150km north is the next big city PAKSE (thought the busride took 1,5h waitingtime and 3,5h driving!). Pakse itself is mainly the supply centre for all the countryside town all around. There're over 20 temple all over the city, some markets, the riverside, and then just the normal life. To see more you need to join eather a TOUR or you rent a MOTORBIKE and then go on the way out to the BOLOVENPLATEAU. It is one of the rare areas in Laos which are mainly flat and easy to use for farming. On the 50km out to the maintown PAKSONG you find heaps of small VILLAGES, WATERFALLS all over and it is the area where lots of COFFEE and TEE is planted. Great way to go by bike, and my first time with a manual motorbike - easier than I though and lots of fun :). Who has more thime can extend the way to a 2-3 day circle over farmland, some local tribes and homestays.

It is the CAPITAL and biggest city of Laos, but with probably less than 1million people it's still easy walked through after one day. Most of the streets are unusual cleaned up (compare to other southeast asia towns), the touristareas have shiny hotels as well as small guesthouses and restaurants. And everywhere are huge and perfekt renovated buildings like minestries, cultural halls, embassies etc. Even a shoppingmall like in western countries (there was none in whole cambodia). Between all that there are a few bigger TEMPLES, the PATUXAI (an archway simular to the one in Paris), the royal palast (you can't get in) and then there is the riverfront nice made up with a park (and now lots of sand in the dry season instead of water). Nice to hang out for a day - and the eving with a few bars.

Like every town in Laos is Vang Viang not really big. But it is one of the most FAMOUS ones in whole south east asia. Specially for backpackers it was know as the best party and tubing town. But a few people went to far and died in the last few years. Just recently they SHUT DOWN most of the bars, specially around the river where the most people died. The town is slowly getting back its charme, thought it is in a beautiful area on the river, surounded by mountainranges, sandstone and fields. Some locals want to try to turn it into an ecological town. The city center is mostly one mainroad, full of guesthouses and restaurants. A few smaller roads down to the river have touristshops, a few remaining bars and lots of yum streetfood. If you want to do some ACTIVITIES, there is everything possible from kayaking to rockclimbing and heaps of cave tours. Just outside of town, easy to reach by bycicle through great farmland and tiny villages, is the BLUE LAGONE. It is a great spot to go for a SWIM in clear water. And it is freezing cold water, just perfect after the ride through the heat. Next to it is as well a CAVE, probably one of the biggest in the area. It is huge, really huge! In the begining still with bit of sunlight and with a huge budda statue. After it you can go deeper and deeper in the cave and it is pitch dark. We had just a smal torch and followed in the beginning still the arrows and small ways. But after a while the way isn't clear anymore. We just walked further, climed up and down stones and got after one hour out on the other side of the budda :). And except of that, you still can do the TUBING. You rent a tube of a tracktor tyre and they drive you 4km up the river. There you just lie in the tube and drift down the river. Lots of fun and really relaxing. And there are still two bars on the way to stop. And specially now in the dryseason you can spend hours there, drifting back this few kilometers and trying not to get to much stuck on the stones on the ground. A really great town!

From here we went further up northeast to PHONSAVAN (or Xiangkhoang by locals called). A 6 hour drive through the stunning hillcountry, very windy and high roads and lots of hilltribe villages. Phonsavan is one of the biggest cities, but more or less a LIVING CITY for the locals. Not to many tourist find the way out here. Town itself has the usual things like tempels and markets. Some monuments and cemetieries on hills with some AMAZING VIEWS all around. The whole city is surounded by something like limestone mountains, quarry ponds and everywhere people build houses and work with stones. From the top of the hills it looks like the city just got cut out of the limestone - great! But the reason why people come here are the MYSTEROES PLAIN OF JARS. With the bicyle we went to the first site, just 10km out of town. This stonejars are around 1meter high, all round, out of stone and in the middle hollow. Nobody really knows how old they are or for what they are. Researcher assume they are around 2.000 years old and got used for burials. But could be as well to store things like a fridge, or for alcohol. Mysterious :). The area here (and in south Laos the Platau area) is as well full of UXO (unexploded ordance). It is the area where the USA droped secretly 2 tones of bombs during the vietnam war. Till today a lot of them are unexploded and not found - regularly some explode when people hit them while doing farmwork!

LUANG PRABANG was in the past the capital and is today one of the WOLRD HERITAGE CITIES - to that effect it is full of tourist. Another city on the MEKONG RIVER, lots of possibilieties here. Worth to visit is the ROYAL PALACE - heaps of gold everywhere and you can see the old rooms of the king, the throne, cars, ... If you want to see the sunset, the best spot for that is on top of the PHOUSI HILL AND WAT. And then it is just nice to walk through the town center. Lots of different food MARKETS during the day, TEMPELS new and old, a nice stroll along the riverfront, old buildings everywhere, lots of expensive hotels and restaurants, heaps of touristshops, swimming pool, cooking courses and of course some bars to go out (thought everything closes latest at 11). If you want to go out of town there is a waterfall, some caves and lots of different tours you can join to elephantcamps, hiking, hilltribes, waving villages and so on. But one of the best things in town and not to miss is the TOURISTSTREET and the NIGHTMARKET. It is huge and as lots of food as well as art and craft work, perfect for souvenirs :)

From here we all wanted to go to the LOUNG NAM THA and the NATIONAL PARK. And after some trouble and lots of discussions we finally made it to get a minivan for the 8hour drive (was the most horrible road ever, road holes and windy roads the most time). But we managed it, even to book the 2-DAY HIKE with start the next morning. And that was just awsome! I enjoyed it so much to go hiking again - even if it was easier and shorter walks than I'm used to. It was so much fun with the group. And our local guide was great too. The hike went mostly through jungle, passing a small waterfall, and of course some VIEWPOINTS on the top. OVERNIGHT did we stay in a Bungallow in the small village from the LENTEN TRIBE, which welcomed us, cooked and made even a traditional dance for us. Mostly they live in small huts, not having to much. But the TV is everywhere! And the next day further hiking, cooking bamboo-lunch over an open fire, and ending the hike at the river. Even those tours are expensive, it's worth it!

Up more north were going to MUANG SING - last town bevore the CHINESE BORDER. And so is the whole town - small but full of chinese restaurants, shops, guesthouses... It's hard to find something Lao, and even harder to find english (wich is basicly not existing here). And often they don't want to serve us food, or even help us! Outside of town there is beautiful LANDSCAPE. Easy to rent a bycicle and get around through tiny villages, all kind of fields (including poppy fields for the opium which is popular here), stay at some HOMESTAYS or go for a ride to see the GREEN HILLS OF CHINA and the bordercrossing :)

OUDOMXAY was for me just to stay overnight because the bustrip was to long to do it on one day. But there is NOT MUCH to do anyway. It's the biggest city, on all sides hours of driving through the mountains and small hillvillages. So its more or less just for locals to stock up their supply before heading out again...

Another half day squeezed into a minivan crowded full of locals, chicken and ricebags and I arrive in NONG KWIAH - the beautiful RIVERTOWN where I just passed last week to take the boat up further north. Now I've got 2 days spare, so why not just RELAXING here? It's the perfect place for that, just hanging out on the river, reading at the bungalows, enjoying sunsets at the little restaurants... And to do some exercice you can walk outside of town, enjoy the beautiful landscape, visit some villages or explore some caves. In one of the HISTORICAL CAVES was the whole finance-government of Luang Prabang hidden over the wartime - tiny rooms in the cave with reminding sign of that time. Crazy to imagine that!