Postcards from Laos

🇱🇦  4 Postcards from Laos  🇱🇦 

Link to Laos fotos her

Last postcard from Laos

It’s almost time for me to leave Laos. In a few days, the tour will continue by bus to Cambodia. I am spending the last days on an island in the Mekong River, very close to the border. The river is a bit special here, where the area is called Si Phan Don, which means the 4000 islands. I don’t know if anyone has counted them, but there are lots of them. The Mekong River is filled with waterfalls in this area and beyond the small barges that sails between the islands and transport tourists to and from the mainland it is not possible to pass the area by boat. Everything on the island is primitive, but it works. I am staying at a resort by the river and apart from wanting to see the island I am also here to get some days without activities. What there is to see on the island is quickly done. Besides the waterfalls, it is a tour on the water to see the dolphins or just a tour around the island, which can be done by bike or TukTuks. Just outside my door, I have the most beautiful sunset every day.

The trip here was by plane from Vientiane to Pakxe, where I had a single night and managed to get a short view of the city. The following day I was on a bus to Nakasang, from where there are transport to Don Khone and the nearby island of Don Det. The bus was full and all passengers were tourists. In Nakasang there were many small barges ready to take us over. They are so small and narrow that you initially think – will this go well, but we were stowed 7 passengers in the same boat incl. our luggage and we came across without wet feet and buttocks – we sat on a board in the bottom of the boat. I promise you will get a picture and yes my pictures from Laos are on their way 😀

Best Regards and hope all is good with you.

Greetings from the capital of Laos – Vientiane

After a cloudy Luang Prabang, a cool Phonsavan, I promise I came in the sun here in Vientiane. The city is not bigger than you can get around and see most of it on a bike tour in a single day, but I had to make several stops in the shade to cope with the heat. OK it was probably not my best plan to bike around in the middle of the midday sun 😀.

What to see here: Beautiful temples, an Arc de Triomphe a la Paris, which is a monument to fallen soldiers. Today I have visited more temples and just outside the city a Buddha Park. It was a beautiful garden with many fun Buddha characters.

My trip by car down here was the last couple of days special as a normally ok road is now full of holes due to the many heavy trucks with material for the new railway. Around Vang Vien, it runs parallel to the road, so poor residents living with it daily. I have read that even without the bad road, it is recommended to take tablets against motion sickness, as it is through the most mountainous area in Laos. However, I don’t think I had problems in the car, but in Vang Vien I ended up only seeing my hotel. My stomach didn’t want me to see more, but fortunately I was at the hotel and I was almost healthy the next day. When in a few days I have had time to digest the 4 day trip and everything i saw, I am sure it is something else I will remember. It was a fantastic trip with a lot of impressions. A lot of information about the country, which now gives a lot more meaning.

My hotel here is ok, the best part is, that they have a terrace with great chairs. Most og the ones I’ve tried so far have been quite heavy and clumsy. There is also a nice cool breeze under the trees. This morning, though, I saw a man at the neighboring table was hit by bird shit. Hope it has brought him some luck during the day 😯

Warm greetings from Laos

Hi from Laos – or as they say here – Sabaidee.

I have left Luang Prabang and are on a tour by car to Phonsavan close to the Vietnamese border. It was a drive up and down, right and left pretty much all the way. It was only the last hour we drove in a more flat terrain, where there were fields with rice and cattle. Otherwise it was sloping up and down with small villages along the way. There was not much traffic, here are not so many cars but a lot of scooters and small motorbikes as well as chickens, goats, cattle even buffaloes with big horns. We also saw a great deal of big Chinese trucks. They are here to build a railway from China, through Laos and Thailand and maybe to Singapore.

The big tourist attraction is the Plain of Jars. A lot of large jars which purpose has several different stories. In this area the Vietnamese war is impossible to avoid. Phonsavan is located on what was the Ho Chi Minh Trail and is the most bombed area in the world. Meaning a lot. There are still unexploded bombs left, but unfortunately there is no money to get them removed. Today I have seen 3 different places with Jars and bomb craters side by side and these places have been cleared long ago. Here is cool in the evening and at night, but excellent weather during the day. Tomorrow the trip goes the other way again to Vang Vien, with visits to several small villages and through beautiful nature.

Best wishes

Dear All

Greetings from Luang Prabang in Laos, where I enjoy having +25 C even though the air is also a bit damp. I haven’t seen much of the sun, but I’m not complaining. It is a great contrast to the dark and cold I left at home. Just as contrasting as the weather, is the city. It just doesn’t look like anything I’ve visited before. People are incredibly sweet and friendly. It is a tourist city, but in hotels, cafes, restaurants etc. it is the locals one meets and most speaks more or less good English, even the tuktuk drivers are easy to communicate with. So far I have seen a lot of temples, cruised on the Mekong River, learned to weave a scarf and make a local dinner – well almost learned – and visited a beautiful waterfall.

It was a long travel to get here but it went according to plan. no delays and my luggage did it all the way too. My guesthouse is fine apart from an unstable internet connection in my room. Annoying as there is Wifi everywhere, even on the outdoor cafes along the Mekong River and although it can be a bit slow, there is always connection. With everything now saved in the Cloud, it is so hard to be without it.

All for now hoping I can get the postcard online

Best regards