All about: Laos

La la Laos
Waarom infiltreert een 39-jarige man het Laotische partyhostel "Nana backpackers" aan het begin van het regenseizoen? Wat doet hij temidden van blonde Zweedse meiden die zich van zeven tot negen uur 's avonds volgieten met gratis aangelengde wodka en whisky, alvorens in een schuur te springen op de dreunen van megahits als Havana, Despacito en ...
Uitwaaien in Laos
Een van de voordelen van het freelancerbestaan is de mogelijkheid om spontaner dan een werknemer even naar de tropen te gaan. Toen ik een maand geleden mijn ticket naar Laos boekte had ik last van kiespijn en dacht ik: die ga ik in de jungle wegmediteren in een hangmat. Hier aangekomen was de kiespijn verdwenen ...
June 1. Stay another day…
On our extra day we visit Peuan Mit again, have a nice cup of coffee there and I donate what is left in kip to their program. That is a no-brainer for travelers, of course. Whatever you have left IS part of your budget so don't come with "I don't have money" it won't work ...
May 31. Worst War crimes ever?
Cornflakes and coffee, and it's already ten. Lazy bastards, you think. Where's the early morning gymnastics, the 2-mile-walk, the 150 pushups and the rigor-vigor?


Anyway, we visit COPE today and have a good look at the museum that displays handmade prostheses, we are talking about wooden leg, cast iron pparts nailed together with ...
May 30. Volleyball in rural Laos.
It is so nice to have 100cc of boiling hot metal shafts between my legs, that I decide to rent a motorbike in the afternoon and tour around Vientiane. We take the main highway north (direction Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang) with the option of taking a dirttrack to a beautiful waterfall. An option that ...
May 29. Borrowing vintage bike.
Shaun, a friendly Australian guy living here offers us his little vintage motorbike in the morning, and we gladly accept that enhancement of our mobility.

We will be taking that green bike to the friendship bridge and back today. Not that there's much to see - the friendship bridge is essentialy a concrete corridor ...
May 28. What is ten dollars?
We have a brunch with a German lady, Dagmar, who tells us her compelling story: she is editing and publishing an autobiographical book about a Lao monk. It's what keeps her here, and what keeps us listening. It is really nice and I hope she will publish the book.

I pick up my Vietnamese ...
May 27. COPE-ing with UXOs
Our arrival in Vientiane should be different than Vientiane, I think, and stick obstinately to my idee fixe when we arrive at the bus station. NO tuktuk, we are FINE, we know our way around. We walk a couple of miles and indeed, reach central Vientiane and lose about an hour. We make ourselves comfortable ...
May 26. A very nice man.. not!
Rather than niceness, it are the events of flat bluntness that stick to a traveler's memory. I have this experience this morning at "bigbrothermouse". This is a small ngo aiming to increase literacy in rural Laos by publishing and distributing bilingual children's books. It is and remains a wonderful concept, and so we visit their ...