Tuesday, October 28, 2008
well, it's been a while, so there's a lot to catch up on, so you'll have to excuse me if i breeze through certain memories to bring us up to speed.
last i wrote, we were in pakse, a town with nothing to do. as predicted in the last blog, we did nothing that day but kill time waiting for the sun to set. fortunately, we found a nice rooftop bar to play cards and watch it happen, making for quite a lovely evening, really.
the next morning we set out early for tad lo, a village two hours away known for its waterfalls and little else. you can imagine what we did there (spoiler: we went to the waterfalls). there were three in all, and they were quite beautiful, and to be perfectly honest, i'm not growing the least bit tired of taking three hour hikes through the blistering heat to bathe on top of a enormous waterfall overlooking the countryside of laos, but in case our readers are growing tired of hearing about it, i don't think any further details are necessary.
after two days in tad lo, we headed back to the pakse bus station to catch a bus to champasak. champasak is a tiny, one-road town that sits in the shadow of some 11th century kmher ruins. the ruins are gorgeous, climbing up the side of a small mountain, eventually coming to a dramatic panorama of the town below. we spent a good two hours at the top, sitting on a thousand year old wall, just rattling off the ways of lucky we are.
after champasak, we made our way down to si phan don, also known as the 4000 islands, an archipelago set in a massive bulge in the mekong river. the islands don't boast many activities but lounging, so we thought we would stay just one or two nights, but we immediately fell in love with our island and settled in for longer than expected. our main source of entertainment became a daily bike ride, starting a few hours before the sun set, slowly bumping along dirt paths that passed through tiny villages and rice paddies. the people on this island live so simply, that it would be easy to confuse it for poverty, when it's almost the opposite. it's true that they dont have much, but they dont seem to need much. the river gives them fish, and a place to bathe and relaxe. their houses are typically one room stilted structures made from wood and thatch that fit everyone in the family and the islands are covered with rice, papayas, chilies, and other vegetables. generally, they seem like happy people, with more free time than most people i know at home. for three nights in a row we rode around the north end of the island exhchanging smiles with the locals, not wanting the day to end.
that was until this one night...
we made a slight mistake in our calculations. before we left pakse we didn't think through how much money we would need for an extended stay in the islands, and a bus ticket to cambodia, and whatever fees we would have to pay at the border, and unfortunately for us, there were no atms on the islands. by the time we bothered to figure it out (our last day there), we realized that we had enough money to get us across the border to cambodia, but not to the city we wanted to go to, and only if we left our nice bungalow ($9) and checked into a cheaper one ($4), and cut our daily food budget to about $3 each.
so we traded in our lovely little riverside guesthouse for a wooden shack and set about our day. for our last night we couldnt afford the $2 to rent bikes, so we walked through the villages instead, before seeking out the cheapest meal on the island. we found a place that did two bowls of soup and two pieces of bread for under $3, so we made ourselves comfortable adn whittled away a night without beer. the whole island only has electricity between 6 and 10, so at 9:30 we paid our bill and headed to our new digs to get set up before lights out, and here's where it gets ugly.
when i opened the door to our room, there on the floor, is the biggest spider we've seen in two months. i'll kill most bugs, but for whatever reason, i don't like to kill spiders, so after whisking ashley out the door, i thought about how to whisk the spider out after her. when i bent over to move it, next to my head on the wall, i see the biggest centipede i have ever seen. it's a bad start to the night. not wanting to alarm ashley, i grab a broom and ask her to move her bag away from the doorway so i can sweep them both out. as she grabs for it, a cockroach falls out. we had, it seems, checked into the temple of doom.
ashley screams, which brings our british neighbor rushing over, where he finds ashley shuddering on the balcony, and me smashing the centipede into oblivion. with his help, a five minute sweep of the room found a dozen more cockroaches, two dead, most in our bed and mattress. keep in mind that as bad as this situation is, in fifteen minutes its going to get much, much worse when the lights go out. so there we stood, on our veranda, mulling over our limited options: we could both sleep outside in hammocks on the balcony... not going to work. the hammocks are terrible and miniature, i wouldnt sleep one second. we could take apart the whole bed and put it back together on the balcony... equally stupid. if there are bugs inside, where we at leasty have a mosquito net, there will certainly be bugs outside. with minutes to go, i ran back to our first guesthouse, and in pidgin laos, begged the owner to let us have our old room at a discount. maybe it was the pity she felt in watching a grown man trying to mime a cockroach crawling around, but just as the island got dark, she agreed. i have been lucky enough to stay at a four seasons hotel many times (thanks nicole) but never has a room felt so posh as when we crawled into our bed that night, after our near-stay at the mola ram guesthouse (google it).
