Thailand/Laos Adventure
Travel north from Bangkok to ancient temples, museums and rock paintings in Laos and Thailand. Wake, relax and explore with the rhythm and colour of village life. Discover the spectacular limestone caves, ruins and jungles of Laos as you journey down the backwaters of the Mekong river. Keep a lookout for monkeys, leopards and civet cats in this unique area. This trip really has it all, culture, history, interaction, wildlife and adventure.
Day 1 - Arrive in Bangkok
Arrive in Bangkok where your guide will meet you and then
transfer you to the hotel for check-in. Relax at your leisure.
Day 2 - Bangkok - Grand Palace Tour
- Ubon Ratchatani
After breakfast our guide will take you to the Grand Palace,
one of the most beautiful samples of an ancient Siamese court.
It used to be the residence of the Kings of Bangkok. Here
you will see the Palaces, which were used for different occasions;
the Funeral Palace, the Reception Palace, the Throne Hall,
the Coronation Hall, the Royal Guesthouse and the beautiful
Emerald Buddha Temple. Lunch at local restaurant. Relax at
your leisure until evening when at 18.00 hrs our guide will
meet your group at the hotel for transfer to Hua Lum Pong
(railway station) for first class train to Ubon Ratchatani.
Day 3 - Ubon Ratchatani - City Tour
After checking in to your hotel, your guide will take you
to visit a number of city sites in Ubon including Wat Sri
Muang, built in a very unusual mixture of Thai, Lao & Burmese
styles. Also see the National Museum #8. This museum is also
home of the most important known inscription stones in Thai
history. Lunch at Riverside restaurant with Thai set menu.
Rest of the day at leisure to enjoy the hotel's facilities.
Day 4 - Khao Phra Viharn (Cambodian)
- Khong Jiam
Drive to Khao Phra Viharn Khmer temple complex which was started
even before its big brother, the Angkor Wat in the heart of
Cambodia! Unlike other Khmer Temples in Thailand, this one
has not undergone the restoration efforts of the Fine Arts
Department. This, and the huge crashed Russian helicopter
only a few meters off the causeway, add immeasurably to the
already very significant sense of drama one feels here! If
Indiana Jones were real, he would have found this place! Walk
up steps to graded causeways through awesome "gopuras" and
arrive at the extensive but dilapidated centre, which is on
a cliff-top overlooking the virgin Cambodian countryside for
miles. On the way back, stop off for a look at Maw-I-Daeng
cliff carvings. Lunch will be Kantaralak at a local restaurant
or picnic lunch in a shady grove en route back to Khong Jiam
Resort. Dinner at Tohsaeng Khong Jiam Resort.
Day 5 -Pha Taem - Khong Jiam
Today, head for Pha Taem National / Historical Park to view
the pre-historic paintings. Walk the length of the trail around
the cliff if you like (about 2km +).
At Khong Jiam, take a walk around this quaint little town followed by lunch at a floating "raft restaurant" on the Mekong River. Take as long as you like in town, then cross back over the Moon River by ferry, to the Tohsaeng Resort where you will enjoy the rest of your day at leisure enjoying this resort's comfortable facilities. Dinner at the Tohsaeng Khong Jiam Resort beside the Mekong River.
Day 6 - Khong Jiam
- Mukdahan National Park - Ban Nong Hoi Yai
After breakfast drive to Mukdaharn for a walk through the
Indo-Chine Market. Products from the surrounding Mekong Countries
(Vietnam, China, Laos & Cambodia) make their way here and
are sold to local people. Walk the length of the Mekong Riverside
market, to a breezy Riverside restaurant where we will enjoy
lunch in a shady "sala" with a view of Laos!
After lunch, drive to Thad Phanom to see the Thad Phanom Temple. Built some 1500 years ago according to the official record (the local legend relates an earlier beginning…some 8 years after the Buddha's death!). You may see pilgrims from countries as distant as Sri Lanka & Japan! Have your fortune told in the Chinese "Siem Sii" tradition if it strikes your fancy! Then take a quick look at the museum which house many of the ancient artifacts held inside the Chedi, which collapsed in 1975.
Then drive to Ban Nong Hoi Yai where you will see the "Real Thailand" few foreigners have been privileged enough to experience. Bring your gear to the house where you will stay, and meet the family whose house it is. We may divide our group into several houses depending on how many of us are present. Depending on the weather, take a walk around the village and learn about the actual process and work of growing and harvesting rice with our staff. See the entire hand-production process of cotton fabric from cotton ball to thread, and finally to the lovely "Matmee" fabrics. Walk around the village on your own to see things up close for yourself, or walk with our guide or staff.
In the evening, enjoy a local dinner as a group in the local fashion (this is usually papaya salad, grilled, spiced chicken, sticky rice). Then perhaps try some of the local "white lightning"!
NOTE: At this village - along with the village elders themselves - we began what we call an Isan Cultural Heritage Conservation Project. (Isan = old Khmer Sanskrit word which means "North East"). Every Westerner who has visited this area has always commented on the hospitality and the charming traditions. Those of us who have many years experience living here (local & foreign alike) have noticed some of the most lovely traditions beginning to slip away. So we began the project as a way which would allow local people to showcase their way of life. Instead of trying to change it, we reasoned that villagers could conserve it, and hopefully actually profit by it also.
Day 7 - Ban Nong Hoi Yai
You will wake up early here, as the rhythm of life in a village
begins before light each day! Give alms (TAK BAHT) to the
monks at the local temple in the time - honored tradition.
