Hello everybody.
For everybody who doesn't already know, we have landed in Germany and already spent a month here.
Our new home is in Bavaria. We are going to work together with Chrisy's parents in their Guesthouse.
We already have one room finished and will hopefully have three more by the end of October.
If you want to find us at the Romantic Road in the Donau-Ries area let us know!
LANDGASTHOF WEBERHANS
Westenstrasse 15
86655 Harburg-Mündling
Germany
+49 9080 1667
landgasthofweberhans(@)gmail.com
We hope you will follow our stories and adventures, as a new kind of them are ahead of us!
All our love to you out there...
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
08.07.2012 Kong Lor, Laos
This was going to be one of our best stops in Laos I would say. Why? Well, I guess it was the place and the atmosphere we experienced. I am sure that another traveller who will go there will have a different feeling about this place and say: it's ok.
Traveling is so often about the atmosphere YOU pick up. Everybody will get a different experience, even if you are doing exactly the same things. It's due to your personal emotions, the people you are with, perhaps even the weather or the vibes you bring with you from your previous stop.
We were on the road with Chantal and Chico. The bus ride was spectacular with an endless changing landscape, wonderful windy roads and amazing mountains and rock formations. The plants and trees had all different kind of green.
We had a short stop from where we had the chance to take some great shots and get some fresh air. To have some rambutans with us was a great snack as usual! It was our favorite snack for bus rides and we always had juicy fruits on our travels.
We arrived in the afternoon. The caves are close to a town in a dead end street. It was like a valley with majestic mountains on the left and right hand side. Everywhere are rice fields, now that the rainy season already started, in a beautiful color.
Kids where fishing with big net constructions in the little ponds between the houses. As smaller the kids are, as more dedicated they are for the job. They all help to find some food for the family. It may be little fish from this pond or little snails they find in the rice fields. They go home and their mother will fry them in oil. At the same time they keep the animals eating the rice plants. A few months back the entire area was dry and nothing was around. With the rain the fish eggs from the previous season hatch and bring new life and food into the area.
After looking a little bit around we found a nice and charming guest house. As we had a Chantal with us we thought it fits very well.
The kids are helping the families and are not afraid to sit and ride on a 500kg water buffalo. They even enjoy this little trip and we even saw a tiny girl riding a buffalo in full speed over the road.
The town settlement is only 1km away from the caves and so we walked the next morning to the cave.
From the shore we could already see the entrance to the cave. The now rising water was thundering in the river bed.
Three people per boat were aloud, plus two boat man. If you are only two, you still have to pay full price of three for one boat, so team up with other travelers. After paying the park entrance fee, renting a head lamp and putting on the life jackets, we climbed into a small boat which transported us to the entrance of the cave. There we got out of the boat, had to walk a little bit into the cave. There another boatman attached an outboard motor to another boat and loaded us in again.
After 15 min boat ride we came to a stalagmite and stalactite section. We could get out of the boat and walk into the fairy like wonderland. It was a lot bigger then what we expected.
Thats us with our lovely company! We had such a wonderful time. We sat for almost 30 min in a boat and drove upstream in this huge cave on the windy river. I am sure that during dry season this looks very different. I heard that it can happen that you have to get out of the boat at some of the passages and push the boat over the rocks. We could go in full speed, though couldn't do a walk to a little village on the other side of the cave. You could take a guide to get there and then stay in a home stay with some of the locals there. That also sounded like a very interesting option, but we knew we wouldn't have enough time to do this.
On the way back we had a boy on his bike which overtook us. Whilst he was riding his bike very hard, he always looked over his shoulders with a huge grin on his face. A rope was attached to his bike and on the end of the rope was a small water bottle. This bottle was filled with gravel. Two bamboo sticks where put through and at each end was a wheel cut out of old flip flops. This was the COOLEST TOY I've ever seen! And the boy had a ball with it. So finally a good use of some trash! The amount of flip flops I had already seen lonely and left behind... Now was the moment I wished I had seen this before so I could have built this kind of toys to give to the kids and make them happy!
On a little trip through the rice fields, we met this group of young girls. We tried to talk to them with our 4 words of Laos we knew and they had a good laugh. In the little basket they collected snails. After we asked them if we could take a picture they started to pose for us, and laughed even more. What a joy!