which brings us to yesterday. we loaded up on our daily rations of water, bananas, and bread and rode thirteen hours through the border of laos, and into cambodia. as i mentioned, we could only afford a ticket to a city in the middle of nowhere called kampong cham, but our driver didn't notice when we didnt get off with the others, so we bypassed that and carried on to pnomh penh, our actual destination. we've done absolutely nothing since we got here, except check into a very clean room the size of an airplane hanger, and now use the internet. but it seems like a vibrant city, more modern than we expected, so we're sure to have more stories by the next time we write.
till then...
last i wrote, we were in pakse, a town with nothing to do. as predicted in the last blog, we did nothing that day but kill time waiting for the sun to set. fortunately, we found a nice rooftop bar to play cards and watch it happen, making for quite a lovely evening, really.
the next morning we set out early for tad lo, a village two hours away known for its waterfalls and little else. you can imagine what we did there (spoiler: we went to the waterfalls). there were three in all, and they were quite beautiful, and to be perfectly honest, i'm not growing the least bit tired of taking three hour hikes through the blistering heat to bathe on top of a enormous waterfall overlooking the countryside of laos, but in case our readers are growing tired of hearing about it, i don't think any further details are necessary.
after two days in tad lo, we headed back to the pakse bus station to catch a bus to champasak. champasak is a tiny, one-road town that sits in the shadow of some 11th century kmher ruins. the ruins are gorgeous, climbing up the side of a small mountain, eventually coming to a dramatic panorama of the town below. we spent a good two hours at the top, sitting on a thousand year old wall, just rattling off the ways of lucky we are.
after champasak, we made our way down to si phan don, also known as the 4000 islands, an archipelago set in a massive bulge in the mekong river. the islands don't boast many activities but lounging, so we thought we would stay just one or two nights, but we immediately fell in love with our island and settled in for longer than expected. our main source of entertainment became a daily bike ride, starting a few hours before the sun set, slowly bumping along dirt paths that passed through tiny villages and rice paddies. the people on this island live so simply, that it would be easy to confuse it for poverty, when it's almost the opposite. it's true that they dont have much, but they dont seem to need much. the river gives them fish, and a place to bathe and relaxe. their houses are typically one room stilted structures made from wood and thatch that fit everyone in the family and the islands are covered with rice, papayas, chilies, and other vegetables. generally, they seem like happy people, with more free time than most people i know at home. for three nights in a row we rode around the north end of the island exhchanging smiles with the locals, not wanting the day to end.
that was until this one night...
we made a slight mistake in our calculations. before we left pakse we didn't think through how much money we would need for an extended stay in the islands, and a bus ticket to cambodia, and whatever fees we would have to pay at the border, and unfortunately for us, there were no atms on the islands. by the time we bothered to figure it out (our last day there), we realized that we had enough money to get us across the border to cambodia, but not to the city we wanted to go to, and only if we left our nice bungalow ($9) and checked into a cheaper one ($4), and cut our daily food budget to about $3 each.
so we traded in our lovely little riverside guesthouse for a wooden shack and set about our day. for our last night we couldnt afford the $2 to rent bikes, so we walked through the villages instead, before seeking out the cheapest meal on the island. we found a place that did two bowls of soup and two pieces of bread for under $3, so we made ourselves comfortable adn whittled away a night without beer. the whole island only has electricity between 6 and 10, so at 9:30 we paid our bill and headed to our new digs to get set up before lights out, and here's where it gets ugly.
when i opened the door to our room, there on the floor, is the biggest spider we've seen in two months. i'll kill most bugs, but for whatever reason, i don't like to kill spiders, so after whisking ashley out the door, i thought about how to whisk the spider out after her. when i bent over to move it, next to my head on the wall, i see the biggest centipede i have ever seen. it's a bad start to the night. not wanting to alarm ashley, i grab a broom and ask her to move her bag away from the doorway so i can sweep them both out. as she grabs for it, a cockroach falls out. we had, it seems, checked into the temple of doom.
