“I think this hostel is after a mad right” – Chaz Fitzsimmons Well after a couple of crazy days in Vientiane, touring the sights, staying in the Sabaidy Guesthouse for $3 a night, we got a truck and a mini-bus up north to the crazy town of Vang Vieng. Yes, this place is totally nuts.…
Read MoreThe madness continued. The journey to Vang Vieng began in the capital city of Laos, Vientiane. We had stayed in the Sabaidy Guesthouse to start with (cheap and cheerful) and of course toured the sights of the city after crossing the border from Nong Khai in Thailand. Chaz and I had secured a ride to…
Read MoreAfter leaving Bangkok in Thailand behind on another short jaunt to the city, I headed on a night train north to Nong Khai and then crossed the border into Laos at Thanaleng. I was meeting up with my travel buddy Chaz from Belfast. At the same time, Chaz was bussing it up to Vientiane from…
Read MoreI almost didn’t want to write about this travel mishap, but I said recently it’s a “no holds barred” on here so all the crazy “The Day I…” stories are going up!! It happened and I’m embarrassed by it, but looking back it was about a year ago now and I’m not angry anymore. I…
Read MoreYes travel gives us ups and downs, and you’ve got to laugh at things in retrospect. A great travel buddy of mine, and fellow Northern Irishman Chaz teamed up with me last year to give Laos a good go. This was before all the “tubing bars” were shut down (allegedly). Things didn’t run too smoothly…
Read MoreToday’s Friday’s Featured Food takes us to the country of Laos. It’s not a country famed for food and I remember being told “when you go to Laos you’ll end up eating a load of banana pancakes”. Well in the end I only had one banana pancake and actually found a lot more charm in…
Read MoreIn my latest edition of my world borders series I look at how to get from Laos to Cambodia. There are obviously a few routes you can take to go between these two countries. I was staying in Don Det down near the Cambodia border so I did the Nong Nok Khieng to Trapeang Kreal…
Read MoreRight it’s a “short one” because this is all you need to know about the Bucket Bar in Vang Vieng, Laos!! This it NOT for “teetotallers”, in fact Vang Vieng in its dreamy, riverous splendour is quite possibly the party capital of the world. Tubing and the like aside, head for a night out in…
Read MoreI loved the relaxed charm of Vientiane in Laos. It’s got to be one of the less well known capital cities in the world. It was my first port of call when travelling in Laos (after arriving at the border point of Thanaleng) and I met up with a travel buddy there (Chaz – a…
Read MoreThere are lessons to learn on our travels and no matter how much travel experience we have, we are always prone to make mistakes. So here is where travel went badly wrong for me, and I’m warning you to be careful too! I’m not proud of my horrendous time in the wonderful town of Vang…
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