Blogs from West, Laos, Asia - page 7

It's been approximately four years since my last blog entry but, alas, it is time to start it up again. A lot has happened in the past four years. After finishing up my post in Malawi, I then went back to the United States, finished some pre-med requirements, and started medical school at the University of California-Irvine. Last summer I had the amazing opportunity to go to Tanzania with ten of my classmates to teach ultrasound technology to 100+ clinical officers and other healthcare providers in the town of Mwanza on Lake Victoria. The trip ended with a safari in the Serengeti/Ngorogoro and a treacherous hike up Mount Kilimanjaro. While I did not blog about these experiences, the most memorable was probably getting food poisoning on my first day up Kilimanjaro and forcing myself to make ... read more

We got dropped off in the centre of Vientiane and were just walking up the road to our hostel when we bumped into some friends we had made tubing, Yvonne and Freddie from Frankfurt, who happened to be staying in the same hostel. We checked into a dorm and picked up two more people (Tano from Vietnam and Simon from Germany) who were single travellers and headed out for a drink. We all sat together in a bar overlooking the night market and then headed to a local street food restaurant. Wow, Laos food can actually be tasty when you go to the right place! Next day was a bit miserable and drizzly so we all sat chatting at the hostel waiting for some sun. Eventually it came and we explored a few temples, some monuments ... read more

Our stop over in Chiang Mai consisted of buying an excessive amount of snacks, some water and dollars. We just spent that night at the guesthouse playing cards and drinking beer :D. The next morning we were picked up (an hour late) for our journey to Luang Prabang in Laos. After we went through the border we were dropped off on on what initially looked like a normal bus but we were pleasantly surprised that it was a sleeper bus and was amazing! It was basically a normal bus divided into upper and lower decks with sections for 2 people to lay down and sleep. A relatively comfortable journey and we woke up in the very gorgeous Luang Prabang, a city that runs across the Mekong River and its tributaries. We decided to walk from the ... read more

Leaving Phonsavan behind on the local bus ($95,000kip) I entertained myself on the eight hour journey by looking at the mesmerizing scenery of jagged limestone jungle covered mountains on the winding road. The winding road however also led to a number of children getting sick all around me. I again was entertained. Sounds strange, but you have to do something to occupy yourself on these long bus rides. My destination - Vang Vieng. The legendary backpacker party village all centered around tubing down the Nam Song River. Anything used to go here. You could do and get anything. That was until 22 tourists died last year and countless others before that. The Lao government torched all of the zip lines, jump platforms, and bars on the river. The party does still go down in town, but ... read more

We are now half way through our tour and I still can't believe it. I really have to keep telling myself that we are in Asia, and especially in Laos. I never thought I'd ever come here, but it really is amazing. The food has really been incredible and the people are so friendly. I knew I would enjoy myself and find Asia interesting, but I never knew I would be having this much fun and learning so much and having such a great time doing it. Today is our only full day in Vientiane, Laos so we started a day with a tour of the city. Of course our first stop is a local temple. Our guide joked with us that OAT does not stand for Overseas Adventure Travel, but stands for Oh, Another Temple. ... read more