Blogs from Laos, Asia - page 557

Finally out of Hanoi...I get on the plane excited for new and beautiful Lao. What's this? the stewardess is handing out arrival forms? what's this? it says visa number. I grab my Laos Lonely planet. Sure thing. You need a visa to get into Laos and you're supposed to apply for it in advance. My heart is pounding, my hands are sweaty. I contemplate trying to explain to the stewardess the situation but decide against it. I rationalize that the worst thing that can happen is A) they send me back to Vietnam B) make me take a flight somewhere else or C)throw me in a Lao Prison...I was praying for the one of the first two Turns out I'm just a spaz and that you can buy arrival visas at the airport, which the ... read more

Hi all! Welcome to our continuing journey...Moving on from Luang Farang we headed to Phonsavan to check out the mysterious Plain of Jars by public bus, If you've read prior entries you will know that buses are usually adventures in and of themselves. The highlights of this particular journey were a stop in a small village where a walk through one of the kitchens revealed the lunch fare- including monkeys and monitor lizrds. Needless to say we were thrilled to have packed bread and cheese! The road was 8 hours long through about 3 million curves at approximately 1500 meters up. Our only blessing was that, since it was a public bus, it could only go so fast (10 km/hr) and so we were only partially scared out of our wits along the way. The other ... read more

Okay, so I never was the best at saying grace - but only now do I really, really understand how lucky we are to have food - and water - so readily available - with so little effort. Unlike Chiang Mai which is incredibly touristy and now almost farcical, with traditional villagers now westernised and ‘play-acting’ their old roles, we had heard that Laos was a lot less developed, less changed, and much more ‘authentic’. We had originally hope to travel to the North, more remote parts of Laos, like Muong Sing, to really get a flavour of how Laotian hill tribes traditionally lived. Unfortunately after the death trap of the ‘speed boats’ ( I neglected to mention that it was published that many deaths occurred on these each year - Brendon has since been told ... read more

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