Because of a scheduling glitch regarding the Vat Phou Cruise we ended up with an extra day between it and our flight to Siem Reap, so we took advantage of the time to check out the Bolaven Plateau just east of Pakse, Laos. Pakse is the third largest municipality in Laos after Vientiane and Savannakhet, although I don't think any of them has as many as 100,000 inhabitants; the entire country has only about half as many as New York City. At the bottom I have added the photos from our stop at Wat Phou while on the Mekong Cruise. Bolaven [View Full Entry]

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So time for some adventure. I (nath) had wanted to do a challenging trek whille on this trip to SE Asia, perferably in Laos as there seems to be less 'mass tourism treks' and the companies that offer them are often linked into financially supporting the communities travellers visit on the treks. We'd struggled finding a company who did 3 days 2 night treks into the deep jungle during the wet season, even more so a company who already had interested travellers to fill out the numbers and therefore reduce the price of the trip per head. In Pakse we struck [View Full Entry]

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Scam in Laos (Bus ride from Savannakhet to Pakse) Never second-guess! We caught a bus ride from Savanakhet to Pakse. A ride that was supposed to take 4 hours (and easily could have without all the stops) turned out to be more than 6 hours. The bus driver and his business minded wife (complete with trusty clipboard) stopped constantly along the way picking up and dropping off people, parcels and other goods while other buses sped by. In particular, one stop took almost an hour at a rice refining shop where “the sidekicks” loaded the bus full of bags of rice. [View Full Entry]

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This blog has been moved to here.... http://www.getjealous.com/beyondhalong [View Full Entry]

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Been in Pakse in Laos for a few days now. The weather has been pretty rainy so I'm working out my next move at the moment. I'm either going south to chill on an island or north towards the Vietnam border crossing. I went on a tour yesterday and saw some waterfalls, tea/coffee plantations and local minority villages. The scenery in Laos is amazing I just wish the sun would come back out as it's been raining most of the day today. [View Full Entry]

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We got to town about 8.30am, but there were no buses in sight and lets face it we were really trying our luck with this bit of the route!! We decided to try and hitch a ride. Not much luck, people kept stopping, but only to say they had no room. Until........................................... A really nice looking 4x4 pulled up and agreed to take us to Thakek. So we all slung our bags in the back and then opened the car door to find to our horror, that is was possibly the most beautiful car we had ever seen!!! It had cream [View Full Entry]

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We don't look much like backpackers or locals with our little roll behind suitcases, but they let us on to the International Bus which goes from Ubon bus station to Pakse via Chong Mek. The trip was a lot simpler than what my 10 year old guide book had said it would be. This trip was for my 50 th birthday, and I was thinking about what to do for my mid life crisis - I considered a pony tail and earing, but then realized my mid life crisis should have been 10 years ago. Maybe a motorcycle when I get [View Full Entry]

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After one night back in Vientiane I took an overnight bus to Pakxe, Laos. I was told that the bus was a sleeper. In South America that would mean that the seats recline all the way and the legs lift up. Not so in Laos. There were upper and lower bunk beds on the bus, singles on the left and doubles (not much bigger than singles) on the right. Unfortunately the truck that pickedme and a few others up to go to the bus station was late and I had to share a double bunk with an old Lao man. He [View Full Entry]

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Since our last entry we've made it into Laos and back out again into Vietnam so we're a bit behind on the blog updates. Getting in to Laos was our first border crossing without having to get on a plane and it couldn't have been easier. From the Thai border town of Chiang Kong we just had go to a little shed to get stamped out of Thailand and then jumped on a longtail boat across the Mekong river to Huay Xai in Loas which took all of 2 minutes. Once we got to the other side we filled out a [View Full Entry]

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Viime paivina minua on erityisesti ihastuttanut pienet ja vahan suuremmatkin lapset. Hoi Anista matkattiin Vietnamin ystavallisimpaan kaupunkiin (nain mainosti opaskirja ja tuntui olevan ihan oikeassa) lahelle Laosin rajaa. Bussiasemalta hypattiin ihanien leveasti hymyilevien ruskeiden setien moottoripyorakyytiin, ja se kyyti huristi ihan hotellin ovista sisaan asti :) Puolessa paivassa ehdittiin kiertaa kaupungin nahtavyyksia ja jutella hyva tovi 17-vuotiaiden koulutyttojen kanssa, jotka tahtoi alkaa kirjeenvaihtoon meidan kanssa :) Kun paakaduilta poikkesi vahan syrjaan tupsahti heti maalais [View Full Entry]

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