We survived the jungle!!! We had an early start on our first day to have breakfast before meeting the other 4 people on our trek plus our 4 guides. The other trekkers were a Belgium couple and an engaged Kiwi guy and Taiwan girl. Everyone seemed nice. When we were dropped off to start our trek it was quite fun. Our English speaking guide kept stopping to show us different plants. There was a plant that you took a leaf off and the stalk you could open and blow b...

Not much to report so far from Nong Khiaw. Apart from arriving early at the bus station to get here and the bus was setting off at the same time as it was full! Great! We had about 4 hours to kill in a bus station, not much fun! Nong Khiaw is quite small. We hired bikes yesterday to cycle about 2.5km to a dam, it wasn't that impressive although I think the last dam I saw was Hoover Dam! We also went to a Hmong village which was interesting and cycled up to a big...

Our first night in Nong Khiaw was not good. We had left the dim light on whilst we slept but there was a very loud storm during the night and the power went off. It was pitch black, hot and I could hear insects scuttling around us on the floor. It was not nice at all. Ben was surprised to see me up at 7am in the hammock reading. I was just glad to be out of that room and into the light! We hired a bike after breakfast to ride 2.5km to a nearby cave. It was a nice...

If we wanted something different and off the tourist track, then we certainly have that in Nong Khiaw. I'm not saying that we're the only the travellers here, obviously not. But it's certainly a far cry from everywhere we have been so far. The small town is set around both sides of the river with dramatic limestone cliffs and mountains completing the pretty view. We are staying in an extremely simple bamboo bungalow, with lots of insects, only a squat toilet, no...

After a week in Luang Prabang it's time to move on. Not least because our room has become a get together place for cockroaches and giant ants. Ben has been a hero taking them on! Today we took a slow boat up the Mekong river to visit the Buddha cave. We stopped on the way at 'Whisky village' where they make whisky believe it or not from fermented sticky rice. You could try a shot but it was about 9.30am so I passed. The Buddha cave is actually 2 caves, full of ...