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There is an amazing
310
travel-log entries on
16
page(s) and your are on page number
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
15 September 2005
at
04:58
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Day 78 (14th September 2005)
The flight today was pretty painless. Luang Prabang airport is no more than a couple of small buildings and a runway that looks no bigger than your garage driveway. We got back to Khao San Road around 6.30pm after an hour and a half on the bus from the airport, and they call it a shuttle bus! In the evening we went to the train station by Tuk-tuk to buy the train tickets to take us down to the islands. We got a pretty good deal..an overnight sleeper train and bus and boat tickets for 600 Baht - Bargain! We leave tomorrow night at 5pm
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| Matt is currently in
Khao San Road, Bangkok, Thailand |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
13 September 2005
at
06:17
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Day 77 (13th September 2005)
Milling around today (as usual) later today we are checking out the local night market - I am hoping to buy a nice "Beer Lao" T-Shirt. Laos beer is the nicest beer in Asia and it has won some awards for it's great taste. I will certainly miss the beer Laos when we leave as it is not sold in Thailand. Tomorrow we leave Laos and are flying back to Bangkok and the wonderful delights of the Khao San Road again for 1 night. Then it's either train or bussing it down to Koh Pha Ngan for the full moon party. Now a few words about Laos:- I never really planned to come to Laos, it wasn't a place on my itinerary. I am so glad I decided to visit, it is one of the best places I have been to so far in Asia, the people here are really friendly and you don't get ripped off like Vietnam or Thailand. I like Laos as much as Cambodia and it is definately a great place to visit in South East Asia. I will be coming back at some point, this is my last update from Laos, speak to you all again from Thailand....Au Revoir 
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| Matt is currently in
Luang Prabang, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
13 September 2005
at
06:09
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Day 76 (12th September 2005)
We got to the bus station (which is just a hut!) at 8.30am in the chance that we might be able to get a bus back to Luang Prabang. We were told that the bus would not be leaving until it was full or at 11am, so we waited until 11 and finally there were enough people to warrant it to leave. The bus wasn't really a bus (like we know it) but more of a truck. So we were all packed in too full capacity along with a car engine and two big pots of crabs. After an hour my arse was so numb and it was not possible to move around at all. We had another 2 hours to go..anyway we got through it somehow and got back to Luang Prabang. We had something to eat and I watched some TV and went to bed.
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| Matt is currently in
Luang Prabang, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
13 September 2005
at
06:03
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Day 75 (11th September 2005)
Today we got the slow boat up the river to Nong Khiaw. They are not wrong when they say the slow boat, it took 8 1/2 hours to get there. On the way though we passed some spectacular scenary, the time went pretty quick though as we met some Canadian guy on the boat that we were speaking to for much of it. Nong Khiaw is basically a very small village, there are a couple of restaurants and guesthouses there but not much else. We managed to get bamboo huts right on the river, but our time here is short as tomorrow we have to get back on the bus to go back to Luang Prabang. We need to be back there ready to catch our flight back to Bangkok on Wednesday. I like Nong Khiaw it is a nice place and very very relaxed, much like the rest of Laos!
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| Matt is currently in
Nong Khiaw, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
13 September 2005
at
05:57
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Day's 73 & 74 (9th/10th September 2005)
Spent these last couple of days milling around in Luang Prabang. We checked out the place and generally have been taking it easy. Tomorrow we are heading on a boat trip up the Mekong river to a place called Nong Khiaw.....
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| Matt is currently in
Luang Prabang, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
09 September 2005
at
06:40
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Day 72 (8th September 2005)
Today was a non-event we got the mini-bus at 9am as planned and I felt like crap as I only got 4 hours sleep. The journey seemed to take ages and the roads were winding almost all the way (not good for stomach) We got here about 5pm and found a guesthouse, it seems quiet here and I kind of like the feel of the place. After being in so many big busy cities it's nice to chill out without the hussle, noise and pollution of the traffic. In the evening I watched some movies at the guesthouse and got an early night.
