by Jan After more than a week of partying, relaxing and watching films we were back on the road. It took us about eight hours to cover about 250 km to our next destination, Phonsavan, but that is what you get when you drive over the mountains in Laos (check out the map in satellite mode to see what I mean). On the last few journeys we got to see some interesting things. We always said that Slovenians can make alcohol out of anything (and we do, from fruits and veggies) but I guess we were wrong. I realized that when we saw bear schnapps, yes BEAR schnapps. A huge plastic bottle with pieces of a small bear in it. Gees! That is not all, we also saw snake schnapps, crickets and all sorts of other ... read more

by Jan Its our last day in Laos, but I am just getting around to write our first blog post about this forgotten country. We spent almost a month here and there is a lot to write about, but let's take it one step at a time and start at the beginning. From Thailand we crossed the mighty Mekong river and once on the other side we were in Lao PDR, which is now the official name of the country. The old, original name is Lan Xang Hom Khao (Million Elephants, White Parasol). If we didn't know that the river was also the border between the countries we would probably just walk straight from the pier without passing all the border formalities. By the looks of it you would never guess you are at the border ... read more

by Polona Leaving, or better yet escaping, the flooded Mae Sot we headed straight to Chiang Mai. Uncharacteristically for us we checked, prior to getting there, what hostels are good and cheap and we decided to go for Giant Guest House- a funky hostel with a huge advantage: they picked us up from the bus station . Arriving to Chiang Mai we called up the hostel and 15 minutes later a big black jeep stopped next to us at the station, driving it was Joe, the hostel's owner. He is the coolest guy – imagine Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean mixed with hard core hippy meets glam rock - that's Joe. There are two Giant hostels in Chiang Mai, one occupied by young English people, wanting nothing more than to party hard, and ... read more

by Jan In the last seven days we picked up the tempo again, sharing the time between three cities and in each and every one of them absorbing the historical sites from a (not so) distant past. From World War II, towards two previous capital cities of Thailand, each from its own era and its own collection of historical temples! This is one Speedo, a fun one, the origins of where we picked up the title and more about the other Speedo, later on in the blog. Kanchanaburi Our first stop on the Speedo was Kanchanaburi, a small city situated next to the river Kwai, home to the famous Death Railway Bridge, better know as the Bridge over the River Kwai, building of which was well documented in a movie titled in the same way. But ... read more

by Jan We didn't plan into too many details the things we want to do and see while on this trip, but one thing was certain before we left. We both wanted to experience the famous full moon party on Koh Pha-Ngan. We knew that all the islands in the area get really busy before the party so we had to book a place to stay a few weeks in advance. The first decision we had to make was where to stay, on the actual island or maybe "next door" on Ko Tao or Ko Samui. Asking friends for their recommendations didn’t help at all, as everybody had a different suggestion. After doing a lot of internet research we figured out it would be the easiest and cheapest to stay on the scene of the crime ... read more