Advertisement
Published: March 16th 2007
Well a slight change of plan, as we were in the North of Thailand we decided to head to Cambodia via Laos instead of going back to Bangkok and across. Maybe this wasn’t the best option as have now realised as transport (or anything come to think of it) isn’t that easy in Laos. But anyway, we caught a night bus from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani and onto Nong Khai where we crossed the boarder, 15 hours travelling in total. This was an interesting journey to say the least as the driver over took on every blind bend flashing his lights to warn others we were coming through, needless to say we decided the best option was to close our eyes, put our fingers in our ears and hope for the best!! As they say when travelling by road in Asia you need 3 things, a good horn, good brakes but most of all good luck!!
Our first stop was the capital city of Vientiane where we struck lucky with a brand new hotel with cheap opening rates, we visited the Pha That Luang, a golden stupa believed to contain a relic of Lord Buddha and the Patuxai monument
which is a victory gate constructed in 1958 and inspired by the Arc de Triamphe in Paris. We also went to Buddha Park, an escape from the city full of religious sculptures.
We then travelled south (by bus again but this time only 6 hours) to Tha Khaek, where we were kidnapped by a Vietnamese family celebrating Chinese new year! They dragged us into their party off the street, where the food and beer just kept flowing, they then took us in a minibus to a friends house for more food, beer and dancing! A completely crazy night and one we won’t forget in a hurry, they made us feel so welcome. The next day was another bus journey (5 hours) to Savannakhet, where we stayed in our cheapest room yet at only £2 for the night!
The next day yet another bus journey (6 hours) to Pakse where we spent 3 nights recovering from all the buses. By now we had had enough of buses and so caught the boat down to Champasak where we stayed on the rivers edge. We biked the 20km round trip (which left us with very sore legs and even sorer bums)
Buddha Park
Mummy and Neve climbing inside one of the statuesto visit the Wat Phu Champasak, a pre-angkor temple. A beautiful site in preparation for Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Next day we moved on again by songthaew (a pick up truck with seats in the back) and boat to 4000 islands in the Mekong River. We checked in to a river side bungalow on Don Khon Island, where we took a boat trip down the river and saw some of the rare Irrawaddy dolphins. They are unique as they live in the river and it is said that there is only 50 left in the world and in 10 years time they will be extinct due to net fishing. So I feel very privileged to see them even though it was at a distance of about 150m. We also saw the Li Phi Falls, an amazing collection of waterfalls where some mad people were canoeing.
Well the next day, surprise, surprise it was time to move on again, this time back to Paske to catch our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Our whistle stop tour through Laos with lots of buses but at least we got to see lots of the beautiful countryside Laos has to offer.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0593s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Gaz
non-member comment
Oh to be travelling again!
Hi guys, still having fun eh? Make the most of it as reality soon hits you when you get back. Can't wait to see you, at least it will be in Sunny Spain. Love Bro x.