many moon honeymoon

Review of Termas de Chillan aka Nevados de Chillan

Andrew Newdigate — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:29:29 +0000

Regular readers: please excuse this interruption to our regular round-the-world programming. If you're not planning on skiing or snowbarding in South America, please ignore this post. If you're looking for options for some Southern Hemisphere skiing, however, please read this warning about Nevados de Chillanaka Termas de Chillan!

Normally we wouldn't be so outspoken about a resort, but our week in Nevados de Chillan was expensive and also disappointing. Although our hotel staff looked after us well and we enjoyed some good hikes, our intention had been to snowboard - something we did very little of in Nevados de Chillan. Hopefully this warning will persuade a few other winter-sports enthusiasts to go somewhere else and avoid losing as much money as we have.

Valle Nevado. Go here instead.

Nevados de Chillan, known as Termas de Chillan before 2010, is a ski resort in Southern Chile which should have a lot going for it. It has the longest run in South America, at 13km, as well as stunning scenery and great snow. This is what attracted us to the resort. Unfortunately we've discovered that disputes between two competing resort companies have left the town in a state of disarray and disorganisation.

Many Chilean skiers and snowboarders seem to be aware of the situation and are avoiding this resort this year, but few foreigners are aware of the resorts problems.

Ski-in, ski-out accommodation at the resort is astronomically expensive - prices are the same as Chile's other (already super expensive) resorts, for example Valle Nevado, even though very little of the resort is actually operating at the moment. This means that most tourists (including ourselves) stay about 10km down in valley in the muddy little town of Las Truncas.

UPDATE: From Las Truncas, there is a single bus to the slopes, taking passengers up once in the morning and down once in the afternoon. The other option is to hitch-hike (I'm told it's fairly easy) otherwise you'll need to budget about $25 per person per day for a taxi to the slopes.

You'll need to purchase your lift pass daily and the prices are astronomical. There are no weekly deals. Monday to Wednesday is $40 per person per day. Thursday through to Sunday cost $60 pppd. This is on-par with- or is more expensive than top-class European resorts like Val D'isere. To put this in perspective, Val D'isere has something like 95 lifts. Chillan has 10, although only 1 chair and 2 drag lifts on the baby slopes were operating when we were there.

No piste maps. I'm serious. The resort will not provide any trail maps for the piste. Someone did offer to sell us a piste map for $10, but they'd run out of stock. These are free and easy to obtain at every other resort I've ever been to. UPDATE: The resort has now updated it's website and has a piste map available online.

Food & drink prices are astronomical. At the base station - not even up on the slopes - expect to pay $20 for a Hamburger or similar junk food (the only options). We payed $6 each for two coffees and they were some of the worst coffees I've had. They were served as a polystyrene cup of hot water with a sachet of nescafe instant for us to mix in ourselves. No milk. This wasn't a nice cozy restaurant either. This was a freezing cold, draughty wooden box of a cafeteria with a small stove in the corner around which everyone was jostling for space for a little warmth. (It was the only restauarant option, however)

Terrible facilities. Take the toilets at the base station: they have no doors. None. Not outside and not on the cubicles. If you're unfortunate enough to need a -erm- number 2, you'll have to go about your business while you watch the world go by - and the world watches you go. Kate tells me that the woman's toilets had a door on the outside but also not on the cubicles.

The lifts are slooooooow. It's well known that the resort has some of the slowest lifts around. And the hard wooden slat benches of the chairlift get oh-so-cold while the chair inches its way up the mountain.

The lifts to shut down in any weather. Any snow, fog or wind and lifts will be shut down. On the days we tried to snowboard it was snowing, but the conditions didn't seem bad, yet only one chairlift and two drag-lifts were operating. Don't expect a discount on your lift pass, however. It'll still cost you $60. The operational chairlift takes about 10 minutes to get you to the top of a very easy blue run which takes about 4 minutes to ride. We feel that the management company was using the excuse of the weather to close the resort when there weren't enough skiers on the slopes to make it worth their while. Several local residents shared our feelings on this.

The resort is deliberately misleading skiers and snowboarders about their operational status. We telephoned in the morning to find out about conditions and were told that all lifts were running. $30 worth of taxis later, we discovered that only one was. Staff at our hotel told us that, on the phone, the resort always say that all lifts are operating, no matter whether they actually are or not. We've also been told that online status shows all lifts running when they're not. Worse: many of the attractions are currently not running at all during the 2010 season: for example, the snowpark, and some of the lifts are closed, including the lift which services the resorts primary attraction: the Tres Marias run (the longest run in South America - but only if you can manage to traverse the slope to it!)

Disputes between two companies are driving this ski resort into the ground. We were told that the reason the lifts are not operating is due to the disputes between two companies - Termas de Chillan and Nevados de Chillan. Termas de Chillan were operating the concession for the ski resort until this year when it was given to Nevados de Chillan. This changeover has left some of the lifts out of operation.

Some hotel staff told me that they're worried about the resort being around in a few years time, as they're not getting any repeat business. After all, who in their right mind would return to a resort with so many problems? We arrived at the beginning of high season and there were hardly any visitors (we were the only guests at our lodge)

All in all, our experience at Nevados de Chillan / Termas de Chillan has been one of the most expensive weeks of snowboarding we've had, yet it's also the one with the worst service, worst resort management and worst facilities. To be fair, things might have been better had the weather been better but the bad weather merely brought out the worst in the resort. Having said that, we've spent weeks in European resorts where we've had far worse weather but have had much more access to the slopes and a infinitely better experience overall.

