Sabai dii (Hello in Laotian) from the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao. The P D R is also referred to locally as “Please don’t rush” to sum up the laid back attitude of the Lao people (more of this later). The bus from Hanoi to the border with Laos leaves early in the morning (5.30am). We get there in 7 hours travelling initially through flat terrain but then, as we get nearer to Laos, through beautiful mountainous countryside with a river running through, that reminds us of Nepal. At the Vietnam border we have to pay $1 each for our stamp [View Full Entry]

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Sabaidee! Luang Prabang is een geweldig mooi stadje! Prachtig gelegen aan de Mekong met veel tempels en monniken in oranje gewaden op straat. Na wat sightseeing de zonsondergang bewonderd vanaf een tempel op een heuvel in het midden van de stad. De volgende dag naar een waterval ten zuiden van de stad geweest. Na deze relaxte bezigheden was het weer tijd voor wat meer activiteit. We hebben een 3-daagse trekking gedaan ten noorden van Luang Prabang. Twee dagen wandelen en een dag kayakken. De wandeling ging langs rijstvelden en door overwoekerde jungle. Ik wilde heel graag een trekking mak [View Full Entry]

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Before I start I must apologise about the absence of pictures, I'm having slight technical issues with uploading them at current. Anyways on a lighter note, we had a wild time in Vang Vieng. It was basically what we expected, its Laos version of Malaga, a type of party destination. Our time in Vang Vieng was brief due to not being too much to do. But we did do the obvious and had a day of tubing. Thinking back to it, its pretty dangerous, being the mixture of river, drinking, and "other" substances, and then to make it worse,zip lines and [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Vientiane around 6pm and were taken too our resort. We had booked a bungalow at 'Rivertime Eco resort'. Was quite far out of the city centre, 30km, but the resort was fantastic. Has a nice meal on the floating restaurant (yes they make maximum use of rivers over here!!). Two girls Laura and Kat arrived shortly after both 24 from Maidenhead. Really lovely. We arranged to go kayaking down the river nexy day. Ha ha, what a laugh! we attempted to go upstream and made tits of ourselves as we kept passing the same fishermen as we couldnt handle [View Full Entry]

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Hello All. Well we made it!!! We are in Laos, but what a journey. A word of advise to anyone travelling from Pai to Laos, even if the company tells you they dont go to Chaing Mai along the way they WILL. Wasnt the greatest of starts to a 3 days journey but we survived the curves. We turned up at an over night accomodation at around 3.5hrs sleep before we had to cross the border into Laos, the room was for free so as expected it didnt have windows and was FREEZING. Getting into the country was actually a [View Full Entry]

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Laosissa!!! Vihdoin!! Fiilis on aivan mieleton. Vaikeaa uskoa, etta Kiinan betoniviidakko ja ilmansaasteet ovat nyt jaaneet taakse ja matkaajat ovat viimein paasseet Laosiin. Kiinasta viela sen verran, etta ei se sade sitten lakannut. Oltiin Yangshuossa 5 yota ja se riitti, silla saatiedotteet eivat antaneet merkkia paremmasta kelista. Lahdettiin etenemaan vauhdilla kohti Laosin rajaa. Kahden bussin ja yhden junan ja 48 tunnin matkustamisen jalkeen oli pakottava tarve pysahtya ja siistiytya hieman. Olimme tassa vaiheessa Menglassa, pikkukaupungissa lahella rajaa. Otettiin hotellihuone [View Full Entry]

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Well i arrived in Vang Vieng last Thursday 13th November by bus from Vientiene. Left Vientiene about 2pm and arrived in at 6 and found a nice guesthouse for bout $4 each per night. We had a quiet enough night on Thursay, finding our bearings and met 2 Aussie girls for some dinner. Later on we booked some activities for Friday. On Friday we left at 9 for a day of caving, trekking and kayaking. There were 5 people in the group and 2 local guides. We took a tuk-tuk out to the caves and explored 3 different caves. It was [View Full Entry]

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See for yourselves: ps there is another movie of me zipping on my hyves. [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, Pai So the next day we headed off to Pai. The minibus took 3,5 hours to get there but the road was really nice as it was thru a beautiful mountainious terrain. We got some advice about where to stay and so booked ourselves into a small bamboo hut along the Pai river. After we had some dinner we explored the town centre and settled down for some Cupa Libres at a place where they were playing amzing live music. A guitarist, bassist, drummer, saxophonist, fluitist and trompetist were playing really nice jazz, soul and blues music. The town [View Full Entry]

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Relaxed Vientiane - what a change from other bigger cities in Asia, for instance crazy Hanoi! The capital of Laos greeted me with everything it had to offer: The people here are friendly and extremely laid-back, and the downtown area by the Mekong river is very pleasant. The streets are also pretty calm with very few cars and motorbikes on them, making the crossing a lot less treacherous than in most other Asian cities. So my positive impression when I first entered Laos a couple of days ago is confirmed so far, great! I arrived at the long distance bus station [View Full Entry]

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