Thailand and Laos part 1
Recently we came back from a three weeks backpacking through Thailand and Laos.
We started in Bangkok, spent a couple of days acclimatising, then took a night train up to Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai has (literally) hundreds of temples – you couldn’t run a hundred yards in that town without bumping into a Buddah – quite amazing! It is a pretty touristy town, but it has kept itself very nice, artsy and small, partially thanks to the regulations stopping large buildings being built near a temple.
From there we went on to Chiang Rai, and after a short stop further to Chiang Khong: one of the Thai->Laos border crossings.
After crossing into Laos we took the slow boat two days down the Mekong stopping overnight at Pak Beng and then at Luang Prabang.
Luang Prabang is a world heritage site. We rented a rikety moped and headed up to a temple on the mountain, did some cycling and once were relieved when the evening temperature dropped to 32C… it was up to 44C (and humid) during the day!
On our trip we made friends on the boat, got our suits measured in Bangkok, ate lots of fun spicy food, saw about a thousand Buddahs and found that boat travel is much nicer than a bus on the dusty roads!
Here’s pictures and a map of the path so far – Part 2 to come soon!
- Center of map
- Route
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 01:33 and is filed under By Robin, Travel.
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May 18th, 2010 at 05:19
I am so jealous!! How was the food? Thanks for sharing your travels – maybe I’ll someday copy your itinerary.
May 18th, 2010 at 06:01
Food was great. Got a great cookbook from a restaurant we we went to many times, and have been making curry paste myself since. Tomorrow I’m cooking red Thai curry and Tom Yam soup for work!