Happy New Year!

We're off to the tubes. I'm taking my camera this time so I should have some pictures to post tonight.

Derek and Elisa showed up right on time yesterday and we spent the afternoon walking around Luang Prabang to see some of the many wats. This morning we took a boat trip up the Mekong to see Pak Ou cave.



Tomorrow morning we plan to head back down to Vang Vieng for New Year's eve. From there we're talking about taking a one or two day kayaking trip to Vientiane which should be much more fun than the bus.

Made it to Luang Prabang. I'm glad I broke the trip in Vang Vieng yesterday rather than trying to go all the way from Vientiane in one day. I got to Vang Vieng early enough to go tubing again yesterday, something that has really grown on me.

My bus trip was virtually painless even though the bus broke down about an hour from Luang Prabang. Luckily a couple of local busses showed up fairly quickly after the breakdown and everyone from our bus piled in. I even ended up with a place to sit on top of the engine box. It turned out to be more comfortable than my seat on the original bus and I had a great view - I almost wish the first bus had broken down even earlier.

Sorry for the lack of pictures the last couple days. I should have some more soon now that I'm actually someplace I haven't been before.

Seems I wasn't the only one who thought that tubing would be a nice way to spend Christmas. Just about every backpacker in Vang Vieng had the same thought. It was a blast and turned out to be a great way to spend the day. I wish I'd had my camera at the end of the trip to take a picture of this pickup truck almost buried under a load of tubes it was carting back from the river.

I'm in Vientiane with a newly extended Visa. I have to be in Luang Prabang by Sunday to meet Derek and Elisa who fly in on Monday morning. Luang Prabang is a long day's journey from Vientiane so I think I'm going to break the trip up and spend one more night in Vang Vieng on the way rather than spending the extra day here.

Merry Christmas. I'm still in Vang Vieng. I plan to spend my Christmas floating down the river with a beerlao in my lap then heading to one of the traveler's cafes for a turkey dinner. Tomorrow morning I head back to Vientiane.

I'm back in Vang Vieng. Time for some pictures from my week up in the north-east.

My first stop after Phonsovan was Sam Neua. As expected it was a long day and I wasn't feeling so great so I decided to spend a day resting in Sam Neua before heading out to see any of the sights I was really up there for. I did wander around and take a look at the town though. Here are some shots from the outskirts of Sam Neua.



I had been planning to head up to Vieng Xai as my first stop but when I woke up on the 18'th I changed my mind and decided to see the monoliths at Suan Hin first. This ended up being a brutal day but was probably the hilight of the far north. To get there I had to catch a pickup truck 2 hours back towards Phonsovan then walk 6 km up to the site. The hike from the road and back would have been long enough except I got sidetracked by a sign pointing to a minor site and ended up hiking about 2 km down a steep hill in the wrong direction. Luckily I met some locals who set me straight before I'd gone even further.

After the hike back up to the top of the hill I was worried that I had lost too much time to make it to Suan Hin and almost turned back (I needed to be back by the main road by 2 PM to make sure I could catch the afternoon truck back to Sam Neua). However I decided to push on and made it to Suan Hin about 10 minutes before I really would have had to turn back. The site was interesting and I was very glad to have made it. After exploring the site I headed back to the road and ended up making it with plenty of time to spare.

Anyway, here's a shot from the standing stone site at Suan Hin.



The next day (we're up to the 19'th now) I headed up to Vieng Xai. This town was the former headquarters of the Pathet Lao during the war. The big draw is a number of caves that were used by the PL leadership. They were expanded and many had whole buildings built inside them. The caves were interesting but I mostly enjoyed the scenery around town. There wasn't much to see other than the caves but it was a nice place to spend a night. In retrospect I wish I'd spent another day up there (and probably would have if the hotel I found hadn't been a bit of dump).



After Vieng Xai I headed back to Sam Neua for one night then made my way back to Phonsovan. Yesterday I finally got to the plain of jars which I'd been saving for the end of my trip up to the north-east. Here are a couple shots from the plain of jars and one from around Phonsovan itself.



And finally here's a picture I took while wandering around the outskirts of Phonsovan after getting back from the plain of jars tour.



I'm going to spend a night or two in Vang Vieng before heading back to Vientiane for either a visa extension or another brand new visa.

I'm back in Phonsovan after a week in the mountains. Nice trip even though it was a little cold. Today was a long bus ride back from Sam Neua so I'm going to hold off on the writeup until later.

Tomorrow I'm going to see the plain of jars and then spending one more night here before working my way back towards Vientiane.

I'm in Phonsavan after a very scenic bus ride from Vang Vieng. Tomorrow I head up to Sam Neua, which promises to be a very long day. There is a possibility that I won't have internet access until I get back here in 5 to 6 days.

Vang Vieng is a nice little traveler's haven. If I hadn't just spent two days on Khao San road arriving here would have been a bit of a system shock after a couple weeks in southern Laos.

