Drawings on beer labels and more – Art from Laos

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Decorations at Hive Bar, Laos$10, marker on a beer label, 3.5″ x 5″ oval When I ran out of room in my Moleskine notebook, I made a couple of drawings on Beer Laos labels, which were always plentiful as we…

Worth a thousand words

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Laos is no paradise when it comes to getting bandwidth, back up drives, and camera cards. So, when our digital storage ran out somewhere on the road from Laos to Cambodia, it was a complex dance to clear space for…

Tha Khek and Champasak, Laos travel tips

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There’s not a lot to choose from in either Tha Khek or Champasak, as far as food and accommodation go, so do as we did and be willing to settle. Best tip, as is true almost everywhere in Laos, is…

Don Det and 4,000 Islands, Laos travel tips

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There’s no electricity on Don Det besides the infrequent generator power. We heard that the island was going to be connected to mainland power by April 2009, so for all that we know may have changed by now. Service on…

Rat soup

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Mekong River, Laos | Art by Todd Berman As Todd and I set off this morning on a tour of the Buddhist caves near Tha Khek, the tour agent asked what we wanted for lunch so he could tell our…

Ain’t no party like an island party

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Todd at our $3 a night bungalow on Don Det | Photo by Lauren Girardin As Todd and I swing in our hammocks on the deck of our tiny river-side bungalow on Don Det island*, we see several unusually burdened…

On a chicken wing and a prayer

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Caught in the act | Photo by Lauren Girardin At some point, I deleted photos from a memory card, thinking I had transferred them to our laptop. Well, I was wrong. All the photos that would have gone along with…

Aw, C’maaawhn!

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I <3 the Buddha | Photo by Lauren Girardin “So, you guys feel also a little too old for Vang Vieng?” This question comes from one of the few guys our age that Todd and I have seen while tubing…

Luang Prabang, Laos travel tips

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Where we ate: Phousi Restaurant – Knowing how spicy Laotian papaya salad can be, we asked for mild and it was still delivered inedibly spicy (and we love spicy). Fruit shakes were miserable concoctions, beer was overpriced.: NAH Pasaneyom Coffee…

Tourist, Beer Lao, and a tube in Vang Vieng, Laos

An angel and devil on our shoulders

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It probably wouldn’t have occurred to us to go to Vang Vieng, Laos if Liz – a traveler that Todd and I met back on our tigerless safari in Ranthambore, India – hadn’t posted a Facebook status update that said,…