The evening turned the sky mystical and the different colors. We loved this place. Our excursion through the village and through the mud of the little alleys in-between the houses brought us a great idea of their way of living. We played with some kids until the grandma came and started shouting at the kids. I guess she tried to tell them that she doesn't like if they play with strangers. Well, we look pretty dangerous and smoking hot!
Here more pictures from Kong Lor.
Traveling is so often about the atmosphere YOU pick up. Everybody will get a different experience, even if you are doing exactly the same things. It's due to your personal emotions, the people you are with, perhaps even the weather or the vibes you bring with you from your previous stop.
We were on the road with Chantal and Chico. The bus ride was spectacular with an endless changing landscape, wonderful windy roads and amazing mountains and rock formations. The plants and trees had all different kind of green.
We had a short stop from where we had the chance to take some great shots and get some fresh air. To have some rambutans with us was a great snack as usual! It was our favorite snack for bus rides and we always had juicy fruits on our travels.
We arrived in the afternoon. The caves are close to a town in a dead end street. It was like a valley with majestic mountains on the left and right hand side. Everywhere are rice fields, now that the rainy season already started, in a beautiful color.
Kids where fishing with big net constructions in the little ponds between the houses. As smaller the kids are, as more dedicated they are for the job. They all help to find some food for the family. It may be little fish from this pond or little snails they find in the rice fields. They go home and their mother will fry them in oil. At the same time they keep the animals eating the rice plants. A few months back the entire area was dry and nothing was around. With the rain the fish eggs from the previous season hatch and bring new life and food into the area.
After looking a little bit around we found a nice and charming guest house. As we had a Chantal with us we thought it fits very well.
The kids are helping the families and are not afraid to sit and ride on a 500kg water buffalo. They even enjoy this little trip and we even saw a tiny girl riding a buffalo in full speed over the road.
The town settlement is only 1km away from the caves and so we walked the next morning to the cave.
From the shore we could already see the entrance to the cave. The now rising water was thundering in the river bed.
Three people per boat were aloud, plus two boat man. If you are only two, you still have to pay full price of three for one boat, so team up with other travelers. After paying the park entrance fee, renting a head lamp and putting on the life jackets, we climbed into a small boat which transported us to the entrance of the cave. There we got out of the boat, had to walk a little bit into the cave. There another boatman attached an outboard motor to another boat and loaded us in again.
After 15 min boat ride we came to a stalagmite and stalactite section. We could get out of the boat and walk into the fairy like wonderland. It was a lot bigger then what we expected.
Thats us with our lovely company! We had such a wonderful time. We sat for almost 30 min in a boat and drove upstream in this huge cave on the windy river. I am sure that during dry season this looks very different. I heard that it can happen that you have to get out of the boat at some of the passages and push the boat over the rocks. We could go in full speed, though couldn't do a walk to a little village on the other side of the cave. You could take a guide to get there and then stay in a home stay with some of the locals there. That also sounded like a very interesting option, but we knew we wouldn't have enough time to do this.
On the way back we had a boy on his bike which overtook us. Whilst he was riding his bike very hard, he always looked over his shoulders with a huge grin on his face. A rope was attached to his bike and on the end of the rope was a small water bottle. This bottle was filled with gravel. Two bamboo sticks where put through and at each end was a wheel cut out of old flip flops. This was the COOLEST TOY I've ever seen! And the boy had a ball with it. So finally a good use of some trash! The amount of flip flops I had already seen lonely and left behind... Now was the moment I wished I had seen this before so I could have built this kind of toys to give to the kids and make them happy!
On a little trip through the rice fields, we met this group of young girls. We tried to talk to them with our 4 words of Laos we knew and they had a good laugh. In the little basket they collected snails. After we asked them if we could take a picture they started to pose for us, and laughed even more. What a joy!
The evening turned the sky mystical and the different colors. We loved this place. Our excursion through the village and through the mud of the little alleys in-between the houses brought us a great idea of their way of living. We played with some kids until the grandma came and started shouting at the kids. I guess she tried to tell them that she doesn't like if they play with strangers. Well, we look pretty dangerous and smoking hot!
Here more pictures from Kong Lor.
