http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Laos en-us Wed, 02 Dec 09 10:30:06 +0000 Wed, 02 Dec 09 10:30:06 +0000 Salut tout le monde Le 21 au matin on avait prevu de se louer une moto pour faire le tour des plus interessantes chutes du plateau bolaven mais le gars a la location nous a suggere de partir deux jours. On a pas ete tres difficile a convaincre etant donne que Pakse n'a pas grand chose a offrir. D'abord on est parti sur une moto dont l'odometre ne marchait pas on est donc revenu pour en av http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Tat-Lo/blog-456900.html We get dropped off at the bus station in Vientiane the capital of Laos. Driving through town in our open air shared taxi we were thinking this is more Little Snoring than London. As capital cities go this has to be the quietest most laid back one on the planet. Even the taxi drivers don't toot their horns or tell you their life story.We landed on our feet with the Mixay Guesthouse as breakfas http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-456647.html Took me 9 hours to ride the bike from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang mainly cos I kept stopping to look at the scenery Almost went over the cliffs a few times oggling the landscape amazing scenery Got a bit worried at one point cos all the men walking alongside the mountain roads appeared to be carrying guns that looked suspiciously like AK47 Assualt rifles But they seemed friendly enough Most http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-456498.html Hi allThanks for all your lovely messages its really good to hear from you all. It feels like we've had an eventful time since last writing. We crossed the Thai border and took the slow boat down the Mekong river for 2 days to Louang prabang it was a lovely way to travel becasue of the scenery howeverthe overnight stop wasn't great we arrived in the dark had to drag our luggage up a rocky st http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-454558.html One of the things I appreciate about Laos and much of SE Asia is the amount of freedom and responsibility you are granted. You personally appraise the situation and based on that and perhaps advice from other travellers you 'do' or 'do not.' There isn't always this looming figure in the background making sure that you don't overextend youselfwe have been given the wherewithal and innate http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-454332.html Hi AllIts Laura this time picking up from Sam mid Laos. for Luang Prabang photos please see Vang Vieng blogWe had only heard good things about Luang Prabang and after the bus journey we needed it to live up to its expectations. It did. On arrival we found a place to stay with another British couple Andy and Carrie from Devon and met up with Naimh and Darragh again for food. Just walking t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-454183.html Good day all Sam here. Sorry itrsquos been a while since our last blog. We are currently in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand but first we must update you with the on goings of the beautiful Laos...After an uncomfortable few days in Vientiane which need no further describing we headed off north to the town of Vang Vieng. The journey was but a few hours long and we arrived at around midday. Up http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-453914.html We left the Gibbon reserve no worse for the wear and out on the paved road we parted company them back to Huay Xai and I on my way in a bus to a one night stopover Luang Namtha pronounced Namtah. I find that there is something about the actual process of 'traveling' air travel excluded which invigorates and revitalizes me. Passing the small villages and being privileged to observe peop http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-453266.html The fifth best thing about going to Laos is being able to say that yoursquove been.On returning home from your year away everybody you know will ask just two identical questions of your entire trip all the detail they can squeeze in before returning to the unrelenting pressures of their busy modern liveslsquoDid you have a good timersquoOooh no. Terrible. Irsquod much rather have bee http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-452582.html We hated to leave Luang Prabang but there are more adventures ahead for us. The choices for transportation between LP and Vientiane the capital are a 45minute plane ride or a 12hour more or less trip by public bus. Let's guess which one we opted for.... Were we backpackers we would have opted for the latter because about 23 of the way we would come to their favorite place in the whole http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-452562.html Today is the first day of our Mahout elephant trainer course.There are many elephant camps surrounding Luang Prabang and the number of elephant camps is growing despite the fact that elephants aren't native to this region. But tourists love the elephants and so the mahouts bring their elephants down from northern Laos the word Laos means a million elephants to give paying tourists a ta http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-452152.html From Chiang Mai I took a bus to the border and the next morning I got onto the slow boat that would take me on a two day trip down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. There were a whole bunch of other travellers taking the boat too and I got chatting to a few of them sitting near me a process made a lot easier when the beers were broken out around lunchtime. The slow boat was pretty relaxed and t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-451904.html LaosOn arrive Ventiane la capitale dortoire. C'est trs petit et plutt tranquille. Bye Bye Ventiane.Dans le voyagement je rencontre un Francais vraiement sympa qui s'appelle Josselin. Je suis donc maintenant accompagn d'un bon pot et d'une amoureuse... Merveilleux non Alors pour plus de plaisir on doit aller Vang Vieng. C'est une petite ville 3 rues de jeunes touristes dbauchs o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-451761.html laos is echt geweldig vooral het noorden aan de grens met China. Urenlang in de bus langs bergpadjes en geen kilometer vooruitgaan. met een klein bootje op de mekong tussen die geweldige bergen. de mensen zijn misschien niet altijd even vriendelijk in het noorden maar alleszins wel echt. Onderweg verschillende toffe mensen tegengekomen. reizigers waarvan enkele zeker en vast vrienden geworden zij http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-451371.html I don't know if anyone caught it but we never did get to take part in the festivities in Chiang Mai. It was my main reason for going there and the main reason for timing our trip when I did but things happen and plans have no choice but to change. For those who would like to know about Loy Kratong please read this great blog that was posted by someone else there at the same time httpwww.t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-451149.html I'll start from the end and then return to the forest trek. Yesterday at the evening right after we returned from the trek i went to a travel agency in order to check possible flight dates from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap. At the agency i learned that there are no available flights at the days i was looking for 34 days starting 8.11 and that my best option is to cut one day of Luang Namta plan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-450927.html Today was all about biking the Luang Namta area to explore the town visit some temples a few villages and one so called waterfall. Nothing new or overwhelming but definitely satisfying Tomorrow i am starting a 3 days foresttrek in the Nam Ha national park. The group made up of 6 tourist Australia France and Israel one or two englishspeaking local guides and ethnic local guide one t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/North/Luang-Namtha/blog-449917.html As planned yesterday we spent our day swimming at the Kuang Si waterfalls visiting Bear Rescue Centre near by and wandering around Luang Prabang at the eve time. Short photo report attached for your entertainment. Today after 8 hours ride in a minivan i arrived at Luang NamTa. Tomorrow i am biking the area and looking for partners for the forest camp trek. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-449670.html So.. after Thailand we took the ferry across the Mekong river into Laos Huay Xai where we booked onto a 2 day slow boat heading south to Luang Prabang before we had even cleared immigration. The process was both very convenient and somewhat muddled as we and others queued up to fill in visa applications we were helped through by friendly tour operators selling boat tickets while ensuring you http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-449133.html One of the best things the French left behind for backpackers anyway was the 10000kip baguette. 80c in other words for a full baguette. The choice of filling is simple and revolves around chicken or bacon and a bit of simple salad They fry the bread first before filling it just to make it extra tasty. Luang Prabang has more baguette roll stands than it needs. This does not take away from the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-448914.html