3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

// February 4th, 2010 // 8 Comments » // Travel Tips

1: Camping on Bamboo Island, Thailand.

This little beauty is my favourite place in the world… That I’ve been. It’s a small island about 45 minutes away from Koh Phi Phi by long tail boat. The beaches are whiter than white and the only things on the island are a ranger hut and a small fishing community. The tourist boats stop coming after 3pm and for a small fee your allowed to camp (twice we camped over and twice we had the whole Island to ourselves). Watch our Travel Video – Bamboo Island Camping. (more…)

“The Long Way Laos” – Motorcycle Adventure Travel in Laos

// October 20th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Travel Articles

Here for your enjoyment is our article “The Long Way Laos” in full, as featured in the online travel magazine HipCompass Escapes. It’s about our 550km motorcycle trip from Vang Vieng through one of the most stunning countries I’ve ever seen, to Luang Probang and back again…

Adventure travel has always been one of those things that seems to be on my list of things I said I’d do tomorrow, its not for lack of trying but more a lack of having the balls to ignore the negative practicalities and get on with it, but that’s exactly the attitude you need for it… Less thinking and more doing!

A few months ago while traveling through Laos that was exactly what I did, we were staying in the small and stunning town of Vang Vieng, over shadowed by the towering limestone peaks and blinded by the natural beauty around every corner something in me burst to the surface. Every traveler’s done it – during a long but air-conditioned bus ride to some picture postcard beach, pulled out their adventure travel book from their bag for a spot of inspiration on an otherwise uninspiring journey… Been duly inspired but never taken it further. But this time I was determined to do it, my inspiration came in the form of two monstrous looking dirt bikes, the mental image of the bikes sat inside my head rattling around for a few days as I got down to some serious tubing (if you’ve ever been to Vang Vieng you will know exactly what I mean by that and if not… Go see!) Then out of the blue during a rare moment of sobriety the idea, the adventure was born…
To my left the dirt bikes… To my right cloud-topped limestone peaks leading off northwards over mountains and hills and on to Luang Probang.

A day’s planning had informed me we would be looking at 135 km each way and we had a time frame of two days in which to do it…
Our party consisted of three – myself, my fiancee Georgie and our good friend Toby. Toby owned his own dirt bike back in the UK and was no stranger to off-road biking,  Georgie was a very eager passenger which just left me – with limited motor-biking experience, but what’s an adventure without a challenge? The sun was blazing down on the sleepy streets of Vang Vieng and it seemed to be roasting us alive so we bought a map, saddled up and set off with a roar. (more…)

The long way Laos… Part 3, Phou Khoun to Vang Vieng.

// June 24th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Phou Khoun

Seeing as we had to have our beautiful bikes back by 9am or pay for a whole extra day – and we still had about 90km to go it was an early start… 5:30am early to be exact! I didn’t manage a descent nights sleep and after I had woken the other it seemed like they hadn’t either, don’t know why though because although our rooms were “simple” the were very comfortable, maybe we were just over tired. As I staggered out of our room, down the hall to to the toilet I caught a peek of the sunrise out of a small grubby window and it was breathtaking – the hills rolled up and down all the way to the horizon and a heavy mist hung low, the sun coming up had turned the sky bright pink and the mist was just as brightly tainted by the beautiful morning sun. (more…)

The long way Laos… Part two, Luang Probang to Phou Khoun

// June 22nd, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Luang Probang

8:00 came around and I woke up still feeling battered and bruised, I crept out of the room to get some coffee but the others woke up too. I went outside to tinker with my sweet sweet ride, drink coffee and smoke when the “girls” emerged. Toby had felt proper rough the night before and could have probably done with another week in bed and Georgie was seriously hating the sight of the bikes.

So, all rearing to go we started packing up and strapping our shit onto the bikes, Georgie was seriously considering getting the bus home because the bikes aren’t really made for two people and it was pretty fucking uncomfortable on the back. We got some breakfast and I squeezed a plan out of them – (more…)

Georgie’s La La Land: Episode 23 Vang Vieng, Tubing

// June 22nd, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Travel Videos

Yes yes yes… Yet another episode of Georgie’s La La Land is up for you all to see… We get battered with a few days “tubing” down the river in Vang Vieng, Laos. We get very drunk, bob a little down the river, throw ourselves off the rope swings and then do it again the next day. Nearly up to date now and the next one will be the best one ever… Stay tuned for the feature length episode… The Long way Laos….   Coming soon!

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