Blogs from Luang Prabang, West, Laos, Asia - page 4

Relax while drifting down the mighty Mekong river for two days on a slow boat. Nothing to do but watch the world go by. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it? The reality was a little different! We used Easy Trip to make this journey. They are the Thai arm of Discovery Laos , and their office was conveniently located just round the corner from our hotel in Chiang Khong. When they collected us at 0830 in a brand new pick up, so new the plastic covers were still on the seats, we suspected we might have paid too much! First we were taken to Thai immigration on one side of the Friendship Bridge which links Thailand to Laos. Those formalities completed, we waited for a bus to take us over the bridge to Laos immigration. This time there ... read more

Geo: 19.8841, 102.142Susie's week Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Their sole aim is to provide a better life for elephants that have suffered under the hand of humans that use elephants as slaves in the logging industry, entertainment in circuses, transport and entertainment in the tourism industry and for begging in the streets. As a part of the volunteering week the park showed us some videos that truely represent what these poor animals go through. To put it lightly, babies are taken from their mothers at a very young age, tied into a cage and tortured for 4 to 7 days, even more depending on how compliant they are. The reason for this is so that they literally beat the spirit out of them. What is left ... read more

We had a free day today to do whatever we wanted to do. Yesterday afternoon, Libby had mentioned to Katy that she would like to go to the silk and hand-made paper factory and the handicraft village. Anita said she would like to go too, so I tacked on to the party as well. The cost for the tour was $USD40 so, between the 5 of us, it equated to $USD8 each. Rick, Dave and Joe had thoughts of going to play golf but, when Kathy made enquiries, the cost was prohibitive at somewhere between $USD120-$USD140 for 18 holes – a ridiculous price so, all bets were off. In the finish, Dave and Ted also came along with us girls, whilst (Mr) Kit took us around once again. Rick and Joe ended up walking up some ... read more

Today is our first full day in Luang Prabang, after arriving here late yesterday afternoon. Today we have to be in the lobby by 8-30am as we have several places to visit this morning before we head off to visit the Kuang Si waterfalls this afternoon. Breakfast at the hotel is included during our stay and, Ted and I headed to the dining room at about 10 to 8. We had a minimal selection of choice and there was a mixture of western and Lao food, on offer. Orange juice (super sweet), eggs, little sausages, pork, I think, bread (no toaster), butter and jam. There was also a small selection of Lao food, which I didn’t even contemplate so, just went for the eggs and sausages.. As usual, Ted and I had our Vegemite and peanut ... read more

I was up with the dawn, ie around 5.00am to watch the tak bat, the morning round of alms giving where locals line the road to give sticky rice to the monks as they file past. This morning there were around 250 monks lined up. It is quite a moving site to see some of the very old people who get up every morning at dawn to give to the monks and have done so for most of their lives, perhaps with a break of a few years when the Pathet Lao first came to power and religion was banned. I then did my final lap of the town before going back to the Saffron restaurant to sample their French toast with coconut and mango. You gotta love Lao food, especially the French influence. Organised to ... read more