Category: South East Asia

0

Phnom Penh and its Killing Fields

Phnom Penh is Cambodia’s capital and the place to know more about the most barbarous, cruel crime committed by the Khmer Rouge during 1975-1979. One of the main museums about the genocide is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, former Office S-21 during the Khmer Rouge regime. I recommend visiting this museum first before heading to the Killing Fields for a correct cronological order of the events. It’s hard to imagine that this place, where in only 4 years more than 20.000 people where imprisoned, interrogated and inhumanly tortured, used to be a school with happy, playing primary school children. Many...

0

Biking along the Mekong Discovery Trail in Kratie

When I arrived at the busstation in to take the bus to Kratie many people were already there waiting for the same bus. Almost everyone was also busy filling in some kind of forms. It appeared that the buscompany provided the service to get your visa for Cambodia done without you queuing at customs. As it was only 5 USD more than I would do it myself, I let them do it for me. From the busstation it’s a 20 minutes ride to the Lao border. Once there we had to get off the bus, take all our belongings and...

0

Relaxing at the 4000 Islands

It’s only 3 hours driving from Pakse to Si Phan Don, literally called the 4000 islands. It’s called 4000 islands because during the dry season the river recedes and leaves behind hundreds of islands and islets! We stayed on one of the bigger ones called Don Khon, which is much more quiet and have a more village vibe than Don Det..well, that’s at least how I feel about it. We decided to go for a little bungalow with a shared riverview terrace ànd hammocks. I used the restaurant nextdoor quite frequently as ‘office’ 🙂 Life on the 4000 islands is...

0

Thakek, Pakse and Bolaven Plateau coffee

Thakek In Thakek itself there is not really much to do. Most people come here to do the Loop, an off-the-beaten-track circuit through some of the more remote parts of the Khammuan and Bolikhamsai Provinces. I did consider doing The Loop but I think I was still a bit scared of riding a motorbike myself  😐 Writing this blog made me once more reading about the places I visited. And it appeared that there are some sites around Thakek that were worth a look. There are eg. several caves, an abandoned railway line and some natural swimming pools. A pity...

1

My first trekking in Phou Xieng Thong NPA

Northwest from Pakse is the Phou Xieng Thong National Protected Area (NPA). It was in this NPA that we (me and a German woman and her daughter) would do a 3d/2n tour. We were also introduced to our local guide Miek, 30 years old with a decent knowledge of English.Our first stop was Ban Mai Singsaphan Village where we met our first homestay family. It’s a village with about 380 families..no idea though how many heads 1 family counts.. After lunch, prepared by the family – actually all meals were prepared by the homestay families – we, accompagnied by a...

0

There is more than tubing in Vang Vieng and less than you expect in Vientiane

Vang vieng In these few weeks of travelling I already learned that you need to take things how it comes, especially when travelling by local transport. Your bus or train might show up in time, but NEVER expect it to arrive in time! Do not get agitated but stay zennnn…..The day when I travelled to Vang Vieng turned out to be a very very long day, mainly due to a wrong booking by the agency but also because one of the cars in front of us broke down on a mountain and we had to wait till that got fixed....

0

Laos’ first Unesco site Luang Prabang

You can opt to go from Hanoi to Luang Prabang by bus for only 35-40€. This option aka the ’24-hours journey from hell’ option is for sure the cheapest way. I however preferred paying 130€ for a 1-hour flight with Vietnam Airlines than taking this hell ride! My visa on arrival cost me another 35$+1$ administration fee. A friend told me I would really like Luang Prabang as people are very friendly and especially not pushy when bying stuff at eg. the nightmarket. It appeared she was right 🙂 Of course there are exceptions but most of the Lao people...

0

Cat Ba Island and limestone mountains in Halong Bay

Going to Hanoi usually means making a trip to Halong Bay as well. Everywhere in Hanoi you’ll find agencies and hostels offering multiday tours. We instead went by public transport to Cat Ba, rented motorbikes on the island and cruised around for a day, stopping at it’s National Park and playing beachsoccer. I totally sucked but still managed to make 3-4 goals 🙂 It was supercool! We did book a daytrip to Halong Bay throught our hotel. It was the uncle of the hotelmanager himself that guided us that day. We cruised around the karst limestones for 2-3 hours. It...

0

More honking in Hanoi

It was certainly not the cheapest way to go to Hanoi, but both Tuya and me wanted to try out the train in Vietnam. So we paid 32€ for a softsleeper in the Hue-Hanoi train, leaving at 19.30, arriving around 9.30 in the morning. Knowing the sleeperbusses in Vietnam, I expected something simular, but no a sleepertrain is much better. It’s almost like sleeping in a real bed! A taxi, which we think overpayed, brought us to the Hoi An Backpacker Hostel, one of the best ones I’ve stayed in in Vietnam. It’s such a wellknown hostel that we saw...

0

Vietnam, streetfood paradise!

No mather who you are or where you are, food takes an essential part in your life. When traveling it is my goal to try everything that comes on my path.As I’m already making many people jealous with my travel stories, why not make it even better with pictures of all the delicious food I had on my trip, right? Being in Vietnam definitely wasn’t good for my weight. How could I possibly resist their pho or the freshly rolled nem? or the bahn mi? or even a midnightsnack kebab?For sure I could not! Do these pictures not make you hungry?...