“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling
Early start for a 4 hr bus ride to Vientiane, although this one went quicker as we had all the photos of yesterdays tubing to laugh at. Along the way we stopped at a fishing village, which was unfortunately entirely pervaded [...]
Posts Tagged ‘laos’
Something fishy – Vientiane, Laos
Tubing – Vang Vieng, Laos
From Vang Vieng we wandered a short way down the river to some caves, supposedly inhabited by a hermit who in an effort to discourage visitors had built his home at the top of 147 steps*. (* I know there are 147 steps as two of us counted on the way up before turning round [...]
Friends – Vang Vieng, Laos
Today was the first of the long bus rides, this one 6 hours. Fortunately there was some great scenery to distract us and some frequent stops in villages along the way. One of the villages seemed quite odd, with people making roof thatching for their house, overshadowed by a huge satellite dish.
Stopped for lunch in [...]
Masterchef – Luang Prabang, Laos
Everyone else had an undeserved lie-in whilst I got up and went to a cookery course at the Tum Tum Cheng restaurant and cooking school. It started off with a shopping trip to a local Market where we walked amongst the rotting fishes and fresh vegetables, getting an understanding of the different ingredients (and swearing [...]
Early Start, Late Finish – Luang Prabang, Laos
Up early to get down to the town’s museums. Luang Prabang houses the kings home, now a museum of gifts of state. These range from beautiful Japanese murals to a model of the moon lander from the US that looked as though a kid had failed to copy a Blue Peter egg box and Fairy [...]
Better food – Luang Prabang, Laos
Hotel breakfasts in Vietnam usually consists of square sliced white bread with an unpleasant odd sweet taste, and a cold fried egg. Despite Pak Beng being in the middle of nowhere this morning we were given freshly baked baguettes with unsalted butter and jam. Hopefully a taste of things to come and a sign that [...]
Slow Boat to Laos – Pak Beng, Laos
We walked to the Thai-Laos border where we discovered the most huge chinese tour group, all wearing matching hats, coats and bags in a fetching shade of green.
Also saw a dog in a negligee which I guess is Vietnamese food porn.
A speedy long boat transferred us to the other side where we jostled with a [...]
Trekking in Thailand – Chang Mai, Thailand
Flew into Bangkok, then straight up to Chang Mai where we boarded a small raft that carried us up river to the meeting point. It was only a group of 5 and immediately divided up into me and a canadian girl called Sara, a married welsh couple and the scary ex-army psycho. The couple kept [...]
