Pakse Loop: Day 3

If you are sleeping in a bamboo hut in what feels like the middle of the jungle, one expects to wake up to the sounds of the birds. And insects. And maybe a rooster. What one does not expect to be roused by is loud music. But roused we were, courtesy of the three french guys next door.

Normally we would have been quite peeved to wake up this way. But all was forgiven on this particular morning as the song they played was so beautiful. We had been away from home for 3+ months at this point, and had lost touch with the rest of the world. We had no idea what song it was, only that it was mesmerizing. At breakfast, we discovered that we had well and truly been living under a rock, as it turned out to be one of the best-selling singles of all time: "Hello", by Adele! We owe those french guys a big thank you as they managed to make this otherwise mundane morning something special enough that I remember it in vivid detail even now, 7 years later. Everytime I hear "Hello", I'm transported back to Laos.

Our day only got better from here. The well-marked trail from the guesthouse took us to 7 different waterfalls, some of which were truly stunning.

Waterfall #2, our favourite. That's Nick's head on the bottom right

Pakse Loop: Day 2

Apparently a bite from this spider will cause temporary paralysis!

Our first stop of the day was a village tour with Captain Hook. No, really, he goes by the name Captain Hook.

He is a bit of a character and definitely the rebel of his village. He is quite open about his personal story which I think needs to be heard directly from him to be appreciated. I got the impression that although he is tolerated within his village, the others are not too happy about the fact that so many outsiders tromp through every day. That said, his tour was incredibly interesting (and at times, shocking).

We learned a lot about the way of life, practices and beliefs of his people. I'm really glad we stopped here and can highly recommend it.

After Captain Hook, we hit the road again. As both Nick and I had been on silk making tours in China, we opted to skip the silk stops along the way and just find a place to swim.

Tad Faek was just the ticket: quiet, peaceful and relaxing.

Tad Faek

Bamboo shelters with quite the view

I’m not dead yet!

Chime In hasn't had a pulse for a good 6 years, but despite all appearances to the contrary, this blog is not dead yet! A friend recently asked us for travel recommendations for Thailand and it led me down memory lane a little bit...and back to this blog! I discovered a few unfinished drafts and it has inspired me to finish what I started.

Life has changed so much since I last wrote an entry. We have had many more adventures, we now live in the UK...and the biggest adventure of all...we now have 2 kids! 2! No one is more shocked by this development than me, let me tell you, as we weren't planning to have kids at all! But Selvan and Keeran have turned out to be the best things that have ever happened to me. They are now 2 and 4.

We still travel, but the way we travel has changed quite a bit. It also continues to change all the time as the kids get older and their needs and abilities change. When I was on maternity leave with Selvan, we managed to do a lot. We went to Canada, San Francisco, Cape Town, India and Cape Town again, all before his first birthday!

The Boomslang Boardwalk in Kirstenbosch was a huge hit with the kids!

We have made all kinds of newbie mistakes when traveling with kids. So many valuable lessons have been learned and I'm looking forward to writing about them soon. I also plan to go back and fill in information from our RTW world trip. Hard to believe that was 7 years ago now! So please stay tuned!

Pakse Loop: Day 1

​We had so much fun on the Thakhaek loop that we decided to do the other popular Lao motorbike trip as well: The Pakse Loop.

Like everyone else on the Lonely Planet circuit, we dutifully showed up at Miss Noy's to try and rent a motorbike.

I have to say, this was the smoothest bike rental experience we had in SE Asia. The entire operation runs like a well-oiled machine. You show up at some point during the day to make sure you can get a motorbike for the next day. If you manage to snag one, then you show up again in the evening for a detailed info session.

Yves, who conducted our pre-trip info session, was amazing. He was spot on with his advice in terms of which waterfalls were the nicest, which farms/side-trips were worth doing. We stopped at a few waterfalls that he said were just so-so and he was totally right.

The next morning, you return to the shop, put your bags in storage at the back, hop onto a freshly washed motorbike and off you go! Easy Peasy!

Tad Lo: One of the many waterfalls on the Pakse Loop

Thakhaek Loop

Our next stop after Vientiane was a small town called Thakhaek, whose claim to fame is its proximity to the Kong Lo Caves.

We had originally just planned to spend two nights there to see the caves and move on. But somewhere along the way (and I can no longer remember how) we learned that instead of just going directly to the caves and back, there was a very popular alternative: a 4 day motorcycle loop that would include the caves as well as other waterfalls.

Phosy Thalang Guesthouse

This sounded awesome to us, so the next day, we headed to a nearby motorcycle rental shop: Mad Monkey Motorbikes. 

It's run by a German man and his Lao wife and their trip advisor reviews are all over the map. But we didn’t know this at the time, as we rented without googling first. Our experience was good, but I can understand why people may not have been happy. Here are a few things that will help you decide if it's worth going with Mad Monkey...

Toronto's real sister city

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already January 2017! Nick and I are back in San Francisco again, after the most amazing year traveling the world. It really was a dream come true for us and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do something like that.

As we settle back into the comforting, well-loved routines of our lives in SF, I am really going to buckle down and finish writing about our experiences. There are so many things that I wanted to share with family and friends, but just didn't have time to cover properly. Better late than never...right? So without further ado, we flash back to December 2015!

While we were in Chiang Mai, we learned that Nick's friend from Australia would be in Laos on business soon. Since the opportunity to see him was simply too good to pass up, we made our way to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to meet him. While Mark was occupied with work during the day, Nick and I wandered around being complete tourists.

SCLEG Park: Safe, Clean, Light something something, Green

Although four days isn’t a whole lot of time, it was enough to give us a feel for the place. And my overall impression of Vientiane was...well...meh.

It was far too early in our travels for travel fatigue, and there was no shortage of things to see or do, yet I was totally underwhelmed by the city and I didn't know why. It wasn't until months later that it finally hit me: Vientiane is Toronto.

The parallels are uncanny, actually...

Am I part of the problem?

Luang Prabang is one of the most popular destinations in Laos and a UNESCO World Heritage site for a very good reason. Culturally and historically, there is so much worth preserving: beautiful temples and statues, a royal palace, colonial architecture and villages that still maintain and practice age old traditions.

We had a really great time bicycling around the area. We found cute riverside cafes, crossed the Mekong on bamboo bridges, shopped at the colourful and lively night market, enjoyed a sunset cruise, climbed to the temple on top of Mount Phou Si and more.

Tat Kuang Si

Bamboo Bridges in Luang Prabang

One of the highlights was the day we rented a scooter and went to Kuang Si, a gorgeous waterfall an hour outside the city. In fact, I think we hit up almost every major “to do” in Luang Prabang in our four days there…save the most famous: The sunrise alms giving ceremony.

This is one of the top “attractions” in the city. Young monks (with their bright orange robes) pass through the streets collecting alms — donations of sticky rice — from local residents. If I understand the tradition correctly, the alms-givers believe it will earn them favour in their next life, while the monks themselves rely on the donations to feed themselves in this life (at least historically. I’m not sure if this is still the case in modern times).

Many travelers have described a quiet and solemn tradition that they felt privileged to witness. However, I felt incredibly uncomfortable about going to see this ritual and opted out.