After this experience, we decided to go to Valle Nevado instead. Our experience at this resort couldn't have been more different: Valle Nevado was professionally run and felt like a proper resort, and even though it was expensive, it was good value for money. If you're looking at heading to the southern hemisphere to ski, avoid Termas de Chillan.

Remote Ratanakiri

Andrew Newdigate — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:48:27 +0000

Banlung is situated in Ratanakiri Province in the remote north east corner of Cambodia. It feels very far from anywhere and in many ways it is: three-quarters of the population are illiterate and it is the one of the poorest regions of Cambodia. Nonetheless, it is an incredibly interesting region to visit as life for much of the population remains almost the same today as it has for hundred of years.

To get there, we caught the tourist bus from the 4000 Islands in southern Laos across the Cambodian border (after paying the minor bribe) to the town of Stung Treng, where we waited a few hours for the connecting "tourist" bus to Banlung. When the bus arrived it was definitely of the local –– not the tourist –– variety. It was packed! People were sitting in the aisle, atop heavy bags of supplies like rice. Others were standing in the stairway in the front.

Travelling up the Tonle San, Cambodia

We were astonished to find an empty bench with space for two right at the front of the bus. No doubt several people had been booted out for us as we'd paid tourist rates. Feeling quite bad (but also a little glad), we piled in with our big backpacks on our laps and crowds pressed up against us.

The ride took three-and-half-hours along the most dusty road we've ever seen –– the red dust was so fine that when another vehicle passed visibility went down to zero and we would have to stop and wait for it to settle.

Alarmingly, for most of journey from Stung Treng to Banlung, there were tragic signs of the stash-and-burn deforestation taking place. From the road, in both directions for as far as you could see, the forests were being burned down to make space for agricultural land. It was heart-wrenchingly sad to see first-hand.

Arriving in Banlung was surreal –– at the end of this long, bad and incredibly dusty road was a fairly normal town with paved roads and a reasonable selection of hotels, restaurants and shops.

The only sign of modern civilisation in Kachon: a banner advertising a mobile phone company

Treetops

We stayed at the fabulous Treetops Eco Lodge, run by a local legend, Mr T. Treetops is probably the best value for money accommodation that we have experienced on our whole trip. For US$10, we got our own beautifully decorated bungalow with a lovely inside/outside en-suite bathroom and a wrap-around balcony. Each bungalow is secluded and very private. The staff is friendly and there's a chilled out restaurant which serves good, reasonably priced food and has free wifi. We loved it and happily ended up staying far longer than we had originally planned.

Hiking though the Forest

The magic about Banlung is its isolation. Until about 10 years ago, when a government sponsored influx of Khmer people began, almost all of the population consisted of minority "hill tribes".

Many of these tribes still live in a traditional way without massive influence of other cultures. We went on a few excursions with a fantastic guide, Phe Bunlong ☎ (855) 012 872 466. We started with a visit to a few villages around Banlung where the people were a bit more westernised, although still living a very basic existence. In the villages, we saw the houses that young men and women built as part of their "right of passage" rituals.

We also went for a hike though the jungle. Sadly we saw many signs of illegal logging. Massive teak trees were being chopped down with only a small section being chopped out of the centre as this is all that the loggers could carry. Many locals blamed this illegal logging on the Cambodian military, under orders from generals and senior politicians. Unfortunately this sort of corruption seems very common in this beautiful country. As we walked further from the road, the logging diminished and we saw beautiful forests and swam in a refreshing mountain stream.

Statue of Deceased, Tampuan Cemetery

Visiting faraway tribes

For our second excursion, we visited three very different villages. To get to the first one, we rode a hired motorbike along the dusty roads for over an hour until we reached the town of Voen Sai on the Tonle San river. This river is apparently the inspiration for the river in the movie "Apocalypse Now" although it all seemed very peaceful to us.

At Voen Sai, we hired a longtail boat with a friendly boatman and rode upstream for about an hour to visit the village of Kachon where Tampuan people live. This place felt very remote, and people still largely lived as they had for hundreds of years. They did now wear western clothes, but apparently only started doing this a few years ago. They seemed very wary of us, and many of the younger children burst into tears when they saw us. Our guide, Phe, had brought along a few sweets to give them and they soon cheered them up, although the adults still kept a good distance away from us.

With the permission of the chief, we visited the village burial ground, where we were able to get an insight into the funeral ceremonies of the village. Husband and wife share a grave (even if they die years apart). The grave is covered with a basic shelter and covered with items from this world that would be useful in the next - food, kitchen implements and other everyday items. Each grave site is surrounded by a fence and watched over by wooden statues of the deceased - the husband on the left and the woman on the right. There were statues of army men, people with glasses and pregnant ladies.

We were told that after a death, the deceased could not be properly put to rest until a buffalo was slaughtered - if the family was poor and did not have one, then the ceremony would have to wait until they managed to save up enough.

After leaving the Tampuan village we headed back downstream to visit two more villages which stood side-by-side: an ethnic Chinese village and a ethnic Lao village. It was fascinating to see how the Chinese village had remained so completely Chinese, ever after being so isolated from the rest of the outside world since it had been established more than 200 years ago. The Laos village which was the same as the villages we had seen north of the border in Laos.

Statue of Deceased, Tampuan Cemetery

Banlung was an easy place to relax –– we spent time enjoying the sunshine at a crater lake just outside of town, cycling around. We also hooked up with the small group of Banlung expats (around 7 of them) who were mostly there doing charity or social work.

