open mind, empty stomach

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  • Slow Boating It Up the Mekong

    There are 3 main options for getting from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai, where the Gibbon Experience is located. You can taken a bus, the fast boat, or the slow boat. I had been traveling almost exclusively by bus for the better part of two months, including all of my transport in Laos. Fast boats…

  • Vang Vieng

    I’d heard that Vang Vieng was like Sihanoukville, only with tubing instead of a beach and I planned to avoid it. An Aussie in Luang Prabang told me how amazingly beautiful Vang Vieng was with great outdoor adventure opportunities and to just avoid the tourist area. I’m not sure why I listened to him, but…

  • Don Khon

    The Mekong river is at its widest in southern Laos in an area known as 4,000 Islands. The three major islands are Don Kong, Don Det, and Don Khon. In recent years Don Det has become a backpacker mecca, so I opted for the more laid back Don Khon. I got to spend my first…

  • Kong Lo

    Kong Lo is located in central Laos and is known for its 7km long cave. Carlos, Carolina, Graeme and I took the overnight VIP Bus from Luang Prabang to Kong Lo. It turns out that VIP stands for Very Inaccurately Portrayed; it was a nightmare, but got us where we needed to go. We stayed…

  • Luang Prabang

    The roads between Laos and Northern Vietnam are not the best and there had been heavy rains recently, so I decided to fly from Hanoi to Luang Prabang. This trip began with the overnight train from Sapa that arrived in Hanoi at 4:45 am, then a flight that left the airport at 6:30 in the…

  • Sapa

    Located in northern Vietnam, not far from the Chinese border, Sapa is best known for its ethnic minorities and terraced rice paddies. The Black Hmong and Red Zhao are the two largest minorities and you can tell them apart by the red headscarves worn by Zhao women. I didn’t take pictures of the locals in…

  • Hanoi

    Big, busy cities are not my favorite places to visit in developing countries. Hanoi definitely falls into this category. It is the second largest city in Vietnam and is full of motorbikes (and motorbike drivers), people, and noise. Visitors tend to use Hanoi only as a base for going to Halong Bay and Sapa. Most…

  • Halong Bay

    Halong Bay is one of the “must see” places in Vietnam, and for good reason. The place is truly majestic. It is a series of islands varying in size with towering limestone cliffs. I spent considerable time researching ways to do the bay. It seemed that a travel agency was the best route and that…

  • Hue

    There were two places in Vietnam I was told to skip or only visit briefly: Saigon and Hue. These were also the two cities in Vietnam that I had local friends of friends to show me around. I ended up having a great time in both. Hue is a relatively small city, with around 300,000…

  • Hoi An

    Hoi An is definitely a tourist town, but I LOVE it. Despite having an economy centered on visitors, there are a lot of local people here. It isn’t like Venice, with its Disney front and no one actual residents. Even the historic houses that you can tour have current occupants. There is an incredible balance…