First of all, let’s get one thing straight: Laos is not the land of a thousand elephants it used to be! It’s now the land of a million goats and probably as many buffalos, but we only saw 2 elephants and those were at the tourist elephant center of Kiatnong. We did however ride next to hundreds of goats and buffalos each day (did you know there are also a lot of white albino buffalos?). So with this misunderstanding out of the way, let me tell you about Laos. (Continue…)

Travelling for 6 months means that you’ll sleep in a lot of different towns and different beds. One of the first things to do when you arrive at your new destination, is finding decent accomodation. It’s usually not the most pleasurable activity as it involves carrying around your heavy backpack across many streets (or putting getting on and off from your bicycle).

So how can you evaluate a hotel room as quickly as possible. Here’s the 5 step plan. (Continue…)

 Vietnam has long been the wildcard in our asia trip. It remained unsure whether we would go right up until january. As we decided to cycle from then on, we also decided that we would visit (South) Vietnam and we’re very happy to have done so. Vietnam is a lovely country, in the middle of evolution from a war-wrecked nation into a capitalistic empire. (Continue…)

After coming down from the mountains, it was time for our last stop in Vietnam. We hesitated a very long time if we would go to these 2 cities as it would be a detour on our way to Laos. The fact that Ine was sick made the choice easier: visiting some cities and indulge ourselves in some culture would give I the rest I needed. If we would have known that it was THIS cold (they warned us that it could be a little bit colder here), and that on top of it, it was raining we might have considered another option. But nevertheless… (Continue…)

After the South Coast it was time to head into the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
Everybody we heard was very excited about it so we left with very high expectations for our first stop, Dalat. (Continue…)

Backpack travelling has never been so popular as it is right now. Everybody is throwing out their Samsonite trolley and heading into the A.S. Adventure shop for an 80 liter piece of stitched North Face nylon and preparing for an adventure into the unknown and the undiscovered regions of the world. They are ready to spend hours on busses to get to that fabulous secluded village, that lush jungle, that amazing vista… only to find that they are sharing it with a thousand other backpackers and tourists alike. They all come for an individual journey, a unique experience but end up at the same place all tour groups go to. This is a story about what we call The Lonely Planet effect. (Continue…)

Time goes fast while travelling…. it’s again time for a New year.  A huge celebration throughout the country, the annual Tet Festival celebrates the Chinese New Year and is the biggest event of the year.

For the last 2 days (and probably for the next 2 as well ) all Vietnamese are celebrating Tet. The beginning of a new lunar year, a year of the Rat.

Happy Tet everybody!

After the fertile lands of the Mekong Delta, we took the bus to Vietnam’s capital Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), where we cycled together with 3 million motorbikes. That was fun, for about 2 hours, so we jumped on the hydrofoil (one of those flying boats) due for Vung Tau. (Continue…)