After getting off the Vientiane bound bus at Vieng Kham along route 13 we set off in search of sawngthaew - these are ‘jumbo’ tuk tuks that have a fixed route and a fixed price per person; they pretty much operate like a bus. We found one heading to Ban Khoun Kham also known as Ban Na Hin and made the 41km journey east along route 8; we arrived at the central market and headed off in search of a bed. We can’t remember the name of the place where we stayed but it was really nice and cost 80,000 kip. [View Full Entry]

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Salut tout le monde :) Le 21 au matin on avait prevu de se louer une moto pour faire le tour des plus interessantes chutes du plateau bolaven, mais le gars a la location nous a suggere de partir deux jours. On a pas ete tres difficile a convaincre etant donne que Pakse n'a pas grand chose a offrir. D'abord on est parti sur une moto dont l'odometre ne marchait pas, on est donc revenu pour en avoir une autre qui avait le meme probleme, alors on a eu droit a une moto neuve. On est reparti dans le grand vent [View Full Entry]

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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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Ok now we finally have the proper chance to update our blog - I believe the last proper update was written around the time of Miss Teen Thailand 2009... an exciting day all round... since then we have travelled on into Laos and have carried on having a fantastic time... from where we left off last time I’ll fill in all the main bits... From Chiang Mai we took a kinda ting to Lampang on some bus or other which took a while... It looked really close on the map, about 1cm away... When we arrived we held up a Sawngthaw [View Full Entry]

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This was truly a quiet town and if this was the hub of Southern Laos then I can only imagine what the rest of the region is like. You can see French influence all throughout the town in the set up, the buildings, and the food. It wasn't a bad thing but I was expecting to maybe see a few more foreigners. I saw none the first day. By the time I left I made it up to 11 I think. My time here was basically spent wandering the town and trying to get out of town. There is a casino [View Full Entry]

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We didn't really know what was ahead of us heading into Laos. We'd heard that it was an amazing place but nobody could have prepared us for how beautiful this country is or how much fun we'd have here. We started off in the the south of Laos and Paulo found his perfect paradise island. We arrived on Don Det in a small boat, suitable for no more than 5 people but in true Asian fashion, it was loaded with twice has many. There were no roads here, just small dirt paths with water buffalo, cows, chickens, roosters, dogs and cats [View Full Entry]

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So, it turned out that Pakse was not worth writing a blog for! Actually a small town with not a lot happening. The museum that is open daily, was shut, it rained, and after seeing many wats, there were just more of the same! So, instead I shall tell you about how we got out of Laos and into the North of Cambodia en route to Siem Reap... We left Pakse early in the morning and took a bumpy bus to the riverside, where we boarded a very small, wobbly boat to the 4000 Islands (Si Phan Don), well, one of [View Full Entry]

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After having some breakfast at the hostel in Pakse, we again got the same contraption to the ‘local bus station’. The guesthouse owner informed us that ‘bus’s’ left on the hour and would only take about an hour to get to Champasak. We arrived at the bus station around 8:45am, giving ourselves a bit of time to find the bus; we then realized that the ‘local bus station’ was more like a large cluster of buses in the midst of a market. Our driver pointed to the ground and said in broken English that this was where we should wait for [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Don Det around noon with a group of backpackers. Sarah and I chose one of the first guesthouses we saw, only 20 000 kip ($2 CND) a night. It closely resembled a garden shed, but was conveniently situated along the Mekong with two hammocks on the porch. After putting our bags down we continued on with the group to a bakery, owned and operated by a Western Australian man. Sarah and I were starving and indulged in a homemade chocolate-banana donut covered in sugar, we then shared a pumpkin soup and foccacia with mushrooms, onions and tomatoes. We [View Full Entry]

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If you love cruising but would like to try a new adventure that will take you closer to the sights and sounds of incredible destinations, then small ship cruising might be right up your alley. Imagine seeing wildlife from just a few feet off shore instead of through binoculars hundreds of feet away. Cruise up small fjords seeing scenery that few people will ever see. Land at small villages or towns that give you a true experience with the locals. Small ship cruising gives you a more personal experience without the crowds formed by thousands of other passengers on today's me [View Full Entry]

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