Posts by koalartw

Heading northeast of Mandalay, we visited the Shan states, a province with a history that still affects peoples' lives nowadays. In Hsipaw we went on a 2 days hill tribe trek through lush and fertile valleys and afterwards we relaxed in Pyin Oo Lwin, the old British summer residence.

Our flight from Bangkok brought us to Mandalay, a city in central Myanmar.
Before heading to the countryside we took one day to explore the numerous temples, pagodas and monasteries around Mandalay hill. A good first impression of the "land of golden pagodas".

And now you will probably ask yourselves: and what the hell do they eat in Laos? Though there is much less variety in the dishes than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand, Laos does have some typical dishes that you will most likely find on every menu.

What else do you need in life than a cozy bungalow with riverviews, a hammock and a good book to switch off an relax a bit?  We went to Si Phan Don (literally 4000 islands) to find exactly this...

On the way down, we stopped in Pakse, the main city in southern Laos which is the gateway to the Bolaven Plateau. We rented a motorbike again to explore the waterfalls and coffee plantations on the plateau as well as a temple in Champasak.

After Vang Vieng and a night in Vientiane we continued our way down south to Thakhek, a city that does not offer much itself, but is a popular stop for doing a 3-5 days motorbike loop exploring beautiful landscapes and many caves on the way.

The little town of Vang Vieng became known years ago as a paradise for rave parties, these days the place is for outdoor adventurers and cave explorers.
The capital Vientiane is nothing special compared to Luang Prabang, but you have a good selection of reastaurants over there.

After the adventurous and very authentic trek in Phongsaly, we went on a chilled boat ride down the Nam Ou river to arrive at the small, yet beautiful town of Luang Prabang to do sightseeing, relax and celebrate Alex' birthday.

 

Time to leave Hoi An and Vietnam for Laos. Airliners that we are, we took the opportunity to fly in order to reach Dien Bien Phu (plus it saved us a bottom pain 48 hours bus journey). The journey took us from Danang airport (30 min away from Hoi An) to Hanoi and then connecting to DBP. The next day we travelled to Phongsaly where one of the most authentic experiences was just ahead of us…

Ancient port town, illuminated lanterns, lots of charm, beach life and a food mecca - sounds good? Go to Hoi An!

Apart from the well-known Pho Bo, do you know what Vietnamese people eat all day long? We were amazed by the great variety of dishes and their absolute freshness! And we have to revise our statement that Thai food is the best Asian cuisine because Vietnamese food is just equally good.

While we thought we will see some of the most impressive cave systems in the world, we ended up experiencing a severe flooding in the little village of Phong Nha. A really shocking and frightening experience!

After exploring rice terraces in the North, we went to Cat Ba to enjoy island life and discover beautiful Lan Han Bay.

Big city life and rice terraces in the far north of Vietnam.

As we travelled across Nepal, there was something striking me…how come a country with such fresh water resources is facing such an issue with access to drinking water. So I decided to bore you a little with my impressions and some facts but as a reward, I will post many nice pictures of waterfalls!!!

As Nepal is THE trekking country and Alex was not tired of hiking up and down some mountains we decided to do a short trek in the Annapurna region together.

Did wou ever wonder what people in Nepal are eating all day long?

You might find some answers here...

Jungle adventure at its best!

Reaching the Everest Base camp by foot was one of the objectives of this RTW trip. I wanted to hike in high altitude, enjoy a great view on the highest peaks in the world and experience a long trek.

I must say that I was not disappointed by this experience and especially by the landscape we have crossed. Though doing this trek at the end of the monsoon season brought some challenges.

At the end, I reached the EBC, climbed the mount Kala Pathar and saw glimpses of the Everest, more to read on this article …

What did Moni do the first few days while Alex was still climbing up Mt Everest?