To get from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan we needed to back on the nerve-shredding route 13 and head north. Fortunately, our driver this time seemed slightly more sane and the journey wasn't quite as frightening as before although this might have been because he was wary of the heavy mist that settled over the area for most of the journey, obscuring the distant hills but making the nearer ones look even more spectacular. I did manage to take some photos but it was a case of sticking my hand out of the tiny window while the bus was bumping along and [View Full Entry]

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Yet another amusing transport story from Laos! To get from Luang Prabang to the village of Muang Ngoi Neua (known to most people as just Muang Ngoi), The Lonely Planet had recommended getting a longtail boat upriver as the view is apparantely incredible. We had booked a boat ticket with one of the travel agents in town and had been told to turn up the following day at 8am. The next morning, laden with bags, we met the travel agent who walked us down to the jetty and then told us to wait while he went to speak to the boat [View Full Entry]

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The journey from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was terrifying and beautiful in equal measures. The road that links the two is like something from an action film and winds through the steep, mountainous countryside of northern Laos. The road is narrow, poorly maintained and full of lethal bends that hang out over sheer drops, kicking up stones and dust that then seem to fall for miles over the hills as you skid around the corners. Despite the trecharous conditions, our driver seemed intent on sliding the bus around the bumpy roads at the highest speed the poor vehicle could possibly [View Full Entry]

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The day after our Vientiane tour we got dropped at the bus station in the centre of town to get bus to Vang Vieng, about 150km north of Vientiane. We were immediately accosted by a minivan driver who offered to take us to Vang Vieng for 100,000 kip (8 pounds) each but thought that we should check out the local options first. We walked into the bus station and were pointed towards the Vang Vieng bus by friendly locals and asked the driver how much the tickets were. He told us that it cost 20,000 kip (about 1 pound 60) per [View Full Entry]

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Well the first attempt to get into Laos failed comically. We waited outside the travel agent for the bus and then at 7pm, when it was due, a minivan drew up and ushered us on board. We showed our tickets which were briefly glanced at and then took our seats. We travelled about half an hour through Bangkok, assuming that we were headed to a bus terminal on the edge of town where we would change to one of the big intercity coaches which is how most coach transfers work in SE Asia. However, after a while we pulled into the [View Full Entry]

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In 1942, The Empire of Japan invaded Burma from neighbouring Thailand, which they already occupied, and seized control of the country from the British. In order to maintain control of Burma they needed to deliver troops and supplies to the country and the only existing way to do that was by sea, along the coast of Thailand and up the west coast of Malaysia to Burma. The route was long and very exposed to attack by the allies and a new method of transport was needed. The British government, when in charge of Burma, had considered building a railway linking Burma [View Full Entry]

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On the morning after the mahout training we donned the all white clothes that we'd previously bought at the Chiang Mai night market, got in a songthaew (adapted pick up truck with benches in the back and used like a bus) and went to Wat Rampoeng for the toughest 10 days of our trip so far. We had signed up for 10 days of vipassana meditation at the wat which is just outside Chiang Mai and were feeling quite nervous. The website we'd seen (http://www.palikanon.com/vipassana/tapotaram/tapotaram.htm) promised a wake up bell at 4am, no food after noon, 10 hours of meditation a [View Full Entry]

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On the morning of the 16th April we were picked up from our hostel at 8.30am, along with 10 other people, by a couple of really cool Thai guys both called Tum, for 2 days of mahout training. A mahout is somebody who drives and looks after an elephant and first stop on our training course was the local market for the elephants' breakfast. We were told that elephants eat 250kg of food a day so we bought dozens of bags of bananas and sugar cane and loaded them into the van before heading off to the camp which was about [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick update this time (I can hear some of you sighing with relief from here!). We've just had the most amazing two days staying with the elephants in the mahout camp. They are fantastic animals, so clever and with so much more individual personality than you would think. I will write a full blog on it with all of the cool pictures when we come of out the wat but its past midnight over here and we have to be at the temple tomorrow morning in our white robes for the first day of monastic silence at 7.30am. Just [View Full Entry]

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Songkran is the Thai new year and is celebrated from the 13th to the 15th April every year across Thailand, right when the country is at its hottest. Locals get the days off work and everybody comes out into the streets to have a massive party and join in with the water fights. The throwing of water comes from the origins of the festival when people would bathe and wash buddha images and then use the water to bless family and friends by gently sprinkling it over them. This evolved over the years into full out water fights that take over [View Full Entry]

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