Blogs from Vang Vieng, West, Laos, Asia - page 80

Hey everybody!Hope you are all doing good,as usual :) I'm sitting in Vang Vieng,Laos! We arrived here today and are going on to Luang Prabang tomorrow according to plans.. I left Langkawi last Wednesday and flew langkawi-kuala lumpur-bangkok in one day! I met up with Marthe, a girl from Norway! I booked two nights at a guesthouse outside of the city - next time i'll book it in the town lol! We only had two days but I think we saw enough of Bangkok! Bangkok is soooo huge and noisy, you cant escape tuktuks and people wanting your money! The first day we booked tickets up to the laos border before we got lost in some back alleys. It was in the middle of the day but frustrating enough! We was supposed to find the skytrain, ... read more

I thought I'd start out with a little insight into how my mind works. This is important in two ways. One - it is cathartic for me to write these things down and, second, it gives each and every one of you empathy for Aneta. She spends each and everyday with me (and forever) and listens as I share some of this with her. I feel particularly empowered as I am reading a collection of David Sedaris short stories which make my neurosis seem quaint and quite mainstream. Today I was thinking about how jipped I feel about the whole Malaria thing. Maybe the whole medical travel thing. Firstly, let me say that we are grateful for our relative health during this trip barring some skin infections and stop offs for immunizations. But, really, the "exotic ... read more

The bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng was memorable - unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. There were in fact 2 minibuses departing at the same time. We ran into our South African friend from the border crossing, Claudia, who had luckily got on the nice new minibus. We were on the old decrepid one. Read no Aircon & highly cramped. Being one to get carsick & being the first person there I put my day bag in the two front seats - behind the drivers seat then stood outside stretching my legs while waiting for everyone else to turn up. Unfortunately 3 nice friendly chinese men saw that those were the best seats - in fact they looked like first class airline seats and (no joke) had as much space as the whole 6 ... read more

The Canadian boys were slow to get up. The Lao lads were chipper and smiling. They had not mixed their drinks the night before. I watched as the fishing family boys went out in their dugout to catch breakfast. Their catch was wedged between a piece of split bamboo and cooked over the fire. It was scrambled eggs and bacon for us. After more meandering down river and shooting some more rapids, we came to the mouth of the river. The Lao government is building a hydro-electric dam here which will end the river rafting and displace many people. The river flows into a lake which itself was formewd by the construction of another dam. The lake is quite pictoresque with a maze of small islands, the remains of submerged hills. We were met by our ... read more

Nous faisons partie d'un groupe de 9 personnes, sans compter les 2 guides, pour la descente de la riviere (Nam) Ngum. Il faut d'abord faire 2 heures de route pour nous rendre au point de depart. Le groupe se compose de 4 jeunes gars de la Saskatchewan (Brett, Adam, Scott et Travis), de 2 jeunes Allemands (Daniela et Manuel) qui sont sourds-muets, de Pan (notre guide a Luang prabang) et de Tak et Sek, les experts du rafting. A part les guides, Jim et moi sommes les seuls ayant deja fait ce genre d'exprience. Nous sommes repartis dans 2 radeaux pneumatiques - Daniela, Manuel et Pan sont avec nous. Comme Daniela et Manuel n'entendent pas les consignes de Sek, nous etablissons un systeme pour les leur communiquer. Daniela est postee derriere Jim et devant moi, alors ... read more