Then have a breakfast of rice noodle soup. Then visit the
local school, called Thammagon Wittaya Nokun School and Ban
Nong Hoi Yai school. Spend the morning interacting with the
teachers and children there. Talk and play with the children.
Once they have overcome their initial fears, many of the kids
jump at a chance to speak with a foreigner! Have lunch with
the teachers and kids at the school.
In the afternoon we will visit the big Buddha on the hill, and there we can take a walk and relax to digest lunch. Explore on the "mountain" or relax. Late in the afternoon we will make our way back to the village. Relax or explore on your own before dinner.
Day 8 - Nakhorn Phanom - Ho Chi Minh
House
After breakfast, we will have a spirit-centering ceremony
presided over by our local "Pram", which means "Brahmin".
The Bai Sii Su Kwan Ceremony is done usually only by and for
villagers themselves. When somebody goes on a long journey,
or has gone through an ordeal, the villagers would often make
such a ceremony. Please don't forget to thank the family with
whom you stayed.
Then our guide will take you to Nakhon Phanom city for a visit to Ho Chi Minh's house on the reservoir at Na Jok where he lived for 7 years during the 1920s planning the revolution in Vietnam; visit the old City Hall (now a library) opposite the provincial capital building. Have a lunch at a local restaurant, and then go to check in at the hotel to relax on your own. Dinner at local restaurant.
Day 9 - Tha Kaek (Laos) - Na Hin
Drive by local transportation into the Khammouanne Central
Limestone district and to the Nam Theun Bridge area. This
drive passes through some of Laos' most spectacular limestone
(Karst) landscape. The road elevation at points allows for
a unique view of the limestone from above, and dramatic views
of fields of limestone needles. At the Nam Teun Bridge see
how local people used old B-52 bomber drop fuel tanks (left
from the Vietnam War) to make Bomb-boats! Time & weather permitting,
take a short ride on one of these local boats before continuing
to the edge of the National Biodiversity Conservation Area
(NBCA) at Na Hin town, where we stay for the night. Dinner
at a local restaurant.
Day 10 - Riverboat trip through the
limestone mountains
Drive down to Nam Hin Boun river where we will board a long-tail
riverboat to journey into the high limestone of Khammouane
NBCA. The trip of several hours takes you through the Limestone
Karst landscape of the NBCA. This area is home to monkeys,
elephants, deer, bears and several species of large cat including
clouded leopards and tigers. Local flora includes many types
of ferns, rare orchids, cycads and variety of epiphytes.
Stop along the way to enjoy the lovely views of the limestone and swim in the river before we continue on to the riverside village of Ban Na Kok where we will be accommodated by the village headman and his family. Here you will get a real taste of Lao village life. Enjoy meeting and playing with the charming children who will come from all over the village to "have a look at the Westerners"! Enjoy the rest of the day in the village, exploring, walking, or just relaxing. Dinner will be prepared by our guides to be eaten at the headman's house.
Day 11 - Ban Na Kok - Tam Heup Cave
- Ruins of Aran Ban Na Village
Spend the day exploring the area. NOTE: we reserve the right
to decide at the last minute what the day's activities will
be, as weather & water conditions will have a bearing on your
safety. A likely routing for the day will run as follows:
Walk or boat up a small tributary of the Nam Hin Boon to the
mount of a limestone cave. This is an opportunity to get inside
the virtually inaccessible jungle.Walk thru a kilometre-long
cave - actually a tunnel from one side of this mountain to
a secluded valley on the other side, where an ancient city
once stood. Lunch will be cooked by our guides on the banks
Heup Creek, the stream running through the cave. After lunch,
explore the ruins of Aran. Largely overgrown by jungle, you
will enjoy exploring the ruins among the huge rocket-fin trees.
Return to enjoy a well-earned dinner at the headman's house.
Day 12 - Activities in Ban Na Kok
After a breakfast of local fare and food prepared by our staff,
spend the day learning about this village. We will see the
fields where the villagers grow rice in this harsh limestone
landscape. You will have a chance to visit with the headman
(much, as you will have already had a chance!), but with respect
to the problems the village faces today, as it is being pulled
into the modern world. In the past we have helped to move
the village's school when the growing village encroached on
the student's playing field. We also have assisted in building
a new temple wall for the local Sim/Wat.
Free day on your own, or our guide will take you visit around the village. Afternoon we are cooking for dinner and have a campfire in the evening. We will have a certain amount of money from this trip ear-marked for the village, and as the date draws near, we will present a number of the points the village elders have expressed a need for assistance.
Day 13 - Riverboat to Ban Hin Boon - Tha Kaek - Nakorn
Phanom
After breakfast, say our goodbyes/ farewells with the local
village community. Please thank the headman's family before
boarding our boat for the last leg of the River trip to Ban
Hin Boon. Here we will stop for lunch before heading to Tha
Kaek, and time permitting, stop to see the Khampaeng Yahk,
or old city wall. Parts of this wall look man-made and local
people are divided as to the wall's origin. Observers will
also wonder how 10-tonne stone blocks could be so neatly stacked.
Continue to Tha Kaek town where we will spend the last few
hours exploring by foot crossing the Mekong by ferry to Thailand
before 4pm, and transfer to your hotel.
Day 14 - Bangkok
After breakfast, you are free until your flight time we will
transfer you to the airport for flight to your next destination.
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