Blogs from North, Laos, Asia - page 15

We were finished with the wilderness of norhern Thailand and Laos so we decided to start headed south in search of more fun. We chose the bus instead of the boat because we wanted to save some time and we had just been on the river for a couple hours yesterday. It was as we expected though, all crammed in like sardines with bags on the roof. Luckily it was a short trip and we only had to stop once to let in a monk for part of the journey. Luang prabang itself is really nice. It's also loaded with bakeries which is not great for my wallet. I ended up having the best apple pudding cake on the plane among other tasty morsels. I will have to try and bake some resemblanse of it when ... read more

We decided to move on after seeing the surroundings of Luang Namtha. We took a van south towards Luang Prabang (supposedly the jewel of Northern Laos). Instead of going all the way there by van we went three quarters of the way to a small village nestled in the mountains called Nong Kiaw. From here we plan to take a slow boat down the river to Luang Prabang. The scenery up here is amazing. The landscape is rolling green mountains and rivers. This is the area of south east Asia I think my dad would enjoy. Outside the hubub of large crowded cities with nature all around. During our van ride the driver decided to make some extra pocket money by stopping along the way and cramming some locals in for a bit of the way. ... read more

Luang Nam Tha is a nice little town surrounded by little villages. We could not find a good trek that met all our needs so we decided not to do one. Instead we rented some bikes and decided to explore on our own. We first went out to a nearby waterfall and hiked in. I think that my view of nature is a little bit spoiled with the summer job that we. Have. The waterfall was mediocre with obvious human influence all around it. After the waterfall we road around to outskirts of the town. We stopped for lunch and waited for over an hour to get some fries. Things are very slow in Laos as we were warned both by our guidebooks and other travellers. This continues to be the case at all meals. I ... read more

Banana plants with huge leaves grew by the roadside and were covered in a coating of red dust, Trees were covered in red dust. scantily clad children playing in the red dust, old ladies sitting patiently on the doorstep of their rickity wooden shack watching the world pass by, surrounded in red dust. This is the real Laos, it's a world away from life we westerners are used to. As we snaked around the mountains on our bus heading south to the capital, Vientiane, we watched men and women of all ages toiling in the fields, using primitive farming methods to harvest the grain. All wearing sampan hats to protect them from the searing hot sun. Wooden shacks were perched precariously along the edge of the 'highway' only partly on solid ground, at least half of ... read more

We have now moved north to the cultural town of Luang Prabang. It's famous for the many wats (temples),we spent two days wandering around the wats and watching the monks go about their daily lives. Evenings were spent wandering through the night markets that set up along the road, it was an amazing place but there are only so many temples you can see so after 2 days we decided to return to Vang Vieng. This time we visited water holes and caves that went deep into the limestone karsts, with spectacular stalectites and formations. Our time here in Laos has almost come to an end and we are back here in Vientaine for a day before heading down to Bangkok. Not sure what we'll be doing after that but right now taking advantage of cheap ... read more