Blogs from Laos, Asia - page 549

After the 2 day boat journey this town was a welcome stop. Luang Prabang is currently on the World Heritage list with UNESCO due to its high concentration of old temples and old town plan. This meant it was suprisingly built up and modern for such a poor country. There was also a big french influence here - old colonial buildings, baguettes etc... Just outside of the town is a huge waterfall where we spent a day swimming in the various pools and chilling with some beer laos... read more

Standing on the platform with my safety line attached and my zip line thingey ready to go, I had thoghts in my mind. Maybe my dad was right, maybe you only get so many close calls in life. Maybe my nine lives are running out. Ahh what the hell just jump!!! Flying effortlessly over the forest for over 400 meteres I felt the cloest to free that I had in a really long time. I couldn't get a flight out of Chang Mai so I decided take a little detour and head to Huay Xai, Laos, to have "the gibbon experience." This is a project in Laos set up by a frenchman with a dream. Basically "Jeff" (who I never met) has set up a course of tree houses that are only reachable via ZIP ... read more

SABBAI DEE..... IN THE LAND OF BUDDHA, DEM MEKONG UND EINER VIELFALT, DIE MAN SELTEN FINDET..... wir waren vor sechs jahren das erste mal hier in diesem aussergewoehnlichen teil asiens und laos war fuer uns das highlight der einjaehrigen reise quer durch suedost-asien. weil wir damals den norden bereisten, wollten wir uns diesmal den sueden ansehen. .............also haben wir den nachtzug direkt von bangkok nach nong khai an die grenze zu laos genommen. frueh morgens angekommen, im "danish coffee house" das fruehstuecksbuffet gepluendert, mit der psk- bankomatkarte noch schnell thai baht aus dem automaten gezogen und schon sassen wir im "jumbo" (sowas wie tuk tuk, nur ein halbes motorrad vor die kabine geschweisst!) richtung freundschaftsbruecke, ueber welche man den maechtigen mekhong river ueberquert. total easy grenzuebertritt und jicky legte sofort mit ihrem laotisch los! habe... read more

Hello agaiiiin! Our last few days in Vang Vieng were awesome... we had a hard time forcing ourselves to leave... the scenery was just so rad, and the atmosphere was great! Who says you have to watch "Friends" all day? We'd much rattther just lounge by the river... So, we inquired further about "WWOOFING"... (volunteering on the organic farm), but the situation there had changed, and that was no longer available, unless you had "special skills" dfor farming? Strange. So anyways, we ate there, and then decided to volunteer at the school, helping the teacher teach english for a few hours. So, Mr. T, the dude who ran the farm, drove us out to the mud-hut school lon a hill somewhere. As he dropped us off, we were told that the teacher, who was usually there, ... read more

Our first 2 days in Laos were spent traveling down the Mekong River from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. We had heard great reviews of the "slow Boat" river trip and were looking forward to it. In the end though it was a bit of a letdown. The boat was seriously overcrowded and was more like a 18-30's holiday than a relaxing way to see the river. Huay Xai itself was a nice enough place to enter the country. It was pretty similar to other border towns and not a lot to do but had some great views over the river to Thailand. ... read more