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 […]
Laos
Train, Vang Vieng, More Train
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 […]
Unhurried Luang Prabang
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 […]
Luang Prabang à la Noy
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 […]
Of Butterflies, Bears, and Waterfalls
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 […]
Rolling on the (Mekong) River
Sunrise To an inveterate sunset junkie, it is forgivable to have forgotten that there are also things we call sunrises. When one’s hotel room looks out across the Mekong River to Laos, facing East, one is quickly reminded of sunrises. We got up early for breakfast so that we could make it to the immigration […]
The Golden Triangle
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 […]