Royal Palace Museum, Luang Prabang, Laos
The former royal capital without doubt must have put an irresistible spell on foreigners arriving here 10 to 15 years ago. The lush exotic vegetation, a small city wedged between the Mekong & the tiny Khan River with green hills all around it, this image itself is already idyllic. Now add about 30 “wats” and the countless monks that come with them and you have a very special place.
On the way to Luang Prabang
There are only 300 kilometers from Luang Nam Tha to Luang Prabang. Nevertheless, even if the Chinese government invested a lot of money to improve the roads in Laos, it took us more than 10 hours on a partly very bumpy, windy mountain road to reach the latter. Not to mention the fact that the bus left with more than one hour delay, with everyone giving us different information about the actual schedule… Continue Reading →
Wedding Ceremony in Ban Nam Lai, an Akha Village of 260, Luang Nam Tha National Park
We reached Ban Nam Lai in the late afternoon and to our surprise found our accommodation to be half a kilometer outside the village, which felt rather uninviting. After a quick wash in the small river, we went over. On the way, we passed a person taking a bath in the river, who told our guide that in the evening, a wedding would be celebrated in this village. We immediately asked if we could join the ceremony and our guide Pet said we were welcome. Continue Reading →
Ban Nam Lai, an Akha Village of 260, Luang Nam Tha National Park
The trek to this remote hamlet of Ban Nam Lai was rather unspectacular, as we were always walking under the thick canopy of the primary rain forest or other types of forest. This protected us from the scorching sun, but on the other hand there was no view for the entire seven hours we hiked. The trail was not particularly difficult, but quite a few parts were very steep and extremely slippery. This required all our concentration, because this was not the place to get injured. Continue Reading →
Around Luang Nam Tha
The ecotourism project that started in 1999 in the Luang Nam Tha province has been quite a success story and has been extended to some of the other 20 National Park Areas (N.P.A.). The main goal is to reduce poverty in rural areas, protect the environment and support local culture. The 2007 edition of the Lonely Planet quotes that 75% of Laos is covered with unmanaged vegetation with 25% of this being primary rain forest. This fact, plus the many minorities and diverse wild life makes it the ideal place to explore a healthy untouched environment. Continue Reading →
Chengyang Wind & Rain Bridge, Dong Village near Sanjiang, Guilin region, China
We traveled the 30 days our visa permitted throughout China’s southwestern provinces in Mai 2008: Guangxi (Guilin, Yangshuo), Sichuan (Chengdu, Leshan, Emei Shan), Yunnan (Lijiang, Dali, Kunming, Yuanyang) & Xishuangbanna (Jingling). This was definitely not enough! Nevertheless, we now know it can be easily done without a common language. This introduction to China also was an immense eye opener and some of the negative concepts we had of this country we corrected or simply vanished! Continue Reading →
Around Luang Nam Tha
New town Luang Nam Tha is best described as a stretch of road of about 1 kilometer, lined with buildings, mostly serving the budding tourist industry here. We stayed at the comfortable & central Manychan Guesthouse, in a huge room with air-con for the equivalent 4.8 Euros. On that ”stretch” making up the town are numerous restaurants, but we tried to give most business to the ladies on the markets, top quality food for 0.5 cents a meal! Continue Reading →
Leshan, the Biggest Bhudda, near Chengdu, China
China’s Southwest is unbelievably cheap to travel for western tourists: even though we significantly upgraded our standard of living and traveling, no longer really taking care of what we spent, we spent about 35 Euros a person per day. This could have been cut by at least one third, of course if we wanted to! Continue Reading →
Around Luang Nam Tha
Laos welcomed us with a big thunderstorm. While we were filling out our visa application and later had our passports checked & stamped at immigration, the first thunder roared. And soon, the skies came open… Somebody waved us into a “jumbo”, a big tuk-tuk with a roof. We jumped on it and off we went, not really knowing where we were going and actually how much it would cost… Gilles was sure it would take us to the next town to catch a bus for the two hour ride to Luang Nam Tha, Heidi had her doubts. Continue Reading →
Of course, we tried many different eateries … Some of them very simple!
Eating was heaven! Even though we never consulted the Lonely Plant when it came to choosing restaurants in the last 10 months, because the places recommended are always far more expensive, in China we have come to appreciate those recommendations: the places mentioned in the guide usually have an English menu! Continue Reading →
