Paksee, Vang Vien + Luang Prabang 9th -15th March 2011

Arrived in Paksee in the afternoon and decided to stay a night before heading north to Vang Vien, a notorious tourist town on the Don river. After paying for a room I found out the only bus heading north from town was an evening sleeper to the capital city Vientiane…..gutted meant I would lose a day of travel, and it would made more sense to continue on directly that evening…but with the room paid for would have to kill 24hours in the small town before leaving the following evening….

Actually I really enjoyed my time in Paksee…had a clean room to myself ( good after a week in a rickety wooden hut) and found a cheap Indian restaurant where I could fill up on my Staple sub-continental food Palak Paneer. The next day I explored the town while waiting for the bus…saw some great views along the banks of the Mekong ( see photo ) and avoided the white skinned backpacker brigade that had begun to annoy me….felt like I was travelling again rather than being on holiday

The night bus was at 8pm that evening and when I tried out my berth was disappointed to see it was too short for my legs….I could just about stretch out straight diagonally across the bed…. “ oh well” I thought “ this will have to do “…..2 minutes later I had a moment of horrible realisation as a middle aged and drunken local man was pointed in the direction of my bunk…..turned out the bed was made for 2 people…WTF????

Spent the next 10 hours trying to sleep in an awkward position, crammed up against the wall with a snoring drunk doing his best to try and spoon me in his sleep….another classic Trains, Planes and Automobiles moment….Actually I found out the next day that I had slept for a considerable amount of time when I was informed that the bus had hit a water buffalo around day break and had stopped for an hour while the driver argued with a disgruntled farmer….news to me!…..

My first impression of Vientiane in the morning light was that it looked like every other city I had been in recently ….decided to press straight onto Vang Vien and jumped on a local bus for another 5 hour ride over bumpy roads…actually wasn’t that bad, as there were plenty of local people to attempt to talk to instead of whining new graduates who complained about every thing ….(okay im being a bit harsh there but it does feel like your on a package tour at times with every one travelling the same routes on VIP busses)

The scenery on the way became increasingly more impressive with Karsts limestone hills jutting up amongst the rice paddies. Got to Vang Vien around 2pm and found a hotel room with good wifi connection, essential for planning the upcoming Chinese leg of my journey…

The town was set along the river with really impressive hills in the background ( see photos) had a chilled afternoon and then watched the sunset by the river…really realaxed and the town was no where near as full of drunken short trippers as I though….even the infamous tubing wasn’t too bad ( one of the local activities is to rent a tube and float down the river while getting drunk at various riverside bars along the way , luckily it’s a day time activity, meaning most of the more obnoxious participants are past out drunk by 10pm.

The next day I rented a crappy mountain bike and decided to ride out into the hills to check out a few of the natural caves…..After I crossed the river and road towards to trail out of town I heard my name being called loudly from some nearby bungalows….turned out to be Andre from Don Det, and he was sharing with Gadi who he had met randomly in town the night before…awesome good to see some cool people again totally by chance.

After catching up and exchanging bus nightmare stories, I headed out again and quickly found the road to be bumpy as hell and the mountain bike to be dodgy as hell. The seat was felt like it was made of stone, only one gear worked and the kick stand would fall down randomly for no reason. I had opted for some exercise that day and decided not to rent a scooter….but as countless people cruised by me on motos began to regret my decision…..

Before long I ran into a British couple who were also on motor less bicycle and we teamed up in order to find a cave with a natural spring outside called Pa khoum …..It wasn’t as easy as it should have been….. We were initially sucked into a different cave that claimed to be the one we were looking for …the sign on the way stated that Pa khoum cave was off to the right …despite the map showing a left we decided to check it out and after 500m riding down hill realised it was a scam…!!!**&&%%…( the caves all had entry fees charged by the local land owners so we had to be selective in which we went to )…..should have known better, had to turn around and ride back uphill on the shitty bikes in the mid day heat …not cool but apt punishment for our gullibility.


After passing another 2 or 3 diversion signs we found the real cave as indicated by the large amount of bikes and scooter parked nearby…..The cave itself was 200m up a flight of stairs but at the foot was a natural spring with crystal clear fish filled cool water running straight out of the mountains…..jumped straight in …amazing!! The perfect way to cool off after the hard ride.

After chilling for a while we walked up the steep stairs to the cave…At first it looked big but after finding a passage into the rear section that was not lit by daylight, we realized it was totally massive….walked for about 10 minutes to the back off the chamber alongside some hairy drop offs into the dark below while using the light of my ipod to guide me….easily the coolest cave ive been in with a geologist’s delight of features…stalactites and mites, crystal growths and drop pipes…straight out of a GCSE geography text book….

After exploring the cave for 40 minutes went back down to the lagoon for a cool off swim and then got back on the bike to ride back to town. It was at this point I realized the damage that the bumpy road and hard seat had done to my posterior …was in so much pain had to ride standing up for much of the journey home and would be uncomfortable for the next couple of days….