Overall, Banlung was a highlight of our time in Cambodia because of its remoteness and the incredibly interesting cultures of the various tribes, although we were both saddened by the many signs of corruption and pillaging of the natural environment.

Boat man on the Tonlé San River, Voen Sai

Statue of Deceased, Tampuan Cemetery

Travel Tips for Laos

Andrew Newdigate — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:00:41 +0000

Laos is a gem of a country and we loved almost every second we spent travelling north to south down the Mekong. Here are a few tips for things we would recommend and things to avoid while travelling through Laos.

Pak Ou Cave, Luang Prabang, Laos

Catch the Slow-Boat down the Mekong

We caught a slowboat from Houei Xai (on the opposite side of the Mekong from Chiang Khong in Thailand) to Luang Prabang. The journey took two days with a stopover in Pakbeng. It was one of our highlights of Laos. Sure, you could catch the fast-boat and be in Luang Prabang before sunset. But remember: not only is this journey extremely noisy and horrendously dangerous, but travelling at speed is also completely out-of-keeping with the laid-back slowboat spirit of the country.

You may have to sit on an uncomfortable upright wooden bench for two days if you catch the slow-boat, but you’ll get to enjoy the scenery, talk to other travellers and generally slow-down and enter “Laos mode”.

Despite what we were told, there was plenty of reasonable accommodation in Pakbeng even though we passed through at one of the busiest times of year (30 December 2009). When arriving in this dusty little town, don’t be surprised to see a kid boarding the boat and running off towards the town with your bag before you can stop them. Don’t worry, they’re not thieves, but rather overeagerly trying to act as your porter.

Poor Critters!

Luang Prabang

Some say that Luang Prabang is touristy, and they’re probably right. But we absolutely loved this wonderful little town nevertheless. It’s a boutique, refined touristy, not the crummy, bland and exploitative touristy you see all over South East Asia. Although it’s very expensive by Laos’ standards, it’s well worth a spending a few days enjoying the fabulous food, beautiful French architecture and wonderful cultural traditions here.

Around Luang Prabang

Tat Kuang Si: Definitely worth a visit – but only if you climb the steep and slippery stairs on the left hand side to swim in the amazing natural infinity pool above the waterfall! Hire one of the many jumbo tuk-tuks that offers trips to the waterfall from town.

Pak Ou Caves: We found this disappointing and wouldn’t recommend visiting. It feels like a bit of a tourist trip with lots of vendors hassling you and little to see – there are far more impressive caves around (e.g. those in Chiang Dao)

Highway 1E from Lak Xao

Vang Vieng

We had fun here, but don’t expect any Laos culture. This town is all about drunk or otherwise inebriated gap-year students, noisy (but empty) bars, American sitcom television and banana pancakes.

It definitely isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but we enjoyed “Tubing in the Vang Vieng”. The town is set in an incredibly beautiful area so perhaps if you explored the surrounding countryside you’d find some hidden gems. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to do this.

If you do decide to go here, be careful of where you stay as many places will be right next to bars playing loud music which pumps late into the night – whether or not the bar has any patrons. We stayed at Otherside Bungalows which were great – clean and comfortable bungalows with private bathrooms with hot shower. We paid LAK80,000 (USD10) for our bungalow, but it was peak season just after New Years, so it may be cheaper at other times. To find them, follow the bamboo bridge across the river from the tube rental spot.

Our ride out of Savannakhet

Vientiane

There isn’t a lot to do here, but it is a good place to catch up emails and buy essentials. We highly recommend Hotel Khomvongsa – it was an quite an upgrade on our other Laos accommodation, but for USD30 you can get a spacious and stylish double room with a great breakfast and free Wifi in the room.

If you see one sight in Vientiane, we’d recommend visiting COPE to see the moving exhibition on unexploded ordnances (UXOs). For a day trip outside of Vientiane, head to the bizarre Buddha Park (aka Xieng Khuan) which is about 25km away.

Life of a Slowboater, Mekong River, Laos

Vientiane to Thakhek by Motorcycle

Another highlight of our time in Laos. Read our blog post about it here.

If you’re comfortable on a motorbike, then we highly recommend travelling from Vientiane to Thakhek via Na Him on one. Jules Classic Company is the best and most organised motorcycle rental company we’ve used in South East Asia. Their bikes are in excellent condition and have been adapted for touring (lowered pillion footpegs, good luggage racks, etc). They’ll also do one-way rentals and will forward your luggage on to your destination for you.

In Na Him, we recommend staying at Sainamhai Resort where you can hire a clean, new bungalow for LAK100,000. It’s new and not in the guidebooks yet and a little bit difficult to find, so ask about once you arrive in Na Him.

Of course, don’t miss one of Laos’s natural wonders – the amazing Tham Kong Lo cave.

Finally, when travelling from Lak Xao to Thakhek, keep in mind that the very bad condition dirt road – Laos’ “Highway” 1E south from Lak Xao – improves after about 40km. We were worried it would be in a bad state for the full 120KM to Thakhek.

Elephant in a Shopfront, Luang Prabang, Laos

Savannakhet

Savannakhet is a sprawling town spread over a large area, making it difficult to explore on foot. There wasn’t much to do and the accommodation options were mediocre. We did enjoy a interesting day out in the forest with a local guide, which was organised by the local tourism office.