Friday, July 6, 2012
06.07.2012 Vientiane, Laos
After the mini van picked us up from the Guest House and drove us all the way to Vientiane and dropped us off conveniently in the center. We dropped the backpacks on the side of the street and one of us watched the bags while the other ran around to find the perfect Guest House.
We found the Guest House Mixay Paradise, a very clean place and affordable 85,000 including breakfast. All the signs that pointed out extra charges if you do certain things were a bit over the top and we saw a situation with other tourists and a waiter that was blown out of proportion, but we had a very nice stay (and good laugh).
After we checked in we went to the evening market on the Mekong River and Robert enjoyed the view over the river towards Thailand.
We had dinner at a restaurant that trains street children to become professional waiters and chefs.
For the next day we planned to visit the Buddah Park that is a little bit out of town. We had to take a bus from the Talat Sao bus station from platform 1 number 14 that took us to the Laos/Thai boarder.
From there we got a small and old bus to bring us to the Buddah Park.
The Buddah Park is collection of concrete Buddahs and is nice to walk around for about an hour, but I have to say the bus ride with the locals made the hole effort worth it and a good experience.
A huge lying Buddah.
There is a Buddah Building that you can enter and climb to get a nice view from the top.
To get back we just waited opposite the Buddah Park and the shaggy bus picked us up after a while of waiting.
After we arrived back at the Vientiane bus station we had a nice soup at one of the stalls for lunch.
After our bellies were full again we walked to the Cope Center to see the museum about the problem with "bombies" in Laos and how they help victims to afford proteases and get training to use them.
How did all the "bombies" end up in Laos?
Laos was not in war for a long time but still until today many locals and especially children die every year from bomb explosions. When Vietnam and the USA were in war, the USA started their planes with cluster bombs in Thailand flew over Laos to drop the cluster bombs with thousands of the so called "bombies" inside them to Vietnam. But they were not able always to drop the bombs in Vietnam and as it was too dangerous to land with the cluster bombs again, they decided to drop them in the country in between, Laos. They also wanted to hurt the communists which gathered on the Laos side, so they had planned operations to keep them from moving or spreading out again.
This was against a signed treaty but nobody cared. The Lao people at the boarder area even lived in caves, as they were attacked so many times. That explains why they are so far behind in the development of the country in comparison to other countries. So when the cluster bomb gets dropped it opens up and the hundreds "bombies" fall out and about 60% of them don't explode and just wait to be touched. As the "bombies" look like toys, especially children get attracted to play with them. Also nowadays there is the possibility to earn a lot of money with scarp metal.
After a lot of information from cope we went to see a wat and more Buddahs.
When we returned to our Guest House we met Chico and found out that Chantal was not feeling too good and was resting. We decided to leave tomorrow together to Kong Lor. In the evening we went to see a Laos dance performance at the Seng Lao Hotel.
Unfortunately it was not very busy, but as the show did not happen yesterday, because of too little interest, we were happy we were able to see it this Saturday evening.
The show was nicely done. The dance was nice, the music good and a man that was able to whistle like different birds was amazing.
The food was plenty and delicious and we were not able to finish everything.
More pictures of Vientiane.
We found the Guest House Mixay Paradise, a very clean place and affordable 85,000 including breakfast. All the signs that pointed out extra charges if you do certain things were a bit over the top and we saw a situation with other tourists and a waiter that was blown out of proportion, but we had a very nice stay (and good laugh).
After we checked in we went to the evening market on the Mekong River and Robert enjoyed the view over the river towards Thailand.
We had dinner at a restaurant that trains street children to become professional waiters and chefs.
For the next day we planned to visit the Buddah Park that is a little bit out of town. We had to take a bus from the Talat Sao bus station from platform 1 number 14 that took us to the Laos/Thai boarder.
From there we got a small and old bus to bring us to the Buddah Park.
The Buddah Park is collection of concrete Buddahs and is nice to walk around for about an hour, but I have to say the bus ride with the locals made the hole effort worth it and a good experience.
A huge lying Buddah.
There is a Buddah Building that you can enter and climb to get a nice view from the top.
To get back we just waited opposite the Buddah Park and the shaggy bus picked us up after a while of waiting.
