Browsed by
Month: August 2019

Lao People’s Democratic Republic 6 – 16 August 2019

Lao People’s Democratic Republic 6 – 16 August 2019

Intro Laos first emerged in the region as Lan Xang, or the ‘Kingdom of a Million Elephants’, in the 14th century. Despite some bursts of independence, the kingdom generally found itself paying tribute to more powerful neighbours, including the Siamese and Vietnamese. Geography ensured Laos was sucked into the Vietnam War and a lengthy civil war culminated in a communist takeover in 1975. After many years of isolation, Laos began to experiment with economic reforms in the 1990s but political…

Read More Read More

Goodbye Vietnam! 14th July to 5th August 2019

Goodbye Vietnam! 14th July to 5th August 2019

Sunday 14th to 16th July 2019 Ha Giang to Sapa (Ta Van) Distance 85 + 96 + 41T Total 28476 km Mud mud mud gloop gloop gloop. Between Ha Giang and Sapa it rained quite a bit. The final climb up to Ta Van was huge and in a lot of places just hard packed gravel and mud. Tough going but I make it in the end. Time for a couple of days off which I spend walking up the…

Read More Read More

Hanoi! Hanoi! Hanoi!

Hanoi! Hanoi! Hanoi!

Hanoi So I’ve been to Hanoi three times now and it’s about time I did a blog on it. My first visit was as a backpacker from Cambodia to visit for New Year 2018 and as a jump off point for backpacking the rest of Vietnam. Then the second time was in June 2019 as I cycled up from the south to the north and finally on a quick bus trip from Sapa to apply for my Thai Visa. Each…

Read More Read More