The Alaroni Big Trip: Laos

Hi All,

Greetings from Luang Prabang, Laos.

We’ve been on the road now for a couple of weeks and the trip is living up to expectations. After a bit of early excitement in Abu Dhabi on Nadia’s father’s boat, we arrived in Bangkok where we explored the city for a few days. The highlight was taking a bike trip through the back streets, alley’s, markets and temples of the city. We then took an all night train north to Chiang Mai where we explored the city before departing for a two-day trek to visit a Karen hill tribe. We spent a night in a village, bathing in a river and sleeping in a wood and bamboo house while also enjoying a delicious meal prepared by our guide. The next day we took a 3-hour bamboo raft ride down a winding river through the forest. Although water would come through the spaces in the bamboo when we went over small rapids, for the most part it was a scenic and relaxing trip. After living in Jordan for so long, seeing lush green everywhere is food for the soul.

We then continued north to Chiang Rai where we visited an amazing temple constructed by a group of local artists and then visited a hill tribe museum. From Chiang Rai we traveled across the border into Laos where we spent the night along the Mekong River in a small border town called Huay Xai. We specifically traveled to this location to enjoy three days of zip-lining through the forest canopy and sleeping in specifically engineered houses built high up in huge trees. The trip started by taking a two hour drive, most of it on a rutted dirt road, to a village where we started a two hour trek into the forest. Along the way we met our guides, received our zip line harnesses and continued on to our first of many zip lines. Wow, what an experience literally flying through and over the jungle and at speed. At night and in the morning we would hear gibbon’s calling out to each other along with a symphony of insect noises but we didn’t actually see any gibbons. The kids had a blast zip-lining spans of over 400 meters and so did we.

Once back from the forest, we spent one more night in Huay Xai before taking a 13 bus trip to Luang Prabang, a beautiful and historic town on the Mekong River with a mix of Laos and French architecture and culture. The town is sandwiched between two major rivers, is ringed by dramatic mountains and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town is loaded with young travelers/backpackers, street food stalls, massage spas, travel agencies, adventure outfitters and more. We’ve been here for three days now and have slowed the pace down. Days have included walking around the town, eating great food, and just relaxing. We’re always eating because the food is so good.

Today we picked up the pace a bit by kayaking on a scenic river, where we also stopped to ride and swim with elephants before visiting a cave full of Buddhist statues.

We’re all starting to get into a groove of living out of a backpack, learning the best means of transportation (i.e. boats, buses, and trains), sourcing accommodations nightly, and researching things to do at our next destination along the way. The kids have been real troopers and enjoying the adventure.

This is my first post so apologies for the long blow by blow of the trip so far. Hopefully, going forward, I’ll post more regularly. I’m also learning how to use my new Nikon camera and have taken lots of photos. Here are some (quite a few actually). Enjoy.

Cheers, Rob

White Palace, Chiang Rai