Internet research seemed to indicate that the Pak Chom Guesthouse at the west end of that town must have improved their accommodation from the "primitive bungalows overlooking the river" described by a previous traveller so we called and booked; I could get used to this mobile phone culture. When we alighted from the bus in Pak Chom we asked for...

Hiiiii, Arriving at our new guest house about7.15am we were in a bit of a muddle as first we had to wait for reception to open at 8 (before we'd know if there was a room available) and then til 11 for the other people to check out and for the room to be cleaned. We were very sleepy. After settling in, we went to buy some waterguns and buy the ti...

The overnight journey was comfortable if we ignored being woken at 4.00am by the loudest child in the world in the next cabin. At 7.30 we were pulling in to Huamlampong station. Not an altogether bad way to travel if you have the time. We stopped for a coffee in the station and to watch everyone stand to attention when the national anthem was pl...

Here we go: Last time I wrote in, we were about to leave Khon Kaen heading to Loei. For those of you who didn't catch Mike's update, we were hustled onto the wrong bus and realized we were heading south back towards Khorat instead of west as we thought. After some language difficulties, we convinced the bus driver to let us off in a town about 3...

November 25, 2007. Today we made a mad rush to get to the Thailand/ Laos border as we were kicked out of the country effective of midnight tonight, so we are goin to pay a fine of 500 baht and enter Laos tomorrow morning to get to the Thai embassy and apply for a 60 day tourist visa so we can get back into Thailand. Our Visas were aparently n g...

OK, first time I am using a travel blog, so I hope this is what I think it's going to be. Sun and I flew on Monday afternoon to Udon Thani, in Issaan (North-East of Thailand) and from there took a swift little mini-van ride which, incidentally, was the best, newest, most comfortable mini-van of all the mini-vans I have ever had to endure on my c...

OK, I'm annoyed, because I thought that I had just saved that last entry. I didn't realized that I had published it. So I will try to start where I left off... Blah blah blah (grrr, still annoyed -- it kinda interrupts the thought process, ya know?)... I had a great time volunteering. I did three things when I was volunteering. I edited Allan's ...

I have no idea how many times we've seen the Thai unit of currency, the Baht, misspelled "bath". All over Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and northern Malaysia. Basically, anywhere an English speaking person might possibly be able to spend baht, someone advertising prices will misspell it. Another word often misspelled is "lager", a type of beer. "Larg...

We got up early this morning to catch the bus to Nong Khai, which is where you can cross the border to Laos. After a bit of confusion we headed off in what we thought was the wrong direction, on the back of a sawngtheaw. He dropped us off at a dusty corner, where we managed to find some breakfast, homemade rice cakes! A funny local bus, with mor...

am nachmittag von khon kaen angekommen und gleich mal ab ins guesthouse. mit dem guesthouse haben wir wirklich eine gute wahl getroffen. sup** gemuetlich am mekong uf** gelegen und schoene anlage. nette zimm**, gutes essen. leid** sind die fruchtshakes hi** h**oben nicht mehr so weit v**breitet wie sonst. hi** ist es viel we***** touristisch. di...