While we were looking forward to a few days in Vientiane after a great time in Luang Prabang, we were left disappointed. Somehow the French colonial charm didn’t make its way to Laos’ capital. Instead, the city streets looked just like any other city’s streets; the temples that line main streets look ordinary and worn […]

Vang Vieng is a legendary backpacker party location where the action revolves around days spent floating from bar to bar in inner tubes. There are countless stories of how outrageous the party used to be, but the fact that 25 tourists used to die each year from the partying pretty much sums it up. But […]

While places like Luang Prabang have been on the “must visit” hot lists of many travelers, I was excited that Laos also offered opportunities to discover places and people way off the beaten path. When we signed up for a 3 day/2 night trek with homestays in villages, I had no idea how truly authentic […]

Lew-ang Pro-baang or Loo-Ang Pra-Bang, we really didn’t know how to pronounce it upon arrival. But I fell in love with this little town’s charm and character almost straight away.   The whole city itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site which contains just a few main streets between the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers. […]

We crossed over from Thailand to Laos at Huay Xai, a common border crossing for backpackers on the SE Asia circuit. It’s popular because Huay Xai is the starting point for a two-day slow boat journey down to Luang Prabang. Numerous people had told us that the slow boat was a “must do,” but we […]

As we made our way from Chiang Mai to the Laos border, we stopped for a night in Chiang Rai. Not only was it a convenient way to break up the bus ride to the border, we had heard backpacker legends about a crazy “white temple” that was worth stopping for. The rumors were correct. […]

(Please excuse the short detour to a slightly non-travel-related topic) As we’ve traveled in Thailand our hostel and guesthouse rooms have become much nicer than those we were accustomed to in India and Myanmar. This has meant that we’ve started seeing TVs in rooms (what!?), and with those TVs I’ve noticed a proliferation of English-language […]

This is not going to be like one of my other traditional posts: 60-70 pictures and an outline of the activities we did. No. Because in Pai, you don’t really DO anything. You lay back. You meander. You nap in hammocks, on cushions in cafes or in the grass along the river. There are literally […]