Pakse

Not to much to do in the town itself, but it is a good place to stock up on essentials for the 4000 Islands or northern Cambodia. We’d recommend hiring a motor bike and heading up to the Bolaven Plateau. The bike that we hired from Lankham Hotel was almost new and in good condition, but did not have any luggage rack or any other touring modifications.

We also spoke to a few people who really enjoyed the longer version of our trip called the Southern Loop, which is apparently detailed in the Laos Lonely Planet.

When arriving in Pakse, try to get a bus that arrives during the day as the bus station is far out of town and the tuktuk drivers take full advantage of the fact that they are the only transfer option available
to you. Read more about it here.

If you stay at the Pakse Hotel (which we would recommend), be sure to ask for a room with a window, as some of the rooms only look out onto the corridor.

4000 Islands (Si Phan Don) and Don Det

Although more expensive than many places on the island, we highly recommend Don Det Bungalows which is on the sunrise side of the island. It’s new and clean with ensuite bathrooms, hot water & 24 hour electricity. It’s very well run and the staff are friendly too. Apparently wifi & credit card payments are on the way.

Don’t read too much into the guidebook designations of Don Det being the “party island” and Don Khone being the “grown-up island”. In truth, there’s not much difference between them and we found Don Khon to be more crowded and more expensive.

We saw almost no whitewater or rapids on the whitewater rafting journey we undertook from Don Det, but the trip was very worthwhile as we got to see the very rare, but fairly easy to spot Irrawaddy Dolphins of the Mekong. We also had a delicious and rather illegal lunch on the other side of the river in Cambodia.

We really enjoyed hiring bicycles and cycling around Don Khon seeing some of the villages and visiting the beaches on the way.

Grilled Fish, Luang Prabang, Laos

Monks, Luang Prabang, Laos

Don Det and the 4000 Islands, Laos

kate — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:00:32 +0000

Sunset over the 4000 Islands

The 4000 Islands or Si Phan Don are a collection of islands in the Mekong River, in the far south of Laos. They're a wonderfully chilled out place to and relax but they're no destination for thrill-seekers.

The boat trip from the mainland into the 4000 Islands was the most eventful thing that happened during our stay. We had an inexperienced boatman; he took a different route to the other boats and we spend much of the journey floating downstream sideways. Some of the local passengers shouted angrily at him, probably regarding his incompetent skippering. After a few rather grinding grates along the bottom, the boat lurched wildly from side to side before getting firmly stuck on a rock. Bear in mind that there were quite a few of us on board including a family with young children and we had all of our belongings (including laptops and cameras) with us - not great if we had capsized! As it turned out the river was not particularly deep at this point, although the water was fast flowing, so all the boys got out of the boat into the waist-deep water and lifted it off the rocks for us to continue our journey unscathed.

On the journey, we started to get an idea of why this place might be called 4000 islands - there are tiny (and I mean tiny!) little islands everywhere - most only big enough for one tree or a some reeds to grow on! In the dry season, there are literally thousands, but I can imagine that all but the biggest submerge in rainy season at the waters of the Mekong rise.

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Sunset over the 4000 Islands

Accommodation

Based on what we’d read on the Lonely Planet, we planned to find accommodation on Don Khon, which was supposed to be quieter and less of a party town. As was customary, I looked after the bags while Andrew went looking for somewhere to stay, but everywhere was completely full. We were starting to get worried - people were arriving all the time so more and more people were wandering around looking for somewhere to stay. Quick thinking Andrew hired a bicycle and cycled over the old railway bridge to Don Det where, after a long, hot and sweaty ride across the island in the sweltering heat, he found the fabulous Don Det Bungalows on the sunrise side of the island. He arrived back, dripping with sweat, on boat to collect me and our bags and take us across to Don Det. Don Det Bungalows is very new and is more expensive than most other places on Don Det at LAK 180,000 per night. However, for this you got a lovely clean fan bungalow with attached bathroom with hot water and breakfast. The lady who managed the place was brilliant - completely on the ball, she was working hard to make her establishment the best on Don Det. Wifi and credit card facilities should be available there as soon as the phone company link them up.

One thing worth mentioning is that we felt that Lonely Planet got it wrong when describing the differences between Don Det and Don Khon. Don Det wasn’t a major "party island" at all - the whole island was extremely chilled out with lots of bars and restaurants where you could spend the day doing nothing. We thought that Don Khon felt a lot more crowded. All the accommodation was based around one town where it was really busy and a little cramped. If we went back, we’d definitely head for Don Det again.

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Sunset over the 4000 Islands

Brothers, Don Det

Activities on the 4000 Islands

Once we’d got there and found accommodation, we realised just how relaxed the islands are - if we’d thought that Laos was laid back in general, the 4000 Islands took chilled out to a whole new level! The Big Lebowski would have approved. Many people we met spent days at a time chilling out chatting in the same restaurant, not really leaving except to sleep at night! We did manage a few activities though. One of these was the kayak trip to the Cambodian border. Although this was billed as white-water rafting, there was no white water to speak of and it was pretty much like kayaking on a lake. We might have considered the trip a little boring if we hadn’t seen the extremely rare Irrawaddy dolphins and also illegally visiting Cambodia for lunch!

Seeing the dolphins was pretty special as they are very endangered. With less than one hundred left, you’d expect that seeing them would be a very rare event. But it turns out that they congregate in an quite part of the river on the border of Cambodia and Laos so if you head there, there is a good chance of seeing them. They are nothing like the sea dolphins that we know and aren’t at all inquisitive about humans (probably a good self-preservation technique!) but you see and hear them swimming through the water in the distance. For lunch, we were taken to a restaurant on the Cambodian shore, half-expecting it to be a trick where immigration officers would jump out and demand payment, but luckily there was nothing of the sort!

