The end of the road ... for now (10.08.09)

I have been traveling for a bit more than 6 months now. I saw a lot of places and I am pretty happy about it. It was a great ride. Now I decided to take a vacation from vacation. I will try something else: instead of being a tourist, I will be living in a place or another for a while. I hope I will learn more about how it is to live in Asia and figure out how well it suits me.

I have started 2 blogs (both in romanian language).

In the first one I will give a lot more details about my travel and hope it might help those who'll take a trip to Asia:
http://mic-ghid-asia.blogspot.com/

In the second one I will writhe short notes about my present life:
http://tanar-pensionar.blogspot.com/

Vientiane (07.08.09)

What a pleasant surprise! This city has large streets, little traffic, small buildings, I was actually thinking that it could be a nice place to live. On the other side, there isn't too much of entertainment. I visited the most important attraction, That Louang. There are a lot of other temples in the city, also a small presidential palace and a sort of Arc de Triomphe.

Luang Prabang (06.08.09)

I heard about this city that it's nice. I would agree, but I would also add that is very touristy and it gets pretty hot when it's not raining. What I liked a lot is the Kouang Si waterfall. It is one of the most beatifull waterfalls I've seen. I had fun jumping in the large pool.

Mekong river cruise (03.08.09)

I crossed the border into Laos at Houayxai and took the 2 days slow boar down the river to Luang Prabang. My first impression of Laos is that is a country very green and sparsed populated. The scenery along the river is no doubt beautiful but not so amazing and variated so after few hours it does get boring.

Chiang Mai (01.08.09)

From Siem Reap, the city close to Angkor in Cambodia, I took a bus to Bangkok. I spent just a day there, and the went to Chiang Mai by night bus. I took a day tour trekking, but wan't really that much trekking. First I visited a butterfly farm and an orchid farm. Second, I went rafting down the river; that was pretty fun. Then, I took an elephant ride. It was a first for both these activities. After lunch I went rafting, this time using a bamboo raft (the first was in a zodiac-like rubber boat). I just went trekking for about 20 minutes, to a village where women have long necks.
Chiang Mai may be smaller than Bangkok, but it is a very busy city. I didn't see anything so impressive that worths mentioning it here.