Blogs from Laos, Asia
Jan taking photos at the beautiful waterfall
The first thing we did in Pakse after finding some accommodation was to go to the Green Discovery office to put our names down for the 2 day Treetop Adventure starting on the 10th. We hoped that a couple more people would put their names down by the time we got back from our 4 day motorbike trip to make the price more affordable. We then had dinner and organised a couple of nice Honda bikes for $6.50 a day each for the next 4 days. We left early the following day and after riding about 40 km stopped at Phasoume Waterfall to take a few photos, check out the small cultural village, and have a short walk around the area. After that we rode another 40 km or so before turning off and riding up ... read more
Hello! We have now arrived in Laos after a eventful few weeks... After Krabbi we first headed for Phi Phi which is a very cool, small island, there was so much going on all the time, and plenty of partying on the beach! We only stayed two nights before setting off for Phuket, which has the most perfect beaches as well as a long street of busy bars and clubs for the evening, we stayed in a pretty nice room, or so we thought until we saw the biggest spider either of us have ever seen, and screamed and screamed so loud (at 3am) that next door came running worried we were being attacked, which was quite embarassing! Scarier though was when Lily was grabbed by a man with no legs who then miaowed at her... ... read more
Hallo from Vientiane, thanks first for all the messages and comments, we know that we have not been the busiest writers for the last months!! After Vieng Xai we went to Phongsavan, also a historically interesting place in northern Laos. The bus rides through these areas are always a great thing - fantastic sceneries in the mountains, passing small villages with outstanding friendly people along the way. In Phongsavan we visited the archaeological site "plain of jars" - used 300 B.C. till 300 A.C. very sure for funeral reasons, but there is still a lot of things to find out about these mysterious big jars standing in a nice area. Also very interesting was the MAG work, that is a organasation that disarms the bombs still laying around in hundreds of thousands in this area. Laos, ... read more
Vi ankom til Don Det uden nogen form for forventning. Vi havde fået det anbefalet forskellige steder fra, men det var også det. Don Det er en ud af mange øer, som ligger i det område i Mekong-floden. Det er en af mest populære med Bungalows som den primære form for beværtning. Vi ankom til Naksong fra Pakse og fik os selv om bord på en båd som skulle sejle den lille tur på 10 min. ud til Don Det.Selve øen er bygget op af bungalows og restauranter langs yderkanten af øen som nok er halvanden til to km. lang og halvt så bred. Bungalowsne er yderst primitive, mange af dem uden vand og elektricitet i det omfang der er to-tre pærer og en stikkontakt. Den bungalow vi startede med at bo i havde dog vand, ... read more
About to embark on our boat trip
We left the beautiful city of Luang Prabang on Wednesday, February 8th and caught a 9AM Lao-style slow boat to a village up north called Nong Khiaw. We were very lucky as there were ten tickets sold for the boat so the first 8 people were crammed into one boat.<span> We had ticket number 9 and 10 and had another boat all to ourselves! The trip to Nong Khiaw itself should be a staple of anybody’s visit to Lao. Even though it takes a long time – a bit more than 7 hours – the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. The trip starts on the Mekong, with hills and pastures on either side.<span> The scenery changed the more north we went – the mountains became higher, are more green and there also a few scattered small villages ... read more
Casper
Efter en tur i den behagelige natbus ankom vi til Pakse. En lille by, hvor der egentlig ikke var noget at se.Det mest spændende var, at vi "kom til" at købe nogle Pringles med smag af seaweed. Det kan IKKE anbefales. Heldigvis var formålet med Pakse ikke at se byen, men at komme ud og opleve junglen. Vi købte en 2-dages tur hos Green Discovery, det samme firma vi var ude og ro i kajak med. Turen indebar hiking, zip-lining, overnatning i treetop-hytter og via ferrata (staves??). Alt vil blive forklaret. Vi var en del af et hold på 8 personer, som indebar en nordmand, en australier, en israeler, en tysker og to franskmænd. Alle sammen på vores alder eller lidt ældre. Turen startede med halvanden time i minibus, hen til en lille landsby, hvor de ... read more
Plain of Jars
Hello, Since the last blog we’ve done the Plain of Jars and Vang Vieng. I’m writing this from our room in Luang Prabang where we came to escape the midday heat – just roasting out there! The Plain of Jars is located outside of the city of Phonesavan. This area in eastern Laos not only has the Plain of Jars but was also heavily bombed by the US during The Secret War. I personally had no idea that this war ever happened and I still only have a tiny bit of information to share on it, but it’s all very interesting and very sad. So here is my version of the story. Laos was a monarchy for most of its history but during the mid 20th century the people started to rebel and the Pathet Lao ... read more
Sunset over Luang Prabang
First, I would like to apologise for the rather dour and curt previous entry. In my defense I was sober. Getting from Jinghong to the Laos border by bus was simplicity itself. We were greeted at Mohan on the Chinese side with an official-looking, modern, immigration station. A few minutes later at Boten in Laos we reached theirs: a rather rickety wooden shack. Formalities completed and we were just about to remount the impatient horn-tooting bus when I noticed a money-changers: we had no Laos kip, would arrive late at our destination and didn’t know if Yuan would be readily exchangeable away from the border. Ali placated the driver whilst I ran over. The rate was good so I swapped the remaining Yuan and hurried back feeling rather pleased with myself. Then as the bus pulled ... read more
Vientiane
5th Feb ’12 – 8th Feb ‘12 VV to Vientiane We had booked our bus tickets through our hotel and we waited for our pick up which eventually arrived about 20 minutes late and then went a very bizarre route around the town picking people up, all of which meant we were the last ones on the bus to Vientiane and Howard and I ended up on the back seat. Well the road wasn’t as windy as some of the others we had travelled along but it won first prize for the most potholes and the worst surface! At one point the 4 of us on the back seat all literally lifted right up into the air and came crashing down again. Considering this road links 2 major destinations I just can’t understand why they do ... read more
Looking across the Mekong to Nakhon Phanom, Thailand
I spent last friday in Tha Khaek looking for a decent motorbike to do the loop with, and hoping to find a couple of people to join me. I had a motorcycle rental place recommended by a guy at a nearby restaurant, but when I turned up the following morning they told me they had no motorbikes left. Also I didn't find any other tourists setting off the same day, so I decided that I would start off alone and surely find somebody that first night at whatever guesthouse I stop at. I hired a small Korean/Laos motorbike from the guesthouse I was staying at, and set off about 9.30am on saturday morning. The "loop" is a 400 km plus circuit to the northeast of Tha Khaek notorious for over 100 kms of very bad roads ... read more
