9 Day Laos Tour — TOUR CODE: LA1 9 Day Laos Tour
TOUR CODE: LA1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, makes an arduous road trip but ultimately a fulfilling one to Vientiane - Laos' Surprising Capital City. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Southeast Asia.
In the last post from our trip to Laos with Adventures Abroad, we visited the mysterious Plain of Jars and learned about the aerial bombardment the area endured during the Vietnam War that still has repercussions to this day. In this post, I'm going to consolidate the last two days of the trip into one post for simplicity sake. The penultimate day involved a lot of driving with only a few stops of note before arriving at the small city of Vang Vieng. The next day we reached the capital city of Vientiane which is a francophone version of Viangchan, the Laotian name for the city. In this post, I'll stick with the Western version if only to get better search engine results. What we found in Vientiane was a complete contrast to anything else we had seen in Laos; a modern, bustling city of over a million inhabitants, but at the same time a city with deep religious roots. So with that short introduction let's begin the final two days of our Laotian adventure.
Dadia National Park
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, stops at Dadia National Park in a search for birds and takes in the "beautiful and rare forest". If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Turkey.
When our guide Victor Romagnoli and I were planning the Adventures Abroad Via Egnatia tour we both agreed that we wanted to include as much natural history as possible. Since we are both avid birders visiting Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park or just Dadia National Park as I'll call it in this post, was a no-brainer. It is famous for its birds of prey as well as three out of the four species of vultures found in Europe. This is actually where we headed once we completed our somewhat hairy crossing of the border from Turkey into Greece rather than directly to the city of Alexandroupoli as I wrote in the last post. I blame the mistake on my Covid fevered brain, but there really is no harm as what I wrote about Alexandroupoli is accurate, just a little ahead of its time.
Plain of Jars - Laos' Greatest Mystery
9 Day Laos Tour — TOUR CODE: LA1 9 Day Laos Tour
TOUR CODE: LA1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, ventures to a UNESCO site that is shrouded in intrigue, Plain of Jars - Laos' Greatest Mystery. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Southeast Asia.
In this post, we'll visit one of Laos' three UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the scene of one of the world's most intriguing archaeological mysteries, the Plain of Jars. Nobody knows who built the stone monuments that resemble gigantic jars or why they built them, but everyone who visits this remote place comes away with a sense of awe. Join our small Adventures Abroad group as we visit three different sites and then drop in at a museum dedicated to helping victims of the unexploded ordnance that remains from the Vietnam War.
Alexandroupoli & the Turkish Border
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, continues on his trek along the Via Egnatia crossing from Turkiye into Greece and experiencing Alexandroupoli & the Turkish Border. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Turkey.
This is my fifth post from the Adventures Abroad Via Egnatia tour led by our friend Victor Romagnoli in the late spring of 2023. The first four posts were from Turkiye including the last one from Edirne, which turned out to be a very interesting and untouristy place. As noted in the previous posts the Via Egnatia was a Roman road that led from the shores of the Adriatic in Greece to the city of Constantinople, now Istanbul. The theme of the tour was to follow in the footsteps of the many millions who would have taken this route as soldiers, pilgrims or merchants. The first place the road entered modern-day Turkiye was at Adrianople, now Edirne. Going in reverse order in this post we'll cross over into Greece heading for the city of Alexandroupoli and it won't be as easy as it sounds. Read on to find out why.
Hmong and Khmu Villages in Laos
9 Day Laos Tour — TOUR CODE: LA1 9 Day Laos Tour
TOUR CODE: LA1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, makes a couple of impromptu stops along the bumpy Laos roads and comes away with valuable insights into the culture and way of life in a region, not many travellers experience, Hmong and Khmu Villages in Laos. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Southeast Asia.
In this post, we move on from the small, historic city of Luang Prabang where we began this Adventures Abroad tour of Laos. We spent three days there, concluding with a cruise on the Mekong River yesterday. Our destination for the end of today is another small city, Phonsavan which will be our base for exploring the Plain of Jars tomorrow. Day 4 of the Adventures Abroad itinerary describes this as strictly a travel day with no planned activities, but that turns out not to be the case as our local guide Ta, has different ideas. We will have time to make impromptu stops at the small villages of two of Laos' minorities, the Hmong and the Khmu. These types of unplanned extras often turn out to be among the best parts of the trip. Join us and find out if that is the case today.
Edirne - Turkiye’s European City
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, embarks on an exciting leg of his tour, exploring the historic and impressive city of Edirne - Turkiye’s European City. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Turkey.
This is the first post in which I am referring to what was formally Turkey as the newly designated official name Turkiye which is pronounced "Tur-key-yay" making it a three syllable word from the former two. This was another of the many changes brought about by President Erdogan and for once, I'm not going to criticize this one, but neither am I going to go back and change the spelling in the many previous posts from this fascinating country. So let's get on with today's topic, the city of Edirne. This is a city I have long wished to visit as it is somewhat of an anomaly. While Istanbul strides two continents and is truly an international city, Edirne is the largest and most historic city that sits entirely within the borders of European Turkiye. I wanted to see whether it was more influenced by its European neighbours or was more like an Islamic outpost on the wrong side of the Bosphorus. So let's find out as we continue the Adventures Abroad Via Egnatia tour with our tour leader Victor Romagnoli.
