Blogs from North, Laos, Asia - page 38

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Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha February 24th 2007

Finding enough people to form a group to go trekking with when traveling by ones self can sometimes be a problem but this time I was fortunate to meet a great bunch of people at the guesthouse and more already signed up when we looked into the eco-treks around Luang Nam Tha. There were eight of us in all, four lovely Israelis and four of us Europeans. I say the Israelis were lovely because by their own admission the Israelis have a bit of reputation for keeping to themselves. Two of them even decided to change their nationality on the booking because they were afraid nobody would want to join their tour! We laughed together at that but still they were determined to spread the word that not all Israelis are unfriendly. Personally I couldn't have ... read more
Lovely Ladies
Bikers
Making Paper

Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha February 17th 2007

Um 9.00 sollten wir bei Green Discovery sein, dem Veranstalter der Trekking Tour, aber vorher gab es noch ein bisschen leckeren Schokoladenkuchen zum Fruehstueck. Dann lernten wir Xai unseren Guide fuer die naechsten 2 Tage kennen. Zuerst ging es noch eine knappe halbe Stunde per Tuk Tuk zum Ausgangspunkt der Tour, bevor wir dann losstarten konnten, ausgestattet mit ausreichend Wassern und Verpflegung fuer das Lunch, inzwischen war es auch schon merklich waermer geworden. Das erste Stueck ging vorbei an Reisfeldern und Weideland bis wir nach einiger Zeit an ein sich im Aufbau befindliches Dorf kamen. Hier soll ein neues Akha Dorf entstehen, wohin die Akhas aus den Bergen umgesiedelt werden, hauptsaechlich um den Bergregenwald vor weiteren Rodungen schuetzen zu koennen. Nach einem weiteren Stueck erreichten wir dann den wirklichen Uebergang in den Nam Ha National Park ... read more
Akha Kinder
Akha Dorf
Akha Koch

Asia » Laos » North February 15th 2007

Il y a longtemps que nous avons donné signe de vie. Si notre mémoire est encore fiable, nous étions dans la charmante ville de Vang Vieng, située entre Vientiane et Luang Prabang. Notre séjour fût sensationnel. Nous avons profité du soleil en se prélassant sur des tubes en descendant une rivière de la région. N'ayant pas déclenché en nous une montée d'adrénaline suffisante, nous avons donc récidivé la descente deux jours plus tard, mais en kayak cette fois-ci. Après cette escapade, un choix s'imposait: se diriger vers le sud du pays ou remonter complètement dans le nord pour faire un trek de trois jours dont plusieurs voyageurs vantaient le mérite!!! Après mures réflexions, nous avons pris la décision d'aller vivre cette exceptionnelle activité qu'est "l'Expérience Gibbons" En quoi consiste la fameuse "Expérience"? C'est en fait, deux ... read more
Luang Prabang, Laos
Luang Prabang, Laos
Luang Prabang, Laos

Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha February 12th 2007

Nach der Ausreise aus Thailand in Chiang Kong ging es hinunter zum Mekong, wo schon die Longtail Boote warteten, um einen auf die andere Seite des Mekongs hinueber zu bringen, nach Huay Xai, dem Tor zu Laos quasi, wenn auch ein etwas verschlafenes. In Huay Xai angekommen, zuerst zur Immigration wegen Visa, ein paar Dollar in Kip getauscht und schon war ich Millionaer, wenn auch nur Kip Millionaer (Kurs 1$ = 10.000 Kip) und noch ein Guest House fuer die Nacht gesucht. Huay Xai selbst, war jetzt nicht wirklich prickelnd, zog sich langgestreckt am Mekong entlang, eine Ansammlung von Haeusern und Huetten. Oben auf einem Huegel gab es ein Wat mit Kloster, von dem man einen guten Ausblick auf den Ort und Mekong hatte. Zum Sonnenuntergang selbst war die Dachterrasse auf unserem Guest House eine gute ... read more
Moench Gymnastik
Mobile Metzgerei
Markt in Luang Nam Tha

Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha February 12th 2007

We left Chang Mai and caught a mini bus to the border so we could cross into Laos at Huang Xai. It all went fine, despite us making the mistake of letting someone else organise our visas for us. Basically they took our passports, drove down to the border, got the visa for us, drove back up, then charged us $12 each for the privilege of them doing something we could easily have done ourselves. How to rip off a tourist in one easy step... Live and learn... We stayed the night in Huang Xai drinking beer with a great German girl called Sandra, the only German teacher in the capital of Mongolia, and responsible for running their German programme! Woken up by roosters crowing, blissfully unaware that it was only 5am, and obviously never having ... read more
River crossing
Cartman by waterfall
Burnt out Akha village

Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha February 11th 2007

At first glance Luang Nam Tha isn't much at all, however I did come to really like the little town after spending three days there. On the first afternoon I had a little walk down the main road and found an internet cafe which did the yummiest cakes, I thought that I would be good and not have the really delicious looking chocolate cake and have the banana cake (which was really tasty) but every other day when I returned there was never any chocolate cake left - I was most disappointed! The first morning I had more of a walk around the town and I tried to use the phone to call a place within Laos, I thought that I might need to buy a phone card but it seems that you have to go ... read more
Stupas
Padi fields on the way to the waterfall
The waterfall

Asia » Laos » North » Muang Sing February 8th 2007

Ah, good morning Mr. Rooster. How I lover you! At the crack of dawn the hill tribes villagers gather from miles around to sell their wares at the local market and then scatter back home all before 9 AM. I checked out the hustle & bustle & grabbed a sweet treats for breakfast & then met the group for our two day trek--4 Israelis, Gary the Canadian, Dieckland the Irishman, Valentin the Italian & Tyler the American. We took the difficult route up to an Akaa village & difficult it was as we had about 7 hours of hiking ahead of us. We passed through two small villages along the way & even those only about 1-2 hours from town functioned completely in the traditional way--no electricity, no running water, sanitation. The only trademark of the ... read more
John Deere?
Village Life
Akaa Girl

Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha January 13th 2007

When I last wrote (ok, that was last night) I had been catching up on about 8 days worth of travel, I nearly got there, but there is still more, so I'll quickly try to get some more done now, then I'll make tracks to my next destinaton. I think I might have mentioned that I had travelled a bloody long way to Houy Sai (or any other variation of spelling of it) hoping to get on to the Gibbon Experience, but wasn't successful, so I had to see what I could do to try to change my plans. I was so disappointed and pretty pissed off with the Gibbon Experience people as I had told them the dates I wanted, and although they had responded to my email, they hadn't taken it as a booking ... read more

Asia » Laos » North » Phongsali December 16th 2006

On the first morning of my trek I met my guide, Sook, at my hotel for breakfast. He was a good guy, very earnest, and just passable in English. More importantly, he was trilingual in Lao, Punoi, and Laosang, which would cover most of the areas in which we would be trekking. He also had a most irritating habit of laughing if he didn’t understand me and laughing again whenever I rephrased the question in simpler terms. We got along well though, and I avoided strangling him because he was such a nice guy. After breakfast we walked to the market where I picked up the two necessities of trekking - a flashlight for finding a convenient place for night time ablutions (toilets don’t exist in mountain villages, or any Lao villages for that matter) and ... read more
Akha woman returning from the market
Leaving Phongsaly
Kids and their toys

Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha December 3rd 2006

juz jestesmy w Laosie, rozbici jestesmy 5km od miasta niedaleko wodospadu. Jest cieplo, nie pada, jest spokoj, wszystko toczy sie powoli, jest malo ludzi. Spimy, strzelamy z luku , jezdzimy na rowerach, w tym raz dziennie do miasta, strzelamy z procy, bawimy sie z lokalnymi dziecmi. NIE robimy zdjec. Jest super. Zamienilem zreszta z jednym dzieciakiem moj tybetanski kapelusz na proce. Obie strony byly bardzo zadowolone. A Laos juz widac, ze caly jest super. A dzisiaj na wycieczce rowerowo-gorskiej, zaliczylem efektowna glebe przez kierownice, ze caly jestem czerwony od ziemi. Brak obrazen. Zaliczylem tez kilka innych efektownych polgleb, jedna ze zsunieciem. Jeszcze po takich terenach na rowerze nie jezdzilem. O dziwo ludzie mowia niezle po angielsku, ale moze dlatego, ze pelno bialasow w tym miescie. Jest ciemno 13h, wiec palimy sobie wieczorem ogniska. W zasadzie nic ... read more




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