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Idyllic little house on Don Det

End of the Day in the 4000 Islands, Laos

Another activity that we’d recommend is hiring bicycles and exploring around Don Khon - there are dirt tracks that criss-cross the island and we enjoyed going all the way round, finding interesting little villages and beaches on the way.

A Monks Funeral

We were lucky enough to be taken to a preparations for a festival on a nearby island. One of the top monks had died some weeks before and his body had been left in state since. He was to be cremated on a pyre the following day and the festival was to commemorate this event.

Starting that night, the festival would run continuously for two days and night. Two stages had been set up - one for opera and one for dancing. Pity we went before the festivities had started as it would have been quite an experience to see!

After about a week of serious chilling, we left the 4000 Islands and headed to Cambodia as our 30 day Laos visa came to an end.

Dolphin spotting on the Mekong

Cows and waterbuffalo having a terrorial dispute over a dust patch

Sunrise on Don Det

Pakse and the Bolaven Plateu

Andrew Newdigate — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:33:19 +0000

Tat Suong waterfall, near Tat Lo, Laos

Our bus to Pakse arrived after midnight. We’d taken the non-airconditioned, non-tourist bus and it was a long, bone-rattling journey, involving frequent stops - sometimes 50 metres apart! The Pakse bus station is miles out of town - so far out of town that it's three times further from the city centre than the local airport - a scam that could only have been dreamt up by local tuktuk drivers, who’ll gladly take you into town for a fee.

By the time we had arrived, the last remaining tuktuk driver at the bus station took full advantage of the scarcity of rides into town and overloaded and overcharged enormously to the point where some luggage (not ours) fell off the tuktuk on the way into town and was damaged on the road.

We stayed at the Pakse Hotel where, as we’d seen a few times on our trip so far, our room did not have any outside-facing windows, but lucky we were moved to a much nicer room for our second night. We found Pakse to be more interesting than Savannakhet with more happening and a real centre.

We hired a brand new Honda XR250 from the Lankham Hotel. Be warned that we've heard some stories of unscrupulous motorbike hire companies in Pakse who'll do all sorts of nasty things to get some extra cash off of you (including stealing the bike from you while you're responsible for it). From everything we've heard, the staff at Lankham Hotel are honest and trustworthy. Unfortunately the bike didn’t have the touring alterations our previous bike from Jules Classic Hire but it was in great condition. As our Laos visa was fast running out, we only had one day and we wanted to see the Bolevan Plateau as we’d been advised to visit by other travellers

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Se Don river, Pakse

Tat Lo

Our Bolaven mini-tour started with a ride to Tat Lo, a village situated close to some well known waterfalls. Tat Lo seems a lovely place - all geared up for backpackers with lots of places to stay and eat, just not many tourists. While we were having lunch here, a man who must have been in his sixties came and asked if he could ask us some questions about the English that he was studying. He was a real character and we were happy to help, and we also got some insight into how difficult it must be to learn English. In the same way that we really struggle to hear the difference between words in tonal languages such as Lao and Thai, he just could not hear any difference between “bless” and “blessed”.

After lunch, we headed off to see the biggest waterfall in the area Tat Suong. We scrambled down a rough path and arrived at the top of a massive cliff over which the water was running. There wasn’t much water in the river, but it offered a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

Tat Fan

After visiting Tat Suong, we decided to try and do a mini-loop, allowing us to head up onto the Bolavan Plateau and visit Tat Fan. The road from Tat Lo to Paksong is in the process of being tarred, so we spent much of the time on the tracks along the edge of it - it was very dusty, but a good ride.

At Tat Fan, we found some nice looking bungalows, but the waterfall was a bit far away and we couldn’t get anywhere near it without doing a big walk. As it was getting late, we then headed back to Pakse for the night and got ready to head to the 4000 islands (Phon Si Don) the following morning.

Fisherman, Pakse

Tat Suong waterfall, near Tat Lo, Laos

Thakhek and Savannakhet

Andrew Newdigate — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:41:51 +0000

Khoun Kong Leng

After having completed our alternative Thakhek loop we had an extra day before we needed to return our rental Honda XR250 Baja. We decided to use the time to explore around Thakhek and after asking around, found out about the incredible Khoun Kong Leng, or Evening Gong Lake, near the tiny village of Ban Na Kheu. Getting there was an adventure: it involved riding on progressively worse- and worse condition roads until the track was barely a sandy path. We thought the road impassable without a beefy dirtbike, but were put to shame when we passed some locals tackling the road on a clapped-out old Honda scooter! After about an hour of riding we reached the village of Ban Na Kheu. We knew that not many foreigners came this far as the reaction from the local kids was a mixture of fascination and pure terror, instead of the usual smiling and waving - or maybe it was just the slight of me soaked in sweat that scared them!

The lake is spectacular – it is incredibly deep – it’s reputed to be over 70m – and the water was a crystal clear turquoise blue – you could see the roots of the tree going deep down into the water and big fish swimming in the depths. Unfortunately swimming was forbidden. As we were about to leave, a group of young boys armed with spear guns arrived. Obviously they weren’t supposed to be fishing and they sat around nervously avoiding eye contact while they waited for us to leave.

