Blogs from Pakxe, South, Laos, Asia - page 6

We arrived to Pakse in the early afternoon. The city itself is one of the largest in the country with over 70.000 residents. But that doesnt mean its anything special. In fact, we found it quite boring and uninspiring. Still we decided to spend another day there, since we wanted to check out the local market, supposedly the biggest in southern Laos, and the nearby weaving village of Ban Sapphai. The market was truly big, but not much different from others weve seen on the trip. Ban Sapphai was a dissapointment. I expected to see lots of locals weaving and selling famed textiles but none of that happened. On Tuesday evening we were having our last meal at the Nazim restaurant, a branch of the "Nazim Empire" of Indian restaurants with cheap and quality Indian food. ... read more

Okay, lightning quick through this one as we were lightning quick through Laos. I am sat in the internet cafe in Pakse in southern Laos about to head into Thailand and we thought now would be a good time to tell you about Laos. Last time we spoke we had just left Ban Lung in Cambodia. The rather exciting news here is that we had to 'bribe' our way over two borders in ten minutes. Well, bribe is maybe a little strong. We were asked for one dollar each and we paid but it was still quite cool. The thing was that we were crossing this very remote border on a Sunday and the border guards requested 'overtime payment' (thier quotes, not ours). Of course it was corrupt but it just seemed easier to pay it ... read more

Woooooooow I can't believe how fast time has passed. The last few days have been very busy with Moving Forward. Indeed, in the last week, I have slept in 2 night buses or guest houses where I stayed one night each, so basically every single day has been spent travelling, I think I am beating a record of kilometres travelled by land. Ok maybe not the world record, maybe just my personal record (because people who travel for example on the transiberian express cover way more kilometres in a day, but they cheat as they just sit on the train). So what happenened since last time? I embarked on yet another night bus ride from Vientiane to Pakse in the south of the country. After my unfortunate experience on the night bus from hell with crappy ... read more

Vom 21. bis 23.7. verbrachten wir die Zeit in Pakse un seinem nahe liegenden Bolaven Plateau in der es viele riesige Wasserfaelle zu bestaunen gab... Die erste Nacht war noch sehr komisch, da wir so gut wie keinen Plan hatten was hier so ueberhaupt geht. Zudem waren die Strassen bei unserer naechtlichen Ankunft nach 6 Stunden Fahrt um 23Uhr in Pakse erstaunlich leer. Wir mieteten uns am naechsten morgen 2 Roller da mein Cousin Boui noch mit ist und fuhren am ersten Tag an 2 etwa 40km weit entfernte Wasserfaelle. Den Abend verbrachten entspannt am Mekong mit Essen und Beer Lao. Am 2. Tag gings dann ohne Boui zum Wat Phou, einer der beruehmtesten Tempel in Laos, da er unmittelbar an einer Bergquelle liegt und auch dementsprechend hoch. Wir beschlossen dann unsere letzte Nacht in Pakse ... read more

url='/Videos/4202.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4202.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Worley/Engleken LibraryRoss Worley and his partner Charles Engelken are board members of the Library Project of Vietnam. Their first library built in Laos is one of the most beautiful libraries around. This video shows some of the activities around and in the library. Notice the ramp going around the libary to the second floor. Most of the books are stored there in case of a flood. Most of the libraries in the library project are handicap accessable. This is the standard basic design of the Library Project of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.... read more