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| Matt is currently in
Luang Prabang, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
09 September 2005
at
06:35
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Day 71 (7th September 2005)
Ok today I managed to do the tubing down the river but it turned into more of a bar crawl. All along the river there are 5 or 6 places where they fish you in and you can buy beers. I went tubing with 2 Canadians and an American. It's a good laugh and you can do the rope swings and zip lines (I didn't participate in that though). In the evening we went out again and it was another late night, tomorrow we are leaving on mini-bus to go to Luang Prabang in the north..it's a 9am start.
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| Matt is currently in
Vang Vieng, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
09 September 2005
at
06:31
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Day 70 (6th September 2005)
Didn't quite make it up today as we were out partying again until 5am at some bar. Spent the whole day chilling out at the guesthouse trying to recover from the previous night...oh I must go tubing....
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| Matt is currently in
Vang Vieng, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
05 September 2005
at
07:49
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Day 69 (5th September 2005)
I got up really late today and we went out at 12 for lunch. We are taking it easy again today and going to go to some bars tonight. Tomorrow we have decided to go tubing, this is basically floating down a river in a big inflatable inner tube. A tuk-tuk drives you to the tubing station up the river and it takes about 1 hour to get back to here...should be fun! 
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| Matt is currently in
Vang Vieng, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
05 September 2005
at
07:47
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Day 68 (4th September 2005)
It was up early at 8.30 this morning to get stuff packed and ready to catch the bus to Vang Vieng. We got picked up by tuk-tuk and taken to the mini-bus. Fortunately it was only a 3 1/2 hour journey to get to Vang Vieng. This place is very small but very relaxed. I am liking it here, very chilled. We spent a while walking around the place and went for dinner. I was knackered from the night before so I went to bed pretty early....
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| Matt is currently in
Vang Vieng, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
05 September 2005
at
07:30
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Day 67 (3rd September 2005)
There is not much stuff to do in Vientiane so we had a quiet day just milling around near the guesthouse. In the evening we went to some bar where they had a live band, they were actually really good - one of the guitar players was excellent. When this place was closing I saw a girl called Gee that I was playing pool with the other night and she said about going to this nightclub that was nearby. I went with her to the club, it was ok but shut at 1am (seems like most places shut early here) so I went back to her place for a while and then back to my hotel. 
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| Matt is currently in
Vientiane, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
03 September 2005
at
08:25
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Day 66 (2nd September 2005)
So we're still on the bus and it's 6am. We just arrived at the border between Vietnam and Laos and have to wait until 7am for it to open. When it opens we have no problems at all getting though - in fact this was the best border so far, much quicker and easier than the Thai/Cambodia or Cambodia/Vietnam borders. We get back on the bus at the other side and continue the journey. At first the roads seem very narrow and muddy and there was a couple of times where I thought the bus was going to slip off the edge of the cliff! very scary stuff. After getting a little further the roads start to get better and we are moving a lot quicker. We finally arrived in Vientiane bus station at 6pm and got a tuk-tuk to take us into town. I am suprised about this place - it is different to what I expected, there are modern shops here and some nice restaurants, the prices for guesthouses seem to be high though so we searched around for a good place to stay. We finally got one for $10 a room with air-con and TV. In the evening we went to have dinner and beers in a local restaurant/pub. On the way home I got accosted by a Lao girl and she followed me home and into my hotel room - I couldn't get rid of her - all I wanted to do was go to sleep and she wouldn't go, so I had to threaten to call the hotel management to remove her, this method finally worked.
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| Matt is currently in
Vientiane, Laos |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
03 September 2005
at
08:17
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Day 65 (1st September 2005)
Ok so a new month, we awoke at 7am for breakfast on the boat and then we had to change onto another boat that would be taking us back to Halong City where we could catch the mini-bus back to Hanoi. Halong Bay was fantastic and it was well worth the visit. We arrived back at Halong City around 11am and there was some confusion about where we were supposed to go to wait for the bus, anyway in the end we got on the bus and headed back to Hanoi arriving at 5.30pm. We then had just enough time to get a shower and have dinner before it was time to catch the 24 hour bus to Vientiane in Laos. We got picked up from the hotel at 7pm by motorbikes to take us to the bus station. When we arrived at the bus station we found out that we have been put on a local bus to Laos and not a tourist bus. We can't believe it, scammed again. Vietnam seems to be all about scamming or ripping off foreigners and I am glad to be leaving. We had to share the bus (with non-working air-con) with some locals, 1000's apples, 100's Boxes of noodles and loads of other stuff that had been thrown on....
