Blogs from North, Laos, Asia - page 27

(Day 247 on the road)80% of the roads in Laos are unpaved. I feel that by now I have seen a good deal of these roads, especially after our latest motorbike adventure very much off the beaten track: In Vientiane, we used a travel agency to ship our big backpacks up to Luang Prabang in the north. Now free of the big weight, Karen, Harriet and I biked north on Highway 13 to Vang Vieng. "Highway" however is a pretty strong word even for this most important of Laos' roads. It is littered with potholes and unpaved patches, making the going pretty slow at times. Vang Vieng is infamous for its party culture and its drunken tubing down the river Nam Xong (floating down the river in a tractor inner tube and stopping at the various ... read more

Ok, so the plan was to write in this blog often, but that's not going to happen. I do, however, have a snapshot of some adventures of Laos transport in order of event. Pickup truck - Slammed into and mounted kerb. Jeff jarred his knee. I had a pole poke into my back. We are fine. Then, out boat crashed into a submerged rock. And I listened really hard for Celine Dion but maybe she doesnt know where Laos is. Then, our first bus got a flat an hour prior to arrival in destination. Then, our second bus left bus depot right on time at 2000 hours, got fuel at 2001 hours, left fuel pump at 2046, then at 2047 we got a flat. At 2048, a local man got on the bus and sat 2 ... 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

Civilisation, temples, whooping Americans and food poisoning Our next stop was the Laos capital of Vientiane which was a change of pace from the small villages and basic facilities of the previous week or two and it wasn't long before we made our way to the Scandinavian bakery and cafes. After arriving early in the morning we spent the first day at an interesting nearby temple with possibly the largest collection of Buddhas we had ever seen. We hired push bikes and went to the main attractions of the Golden Temple and the bizarre Arc de Triomphe replica ("a reminder of the French influence that was prevalent throughout the area, heralding back to the Indochina era" says Paul, steady on bookworm). Both of which were beautiful and well worth the visit, even if Paul did get ... read more

--- I am writing this entry from Vientiane, just across the Mekong River from Thailand. I had been planning to exit Laos after their independence day on the 2nd of December and get a bus to Bangkok. For those of you not aware, for the past 6 days, protestors from the PAD have taken control of both the international and domestic airports in Bangkok, in a sense holding the country's main industry under siege. They are demanding the step-down of the PM, who they claim is a puppethead, and he has refused. The police are insisting they do not intend to use violence against the carefully organised protestor, a change of government could be on the cards, but no one knows, and each day that goes by is millions of dollars that Thailand is missing out ... read more