After returning back to Thakhek, Andrew picked up a bad stomach bug, so instead of leaving Thakhek the following day as planned, we stayed for two nights more before catching the bus to Savannakhet.

Savannakhet is a sprawling town, spread out over a large area with little in the way of sights. We found it to be quite boring so only ended up staying there for one night. We did sign up to a one day ‘trek’ through the jungle, so booked the bus for the following evening. The trek was very easy and took us from a salt mine, where we did a tour, through the forest to a village and finally on to a wat (temple).

The highlight of the trek was the local guide, who was fantastic. He didn’t speak English, but was so enthusiastic that he came round and introduced himself to everyone. Throughout the trek he addressed us directly, telling us about life in the forest and enthusiastically explained how the local people utilize the plants. It was wonderfully engaging, even though we didn’t understand a word he was saying. Unfortunately much of what he said was lost in translation as our “English-speaking” translator who didn’t speak much English!

Khoun Kong Leng

Selling Fish at the Market, Thakhek, Laos

Thakhek Market

Lowly Men at Work

Worker, Evaporation Pans at Salt Mine, Savannakhet

Worker at Salt Mine, Savannakhet

Salt Mine, near Savanakhet, Laos

Family at Salt Mine, near Savanakhet, Laos

Local Guide, Savannakhet

Mobile Internet Settings for South East Asia

Andrew Newdigate — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:28:33 +0000

Monks with Camera phones, Luang Prabang, Laos

Throughout South East Asia, we've been purchasing local SIM cards to use in our iPhones. Obviously using data roaming on our UK mobile contract is out of the question due to the prohibitive cost. If you've got an unlocked phone, using Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Internet is one of the cheapest and easiest ways of getting online.

Another great reason to use it is security. Some of the internet cafes you’ll use have got the dodgiest computers imaginable, full of viruses, key-loggers and who-knows-what-else. Every time you type your email, banking or Facebook login details into one of these PCs you’re opening yourself up to attack.

We’ve found that purchasing and activating SIM cards very easy to do. International airports will always have excellent choice for buying a SIM as will border towns. Unfortunately language barriers and the relative newness of 3G in some countries means that getting all the details you need to get online can sometimes be difficult.

For that reason, we’ve compiled a list of all the mobile service providers we’ve used and (nearly) all the details you need to connect, in that hope that other people may find them useful.

Thailand

Service Provider: True Mobile

Cost of Sim Card: THB49

Cost per day: THB39 will allow you to use GPRS/Edge/3G (where available). Must be activated daily and runs from the time of activation until midnight.

Activation

Initial Activation:

I am not sure if we had to do anything specific to activate GPRS/Edge for True before following the daily activation steps below . If so, then the lady at the True counter at Bangkok airport did it for us.

To activate daily subscription:

Note that there is not longer a monthly subscription package! For this reason, we really don’t recommend using True in Thailand.

Dial *9000 (yes include the * or it does not work)
Select 9 for English
Select 1 for Add Package
Select 2 for Daily Package
Select 1 for Edge/GPRS daily package at THB39 per day
Select 1 to confirm (Note that you have to wait until she has finished talking before clicking 1 here)

Sim Settings for your iPhone

These settings usually load up automatically when you insert the sim card, but once or twice they have disappeared for us:

Go to: Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network
Fill in the following under Cellular Data:

APN: internet
Username: true
Password: true

Coverage:

Data coverage is not fantastic. We had coverage in all big towns, but nothing at all (not even phone coverage) on the small islands or out of the way places. 3G in Bangkok and central Chiang Mai, otherwise Edge or GPRS. Often we only had a GPRS connection.

To Check Balance:

Dial #123#

To Check own Number:

Dial *933#

To Top Up:

Dial *123*#

To change to English:

Dial 9304 and follow instructions

Summary

The True Move packages have not worked at all well with our iPhones as there does not seem to be anyway to automate a daily subscription. As the subscription ends at midnight, money often seems to get used up overnight even though we’ve turned off all push notifications & automated mail fetches.

We definitely wouldn’t recommend True Mobile’s Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Internet. DTAC seems to be a good alternative, but we haven’t tried them ourselves.

Laos

Service Provider: Lao Telecom

Sim Card Type: Ah Lo 3G

Cost of Sim: LAK10,000 (but this included LAK10,000 worth top up credit)

Cost of data: We are struggling a bit to remember the exact figure here, but we think it was LAK1000(USD0.10) per Mb. Regardless, it was very cheap – we used LAK70,000 over 20 days.

Activation:

The Lao Telecom Service Centre in Vientiane where they were very helpful and set it up for us. I believe that you have to call the call centre on 101 to get it initially activated, but not sure how easy it is to get English service.

Sim Settings for your iPhone

Go to: Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network
Fill in the following under Cellular Data:

APN: ltcnet
Username:
Password:

Coverage: We had some form data coverage just about everywhere we went – 3G in Vientiane, Edge or GPRS elsewhere.

Check Balance

Dial 122. Push 2 for English

To Check Own Number:

Not sure

Customer Service Number:

Call 101

Problems Encountered

None – only one that I could imagine is if you couldn’t go to the service center to set it up initially.

Summary

We were generally very impressed with the data service in Laos. It was much cheaper and more reliable than what we had in Thailand. We had coverage in most places that we went and the cost was low.

Cambodia

Service Provider: Metfone

Cost of Sim Card: $3 (including $2 of top up credit)

Cost per day: USD0.70 which is automatically deducted as long as you have enough credit.

