Laos

We have been in Laos for the past week. After flying in to Luang Prabang, we had a few days there to look around. It is a really nice city on the Mekong River with a great climate at this time of year. As usual we explored on foot and spent a good deal of time sipping fruit shakes in the riverside restaurants.

From Luang Prabang we bused to Vang Vieng, a smaller town on the Nam Sung River surrounded by limestone hills and caves. It has become a travel destination centred on adventure activities. Some of our highlights included: renting a motorbike and touring around the back roads and rice paddies and tubing 5 km down the river. The tubing is madness as the river is lined with bamboo hut bars and the 2 hour journey takes much longer than one would think. The bars have trapeze-style rope swings and ziplines, which is not a good mix for intoxicated travellers.... pretty scary.

Another highlight of our time in Vang Vieng was a day long kayak and caving trip. It was just the two of us with a guide and we kayaked 15 kilometers down the river and visited two caves. The caves were very impressive and small entrance holes lead to caves that stretch for kilometers. We were able to learn alot about Laos from our guide and in turn taught him some new English words.

Now we are in the capital of Laos called Vientiane. We arrived yesterday and have not yet discovered any real charm to the city. We were lucky to find a place to sleep last night as all of the rooms filled up quickly. We have a night-bus lined up for later today that will take us across the Thai border and down to Bangkok. From there we plan to hit the beach and stay there for the remainder of our time away. The daily moving around is taking its course and we are both ready for a real vacation now :)

For those of you who have been to Laos we are sorry to say that it is no longer the place that it was a few years ago. From backpacker stories, five years ago Laos was considered "off the beaten path" and was quiet adventurous. There are probably many destinations within this country that are still remote and less travelled, but our experience was not exactly what we were expecting. The hordes of travellers has resulted in a boom of tourist infrastructure and none of it seems to be dialed-in yet. The tourist buses and tour packages are mainly commission driven and are consistantly hours late. The guesthouses have blown up all over the place and so have their prices.... This is not meant to discourage anyone from touring this country, but just be aware that things have definitely changed.

We talk to you all in few days from down south.

Heather & Zay