Vientiane is a city of just over 800,000. It is also the capital of Laos. We experienced a similar slowish pace as Luang Prabang here. Most of the motorcycles didn’t speed. People easily crossed the streets. We stayed at a hotel next to a fountain. During the day, kids would wade in it. We took […]
To say that China is making its influence known around the world is an understatement. It is made abundantly clear in Laos. They have built a high-speed train from China to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We opted for the train vs. the bus, 50 minutes vs. 6 hours. Over the course of the the […]
It doesn’t take long to see why Luang Prabang is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited tourist spot in Laos. It is one of the mellowest, slow-moving, unrushed places we’ve been. Even the motor scooters take it easy. We landed from our slow cruise down the Mekong and was taken to […]
We had such good luck with Noy on our waterfall quest, that we decided to use him again for a tour of the sights of Luang Prabang. Noy grew up in the country on a farm. His mother passed when he was quite young. His dad moved to Vientianne. When he passed, Noy was on […]
We met Noy when we downloaded “Loca” the Laotian ridesharing app. No “Grab” here. It’s a bit buggy, but it’s very affordable, and has worked well for us. As the salesperson many Lao are, he suggested we hire him to take us to a few of the Luang Prabang sights. At $50, this was cheaper […]
The Golden Triangle is only an hour and a half away from Chang Rai. We took off in search of coffee for the way out. Stopped at an Amazon. No relationship to the Amazon we know so well, but very common in Thailand. We were told that the Golden Triangle is more or less a […]
Colloquially known as the Black Temple, today we headed out to the Baan Dam (translates to “Dark House”) museum. This is another “temple” from the imagination of a Chang Rai artist, in this case, a private art museum comprising a mixture of traditional northern Thai buildings with unconventional and contemporary architecture, designed by Thawan Duchanee. […]
Sunday was a rest day. We took off Monday not know what to expect. First stop La Lalitta for a coffee and some orchids. La Lalitta Not knowing what to expect, imagine our surprise when we walked into garlands of orchids and mist blowing all over the place. The coffee was good too. Bodacious Temple […]
I must admit, elephants make good photo models. There are probably too many photos here, but I already deleted several hundred. Ethical Elephant Tours There is a great deal of debate about which tour is the most ethical. From a Western perspective, we can rule out riding of elephants for sure. Many tourist don’t care. […]
Day 5 was the vaunted trip to Pai. Vaunted because there are over 762 curves–most of them hairpin and switchback. Apparently it was built by the Japanese during the 2nd World War. However, we needed to start with a stop for morning – Coffee There are tourist traps, and there are tourist traps. I think […]
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