Little Town of Luang Prabang Luang Prabang, another town with a funny name, lies on the banks of the Mekong river, in the northern part of Laos. We arrived there after a "short" bus ride from Vang Vieng which took 6 hours. It might sound a bit weird to call it short, a time in which one can easily make the Metula-Eilat way, but that's another interesting thing about backpacking - time loses its conventional meaning and becomes "fluid". 4 hours are considered really short, 10 hours are nothing to worry about and even 15 hours night rides are not that bad. We did lots of these during this trip and found ourselves sleeping quitely even under the most inconvinient conditions. Different propotions I guess. The town was Laos capital long ago but it is not ... read more

Back To The Future In Urban Bangkok Landing in a huge modern metropolitan such as Bangkok after spending more than eight months in "real" third world countries was a confusing experience for us. On one hand, it was so much fun entering a brand new supermarket with everything from fruits to microwave ovens and see Lily, with shining eyes and dazed smile, running enthusiastically between its raws. On the other hand, it was a bit shocking return to a hectic city with everyone around running from one side to god knows where. It left us a bit dizzy, literally. Now, those of you who have already visited Bangkok know what I mean. Those who haven't, well, forget about religious atmospheric Buddhist town as it once was. You can still find there some of the finest golden ... read more

Hampi is one of these places you know you'll get to, when you still plan your journey. It came to my attention due to somewhat tragic circumstances - an Israeli traveller drowned in its lake about a year ago. I remeber myself sitting to lunch with Shahar B. Inbar and Tali, my ex-colleagues, as I read about it in the newspaper. I later asked other people about it and was told Hampi is "a quite place with huge stones, cool lake and beautiful sunsets". Enough for me to include it in our plan. So we took the night bus from Goa to get there. Although we're talking about a Sleeper Bus, the one you can lie down full-body in, we hardly slept during the 12 hours ride. Lets say that it's a bit difficult to do ... read more

Everest Base Camp Trek After coming back from the tedious Around Annapurna trek, we had serious doubts whether another long trek as the Everest Base Camp would fit in. It took us some time to decide, back in Kathmandu, time we spent eating like hogs, filling our empty stomachs. Lily, having read many crazy books about mountain climbers and their fatalities on the Everest, was keen to go, but we both wondered wouldn't it be better to just relax on a sunny beach instead. Goa and Andaman Islands both sounded like tempting options... Eventually, we decided not to give up to ourselves and took a plane to Lukla, the starting point for the trek. Nepal has some of the world's greatest mountain views to which you cannot stay indifferent. The country also offers great facilities for ... read more

In-Between Treks in Kathmandu & Pokhara cut the bulshit, ktm is nothing about siteseeing. it's all about food, fun and atmosphere.. ye ye u can go see the stone bird cos of galit atari and even the temple of monkeys, which we did and almost got bitten by them but... The Title is taken from Cat Stevens song "Kathmandu", a sentimental song we hummed every time we returned to the capital. In the 70's Stevens, then a Christian, was a member of the Hippi movement which settled in Kathmandu, mainly in the legendary 'Freak Street' zone. They later moved on to Goa in India, but their spirit is still felt in this atmospheric city. ... read more