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...