Still in Luang Prabang

Hi All,
Still enjoying this beautifull city. Lots of things to do here.
We have met this really nice family from Holland who are travelling with their 4 children. They are staying in the same guest house, and the kids have lots of fun here. Luckely the owner also has 2 children so lots of hide and seek and drawing. Went accross the mekong today to walk to a small village. The locals where very friendly and loved the 6 blond children!
Went to see the royal palace yesterday and the day before went to a amazing waterfall for a swim where there was a bear rescue center.
Meanwhile planning ahead the rest of our trip. Next stop Nong khiaw on wednesday or so.
Not much to talk about other than that we are really enjoying our peace and quite time in this homely environment. Weather: sweltering hot-afternoon showers.

Stephan

Luang prabang

Hi All,
Sorry, it has been a while.
Finally a internet that works. Quickly called my dad to wish him Happy birthday!!
We left Vientiane on Monday for VangVieng.
A grazy place where you can go tubing on a river and stopping at these water bars for a drink. Or you can go on the slide of death while stoned or worse. Many young backpackers die here every year.
We stayed in a quite area outside town. A very beautifull area.
Spend 2 days here and left for Luang prabang. The road was very windy and high. Unfortunately it was cloudy so no nice views, but still worthwhile.
We found a very nive place to stay in. The owner is from belgium and his wife is half Lao/american.
(Father is a soldier from the war she has never met and does not know he has a child in Laos)
This is a Unesco protected town by the river Mekong and used to be the capital.
Really special place with lots of tourists.
The night market is huge with lots of goodies for our house to buy.
We want to stay for about 10 days here to catch some breath.

The weather is getting closer to Monsoon and very hot. Looking forward to going to Holland.
Stephan

Vientiane

Hi All,
Back to the world! We all had a wonderfull time in a place called Tat Lo in the Bolevan plateau near Pakse in south Laos. We stayed with a very nice Laos family with 3 little children. We cooked every night together after buying the ingredients from the local market. At the market you can buy:
Snake, batt, toads, frogs, lizards, squirrel, owl, snails and all the rest that crawls or flies! I only had some snake and toad to try and of course it taste like: yes you quested it right, chicken!
The girls did some elefant riding, swimming in the waterfall, hiring motorbikes and just hanging out in town. We had a great time. The little girl, Pinkie, was the star of the show. Laos is really easy going, really enjoying it. People are very sincere and relaxed. Great to travel this country with children.
Last night we took the night bus to vientiane. A sleeper bus that is. Called the King of bus. A huge bus with beds. Arrived this morning in Vientiane.  Will stay here for a few days. The problem if you go travelling with 3 females, you always end up sooner or later in clothes shops. I hate shoppping for the sake of it, but am in the minority. Probably will need to do some things on my own.
Next stop Luang prabang.

Stephan

Don Khon

We moved to this island a few days ago and have been really enjoying ourselves.  Very relaxed in Laos if we had to compare it with Cambodia.  We loved Cambodia as well but the post war stress is always in the background there.  Laos is how it is tourists or no tourists, the people just go on with their lives and tourists fit in which is nice, authentic and everyday so interesting as there is no real division and there is so much to see.   The first night on Don Det which is the young party hangout I thought there was a burgerler just outside our bungalow, I think we were a bit paranoid after watching some war movie which was based on a real life story of the vietnam war, not really what we felt like watching but we had front seats on a 12 hour bus trip.  Anyway we did not have a burgeler it was actually two water buffalo's having a midnight feast just outside our door.  We have really been doing alot of biking, seems to be the best way to see alot and still take it in on a sensory level.  Great food, very cheap here compared to Cambodia,  We are back on budget again , the first month we went way over.

The girls have found a friend, a gibbon called Hoi Hoi, unfortunately it is in a cage but a big one and it is just like Lotus's toy gibbon at home Mango.  The first day we arrived their was a very old monk there who is the monkeys best friend and comes everyday to visit the monkey.  We were allowed to spend some more time with Hoi Hoi and the old monk was massaging the monkey and we joined in, so soft and Hoi hoi would stick her legs out to have a foot massage as well.

We went to an amazing water fall with about 20 waterfalls coming into one which was really amazing, the locals believe this is were the spirits are trapped and many people as well as tourists have died here as if you go too far down the river you fall down the rapids.  Also we went to see the Irrawaddy fresh water dolphins, their faces are alot flatter than the saltwater variety.

We went to a local beach(river), spending the whole afternoon sitting on rocks and riding the small rapids as it was very hot.  Afternoons we receive the rain which is always nice and relaxing.  This afternoon we were actually out on the river tubing when the rain came down.  When we got home we had our first hot shower, we haven't needed one yet.

anyway thats us for now we are headed to another place reccommended to us tomorrow - tat lo

Natalie

photos to follow

Laos

Hi All,
Went to Phnom penh. Had a good time celebrating Chloe's birthday.Bought her an Ipod to keep her entertained on these long bus trips.Phnom penh is a reasonable sizes city. 2.000.000 people and the same as the rest of Cambodia changing rapidly.Intended to go to a fun park fro her birthday, but a really big thunderstorm put the spanner in the works! All the roads where flooded.
Me and the girls went to the Laos embassy to pick up the visas through the flooded streets and thunder everywhere. Looks like the monsoon is about to start here.
Phnom Penh is not as poor as I expected. Some areas are really funky with a lot of french influence and expacts living her. Went to a susi train bar and had too much food, so had to suffer the whole night.
Next morning caught the bus to Laos, a 12 hours journey. Lucky the bus was very good. Drove all along the Mekong to the Laos border. Took an hour to get past. After a short drive in Laos we had to get of the bus and on to the boat to go to the 4000 islands. We were late so the boat had to go in the dark. We could not go to the island we wanted to so ended up on a party island full of backpackers for the night.
Really like the feel and people of Laos. Looking forward to spending a month here.Lao people are soo relaxed.
Not sure what we are going to do after this place, but will spend some time here and work our way up north.
We want to spend 2 weeks in Luang prapang later on.

Stephan

Last day in Kampot

Hi All,

3 and a half weeks already since we left NZ. Time is speeding up now.

As some of you will now, we had some dog issues before we left.  Ironically we are now surrounded by dogs and they are really anoying. Hanging around your feet, 4 or 5 sometimes while eating breakfast! Lots of flees. Lovely.

Still in Kampot. We decided to stay a bit longer as it is a really nice area with a town with great potential. French style houses, some repaired and some not (yet).
Chloe wants to have her B'day in Phnom Penh, so we are leaving tomorrow morning. Will spend around 3 nights in PP and then head of the Laos.

Went swimming today in some rapids, nice and cool. Yesterday we went to a cave.

We bumped into this TV crew from australia in Siem Reap shooting footage while cooking in the market for a TV show in OZ. After 25km driving over dirt and dusty roads we finally arrived at the cave and guess who where there? Thats right the same TV crew all set up in this cave in the middle of nowhere!

My pounamu seems to create some reactions from Kiwis living in Cambodia, first we met a older guy who owns a hotel from the Manawatu and yesterday a lady from Wellington who was helping out with the TV show.

This country has truly potential. The population is young (due to the war) and the land is fertile, flat and enough water. They are a rice exporter. Also abundant fish in lakes, rivers and sea.

The only problem is the education of the population, but they are making great progress. China is the main investor.

Much Love from all of us.
Ps. any responds is better than none at all. Soemtimes I feel like nobody is reading this so I get less motivated.