Our last day of motorbiking the Khammouane Loop in Laos was filled with dust, sweat and a tear or two marking the end to an incredible journey. It was also our longest day of riding, in which we covered 112 miles on our faithful little fake Honda motorbike.
As the temps hover around freezing here in the mid-Atlantic, I thought I’d take a break from Laos and head back to the warm, tropical beaches of Thailand. This article is devoted to trekking, kayaking, monkeying around and hangin’ out, Rai Leh style.
We take a suped-up motorboat 4.5 miles (7.5km) down an underground river through incredible Konglor Cave — on the third day of our motorbiking adventure in rural Laos.
So, how crazy do you have to be to attempt the Khammouane Loop in central Laos? I suppose that depends on your definition of crazy.
About a month into our time traveling through India, we found ourselves in the western state of Rajasthan in the tiny desert village of Khuri about 40 miles from the Pakistan border. We arranged a camel safari with some local guides through Badal Singh (proprietor of Badal House in Khuri). We had been looking forward to the camel trek for as long as we had been traveling in Asia and can say in retrospect that it surpassed our expectations.
We made the [mostly unconscious] decision to sleep in a bit on the morning of our second day on the trail. This ended up being an excellent turn of events which allowed the large group of hikers to get a healthy lead and giving us the trail all to ourselves. After a tasty and hearty breakfast of pancake, hashbrown and eggs, we were on the trail by 9am. Weather conditions were just about perfect with cooler temperatures from the fog cover and no rain. However, the fog came at a price, crushing any hope of seeing the tip tops of the magnificent mountain peaks.
Tiger Leaping Gorge is considered by many traveling through China as simply THE BEST trek in China, and for good reason: it’s an amazing place. The first part of the trail from Tina’s to Naxi Family GH winds up through green hillside and few small villages. You’ll encounter women selling a variety of things from walking sticks to water to (always mumbled under their breath): ganja/marijuana/joint/etc. often from the oldest, sweetest-looking of women, which [...]
Most visitors to the Wall visit the Bādálǐng stretch of the wall outside of Beijing. We visited a portion higher up in the mountains (about a 2-hour bus ride from central Beijing) between Jīnshānlǐng and Sīmǎtái. In past years, it’s been possible to walk the entire stretch between these two outposts, but Sīmǎtái is currently closed for renovation, so as of July 2012 it is an out-and-back hike from Jīnshānlǐng.
We awoke at 3:30am on our final day to hike up to Machupicchu, the icing on our trekking cake. We lined up at a control gate along with over a hundred other hikers (we were close to the front) and at 5:30 the control gate opened and let us through.
In Peru, continuing our journey along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. This posting covers the third of a four day trek.