ashley screams, which brings our british neighbor rushing over, where he finds ashley shuddering on the balcony, and me smashing the centipede into oblivion. with his help, a five minute sweep of the room found a dozen more cockroaches, two dead, most in our bed and mattress. keep in mind that as bad as this situation is, in fifteen minutes its going to get much, much worse when the lights go out. so there we stood, on our veranda, mulling over our limited options: we could both sleep outside in hammocks on the balcony... not going to work. the hammocks are terrible and miniature, i wouldnt sleep one second. we could take apart the whole bed and put it back together on the balcony... equally stupid. if there are bugs inside, where we at leasty have a mosquito net, there will certainly be bugs outside. with minutes to go, i ran back to our first guesthouse, and in pidgin laos, begged the owner to let us have our old room at a discount. maybe it was the pity she felt in watching a grown man trying to mime a cockroach crawling around, but just as the island got dark, she agreed. i have been lucky enough to stay at a four seasons hotel many times (thanks nicole) but never has a room felt so posh as when we crawled into our bed that night, after our near-stay at the mola ram guesthouse (google it).
which brings us to yesterday. we loaded up on our daily rations of water, bananas, and bread and rode thirteen hours through the border of laos, and into cambodia. as i mentioned, we could only afford a ticket to a city in the middle of nowhere called kampong cham, but our driver didn't notice when we didnt get off with the others, so we bypassed that and carried on to pnomh penh, our actual destination. we've done absolutely nothing since we got here, except check into a very clean room the size of an airplane hanger, and now use the internet. but it seems like a vibrant city, more modern than we expected, so we're sure to have more stories by the next time we write.
till then...
Monday, October 20, 2008
all good things must come to an end, and so it goes with laos.
after three days of climbing, one day of hiking, and three days of tubing, we left vang vieng behind to make our way through laos' tattered south. as always ashley proved to be a champ at rock climbing, making spiderman-like moves to make it to the top of one particularly difficult route, that noone else could make. i partially attribute my failure to a bruised rib i earned during a heated match of mud volleyball the previous day, though it can probably be chalked up to my fear of heights and lack of skill. for both of us, three days climbing in one week has almost certainly solidified our status as officially addicted, and we both hope to find more climbing in cambodia and vietnam. there's even talk of ending our trip where we started it, on tonsai beach, for a solid week or two of scaling walls.
after leaving vang vieng we worked our way south, into vientiane, a capital city in desperate need of a makeover. we went to vienetiane truly wanting to like it, dismissing negative accounts we had heard from other travellers, but after just a few hours of dirty streets, seedy characters, and our overpriced rats nest hotel (complete with window facing a brick wall), we booked a VIP bus for the next day to pakse.
the VIP bus is more than just prestige. the slightly elevated price gets you extra leg room and airconditioning, both big perks for a ten hour ride, and dinner. a heads up ashley, thinking there might not be a vegetarian option, brought her own meal along. i, instead, held out for the bus meal, which turned out to be two nerf balls filled with cat shit. somehow the dissappointment of dinner didn't prepare me for the letdown of dessert: a small handful of halls cough drops... honest to god. this was quite possibly the most liberal interpretation of a "dinner" i have ever experienced.
the rest of the bus ride was fine, the worst part being the city in which we arrived. pakse is a beat up town with not much going on. nearby are several smaller towns with waterfalls and ruins, but today we're left killing time waiting for the sun to set, as we're told thats the only attraction pakse has to offer.
no complaints, of course. a bad day here is, at the very least, more interesting than a good day at home... i think we're both just ready to make it to our next destination, wherever that may be.
in other news, happy birthday mom!!! we wish we could be there and hope you have a great day!
after three days of climbing, one day of hiking, and three days of tubing, we left vang vieng behind to make our way through laos' tattered south. as always ashley proved to be a champ at rock climbing, making spiderman-like moves to make it to the top of one particularly difficult route, that noone else could make. i partially attribute my failure to a bruised rib i earned during a heated match of mud volleyball the previous day, though it can probably be chalked up to my fear of heights and lack of skill. for both of us, three days climbing in one week has almost certainly solidified our status as officially addicted, and we both hope to find more climbing in cambodia and vietnam. there's even talk of ending our trip where we started it, on tonsai beach, for a solid week or two of scaling walls.
after leaving vang vieng we worked our way south, into vientiane, a capital city in desperate need of a makeover. we went to vienetiane truly wanting to like it, dismissing negative accounts we had heard from other travellers, but after just a few hours of dirty streets, seedy characters, and our overpriced rats nest hotel (complete with window facing a brick wall), we booked a VIP bus for the next day to pakse.
the VIP bus is more than just prestige. the slightly elevated price gets you extra leg room and airconditioning, both big perks for a ten hour ride, and dinner. a heads up ashley, thinking there might not be a vegetarian option, brought her own meal along. i, instead, held out for the bus meal, which turned out to be two nerf balls filled with cat shit. somehow the dissappointment of dinner didn't prepare me for the letdown of dessert: a small handful of halls cough drops... honest to god. this was quite possibly the most liberal interpretation of a "dinner" i have ever experienced.
the rest of the bus ride was fine, the worst part being the city in which we arrived. pakse is a beat up town with not much going on. nearby are several smaller towns with waterfalls and ruins, but today we're left killing time waiting for the sun to set, as we're told thats the only attraction pakse has to offer.
no complaints, of course. a bad day here is, at the very least, more interesting than a good day at home... i think we're both just ready to make it to our next destination, wherever that may be.
in other news, happy birthday mom!!! we wish we could be there and hope you have a great day!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
A word from ashley
Hi team.
