Loading...
Start a new Travel Blog! Blogabond Home Maps People Photos My Stuff

Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia

a travel blog by chrischarly

This passage will be our longest one and it will be during our time in SE Asia visiting Malaysia, The Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, proabaly in this order before flying to Australia towards the end of September. Unfortunately we've run out of time to go to Burma and Vietnam... maybe next time!
view all 1992 photos for this trip

Show Oldest First
Show Newest First

The Golden Triangle...

Chiang Saen, Thailand


Our transport to the Golden Triangle
We headed to the Golden Triangle centre today in Sop Ruak, this is where the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos connect along the Mekong. It’s a pretty touristy spot but we had a nice time wandering around and visiting the Opium Museum that was very interesting, and gave a history of Opium and the Golden Triangle.


Click to enlarge and read

Very life-like model of a guy smoking opium


Click to enlarge and read

Click to enlarge and read

A photo of a photo of a lady smoking opium

A photo of a photo of a lady smoking opium

A photo of a photo of a tribal lady

Funny drawing pof a guy smoking opium

Photo of a photo of a lady from the Karen tribe

Statue of Buddha


Burma=left Laos=right stood in Thailand

The Golden Triangle


The Golden Triangle
After we returned, the heavens opened and it rained pretty hard for a few hours, so we missed out the night market and headed to a local Chinese restaurant. It was surprisingly good and even Charly enjoyed her Cabbage and Bacon dish. Early to bed before moving on to Laos tomorrow.

permalink written by  chrischarly on July 23, 2011 from Chiang Saen, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

And yet another painful journey!..

Chiang Khong, Thailand


Us in our shit ponchos
At 7am, our alarms went off to see torrential rain outside; great start to the day… So, considering we had been carrying our yellow ponchos around for 3 months we decided to give them a try so we wouldn’t be drenched all day.

Chris really not happy!
Well, they weren’t exactly ponchos, and more like yellow thin carrier bags, so before we had even left the guesthouse Chris had managed to rip a huge hole down the back,

Chris on the bus with a monk
and the same happened to me as soon as I put on my backpack.

On the boat
When we got to the bus stop we were happy to see a sawngthaew waiting, but the bad news was that the

Crammed in the tuk tuk
driver refused to leave until it was full. As there were only 3 of us there waiting we knew this would take a while as ‘Full’ for them is 16 people!, which we thought was impossible to cram that many people inside until 2 hours later when we finally left he achieved it!

Monks in the rain
What a squeeze! I can’t say it was the most comfortable ride I’ve ever been in but it wasn’t too bad. We hit the border crossing at Chiang Khong and passed through easily into Laos,

Crossing into Laos
We decided to change our plans and head direct to Luang Prabang. We waited in the bus station for 4 hours and were on our way. It was supposed to be a VIP bus but it was pretty uncomfortable and not helped by really bad roads; it was a painful night that even the sleeping pills purchased by a 10yr-old local boy didn’t help…

permalink written by  chrischarly on July 24, 2011 from Chiang Khong, Thailand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

After 28 hours of travelling... we made it!

Louang Namtha, Laos


Me stood by our broken-down bus

Trying to fix the bus

Well the bus journey continued to get worse during the night as we guessed it inevitably would and we broke down about 2 hours short of Luang Prabang and we had to wait for a sawngthaew to take us the final stretch.


First view of Laos

Our bags on top, but no room for us!

Worst of all was our bags got loaded on the first one and there was not enough room, so we had to wait 1 hour till the next, with our bags on their way. Very worrying.


The mekong

Beautiful Laos


In the beer garden

Local kids stole a boat!


Locals jumping in the Mekong

An old bomb made into a plant pot

But after 28 hours of travelling, the rest of the day did brighten up as we found a cool guesthouse with a lovely room for a bank breaking £6.15 a night and Luang Prabang really is a nice place to be!

permalink written by  chrischarly on July 25, 2011 from Louang Namtha, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

Hon Lai !!! (Very Hot!!)

Luang Prabang, Laos


Team pool

Its a hard life


Pool chill

View

As it was another gorgeous sunny day, we decided to hit the swimming pool just outside of town! We did try and find bicycles to ride up there, but as it was already midday, trying to find a cheap one was impossible as all of the early-rise tourists had already grabbed them, so we haggled a tuk-tuk to take us the 3km out of town. Once there we met up with some other people staying at our guesthouse, splashed in the pool and played cards all afternoon.


Behind the temple

The Mekong


All of the tourists enjoying sunet too

Gorgeous!


Almost sunset

The Mekong


Crazy clouds

View of Luang Prabang


The sunset

Me with a big bomb behind me!


Amazing from from hill

Dinner at GH

Then at 5:30pm we headed back and walked up a huge hill with 300+ steps to watch the sunset with a hundred other tourists who decided to do the same. Then in the evening, we all went out for a few drinks and food at the market and stayed up chatting the night away.

permalink written by  chrischarly on July 26, 2011 from Luang Prabang, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

Teaching English to the local children...

