Blogs from Ban Houayxay, West, Laos, Asia - page 8

As I made my north through Thailand, I pondered the numerous travelers that had raved about Laos, and decided to change my itinary and push on to Laos. However, as Laos is not reknowed for its transportation infrastructure, leaving Chiang Mai by minivan was merely the beginning of a long trek to get to Luang Prabang in Laos. In Chiang Mai, I was picked up by a minivan, with the events immediately following leaving me with a certain sense of foreboding about the upcoming ride. Right after being picked up, the young women sitting next to me worked herself into quite an elaborate tantrum when the driver asked her to close the window in a way that wasn't polite enough for her tastes, however, the driver wasn't rude, he just spoke broken English. As I sat ... read more

Our first 2 days in Laos were spent traveling down the Mekong River from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. We had heard great reviews of the "slow Boat" river trip and were looking forward to it. In the end though it was a bit of a letdown. The boat was seriously overcrowded and was more like a 18-30's holiday than a relaxing way to see the river. Huay Xai itself was a nice enough place to enter the country. It was pretty similar to other border towns and not a lot to do but had some great views over the river to Thailand. ... read more

Chiang Mai, oh Chiang Mai. The cultural capital of Thailand and probably the best place we have been to so far. It was the base for the trekking as well as being a party filled city. In all I saw the sights, experienced the relaxing cafes, bought books from the local famous book shops, got drunk once or twice and saw Thai kickboxing (incluindg 2 knock outs). Overall a wicked city, with a brilliant atmosphere- there just arent enough superlatives to grace this wondrous location in the heart of South East Asia!!! Inevitably we had to move on though. Next destination: Laos! The past 3 days have been all about travelling. Our first port of call was the Laos border town of Huay Xia, where we had to get 2 buses, 2 taxis and a ferry ... read more

After spending a really nice last night in Thailand in our wooden riverside guesthouse, we get up early to go through border control to get to our new country, Laos. This entailed a boat crossing over the Mekong into our new town, Huay Xai, where we quickly went through the town on a tuk tuk to board our river boat, which will be our method of transport for the next 2 days. after reading other comments from people saying that we would have to sit on wooden seats or on the floor for 2 days, i was pleasantly surprised to see that the boat was newly kited out with what appeared to be car seats. these were really comfy and we had a 60ft longboat just for our group which was nice. plenty of room to ... read more

Wow...where do I start!..I have to say seeing Laos has really opened my eyes to what I would call a most beautiful, untouched country... Through our experiences here we were quite often the only 'falang' in sight...in a town...on a bus...I have truely had a great cast of culturing... Laos, known in antiquity as the land of a million elephants...is an amazing place, still, you might say recovering from the endless wars - 400 years to date. The major one seeing the removal of the Soviet - installed hammer and sickle from the national seal to what is now know as the Peoples Democratic Republic... After staying the night in a 'border crossing' town - Chiang Khong, my new visa for Laos was organised in a matter of hours. Crossing the Mekhong River in a long ... read more