Dan's Adventure

Vientiane it is very quiet for a capital city. Like the rest of Laos, everything is very laid back, there is no need to rush anything, its just very relaxed. Everything in Vientiane is within walking distance and can easily be covered within a day. I however had a few days to spare as I was getting a visa for Thailand from the Thai Consulate. Visas are issued on arrival at the border in Thailand but when arriving overland, they are only valid for 15 days which would make a …

I left Don Det on boxing day and had yet another day of eventful travel. A packed longtail boat to the mainland and then onto a minibus that broke down straight away. Eventually we got to Pakse where I had five hours to kill before my first experience of sleeper buses in Laos. Sleeper buses in China and Vietnam were very difficult to sleep on, not only due to the crazy driving but the fact that the beds were both too short and too narrow. When I got on the …

On my second day at Angkor, I managed to drag myself out of bed and cycle out to Angkor Wat in time for sunrise.

Si Phon Don, four thousand islands, is located in most southern part of Laos just beyond the border with Cambodia. The number of islands depends on the water level of the Mekong river, the majority are no more than small sand banks, but there are three larger inhabited islands. Don Khong is the most northern and the largest, whilst Don Det and Don Khon are further south and have in recent years become a bit of a backpackers destination. I headed to Don Det.
Don Det is the livelier of the …

Crossing a land border is never plain sailing, there is always something to complicate matters and make everything take longer. Leaving Cambodia and entering Laos was no exception.
The guesthouse I stayed at in Kratie offered a bus ticket all the way to Don Det in Laos for just $12, I expected to pay at least that from Stung Treng (the last town on the Cambodian side of the border) so I thought it was a great deal. I was to be picked up from the guesthouse, taken to the border, …

The Irrawaddy dolphin is a rare breed of freshwater dolphin. It is an endangered species with as few as 75 left in the Mekong river between Kratie and the Laos border, where there was reportedly up to 1000 before the Khmer Rouge took control of the country. During that regime the dolphins were hunted for their oils.
From Kratie I hired a motorbike to drive me the 15km to Kampi, where it is possible to take a boat out onto the Mekong to try and spot the Irrawaddy dolphins. The boat …

Every year during dry season, the locals of Kompong Cham construct a bamboo bridge to connect the small island of Koh Paen to the mainland. The bridge is around 2 metres wide and stretches 400 metres across the Mekong River. The bridge was still under construction when I was in Kompong Cham, but it was still possible to walk across it. Constructed solely from bamboo, the bridge felt incredibly stable to walk on and once finished I’m sure it will be even more solid as it will eventually be used …

This photo was taken in a small village near Chau Doc in Vietnam on our way to the border with Cambodia. The man pictured was fishing in the murky water next to his house.