Blogs from West, Laos, Asia - page 3

After recently finishing up my year as a teacher in Hong Kong, I was excited (yet trepidatious) to dive in to my next adventure. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I arrived in Laos. I've never travelled by myself, until now. Some of my friends recommended that I get jabs before I left - I didn't listen. I imagined the worst possible scenarios in my head - food poisoning, malaria, infected insect bites (again). In all honesty, I was scared. Most people who know me know that my sense of direction is pretty much zero, so I was about 99.7 percent certain that I'd get lost at some point too. I arrived 2 days a go. Sleep deprived, hungover, dazed and confused. I managed to haggle a taxi to the hostel for 60000 Kip ... read more

LES PLAISIRS MINUSCULES Vincent Delerm a commis avec bonheur sa « première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules » expression des petits plaisirs de la vie sous forme de courts chapitres, formule qu’il a surutilisé par la suite jusqu’à l’overdose. Reste que ce premier bouquin, surprenant, était bien jouissif et étonnant de justesse. Ces moments de plaisirs souvent infimes et intimes enjolivent le quotidien, brillent les pupilles, ravissent les papilles, réjouissent les ouïes et frissonnent les épidermes. La vie sans eux serait certainement triste. Trop futiles, les plaisirs minuscules, fort éloignés du CAC 40, des complexes relations internationales ou de la crise bancaire, provoquent sans doute les dîners mondains prompts au dédain et à la condescendance. Voyager, c’est aussi s’offrir ces plaisirs simples tout petits, minuscules à retourner les sens et resurgir les émoti... read more

Today we decide to completely relax. For a start off, the bed in our hotel room is complete bliss. Lovely soft mattress, fluffy pillows, crisp white sheets. Seriously I don’t think we have had such a comfortable night since the day we dismantled our own bed! It’s very hard to leave. :-) We go through the hotel cafe for a good breakfast. Chocolate cereal flakes with cold milk, followed by scrambled egg on toast with sliced ham. Then there is fresh fruit - dragon fruit and water melon with a pot of home made yoghurt. The toast is the horrible sweet pre-sliced variety but other than that, everything is excellent. We decamp to our room to play cards, drink coffee and generally chill out until checkout time. It’s noon so we need to vacate our room. ... read more

We have slightly overslept this morning as we need to pack, check out, have breakfast and walk to the opposite end of town to attend another Big Brother Mouse volunteering session. We arrive at BBM about 15 minutes late and the session is in full swing but there are young people waiting to join in so it’s not a problem. We grab a couple of chairs and within no time I have a group of four whilst Ian has a much larger group clustered around him. Trying to describe my job has thus far been difficult but today I came prepared! I have two of my travel books which were destined as a gift for friends in New Zealand, but now we feel compelled to leave them behind in the BBM library! Ian’s group is of ... read more

We are up early as our bus leaves at 7.40am and we need to get to the bus station. There is a little idiosyncrasy in the shower in that, either they had a bodge-it plumber, or they have different ideas about tap colour coding here...as the water runs cold when turned towards red and hot when turned to blue. I keep forgetting and get scorched every time as a result. We are all going our separate ways today. Two couples are heading on to Vietnam leaving ourselves and Lisa only for the Luang Prabang bus. The taxi is late so today we do not get first dibs at the minibus seats - we are almost at the back. It’s a much smaller bus than the one we arrived in and much less comfortable. The driver is ... read more