Our fun-loving readers have embarked on adventures of all sorts over the last year, and shared their tales as they took Spanish cooking lessons in Barcelona, explored England’s maritime past in Portsmouth and discovered the wonders of Uganda’s Impenetrable Forest.
Now a group of longtime Brentwood friends are sharing their adventures from a recent trip to Laos. Read on for details, then find more travel inspiration at www.mercurynews.com/tag/wish-you-were-here/.
Wish You Were Here
LAOS, CAMBODIA: Eight long-time friends from Brentwood — Scott and Linda Berridge, Scott and Kathy Dudek, Joe and Desiree Martinez and Henry and Colleen Torrez — journeyed to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in March with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT).
Eight long-time friends from Brentwood — Scott and Linda Berridge, Scott and Kathy Dudek, Joe and Desiree Martinez and Henry and Colleen Torrez — visited Laos in March. (Courtesy of the Berridge Family)
The trip, which included travel by every means imaginable, from trains to sampans, tuk tuks, remorks and even the back of an oxcart, hit all the big UNESCO World Heritage sites, Linda says, while also “delving in a little deeper, both educationally and culturally, to meet the people of these countries and get to enjoy their culture, food and traditions.
“We spent a somber day at the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields, crawled through the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam and had a crazy night on the back of scooters in Saigon, as we enjoyed a street food tour.” Other trip highlights included visiting the Temple of the Reclining Buddha and Grand Palace in Thailand and Angkor Wat in Cambodia — “absolutely breathtaking!”
In Laos, the group enjoyed a dinner hosted by a local family, visited the COPE Laos center for bombing victims, and stopped in a small village (pictured) on the Mekong River.
TRAVEL TIPS: “Your credit card is good at restaurants and hotels, (but) the local shops all want local money. ATMs are easy to use. We switched currency in each country from bhat, kip, riel to dongs! Get a currency converter app for sure.”
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