Lao airline

Boarding the plane to go home

Xengkoung tourist attractions

Fireplace

Winter can be as low as 0 celcius here. So a fireplace in every house is a must.

I learned from Yai, the owner of this cafe, his is the first and only cafe in Xengkhoung. The cafe has been running for more than a year now and it has free internet for the patrons. It is serving freshly brewed arabica from Pakxong a world known coffee producing area in the south of Laos. My verdict:  délicieux!

Nope, I don't get any free coffee for posting this entry. Just a hand of friendship...
Sent from my iPad

Kek's brothers

Say hello to Kek's spitting images...

Jars Cafe

Found this good cafe in the heart of Phonsavanh and as it turned out it belongs to the brother of my finance clerk. What a small world!

Picturesque Xengkoung

having breakfast on the balcony of the hotel overlooking a quaint little village down below with a mountain range in the backdrop is breathtaking. The view is simply very calming. This does remind me of Switzerland....

view from my room at 6 am

Today is my final day covering the north east of Laos. I will take a flight to Ventiane which is just going to take 30 mins. By road it would have taken me a grueling 10 hour trip.
I don't know if I will ever come back to this part of Laos but the whole trip had been very exhilarating and a truly memorable one.

Plain of jars

No visit to xengkhoung is complete without a visit to the Plain of Jars

cliff hanger

Return to Xengkhoung

We are returning to Ventiane via xengkhoung today. That will probably take us more or less 7 hour by road through the mountains and meandering road. We were bid farewell by the Governor who joined us for breakfast. I have been overwhelmed by his graciousness and warm treatment since the first day we arrived to his hometown. This visit has been a very memorable one and one that I won't forget. Last night we were feted with a grand dinner. There was a fashion show of the ethnic groups here with their traditional costume.

We are now on the road. I can't describe how frightening it is to drive through the meandering road that zig zags across the mountains. All I can see is beautiful mountain ranges but the road appears to be hanging on the hill sides and on both sides I can see are deep crevices and clifts 100s of metres high. I keep thinking if Inpone my driver made one wrong move, the 4 wheel car we are driving in would surely fall into one of those clifts. So the usual me keeps nagging him to drive slowly.

Reached Xengkoung at around 230 pm today starving that I could eat a horse. Found this indian muslim restaurant in Phonsavanh. We stopped for lunch before we head to the hotel. as I'm posting this realtime, I'm still waiting for my food to arrive. the weather here is very pleasant as its a few hundred metres above sea level. Will update this post later...

Farewell dinner

My visit to houphan province ended with a farewell dinner....

Overlooking Xam nue at night

Xam nue capital of houphan province

Xam nue boat race

Hotel with a view

Its past 7 am and I'm now having breakfast on a balcony overlooking a little village. I can see mountain ranges and the well known plain of jars from the distance. The latter is why tourists flock into this part of Laos. the huge granite jars that can be found scattered in the plain are mind boggling as there are numerous theories on how they came from and their original use. Ok got to go now. I have another 10 hour road trip upnorth before we reach houphan....

Xengkoung

I am currently in Xengkoung on the way to houphan. That is north east of laos near the vietnam border. The weather is pleasantly at 20 c but the wind can be chilly. I will update later