A Night with the Khamu in Laos
Khamu woman husking rice in the village
Our cheerful guide, Phouthone, arrived at our guesthouse in UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang at 08:00am and whisked my friend and me away in the mini-van for a 90 minute drive to the start of our trek to stay with the Khamu – an ethnic community who live in the mountains in Northern Laos.
The nearby mountains provided perfect trekking conditions and the trails were lengthy enough to give us a pretty good work out. We followed village paths through stunning golden fields flushed with rice ready to harvest and hiked mountain trails through bamboo thickets and leafy jungle.
Late afternoon, we arrived at the Khamu village of Ban Pha Phong nestled at the base of a mountain with a river flowing at the end.
How to avoid tourists in Sapa North Vietnam
Can Cau Markets Lao Cai Province
If getting off the tourist trail is what you are looking for so you can discover different ethnic minority communities, you need around three to four days in the Sapa region in North Vietnam
If possible try to visit Sapa and the surrounding areas during the week as it is less crowded with tourists. On weekends tourists flock to the area for Sapa’s Saturday Markets and to the Sunday Markets held at the nearby town of Bac Ha. If markets are your thing, but crowds are not, there is an array of smaller more intimate hill tribe markets held in the region during the week.
More into trekking?
Tourists tend to overcrowd the villages within a day’s walk of Sapa town, but if you have more time and are reasonably fit, you can trek further to less visited villages and have a very interesting and worthwhile experience.
Vietnamese Cuisine – A Taste Sensation
Vietnamese cuisine is a gourmet exploration
Vietnamese Pho is served for breakfast
Celebrity chef, Luke Nguyen has put Vietnamese food on the map with his excellent TV series. And all the hype is true!
Vietnamese food is inventive, tasty and uses high quality home grown ingredients. Flavours have infused from influences such as the Chinese, Laotians, Cambodian and more recently the French. As elsewhere in South East Asia, rice or com is the main staple diet, although bread, especially baguettes, introduced by the French, are available everywhere.
Some Vietnamese Specialties
Nem Ran (Spring Roll)
A popular dish of minced pork, rice vermicelli, mushrooms, dried onions, bean-sprouts, pepper and spiced salt. The mixture is rolled in flat rice cakes and fried in a pan until crispy.
Pho (Rice Noodle Soup)
Typical Hanoi dish primarily served at breakfast or eaten as a light snack, the standard serving is a broth of rice noodles topped with either beef or chicken, fresh herbs and onion. Egg yolk, lime juice, chilli peppers or vinegar may be added.
Gio lua
Found anywhere in Vietnam, gio lua is made from pork pate wrapped in banana leaves then well cooked.
South Vietnam Cambodia Border Crossing
Sam Mountain, Chau Doc, Vietnam
A popular travel route with a twist of adventure is to travel from Ho Chi Minh City via the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam to Cambodia’ south coast.
Border Crossing: Xa Xia (Vietnam) – Prek Chak (Cambodia)
This recently opened border creates a convenient connection for travellers coming from Chau Doc in the Mekong Delta or Phu Quoc Island heading to the beach resort of Sihanoukville and the colonial era towns of Kep and Kampot .
Some clients of mine crossed this border in May 2011 and reported that the Vietnamese side was official and easy to depart, but they were hassled by taxi drivers and hawkers pretending to be official immigration agents requesting money during the 750 metre walk in no mans land to the Cambodian border.
Yoga & Meditation Retreat in Laos
Yoga class at the Laos Retreat
By Pamela Western
Two times Logie Winner
There were nine of us including Sheldon Leon, our yoga teacher who were involved in the first ever yoga and meditation retreat held in the small land-locked country of Laos.
We stayed in individual thatched bungalows at the Zen Nam Khan Boutique Resort near the ancient royal capital of Luang Prabang. My room was spacious with Asian-style decor and dark polished timber floors. There was a four poster bed, lounge and kitchen areas, and a huge private outdoor shower overlooking the rainforest.
