As a way to break up the boat ride along Mekong river Laura and I located a small town just off the river and decided to see if we could hunt down a more rural Laos experience.
Laos’ major cities are so very quaintly sweet and comparatively small, there’s quite a bit of Westernization though and Laura and I wondered what Laos is like outside of the cities, for the rural Loatians.
Getting to Hongsa, Laos by Boat
We said goodbye to the slow boat (the slow boat was a lesson in slow …

What the Heck is the Gibbon Experience?
Ok, I know what most of you are thinking…what could Shannon possibly mean by the title of this post?  Surely her RTW travel adventure didn’t take her on a zip-lining adventure through the upper canopy of trees in the Laos jungle?

Well, let me assure you that I did all of that and more!
I have now lived out nearly every American boy’s (and girl’s though this seems a bit more up the boy-alley) childhood fantasy…I lived in a tree-house Swiss Family Robinson  style and then …

A Happy Valentines Day From Cambodia
My time is just flying by it seems – I can’t believe I have been traveling around the world for three months at this point!  With just a week left on the Southeast Asia leg of my RTW backpacking trip, I couldn’t have spent it much better.  Laura and I decided to head out of the city to stay at an orphanage located just 30 minutes outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

I really had no idea what to expect from the volunteering experience – …

It was pretty hard to pry myself away from the delicious Oreo shakes and veggies subs within the city of Luang Prabang for long enough to see the sites outside of town but somehow I managed to rouse myself from my foodie-driven laziness for long enough to book a tuk-tuk to nearby waterfalls.

Laura and I met up again with three friends from our tubing adventures in Vang Vieng, a group of Israelis led by the thoroughly lovable Shimi, they also tookk the popular backpacker route northward to Luang Prabang and …

Sorry for some of the long delays between postings recently – I was actually paying my dues and hugging a toilet for long eight days.
You know, I knew it was inevitable that I would get sick at some point…when you’re in Asia it’s not a matter of “if” but “when.” So, perhaps I can try to think of myself as lucky that it happened so early into my four months in Asia…yes…I am trying really hard to feel lucky right now!
Anyhow, just wanted to update you all.  It was one …

If all of the cities in Laos are thought of as siblings, then Luang Prabang is that beautiful older sister, the apple her parents’ eye and she can do no wrong.  Vang Vieng (and Laos river tubing) was the rebellious and party-tastic younger brother; this city, instead, is really old and full of beautiful Wats (temples).

The city is actually so culturally rich that in 1995 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site -the whole city!  That means that even in another decade, you wont see multi-story concrete buildings …