Boy, I am tiered. The whole day was spending in a tube in the river, watching other people get pissed and stoned. Yes, people, I am in Vang Vieng the backpacker paradise. Nothing to do then tubing, drinking, smoking and watching friends….. But let’s report first what happened the last few days. As you all know we made the trip to Vientiane in one piece on the train. We arrived Monday at lunch time and checked into our hotel. $18 per room. Cheap country again. The next mission was when and where the Hash House Harriers are running from. One reason [View Full Entry]

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Day 23 After waking roasting in our oven/cell, to find no water we hit the road in search of a new guesthouse, fortunately Mixay had a room and following the cell we were in luxury with a big room, own bathroom (with hot water) and 3 huge windows overlooking the city! We hired some bikes and went exploring.. First stop the market for Carly to replace her sunnies from the misadventure tubing- hot $12 Diors that we got tired of haggling for but would do the job. We arrived back at our bikes only to realise Jez had lost the key [View Full Entry]

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Vientiane, the capital of Laos, did not disappoint. My Indian dinner with Michael (former Peace Corps Volunteer) was great. And I met some awesome folks at my guesthouse: Lili, Patricia and Kieran. Somehow it came out that Kieran's birthday was coming up, and having spent some birthdays far from home, my heart went out to him. So we rented bicycles to go to the temple and have an herbal sauna and massages. We also sat in on a meditation session, before biking back to town and eating ice cream on the beach. I had heard there was a great 7km cave [View Full Entry]

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Day18- Luang Prabang Refreshed after our early night we headed out in search of a Lonely Planet of Laos feeling out South east Asia one wasn't cutting it and then headed off on the Walking Tour. First stop was Big Brother Mouse a company set up to publish and distribute books to young Laos children to help them learn to read and write. Feeling that was a worthwhile way to help this incredibly poor country productively ( As there's heaps of children begging and apparently many of the children begging spend then money on drugs and not food!) we purchased a [View Full Entry]

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IT has been another eventful week for me here as the good times continue to fly on by. To start is off my roommate Brad and I went and played soccer with some of the Thai kids who are studying English at the same school as us. While I was just struggling to keep up we somehow managed to win four of the five games we played so I will have to go play again this week. After soccer, we went out to pizza with our teammates and their friends. Thai pizza can get quite strange we found out with toppings [View Full Entry]

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Yes, here is an update - written in real time, not written in long-term retrospect, as I intend to do when we return from our travels. We are currently in Luang Prabang in Laos, a tranquil respite (and hour-long flight) from Hanoi and the rest of Vietnam. Sarah and I found Viet Nam to be by far the most stressful place that we have traveled as of yet, but we have escaped...And to quite an stunning, yet relaxed place. There's something about that Mekong. You will see pictures and hear more details later. Many Vietnamese just try to find ways to [View Full Entry]

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LAOS It doesn’t take long to settle into the languid lifestyle of Luang Prubang. The contrast with the bustling streets of Bangkok was stark as we boarded our large tuk-tuk and headed through the lush streets towards our hotel along the Mekong River. I immediately loved this town. There was of course a steady stream of two-wheeled traffic - mopeds, bicycles, motorcycles - one of the first scenes that struck me en route from the airport was a line of 6 or 7 women aboard mopeds, each carrying a bright pink parasol as a shield from the mid-afternoon sun. Like many [View Full Entry]

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Just a another day in the office.... As you have most probably noticed I Romi have been kissed by a Muse and managed to catch up with our entries... It took a 2 days... Thai visa On Monday we had to go and get our Thai visa as we have to leave Lao by tomorrow ( Thursday). We have rented a bike and off we went, found out the the first turn we took and then tuned around was after all the write turn, but never mind "the long way around is closer" is our motto. What is today's date [View Full Entry]

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i am now in the Laos town of hoay xai, in the banks of the mekong river, opposite chiang khong in Thailand, to where i shall be taking the cross river ferry to tommorrow. since my last blog, i spent a few more days in the laos capital, vientiane, before making my way through northern laos to here, via vang viang, luang prabang and luang namtha. it cooled down in vientiane after some really bad thunderstorms, so that was a relief, remaining refreshingly cooler up until yesterday in luang namtha. i think that was something to do with cyclone Nargis. i [View Full Entry]

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Again I apologize to those of you who have been following my travels for not having written before, but until last night, when I actually sat down and wrote everything down I didn't think I had done much. Now I realize this post will probably be really long. So, here goes... Once I arrived in Laos' capital Vientiane I realized there was not much to do here so I packed up and headed north with a Canadian couple to the famous for tubbing town of Vang Vien. We arrived on a bus that unlike those in Colombia (who must stand for [View Full Entry]

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