Laos

Phnom Penh A few photos of Phnom Penh street life taken within the space of just a 10-minute, 500 m or so stroll from Street 178 to Phsa Kandal, (Kandal Market). Starting at Wat Sarawan on the corner of Street 19 and 178, we came across this nicely restored French-period colonial villa – now a tapas bar of all things!…

Cambodian Food Sadly, Khmer cooking has traditionally taken a backseat compared to the more prestigious and much better-known cuisines of its neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. Obviously, the Khmer people had far more serious concerns during much of their recent history; however, Cambodian food has made a strong comeback of late and more and more excellent local-style eateries are appearing in…

Hill-tribes in Southeast Asia. You’ll certainly have come across the term ‘hill-tribe’ in many of our Southeast Asia tour pages, or indeed those of most other operators running tours in the region, or, for that matter, in most of the relevant guidebooks you’ll find. It refers to the minority ethnic groups inhabiting the mountainous areas of northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Burma…

Thailand UNESCO sites Thailand UNESCO sites currently totals four on the UNESCO cultural section, with 3 additional natural sites, although a further 7 listings do have tentative status. With the kingdom’s spectacular and highly varied landscapes, it’s surprising there are only 3 in the natural list and we do have a few more suggestions that we’ll come to later. (See…

Cambodia World Heritage Sites We’re delighted to see that since we originally wrote this post, the number of entries on the UNESCO Cambodia World Heritage list has doubled with the addition of Sambor Prei Kuk in 2019 and Koh Ker in 2023. While this means additional funding as well as expert assistance in terms of restoration and maintenance, it also,…

Laos World Heritage List A brief country-by-country rundown of Southeast Asia’s various UNESCO Sites, beginning, for no particular reason, with the list of Laos World Heritage sites. It is an easy one to start with since the small, land-locked and sparsely populated nation has the grand total of 3 sites. Having said that, a scan through the UNESCO list, (which…

Boat journey through Cambodia Our boat journey through Cambodia from Siem Reap, across the Tonle Sap Lake and down the Sangkar River to Western Cambodia’s Battambang Town, was a particularly tricky one this month due to the combination of low water levels on the lake and a slow current on the river itself which had lead to a serious build-up…

Sunrise at Angkor Wat We’d have thought it was fairly obvious that a dawn experience, whether sunrise at Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal or anywhere else you can think of, will vary enormously from day to day. It is clearly unpredictable and beyond anyone’s control. Some mornings offer spectacular explosions of vibrant colours, whilst others grey, overcast scenes and however…

Laos recommended reading and viewing 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…

One of the best times of year to visit! We can only guess that the absence of visitors during the rainy season in Southeast Asia is down to their own preconceptions of what a monsoon period in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, etc, must be like. Constant torrential rain, unbearable heat and humidity, impassable roads and permanent ankle deep (or worse) water?…

Ta Prom Prasat Ta Prom, at Cambodia’s UNESCO World Heritage-listed Angkor. with its giant trees and sprawling roots, is certainly one of the vast Angkor complex’s most famous and photogenic sites, Commonly called the ‘Tomb Raider Temple’ due to its appearance in the 2001 film of that name, the late 12th-century, Jayavarman VII-period ruined sanctuary does consequently see a lot…

Ta Prom and Preah Khan Can’t go wrong really with giant roots and towering trees, mysterious carvings and jungle-clad ruins so here’s another selection of photos of Preah Khan and Ta Prom temples in Cambodia’s World Heritage Angkor temple complex, taken on our recent Cambodia Overland small group tour. Preah Khan, as with the better-known Ta Prom, is a late…