After we arrived back at the Vientiane bus station we had a nice soup at one of the stalls for lunch.
After our bellies were full again we walked to the Cope Center to see the museum about the problem with "bombies" in Laos and how they help victims to afford proteases and get training to use them.
How did all the "bombies" end up in Laos?
Laos was not in war for a long time but still until today many locals and especially children die every year from bomb explosions. When Vietnam and the USA were in war, the USA started their planes with cluster bombs in Thailand flew over Laos to drop the cluster bombs with thousands of the so called "bombies" inside them to Vietnam. But they were not able always to drop the bombs in Vietnam and as it was too dangerous to land with the cluster bombs again, they decided to drop them in the country in between, Laos. They also wanted to hurt the communists which gathered on the Laos side, so they had planned operations to keep them from moving or spreading out again.
This was against a signed treaty but nobody cared. The Lao people at the boarder area even lived in caves, as they were attacked so many times. That explains why they are so far behind in the development of the country in comparison to other countries. So when the cluster bomb gets dropped it opens up and the hundreds "bombies" fall out and about 60% of them don't explode and just wait to be touched. As the "bombies" look like toys, especially children get attracted to play with them. Also nowadays there is the possibility to earn a lot of money with scarp metal.
After a lot of information from cope we went to see a wat and more Buddahs.
When we returned to our Guest House we met Chico and found out that Chantal was not feeling too good and was resting. We decided to leave tomorrow together to Kong Lor. In the evening we went to see a Laos dance performance at the Seng Lao Hotel.
Unfortunately it was not very busy, but as the show did not happen yesterday, because of too little interest, we were happy we were able to see it this Saturday evening.
The show was nicely done. The dance was nice, the music good and a man that was able to whistle like different birds was amazing.
The food was plenty and delicious and we were not able to finish everything.
More pictures of Vientiane.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
04.07.2012 Vang Vieng, Laos
Our bus ride to Vang Vieng got a very wet one. We had a little small local bus as transportation, which was full to the roof and we ended up sitting in the foot path, Chrisy on a small plastic chair and me on a little moving box next to the driver. As the road was very windy I had to hold on all the time so I would not fall over. Just before we arrived a heavy rain started and it poured cats and dogs. Just after we arrived The worst stopped and we joined another group on a tuck-tuck to a guesthouse. We had a nice room a little away from the town. For dinner we walked into town and found a little place where we had some food. In 80% of the restaurants you could watch Friends on a TV, but we went to one of the other 20% where we watched an episode of Family Guy instead. As we felt happy enough, we didn't have to order one of the "Happy" offers on the menu. For 20.000 Kip you could make ANYTHING happy! On our way back to our guesthouse we encountered Chantal and Chico on the street and we joined them for dinner. We had a nice evening and decided to go tubing the next day.
The town is in the mountains and has beautiful mountain formations around it. The clouds were still hanging in the top of the mountains and looked like candy cotton.
With the changing colors of the evening sun a magical picture was created and it was a mystical atmosphere in the air.
At the river, here the spot where the tubing finishes, a lot of bars and restaurants are situated.
This dish is a typical Laos dish. It's called Koh lak and it is minced meat with fresh mint leaves. A vey refreshing and tasty dish!
The next day we went tubing. You rent or buy a water proof bag to put your money and belongings inside. Then you go and rent a tube and you will get a transport in a tuk-tuk with the tubes tied on top of it upstream. There a little ferry will transfer you to the other side where the first bar is awaiting you. As a welcome you will receive a little string around your wrist and a shot. It was early afternoon and not too many people were there yet. They had volleyball nets, a nice sun deck and the first people from the bar tried to animate the new guests to play "beer-bong" with them. The staff painted symbols on the arriving guests or wrote something on them. Beer and cocktails in a bucket were on offer and within no time the first effect on people was seen and heard. We met Carsten from Munich and after we finished our drink, we took one tube from the big pile and jumped into the water. The brown river let the tube float smoothly over the water. After only 150meters the next bar was insight. The people from the bar had a rope with a plastic bottle at the end, which they threw skilled into the middle of the river. All we had to do was to hold on to the rope and let them pull us in to their bar. We got out of the tubes and decided to walk up the mountain to a cave. It was a steep and rocky path, but we had a good time and enjoyed the pretty high cave with it's little lake inside. After we came back to the bar we used the rope swing (me not so well) to jump (or fall) into the water. Then we went back on the water only 100 meters further downstream, we grabbed the rope thrown to us from the next bar. They had a a big slide, probably 20 meters long with a steep finish in 8 meters hight from were you fell into the water it was amazing! They also had an awesome flying fox. My experience ended with a back flip and a displaced disk which bothered me for almost 2 months afterwards, but it was worth it!
