USA - Texas & Colorado 2013

Friends of ours had for a few years been touring around Canada, the USA and Mexico in a bus shaped RV and having read their many blog posts, the idea of this had fascinated us as something we would like to also undertake.  As well we had sold our house and acquired a USA visa, so very definitely had planned to vacation for several years.

Best thing to do we thought was to go do some research by travelling to the USA for 2 weeks, so in October we found ourselves flying directly from Brisbane to Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas, hiring a car before driving down to Houston, one location in the USA filled with RV sale yards.

We also intended to rent a Class B RV in Denver, Colorado to see first hand what we thought of RV travelling, but more on that later.

So below is the route we took during this visit, the red being the road component and the cyan being our flights within the USA.

2013 route within the USA

Over the next few days we drove to multiple RV yards and started looking and learning about the variety of second hand RVs for sale and boy, there was a lot to learn, despite our friends having tried to progressively teach us before we took off for our research.

We were most interested in the Class A RVs, the bus type ones, the reason being, if we were going to be in it for a few years, a bit of room and comfort would be useful.

Rob in front of second hand Class A RVs in Houston

There was certainly a LOT to learn and consider, things like diesel or petrol, length, self levelling or not, maintenance history, layout, ability to handle freezing weather, insurance costs etc etc, quite mind numbing actually.

It wasn't all RV research, so to clear and relax our minds, we took a day trip down to Galveston, located on the Gulf of Mexico and a favourite holiday destination for Texans.

Nice warm water at shore of Galveston

There are many holiday and resort style locations along the coast, plus lots of interesting pubs, bars and restaurants, one of which we enjoyed for a robust lunch before driving back to Houston.

The slightly quirky restaurant for lunch

After even more RV research around Houston, we flew to Denver, Colorado to collect a small RV to spend 10 days in wandering within this State to see what we thought.  

Even finding a RV park to stay in for our first night was interesting, simply because some are designed to accomodate children with their own little fun parks on premise and not something we were keen to stay in.

Our first night was spent with us staying in our Class B RV parked next to quite a large 5th Wheeler style RV about the same length as a normal semi, the size difference being very stark.

Our RV is on the left parked next to a massive 5th wheeler

It was here we also had our first practice run of letting out the black water (toilet stuff) from its holding tank and with fingers crossed and other campers watching... success!

Thankfully no leaks or splashes anywhere

From then on we got into the groove of enjoying what a fully self contained has to offer, the only major issue being to remember how long and high it is when pondering visiting sites and looking for places to park or avoiding low overhanging things like trees or building verandahs.

Colorado is famous for its mountains and striking
red structures in its parks

We didn't always stay in RV parks but had a go at a variety of free campsites in some of their State parks or next to lakes. 

Variety of camping locations and facilities we tried.

During one of our nights camping in the wild, two momentous things occur.  During the night, Rob had a very restless sleep pondering our potential future RV adventure and had an overnight epiphany.

Over breakfast next morning she asked, "if you only had one last destination to visit, would it be wandering around North America for a few years?".  Boy... where had this come from I thought and it certainly made me think hard for awhile.  "No" was the answer, with a sigh of relief immediately erupting from Rob.

With that, all our plans or dreams of long term RVing had come to an abrupt end!

The other momentous event the very same night was that it had snowed, not something we had been expecting at all.

Still snowing in the morning

From then on we relaxed and went about enjoying the rest of our time in the RV climbing through a mountain pass reaching 10,000 feet, stopping next to a lake for lunch with snow on the ground, enjoying the wide open spaces, old timber sheds and a strange building we found in the middle of nowhere.

Crossing over a pass through the mountains

Lunch next to a lake

Old log shed

Weird castle like building in middle of nowhere

With time getting away from us we came down out of the more mountainous areas after enjoying some stunning scenery, before re-joining the more open spaces as were worked our way back towards Denver.

Mountain lake with snow

Back on flatter roads even though there are mountains in the distance

As we got closer to Denver we stayed overnight in an area where the red rock and mountain formations were visible once again, along with some of the areas native animals which we couldn't resist photographing.

Posing for a photo

More red rock formations not far from Denver

View from the door of the RV

It was a very simple task to return the RV and find our way to the airport  over the Rocky Mountains for our trip back home via Los Angles.

Crossing the Rocky Mountains at 10,000 metres on the way to Los Angeles

We had left home with dreams of a long term adventure in a RV throughout Canada, the USA and Mexico and returned home after learning a lot about RVs and ourselves with an ongoing commitment of exploring other parts of the planet.

Was it all worthwhile... of course it was so go well!

Laos 2013

Laos has a serenity about it compared with Vietnam and also as recently experienced in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  We had just flown into the capital of Laos called Vienteane and immediately sensed the difference in Laos.

We weren't staying very long in Laos as our route depicts below.

Visited two prime locations in Laos by plane

The Laotian people seemed a lot shier than the other countries already visited and were far less pushy when trying to sell things either at roadside stalls or in a variety of shops.

