Vang Vieng is somewhat of a traveler’s mecca. Tons of people travel here to enjoy the tubing on the river, the climbing and the laid back atmosphere. One could easily get stuck here.
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Tha Khek is one of the least visited tourist towns in Laos. It is easy to see why. The majority of the people traveling through Laos do not have their own transportation. Without your own vehicle it is not possible to take Rte 12, which turns out to be one of the most amazing drives ever. It has a feel as though you are driving back in time as the road is lined with only primitive grass huts and fields of rice. The limestone cliffs give it an extra element of exotic flavor and if you are ever in the area you should make a point to take this drive.
The fact that this is not a tourist hot spot keeps it a treasure that will not be disturbed anytime soon. Unfortunately, because of the rain we had to turn around halfway along this road and head back to where we started. The road was flooded with 6 ft of water and completely impassable. Hopefully someday I can make it back here as a trip to the road outside of the rainy season will lead you to countless caves for exploration with many containing ancient Buddha statues and temples. Unlike the rest of the Buddha caves in the area, these are mostly unexplored, or at least rarely visited.
Okay, okay, so we are a little backed up. 5 Countries later and we are catching up on the photo galleries. We are working hard and many more will be coming over the next week but here is a small start.
It has taken a little while, but here is the interview that we did on Laos National Radio. In the more remote parts of the province they are not able to get the radio signal, so they take tapes that are played everywhere on a loud speaker. So imagine this belting our from the PAs all over the countryside in Southern Laos.
Hello everybody. The Thundra, Little Pepe, Steve and I are currently in Luang Nam Tha, Laos about 50 kilometers from the China border crossing at Botan. We are going to cross over into China on Monday and are still waiting to see if we will have to leave the Toyotas at the border for a few days. We have been extremely busy trying to figure this whole China thing out and the last few days have been quite hectic. It finally seems that with the exception of a few loose ends though, we will be on the open road in China with our guide "Jason" very soon.
Given that we are not quite sure what our internet access will be like while we are in China, we have also spent the last several days preparing for the Central Asia leg of the journey. We have our paperwork for Russia processing as we speak which should not be much of a problem. After that, it is into Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. For the most part, the required documentation and permissions for the "stans" are pretty straight forward, although we are having a bit of difficulty with Turkmenistan. However, after dealing with getting into China for the last 3 months, we are veterans of road research and diplomacy and have already found our way over a few of the hurdles we encountered with TM. The next several months are shaping up to be quite exciting.
But enough about us. I know everyone wants to see some photos, which the recent blog entries have been lacking, so after we finish cleaning all of the contraband out of the trucks tomorrow before heading north into China, we will work on some photo galleries for your viewing pleasure.
