When I told Kristen I was going to learn how to ride an elephant she said that I’d reached the point where “you’re just trying to do the most random crazy shit now, aren’t you?” And she was right: a one-day mahout training school was about as out-there an idea as I could come across, […]
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Kayaking to Cambodia
Si Phan Don (literally “four thousand islands”) is an idyllic part of the Mekong at the extreme south of Laos, on the border with Cambodia. There aren’t actually thousands of islands here but dozens, and the pace of life is dreamily slow. It has a reputation as a backpacker haven, a place where in the […]
Pakse
I feel like I’m on the cusp of something, a transition point between what was and what will be. But it’s frustratingly hard to define beyond that… perhaps it’s best not to force it. I should just do what I do and see what comes of it. And Pakse is as good a place as […]
Savannakhet
Soon after boarding the bus from Tha Kaek to Savannahket I mused that of all the bus journeys I’d taken so far in Laos, nothing had gone wrong. Sure there was the landfall that blocked the road for a few hours on the way to Dien Bien Phu, and yes some trips were hellish, but […]
Five minutes
Continuing my habit of occasionally popping up on ABC Local Radio, I was interviewed recently for a one-hour program that was broadcast on New Year’s Day. Focussing on blogging and other ways the internet allows us to communicate, I was asked for some comments about my experience of the blocking of facebook in Vietnam. You […]
Tha Kaek
Tha Kaek is another sleepy provincial capital draped languidly along the eastern shore of the Mekong, where there is little to do except stroll the waterfront and relax. Are you seeing a pattern here? The Lao national emblem should be a hammock. When I arrived late yesterday I was underwhelmed – it’s nice, but hardly […]
