After we the Gibbon Experience we headed for Luang Prabang by slow boat. We managed to get ourselves a nice semi-private slowboat for the two day trip. We shared with an American family, a Swiss family and some random laos people. The scenery along the trip was fantastic and the boat trip was comfortable. We stopped for a night in Pak Beng. It was our worsed night of the trip as the power is only on from 6pm-10pm and our room was really hot. We also had some friendly roosters who didn't know what time it was all through the night. [View Full Entry]

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Prologue Having spent 6 weeks touring through Cambodia and up through Laos it was high time we split up and headed on our ways. Sophie had a mother to meet in Hanoi and I had to find civilisation, breach the outer walls of Asia and stamp my mark on Australia. I really didn’t think it was going to be this hard!!!!........ Day 1 - The Beginning Of The End. So here begins the tale of the longest week of mine, and possibly anyone else’s life. Myself and Sophie 2 (apologies to both Sophies, it’s just easier this way and seems to [View Full Entry]

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Not to be too cheesy but I will never forget flying into Lao, the rugged green mountains were a sharp contrast to the mostly flat Cambodia in which I had just departed. I also found out why Lao was so green, our plain landed safely, thankfully, in middle of the daily monsoons of the rainy season. I splurged in Lao and rented a nice quiet bungalow on the river, but it was in the town of Luang Prabang that I fell in love. The food was amazing, the people were great, and as I mentioned before it is breathtaking. Thankfully I [View Full Entry]

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Got back from 2 days of Trekking and Kayaking yesterday, which was really fun... The first day we trekked for about 5 or 6 hours in blistering heat and mud ankle deep, got very sweaty and very dirty, a few people fell down, including me, but no one got hurt. We got to the village where we would spend the night which was awesome, the people were all so friendly and it felt very authentic. It was what you'd picture a little village in the middle of the jungle in Laos to be like, no electricity, chickens running around everywhere, it [View Full Entry]

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Sabedi all, If someone from Laos tells you a bus will take 8 hours (then smiles and says "probably less") expect a 17 hour trip. That's my advice. We left the capital Vientiane for our short journey up north.. only to be faced with flooded roads, mud slides and endless problems with something on the bus called "the &^#$%& radiator".. By about 1/2 way there, Ari and I were having the time of our lives.. We'd met everyone from the bus, knew their family history and blood types and were now taking bets on which following vehicle would make it pass [View Full Entry]

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May 20, 2008 - May 31, 2008 After the Gibbon Experience, we planned to head south to Luang Prabang (LP), then Vang Viang (VV) and finally Vientiane before moving on to Vietnam. In first leg of the journey, we had three choices about how we were going to get to LP and none of them sounded all that good: 1) The slow boat - a two day journey down river in a very basic and uncomfortable boat; 2) A 15 hour bus trip through the mountains and this is if all goes well ... it often doesn't; and 3) The Fast [View Full Entry]

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Headed over to Chaing Kong so we could get in to Laos. It took five hours and it was absolutely pissing it down (not that it mattered as we were in a bus). Got to the border about 730 the next morning and crossed over in to huay xai (its pretty much 'how say'). Pretty much spent the next day and half on a boat stopping at a few villages and the cave of a 1000 Buddhas. Stopped over night in Pak Beng . Arrived yesterday in Luang prabang. little note... Going to get Lisa to chop my hair of because [View Full Entry]

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Still no word.... But on to happier subjects... I'm in Luang Prabang, which is supposed to be one of the nicest cities in South East Asia. The city has dozens of temples, I'm not going to see all of them.... but I'll try and get my fair share in. The city has a very cool market, if I had deeper pockets, or more importantly a bigger bag I could go crazy here. They have quite a few street food vendors also, I'm very cautious now, after being sick in Peru last year but I have sampled a few things and may [View Full Entry]

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What an exciting few weeks. As some of you may be aware we had a little problem with money for a short while but despite this i assure you we kept perfectly healthy and didn't run into any serious trouble. It did however significantly affect where we went in Laos and in close to a month we have visited only 3 places putting us severely behind schedule. Our first stop Vientiane, the capital of Laos proved to be rather dull with nothing particularly exciting to see bar something very similar to the arc de triomphe in Paris and Laos' most important [View Full Entry]

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Once more folks - we forgot the USB cable for the camera so cannot upload photos no matter how many times you ask us to. We are working on a way of getting them up and believe me, we are as frustrated as you! Yesterday we went kayaking on the Mekong - hard work I can tell you - the water was very still so as soon as you stopped paddling you stopped completely - our wee arms had to keep going. I was in a double kayak with a girl from Tipp (Sarah) and Paul and her boyfriend (Ted) were [View Full Entry]

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