Driving the western side of Lake Shkodra in Montenegro

I suggest a beautiful drive, pictured below.
Leaving Tirana, traveling to Shkodra and then to the border at Hani Hoti, you enter Montenegro. Take the first major turn off to the right. Basically the sign says to Osteros. Do not proceed toward Ulcini.

You climb through hills with some pretty vistas. Small settlements can be seen in the hills. The road takes you through several settlements and you ride through a gorgeous chestnut forest. There are spotty vistas of Lake Shkodra at first then the road gives way to big vistas. I suggest taking one or two small roads off the main road (which is paved all the way to the top of the lake) to small hamlets. Very charming. You will end up in the town of Virpazar, with marshlands and views to Albania. There is not much happening in this town, especially on the off season but it is only another 45 minutes from here going west to the gorgeous Montenegrin coast. (tunnel to Bar or scenic road to Petrovac). I will estimate that from the border, it is about 2 1/2 hours to Virpazar.
Enjoy!

Chestnut trees and stonewalls on the country road

Glimpses of the lake at first with hamlets nestled in the rocks and snow capped mountains this time of the year

Top of the Lake with marshlands and mountains of Albania in the background

Old Communist statue in Virpazar and sunset from our basic hotel window below

40 Photos of Thailand

My 3 week journey with 11 other women through mostly Laos and Vietnam began with a few days in Bangkok and Chiang Mai to the north.

Typical intersection

Making slippery noodles and below flowers to decorate the shrines in every shop, hotel and home

Religion is part of their daily thinking. This is the tree to worship young girls so people bring clothes to donate. Below is one of the many houses on the canals that crisscross the city of Bangkok

There are iguanas along the canals and alligators.

Riding in a Tuc Tuc and below eating bland but very colorful dragon fruit

What is this, you ask. Every night is the trans gendered show. Everyone seems cool with it.

We took a bike trip and this is an leper colony. I guess there are still millions of people suffering from leprosy.

People take time out of their daily activities and pray to a Buddha statue. Lotus flowers are offered. 

Center Buddha was from the 11th century when things were prosperous. He is smiling and has a higher point on his head. The 13th century Buddha statues were in a less prosperous time and not smiling.

This is called the silver "wat" or shrine. It is all pounded silver as you see the man below hammering away.

Now this is a trip. The multimillionaire below has taken 8 years to build this "wat"and it is still in progress. You cross the bridge with devils and creepy things to reach the wat. 

Our bike trip took us to this farm and this was the farmer who greeted us

Typical of the houses is to have the "living room" as we would have a porch, where one lounges on a flat bed.

In one fancy hotel where we stayed there were wedding preparations. I have never seen anything like this. They create a living room scene with framed photos of the bride and groom on the walls, chandeliers and furniture.

Laos. land of rivers, mountains and gentle people

Laos (pronounced without the "s") is an underdeveloped country. 70% of this long skinny country is mountainous with the Mekong River running down a long portion. The French colonized the country from the 18th century until WWII. The kings were puppets of the French regime and life was hard for the Laotians.
Our trip began with two days of travel down the Mekong River in a long boat, stopping at a local fishing village and local markets.

Water buffalo. I ate it. Not bad.

This was our boat

Here you have the Laotian flag and the Communist Party flag.

Visit to a local fishing village.

Pounding the husks from the rice. From planting to eating, cultivating rice is very labor intensive.

Entrance to the village above and young girl with family pig below.

Drying the shelled rice.

This man is the village mayor. He has the one radio in the village to get the news up and down the river.

Faces of some of the children of Laos

Ingenious foot pump to keep oxygen flowing into the fish crates!

Luang Prabang, UNESCO city

We went to Kwang Sli waterfalls. This is a series of swimming holes and waterfalls that felt really good in the heat. With my dry skin feet, these little fish were nibbling like mad as I was swimming and no one else felt anything!

Performer acting out folktales.

Time to do laundry for $2.50. Sign says "wash and baked with water vapor"!

Got to love that Lao beer!

One interesting piece in talking to our local guides was their dislike for the Chinese who are now building economic opportunities in their under developed country. To the Laotians, the Chinese look down on them, employ only Chinese workers and spit when talking. We met many Chinese tourists and it was curious how they would come up to you, say hello and the very next question was "How old are you". That happened 5 times to me.

Sunset in Luang Prabang

Even grocery stores had shrines and below a shrine at our hotel.

Not pigs in a blanket but pigs in a basket ready for someone's dinner. 

Example of the delicious meals that we ate. Below is a drink for the man. It is a bear paw in whiskey. One shot glass purchased will do the fertility trick.

Pulling the hair off the water buffalo to sell at the market!

Waiting early in the morning to give sticky rice to the monks who come by with bowls. 

Roadside meat vendor above and below a woman making rice paper.

Traveling from one city to another, we were exposed to this gorgeous scenery.

Homestay at Vang Vieng.

This was the woman who hosted myself and another woman in her modest home. She ran the local store. Below the children danced for us and did this hopping game between bamboo poles as the pole holders moved them in and out. 

We tried it but it is more difficult than it looks.

We took an early evening stroll through the village and our local guide mentioned that his favorite food was grilling bats that he captured in caves. We saw cages with squirrels and dogs running around. Apparently they have them as pets until they are needed as the meal for dinner!

Vang Vieng

Ready for tubing and kayaking?

Tubing inside a long dark cave.

Vang Vieng is a gorgeous setting. However it is full of young people, many Koreans and lots of loud bars and music.

From my hotel room window.

Cope Museum

This is a museum dedicated to helping to safely remove the millions of UXOs (unexploded ordnances). The US dropped 2 million tons of these "bombies" you see above (size of a pool ball) during the 584,000 missions during the Vietnam War. There is an estimated 30% failure rate of exploding. People estimate there are 78 million unexploded bombs. 300 people on average are killed or injured each year. Adults can't work in the rice fields and children are in danger walking to school. Below are the biggest concentration of these yet undiscovered UXOs.

The friendly, laid back faces of the Laotians.

Playing with fire!