Vang Vieng is between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. The whole town is centered around young drunk tourists. Nothing but guesthouses, bars and open-air restaurants with loungers staring at the mounted flat-panel TVs. No joke, you could stand in one part of the street and see 4 separate episodes of Friends simultaneously. It is essentially spring break for most people there. Not my kind of thing. The landscape, however, is really gorgeous. It reminded me quite a bit of the Peruvian Andes, beautiful karst jagged mountains all around. Kevin, Emily and I went tubing down the Nam Song river where they have a exceedingly dangerous rope swings and zip lines at each of the thirty bars that line that part of the river. All of these rope swings are run by eight year old Lao kids. It ... read more

All the tuk tuk drivers ask, "Waterfalls?... Caves?" as you pass by durin the day. At night it is, "Tuk Tuk?... Smoke?(pot)... Opium?... Lady?..." I found it really funny that it was always in that same order. Call me old fashioned, but I think the prostitute offer should precede the opium offer. That's just how I was raised. Anyway, we went out to the Kuang Si Falls waterfall and swimming holes 30 minutes outside Luang Prabang. The Asiatic Black Bear sanctuary on the same grounds was a nice bonus. The term "waterfall" can be used pretty loosely,so its always a gamble, but this place was really gorgeous. One 180ft tall, gushing waterfall and several pools that cascaded in to the next. They were this amazing turquoise (god or pollution one cannot be sure). The rope swing ... read more

When I decided to float the Mekong River for two days from the Thai-Lao border to Luang Prabang, I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought I might be hitching a ride with a fishing canoe or maybe a freighter. I had heard people had done it. Then I heard it was a fairly popular method of getting in to Laos. As it turns out, like most things in the region, it was 100 tourists showing up for a boat that holds about 80. So, before we all got on the boat, one of the guys in charge announced to everybody that it was going to take longer than everybody had been told by their various tour sellers. Also, the town we would be stopping in for the night lacked electricity and is dangerous, etc... Turns ... read more

James, Christine & I wanted to go to Koh Chang after leaving Cambodia. It looked as if we were going to have to go pretty far out of our way to Bangkok, then catch a bus to Koh Chang, but luckily we found a minivan service that went direct, saving us 7 hours of travel, a night in Bangkok and some money. The only problem is we had to get there before the last ferry left from Trat (on the mainland) for the island of Koh Chang. We didn't realize this despite our near perfect grasp of both the Thai and Khmer languages. The guy was was driving super fast through these back country roads trying to get us there. Towards the end when he really let loose, he put on some type of Thai heavy ... read more

Pai, pronounced "bye". Northwest Thailand. James & I decided to move on to Pai when Christine chose to stay at the elephant sanctuaryfor an entire week. Three hours through the mountains from Chiang Mai, Pai is a small town. A lot of people come here to treck in to the hill tribes that surround the town. We once again opted to get motorbikes and explore the area ourselves rather than join a standard tour. We met Paul from Holland on the mini-van ride to Pai and he joined us for a couple of the rides. The area is great; surrounded by hills with well paved roads, you can ride through some of the best scenery I've ever seen for hours and hours. There are waterfalls, canyons, hot springs, farms, temples, etc. There were two girls from ... read more