Within the last 2 weeks I had the 2 worst bus journeys ever, the first one was 4 hours of agony on a bumpy road, trapped on the back bench of a beaten up minivan from Oudomxay to Nong Khiaw (with the mandatory several puking-out-of-the-window Laotians you'll have on every bustrip).
It wasn't the luckiest part of the trip: boat traffic to Luang Prabang was suspended - so no chance to see this famous stretch of the Nam Khan river from the boat. The only boat trip I did in the end was to Muang Gnoi, 1 hour upriver from Nong Khiaw. Nevertheless, it was very picturesque, Nong Khiaw is a nice chilled-out village (no cars), but unfortunately it started to rain and got really chilly at night. Next morning I heard all trekking tours to the surrounding limestone mountains were cancelled because of dangerously slippery paths and leeches. I was not tempted to venture out by myself.
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So the only thing to do was to take a bus to Luang Prabang, the lovely French-colonial capital of the province. And there were lots of treats to have in this town: Lao massages, food in all variations (even though I saw some pretty gross things at the local market - check out the pics), and my favorite: the fish spa! Also plenty of Wats (temples) and the traditional ceremony of the alms-giving to the monks at 6 a.m.
Next stop: party town Vang Vieng. Was fun, met nice people, saw caves, swam in lagoon, went on tube & kayak and had more Lao and LaoLao than was good for me. So next leg: down south to tranquil 4000 islands for some recovery.
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Spent the next couple of days exploring the island of Don Det and Don Khon and another day of rather demanding but fun kayaking, saw an excessive amount of waterfalls (impressively big ones, though) and even some of the very rare Irrawaddy dolphins.
Next was traumatic bus journey number 2: to Cambodia, more precisely to Siem Reap (the town of the famous Angkor Wat temples). Excessively bumpy roads, overbooked bus, 20 hours instead of 15, only 1 short break for food, deep-freezing air-condition, plus I got rather ill, so no fun at all. So now, after 2 days of recovery and changing all my travel plans I will finally undertake the big temple project tomorrow, until I'm "templed-out", as they say.
It wasn't the luckiest part of the trip: boat traffic to Luang Prabang was suspended - so no chance to see this famous stretch of the Nam Khan river from the boat. The only boat trip I did in the end was to Muang Gnoi, 1 hour upriver from Nong Khiaw. Nevertheless, it was very picturesque, Nong Khiaw is a nice chilled-out village (no cars), but unfortunately it started to rain and got really chilly at night. Next morning I heard all trekking tours to the surrounding limestone mountains were cancelled because of dangerously slippery paths and leeches. I was not tempted to venture out by myself.
.JPG)
So the only thing to do was to take a bus to Luang Prabang, the lovely French-colonial capital of the province. And there were lots of treats to have in this town: Lao massages, food in all variations (even though I saw some pretty gross things at the local market - check out the pics), and my favorite: the fish spa! Also plenty of Wats (temples) and the traditional ceremony of the alms-giving to the monks at 6 a.m.
Next stop: party town Vang Vieng. Was fun, met nice people, saw caves, swam in lagoon, went on tube & kayak and had more Lao and LaoLao than was good for me. So next leg: down south to tranquil 4000 islands for some recovery.
.JPG)
Spent the next couple of days exploring the island of Don Det and Don Khon and another day of rather demanding but fun kayaking, saw an excessive amount of waterfalls (impressively big ones, though) and even some of the very rare Irrawaddy dolphins.
Next was traumatic bus journey number 2: to Cambodia, more precisely to Siem Reap (the town of the famous Angkor Wat temples). Excessively bumpy roads, overbooked bus, 20 hours instead of 15, only 1 short break for food, deep-freezing air-condition, plus I got rather ill, so no fun at all. So now, after 2 days of recovery and changing all my travel plans I will finally undertake the big temple project tomorrow, until I'm "templed-out", as they say.
1 comment:
Danke für deine schönen Bilder!
Pass auf dich auf und lg Monika
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