http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Laos , West , Ban Houayxay en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:24:43 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:24:43 +0000 The night bus that we took from Pai to Chiang Khong was pretty harsh on our stomachs partly down to the Sangsom we'd drunk the night before with Greg and worsened by the bus constantly flying up and down hills and lurching around corners. As soon as we did arrive we were ushered to some rooms for 3 hours sleep before being woken abruptly and quickly ushered to the immigration point. We had t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-427235.html Here's some photos from our two day voyage down the Mekong River from the ThaiLao border at Huay Xai to Luong Prabang Our boat was a rollicking overcrowded vessel full of goodnatured partiers. There was a young Dane playing Johnny Cash favorites to drunken applause people perched on rice bags car seats and cushions and amazing scenes of untouched jungle. We made some friends on this boat t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-353356.html We said our goodbyes to Pai as Jess Josh and I headed to the Laos boarder via Chiang Mai where we dropped off Nancy as she was heading to Cambodia with a friend from back home.The day was spent in a minivan but thanks to Jess' drunken state the night before we kept ourselves amused with her hysterical antics. Don't worry girl it happens to the best of us7 hours and one dodgy Pad Thai later my http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-344417.html EN FRANCAIS PLUS BASMORE PHOTOS HEREMud here is a way of life. It is everywhere and anywhere red brown greenish grey and it is as much part of life as the river the pace of which determines Lao's livelihoods. At first like when I arrived in Don Det you try to avoid it jumping from one seemingly hard dry spot to the next. Then after missing a few times and splashing mud all over your near http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-319285.html Interessanterweise gibt es in Houay Xay kein einziges gutes Restaurant. Das Deen hatte die wohl schlechteste indische Kche die ich je gegessen habe und ansonsten gibt es nur einfache Lokale mit Standard Lao Kost wie Laab mit Sticky Rice mal besser mal weniger gut zubereitet.Dennoch blieb ich noch ein paar Tage hier las entspannte und fuhr ein wenig Fahrrad. Mehr gibt es hier auch nicht zu t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-302665.html Day 12After a fairly boring couple of days we were pumped for the Gibbon experience A rarely advertised three day trek aimed at preserving the jungle but allowing high paying tourists to visit it without destroying it. We'd been lucky enough to hear about it through Mark and Chrissie whom we meet in China thanks guys.We set off with four packed into the cabin and another four in the back. A ve http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-271166.html Alors pour une fois je suis lrsquo heure et beh oui je vais parler la premire personne pendant trois semaines... snif. Je vous livre du tout chaud car je viens de finir mes deux jours de trajet en bateau sur le Mkong. Pour une fois que je trouve un caf Internet qui marche bien et rapide jrsquoen profite car cela faisait longtemps... Je crois que crsquo est sans doute un des plus http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-270870.html i am now in the Laos town of hoay xai in the banks of the mekong river opposite chiang khong in Thailand to where i shall be taking the cross river ferry to tommorrow. since my last blog i spent a few more days in the laos capital vientiane before making my way through northern laos to here via vang viang luang prabang and luang namtha.it cooled down in vientiane after some really bad thun http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-268904.html When I think back at all the places and things I've seen my head begins to swirl. Itrsquos gotten to the point where when people ask me the question when did you get into X city I actually have to stop and think about it...especially how I traveled to it.But its funny how much you learn about your own body and psyche traveling for a long duration. You quickly learn the physical limits of you http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-268284.html When I took my cooking class in Chiang Mai one of the students mentioned The Gibbon Experience to me as something worthwhile to check out while in northern Laos. I had just started planning for the border crossing and wondered what I was going to do once I arrived in Huay Xai.Once I found out more about the program the choice was easy. Did I want to start my experience of Laos spending two days http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-265333.html We caught a bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong and had a relatively painless crossing into Laos We stayed one night in the border town of Huayxai which only consists of one main street. It has a temple on the top of the hill which has great views out over the Mekong and to Thailand. Once climbing the many stairs to the top we were approached by 2 youths At first we made sure to have a tight gr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-264722.html Two Day Slow Boat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-260829.html Up early and down to the landing tickets purchased 220000 kip 25.20 each. Time for some breakfast and purchase some sandwiches for the boat was not necessary as food was available on the boat but at a premium. With the boat due to leave at 10am but finally getting away at 11.30am. Never trust a timetable here things just happen when they happen.A very slow day just sitting watching http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-259927.html Up early and into town to get a bus to Chaing Kong Gin has told us that this can not be done more touting for her friend. The bus to a little town half way costs us 40 Bht each and we sit and wait for the next bus. Anne a very nice girl from France has the idea of asking the driver how many paasengers he needs to go. 8 or 10 so he is offered 320 Bht for 4 or us and we are loaded onto the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-259924.html Une longue pope vers la frontire De Chiang Mai nous partons en bus pour le village frontalier de Chiang Khong que nous atteindrons au bout de neuf heures de trajet en milieu de soire. Le poste de frontire nrsquotant ouvert que la journe nous passons la nuit dans ce village atypique qui longe de tout son long le fleuve du Mkong qui marque en fait la frontire physique entre la Thala http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-251282.html As with the previous post this was typed a few days ago apologies about the delay in getting it uploadedWe are in Laos Now before I go on I feel obligied to reel off the spiel about the second nation of our trip. Laos is one of the few remaining communist countries in the world. However like all the others there is a sense of creeping capitalism as the single party government begins to tol http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-249876.html From Chiang Mai we made our way to the border crossing to Laos. We were kind of ripped off on our prebooked 'border crossing' package it was just a guest house that took a service fee on the visa. It was obvious that they hadn't cleaned the rooms or sheets in a while... The next day getting the visa was chaotic as Huay Xai is not well equipped to handle the volume of travellers it is getting http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-242660.html Somehow we managed to choose the one day of the dry season that it rained to catch a boat 6hours down the Mekong River....and it didn't just rain it poured. We were woken up at about 4am by rain bucketing down and it still hadn't subsided when we boarded at 10am...and it continued ALL day.The slow boat is one of the 'must do' trips in Laos. Itrsquos basically a 2 day ride down the Mekong River http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-240675.html Saturday December 29th 2007Irsquom taking the bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong last city before the border. There is a bus every half hour. The bus is already full so it leaves 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Irsquom standing at the rear on pretty crowded floor but I cannot go in the alley as my head would touch the ceiling though Irsquom not tall by European standards.The border crossin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-234038.html As always I hope all is well with you and yours.hmm it seems like i disappeared for a while well I am back until I disappear again I am currently in Vietnam Hanoi to be exact where I will be for a few days resting and catching up on things before I head North towards the Chinese border. I just spent a month traveling in Laos mostly in the North and mostly by boat. i also did several http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Ban-Houayxay/blog-223710.html