As planned, the day was spent in Ayutthaya. It is interesting to observe how this small city combing its historic heritage with sleepy half-modern urbanization. There are about 500 (!) ancient temples/stupas/palaces spread over the old part of the town. In fact, most of them are nicely presented Khmer style ruins that leave a lot of space for imagination. Although, after Angkor Wat these ruins are not breath-taking, Ayutthaya is still a worth to visit. At the end of the tour we visited Bang Pa-In palace which is (still occasionally) used as a Royal summer palace. Most of the palace, [View Full Entry]

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I am in Bangkok, again. First two days were spent on site seeing (Democracy monument, Loha Prsat, Parapet Phrakan Fortress, Wat Patum Wanaran, etc) and on minor (but exhausting) shopping. In addition, I visited a Museum of Forensic Medicine which turned out to be one of the most frightening places one can imagine. Tomorrow i am taking a day tour to Ayutthaya, ancient capital of Siam. Plans for the days after still vague. [View Full Entry]

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Telegraphic Reprt: Day 1 in Siem Reap - A few Buddist temples inside the city - Angkor National Museum - Wandering around Day 2 (first day at the Angkor Archaeological park) - Angkor Thom (Bayon temple, Phimeanakas temple, Terrace of the elephants) - Angkor Wat Day 3 (second day at the Angkor Archaeological park) - Banteay Srei temple - East Mebon temple - Pre Rup temple - Neak Pean temple - Preah Khan temple - Phnom Bakhen (mountain and temple) Day 4 (third day at the Angkor Archaeological park) - today - Some more (!) small temp [View Full Entry]

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O.K. I am already in Siem Reap (Cambodia), found a good guesthouse and settled in, checked the main streets and bazaars, visited the tourist information center and made initial plans for the next days. Now i am ready to go sleep. Btw, need to be mentioned that the flight with Vietnam airlines on Fokker 70 airliner was one of the most enjoyable flights i ever had. [View Full Entry]

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I'll start from the end and then return to the forest trek. Yesterday at the evening, right after we returned from the trek, i went to a travel agency in order to check possible flight dates from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap. At the agency i learned that there are no available flights at the days i was looking for (3-4 days starting 8.11) and that my best option is to cut one day of Luang Namta plans and to catch a flight on 7.11. At the moment i was checking there were only 3 available seats for that flight. Therefore [View Full Entry]

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Today was all about biking the Luang Namta area - to explore the town, visit some temples, a few villages and one (so called) waterfall. Nothing new or overwhelming but definitely satisfying :-) Tomorrow i am starting a 3 days forest-trek in the Nam Ha national park. The group made up of 6 tourist (Australia, France and Israel), one or two english-speaking local guides and ethnic local guide (one that really live in the forest and villages we visit). During the day we will be hiking between the villages to meet different ethnic groups (like Khamu and Akha). At the first [View Full Entry]

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As planned, yesterday we spent our day swimming at the Kuang Si waterfalls, visiting Bear Rescue Centre (near by) and wandering around Luang Prabang at the eve time. Short photo report attached for your entertainment. Today, after 8 hours ride in a mini-van, i arrived at Luang NamTa. Tomorrow i am biking the area and looking for partners for the forest camp trek. [View Full Entry]

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Luang Prabang is the second biggest city in Laos and it is the most important in historical prospective. City architecture and culinary influenced greatly by the French colonial period and some streets looks like they were taken from French-German areas of Europe. People are nice as everywhere in Laos and the weather is even better then in Vientiane and Vang Vieng. In addition to endless number of wats located all over the city one can visit the royal palace that since the beginning of communist era is was converted into a museum that supposed to teach locals about the dark time [View Full Entry]

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It is common to say that you really like it or hate it. After 3 days in Vang Vieng i can sum and say that it is a really nice and relaxing place if you are coming in the right mood. If not - you have nothing to do here. The most famous Vang Vieng time spending is tubing. It can last 2-3 hours (if you are just tubing) or to become a whole day journey (if you stop at every bar on the river bank to drink some cold beer and jump every swing / from every tower into the [View Full Entry]

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After a very long sleep i proceeded my Vientiane explorations and till early evening all main (tourist) attractions in the city were covered. For diner i went to kind of expensive restaurant that serve the food in local-music-and-dancing sauce. In my opinion, the dances look very much like in Thailand and Nepal....you think i am missing something very basic and important ?! Btw, i made today a stock of very good pictures (mostly at Pha Tat Luang area) but it will never be seen due to annoying bug that happened when i was showing the camera memory card to a monk [View Full Entry]

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