Blogs from Laos, Asia - page 520

Been in Laos for close to two weeks now, every moment amazing. What a great country, constantly surprising me, constantly impressing me. From the slow boat down the Mekong Laos is: Jungle covered mountains, rice patties, speedboats ferrying passengers north and south wearing crash helmets and life jackets, small villages with little kids running along the river bank waving and jumping up and down, ice cold beer Lao, a flask of Thai Whiskey, uncomfortable seats and good conversation with people from all over the world stuck on the same boat as me for two days. From the local bus Laos is: Jungle covered mountains with clouds covering the peaks, rolling green hills, twisting and turning roads crossing mountains with shear drops and no guardrails, pine forests, small villages hugging the road, bamboo houses with thatch roofs, ... read more

Today we headed into the jungle for some Elephant Trekking. We were collected from our hostel at 8:30 and driven for about an hour in a sawngthaew along a road where a 4x4 would have been more practical, We even had to get out and walk up the hills!! We just didn't look at the drop by the side of the 'road'. We were in the truck with 3 Canadians who had been on the slow boat with us and a Scottish Vet who were all off walking in the Jungle, far to energetic for us! The elephant camp has been set up to help put tourist money into the local villages there is a small resort and resturant which employes local people and the attached elephant camp is run to provide homes for elephants who ... read more

After finding out that we weren’t booked onto the Gibbon experience, we basically had to sit tight and hope that we could capitalise on somebody else’s misfortune. We were told to come back and check on the evening of the 26th. The night before was spent stewing over the whole situation and by lunchtime on the 26th we had all pretty much come to terms with the fact that we couldn’t do it. I decided to kill some time by having a wander round Huay Xai to see if there was anything that took my interest. I stumbled across a temple called Wat Jom Khao Manilat. This temple is set at the top of a large hill overlooking the town. It is accessible via a large ‘naga’ flanked staircase. The temple itself is very nice and ... read more

For a country with the reputation as the most bombed nation on earth, Laos is certainly the most beautiful. Our bus ride ("bus" being a generous term; minivan is more apt) from Vang Vieng was both terrifying and breathtaking. The ride was six hours up a mist and jungle-covered mountain, around winding, twisty narrow roads with no guard rails and only our driver's expertise to keep us from skidding off the side of the mountain. I couldn't sleep a wink out of fear and every time we took a sharp turn, I held on to the handle of the door for dear life. Nathan was luckier in that his fear allowed him to sleep the entire ride. Luang Prabang is a beautiful, sleepy lakeside mountain town that is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. That means, ... read more

Just to let you know our plans for the next few days as it may be a while before we get a chance to update the blog again. We're spending the next 2 days in Luang Prabang, tomorrow we're going elephant riding then the day after we'll have a wander around and see the sights. After that we're heading down to Vientianne, which is going to be our base for the rest of our time. We hope to head up a big resevoir where you have to get to the hostel by kayak. Also we hope to go to a village that had an elephant problem as they were eating all their crops. Fortunately they've decided to make an eco-tourism project out of it rather than kill the elephants! And that will pretty much take up ... read more