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| Matt is currently in
Halong Bay / Hanoi, Vietnam |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
03 September 2005
at
08:08
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Day 64 (31st August 2005)
Today we left Hanoi on the mini-bus to take us to Halong Bay. We arrived in Halong City at around 12pm and had lunch. We boarded the boat to take us to Halong Bay. The boat was a good mix of people and nationalities, we had some Irish lads on the boat with some bottles of Vodka, they were a good laugh. We first stopped off to go and look around a couple of caves on one of the islands - these caves are really massive and quite amazing to see, they have been lit up with loads of different coloured lights so it looks pretty impressive. Inside though it is swelteringly hot and I must have lost a couple of litres of water. The boat then headed around Halong Bay so we could take in the fantastic scenery. We stopped at a quiet place for swimming and to watch the sunset..that was amazing. The boat then headed to the place where we would spend the night. We slept on the boat in cabins. There was dinner on the boat provided which was pretty good too and after that we had beers on the top deck. There was absoloutely no light polution at all so it was possible to see 1000's of stars in the night sky and the milky way...totally amazing!
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| Matt is currently in
Halong Bay, Vietnam |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
30 August 2005
at
13:41
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Day 63 (30th August 2005)
I took a sleeping pill last night to ensure that I would get at least a good nights sleep after my ordeal - for my body sure did need it. I did however feel much better today and we decided to go to some places. First we went to the temple of literature - which by any means was not very impressive. Then it was onto the Ho Chi Minh museum which we navigated in a brisk 15 mins finally finishing off our tour by going to a prison (can't remember the name of it). It's where the American POW's were held during the war..all the places were pretty boring but I think the prison was the best. Tomorrow we leave on a 2 day / 1 night tour to Halong Bay where we get to go to caves, the national park and sleep on a boat. This should be great as Halong Bay is supposed to be the "must see" place in Vietnam. When we return from this we head straight onto a bus to take us to Vientiene in Laos - Another new country and more new experiences......
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| Matt is currently in
Hanoi, Vietnam |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
30 August 2005
at
13:30
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Day 61 (28th August 2005)
Today we arrived in Hanoi after the long bus journey. Hanoi is again really hectic like Saigon, there are thousands of motorcycles everywhere. We found a place to stay and went to kip. We got up at about 4pm so we didn't have much time to do anything so we just had a walk around the area and then went for dinner. After dinner we found a place for a beer and I started to feel a little nausious so we went back to the hotel....
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| Matt is currently in
Hanoi, Vietnam |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
27 August 2005
at
07:02
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Day 60 (27th August 2005)
We have decided not to go anywhere in Hue as we just can't be bothered, the only things that are here to see are a couple of pagodas and some tombs, it doesn't really seem worth it. Today we are milling around and preparing ourselves for another retched bus journey to Hanoi - this time it's 13 1/2 hours and we are leaving today at 5.30pm....Thank God for MP3 players.
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| Matt is currently in
Hue, Vietnam |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
27 August 2005
at
06:59
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Day 59 (26th August 2005)
We caught the bus sucessfully today at 1.30pm - it was sad to leave Hoi An as we both very much enjoyed our time there and our hotel was top notch. After arriving in Hue we got dropped off at a 'hotel' I wouldn't really call it a hotel though, it's really more of a 'sh*t hole'. Anyway as we are only staying one night it will do. My first impressions of Hue are not good, there is not much to do here and you get hassled a lot by cyclo and motobike riders. Whilst walking along the streets we have also encountered a lot of that non-desirable smell of sewage much like Khao San Road. I guess if we were spending more time here then maybe my attitude would change, I just think at the moment that I am glad to be heading to Hanoi tomorrow night....
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| Matt is currently in
Hue, Vietnam |
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