Laos

Bird-life on the Sangkar River A few photos of some of the spectacular bird-life on the Sangkar River we’ve come across on recent boat trips from Siem Reap to Battambang. (Would have a lot more for you, but since it’s tricky getting sharp shots of fast-moving birds from a heavily vibrating boat, we had to delete most of them!?) The…

Beers of Southeast Asia Now beer – there’s a good subject and one that’s close to our heart so here’s a brief rundown on some of the commonly found beers of Southeast Asia you’re likely to come across on one of our small group tours! International brands aside, there’s actually a very limited choice of locally made ales in many…

Apsaras of Angkor Wat A few photos we came across in a far corner of our hard drive – kind of a computer equivalent of down the back of the sofa we guess. These are some of our favourite Apsaras of Angkor Wat; just a few among the estimated 2000 plus carved figures to be seen in the World Heritage…

Cambodian Boat Journey Thanks very much to Blanca who actually mailed us these Cambodian boat journey photos ages ago but which we only recently retrieved from a semi-redundant in-box! Now getting out and pushing trucks, buses and assorted vehicles stuck in the mud is part of adventure tour mythology but on the Cambodia Overland tour in question, we thought we’d…

The Black Tai 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…

Migration of Tai Groups Whilst Tai groups had probably been gradually infiltrating southwards into what is now northern Vietnam, Laos and Thailand for several centuries from their homeland in Southern China, the migration of Tai groups into Southeast Asia was hastened during the late 12th- and 13th-centuries as the Mongol armies under Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan extended their empire…

Prasat Enkosei is a small, little-known Angkor period temple situated in the grounds of the modern Buddhist temple of the same name, situated on the riverbank, just north of Siem Reap town centre. It’s perhaps not worth going out of your way just to visit this site exclusively but it does make for an excellent destination for a walk or…

Vang Vieng When we first turned up in the small town of Vang Vieng, (must have been 92 or 93?), it was as close to paradise as anywhere we’d come across on our backpacker trail across Southeast Asia. An idyllic, bustling little market town for the surrounding Hmong villages and set on the banks of the Song River opposite some…

Southeast Asia Meals We were going to call this post ‘Thailand – meals and eating habits’ but the following goes for pretty much anywhere in Southeast Asia so…Southeast Asia Meals. For those of us brought up in ‘Western’ countries meals traditionally come at set ‘mealtimes’ and consist of foodstuffs and items considered appropriate for that particular meal time.  i.e. breakfast,…

The Ou River The Nam Ou, or Ou River, flows south from Phongsali Province in the far north of Laos, to join the Mekong at Pak Ou (famous for its cave temples), just upstream from the ancient capital and UNESCO World Heritage Site Luang Prabang. The river is far less frequented by visitors than the Chiang Khong to Pak Beng…

Dawn at Angkor Wat A bit rushed today so no time to write a blog post and we’ll fall back on a few classic dawn at Angkor Wat photographs, which you can never have too many of. Must have watched the dawn rise over the famous silhouette at least 30 times but it never gets boring! Different time of year,…

Ta Keo Temple Prasat Ta Keo or Ta Keo Temple at Angkor – often overlooked and never gets too many stars in the guidebook ratings yet it is a very impressive monument and one that you can generally visit without fighting your way through noisy crowds of Koreans for a pleasant change.  (Or Chinese, French, Russians, whatever – don’t mean…