This was a very democratic group and we organised our timetable to suit ourselves and settled on having breakfast at 7.30 – fresh fruit, rolls, coffee, with choices such as omelets, pancakes, baked bananas or sticky rice made to order prepared by the excellent French Canadian chef.
Vietnam Village Home Stay – Customs and how to behave
“How do I behave when I stay with a family in a home stay in Vietnam?”
My host and I in Pu Luong Nature Reserve
This question I get asked frequently by travellers who want to experience a family home stay in a Vietnam village – doing a little home work before arriving at your home stay will definitely bridge the cultural divide and earn respect from your hosts.
Visiting ethnic minority villages is one of the highlights of a trip to Vietnam, better still if you can stay overnight. But one thing to keep in perspective is you are a guest in their home – (sure you are a paying guest, but you have been invited into their world).
Just like when you have guests come and stay at your place – you probably have a few house rules to keep harmony in your home.
Laos visa – do you need one?
Tuks tuks in Luang Prabang Laos
HOT TIP: It is useful to take several passport photographs with you if you plan to obtain a visa upon arrival and for visa extensions.
Visitors to Laos need a visa to enter the country.
You require a passport valid for at least six months with a blank page for a visa stamp. The most common way to get a Laos visa is on arrival at Vientiane or Luang Prabang International Airports, at the Vientiane Friendship Bridge at the Thai Border and other border crossings (please check with your Lao Embassy).
You need to present to immigration your passport, two current passport photos, a completed immigration form and of course an entry fee.
Vietnam visas – Quick and easy
Flower Hmong woman in Lao Cai Province, North Vietnam
HOT TIP: Always double check your details on your Visa Letter before you arrive in Vietnam and your Visa Stamp at the airport. I had the unfortunate experience where the wrong dates were stamped on my visa instead of one month I had two weeks! Luckily I checked.
Organising a Vietnam visa can be a frustrating, lengthy process.
There’s many telephone calls to embassies, agents, expensive postage costs, forms, etc, etc. Thankfully, over the last few years Vietnam’s Immigration Department has become more flexible and has introduced the Vietnam Visa on arrival system.
Vietnam visa on arrival
Vietnam tour operators and visa agents can arrange a Vietnam visa arrival letter for you which you present with your passport, a photo and US dollars for the entry fee at either HCMC, Hanoi or Danang International Airports to obtain a visa entry stamp.
The beauty of this process, is that it is all arranged from your computer making it convenient and time saving. There is a charge for this service, but generally the cost is much cheaper than using the embassies and travel agents. It also is faster – a one month visa takes no longer than four working days.
Cycling the Mekong Delta in the Wet Season
Mekong Delta, South Vietnam
Don’t be put off by travelling South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in the wet season. In fact, there are many advantages to experiencing the monsoonal rainfall that run from July to November. For example, there are fewer tourists so you can travel for days without seeing another Westerner. It is also an amateur photographers’ dream as its rice planting season and the fields are a tapestry of rich green colours. And it is the low season so airfares and accommodation are competitively priced.
Wet season runs from July to October
I know this as I travelled to the Mekong Delta in August 2010 with a group of friends. We headed off on a three day cycling tour where we cycled up to 60km a day through urban and rural landscapes. The daily temperature was around 30 degrees and quite humid, however we planned our cycling to avoid the heat of the day so that we were in a local restaurant for lunch. Read the rest of this entry »
Ho Chi Minh City Top 10 Things to Do
Ho Chi Minh City also known as Saigon
Fasten your seat belts – Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in South Vietnam is on the move. Only 20 years ago the tourism doors opened after centuries of war, today this thriving economy has put the past behind and embracing prosperous times making Saigon a travel hot spot packed full of museums, temples, shopping, restaurants, parks, night clubs and spas and beauty treatments.
1. Cross the road and don’t hesitate
Ho Chi Minh City has a population of around 10 million people and eight million motorbikes making pedestrian crossings an urban adventure where one does not hesitate. Read the rest of this entry »