Subscription Activation:

Send the following text to 111: On3
Send the following reply to 111: Yes

Sim Settings for your iPhone

I am a little unsure of the exact settings that we used in Cambodia. The password was definitely 1111. Either the APN or the Username or both were metfone – I seem to remember that it was both. Try the various combinations until it works!

Go to: Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network
Fill in the following under Cellular Data:

APN: metfone or (see note above)
Username: metfone or (see note above)
Password: 1111

Coverage:

Coverage was truly amazing! We went to tiny villages in the middle of nowhere and had still had data (GPRS) coverage. Note that when we were there, Metfone only supported Edge or GPRS, so no 3G.

To Check Balance:

Dial *097#

To check own number:

Dial: *99#

Customer Service Number:

1777 (if this didnt work, then try 1770). We found it very easy to find an english speaking support person.

Problems Encountered

The only slight hassle that we encountered was getting APN/username settings correct in the beginning. This took a few calls to the customer service centre to get correct.
One strange service problem that we encountered was that no Twitter client worked during the week (it did work on weekends). Odd!

Summary

Highly recommended. Brilliant and cheap. Excellent coverage. The only slight hassle was getting the APN/username right, but once we had this, it worked perfectly.

Vietnam

Service Provider: Vinaphone

Cost of Sim Card: VND150,000 including VND60,000 top up credit.

Cost per day: VND5000 per day which is automatically deducted as long as you have enough credit.

Subscription Activation:

Text the following to 333 for a daily subscription: GPRS on

Sim Settings for your iPhone

I am a little unsure of the exact settings that we used in Vietnam. The password was definitely 1111. Either the APN or the Username or both were m3-world – I seem to remember that APN was m3-world and username was blank. Try the various combinations until it works! We found this out by searching on Google.

Go to: Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network
Fill in the following under Cellular Data:

APN: m3-world or (see note above)
Username: m3-world or (see note above)
Password: 1111

Coverage:

Coverage was generally good, but we had significant problems in HCMC where there was none at all for hours at a time (not sure if there was a local problem at the time). Edge or GPRS everywhere except for HCMC where 3G was very unreliable.

To Check Balance:

Not sure

To check own number:

Not sure

Customer Service Number:

Dial 900. Not sure whether it is possible to find an English speaker as we asked the lady at the Vinaphone counter at Hanoi airport to call for us.

Problems

Everything worked perfectly until we got to HCMC where we’d lose any data service for hours at a time. It seemed to work better if we turned 3G off, but still not very reliable. Possibly just a problem that they were having at the time, but we were there long enough to find out.

Also, when we ran out of credit (so the automated debit did not come off), it seemed to revert to charging by usage rather than a daily charge. I think that we needed to re-apply the daily package as described above again.

Summary

Despite the issues in HCMC, we were happy with Vinaphone.

The Thakhek Loop, Unlooped

kate — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:46:24 +0000

Our ride: A Honda XR250 Baja

From Vientiane, our next destination was Thakhek, a town in central Laos. Thakhek is fairly well known for "The Loop". This is a motorcycle trip which takes people anywhere from two days to a week, exploring some of the wonderful back roads of central Laos and usually starting and ending in Thakhek. Instead of catching a bus to Thakhek and then doing the loop from there, we decided to kick off our own "Unloop" from Vientiane and ending in Thakhek, while still taking in most of the same sights. This adventure turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in Laos and we would highly recommend it to anyone travelling from Vientiane to Thakhek who's considering doing the Loop.

We hired a Honda Baja XR250 from Jules Classic Company which was definitely the best motorcycle rental outfit that we’ve come across in South East Asia so far. The bike came with full insurance and good quality, new helmets. Owner Thierry has even had the pillion foot pegs on his bikes lowered to make the ride more comfortable for passengers. We arranged with Jules Classic to have our luggage shipped to Thakhek for a small fee and agreed to drop the bikes off with their agent when we arrived in Thakhek.

For the first day was a long day’s riding at around 280km and took us to Na Hin. We rode as much as we could off Highway 13, using a good condition dirt road which runs alongside the Mekong for some of the way. Head for Buddha Park and continue straight along this dirt road. Eventually this joins back onto Highway 13, a fairly boring ride until you reach Highway 8. Riding eastwards on Highway 8 was spectacular. We wound up and down steep mountain passes on an excellent quality road, passing amazing mountain views and strange karst limestone clusters.

Once we reached Na Hin, the guesthouse that we planned to stay at was full and they directed us to the excellent Sainamhai Resort where we stayed in a very nice new bungalow. The resort is very new, and is not yet in any of the guidebooks, but we highly recommend staying here. Free coffee, excellent food with fabulous portions and very friendly staff made for a perfect rest stop. Ask a local in Na Hin for directions to Sainamhai, as it’s fairly tricky to find.

Continues below...

Getting ready to travel through Tham Kong Lo

Stalactites in Tham Kong Lo Cave

The following day, we headed off to one of Laos’ hidden wonders of nature – Tham Kong Lo – a cave which runs 7km through a mountain and has a river running through it, linking two villages. The road to the cave was only built a few years ago, so it is still very unknown, but we reckon it will become a major tourist attraction in Laos over the next few years. For now it remains very low key – just a few tourists and local villagers.

