Blogs from Huay Xai, West, Laos, Asia

Summary: Nagi of the Mekong - Slow boat Crazy German, nice Belgium couple, Dutch duo and Phet Read more... More coming soon guys... read more

After about 2 wonderful weeks in Thailand, I took the next obvious step on the travellers agenda: the 2 day / 1 night slowboat to Luang Prbang. I conveniently booked the trip for 1750 baht at the Pai aYa service bus station for January 3rd. We were supposed to leave Pai in a minivan by 6pm to arrive at the Thai border town Chiang Khong around midnight and spend the night there. Unfortunately, we were delayed about 3 hours and did not get to Chiang Khong until 3 a.m. after the most uncomfortable ride I've so far in South East Asia. The next morning we had to wake up at 7 a.m. only to realize that we wouldn't leave for the border until 8 a.m. and only wait for a crappy breakfast. Tired and grumpy, we ... read more

To get back into Thailand we decided to head north in Laos and cross at the Huay Xai border. We couldn’t find much info on our route, so I'll detail it in case anyone reading is doing the same. We set off from Luang Prabang at 8.30 am on a substantially bigger boat than the last time we left the pier! It was rammed full of locals and a handful of tourists, we tried to buy tickets in advance but you have to get them on the day and its best to get there at 8 ish to get a seat! The weather was fantastic, which made a change as we always seem to move on in bad weather! The 10 hour ride was really relaxing, we passed local kids playing in the river, people fishing ... read more

Stefan Loose und Lonely Planet schwaermen einstimmig vom Geheimtipp Phongsaly: in Laos noerdlichster Provinz findet sich noch unberuhrter Urwald, auf 1600 Metern Hoehe erstrecken sich Tee-Plantagen, und nachhaltige Trekkingangebote fuehren in abgelegene Bergdoerfer. Die Anfahrt beschreiben sie allerdings als reine Nervenprobe und das Trekking als "keinen Sonntagsspaziergang". Das weckte natuerlich unsere Neugier und unseren Ehrgeiz als hartgesottene "Traveller" und wir beschlossen, Phongsaly zum unbedingten Hauptziel unserer Reise zu machen. Laut Plan A wuerde dieses Unterfangen zwei Tagesreisen im Bus erfordern, was uns durchaus machbar erschien. In einem Mini-Van starteten wir in Huay Xai gemeinsam mit einer Hand voll Laoten, einem deutschen Backpackerpaar mittleren Alters, einem Reissack und einem Eimer Kroeten in Richtung Udomxai. Wir fuhren durch die dicht bewaldeten Huegel des N... read more

Nach siebenstuendiger Busfahrt durch die Berge Nordthailands sind Dino und ich heute Nachmittag ganz unspektakulaer nach Laos uebergelaufen. Unser Bus setzte uns im Staedtchen Chiang Kong am Mekong ab, wo wir uns in einem Ein-Mann-Haeuschen unseren Ausgangsstempel abholten. Dann wateten wir durch Schlamm zum Flussufer und luden uns selbst und unsere Backpacks ungelenk in eine winzige Barke, die wie Dino adequat bemerkte, so flach auf dem Wasser lag, dass wir unterhalb des Wasserspiegels zu sitzen schienen. Innerhalb von zwei Minuten setzten wir ans andere Ufer ueber und waren - schwupps - in Laos angekommen - Sabai Dii (Hallo)! Heute naechtigen wir im kleinen Huay Xai. Es erstreckt sich am Mekong entlang einer einzigen Hauptstrasse auf der ab und an mal ein Motorroller vorbeikommt, haeufiger jedoch zottelige Hunde und ebenfalls zottelige Huehner. Auf unserer Suche nach Abendessen ... read more

I finally met up with my two friends from London and we crossed over the border into Laos. Surprisingly this was the fastest border crossing I have done so far. The whole thing only took 20 minutes and to make things even better, Germans pay $5 less for their Laos visas than English people. Ha! And we didn't get ripped off. We went straight to the booking office of the Gibbon Experience in Huay Xai and managed to book a two day, one night trek for the next day. It cost us $180 per person and includes all food, drinks and accommodation. When you get to Huay Xai you will notice that every shop sells white gloves (similar to gardening gloves). I thought that gardening must be very popular in that area. These gloves are actually ... read more

Our last few days in Krabi were spent in Mr Long's Reggae Bar drinking homemade tequilla! And Friday 13th April was Songkran! The entire street to the beach was full of people celebrating! Everyone had water pistols and buckets of water and within 5 mins we were soaked!! It was great fun, and a great way to cool down!! They also put some talc on your face aswell, and a couple of people had menthol talc, a wee bit nippy!! Was a great last day in Krabi, follwed by another thunderstorm at night!! We got a mini van to Phuket town, and had our first experience of trying to cross a motorway to get a taxi. Apparently the trick is to just keep walking slowly and everything will drive around you! Our technique was more wait ... read more

The Slow Boat to Luang Prabang! 21st Jan ’12 Crossing into Laos at Huay Xai Again getting into Laos was quite straight forward, we just filled in a couple of forms, handed them, our passports, a photo each and $72 dollars over and a few minutes later we had full page visas and we were in! We showed our passports to a soldier on a stall a couple of steps up the road and a lovely lad welcomed us to Laos! A quick walk up the bank and we were in the village – just one road with a few guesthouses and bars and an ATM! We found a guesthouse and got a reasonable room then had a walk along the road and back. While I typed up the blog Howard walked down to the slow ... read more