... and first hours in cambodia.

i just arrived in phnom penh, the capital of cambodia. was a hard day on the boat, two mini-vans and finally on a big bus. but it was no problem after some relaxing days on don khone (one of the islands of the 4000-islands in the south of laos). what did i do over there - relaxing, relaxing and relaxing! had a great time over there - spent some time on the beach, some time exploring the island on a bicycle (far too small!), had a beer lao in the hammock on the balcony in front of the bungalow at night, read, eplored the island around on a boat, visited two waterfalls in the area and watched the famous river dolphins, ...

during the next days the focus will be more on culture again - sightseeing in phnom penh (visiting all the places reminding of the cruelties of the red khmer and pol pot) and afterwards enjoying angkor wat.

see ya,
christopher

... i am right now in pakse and almost on the way to the 4-thousand-islands - leaving tomorrow morning.

see ya,
christopher

... and that's the best description for vang vieng.

i spent there a day with zack (i could not get rid of the american ;-)) and enjoyed tubing. the town is really crazy and hard to stand and totally different to the rest of laos i have seen so far. tubing was good fun, but a day there was enough (even though i have heard that the area around should be really nice).

how does tubing work? you rent a truck tube. they give you a lift to the river about 4 ks from the final destination in town. you jump into the river and float along. that's the easy part! the hard part is that after 50 m there is every 50 m a bar to stop (they cast lines and try to catch you) and after the sun is hidden behind the surrounding hills it's freezing in the river. even though we skipped a couple of bars we had to pay tribute to the laolao shots, the beers and the bucket of whatever - after dinner we took a nap for an hour, but did not wake up till 1 am and thus decided not to go to another bar.

now i am on my own in vientiane, the capital of lao p.d.r. did some sightseeing today, will do the same tomorrow and then i am going to go to the south of laos.

take care,
christopher

... and looking forward to tubing.

tonight i am going to leave luang prabang to vang vieng to enjoy tubing and perhaps some rock climbing. yesterday i spent a nice day at one of the waterfalls around town and at night we had our farewell dinner, because our small traveling group will spread in different directions.

see ya,
christopher

... after spending days in a remote fishermen village.

what happened the last days? after the trekking tour i went east with the american (but not from the states) to mung kiao. we got to know an aussie guy and an english couple on the bus. after a 90 minute boat trip streamupwards along the river nam ou we all finally landed in the fishermen village (just reachable by boat) and were immediately caught by penny (believe me!) offering her guesthouse as the cheapest, even if it was not.

we spent there two days in the middle of nowhere enjoying our time without cars, mopeds, internet, ... but there were still a lot of things to do. the first day we joined two young lao guys on their fishing trip and tried our luck by casting the net. but unfortunately we were not as successful as the girls doing the same trip the next day. anyway we had a great day paddling upstream and due to the knowledge of the two guides we had a wonderful fish bbq on an island in the river. the journey back - floating back and listening to the guides singing - was relaxation pure!

the second day can be summarized by 3 hrs waiting for food (breakfast, lunch and dinner), exploring the village and the area around including a nice cave, wandering through rice fields and finally a rough night due to bad food for dinner.

on sunday zack, tommy and i took the boat back to mung kiao and further on the most luxury transport since arriving in asia - a chartered boat with seats! the journey to luang prabang took around 6 hrs. the landscape along the river was amazing. the arrival in luang prabang was a big shock - back in civilization and back to the tourist path!

the program for today was to visit the most important temples here. all of them would have been too much, because there are a lot due to the importance of luang prabang in the history of laotian buddhism history. now it is time to stroll around the night market for souvenir shopping (or better christmas shopping) and to get some dinner.

take care,
christopher

... back from the jungle!

i just came back from a fantastic trekking tour in nam tha national park. i got to know some guys from america, england, israel and the netherlands and joined them on a jungle camp trekking tour. it was great fun to hike through the jungle and to stay at huts in the middle of nowhere. phonsak, our tour guide, showed us how to survive in the jungle - including how to use bamboo and the nature for almost everything, for example bamboo-shotglasses for laolao (a rice whiskey), bamboo-cups for water or beer lao, bamboo-pots for cooking soup on the fire, bamboo-bowls for serving the food, banana-leaf-dish-runners to serve sticky rice with delicious food all eaten with the fingers, ...

unfortunately we could not spot any tigers and monkeys as the israelian girl wished. but we stopped at two tribe villages in the mountains and got some insights in their daily life - was a good experience and great fun to play soccer with the kids in their school break.

now i am on the way to a small fishermen village - sorry forgot the name again - and then back to the normal tourist route and luang prabang.

sorry for the long time without a new story, but there is no internet in the jungle!

see ya,
christopher

... welcome laos.

after a long farewell dinner it was time to say good-bye to mim, the spycy house and the other travellers who stayed there. i had a great time there!

after a couple of hours in a mini bus cruising trough the north of thailand and crossing the mekong river i am finally in laos. i have not seen a lot yet, but i am looking forward to exploring it. tomorrow i am going to take a bus to the north to luang namtha (almost at the border to china) to do some trekking.

take care,
christopher

p.s.: it is a little bit strange to travel alone again after great company last week!