Stopped of at Andre and Gadi’s bungalow to watch the sunset and laugh at their behaviour after they had hit “happy shakes” during the day….good to see them again 2 really interesting charactors……had a simple noodle soup dinner and then spent the evening utilising the wifi connection in the hotel….

After initially being dubious of Vang Vien ended up having an awesome time there, and wishing I had a few more days to exploring the surrounding countryside and possibly even the tubing but time was getting short and I pressed on the next day to the northern town of Luang Prabang on route to china…

The bus trip was simple enough, listened to LOTR on audio book to block out the sound of other travels and a local family sitting near me who spent the trip throwing up into plastic bags…pretty gross I nicknamed them “the Pukingtons“…With a 30 hour bus ride to China on the horizon I hope it was hereditary motion sickness and not a stomach bug that was causing them problems.

The scenery along the way became more and more stunning as we climbed slowly into the mountains and passed through villages of bamboo huts built along the side of the road..
Eventually reached Luang Prabang in the late afternoon and found a cheap guest house where a cool Finish guy called Marco offered to share his room with me…a stroke of luck as Luang Prabang is a U.N. world heritage town and therefore considerably more expensive than elsewhere in Laos…staying opposite us were 2 cool Danish girls…we all headed out to the night market where you could get an all you can eat noodle buffet for around 1 pound…finally the perfect restaurant for my dwindling funds…..

Spent the evening exploring the market…the vibe in town was very different from the south of the country and felt generally more Chinese influenced….started getting excited about the next leg of the trip.

The next day I went with the Scandinavian crew to a local waterfall called Tat Kaung Si …we negotiated a tuk tuk for us four and an American couple and drove for about 45minutes to the falls through some amazing hilled countryside…

The falls themselves were pretty busy with westerners but were very impressive….set over many levels with natural limestone pool you could swim in and an amazing view from the top ( see photos). Reminded me a lot of the Pamakule terraces in Turkey I had visited the previous summer ( see previous instalment if you can be bothered) At the entrance there was a bear rescue centre with some cool sun and moon Asiatic bears to checkout!

Spent a few hours exploring the falls and swimming in the chilly water, the sky was overcast for the first time in ages so was a bit cold but I think my skin was crying out in relief….was an amazing day trip one off the coolest things I did in south east Asia…

That evening did some blogging and got ready for the 30 hour bus journey I would take to Kunming in china at 6am the next morning…this was going to be a tester…but thankfully I had experience of a bus journey over two times as long already( Toronto to Vancouver grey hound 2005) and all of Return of the King on audio book to get through……

So what can I say about my time in S/E Asia….wasn’t exactly what I was expecting a lot more touristy than I had hoped. I definitely didn’t have enough time here to it justice…really enjoyed Bangkok but had a shit run of luck on Kho Chang…Cambodia was brief but sweet and saw some really interesting history , but Laos…ah Laos what a cool country soooo chilled and so beautiful ….could easily spend two months here….I think it would be the perfect place to come with a full budget on a 2 weeks office escape break …im pretty sure I will be back at some point in the future, ……but now a new chapter begins and if all goes to plan ill be in China in 2 days…somewhere I’ve wanted to go for ages…….a new chapter begins!

( note to my knowledge Blogger website and face book are blocked in China so likely no more updates till next month …watch this space MD )

Don Det ( Four Thousand Island) Laos, 3rd-9th March 2011

I slept through most of the day on the way to the Cambodia/Laos border, if you can call it a border…..we arrived around 5pm at a wooden barricade and got off the bus walked through Cambodian immigration and had to pay a dollar bribe to leave the country and then through the Laos checkpoint where the bribe was two dollars. The bribes are technically illegal and the money is pocketed by the guards but the government seems to ignore the practice. Also the visa price at the border seemed to be inflated and I was glad of my decision to get my Visa in Bangkok to the sum of a ten dollar saving…. sweet….ha-ha take that corrupt border officials…

The bus we were on went on into Laos and we jumped back on once through the checkpoint …to be honest the security was so lax you could have just stayed on the bus as it drove through and got in without going through immigration. After another 30minutes we got to our stop and a large group of backpackers were transferred onto a smaller vehicle and told we would have to pay to get a boat onto Don Det Island even though the price was supposedly included in the ticket we had bought in Cambodia….

This is a classic scam …no one was going to go back into Cambodia to sort the mix up out and after a few sulks and grumbles from the group we all ended up paying an extra and inflated price to get the boat to the island ( a five minute journey for 3 dollars each the boat men and bus touts ate well that night ).

Don Det is an island in the Mekong that borders Cambodia. The area is called four thousand Island as during the dry season the river is low enough to reveal thousands of small islands along its course before it drops over waterfalls into Cambodia.

