Blogs from Luang Prabang, West, Laos, Asia - page 154

Part 11 February 1 Luang Prabang I think you can develop a tendency in writing to seek to entertain, even if that means leaving aside some of the truth. But a blog seems like it should be more of real time reporting than an edited essay of highlights. While it seems like travel should be full of only the most pleasant times, at least for me, there are times when my innate characteristics get in the way of enjoying some of the special opportunities we are so lucky to have. One of the most predictable challenges for me is the transition to new countries, when I still have this internal desire to do as much as possible and feel a need to think through all possibilities to maximize our experiences (while simultaneously minimizing our spending). (While ... read more

You'll have to bear with me. Just one moment while I rant about the front page of this website. It lists many different entries from various points around the globe. Some are really interesting and others rather mundane. But today there is an old posting from New Zealand. You may remember our trip to NZ which was marked by frequent and troubling rain. There was also a paucity of marine life as we missed seeing both penguins and whales. So today there is a posting with pictures of the penguins which we did not see. These are exceedingly rare so we may never see them without a return to NZ at some time. So I have to yell out loud. Both in jealousy and frustration. We aren't on the front page and we didn't see ... read more

We left you in Thailand, in Chiang Mai. Since then we’ve had some amazing adventures. Lets start with our last few days in bustling Chiang Mai. Originally we’d decided to give the hill tribes a miss as we’d be seeing much more authentic (read way less touristy / westernised) tribes in both Laos & Vietnam. But after chatting to a number of new friends on the way, including many who had done Nam tribes as well as those in Thailand and said that the experiences were different enough to warrant doing both, thought we should do it in any case - and we’re really glad we did. We were very lucky as our tour guide (western name Charlie) was from the Hmong tribe & had also been a Buddhist monk - so much gentler than ... read more

I left Vientiane for Vang Vieng entirely unsure of what to expect - everyone I've met whose been to the latter either absolutely loves it, or absolutely hates it. It can apparently be described in three words: Beer-Lao, tubes, and Friends (please note the capital, it's an important distinction!) Regardless, I was excited to move on after spending entirely too much time in bed in my previous two locations. On the bus I met three Aussie girls (I love the eavesdrop-and-interject method of introduction... too bad it only works when backpacking), and happened to spend the next few days with them, so from this point on the blog pronoun will be "we". We quickly found a lovely guesthouse, had a quick bite to eat, and set off to take on the activity for which Vang Vieng ... read more

Claudette was out and about at 6am to watch the novice monks got out to gather their daily bread. Over 200 paraded down the street to collect their sticky rice and other food offerings. It is a real tourist attraction as several tour busses arrived or the spectacle. She had bout rice and fruit to hand out but didn't realize that one was to only hand out a handfull to each young boy so as to spread around the fferings. Breakfast was served by the smiling young lad at the hotel before our boat trp along the Mekong River. We traveled a few minutes up river to the anamist village of Ban Han where they make clay vessels for sale to hotels throughout SE Asia who use them as flower pots. This is an iniative of ... read more