There are so many bars, and during the dry season there are even more people! As the alcohol is so cheap and other drugs are available it is not surprising that accidents do happen. As a lot of Australians are there and living on the edge, a lot of accidents must have happened to them. So the Australian government managed to get the tubing and the bars closed at the beginning of September 2012. Now they are renovating and introducing some safety futures and measurements for the guests. Let's see if this will help things happening to the people who want to have a lot of fun and who drink a lot and jump into the water!?
We would have loved to stay longer and go and take a kayak on the river and take a scooter to explore more of the beautiful mountain area around the madness of the town. There is also supposed to be very good rock climbing for all you like this kind of adventure.
Unfortunately we do not have many pictures from our time in Vang Vieng, as most of the activities and time was spent in the river and our water proofed camera was not working anymore. But hopefully in the future we will get pictures from a fellow traveler: Click here for more pictures.
The town is in the mountains and has beautiful mountain formations around it. The clouds were still hanging in the top of the mountains and looked like candy cotton.
With the changing colors of the evening sun a magical picture was created and it was a mystical atmosphere in the air.
At the river, here the spot where the tubing finishes, a lot of bars and restaurants are situated.
This dish is a typical Laos dish. It's called Koh lak and it is minced meat with fresh mint leaves. A vey refreshing and tasty dish!
The next day we went tubing. You rent or buy a water proof bag to put your money and belongings inside. Then you go and rent a tube and you will get a transport in a tuk-tuk with the tubes tied on top of it upstream. There a little ferry will transfer you to the other side where the first bar is awaiting you. As a welcome you will receive a little string around your wrist and a shot. It was early afternoon and not too many people were there yet. They had volleyball nets, a nice sun deck and the first people from the bar tried to animate the new guests to play "beer-bong" with them. The staff painted symbols on the arriving guests or wrote something on them. Beer and cocktails in a bucket were on offer and within no time the first effect on people was seen and heard. We met Carsten from Munich and after we finished our drink, we took one tube from the big pile and jumped into the water. The brown river let the tube float smoothly over the water. After only 150meters the next bar was insight. The people from the bar had a rope with a plastic bottle at the end, which they threw skilled into the middle of the river. All we had to do was to hold on to the rope and let them pull us in to their bar. We got out of the tubes and decided to walk up the mountain to a cave. It was a steep and rocky path, but we had a good time and enjoyed the pretty high cave with it's little lake inside. After we came back to the bar we used the rope swing (me not so well) to jump (or fall) into the water. Then we went back on the water only 100 meters further downstream, we grabbed the rope thrown to us from the next bar. They had a a big slide, probably 20 meters long with a steep finish in 8 meters hight from were you fell into the water it was amazing! They also had an awesome flying fox. My experience ended with a back flip and a displaced disk which bothered me for almost 2 months afterwards, but it was worth it!
There are so many bars, and during the dry season there are even more people! As the alcohol is so cheap and other drugs are available it is not surprising that accidents do happen. As a lot of Australians are there and living on the edge, a lot of accidents must have happened to them. So the Australian government managed to get the tubing and the bars closed at the beginning of September 2012. Now they are renovating and introducing some safety futures and measurements for the guests. Let's see if this will help things happening to the people who want to have a lot of fun and who drink a lot and jump into the water!?
We would have loved to stay longer and go and take a kayak on the river and take a scooter to explore more of the beautiful mountain area around the madness of the town. There is also supposed to be very good rock climbing for all you like this kind of adventure.
Unfortunately we do not have many pictures from our time in Vang Vieng, as most of the activities and time was spent in the river and our water proofed camera was not working anymore. But hopefully in the future we will get pictures from a fellow traveler: Click here for more pictures.
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