It took us around two days and 3 changes of a bus to get to Chang Mai from Nong Khiaw in Laos but we did not have time to stop on the way for longer. We had only 10 days to get to Bangkok for our flight to Burma so we had to distribute our time wisely. We met some nice Ukrainian guys on a bus to Chang Rai and we had a blast talking about our neighbouring countries and other visited places. Shame that they were staying in Chang Rai and we were just swapping buses there. Buses in Thailand are a luxury when compared with Laos and actually cost the same price. Everything seemed so modern straight away. 7Eleven on every corner, western brands everywhere, highways etc. We even got cookies and water from ... read more

* hundreds of kilometres of dirty roads in central Laos, done usually by motorbike within 3-4 days are commonly called 'The Loop' You probably know situations when you feel that you ought to do something just because a lot of people do it or/and just because you are already in some particular place so why not? Well this was one of those times I guess when we struggled with a decision whether to do some journey or not. From Pakse we headed to Takheak where we hoped to get more information about how to get to Kong Lo village – place where famous 7.5 km long cave is located. It was a very long journey (11h) by painstakingly slow buses operating on Lao time. The bus was a funny thing we must admit. It looked like ... read more

Entering into the country where time goes a lot slower!!! We had to overnight in Kratie again when on the way to Laos and this time we opted for a very cheap 4$ per night room. It was basic but clean so no complains. Seems that Kratie offers cheapest food as well as rooms in Cambodia. We could have gone the same day to Laos but afternoon buses arrive late in the evening at the border and we did not want to pay even higher 'stamping fee' for our crossing. To be honest this whole fee process is a joke. Everybody knows it is illegal payment/bribe for doing nothing but yet no-one complains. People just pay and the worst thing is that last year it was 1$ on each side (from what I have read on ... read more

After 5 fabulous days in Siem Reap it was time to move on. We were headed towards Laos border but we really wanted to avoid going back to Phnom Penh. In this case we decided on taking a rather long journey (more than 10h and a change of buses) to Kratiein the north-east of Cambodia. So far we have been really enjoying this country a lot (with an exception of few minor incidents with Tuk-Tuk drivers) and judging by what we had read about Kratie, we were more than confident that our next destination would be equally good or even better. We arrived in town just in time for a beautiful sunset over Mekong. Kratie is a very small town so our walk from a bus stop to a hotel took us maybe 2 min. We ... read more

Sihanoukville located only a few hours away from Kampot seems like a different world. We went from quiet and cosy to busy and very touristy. Even though we arrived just before noon all the beaches were already fully occupied by holiday makers and travellers. To our surprise this place still looked quite nice considering that there are only local bars and restaurants (Serendipity and Occheuteal Beach side). We opted for Otres beach a little bit further away from the party epicentre but still walking distance to it all. We walked for 30 minutes or so and we could not find any decent place to stay. There are cheap hostels and guesthouses for 3$-5$ per night but we met people who told us how dirty they were and that there were bedbugs in their rooms. We like ... read more