Until now Brian has been doing all of the writing for the blog which was kind of the idea. I have a nice floral printed journal with all of my thoughts in my back pack. Since we've had a few requests for some feedback from me however, I have decided to share some details on the daily life I have experienced on the road.
The fist topic I would like to address is the critters. Bugs, leeches, lizards, flies, moths, ants and cockroaches are a part of my new life, whether in my own bed, or fried and sold as snacks on the side of the road. For the first month, I had a very difficult time sleeping due to at least one new critter sharing the room with us. I had horrible dreams of things crawling on my body and in my hair. It's not just me either. Brian woke me one night telling me loudly to move because there was either raw food or a rat in the bed. It took a good five minutes to understand that he was talking in his sleep. Still, it was obviously on both of our minds. I have officially slept with a lizard above our bed, shared a shower with a spider so big it made noise when it moved, found ants under my pillow, and gone to the bathroom while having a stare down with a cockroach who couldn't find his way back into the wall. Not to mention one time while shopping I felt a tickle in my pants only to find a small bug four hours later in my underwear. On a rough hike, I thought I was doing a great job of leech patrol until we stopped and I adjusted the tongue of my shoe to see at least 15 small leaches retract into my sock!!! I immediately pulled off my shoes and socks while tons of leaches squirmed inside my socks and on my feet. I literally freaked out. I have reconciled my feelings toward all of these critters in a dream where I found a giant cockroach to be beautiful. Since then, I have been sleeping much better, understanding that if the little bare-foot girls running around on the street can handle these creepy crawlers, so can I.
Another part of my daily routine that has taken a surprisingly long time to get used to is the toilet situation. By toilet I mean a bowl that looks like a toilet sunk into the ground. There are grips for your feet on either side and you have to squat. Try doing this after a few beers. It is rare to see a "western" toilet, and though at home I would never even dream of sitting on a public toilet, if I find one with a seat here, I cherish it and sit as though I've been walking for days. For the first two weeks of traveling I consistently peed all over my feet until I realized I was facing the wrong way. In order to flush you have to dip a bucket into a bigger bucket filled with water and then poor the water into this toilet-esque hole. If you prefer, you can use a gun that shoots out water, which is set up next to the toilet, much like the ones in western kitchens, to rinse your backside. Toilet paper is not big here so I have made a habit of not leaving the guest house without it. Where you can find toilet paper, interestingly enough, is on the table of any restaurant as it is used for napkins.
The food here is wonderful. Thai food in my opinion is better that Laos food, though you can find baguettes anywhere in Laos for very cheap. I have searched high and low for chocolate treats here and have found absolutely nothing. The chocolate used for baking is crap, and it makes me sad to think that no one in Thailand or Laos has probably ever tasted real chocolate cake. Unlike all of the horror stories I have heard about eating vegetables and anything other than rice, I have had very few problems. I can't say the same for Brian, but neither of us have been truly ill yet (knock on wood).
Transportation is always an adventure. It seems the most popular way of getting around for families is on scooters. I have seen families of five all crowd onto one scooter. Baby in the front, dad driving, two kids behind him and mom riding side-saddle on the back holding whatever cargo they are carrying with them or an umbrella to shield them from the sun. It was quite a sight at first. Many people also bring along their dogs resting the hind legs on the seat and the front legs on the steering wheel.
Animals run wild here and the dogs have a much different style of living than western dogs. They roam the street freely and barely even notice humans. They are totally in their own world. It seems that many people have pets as a way to keep the floors clean. In the few houses we have been in, people use a short woven table to eat around, and as a catch-all for any unwanted food scraps. For instance, if we are eating fish, you wipe the bones off your hands on to this little table. Otherwise you can throw it on the floor for the dog or cat. It's equally unsanitary and convenient. Again though, you just kind of get used to it.
