The bus transfer to Vientiane, Laos on 14th July was pretty comfortable with very scenic views for most of the journey. In all, we were only (!!) on the road for 3.5 hours. On arrival at Vientiane, we were harassed by tuk tuk drivers - so no change there then - but managed to barter a good price to the Hotel Beau Rivage. The hotel had a boutique feel (unlike the Grace Boutique Guest House we stayed at in Chiang Mai) with great views across the Mekong River. It se...

Greetings all We have now arrived in Vang Vieng, Laos – the South East Asia home of river tubing. This consists of being ferried 4km upstream on the Nam Song river by tuk-tuk. Upon arriving, you are greeted by 3 bars selling beers and cocktails with music blaring. The aim is then to jump into your tractor inner tube and float back to town. On the float back, various bars throw bottle of water attached to ropes. The aims is for them to entice you into the bar f...

Hello all So we arrived in Phonsavan on Saturday 10th July with the main purpose of seeing the Plain of Jars; 160 individual Jar sites (>4,000 Jars in total) which are large limestone containers - many believe they may be funerary urns. Phonsavan is the closest town to the Plain of Jars. The transfer required a 6-hour minivan journey through some wonderful terrain. The journey was pretty hellish as the driver insisted on opening the windows rendering the airc...

During the 8 hour journey to Luang Prabang, the overloaded boat (seems to be a common theme out here) stopped a few times. At one point, a local got on causing a number of passengers to walk to the left side of the boat; should others have followed we may have capsized. A woman then walked through with a large fish flapping around. There were then shrieks from the front; another Lao women appeared carrying, by its leg, a large rat type animal called a Len. Like t...

We arrived in a rather non-descript one street town called Pak Beng, Laos after a 6 hour boat journey. The town basically sprang up to support the travellers that choose the Chiang Kong river route crossing into Laos. One of the “must things to do” is to travel by longboat on the Mekong River. During the journey, the boat was definitely overcrowded with people having to sit on the floor. Never again will we complain about Ryanair and Easyjet seats! Look...