Next we took an overnight sleeper bus twelve hours north to Old Dali City. The sleeper bus was actually pretty great. Instead of seats, there are three tows of bunk beds. The minus is that you really can't sit up very well, but instead have to pretty much recline to one extent or another the entire way. The dramatic upside is that you have an ( Read more... )

After Laos we crossed the Chinese border at Mohan. Kind of a neat little burg with an absolutely beautiful manicured boulevard...and 
nothing else. No personality, no charm, nothing. Unfortunately, due to a bit of stomach sickness I was having, we had to spend the night there. Unpleasant, but unavoidable.

I was really struck by the immediate ( Read more... )

So I mentioned what a great time we had staying in the brothel in Thalat. But at the time I wrote the entry I couldn't /quite/ remember what tipped us off as to the true nature of our "home stay guest house". There was the pink decor, the poster of the surprisingly unattractive but scantily clad couple, the large female staff, the sudden rush of ( Read more... )

-- I wound up enjoying Laos a lot more than I thought I would. In fact, except for Vientiane and the last couple of days (I honestly can't even remember any of the names of places we stayed after Udom Xai, which goes to show you how much I just want to forget those couple of days), Laos was beautiful, cheap, interesting, and the food was ( Read more... )

-- From Luang Prabang, we traveled to Nong Kiao on the Nam Ou river. Nong

Kiao is unnoatable other than that it is the jumping off point to go to

Muang Ngoi fdurther upriver, which was our main destination. Muang Ngoi is

completely inaccessible by land (wqell, unless you bring a hell of a lot

more mountaineering equipment than we had), and you take ( Read more... )

-- From Thalat, we took the bus up to Vang Vieng ¨C one of "/the/ must see" places in Laos, known for it¡¯s fantastic scenery and hard partying. We were not impressed. The karst hills were beautiful, but neither Petra nor I felt up to ¡°trekking¡± around to all of the caves and summits. And the partying just was not our scene; there were so many ( Read more... )

-- From Vientiane, we traveled about 80km north to Thalat, a small town on the edge of the Nam Ngum reservoir. A friend of ours in Vientiane had said the lake there was really beautiful, and it was on the way to Vang Vieng, one of the "must see" places in Laos. We arrived in the early evening and just as it was starting to rain lightly, and for ( Read more... )

-- After Champasak, we headed east to Tad Lo. It was a place I picked out,

since I had head it had a nice waterfall. And it did, although it would

probably be much more spectacular during rainy season when you'd have a lot

more water rushing over it. But I spent a couple of days climbing over the

rocks , splashing in the water, and soaking in some ( Read more... )

I'm currently in China, and my hope of having frequent computer and 'net

access has been realized! Unfortunately, apparently China blocks all access

to livejournal, blogspot, and about every other blog service I've tried. So,

I can't actually do any updating. But a ha! Here is an update, so have I

become a world class computer hacker? No, ( Read more... )

...fora couple of days. In Old Dali City, kind of on the edge of Tibet. Much

colder here, so Petra is thrilled (not!). But we found a

cafe/restraunt/nightclub looking for foreigners to work. No pay, but free

room and board for 4 hrs work a night, so it makes it convienentand cheap to

stay in town a  bit longer. Thinking maybe a week or two, ( Read more... )