Category: Uncategorized
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Well, to put it briefly, a bit of both. The old city, once the seat of Laotian nobility, has plenty of history. The old section of the city, where my small hotel is located, is hemmed on in three sides by 2 rivers which join at the eastern end. The hotel is located just across…
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“One of the most exciting travel developments in Laos in recent years is the Laos–China Railway. It has genuinely changed how travellers think about this route. By combining a private minivan from Huay Xai to Nateuy station with a train ride south to Luang Prabang, you cover the full journey in around five to six…
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How does it feel to have a pistol pressed against your head by a racist threatening to kill you? It happened to me twice while hitchhiking through the American South at age 19. This was back in the early 1960’s. First time was in Virginia, when the driver who picked me up pulled a gun…
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Light rain keeps it cool in the streets of Huay Xia. OK, it’s first impressions, but I was here 30 years ago and loved it then and so far not much seems to have changed. Relaxed, friendly, kids happy to say hi and fist bump, locals mainly open and chatty with little English. Prices? Yow,…
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Two months, most of it spent in Pai. The hotel was ‘basic’ but quite cheap so that I could eat quite well and stay on budget, and the daily cycling trips to town and back provided good exercise (plus a nagging cramp in one thigh). The weather? Treacherously rainy enough to carry a raincoat everywhere…
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Should have doctored this photo, which clearly showed the rainbow on my phone… here it looks like a barely visible double rainbow. Nearly everyone is a petrochemical junkie here, most all the backpackers have scooters. Anyway, Pai is suiting my needs quite well. Sleeping a lot every night, bicyclong 10 to 12 km on my…
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Much like the ‘Smoke Season’ which obscures the very real transformation of the Northern Thai Air Quality from excellent to unhealthy for two months of agricultural burning, the euphemistic ‘Green Season’ attempts to disguise the rainy season as something you might actually enjoy… And, in fact, it just rains sporadically and quite unpredictably, occasionally becoming…
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Rainy season so far means a little rain at one or two random times every day, and almost always threatening skies. This is an off-season for tourists, and I go nowhere without a rain jacket, but we’re looking at 90% no rain. Stayed ’til after 9PM last night and the truth was, things got even…
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On the hill is the White Temple, featuring 750 steps… it’s on the list. Well, upon arrival after the twisty road, I was so weak that I had to sit on a bench for over an hour just to be able to take a taxi to my hotel, 2km out of town. Got to rebuild…
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Arrived at 6AM after 3 flights, searches, baggage lines… and why is my Gate always the one on the far other side of the enormous airport? Does this happen to everyone? Miles of walking. In Guwahati, they would not let me board until I produced proof of a ticket out of Thailand, which they claimed…
Ni Dieu Ni Maitre 