26.03.09 - We arrive at PP after a fairly long journey involving changing at the Laos border, again at the second Laos border control (for some reason) and Stung Treng. We get dumped outside a hotel clearly payin commission. It is night and, in a theme that is to repeat itself many times, our tuktuk driver cannot find our hotel of choice and so attempts to take us somewhere with a similar name, or to convince us it doesn't exist. Sight. Phnom Penh. We had a few days to kill there before Iain arrived, and so we try not to see [View Full Entry]

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23.03.09 - We didn't really do much in the 4000 islands. We had planned to cycle around but seriously, in that heat? So we went for more gentle walks and just enjoyed the beautiful views from the many restaurant spots overlooking the islands. The scenery is really great (and there wasn't any slash and burn induced fog in the south) and again, you get the local flavour as the kids all swim in the river after school (sometimes next to buffalos cooling themselves off) and watching people fish. The pace of life is so incredibly slow again that you almost stop [View Full Entry]

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17.03.09 - We had booked a boat to Nong Khiaw, from where we would change and catch a boat to Muang Ngoi. As I had suspected, the advance booking was completely pointless and also marginally more expensive than booking direct from the boat office on the same day, but it had been closed by the time we thought to check the day before. The boat trip to Nong Khiaw was great. It followed and then passed the route we'd taken when kayaking, up the pretty Nam Ou river. The scenery was once more frustratingly obscured by the smoke, but the human [View Full Entry]

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The journey to Luang Prabang took most of the day. As we left the vicinity of Vang Vieng and moved closer to LP, we passed more and more fires. Slash and burn agriculture is prevalent in Laos, and the main season for doing so is March. This not only has obvious environmental implications but also obscures the scenery and hurts your eyes - something the guide book did not inform us and which I think anyone planning to travel there should know. However, LP was a nice city. It was smaller than I'd expected but perhaps after Vientiane I shouldn't have [View Full Entry]

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12.03.09 - We got a supposed VIP bus to Vang Vieng. Not sure what the VIP stood for as it was crammed to the gils with no aircon, TV, free water, toilet or anything else that would make it stand above your average bus. Guess it's just for us tourist suckers! Once in Vang Vieng, it was a whole new world. A Western influenced world. There are cafes there which play Friends, Simpsons and Family Guy all day whilst the patrons relax on slouchy cushions and drink beer. Then at night, a European style bar and dance scene emerges that seems [View Full Entry]

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09.03.09 - When we arrived at Vientiane, we hadn't booked anything but didn't really think it would be a problem. WRONG! We phoned six different hostels from the bus station and all were full. So we got a tuktuk to the centre (who typically tried to overcharge us by an insane amount and finally settled on just overcharging us a bit), and then the first three hostels we tried were full too. So despite the fourth hostel being not very nice and more than we wanted to pay, we took the room as it was the last one in the place. [View Full Entry]

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06.03.09 - We spent a few days in Khon Kaen, not to do anything very cultural but really just to relax at our first hotel with pool, the very reasonably priced Rachawadee Resort. It was long and painful ride from Chiang Mai, over 13 hours with no stop for lunch (we had toblerone from 7-11 - what would I do without 7-11?!?) The resort was great. I managed to burn the first day (isn't that always the way?) and then had to retreat from the sun. We spent a bit of time walking around town. It was more commercial than you'd [View Full Entry]

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01.03.09 - We got a bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai - fairly straight forward as there are loads every day. Once in Chiang Rai we found it to be far LESS touristy than Chiang Mai, which was almost the opposite of what the guide book indicated. We did little the first afternoon bar eating and having a quick walk around town, which was quite compact. The next day we took a bus out to Wat Rong Khun, also known as the White Palace. It's basically a temple being built by an award winning artist, still in the process of [View Full Entry]

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23.02.09 - We arrived in Chiang Mai around 2 and headed to Eagle House 2, a veritable bargain at just short of 6 pounds for private bathroom, hot water and aircon. We grabbed food and chilled out for the day. The next day we got up early and hired our own songthaew to take us to Wat Doi Suthep, perched on top of a mountain. I felt really bad for all of the people walking up it on foot, as it must have taken hours. Once on top we ascended the many stairs to the temple. Despite our early start, it [View Full Entry]

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21.02.09 - Waited by the side of the road in Sukhothai for over an hour in the heat before a Mae Sot bound bus passed. We had to change after about an hour to a small and packed minibus. I was seated on one of those fold out seats. The road was very bendy and as we went around a bend, my seat would start folding up of its own accord into the unamused looking woman next to me. We spent several days in Mae Sot doing not very much, recovering from the early starts and just pottering around town. It [View Full Entry]

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