Some of the architecture and monuments commemorating Buddhism were highly visible and as is usual, very decorative.

Scenery in the capital of Vienteane

Some of the statues were similar to those in Cambodia

Buddhist structures and monks were very visible everywhere as we went around in Vienteane and the monks always seemed so relaxed and chilled out.

Believed to be the largest horizontal Buddha in the world

This monk was very comfortable having his photo taken

So much gold coloured decorations everywhere

Intricate inlay decorations also abound

After only a few days in Vienteane and yet another comfortable flight we arrived in Luang Prabang where most of our tourist activity was planned to happen.

Here we had re-joined the majestic Mekong River and yet again found ourselves taking a small cruise along its muddy waters to visit a cave high on the side of the river and then to enjoy the sunset.

Boats used to run a variety of tours in Luang Prabang 

Looking back over the Mekong from the cave entrance

Inside the cave were hundreds of little memorials to Buddha and almost to mirror them, when we returned to the boat, we found hundreds of small white butterflies also grouped together.

First the hundreds of Buddha statuettes...

...and then hundreds of small white butterflies or moths

To finish our first day off in Luang Prabang, what better than watching the sunset from the Mekong River.

Smoke haze accompanied sunset

Early next morning, just before sunrise, we found ourselves sitting on the footpath with many others holding our offerings bought the day before, waiting for the daily 'ceremony' to begin.  

Julie had researched this experience and as the sun rose to warm everyone, along came a queue of monks from the local monastery, filing past us whilst accepting our gifts of food and other goods for use to sustain themselves.

Here came the monks happy to accept everyones gifts to them

Julie donating a scoop of rice and other goods to the parade of monks

For the rest of the day we strolled around the city, its streets and multiple tourist destinations, absorbing the lifestyle and the abundant devotion to Buddhism.

Main street of Luang Prabang

One of the many temples to be found

Terraced farm next to the Mekong River

Yet another memorial to Buddha

One of the locals also wanted to show us around their town

Now Peter is a person who likes to try slightly more energetic activites and before leaving Australia, he had found something we all might be interested in.

He sold it to us as a hike out in the country, combined with an overnight stay in a local village, and it all sounded very good, so everyone agreed.  That day had now come and with some enthusiasm, accompanied by guides and another tourist from France, we headed off.

After an hour or so in 35+c with high humidity heat, we began to suspect this was not going to be a gentle hike as we entered some jungle and started climbing up a hilly track. 

A few more hours in, the sweat pouring off us and now clambering over fallen banana palms after the track had disappeared under them, it was no longer a hike but a trek.

Disappearing into the jungle

Lunch involved sitting in the jungle near a small creek eating home made food wrapped in leaves provided by the guide and all our clothes now totally soaked in sweat.

Lunch time and already very tired

So our 'hike' continued up and down hills following the track which had re-appeared, at one stage all of us having to slide down the side of hill on our bums because of the very loose surface and steepness.

On and on we went, the humidity sapping our energy

By mid afternoon, our energy and enthusiasm was waning until a few questions were asked of our guide.  "How far is the village we're staying in?", the answer being "30 minutes away, very close, very close!".  "Do they have cold refrigerated beer in the village?" came the next question.  "Yes!"

We were off with renewed enthusiasm and yes the village had the best tasting icy cold beer we had enjoyed for at least 2 days, oh it was beautiful as was just lying down to rest.

After a refreshing wash using the local cattle drinking trough, we went exploring the village and its people, including the kids and they were all delightful.

It was a lovely place to spend the night

That night we slept on very flat woven mats and during the night, nature responded to Peter's description of our sweaty, long and mountainous trek as a 'hike' when during the night he decided to go to use a very rickety and aerated squat toilet.

I was awake at the time and in the distance could hear a strange noise in the forest which was getting louder and it was soon clear what was about to happen.

A very heavy rain squall was heading our way and with Peter apparently in full squat position, it hit us, wind also buffeting the structure he was in.  "Damm, bugger, s*^t etc etc erupted from his mouth as water poured in through the roof.

Mutter, mutter, mutter was soon heard as he sloshed his way back up into the hut and into bed.  Hike eh Peter!!!

Our bed for the night

In the morning we started another 3-4 hours of trekking back into the jungle, little white butterflies seemingly following and keeping us company.

Butterflies following Peter on his 'hike'

We knew we were reaching our final destination once the track suddenly became a long set of well constructed steps to what would soon be our final oasis to enjoy.

Nearing the oasis in the forest

Our oasis was just stunning because it consisted of a series of waterfalls joined by running water and at the bottom was a large pool of very refreshing and beautiful water to have a swim in.

The waterfalls leading to the pool

Peter and darian enjoying a relaxing shower

After a very deep and replenishing sleep, it was time to head back to the airport for our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam... the details of which you can read in the post on Vietnam.

Without doubt, the highlight of our trip to Laos was its people, they were just so warm, friendly and gentle, a real credit to their country.

CLICK HERE if interested in more photos of Laos