The scenery here reminds me a bit of Tam Coc in Vietnam with much cleaner water. Yesterday afternoon I went tubing on the river that runs past the town which was nice although I started a bit late in the afternoon and the last hour was a bit cold. Today I wandered around the area went to see a couple of the caves which are the big draw in Vang Vieng.

Here are a couple pictures from this afternoon.



Tomorrow I'm heading north-east up to Phonsovan where the plain of jars is located, although I am not going to stop for sight-seeing there quite yet. I'll be passing through on my way back from the far north-east so I'm going to save it for then. It's a long trip up to Sam Nuea and I plan to head up there as fast as possible then see sights on my way back.

I made it back to Vientiane a bit before noon and spent the afternoon walking around seeing some of the sights. Here are a couple pictures:



Tomorrow morning I'm going to head up to Vang Vieng. I want to start working my way up to see the Plain Of Jars near Phonsovan and possibly some other things in the north-east. Vang Vieng makes a good first step and I may catch up to some of the people I met down south there.

Mission accomplished. My camera has been repaired and I'm returning to Vientiane in a couple hours. Also, I found new frames that fit my existing lenses so that little problem has been taken care of as well. I can't wait to get back to Laos and put all this behind me.

Finally, here are some pictures from Laos. Hopefully the quantity will make up for the long delay.



Sadly I passed an Outback steakhouse on the way back from my abortive attempt to get my camera fixed this morning. I haven't been craving western food at all since I've been traveling but seeing the Outback hit me hard. My self control has been fighting a losing the battle with my stomach all day. Oddly enough I had a conversation yesterday over lunch about how I wasn't craving western food and mentioned that an Outback was the one thing that would probably tempt me.

Here are a few pictures from my last week in Cambodia.



I'll post some pictures from Laos a bit later. In the meantime, I'm going to try to go see the latest Matrix while it's still playing.

Sigh. Today is a national holiday (Constitution Day) in Thailand so the Sony service center is closed. As far as I can tell it's the only thing in town that's closed today. Everywhere else it seems to be business as usual. I probably should have seen this coming.

The border crossing and bus ride were uneventful except that I managed to break the frame on my glasses. So that's one more thing to deal with.

Enough of that. Time for some pictures - see the next couple posts.

@#$!&

I'm in Vientiane for the afternoon but I have to make a side trip down to Bangkok to have my camera repaired. I managed to crack the LCD on Sunday on the way to Tham Lot Kong Lo cave. The camera still works, however it's nearly useless w/out the screen so I think it's worth the hassle to get it fixed. Plus I have some other things that I can take care of in Bangkok while I'm there.

Even with the camera problems the last few days has been one of the hi-lights (if not the hi-light) of my trip so far. I spent 3 nights in a small village (Ban Na Hin) that acts as the gateway to Tham Lot Kong Lo cave. This cave is actually a 3 mile tunnel through a ridge with a river flowing through it. You hire a boat to take you on the two hour journey through the cave and back again. It was a unique experience and everyone in the group I was with agreed that it was one of the better things they'd done in their travels. After the cave trip I decided I liked Ban Na Hin enough to stay an extra day. Anyway, it was such a wonderful trip that even breaking my camera on the way didn't spoil it.

I'll have a fast connection and plenty of time in Bangkok tomorrow so I plan to post a whole bunch of pictures (finally). If all goes well I should be able to get to Bangkok and back in 2 days to continue the Laos trip.

Tat Lo was amazing. It was a similar atmosphere to Don Det except the bungalows were on a stream in the woods with waterfalls instead of on an island in the Mekong. It was a very peaceful and relaxing place to spend a couple days.

Yesterday I took a half day hike through the woods and some nearby minority tribe villages with a group of backpackers from my guesthouse.

I'm back in Pakse just long enough to grab a bite to eat, change traveler's checks, and check email. I have to run to catch a bus to Tha Khaek in a couple minutes. I will probably not be on-line until I get to Vientiane on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Made it to Pakse this morning. My first week in Laos has been great.

The crossing from Cambodia was a breeze and my first stop in Laos was Don Det island, only 30 mins or so from the border. Don Det was incredible. I stayed in a bungalow built right over the edge of the Mekong. There is no real town on Don Det, just a 2 mile long dirt path with groups of homes and guesthouses scattered here and there along it's length. The only electricity comes from automobile batteries connected to lights for a couple hours in the evening. Altogether a great place to relax. I stayed there for 3 nights and wish I'd spent another day or two.

From Don Det I took a short trip up the river to Don Khong island where I stayed 2 nights. Don Khong is much larger than Don Det with several actual towns. I spent the day there biking around the island.

I spent a lot of time on Don Khong trying to track down information on traveling north by boat, but was unsuccessful and ended up having to take a bus on the next leg to Champasak. Champasak had some very nice Ankor ruins but it wasn't worth staying there more than one night so I caught another bus up to Pakse this morning.

Tomorrow I'm going to head out for a side trip into the Bolavan plateau for a day or two then I'll be back in Pakse for a night.

The internet connection is very slow right now so no pictures. I'll try to post a couple later today though.