As for anything else, I find myself less and less surprised as the days go by. It's very nice to live out of a back-pack for awhile. Getting ready is easy when you don't have to consider a hair dryer or make-up, unless it's a very special occasion that warrants some mascara. When we first arrived I wanted to buy everything from the markets and spend tons of money on jewlery. Fortunatly I didn't, and that desire to have everything has slowly subsided as I've realized I have to carry anything I decide to purchase for the next few months. Everyday I feel more settled and excited to see what the new place we have found ourselves in has to offer. So far every new destination has brought a new perspective on the way people live, and communicate and I am excited to bring that home as it weighs nothing.
Until now Brian has been doing all of the writing for the blog which was kind of the idea. I have a nice floral printed journal with all of my thoughts in my back pack. Since we've had a few requests for some feedback from me however, I have decided to share some details on the daily life I have experienced on the road.
The fist topic I would like to address is the critters. Bugs, leeches, lizards, flies, moths, ants and cockroaches are a part of my new life, whether in my own bed, or fried and sold as snacks on the side of the road. For the first month, I had a very difficult time sleeping due to at least one new critter sharing the room with us. I had horrible dreams of things crawling on my body and in my hair. It's not just me either. Brian woke me one night telling me loudly to move because there was either raw food or a rat in the bed. It took a good five minutes to understand that he was talking in his sleep. Still, it was obviously on both of our minds. I have officially slept with a lizard above our bed, shared a shower with a spider so big it made noise when it moved, found ants under my pillow, and gone to the bathroom while having a stare down with a cockroach who couldn't find his way back into the wall. Not to mention one time while shopping I felt a tickle in my pants only to find a small bug four hours later in my underwear. On a rough hike, I thought I was doing a great job of leech patrol until we stopped and I adjusted the tongue of my shoe to see at least 15 small leaches retract into my sock!!! I immediately pulled off my shoes and socks while tons of leaches squirmed inside my socks and on my feet. I literally freaked out. I have reconciled my feelings toward all of these critters in a dream where I found a giant cockroach to be beautiful. Since then, I have been sleeping much better, understanding that if the little bare-foot girls running around on the street can handle these creepy crawlers, so can I.
Another part of my daily routine that has taken a surprisingly long time to get used to is the toilet situation. By toilet I mean a bowl that looks like a toilet sunk into the ground. There are grips for your feet on either side and you have to squat. Try doing this after a few beers. It is rare to see a "western" toilet, and though at home I would never even dream of sitting on a public toilet, if I find one with a seat here, I cherish it and sit as though I've been walking for days. For the first two weeks of traveling I consistently peed all over my feet until I realized I was facing the wrong way. In order to flush you have to dip a bucket into a bigger bucket filled with water and then poor the water into this toilet-esque hole. If you prefer, you can use a gun that shoots out water, which is set up next to the toilet, much like the ones in western kitchens, to rinse your backside. Toilet paper is not big here so I have made a habit of not leaving the guest house without it. Where you can find toilet paper, interestingly enough, is on the table of any restaurant as it is used for napkins.
The food here is wonderful. Thai food in my opinion is better that Laos food, though you can find baguettes anywhere in Laos for very cheap. I have searched high and low for chocolate treats here and have found absolutely nothing. The chocolate used for baking is crap, and it makes me sad to think that no one in Thailand or Laos has probably ever tasted real chocolate cake. Unlike all of the horror stories I have heard about eating vegetables and anything other than rice, I have had very few problems. I can't say the same for Brian, but neither of us have been truly ill yet (knock on wood).
Transportation is always an adventure. It seems the most popular way of getting around for families is on scooters. I have seen families of five all crowd onto one scooter. Baby in the front, dad driving, two kids behind him and mom riding side-saddle on the back holding whatever cargo they are carrying with them or an umbrella to shield them from the sun. It was quite a sight at first. Many people also bring along their dogs resting the hind legs on the seat and the front legs on the steering wheel.
Animals run wild here and the dogs have a much different style of living than western dogs. They roam the street freely and barely even notice humans. They are totally in their own world. It seems that many people have pets as a way to keep the floors clean. In the few houses we have been in, people use a short woven table to eat around, and as a catch-all for any unwanted food scraps. For instance, if we are eating fish, you wipe the bones off your hands on to this little table. Otherwise you can throw it on the floor for the dog or cat. It's equally unsanitary and convenient. Again though, you just kind of get used to it.
