PHNOM PENH With some Asian cities behind us, I thought I know what to expect from Phnom Penh. Tripadvisor's usual 'Top 10 things to do' is a must of course. Royal Palace, Independence Monument, Killing Fields, S-21, Wat Phnom, National Museum, Central Market... that's the drill. For those who dare the party scene seems to be well present too. But usually there is more to a place than that. What's apparent in Phnom Penh is the amount of litter everywhere, many of the poorest l

KRATIE There is a few hours journey and a notoriously infamous border crossing between us and our first stop in Cambodia. Authority on both sides of the border is badly corrupt and you may be required to pay a small fee in order to receive the almighty stamp that allows you to leave Laos. On the other side the same story awaits you. The $30 Visas will cost you $35 and you may get pushed into a medical examination for another few bucks. We've read a few horror stories about th

SI PHAN DON The plan for 4000 Islands was to get to Don Khong, one of the largest islands, spend the day exploring it on motorbike and then catch a ferry to Don Det where we would spend the next 4 days or so. We did get to Do Khong alright, but a hotel owner tells us that there is only one morning ferry heading to the other islands and so our plan has changed to a one night stay. Instead of exploring the island on motorbike however I have got the cold and was manstruating the

PAKSE Here we are again. 7am, standing on the front of our bus, this time heading for Pakse. As a person who always liked his own space, surrounded by my own stuff, I would never have thought that I can so easily get used to living out of a backpack. I'm loving it! Mariola?! She's a little bit of a different story, but so far she's holding up, some days crankier then others, but she's holding. Anyway... Our Kong Lor to Pakse ride was a bit more adventurous than we have planne

KONG LOR Home to a handful of farmers and the biggest cave of Laos, this village is quite charming on its own, but there is really not much to do, so some may label it as boring. On the contrary I have found it a very relaxed, quite attractive place set in the valley between two towering rock walls. The floor of the valley, mainly farm land, the village itself and a small river carving its way at the foot of one of the mountains wall. People here are much less shy as I've fou

VIENTIANE Bus station in Vientiane is quite a way out of the city centre, so the best bet is to grab a tuk-tuk. At the time of our visit we have paid 30000 Kips per head for this journey and it took almost half an hour. Upon checking in to our guesthouse which name I can't remember but you should stay away from anyway, Majka suggested a walk to the river side. Here we have seen, or we would have seen Mekong for the 3rd time, if the darkness of night wouldn't have fallen. The

PHONSAVAN After 9 days in Prabang it was the highest time to leave. Wish there was more time to explore the northern hill tribes, but Majka is not so keen on trekking the jungle and finding a bamboo shed with no running water at the end of the day, and there is no time either, since we want to spend the Christmas on the beach. However, northern hill tribes, brace! I'll be back if I can. Since we are heading south there were 2 options we considered. Either go to Vanh Vieng, th

LUANG PRABANG Crossing the Vietnam-Laos border at Tan Can is really no hassle. In fact, I don't think anyone would notice if I just walked past. It may be because we have arrived at lunch time that the border police told us to hang about for an hour or so, but even after that they've looked pretty chillaxed. It cost us $31 per head to get our Visa on arrival and didn't take longer than 10 minutes. Good few hours later, 1am next morning, our bus stopped and the driver informed