By

Swati Nair
I had been on the road for the past 2 and a half weeks and I was yet to see a genuine smile. In Xinjiang, the far west of China, it is hard to come by.
It was 5.30 am and I was standing on the roadside in the heart of Luang Prabang. I had just landed and was sleepy, hungry and restless.
Jordan was all falafel and hummus, history and argileh/shisha. But there was also the mint tea. A drink that was readily available everywhere.
From Luang Prabang, we traveled onwards to Phonsavan. This was a last minute choice for ease of connectivity.
Just a short post to say that today was a complete rest day. After yesterday’s gruelling exercise we needed to give our battered bodies a rest. So all we did was lounge around, sleep, eat and shop at the night market. And it was also a no bicycle day. Also, so far in Luang Prabang,...
I have not known the meaning of true tiredness for a long time until today. But then bicycling 60km is not a joke. I even doubted if I was up to it. But K/G said we must give it a shot after our newer fitness levels and I thought yes we should. So we set...
A good night’s sleep restored my tired limbs and muddled senses. Since we had not planned on anything concrete today we took bicycles again and went around town. Visited a couple of Wats or temples. The highlight of the day was cycling all the way to Ban Pho, which is a village of weavers. The...
Our bus tickets to Luang Prabang were booked. After a long wait, a van finally came to pick us up at our hotel. There was a further wait in the bus itself but at last it left around half an hour late. For the first time in my life I found myself not shivering in...
The rain has finally tired itself out I think. Yesterday it poured the whole day with alternating strength. But I hired a bicycle for 10,000 kip (a little more than $1) for half a day and a blue poncho that says “Shower Attack.” After equipping myself with these items I had lunch at a vegetarian...
This latest trip was long due. Well, by my standards. Its been more than five months since I went anywhere and the travel bug had started biting badly. So here I am in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, which most people mistake for Lagos in Nigeria. A sleepy town, its hard to believe that its...
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