Blogs from North, Laos, Asia

Keen to get off the typical tourist route down the Mekong river, I headed up north on a bus filled with locals, to go treking in Nationally protected Luang Nam Tha park. As it was low season, when I arrived, there was only one trek in town that had people going on it scedualed for the next day. So keen as ever I set off with 5 other lovely girls on a 3 day treck through the dense jungle, rivers, farms, hills and mountains. We stayed at a hilltribe village full of baby goats, piglets, chicks and puppies as well as many cute excited kids who loved to get their photos taken so they could see themselves on our cameras . On the second night we stayed in a village just off the side of the ... read more

A cute small town located on the banks of the Nam Ou river. Karsts cliffs towered over the river on both sides. We walked to the Tham Pha Tok cave where villages hid out during the second Indonesian War. Just as we walked out we became engulfed in a huge storm and we ran back to the cave with some local kids to wait it out. The next day we went down the Nam Ou river back to Luang Prabang on a private boat with some other travelors stopping by a local village and the Pak Ou Caves full of budha statues.... read more

What a Journey! My first border crossing was the most strange, unorganized and stressful experience of my trip so far! After almost getting left behind while the rest of the group crossed the river, getting hit on my the immigration officer and trying to find my way with language barriers etc (so much for paying for the convenience with packaged deal), I made my way onto the slow boat headed down the Mekong River for Laos. It was a beautiful 2 day Journey amount cliffs, farms, villages, watching other boats, fisherman and local kids playing in the river as we floated by.... read more

The third new year in four months seen off in grand style, we feel we have acquired enough good karma to explore Asia's murkier side and start off the much anticipated expedition to the Golden Triangle, a wide swathe of northern Southeast Asia comprising remote parts of Burma, Laos and Thailand. A savage region of rugged mountains and inaccessible forests inhabited by Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lisu, Shan, Tai Lu and a few other hilltribes. Imagine warlords with private armies, megalomanic Burmese generals, opium mule trains chugging through the jungle, hidden opium refineries, Chinese triads, remote villages and above all the chest-high pink and white poppies that are the source of opium and numerous opiates deriving from it: codeine, morphine, heroin, just to mention a few. Add in the mix secret wars waged by CIA and financed ... read more

Hello all, We headed for Vang Vieng, an 8 hour bus journey, the views were good and although we'd heard stories about buses breaking down, accidents etc on the bumpy roads. We were okay and arrived safely after having slept the majority of it. The town was small and it didn't take long for us to find accommodation. After dumping our bags, we headed straight out and came across a row of bars playing nothing but re-runs of TV shows, namely, 'Friends' 'South Park' and 'Family Guy. We sat down and watched some South Park whilst we ordered and ate food. Later on, we found another bar and after ordering a drink we were offered some river weed as a salty dry snack. We couldn't resist especially after seeing a lady fishing for it during our ... read more

26.3.2012 Baby Erin Grace McAlister was born at 02:30 weighing 7lb 6oz. She is just perfect, we are so proud of Laura and Pete. All our prayers and wishes finally came true xx We went for a morning walk along the Mekong river which borders the town. We saw some monks sieving through stones on the river banks, maybe they were looking for jewels? We visited some temples on the way around, climbing loads of steps to get to one that was carved in the stone. There was also an imprint of Buddha's foot up there, he shore did get around. It was a great view up there looking over the town and the river. There was a young monk up there that we had a chat with and a photo of. He said he was ... read more

After the several cocktails the night before, a relaxing day was definitely in order and was pleasantly surprised to discover I had slept till nearly 10. Another excellent muesli and fruit breakfast was followed up by doing what most backpackers to SE Asia do....catch up on what was happening at the Cheltenham Festival! I sat in the guesthouse garden and watched all the main races from the first two days, though I may have got a little carried away and received some funny looks from the Latvian girls when I started cheering Sprinter Sacre up the hill.....god know what will happen if Kauto is in with a chance when I finally manage to see the Gold Cup! After spending a few hours chilling out and sending some emails, I decided that I should go for my ... read more

Friday 9thMarch – Gibbons Experience (Bokeo Nature Reserve) Laos We arrived at the Gibbons office at 8.30. From Huay Xai to the Bokeo National Park was a 2 hour drive on road and 40 minute drive off-road in a hilux ute with 11 people on it. We arrived at the village where we met our guides and started our trek around lunch time. We trekked for three hours over a few mountains and through bamboo dominant forest before we reached a waterfall where we made the most of the cool temperatures and flying fox into the water. The first treehut where we spent our first night was only a 10 minute walk from the waterfall which with spectacular views had a separate shower and toilet and 4 mosquito nets for us to sleep under. Once we ... read more