Blogs from Luang Namtha, North, Laos, Asia - page 6

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 minutes. The rapids were fast and we all (including the guides) ended up in the water, being dragged down with the current. I spent maybe 5 minutes in the water being dragged through the trees ... read more

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, so headed off along the main road bound for town. We didn't really want to walk as it was so hot but we were getting a bit fed up of this arrangement and just hoped ... read more

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 started at a temple called Si Saket… following our good friend Tim’s advice over MSN that the emerald Buddha was well worth a visit. Unfortunately Si Saket is the former home to the emerald Buddha ... read more

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 Thailand. Instead of driving through towns with seven-elevens and Tescos (yes Thailand has Tesco) we drove past tiny villages of bamboo huts where people were washing there clothes and there children in buckets. The lifestyle ... read more

Well guys, i'm still in Laos and still loving it here! Last Wednesday we left Vang Vieng and headed up north to Luang Prabang by bus taking about 8 hours or so. The bus journey was quite funny with lots of erratic driving and the bus driver buying big rats from street vendors along the way and storing them for dinner i think!! Luang Prabang is a really beautiful city (well big town i guess). Its a Unesco Heritage listed city. The first night we visited the local night market. Its really relaxed and the vendors dont bother you at all. I bought a few t-shirts here but they have lots of handicraft, jewellery, lanterns, rugs, shoes, slippers. Its a bit bizarre as the whole town virtually shuts down at 11.30. All the bars are cleared ... read more