Or trying to capture the magnificence of Angkor Wat on camera. Or showing the same person a video on life under water at the pheurentians. It [View Full Entry]

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Hey, just a quick message to update you on my trip to Laos. Crossed the border fine with no swine flu! and it's been pretty rainy. Luckily I've met some great people to travel with and at the moment I'm in LuangNam Tha. Done a bit of walking/trekking in the area, but today was a bit hair-raising... A bunch of us booked a kayak day trip on the river and to cut a long story short, out of the 13 of us, 9 of us called it quits after being in the canoe for a total of no more than 5 [View Full Entry]

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So we left Hongsa as we arrived by local tuk tuk thingy and then headed for the slow boat to take us upriver to Pak Beng so we could get a bus to Oudumoxay and then a bus to Luang Nam Tha!!! Well Dan felt like shit and we all thought he was going to vomit at any time, actaully George didn;t seem too happy about our dodgy position on the edge of the mountain but hey ho, we got down in one peice!! Dan was still ill when we were told that there were no boats until 5pm, which seemed [View Full Entry]

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Along with Max & Yinca, we all had high hopes of what we could do in the Luang Nam Tha Provice.. promises of experiencing the hill tribes, trekking through the Nam Ha NPA (National Protected Area) all awaited us but sadly it was not all we had hoped... After getting dropped off at the usual bus station arrangement 10km outside the town we protested against paying the 10,000kip cost to get us into town and told all the greedy drivers we'd rather walk than pay nearly half the cost of what it had cost us to do a 7 hour journey, [View Full Entry]

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our love affair with india has ended, and asia has begun. a few days were spent in the megatropolis that is hong kong - interesting place, great sushi, great public transport, and lots and lots of lights. then a few days in the north of vietnam before we decided to head west into Laos - 22hr bus journey ensued. although the journey was far from fun, we spent our 22hrs constructively making friends with our companions, this was beneficial to us for the festival that awaited us on our arrival. what a beautiful and friendly place it is, and we visited [View Full Entry]

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It has slowly hit us that we have less than two months remaining as Uncle Traveling Macs and so since arriving in Vientiane we have been using our time as wisely as possible and fitting as much as possible in. For those of you who don’t know we booked our flights home - we will be back on 29th April (flying from Kuala Lumpur to Stansted) so this makes every day seem even more precious when we no longer have 6 months of relaxation and gluttony in front of us!! So we spent a day sight seeing in Vientiane - we [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday 10th From Oudomxai to Luang Nam Tha We left the luxury of the Vivanh guesthouse soon after a daybreak. The owner had to unlock the gates to let us out. We strolled through thick morning mist to the bus station, stopping only to buy some bamboo tubes of sticky rice from a street peddlar. The bus station was already buzzing with activity and our intended bus was already quite full with many bags and lots of cargo already on the roof. I joined the scrum at the ticket office - it was every man and woman for himself. I had [View Full Entry]

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We crossed over the Mekong River from Chaing Khong in Thailand to Huay Xai in Laos. After getting through immigration we started the five hour bus journey up to Luang Namtha. We immediately noted the difference between the countries. Firstly, the scenery was much less spoilt and more dramatic than in Thailand. Less forest has been destroyed here, the hills are higher, the valleys are deeper and the whole landscape is more pristine. The road over the mountains gave us amazing vistas of this untouched area of the country. Secondly, Laos, in most parts, is much poorer and less developed than [View Full Entry]

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Ziplining through the forest canopy, sleeping in jungle treehouses, hiking through bamboo forests....you had us at ziplining through the forest! These are all things that we did while on the Gibbon Experience! It was something that was on our "to do" list from the onset of our trip planning thanks to our good friend Heather who gave rave reviews, so we booked ourselves into the Gibbon Experience and we were off to spend 3 days and 2 nights in the jungle of Northern Laos. The bus rides from Luang Prabang and north have been some of the craziest roads we have [View Full Entry]

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