Hiya Everyone! Dury and I are currently in Luang Prabang, in Laos! Since writing last time, we caught the bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai and stayed a couple of nights there. Chiang Rai didn't really seem to be anything special. Just a smaller and less nice Chiang Mai really. We were staying at the Mae Hong Son Guesthouse which was nice itself, but backed onto what looked like the Chiang Rai council estate! Bit shady! But we were ok. I was glad to leave though and make the journey to Laos. We got a 4 and a half hour [View Full Entry]

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We flew to the capital city Vientiane and took a taxi to the hotels recommended by the Lonely Planet. Frankly they were either overpriced or dirty. Our taxi driver seemed very friendly and on his advise we tried a hotel that had just opened. Whilst a bit out of our budget (nearly $30 per night) we immediatley checked in as the rooms were huge with teak floors, massive thick beds, plasma screen TV and a huge bathroom with a hot shower. Paradise. As we were a bit tired after 3 countries in 3 days we spent the afternoon getting £4 massages [View Full Entry]

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Buses in Laos are privately owned and run. Our guesthouse sold us the tickets at the same price as everywhere else charged. We left at 2pm on a truck, changed trucks 50m up the road to a second truck. Stopped 50m further up the road to move to a minibus (all of our bags being tied to the roof) to then head to the bus station at 3pm! We arrived late and the bus had left. After several phone calls our minibus driver drove us back to within 50m of our hotel where the bus was waiting at a bus [View Full Entry]

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Halloo!! Na een week zijn we eindelijk uit Hoi An vertrokken met veel te veel kleren en schoenen die ik dus maar naar Nederland gestuurd heb. Vanaf Hoi An zijn we naar Ninh Binh gegaan, een dorpje met supermooie natuur (het karstgebergte...zit waarschijnlijk in de naam!). We zijn daar met bootjes door rivieren gevaren met heel hoog rotsgebergte aan beide kanten, het leek wel een beetje op het fjordenlandschap, echt heel mooi! Ook hebben we rondgefietst in de omgeving. Natuurlijk reden we helemaal verkeerd maar daardoor kwamen we wel op hele mooie plekjes terecht zonder andere toeristen. Na [View Full Entry]

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Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage City and is very very pretty. The main street is lined with shops and restaurants in old colonial style houses with great food and a very civilized atmosphere. The average age of tourists in Vang Vien was about 25 and the average age in Luang is about 55. The average 55 year old on a 2 week holiday spends a lot more money that the average backpacker and this shows in the town. On the plus side the tourist dollar means that lots of the beautiful old houses have been renovated and are now [View Full Entry]

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After Luang Prabang we bused down to Vang Vieng. We managed to get a fairly nice minibus with leather seats but the main excitement happened before we even left the bus station. An old guy was carrying this massive long pipe with him (obviously to protect some massive picture or something) which he said was very valuable and did not want it damaged. After refusing to let it be put on the top of the minivan with the rest of the bags, he jammed it next to the van's sliding door. In the minivan there was also an Australian family with [View Full Entry]

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After Cambodia, we headed back to Bangkok for a day and a half, where everyone was celebrating the King's 81st birthday. There has been a lot of turmoil in Thai politics lately, but there is one thing everyone agrees on: The King is God (or close to it). The King of Thailand is the world's longest-serving head of state (62 years), as well as the longest-ruling monarch in the history of Thailand. His birthday was celebrated with a lot of fireworks and lighting of candles in public squares. We went to one of these squares, were given candles, and joined in [View Full Entry]

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So my amazing time in Laos has come to an end. As always, time has been flying and the last five weeks were way too short a time to spend in this great country with its incredibly friendly people. Looking back as I write these lines, Laos doesn't actually have the amazing natural wonders that for instance China has to offer. But its ever-smiling people and the spirit of adventure that exists in this less-visited country in Southeast Asia make more than up for that. Of course, the fact that we had our own motorbikes with which we drove across the [View Full Entry]

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Onward and upward was our motto for the last two weeks before Christmas - thanks to some poor planning on our part we had to make it to Bangkok to catch a flight back to Phnom Phen, Cambodia for Christmas. We hustled on to Vientiane and spend a couple of days exploring the city by bike. It was then onto Luang Prabang by night bus with the intention of staying there for a few days before heading back down to Vang Vien for the famous river tubing and onto Vientiane for the night bus to Bangkok. Phew! However the laid-back atmosphere [View Full Entry]

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Imaginad un sitio en medio de la selva, accesible solo por medio de tortuosos caminos de tierra solo transitables a menos de 30 Km/h, con solo tres calles pavimentadas, a no menos de 6 horas de viaje, y de aprox. 1000 habitantes. Un sitio remoto, que sobrevivía de la agricultura de subsistencia, que hace 4 años prácticamente desconocía el mundo exterior. Ahora imaginadlo totalmente lleno de backpackers de todas partes del mundo en busca de ecoturismo, del típico estilo rural relajado… pero sobre todo, de lo que ha hecho famoso este destino entre los círculos viajeros: el tubing. A ve [View Full Entry]

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