From the nomadic steppes of Kazakhstan to the frenetic streets of Hanoi, Asia is a continent so full of intrigue, adventure, solace, and spirituality that it has fixated and confounded travelers for centuries.
Luang Prabang, as the cultural capital, hosts a number of monasteries. Our hotel room opened up to the street where the monks do their every day parade in a single file stretching a few streets, starting at 5:30 AM to collect alms. The collected alms serve as the only meal for the day. It is a site to witness, starting even before the monks show up...
We woke up to the rain pattering on the balcony of our ‘bungalow’. We had about 4 hours of drive ahead of use before heading into Vietnam. This allowed us to laze around at the breakfast area. The ambient sound changed in the morning with wind carrying the children’s voice playing around in the nearby village, probably the village the militia men retired to...
We made it to an appointment made months in advance for a 2 day adventure to explore 2 cave complexes – Hang Va and Nuoc Nut connected by a river. Only a company called Oxalis is authorized to run the tours on this well preserved and protected caves. We started off with getting oriented with safety and getting to know other six people we would spend the...
The first day took us about 7 hours to get to Hoi An, a small, quaint, and historic city in central Vietnam coast. En route, we crossed the bloody bridge that divided the North and South Vietnam during the war days and stopped by a local restaurant for lunch. Guess the locals at the restaurant were intrigued by the Indian boys. Some glares were quite piercing and...