As for anything else, I find myself less and less surprised as the days go by. It's very nice to live out of a back-pack for awhile. Getting ready is easy when you don't have to consider a hair dryer or make-up, unless it's a very special occasion that warrants some mascara. When we first arrived I wanted to buy everything from the markets and spend tons of money on jewlery. Fortunatly I didn't, and that desire to have everything has slowly subsided as I've realized I have to carry anything I decide to purchase for the next few months. Everyday I feel more settled and excited to see what the new place we have found ourselves in has to offer. So far every new destination has brought a new perspective on the way people live, and communicate and I am excited to bring that home as it weighs nothing.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
four things:
a. if you havent figured this out, you can click on any of the photos we've posted to see an enlarged version. this will be especially amusing on the photo of the waterslide
b. i was going to post more photos tonight, but when i connected my camera to the computer, i got an electrical shock. so i'm sorry.
c. ashley is always welcome, and often encouraged, to write on the blog. she just hasn't yet.
d. southeast asia has a bottomless well of hilarious mis-translations on menus, billboards, signs etc. one of my favorites was seen by our friend on a restaurant menu that served fried calamari, but listed it as "squid; deep friend." to date, though, the best one comes from the list of rules posted in our guesthouse in luang prabang. i hope you enjoy it as much as i did...
rule number 5: "Do not any drugs, crambling or bring both women and men which is not your own husband or wife into the room for making love"
and rule number 6: "Do not allow domestic and international tourist bring prostitute and others into your accommodation to make sex movies in our room. it is restriction"
that is all.
a. if you havent figured this out, you can click on any of the photos we've posted to see an enlarged version. this will be especially amusing on the photo of the waterslide
b. i was going to post more photos tonight, but when i connected my camera to the computer, i got an electrical shock. so i'm sorry.
c. ashley is always welcome, and often encouraged, to write on the blog. she just hasn't yet.
d. southeast asia has a bottomless well of hilarious mis-translations on menus, billboards, signs etc. one of my favorites was seen by our friend on a restaurant menu that served fried calamari, but listed it as "squid; deep friend." to date, though, the best one comes from the list of rules posted in our guesthouse in luang prabang. i hope you enjoy it as much as i did...
rule number 5: "Do not any drugs, crambling or bring both women and men which is not your own husband or wife into the room for making love"
and rule number 6: "Do not allow domestic and international tourist bring prostitute and others into your accommodation to make sex movies in our room. it is restriction"
that is all.
we're in vang vieng, a city that has exceeded expecations, to say the least. i barely know where to begin, so we might as well start with the tubing:
just about everyone comes here to ride innertubes down the river. i have no idea how long this has been going on, and at best, it sounded to us like a one day activity. a one trick pony of a town, if you will.
but first day here, we met four new friends and arranged to meet at the tube rental shop the next morning at 11. after signing a waiver, they send you upriver in a tuk-tuk where you're dumped on the banks to begin the trip. after floating for literally 45 seconds, you drift into a riverside bamboo bar, filled with people drinking beer and lao whiskey and taking turns going off a 30 foot trapeze swing into the river. we had our first beer, did the swing, and reboarded our tubes. i'm not kidding here, 30 seconds later you reach the next bar. its the same as the first bar, but instead of a swing, they have a zipline. another beer, do the zipline, back in the tubes.
30 seconds later we get to bar number three. this bar has no swings, no ziplines, no bells or whistles, but it is packed with people, and we join them for another beer.
this is the pattern for the next five to six hours, with occasional variations. one bar has a gigantic waterslide that you ride down in your tube before it launches you 15 feet over the water (looked too dangerous so we skipped that one). another bar has mud volleyball. thats a volleyball court set in 3 feet of mud (definitely did that one).
the whole river has been turned into an adult playground, and yes, it can be quite dangerous, but of course we're being very safe. you'll have to trust me, here.
we have found other activities in vang vieng. along with two of our new friends, we went rock climbing again, solidifying our desire to officially get into climbing. once again, ashley proved to be a natural, as the only person in our group to make it to the top in our last two routes, which are set in massive limestone cliffs hanging over rice paddies. if all goes well, we'll go again tomorrow or the next day.
today we had a long hike through farms and villages, stopping twice to explore some caves. twice when i said i saw a bat, ashley hightailed it for the entrance, with me not far behind. that said, we've had our share of creepy animal encounters. last night had me chasing a humongous spider around our bungalow, with ash worling the flashlight and occasionally screaming. on our last climb ashley thinks she saw a snake slither into a crack in the wall. we've both gotten used to it, but no one likes to see an enormous cockroach in the bathroom right before you turn in.
although we never found out what it was celebrating, yesterday was some kind of festival, featuring boat races on the river from dusk till dawn, and copious amounts of drinking by the locals. ashley and i had to laugh this morning when we were buying a bottle of water, and the shopkeeper who seemed to barely be dealing with his hangover had to chase a cow down the street that had stolen several bags of soap. you can't make that up.
