Cost Free A tuk-tuk will cost about 50,000 kip each way from the centre of the city. We hired a motorbike for 24 hours for 60,000 kip and rode to COPE. What A FREE museum where you can learn about ‘The Secret War’ that America conducted against Laos a few decades ago. You also learn about the type of bombs that still remain in the country, hindering economic progress, and read/watch/listen to stories about people who have lost limbs and livelihoods thanks to these horrible bombs. Where Boulevard Khouvieng, Vientiane, Laos View COPE Visitor Centre in a larger map Comments We first visited COPE in Vientiane a couple of months…
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One Month in Laos – Photo Gallery
Lionel, the genius, has made a travel photo gallery. He coded the whole thing on our tiny, out of memory, super slow, tablet. We have selected our favourite photos from each country starting with Laos. These are unedited and reflect our impressions of the country. TWOGREENBACKPACKS.COM/LAOS
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A Day In Vientiane
We are “stuck” in Vientiane (the world’s second most exciting capital city) for a few days, while we wait for our Thai visas. The timing we chose is a bit less than ideal. Usually the passport with visa can be collected the following day, however we applied on a Friday so we have to wait until Monday. So far, we have enjoyed some great food, Indian and Italian at slightly above budget cost. Today we tried to hire a motorbike to explore the surrounds, which proved a little more difficult than usual. They would not hand over the keys to a bike that barely works without a passport. Both of…
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The day Lionel lost his iPhone in the longest cave in Laos.
So we’ve been motorbiking around Central Laos for the last few days. Our main reason for coming through this part of Laos was to visit the longest and supposedly, grandest cave, the mighty Konglor Cave. The cave has a 7.5km river, the Nam Hinbourn River, running through it, and at times, the cave can reach over 70 metres high! We rode out to the cave from Nahim, the small town we’ve been staying at for a few nights, and took close to a billion pictures of cows, water buffaloes, ducks, children etc. along the way. When we got to the ticket office for the park, the attendant nicely gave us…
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BRB, Going to Ride Around Central Laos! The Thakhek Motorbike Loop
Packing for a six day motorbike loop around central Laos. Malaria tablets, Bushman’s 80% DEET insect repellent, a knife, and a change of underwear. All we would ever need. 🙂
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A Three Day Trek; Water Bombs, Leeches & LaoLao Whiskey
So we booked a three day trek with Jewel Travel Laos to trek around Nong Khiaw starting from Ban (Village) Houy Khong, through Ban Vieg Hinh and Ban Payong and down to the river where we would catch a boat back to Nong Khiaw. As we had met up with the Aussie couple from Sapa, Sarah and Scott, we decided to do a trek together. Day 1 was pretty crazy. We walked through some rice paddies, up through the jungle and then came to a waterfall where we assumed we would eat lunch and have a swim. How wrong we were. Turns out our path WAS the waterfall. Upstream. For…
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Nong Khiaw – A trek around Northern Laos
Booked a three day trek starting today. Trekking through mountains, waterfalls and staying at village homestays, or at least that’s what we signed up for. No wifi, so no blogging for a bit!
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Laos to Vietnam Border Crossing & Vice Versa
Border crossings can be interesting to say the least. They are basically the wild west of immigration offices. Where anything goes. Here we have our experience of going from Vietnam to Laos, and how we got majorly scammed. But it also works the other way, as a Laos to Vietnam border crossing. Either way, be warned and on the lookout for scam artists posing as immigration officers. Unfortunately, they know you have no choice! Vietnam to Laos Border Crossing We left Sapa on an overnight sleeper bus heading to Dien Bien Phu. Luckily we had bumped into an Aussie couple at a hotel. We were both exchanging money the same…
