Thatsaphone Guest House Luang Prabang

I changed my mind... maybe I will start donating some money to the pagodas after all, because I really really don't want to reincarnate as a chicken. On top of being quite unintelligent, chickens are rather unattractive and damn loud, especially when they start crowing non-stop between the hours of 2 and 7 am. What gives??? Aren't they supposed to quack at dawn only? Not only do they have nothing going for them, they are bothersome and in the end, their ...

... and then a dirt road to a small waterfall. Three young Laosian girls were playing in the water in long sarongs and two boys were bathing in the water. Nearby, a group of young men had convened with their motorbikes and a truck tire-deep in the water. They were using the river as a car wash. After wading into the pool of the waterfall for a bit, we hopped back on our bikes and made our way back. Now that I wasn't busy thinking about how much longer we had until we reached the waterfall and ...

... out all my spare change.<br><br>I am at the confluence of the Mekong River where the Thailand, Burma and Laos border meet, infamously known as the Golden Triangle. Common to the opium trading business.<br><br>In an effort to squash the opium activity, the Thai government has offered crop related substitution programs to encourage the hill tribes to grow tea, corn, coffee and fruit trees. The countries ...

... was so refreshing. The waterfalls were only 1.5 hour drive away from Luang Prabang. We also visited the Pak Ou caves where there were thousands of Buddha statues, large and small and in different styles. <br> <br>The markets in Luang Prabang are on daily and they were amazing. Many different mountain tribes sell their hand-made goods at the market. For instance, they ...

... house remained dry for the rest of the rainy season but by mid-August the torrential rainfalls had not let up. On August 15 the Mekong Riv** burst its banks and large parts of Luang Prabang close to the Mekong and oth** major riv**s w**e now und** wat**. The electricity was cut for a day for security reasons, our department as well as many oth** gov**nment agencies w**e monitoring the situation, and the UN was supplying sand bags and volunte**s ...

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... swimming in one of its many turqouise pools. The water was freezing and moving fast from the current caused by the main falls further up the hill. From here we climbed higher to a staircase that literally made you walk up the waterfall itself.<br> <br>As you can tell we thoroughly enjoyed this part of the country. At a point in the trip where it is perhaps getting harder to be impressed (we do see so much afterall); Luang Prabang did just that!

... yard on the other side of the bars. It was quite amazing to see a tiger at close range like this and also heart rending to see such a magnificent creature in close confinement due to man's destructive tendencies. After a bit of one-way getting-to-know-you conversation it felt safe enough to put my hands through the bars and stroke Phet, so I did so, although I kept my arms well away from the mouth area.<br><br>The Forestry Department were not used to dealing with live tigers, the ...