we have a friend coming to town tomorrow or the next day, so we think we'll wait for him to do one last tube down the river, and then make our way south to vientiane. by most accounts, its a big ugly city with little to do, but laos has surprised us so many times, so we'll make up our own minds when we get there. and i think thats it for now.
just about everyone comes here to ride innertubes down the river. i have no idea how long this has been going on, and at best, it sounded to us like a one day activity. a one trick pony of a town, if you will.
but first day here, we met four new friends and arranged to meet at the tube rental shop the next morning at 11. after signing a waiver, they send you upriver in a tuk-tuk where you're dumped on the banks to begin the trip. after floating for literally 45 seconds, you drift into a riverside bamboo bar, filled with people drinking beer and lao whiskey and taking turns going off a 30 foot trapeze swing into the river. we had our first beer, did the swing, and reboarded our tubes. i'm not kidding here, 30 seconds later you reach the next bar. its the same as the first bar, but instead of a swing, they have a zipline. another beer, do the zipline, back in the tubes.
30 seconds later we get to bar number three. this bar has no swings, no ziplines, no bells or whistles, but it is packed with people, and we join them for another beer.
this is the pattern for the next five to six hours, with occasional variations. one bar has a gigantic waterslide that you ride down in your tube before it launches you 15 feet over the water (looked too dangerous so we skipped that one). another bar has mud volleyball. thats a volleyball court set in 3 feet of mud (definitely did that one).
the whole river has been turned into an adult playground, and yes, it can be quite dangerous, but of course we're being very safe. you'll have to trust me, here.
we have found other activities in vang vieng. along with two of our new friends, we went rock climbing again, solidifying our desire to officially get into climbing. once again, ashley proved to be a natural, as the only person in our group to make it to the top in our last two routes, which are set in massive limestone cliffs hanging over rice paddies. if all goes well, we'll go again tomorrow or the next day.
today we had a long hike through farms and villages, stopping twice to explore some caves. twice when i said i saw a bat, ashley hightailed it for the entrance, with me not far behind. that said, we've had our share of creepy animal encounters. last night had me chasing a humongous spider around our bungalow, with ash worling the flashlight and occasionally screaming. on our last climb ashley thinks she saw a snake slither into a crack in the wall. we've both gotten used to it, but no one likes to see an enormous cockroach in the bathroom right before you turn in.
although we never found out what it was celebrating, yesterday was some kind of festival, featuring boat races on the river from dusk till dawn, and copious amounts of drinking by the locals. ashley and i had to laugh this morning when we were buying a bottle of water, and the shopkeeper who seemed to barely be dealing with his hangover had to chase a cow down the street that had stolen several bags of soap. you can't make that up.
we have a friend coming to town tomorrow or the next day, so we think we'll wait for him to do one last tube down the river, and then make our way south to vientiane. by most accounts, its a big ugly city with little to do, but laos has surprised us so many times, so we'll make up our own minds when we get there. and i think thats it for now.
Friday, October 10, 2008
lot to catch up on... lets see.
back in luang probang. its just so good here its difficult to pull ourselves away. anyone looking for a good, cheap vacation idea would be well suited to come here. but enough about you.
ashley and i did pry ourselves away from this fine city for the last three days, heading north to nong khiaow (incidentally, for those of you following along on a map or globe, if you notice discrepencies in city spellings, i am not to blame. every city here has 100 different spellings, so i usually go with the most phonetically appropriate). we decided on nong khiaow after a day trip to tad sae waterfalls, another absurdly gorgeous set of falls that pour turquoise water over wide limestone steps into various pools filled with bathing elephants. its like something you would find in wisconsin dells, but without the fat people. after climbing to a cave above the pools, and hiking through mountaintop jungles surrounded by, literally, hundreds of butterflies, ash and i decided to postpone our trip to vang vieng, a town reknowned for its innertubing and beer consumption, and head to the quiet and isolated north.
arrive in nong khiaow on thursday, after a uniquely laotian day of travel. our tuk-tuk to the bus station got a flat tire just blocks before the actual station. at the ticket counter we learned that our "bus" was actually more of a huge covered pickup truck with benches along either side. it was on this ride that ashley pointed out to me that many of the women of laos have huge feet, almost like a hobbit's. it was about this time that two men tried to maneuvre an obviously disgruntled, cow-tied goat into the truck next to ash. three and a half hours later...
