It has been a while since I last updated this as most of the computers are rubbish here! Anyway I left Kong Lor in central Laos with two other people from the guesthouse. We were told a bus would do a pick up at about 7 but that was all we knew. At about 8 a tuktuk thing pulled up so we squeezed on board with all the workers and trundled off back to Kuan Kham. Another tuktuk later we were on the junction of route 13 - the main road that leads to the very sout...

I was up at the crack of dawn once again in order to get one of the 3 extremely early buses to Ban Khuan Kham in central Laos. My mission was to get to the Kong Lo cave in the Khammuan province. It was so early that most of the tuktuk drivers in Vientiane were still asleep so there was no hope of finding one with passengers, waiting to fill up! Why are the bus stations so far out of town? Anyway, once on the bus I thought I'd be the only non-Laoatian until 3 ...

I left Luang Prabang (shrouded in cloud) early last Saturday morning and took the "local" bus to Vientiane. It's cheaper and a lot more interesting than the tour busses. So I sat back to enjoy the amazing mountainous scenery and to listen to some of my music when Lo! All of a sudden the driver put on this dreadful Laoatian kind of soft rock type music on FULL BLAST!! It was truly horrendous but there was nothing I could do. I mean, why couldn't he p...

This blog is a long time coming but I have hellish problems with the computers in this country. I won't go into any detail - I'll just try again! It is a week since I left Luang Prabang but I shall try to remember what I did anyway. The first morning I was there was hot, rather sticky but beautifully sunny. I wandererd around, trying to get a feel for the city and took a look at a few wats (there are several!) Then suddenly at midday the wind got up and it sta...

I am now in busy Luang Prabang having been cut off from the world for a few blissful days. I left Luang Namtha on an old local bus that had a rather cranky sounding gearbox but it was still lovely to sit back and observe the scenery. So many winding mountain roads with everyday village life carrying on by the roadside, it was quite relaxing between the grinding noises. Also on the bus were 2 of the Swiss girls I met on the trek although I left them to carry on...