KazzTravels

I arrived in Paxse and the first thing I noticed was the wind! Big gusts of wind whirling dust everywhere. Of course the wind concerned me because as it was I was going to be climbing uphill for the whole first day of my Bolaven cycling loop. I asked a couple of people and apparently, the wind is a constant feature here in this area : ( Mr. Boune at Green Discovery was very helpful with his insight to the area. He confirmed the route I was taking was the best way to go, easing my mind somewhat. I still had concerns about making it up the 40km climb! Mr. Vong at the Saibady 2 Guesthouse loves to use his immaculate French and he definitely is exuberant as the LP describes him. I set out the ... read more

Two days on the road now and the scenery is beautiful! I love how up and close you can get on a bike. The dust, sweat and bugs in the eyes aside, it's great. I am also trying to zen out with the hills. Instead of asking myself, is this the last turn before it levels out, I am trying to appreciate "the moment". According, to the leader of an organized cycling tour I ran into yesterday. I will learn to love hills. I'm not sure I will go that far but so far the hills haven't been too steep. All I can say is I'm glad I'm going South because despite the uphills, the descents are longer : ) Yesterday, I put in 75kms from Luang Namtha to Na Mor. I stayed in a small ... read more

With my arrangements all settled, I boarded a twin engine plane to Houei Xai where I would start my boat ride up North to Luang Nam Tha. My guide, Xai met me at the airport and after an unusually long time standing around waiting for the bags to be offloaded we were off to load the boat. We packed up rather quickly and were off by 10:30am, an hour after my plane landed. Xai had said that we might arrive in the dark but we made good time and after 3 stops for the appropriate stamps, we arrived at the boatman's village right at dusk. The scenery along the way was beautiful and peaceful. At the boatman's house it seemed like all the children in the village were there watching TV. They were all captivated by ... read more

I'm heading off to do some cycling in Laos over the Christmas holiday. Although I cycled in Vietnam a couple of Christmases ago, I have no idea what to expect on this trip to Laos. Right now the itinerary is as follows: Fly from Shanghai to Vientiane, spend a couple of days there. Fly from Vientiane to Houei Xai. From there I will take a river boat up to Luang Nam Tha. I will hopefully stay at the BoatLanding Lodge and after a few days start my cycling trip from Luang Nam Tha to Luang Prabang. From there I will fly back to Vientiane where I will start my ride down to Savannakhet from which point I will fly to Pakse which will be the end of my trip as I fly out of Pakse to ... read more

My first day in Cairns was spent out at the Great Barrier Reef. Although I could have done without the near 6 hour boat ride that left me green, the Reef was amazing and I did my first ever scuba diving. It's truly another world under the water and it may take me some time to get used to being in that environment. The size, shape and colors of the fish were incredible however, and I didn't want to get out of the water :) I made some friends in Cairns and hooked up with them for a short time at Cape Tribulation. I didn't want to leave the rain forest and the beaches but I had to head up to Darwin where I went on a tour to Kakadu National Park and saw rock art, ... read more

So, I arrived in Cairns a couple of days ago. It's a big touristy city, not really my style. I had a couple of tours booked the first one being a reef tour. I went out to the Great Barrier Reef. Although I was sea sick almost the whole time we were moving, the diving and snorkelling were amazing. I tried diving for the first time. Quite the experience, I won't go into all the details here but it was cool to do something I thought I would never do. Today I am in the Rainforest and at a beautiful beach. It doesn't get much better than this :) Tomorrow I will fly to Darwin, the last leg of my trip. ... read more