Locky wrests control of the blog from Hilary's hands to bring you this... With the start of the year 2009 and after 7 t'riffic nights in the Luang Prabang district it was time for Hil and I to move on. And so we did! Having booked our bus departure to Vientiane from the guesthouse before our 3 day trek/tour thing, we have little to do in the morning apart from eat breakfast (surprise! another omelette and strange orange cordial), settle our accounts, and be ferried by Tuk Tuk to the Luang Prabang Southern Bus Station. The bus station, for those [View Full Entry]

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Luangprababng is a beautiful little town and I can just imagine what it was like 10 years ago with 95%less tourists and way less traffic. So we were 4 people looking for accommodation. Audrey (the Canadian), Marco(the Swiss) myself and then a new friend Marek(a half Brit, half Pole) It was his first time backpacking and he was really funny. We looked for about an hour until we found a cool place for about $6 each. Checked in. We went out for dinner and met some Dutch people had a couple of drinks with them and shared traveling stories. The next [View Full Entry]

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Could we ask for a better finish to the year 2008? I seriously doubt it! With a smile on our faces firmly fixed from sunrise to sunset and beyond, we finish the trek, say our farewells to Ngod our guide (twice) and cook up a storm on our final night in Luang Prabang, the tourist's Laotian paradise. [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 of our trekking adventure saw Hil and Lock climb mountains, have an afternoon nap and get their first taste of the infamous Lao Lao.... yummy! [View Full Entry]

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In Vang Vieng, the landscape is very beautiful, and it may be the only reason to face the ugly tourists who go around in bikinis or pants without being shy ... as if the entire city was a municipal swimming pool. If you take a vacation in Laos, please be aware of your outfit as Laotian people generally dress casually but nicely. In short, I went with Penelope last weekend, and barely arrived, I was hit by a horrible and wicked Chinese in a small store and I still have a blue bruise !!!!! What a sow! Penelope couldn't stop laughing [View Full Entry]

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With clear social consciences (and only slightly more depreciated funds as a result), Lock and I started our three day "Fair Trek" adventure with much gusto! Well, sort of... After a small false start (forgot to bring the receipt to prove we had paid - had to cycle back to our hotel), and a brief period of mourning for my new temporarily maimed digital camera (requiring a visit to a Canon Service Centre back in Oz - darn Murphy and his Law!), we finally got moving. First item on the agenda - a 1.5 hour mountain bike trek to the Elephant [View Full Entry]

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Still enjoying being tourists, yay! [View Full Entry]

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saa er vi naaet til laos ! det er den 5. dag i dette land . Chiang Mai var fantastisk. da vi kom lige fra bangkok hvor der var fyldt med mennesker, trafikproppe, saelgere der ikke tog et nej og bare en masse hektisk energi, blev vi lidt skuffede den foerste dag vi kom . vi taenkte: aev her sker da vist ikke noget, men vi tog fejl ! Efter et par dage kommer man til at elske chiang mai. tempoet var helt helt nede, der var saadan lidt en hippiekultur med vegetarrestauranter overalt, hamptoej, og brugte-boeger butikker overalt. Vi foelte [View Full Entry]

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Luang Prabang will be our home for the next little while. NO incentive to leave - it's easy, it's pretty, it's a great base for the trekking/mountain biking/kayaking we want to do. Have cast our MOON guidebook aside in favour of a lonely planet. Loved moon in many respects but at the end of the day you want to read a guidebook and have some idea of what you want to be doing and where to do it - moon was practically useless for that. At one point between Da Nang and Hanoi we looked for 4 hotels in a row [View Full Entry]

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Ho ho ho as in whore whore whore! That's how I spent my Xmas Eve here in Vientiane. Wandering the streets at night and being approached by one hooker after the other. Ah, civilization has caught up with Laos! Merry Xmas and watch out for the Headless Santa!!! PS. Check out the Swedish blog for more "hilarity"... [View Full Entry]

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