Luang Prabang, Laos



Easy stuff

Up to the bar of plenty


We go on that ?
Had a great day today and decided to continue hanging out with the people from our guesthouse, Kara and Pierre and walked about Luang Prabang until we got too tired and caught a boat across the River to a bar with amazing views, but more importantly cheap cocktails! But we couldn’t stay too long and drink loads as we wanted to get back for 6pm to go up to a local village just outside of town to teach English to the local children.


Crazy Ken

Teaching team


School class
Kara and Pierre had already done this a couple of times and we thought it would be a great opportunity to go along too and hope to make a difference, if only a little to some of the children there. It was in fact great fun and I have never seen children so excited about going to school! When some of the younger girls saw us pass in the back of our tuk tuk, they all shouted after us and started running to school! Complete contrast to how I remember my feelings about school!


Teaching the local kids

Teaching the local kids

Teaching the local kids

Teaching the local kids

We revised the alphabet with them, something they had learnt previously, colours and how to spell them and some group games, great fun and very rewarding!



permalink written by  chrischarly on July 27, 2011 from Luang Prabang, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

And now to somewhere with a little more of a local feel...

Nong Khiaw, Laos


Hmm, me thinks no

Getting a wash by GH mum

Returm from the river

Been Swimin'

Mekong

Theres caves in those hills

Main St

The mekong

Gay boys

Teaching team

Today we headed up to Nong Kiew with Kara and Pierre. The journey was fine and we found a really nice guesthouse with bunglows for 40,000Kip (£3’ish). Due to the heat we sat in the bar consuming lots of cold beer and playing cards. We headed out later and had a lovely meal at a local restaurant.



permalink written by  chrischarly on July 28, 2011 from Nong Khiaw, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

Charly's Birthday Eve!

Nong Khiaw, Laos


Standing in the shade for a min or 2

Walking in Nong Kiew

A pink cow?!?!?!

Wavy river

We woke up and it was again a scortcher, so we decided to head out for a long walk to the local caves where the locals hid during the bombings. It was sweltering and although not far, felt like a long way.


I think not

The mekong

Tricky crossing

Entrance into the caves

Caves

Caves

Chris

Chris crossing the river

We made it, crossed the River, and went up into The Caves. It was pretty interesting to think of the community that used to effectively live in here, so not to get blown up by US bombs.


Boy swimming

Locals trying to cross (and falling) in river


Mmmm Turkey
We headed back and about half way stopped at a restaurant. It was pretty local, but the lady was nice and the food edible. After our feed, Charly seemed to be kidnapped to help the lady write her new sign for her guesthouse, and we asked if there was anywhere to swim nearby. Surprisingly, she said yes and led Pierre and I down through the woods and to a stream that was nice and brown. We decided that as we were really hot this was ‘good to go’ and Pierre headed back to get the others. I made my way in and just got through the VERY strong current to find a nice pool the other side. Kara turned up, and then Pierre informed me that Charly was busy at work on the sign!


Cooling off
We enjoyed the cool off and running the rapids until I collided with a big rock and got a dead leg. Charly finally made it and recalled the events of her kidnapping and slave labour. We all splashed about for a bit longer before deciding to head back. When we got back to the restaurant we met Andy and Steve who asked us to join them for a beer, who were we to say no, so we had a refreshing Lao Beer before headingback for showers.


My first candle on Birthday Eve!
We went back to the nice restaurant from the night before and consumed several Lao Lao (local fire water made from Sticky rice) Mojitos and some more yummy food and Charly got her first birthday candle (as it was her birthday in The Easter Island and Japan already!) Big day tomorrow!


permalink written by  chrischarly on July 29, 2011 from Nong Khiaw, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

Eeeeekkkkkkk.... It's my birthday!!!!

Luang Prabang, Laos


Our busy tuk tuk
Charly’s birthday was finally here and it started off with a bang at 5am as a massive thunderstorm hit our small town and probably half of Laos. After a late night drinking Lao Lao Mojitos, it was not a welcome surprise and so we started off the day feeling pretty tired. We finally got out of bed around 7am to get ready to leave for Luang Prabang, it was still raining so we opted for a Minivan to the bus station – it was only 1km or so, but 10 minutes in the rain would have been enough to soak us. The minivan came and was surprisingly expensive but there were a lot of us, and all anyone seemed to be interested in was getting there so we paid and head off.

About to be puked on!
At the bus station there was a distinct lack of a bus, but after purchasing the tickets we were informed that we would be going on a sawngthaew – oh joy 3 hours on a wooden bench seat. The sawngthaew was licenced to take 15 people so we were surprised there was only 22 on board plus a basket full of chickens on the roof of course. We head off in the rain and a few km along came across the first land slide with a rather substantial rock sitting in the middle of the road.

