World Travelers

Welcome back Bregt, I look forward to hearing about your adventures.

Martijn made a witty remark, Southall showed us his dry humour, Franz caused an uproar, Ravi mentioned The Lion King and I made a derogatory sexual remark. So, business as usual.

Welcome back!

Welcome back, Bregt! We need pics!

Aaah, Laos. What a laid back holiday, even with all the hassle and means of transportation we took during this time. Literally every option was used:

- a slow boat on the khlongs in Bangkok
- a typical long tail boat on the Tha river in Northern Laos, on which we could barely communicate with our boat man (it was just the three of us, with half a family and loads of goods). We had a home stay with his family in a remote village along the The, that was really an experience!
- the night train (with funky disco wagon ) from Bangkok to Lampang (just one stop before Chiang Mai)
- cycling on te islands of Don Khone and Don Det in the 4000 Islands region in Southern Laos
- biking with a Suzuki 110cc in and around the Bolaven Plateau in the south and visiting an old pre-Angkorian temple Wat Phou, on dirt tracks and the worst roads ever seen
- taking the Night Bus of Hell from Vientiane to the south (10 hours trying to fall asleep on a surface not larger than 1,8meter by 50cm)
- sitting 8 straight hours in a bus with Thai/Lao boysband-like playing in the background, while driving 30km an hour on roads without asphalt, but with loads of turns and manholes
- tuk-tuk and songtheaw (sort of a pickup truck but with roof, and used a lot as the transportation option for ... everything)
- walking through the old capital Luang Prabang, and climbing 400 steps to see the sunset over the Mekong on Mount Phou Si (haha!), resulting in sweating all over the place...
- tripping after my first ever cup of real coffee at 6.30 in the morning, freshly taken from the plantages some days before (Robusta beans, if interested)
- rolling on the floor after having to many Beerlao bottles (one of the best beers I've ever tasted, seriously). One bottle of 680ml costs about $1.
- mountainbiking through fantastic limestone landscapes, visiting caves and rapids

I have no idea where to start, but I will use pictures as a guideline, and post them this weekend. Laos is a wonderful country, with awesome people, and while we have seen the poorness and the rich, the harsh differences with our luxury, what most will be remember by me and my friends, was the laid back atmosphere. Obviously, this is part of the fact that there are less obligations than here because of the nation's current state, but also because of the people who just take things more like they come. I probably sound ridiculous concerning that I was just a tourist there, for 3 weeks, and I can never understand/experience the real Lao, and I certainly cannot express it.

Sounds like a fantastic time Bregt! Totally my kinda thing

Looking forward to the pics.

You know, i was reading Bregt's sum up and was thinking that i only know 2 real explorers in my life: Timmer and Bregt! Sadly, i am not like that; i want my basic luxury and comforts wherever i go, and most importantly good food, NOT SWEATING or FREEZING my ass off and daily shower. I know these deprive of REAL experiences as the one Bregt and you doubtlessly had but i am one of those people who enjoy immensely reading about those; not exactly experiencing them first-hand!



I was waiting to see such a sentence while reading your sum! I thought those only existed in movies! Didn't you crap yourself?!


WANT!:sigh: Now let's see how you'll get used to crappy, conventional western Jacobs-style coffee after that!

How about......babes?

Oh yes!

And they all look 5 years younger than they are, which is hard when you've to guess their age.

As a dark haired person I can tell you that, oh yes they WILL be interested in you Martijn!

Also Manali and Mount Abu in Rajasthan. The temples down South are really lovely too.

I myself want to visit Rajasthan sometime. Lovely place with excellent traditional culture!

There's a train you need to take as far as I know. The journey is quite longer than Manali too because Rajasthan is much farther towards the west. I think probably a flight to there would be better.

I don't know about India. I heard so many different views about it, from co-travelers. The ones who stayed long, loved it, the others mostly hated it, unless you do the obvious tourist route, because then you'll love it too.

Good place to be if you're a civil engineer then?