After getting stuck for one day in Udomxay, which wasn't half that bad as the lonely planet makes it out to be, we continued to Nong Khiaw. We were originally planning to stay here for a couple of days but on the advise of 2 Laotians we jumped on the boat to Muang Ngoi Neua which is located 1 hour upriver from Nong Khiaw. This one hour trip is about as scenic and beautiful as it gets. Still somewhat dazed by the magnificent surroundings we arrived at our destination and checked in at our guest house. The rest of our day [View Full Entry]

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I can put it quite simple: Hop on the first plane to Bangkok, jump on a bus towards Vientianne and get here asap. Because if there is any country capable of inspiring men and cause tears of joy to well up in even the stoutest of hearts, it is Laos. Why this is so, is difficult to explain. it is like explaining the chaos of Mumbai streets to someone who hasn't been to India yet. Or trying to capture the magnificence of Angkor Wat on camera. Or showing the same person a video on life under water at the pheurentians. It [View Full Entry]

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This perhaps a bit short and unimaginative update might feel a little less than the usual. Still it is required to keep the story going and there is much more to come as I begin writing on Laos. After our expedition to Angkor Wat we stayed for 2 more days in Bangkok. These days were quite fun as we find Bangkok a truly enjoyable city. This short respite also gave us the time to arrange onward transportation. Hence at 9 Sep we boarded the night train heading for Chang Mai. Chang Mai is somewhat the cultural capital of Thailand and our [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Bangkok late in the evening and decided to overnight at the airport. Next days we explored the town a bit and arranged our next trip. This took some time as our next destination is Angkor Wat in Cambodia. But before going into that I’d like to say one thing on Bangkok. Having spent 3-4 days in this city I can’t help but feel that It can compete with any of the worlds oldest jungles when it comes to bio-diversity. There are so many different kinds of humans walking around here that it could be an attraction in itself! [View Full Entry]

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After our longhouse adventure and good previous experience we rented the motorcycles for 3 more days. The first day we visited the wind and fairy cave. The wind cave was totally dark, moist and had lots of bats. This made it somewhat scary but and lots of fun. The fairy cave was simply amazing. So amazing that Ilse went for a panorama shot. The only other place she ever did this was high in Truind in the Indian Himalayas. So it was pretty damn amazing! Sadly, somewhere halfway through the shot the battery went dead. This frustrated Ilse so much that [View Full Entry]

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Or as one of our Portuguese friends remarked: Head-ache hunters. Referring to the amounts of alcohol consumed. But this rather amusing yet slightly negative remark does no good to the greatness of these people, something I will write about later. First we arrived in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, the western Malaysian province in Borneo. Kuching is definitely a nice city and for the last couple of days we’ve really enjoyed ourselves exploring this great capital and its surroundings. What makes Kuching especially great is that it is a city of half a million. Yet many area’s sti [View Full Entry]

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By overnight train we arrived from Kota Baru in Singapore. Here we met our German friend Julia again. We've been running into Julia everywhere since we met her first in Tama Negara. At this time Julia was traveling with a father and son from Switzerland annd son from Switzerland annd son from Switzerland and we decided to join for a bit. During our Journey to Singapore it was Ilse who attended us to the fact that it was Singapore's 44th birthday on our date of arrival. After the train, we said goodbye to the Swiss and Julia joined us to our [View Full Entry]

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Obviously before you lose paradise you'll have to find it. We found it somewhere in the South Chinese sea, at least for a couple of days. Jet our arrival at paradise wasn't that great. It was in the middle of a tropic storm to be precise. We tried to outrun the storm by quickly jumping on a speedboat. But it caught us mid sea anyway and had us soaked in mere seconds. Its a great experience though, jumping from the bus into a speedboat, racing on waves that get bigger and bigger. catapulting our boat right into the next one. All [View Full Entry]

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The journey to Jerantut (transport hub for Tama Negara national park (TM)) was uneventful. The bus was not overcrowded, no one had tried to rip us off nor did we have any near collisions with other traffic or cows. Still, the landscape was great as we traversed through many forest, jungles and plantations. In Jerantut we were picked up by a travel agency which arranged our trip to and from TM. Normally we opt for doing everything ourselves, certainly if the agencies seem a bit dodgy. This meant we just could not commit our safety and well being in the hand [View Full Entry]

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The first few steps into a new country are usually the hardest. It simply takes time to get used to all the new things. In most severe cases this can lead to mental overload or culture shock, something which we experience in India. Malaysia is different however. We arrived at Kuala Lumpur (KL) airport from Chennai (Madras) and apart from some trouble with our baggage transfer all went fine. Luckily for us, Ilse is even less trustful then me when it comes to our baggage. Otherwise our baggage would probably still be making its endless rounds at Chennai domestic baggage retrievel. [View Full Entry]

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