Southeast Asia Travel News

Visitors frequently get confused between Cambodian and Khmer, aren’t always sure whether they should be saying Burma or Myanmar and we’ve also even heard people referring to the inhabitants of Thailand as Thailandese. However, the small, land-locked and mountainous country of Lao or Laos probably comes out on top of the name confusion charts. The country’s official name is the…

Current Sites Laos’s latest addition to UNESCO’s prestigious World Heritage List – inscribed in 2019 and to our minds, long overdue – is the Megalithic Jar Sites of Xiengkhuang, commonly known as the Plain of Jars. Usually associated with adjectives such as mysterious or enigmatic the site consists of over 2,000 giant jars, carved out of solid rock and scattered…

A new online, Lao E-Visa system is now in place and valid for entry at the following immigration points: Wattay International Airport Vientiane, Luang Prabang International Airport, Pakse International Airport and land crossings at the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge Vientiane and the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge II Savannakhet. (Note it is not available at the Friendship Bridge IV which connects Thailand’s Chiang…

A few random pics from our recent Mekong Adventure tour; a 2-week and 1,000-kilometre journey by land and by river through the heart of Indochina from Lao’s laidback and scenic capital of Vientiane to Cambodia’s bustling and fun Phnom Penh. The first stop on our Mekong Adventure after leaving Vientiane was a great local market set up by Hmong women…

Despite being one of Southeast Asia’s most remote destinations and still – at least nominally – under a communist regime, entry procedures and Lao visa regulations are actually some of the simplest in the region. There is no need for advanced application and to our knowledge, no e-visa system is currently in place, but 30-day tourist visas are issued at…

March, being the dry season, might not be the ideal time of year for Lao waterfalls but come May and June when the rains start they’ll be filling out, flowing fast and back to their lushest best so here’s a small selection of waterfall photos taken at sites included on our Mekong Adventure, Lao tour itinerary, beginning with the famous…

A brief country by country run down of Southeast Asia’s various UNESCO Sites beginning, for no particular reason, with the Laos World Heritage list. Well, it is an easy one to start with since the small, land-locked and sparsely populated nation has the grand total of 2 sites. Having said that a scan through the UNESCO list, (which does seem…

Well, mostly a Laos recommended reading list since we can’t find many movies set in Laos, half-decent or otherwise, and haven’t come across too many good documentaries either. There are numerous books on Lao history, the majority of which fall into either the 19th-century French explorers’ accounts or the Vietnam/Indochina war period categories. Studies of early history in Southeast Asia…

Incredible really is the word for the amazing Konglor Cave system, situated amongst the dramatic karst scenery of Hin Boun district in central Lao’s Khammouane Province. Reminded of us of the spectacular scenery of northern Lao’s Vang Vieng but without all the tourists since mass tourism is fortunately yet to hit this remote part of the country. Whilst the above-ground…

Now you will usually see adjectives such as mysterious or enigmatic preceding the name the Plain of Jars, Laos, with the reason being – since a stone jar in itself is not so mysterious –  that archaeologists can’t agree on their date or even their actual purpose so….enigmatic! The stone jars – up to 2m tall and carved out of…

Thanks to Dan and Becky for some excellent photos of Laos they sent recently taken on last year’s Northern Laos and the Golden Triangle tour. Glad you guys enjoyed the trip and thanks for the pix!         Thanks again for the pix. Details and full itinerary of our Northern Laos and the Golden Triangle tour can be…

Phu Asa, or Asa Mountain, is a sandstone outcrop lying close to the village of Kietngong in South Lao’s Champassak Province. The forested hill – part of Xe Pian National Biodiversity Zone – is topped by a flat, bare rock outcrop with a gentle access slope to the northeast and steep drop-offs on the other sides. The mountain’s flat top…

The old fashioned rickety Champassak ferry that carts passengers, motos and trucks across the Mekong between Champassak and Ban Muang don’t run much anymore. The recent completion of the spanking new road to Pakse along the west bank of the Mekong has drastically reduced the need for the car ferry. Time was when ferries would sit at the ‘dock’ (well…

Lying just a kilometre away from Wat Phu, the small Angkor period temple of Nang Sida, Laos, does tend to get overshadowed by it’s prestigious UNESCO World Heritage neighbour. After hiking up and down the steep steps at Wat Phu few visitors are going to be bothered to head off into the dusty surrounding scrub-land to visit a ‘lesser’ temple…

Not quite sure why the ‘powers that be’, (guess that’d be TAT – Tourism Authority of Thailand?), decided to call this region – the area where the 3 countries of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand meet – the Emerald Triangle but they have done. Yes, it very green, but then so is most of Southeast Asia! Anyway, it’s got a ring…

Longest, tallest, widest, biggest….superlatives can be deceptive and statistics vary enormously but the little-known Khone Phapaeng Falls in Champassak Province of Southern Laos is certainly right up there on the list! Just downstream of the picturesque Four Thousand Islands‘ region – along the Lao/Cambodian border – the entirety of the Mekong River goes over a 65-foot escarpment so it’s definitely…

A few photos of the spectacular limestone pinnacles area – or ‘stone forest’ – in Khammouane Province of Central Laos. Though much of this region is covered in this dramatic, limestone karst scenery a core section has been designated Phou Hin Boun National Park or National Bio-diversity Area. The following images were taken from a viewpoint on the way to…

Don’t seem to have posted about Southern Laos for some time so to correct that regrettable oversight here’s a few images and a brief description of the fantastic Pakse market, Dao Heuang – one of all-time favourite Southeast Asian markets! There’s the covered area you can see in the background of above photo – dealing in gold, silver, phones, household…

The term Tai describes the broad ethnic group (the Tai-Kadai linguistic family) which includes the Thai (Siamese), Lao, Shan, Northern Thai, Thai Lu, Red Tai, White Tai etc who occupy a wide band of Asia from the Assam region of India, through southern China, Burma’s Shan States, Laos, Northern Vietnam and of course Thailand itself. We touched on the migration…

With its enticing and plentiful riverside cafes and excellent (and cheap) beer UNESCO World Heritage, Luang Prabang has to be one of the prime non-beach spots for sundowners in this part of the world so without for ado here’s a small selection of photos of sunset over the Mekong at Luang Prabang. So without further to-do here are a few…