Southida Guesthouse Muang Khammouan

... some of them French colonial) are in poor shape. I seemed to be the only one walking; all other people move from A to B in cars or on mopeds / motorbikes.

I am here because it is a good base for trekking in the Phu Hin Bun national park which is supposed to be full of caves, waterfalls, limestone karst mountains rising straight up into the sky ...

... und verschlafen und es gibt kaum Touristen hier. Die Unterschiede zwischen den Laoten und den Vietnamesen ist hier besonders stark zu erkennen. Niemand schreit in der Gegend rum und niemand wuerde auch nur aufstehen, wenn es nicht unbedingt sein muss.

Besonders schoen ist die Flusspromenade, wo man gemuehtlich chillen und ein grosses Bierlao (fuer ca. 1$) geniessen kann.

... the travel lodge. I hadn't ridden a bike with gears before and Dave hadn't ridden at all, but the gears were easy and neither of us had problems. We started off at 9 am and headed down Route 12 to see some caves and a swimming hole. The scenery was amazing, huge imposing jagged mountains covered in jungle. At first we couldn't find any of the places we were looking for, but eventually we found the turn off to Tha Falang a swimming spot that was meant ...

... sledgehammer until it popped off! Found a dirty puddle to find the puncture then forced the tyre back on & off we trundled! Arrived in ThaKhek late & tired & upgraded ourselves to a new stylish hotel with hot water but they couldnt make us fruitshakes or juice & the staff didnt really know what they should be doing when guests arrived - it was obviously a brand new operation.

... boated in the rainy season, and a Buddhist temple on the far side. We went through this one on the rocks above the river. Felt very intrepid but less scared than on the first one! Nick showed us a tree which contains oil which he thinks will be the next big thing in bio-fuel. He had lost his lighter but dipped a big stick in the tree which he lit later and sure enough it burned away impressively. We then walked past an abandoned village, where the temple alone is ...

... food hygiene but was tasty. We then made the same error in ordering sausage (which turned out to be blood sausage!) from another stall. Considered buying pre-emptive antibiotics just in case but decided that we were made of sterner stuff than that - though did double-check supplies of immodium to be on safe side! Had a lovely Thai meal in the evening. We practised our Lao, ordering the bill etc. The phrase book is quite confusing as the phrase has bill/menu and the ...

... food group they came (fried chicken feet anyone?). 5.5 hours later we arrived in Tha Khaek and checked in at the Travel Lodge (no kidding!). Despite phoning ahead and reserving a room, we somehow ended up having to sleep in the massage room on rather hard massage beds. On the plus side, they did leave various massage oils and "firming slimming cream" in the room for us; on the downside mosquitoes clearly love a good massage as the room was full of them. We popped in town for ...

From the capital to the south, a 5 hr bus journey over relatively straight and flat roads dropped us off in the widely expansive but not very dense town of Tha Khaek. Eco-trekking was the aim.. More to follow.. Onwards to the south.. Photos for the 'Walk this way' on Flickr..

Well having just finished the last bike loop, we headed north on the 'public' bus which contained a motorbike, a rooster, several bags of rice and people squashed into any nook and cranny possible, public is hardly the word. It took us 9 1/2 hours to do 250km. It stopped 4 times for about an hour a piece and each time the driver just vanished leaving us and all the passengers hot sweaty and a little frustrated with street vendors pushing every type of meat ...

Hi, After our hellish 6 hour journey ( picture being forced to listen to whiney Lao pop music at high volume - it might be good but I am sure they only have about 5 different songs) , we arrived in Tha Kek, a town where it quicky became clear to us that Westerners did not venture here very often, demonstrated by the many cries of `Farang, Farang` or Westerner that we heard from the towns kids. We found a nice ...