To explore it, we hired two guides and a long-tail boat. It is pitch black inside, but using a torchlight you get a glimpse of the massive proportions of the cave. Every now and then, we had to get out the boat and wade through shallow water as the guides carried the boat up mini rapids. Halfway through, we stopped; one of the guides flicked a switch and lit up amazing stalactites and stalagmites. The lights have been put in by a French organisation and are very well done. We then continued through the cave for about an hour until we emerged to a village on the other side of the mountain where we had a drink before heading back. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

The following day, we continued on “The Loop”, but found ourselves at our next planned stop over Lak Xao at 11:30am. The town looked pretty awful after the magic of Na Hin, so we consulted the map and decided that we could easily make it all of the remaining 160km to Thakhek before it got dark. From Lak Xao, we headed south on Route 1E. Shortly after leaving Lak Xao the road deteriorated. We slowed down dramatically as we navigated a very badly maintained dirt road – after about 2 hours we’d only gone about 40km and we started to get worried – at the current pace, we wouldn’t make Thakhek until well after dark. And then all of sudden, the road turned into a fantastic road – still dirt, but in excellent condition. This was a relief as we could speed up and get back on track again.

Shortly after this, we rounded a corner and were confronted by an incredibly eerie sight – black water, perfectly still, spread in front of us, and out of it were hundreds of dead trees – all black, like the water. It turned out that the Nam Theun Dam had been built a few years before and what we were seeing were the forests that were flooded when the dam went in. Of course, this is also why the road was being so well maintained.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived in Thakhek well before sunset, but what an amazing adventure it was!

Formations in Tham Kong Lo Cave

Going up a rapid, Tham Kong Lo

Our guide, emerging from the other side of Tham Kong Lo cave

Route 1E, Laos

On Route 1E, Laos

Mandatory Headshot

On our way to Khoun Kong Leng.

View The Loop, "Unlooped" in a larger map

Buddha Park: It’s concrete and it’s wierd.

Andrew Newdigate — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:43:35 +0000

Buddha Park, or Xieng Khuan, is located about 25km outside of Vientiane, the capital city (or town, really) of Laos. To get there, we hired a tuk-tuk from the centre of town. The journey took about 45 minutes or so.

The park was built in 1958 by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a priest-shaman who attempted to integrate Hinduism and Buddhism into a single religion. After the communist revolution he fled to Thailand where he built another sculpture park in Nong Khai.

To put it mildly, Xieng Khuan is one of the most bizarre collections of statues we've ever encountered. Amongst the reclining Buddhas and three headed elephants you'll find all sorts of crazy monsters, some with multiple heads, some multiple tails. Others with abducted maidens in their hands. Everything is made from concrete. Unfortunately we didn't have a guide; it would probably make much more sense if you did. As it was, we didn't have a clue about what it was that we were looking at. It was puzzling but still extremely interesting to visit, and we would highly recommend visiting it.

Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Reclining Buddha at Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Three Headed Elephant at Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Statues, Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

View of Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

WTF?

Statue at Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Statues at Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Kate at Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

Want to see more photos or want to see bigger versions of them? Visit our Vientiane Photoset on Flickr, or view a Slideshow.

Vientiane, capital of Laos

Andrew Newdigate — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:57:36 +0000

Vientiane must be one of the most laid back capital cities in the world — like the rest of Laos everything seems to happen slowly there. We spent four nights in Vientiane where we treated ourselves to a fabulous guesthouse called Hotel Khamvongsa. The fast internet connection allowed us to spend some time catching up with the rest of the world and planning the next steps of our trip.

Vientiane does not have a huge number of sights to see, but it does have some great restaurants and the laid back atmosphere makes it a good place to chill out for a few days. One of the highlights for us was a visit to COPE which is an excellent and very moving exhibition on unexploded ordinances (UXOs) - definitely worth a visit if you are passing through. There are two rather strange sights to see around Vientiane. The first is the oriental Arc de Triomphe known as Patuxay (Victory Gate) which was built using cement donated by the Americans to be used to build a new airport. Not quite as impressive as the original, it is still worth a walk up to see the city views. The second is Buddha Park (aka Xieng Khuan) which is about 25km outside of Vientiane. The park was built in 1958 by a priest/shaman who wanted to integrate Hindu and Buddhism and contains of a collection of rather bizarre concrete Hindu and Buddhist statues.

We hired bicycles to get around, which was very easy as it is pretty flat and the traffic is minimal and slow. On these, we could venture a bit further a field to Pha That Luang, a massive golden Buddhist stupa of great importance to the Laos people, which was unfortunately closed, but from what we could see was quite spectacular.

One of the highlights of Vientiane was definitely the food — we had a lot of excellent international food (French and Italian), but also some great Lao food at the stalls along the Mekong. Great for visiting at sunset, these stalls sell a huge variety of food and walking along them you can see all sorts waiting to be eaten - live frogs and fish in buckets and all manner of vegetables.

VW Beetle, Vientiane, Laos

Tuk-tuk, Vientiane, Laos

Market Vendors, Vientiane, Laos

Vientiane Night Market, Vientiane, Laos

Lao-style Deep Fried Fish

Beerlao

Street Food, Vientiane, Laos

Buddha Statues at Wat Si Saket, Vientiane, Laos

Buddha Statue at Wat Si Saket, Vientiane, Laos

Damaged Buddha Statues at Wat Si Saket, Vientiane, Laos

Wat Si Saket, Vientiane, Laos

Tourist Monks

Buddhist Monks with camera phones, Vientiane, Laos

Patuxay, Vientiane, Laos

Pha That Luang, Vientiane, Laos

Want to see more photos or want to see bigger versions of them? Visit our Vientiane Photoset on Flickr, or view a Slideshow.