Drenched on the tuk tuk
Oh well we thought, if our luck was out the chickens would surely take the brunt of the impact! We saw maybe 20 more land slides of varying degrees of scariness, plus several villages where everyone was either watching the raging rapids, which were once little streams, or watching people bailing out their flooded houses. This from only 4-5 hours of rain shows how they get serious floods here.
I could tell that Charly was thoroughly enjoying the start to her birthday and it got better when the young French girl sitting opposite projectile vomitted covering the floor, some feet and a local’s bag. Surprisingly and thankfully this did not cause domino puking event!
After a joyful 3 hours we arrived and took a tuk-tuk back to the guesthouse, it felt like coming home with hugs from Ken and co.


Iced coffee to start!

My yummy Pizza!


First drink of the day!
They were really busy so we only managed to get a twin room, but this was quickly rectified by a bit of furniture moving. We got settled in and headed out to a touristy restaurant so Charly could have pizza. We then moved on to get some beers and to start off the celebrations. After a few, we decided to head back to the guesthouse for a break and reconvene at 6pm. At 6pm we headed down to reception and Ken kindly informed us that he had got the “surprise” cake I had asked for (with of course Charly standing right beside me) – you gotta love him.

Pierre and I
It was once again pouring with rain so we cracked open a beer and waited for Pierre to be ready and Gill (an Ango-Ozzie we met) to arrive. We headed out to the Lao Lao bar just up the road and negotiated Lao Lao (local fire water made from Sticky rice) Mojitos for 2 for 1, so they worked out about 75p each, bargain! A few of the staff joined us and we managed to polish off 20 Mojitos in a few hours. Then the staff went and told us to come back in 10 mins.


Gill and I

Ken, Pierre and the manager

Me, Gill and Pierre

Pierre


Pierre

At the GH

My tasty birthday cke from Pierre!

About to make a wish!..

Lovin' my birthday!

Chris chillin'


B-day suprise
We went back to find ‘happy birthday’ playing and we got out the cake and Charly made a wish! Very yummy cake eaten as a starter, we headed to the night market for a baguette and some sticky rice.

B-day girl
Some Mojitos soaked up, we headed back to the bar for a few more and then feeling pretty merry called it a night.Charly was keen to receive her surprise present from me, so I set it up and she happily watched the Eastenders Omnibus. I couldn’t say it grabbed my attention so drifted off to sleep about 1 episode in. All in all, an interesting day, but we all had fun and Charly was happy. Only Birthday Boxing Day to go!




permalink written by  chrischarly on July 30, 2011 from Luang Prabang, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

Charly's Birthday Boxing Day...

Luang Prabang, Laos


Yummy

There really is rubbish collection in Asia!


Crazy water baby

Our GH


You count !

At the GH


Nice bar with baby
We had a lie in and then went across to meet Gill for lunch at a nice Café overlooking the Mekong. Whilst there we also saw Andy who was sitting in the restaurant next to us. After lunch we went for a stroll to the Dara market where we bargained hard for an “original”, hmmm, North Face backpack finally getting it for 50,000Kip or (£3.75’ish). We went back, chilled at the guesthouse in the afternoon, and then went to meet Andy for a sundowner over the Mekong. After a few beers, we headed for the night market for yet another scrummy baguette.

permalink written by  chrischarly on July 31, 2011 from Luang Prabang, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment

Last day In Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang, Laos


Nice!

Part of the Palace


I had to borrow a smelly shirt to enter

Strange light decorations


Very strange

The monks' washing line


Looking out of the mammoth window
As Luang Prabang is so chilled and simply just a lovely place to be and visit, we just had to spend one more night here! You can so easily get sucked into ‘The Laos way of life’ here and just never leave. For a city it is so tiny, admittedly with a ton of tourists, but in a good way and with a so many happy smiley faces, tasty and ridiculously cheap filled baguettes almost anyone who planned a flying visit with have to change their plans. So we decided to just be tourists today, and do go and visit the sights that we should’ve visited days ago, a few temples, and a palace. Then, we met up with a friend, Andy and went for cocktails in the evening. Great day. But we really must leave tomorrow, and we will go to Phonsavan to see ’The Plain of Jars’, which is one of the main reason as to why we came to Laos in the first place. Will be hard to get up and leave though I’m sure.


A monk cleaning up

Monksclearing up


Tuk-tuk

Pouring down with rain

permalink written by  chrischarly on August 1, 2011 from Luang Prabang, Laos
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Send a Compliment
Viewing 171 - 180 of 233 Entries
first | previous | next | last

View as Map View as Satellite Imagery View as Map with Satellite Imagery Show/Hide Info Labels Zoom Out Zoom In Zoom Out Zoom In
find city:
trip feed
 author feed
 trip kml
 author kml

   

Blogabond v2.40.58.80 © 2024 Expat Software Consulting Services about : press : rss : privacy