http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Laos en-us Mon, 06 Jul 09 20:57:46 +0000 Mon, 06 Jul 09 20:57:46 +0000 Gisteren uiteindelijk in Vientiane aangekomen na een busreis van 15u die eigenlijk maar 10u mocht duren. De eerste platte band was nog vrij snel vervangen toen na een uurtje een tweede band ontplofte was er natuurlijk geen reservewiel meer ter beschikking. Uren wachten dus tot een andere bus een wiel wou afstaan. Gelukkig lagen we comfortabel op matrassen zodat we extra konden uitrusten. Eens in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-415430.html The gold at the end of the 2 day Mekong Boatride rainbow is Luang Prabang UNESCO World Heritage Site. For tourists Luang Prabang is a travel hub on the banks of the Mekong surrounded by jungle. You can shop for local arts and crafts at the night market treat yourself to a day spa arrange guided treks through the jungle and visit indigenous tribes take day trips to outlying waterfalls and c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-414393.html Hey just a quick message to update you on my trip to Laos. Crossed the border fine with no swine flu and it's been pretty rainy. Luckily I've met some great people to travel with and at the moment I'm in LuangNam Tha. Done a bit of walkingtrekking in the area but today was a bit hairraising... A bunch of us booked a kayak day trip on the river and to cut a long story short out of the 13 of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/North/Luang-Namtha/blog-414392.html Well our week in Laos went by all too quickly. Since our last post we've journeyed through the 60's70's Hippie outpost of Vang Vieng. Now home to what has to be the world's least safe tubing adventure. Basically a pub crawl on a super fast river with each bar throwing you a line and literally reeling the customers in. If the river speed isn't scary enough there's a variety of trapeze ropes http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-414323.html Made it to Laos The 2 day slow boat down the Mekong river was beautiful at first then got really crowded and cramped. Luang Prabang was a nice enough town but definitely a tourist trap. After a 5 hours on treacherous winding mountain roads shrouded in mist a rickety minivan has deposited me in Vang Vieng. Here I should be able to go tubing down the river and generally chill out. That is after http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-413631.html After our misadventures in Vang Vieng I took 2 days off and did absolutely nothing in Luang Phabang. We ended up staying for 7 days in total it's a really nice place and is everything that Vang Vieng isn't. Tourism has nicely integrated in to the Luang Phabang culture. Everynight there is a night market on the main street in town. Everything is sold there mainly clothes and hand crafts. The food http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-413352.html You can get Laos visa on arrival almost posts and border crossing in Laos or Laos embassies abroad. You'll get 30 days Laos visa and the visa fee depends on your nationality. It can range from 20 to 40. You'll need to take 2 pictures with you in order to get Laos visa on arrival and here are places you can get Laos visa on arrival Wattay international airport. Luang Prabang international airpo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-413205.html Sorry for the long delay between posts. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that we may not be able to post photos until we arrive in Bangkok so for now a brief synopsis of China before updating you on our current location.end of Beijing We last we posted photos we had visited the Great Wall had our requisite Peking Duck dinner yummy but expensive and not very much food.....Pat resorted to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-413079.html We spent three nights in Vientiane the capital of Laos. We didn't arrive until 6pm our first night and after finding somewhere to stay a bit more expensive than we have been paying our room was 100000 kip a night. So 8 euro between us this got us air con ensuite and a tv. Anyway our first full day was spent getting our visas for Cambodia this took up a few hours we first arrived at the em http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/blog-413039.html Having left Pakse we made our way south towards the 4 Thousand Islands. We had intended to go to Don Khong initially but our bus driver ended up going further south and dropped us off at Don Det. So we just ran with it.... Checked into a small place overlooking the Mekong river called 'mama's something or other'. Mama was a very eccentric old woman who would always be laughing and smiling but http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-413033.html The Road of a Thousand TurnsHeading to the Western border of Laos Lee and I experienced road travel for the first time since entering this country. Loading into a small bus crammed with bags of grain caged chickens and staring locals we mentally prepared ourselves for the long 8 hour trip ahead of us to Sam Nuea. We were the only white people onboard and the unblinking fascination of the oth http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Vieng-Xai/blog-412988.html Started week 3 with 10 hours in Lopburi a place famous for having a renegade band of Monkeys that live in the North of the town and terrorise tourists. Which i promptly learnt to be true when a monkey tore my shopping bag and made off with my pack of Smokey Barbeque crisps git He then sat on a lamp post watching me while he ate them. Ah well. Spent the day with a German dude called Peterwho li http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-412735.html This is the quickest post yet on some very expensive internet that is run by generators because the islands don't technically have electricity. The 4000 Islands have been great very hot but tomorrow we are on our way to Cambodia. We are taking a minivan to the border and then we are heading directly to Siam Riep. Today we saw the biggest waterfalls in South East Asia which were very impressi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Khong-Island/blog-412500.html Voil mijne rugzak is klaar nu nog naar de kapper voor een laosnit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/blog-412260.html Oh my god we step out of the minibus after having had a great catch up with some really great English girls to be faced with Ellie and Ade the guys we met in India and traveled with for 2 weeks in China. So random after many squeals of delight and much jumping up and down we spent the next few hours 5 catching up on each other escapades and laughing at the fact that they had 'done' Cambodia i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Tat-Lo/blog-412210.html Actually we didn't stay in Don Khong but Don Kon but its not on this thingySo we decided to travel in luxury for a change and treat ourselves to a 7am lay in so we booked a private bus to 4000 islands and then a boat to take us to Don Kon.The minibus overheated and broke down on the motorway and we had to sit there for 2 hours melting whilst the driver took out the engine and fan belt and all http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Khong-Island/blog-412200.html We got to town about 8.30am but there were no buses in sight and lets face it we were really trying our luck with this bit of the routeWe decided to try and hitch a ride. Not much luck people kept stopping but only to say they had no room. Until...........................................A really nice looking 4x4 pulled up and agreed to take us to Thakek. So we all slung our bags in the back http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Pakxe/blog-412199.html So off we go on a 4.30am tuk tuk to the out od town bus station to get the local 5am bus to somewhere in the middle of nowhere to get a tuk tuk to some little village in the middle of even more nowhereThe bus was actually fine clean and had reclining seats and air con at times and we got charged the local rateHowever the scenery was something new all the jungle gave way to fierce looking http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Tham-Lot-Kong-Lo/blog-412192.html So we embarked on our journey from Luang Nam Tha to Vientiane the capital city of Laos. The journey was due to take 22 hrs and they actually did it in 20in the end.We left on the bus at 7.30am durge and the bus was ik and pretty roomy. Within minutes we realised what we had let ourselves in for. A real white knuckle ride as an extra from chips with mirrored raybans and all sped off up and do http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-412180.html Hoi Nog even en het is zover. De rugzakken staan klaar een laatste checkup en we zijn drsquoer mee weg. Zaterdag om 17u vertrekken we met de trein richting Zaventem. Daar wacht ons een eerste vlucht naar Londen om 19u45 en vervolgens een nachtvlucht naar Bangkok. Daar zullen we aankomen zondag om 15u plaatselijke tijd 10u in Belgi. rsquos Avonds hopen we de nachttrein te nemen naar U http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/blog-412166.html