Blogs from Savannakhet, South, Laos, Asia - page 5

I wanted to get me some Ho Chi Minh Trail so I finally hauled my ass to Sepon. It was long overdue but due to some laundry issues and DIARRHOEA dito my B-hind got stuck in Shitsavannakhet for longer than I wanted to. It was nice leaving that gate to Hell, where everything went south for me. However, I had a long ride with the dreadful local bus ahead of me. Five hours on a piece of a shit thing... To my horror I noted that this one had a TV-monitor at the front of the bus. Shit! The only thing that was positive so far with these rolling pieces of junk were that they didn't feature the famous karaoke-videos. Off we went and after a couple of hours I was getting a bit grumpy from ... read more

(Day 230 on the road)Wow, I have just bought a motorbike here in Laos and will be riding across the country for the next month or so - I am extremely excited! Actually, we have bought three bikes, as it is three of us: Karen, Harriet and me. Karen and I had been travelling together twice in China, and Harriet and I climbed Hua Shan together and did a Yangtze river cruise back in June. Whilst I travelled in Japan and Korea, they met and went to explore Vietnam and Cambodia. Now, we found ourselves to be in Laos at the same time, so we decided to team up and meet here in Savannakhet. To get to Savannakhet from Vientiane, I took a bus. As there are absolutely no trains in Laos, the decision was an ... read more

PART TWO So this part covers Laos. I've been here three weeks now, so it's a looong story. So we slept one night at the border still in Thailand: Chiang Khong. We had our last nice meal, because I have to admit, if Thailand is good for something, it must be the food. It's delicious! The next day, we took the boat over the mekong (5 minutes) to Houei Xai. Apparently they still love the French after the colonisation because french people pay 30 USD for their visa and poor Belgians pay 35 USD! After that we took a hobbly-bobbly bus through the Northern mountains to reach Luang Nam tha in six hours. On the way, we suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere. People got out of the bus. We didn't really know what happend... ... read more

Savannakhet is a medium-size urban town of about 50,000 with the feel of a place that was once more elegant and important than it is now. During French colonial days it was the center of commerce for southern Laos. Savannakhet is set on the Mekong River, and the county of Thailand can clearly be viewed, looking like the future, not 500 feet across the river. Unlike in Luang Prabang, Savannakhet’s many gorgeous colonial style buildings are being allowed to disintegrate. Reminds me of the photos I’ve seen of bombed out buildings in Europe after WW2. These elegant buildings, once lived in by the very rich or governors or ambassadors are now dilapidated: all the paint peeled off, the cement crumbling, big yards full of weeds and cows, and Lao families living inside. Many newer homes and ... read more

1- People do actually wash in the river and even manage to do this with their clothes on.. 2- Laos needs even more bargaining skills and even when you think you actually got it your way you still realise later on that you still paid too much... - bummer! 3- Washing machines are scarce and lately we have been washing all our clothes by hand... squatting in the shower with water everywhere and raw knuckles from scrubbing... Backpacking is fun right! 4- Lao people can party hard with lots of Beer Lao and Opium pipes but at 10pm the music is off and they all get going again at 5am the next morning like nothing happened.. 5- All kids have snot on their noses and none of them wear 'pampers'... IEUUWW 6- Goats, cows, chickens, pigs ... read more