Once on the island the larger group split up into smaller groups wandering around in search of rooms….ended up finding a cheap place on the river with a guy from the bus called Andre. Andre was a kickboxing anthropologist from Moldavia. You don’t meet many of those on the road… We got adjoining bungalows that shared a hammock equipped porch overlooking the river. That night bought a cheap bottle of whisky ( one dollar for a large bottle) and chilled by the river…..

Next morning the true beauty of our location was revealed. (Having arrived after dark the setting of our lodgings had concealed.) We were set on a bend in the river with a few sand banks in the middle that you could swim to. Met a cool Israeli/American guy called Gadi staying next door later in the morning and then did a bit of exploring during the day before settling into chill out mode and playing guitar in the afternoon sun on the porch… the highlight of the day was watching the sun set incredibly over the Mekong from my hammock…..

The next 5 days consisted largely of the same thing, getting up around 10am, eating breakfast at a local restaurant, chilling on the porch , going swimming , watching the sunset and then eating dinner before drinking whisky and coke on the porch and crashing out early……hung out with Andre, Gadi and a cool group of Germans for most of the time I was there…………


Some rare moments of proactively included walking around the island through some cool village huts and farm yards, renting a canoe and rowing upriver to find good spots for swimming, (saw some amazing views of the river island with the hills of Cambodia in the background along the way,) and playing a cool card game called slaps and that was about it, My main motivation for my lethargy had been financial but think I felt a lot better spiritually after a few days also before I knew it 6 days was up and it was time to move on…….


I have to say four thousand Island is the most chilled place I have ever been. The locals are very relaxed and friendly and the village is still under developed enough that its pretty much closed down by midnight. The mantra here is relax, you can easily do nothing there all day and still feel like you have achieved something. The sunsets over the river alone will make it one of the highlight areas of the trip…..would highly recommend as a two week holiday for any one feeling mega stress out …..okay so I managed to get off the island before it sucked me in for the whole months duration of my visa ….. now its time to head to northern Laos quickly before hitting China.

Phnom Penh 27th February -03 March 2011

The ride to Phnom Penh from Seim Reap was long but provided some interesting country side. Got into town after dark and found a cheapish room at Okay guesthouse a busy establishment with a hot and stuffy restaurant, that constantly showed DVD to unadventurous travellers

Went out that evening and was surprised to see that the city was more expensive than Siem Reap with restaurants along the river front charging western prices…..after an hour of searching for a cheap meal hung my head in defeat and walked back to the guest house to eat a cheap burger and fries and watch Tarintino on the big screen……

Next day explored the city more with Neilo the Italian who I was sharing a room with, we walked to the lake area ( actually more like a flooded landfill site in dry season, see photo ) there were some cool guest houses along the shores though most had been knocked down during recent re development. Found an all you can eat thali in a cheap restaurant that looked a bit more like a brothel than a eatery. The food was good though and you got a free water and beer with the Thali for three US dollars…By the time we walked back to the guesthouse in the afternoon it was hot as hell. Neilo was a pretty heavy set guy and very Italian ,so spent most of his time walking round bare-chested in the sun. The site of his large stomach sweating in the afternoon heat was a reason for extreme merriment, pointing and laughing to nearly every local we passed …had to admit it was pretty damn funny by the end and found it hard not to join in with the jest.

Next day we went to the Killing fields ( see photo ) and detention centre museum where Pol Pot’s government had tortured and murdered tens of thousands of Cambodians during the late seventies….pretty harrowing stuff! Spent a full afternoon between both sites and then came back to the guest house to chill out, wasn’t much to do in the evenings and seemed to be spending most of my time sleeping or listening to Lord Of The Rings on Audio book while trying to save money. That night had a few games of pool at the guest house over the road with Neilo who was heading south the morning after. I liked the place so much decided to stay there the evening after while I sorted my transport to Laos out.

Said goodbye to Neilo the next day, was an interesting travel partner with an unusual past but it did feel good to be striding out on my own again after travelling with other people for a couple of weeks. I spent the afternoon wandering around town and chilling by the river. That evening went out for dinner at the infamous Phnom Penh Pizza ( those who know Dan Evans may be familiar with the story) The waiter asked how happy I wanted the pizza to be…..I told him ecstatic……

After dinner wandered around on the riverfront and watched the locals doing mass aerobics and dance routines along the concrete banks, really surreal. Later ran into a Russian guy who had been my neighbour in Kho Chang and spent some time hanging out on a bench near the mass dancers. After went back to the hotel and relaxed in my own room with en suite bathroom ( first good room in ages was really splashing out at 5 dollars a night ) had to be up at 6am the following morning to get an all day bus ride in to Laos, however slept soundly following my meal earlier…….

So Cambodia was short and sweet, had a interesting time in both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in terms of the historical context. Felt like I was just getting to enjoy the country then it was time to go, it definitely had a very different feel to Thailand would like to come back in future and stay longer …. Next stop Laos