Protected: The unbelievable filmmaking feats of our American friends on the Kuril expedition.

Today’s post is all about the campsites we stayed at on our summer rafting trip down the Sayan Oka River, of which there are many and in different flavors, but which all turned out to be decent. Even though there was a pretty heavy stream of rafting tourists (every day we crossed paths with one, […]

In Luang Prabang (Luang Phabang) in Laos, the Kuang Si Falls should be first on any visiting tourist’s itinerary! It’s an utterly unique-looking cascade of waterfalls and travertine terraces. Here’s the main waterfall (50+m high) -> And the terraces farther downstream: You can even swim:

Hi folks! Back to my habit of mixing things up both chronologically and geographically, today’s report isn’t from Southeast Asia (Laos); it’s from Buryatia – just north of Mongolia. Actually, Laos is directly south of Buryatia, but I digress… First – quick recap… Our Sayan Oka River escapade: ~280km to cover on the water, with […]

If you ever have the chance to choose exactly how to get, in daylight hours (ideally in the morning), from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to Luang Prabang (which was the capital roughly half a millennium ago), then… well, first let me explain why I’ve started this post with that… incomplete conditional clause (oof)… Now, […]

If you take a close look at the photos from our rafting trip down the Sayan Oka River – say, at the waterfall or the spot where we parked up – you may notice a few oddities on the surface of the landscapes that surrounded us there. Maybe not. Maybe it’s just me with this […]

The Sayan Oka River‘s raftable stretch is roughly 280 kilometers long! Yes – that’s one heck of a lot of jaw-dropping views and meditative-&-briefly-adrenalized R&R; there’s fishing too. Most of it is perfectly harmless fast-flowing water, interrupted only once (well, twice, but in the same place) by rapids; the rest is up to you… You […]