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Posted by Nes on Aug 27, 2011

Muang Khua to Luang Prabang (Laos)

What surprised me most about the guesthouse we stayed in wasn’t the tiles in the bathroom (more on that when we review the accommodation) but that they had several Hindi music and Arabic Quran recitation channels. That was the last thing I’d expect to see on telly in The Middle of Nowhere, Laos. But it was a nice change (the Hindi music I mean, not the Quran recitation) from Fashion TV and V...

Posted by Nes on Aug 26, 2011

Dien Bien Phu to Muang Khua: Crossing into Laos

Before setting off to Tay Trang (the last Vietnamese town the border checkpoint is named after), we found a gold shop across the street from the hotel that was able to change dongs to kips (the three banks we went to prior didn’t provide this service). The rate was, quite expectedly, bad, but we were glad to have kips so we wouldn’t be charged the higher USD rates at the Laos border. The road...

Posted by O'Ren on Aug 25, 2011

Son La to Dien Bien Phu (Vietnam)

Before taking off from Son La, I gave the bike a quick wash, to get rid of most of the mud accumulated during yesterday’s ride. I had spotted a hose near the hotel’s main entrance and the staff allowed me to use it to rinse the bike. By the time we were packed and ready to take off, it was clear that only a good soapy workout could really get rid of the dirt. But it was good enough for this...

Posted by O'Ren on Aug 24, 2011

Hanoi to Son La (Vietnam)

We decided to stop writing about what happened a month ago and keep you guys updated on our latest rides instead. We’ll back-fill as we go of course. So we’re jumping to rides from Vietnam to Laos and today is when we left Hanoi for Son La, a small town 300km away, on the road to the Laos border. Below is the itinerary we followed, taking road 32 then road 37. Son La is the closest town to...

Posted by Nes on Jul 23, 2011

A Tour of Kampot & Kep, Cambodia

The day started with a delicious breakfast at Epic Arts Cafe (which opens early at 7am) before walking back to the hotel to wait for the tour guide/driver to pick us up. Breakfast Bruschetta We were quite excited as this was our first proper guided tour of, well, any place on the trip. And it was a beautiful day, which made us doubly happy as we had feared we’d have to settle for a repeat of...

Posted by Nes on Jul 22, 2011

Strolling Through Kampot Town, Cambodia

Anyone who knows me knows how squeamish I am at the sight of geckos and trying to sleep while up on the ceiling, just above the bed, geckos were busy munching on their dinner did not result in a good night’s sleep for me. The room had a lot of gaps in the wall and all manner of creepy crawlies came out to play at night, including a huge spider in the bathroom. I was up before O’Ren, so I...

Posted by Nes on Jul 21, 2011

Sunset River Cruise in Kampot, Cambodia

Les Manguiers arranges several river cruise trips for guests but there needs to be a minimum of 4 people before the boat takes off (unless you don’t mind paying double!). At around 5 p.m., a French woman O’Ren had spoken to earlier in the day informed us that she and her husband were about to go on a sunset river cruise and asked if we’d like to go as well. Perfect timing! We headed to...

Posted by O'Ren on Jul 21, 2011

Sihanoukville to Kampot (Cambodia)

Today we are going to Kampot, about 200km from Sihanoukville. We didn’t research it much beforehand, we just knew it could be worth a detour instead of going straight to Phnom Penh. We’ve read that the scenery in the region was great, but we didn’t really need others to tell us: what we saw coming from Koh Kong made us fall in love with South Cambodia in a heartbeat. We had our last...