Messing About in Boats – Part 1
They don’t call Si Phan Don Four Thousand Islands for nothing. At this time of year, with the Mekong nine or ten feet below its...
EscapeArtistes Blog
Buses and Boats
One of the pleasures about travelling with a child is the joy Z takes in the various vehicles involved. We are fresh off a Lao-style...
Winged Creatures
When it comes to bugs, even European ones, let alone rattling, flying, two-inch-long South-East Asian roach-type creatures which convention insists one refer to as “beetles”,...
X Marks the Spot
When staying in a guesthouse whose name is variously transliterated Xayamounghkhoun, Sayamungkun, Xayamunghkhung, etc., in a town where almost no one speaks English, and you...
Dinosaur Bones
So today we got to hold real dinosaur bones! And get a sneak preview of some very large, very impressive, and as yet unidentified skeletal...
In Praise of Crap Towns
Here we are, in Savannakhet, Laos, the third-largest city in the People’s Republic, as all 120,000 inhabitants would, I’m sure, be pleased to tell you,...
As Conservationists Quietly Weep…
Some way into Laos, fresh out of Lao Bao, Vietnam, and heading for Savannakhet, our bus stops at what I guess is best compared to...
Anyone the Wiser?
I have seen some unusual bathroom set-ups in my time. But this, on the Vietnam-Laos border at Lao Bao, has me completely stumped. The ladies...
Age Appropriate Reading
The creator of the immortal line “The bitches mortared the piss hole and it didn’t blow up!” has, this evening, completed his reading of Chickenhawk,...
Creative Writing
As part of our homeschooling topic on the Vietnam War, Z has been reading Chickenhawk. While not as “adult” as the current meaning of the...