Another challenging bus journey yesterday to Luang Namtha which is in the far north of Laos and close to the Chinese border. The road was very windy and had to go over about 3 mountain passes with long stretches of the road unsealed. The minibus had 3 spare seats at a point where the driver stopped to pick up a family of 7, inlcuding a babe in arms plus their two chickens. You couldn't make it up! Things were going fine until the mum started feeling very travel s...

Just got back from the elephant camp and what a fantastic experience! The camp itself is beautiful with lots of information on the conservation of elephants and lovely sala's and shady areas to sit in and of course the views are beautiful. The group for the mahout course was limited to 8 and we had a good group of 4 Australians and a Dutch couple with us. The first thing you do after a quick briefing is to take it in turns to have a go on the back of an elephant...

Happy new year from Luang Prabang! We arrived here on the 30th after a journey through some amazing mountain scenery. Luang Prabang itself feels like a very special place and the whole of the old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are temples at every turn and the old quarter really does feel like you have stepped back a couple of decades. Then again all of Laos feels a bit like that! We spent yesterday looking at most of the main sites including some b...

Have been in Vang Vieng since the 27th. It's certainly different to anywhere else in Laos with stunning scenery, huge mountains, cave systems and of course the chance to go tubing down the river. We spent yesterday on a trip that took us to some of the caves, tubing (floating on a huge inner tube) inside some of the caves and then an afternoon of kayaking on the river. Today we did the tubing down the river. I don't think you could come to Vang Vieng without doi...

Got to Vientiane early yesterday after getting the night bus. Have enjoyed this chilled out and relaxed city since then. With the temperature at 30+C it's hard to think about it being Christmas Day but a lot of staff in the various restaurants are wearing Santa hats so that keeps reminding us. Everything is open as usual so we got our 60 day visas for Thailand sorted today as we will need longer than the usual 30 days you get on arrival. Had a lovely Christmas ...