nong khiaow is something to be seen. its a tiny town, one dirt road, no more than a thousand people living there, set on the nam ou river, surrounded on all sides by towering cliffs topped with lush green jungle. a huge bridge crosses the river giving the best place to watch a sunset or just marvel at the cliffs. our plan was to spend one night in town, and in the morning, take a boat one hour north to a town that has do-it-yourself hiking trails. earlier in the day we had stopped into a movie house (literally someone's house where you can pay to watch dvds) and chatted up the owner, a friendly local named tia, so after having dinner with a polish guy we met on the bus, we decided to head over to tia's to take in a film before calling it a night. at 9:00 when we arrived, the place was locked up, no sign of tia. now, he had told us that he was going to a party that night, but that he would be back by 7:oo, so when we didn't find him in the movie house, we decided to head up the town's only street and search out the party. after approximately 17 seconds of searching, we came upon tia as he stumbled out a front door to go pee in the street (not really unusual here). i called out his name, and badda boom, five minutes later, we're sitting in someone's living room drinking beer, dancing, and trying to keep up in a conversation with four lao people, only one of whom speaks english. five beers later, we start talking about our plans to head up river the next day, tia starts talking about how his friends just discovered a waterfall and were planning on opening a trekking company in town, one thing leads to another, and ashley and i, at midnight, sign up for a tour that's never been done, by a guide who's never guided, along a trail he has taken just once before, leaving at 8:00 the next morning. smart.
so... ashley and i wake up early, pack our bags and head over to le cinema, wondering aloud if tia will be awake, if he will remember our plans, and if we havent just made the biggest mistake of our trip. our fears increased when we arrived to find him unpacked and obviously hungover, but our curiousity took precedent, and against all odds, and an hour and a half of waiting for him to get ready, we set out in his jeep for what would turn out to be one of the most magical experiences of our trip.
forty minute drive out of town, we pull up to a hmong village and hike towards the mountains. walking through rice paddies, passing farmers hauling huge bags of rice or bundles of bamboo, every step we took got us further and further from any remnant of civilization. after two hours hike, we stopped for a break in a tiny village where kids fearfully ran into thatch huts. two more hours and we came into a larger hmong village where we would spend the night. we had lunch in the house of one family, with an audience of children giggling constantly just from looking at us, while the adults went on with their work. after lunch we walked an hour to a waterfall that, according to tia, has been seen only once before by a westerner, and that was a month earlier when it was discovered. this is entirely believable given the fact that there was no sign of a trail in or out as we bushwacked our way down a steep slope to reach it. after a couple hours exploring and washing off, we headed back to the village where ash and i laid back in awe at life in the village. we had dinner that night with a villager, who sold and then killed a duck to tia, who made an amazing meal (ashley had eggs). the conversation was predictably sparse, but entertaining. after dinner, the man and his two children curled up in one corner of the room, tia in another, and ashley and i in a third where we slept on a lifted bamboo mat to the sound of babies crying, pigs, ducks, goats, etc.
after breakfast we set out on a grueling hike, higher up into the mountain, along a practically nonexistant trail that links two villages who rarely visit one another. we past a few locals, mainly water buffalo, stopping frequently to rip leeches off out feet and stare at the views that changed every five minutes. we stopped for lunch in the next village, washed down with warm beer mixed with coke (not as bad as it sounds), and convinced a man from the village to play the ken, a bagpipe-like instrument we saw hanging on his wall. one more hour of hiking, meeting farmers along the way, some who spoke only hmong, before arriving in our last village where we hired a boat to take us home, for the most beautiful 45 minute ride of my life. on either side of the river were massive rock walls, hanging over tiny riverside huts with mothers bathing little kids and men throwing nets from their canoes. by the time we made it back to nong khiaow, it was just getting dark and ashley and i congratulated ourselves on making the right choice, as stupid as it may have seemed at the time.
since we spent all of our money on the trek, and no atms within 100 miles, tia had told us before we set out that we could spend our last night at his place, so when we got back, i took what little money we had left to buy beers for he and his wife, who cooked for the four of us a giant helping of lao style barbeque. we stayed up late talking about the trek and drinking beer while his friends from town came in and out to talk to us and practice their english.
this morning we planned on buying a couple bananas to tide us over for the bus ride to luang probang, but when we came out of our room, found tia's wife setting out plates of eggs and sausages and fries for us. it was all just so much to take in, the generosity and openness of a family that makes so little compared to a family in the u.s.
the bus ride back was quiet. i think we both wanted to let the past few days sink in. every time our truck would pass a group of kids walking down the street, more often than not they would wave, and when i wave back, they smile, and dont stop until the truck is out of sight. we saw a traditional hmong wedding party as we passed through a village when we were about half way home. this country just seems to have something incredible waiting around every turn, and i know i've probably sounded spectacularly cheesy for this entire entry, but theres no other way i can explain it all. what ive written can't even begfin to do it justice.
and that brings us to right now. we'll have dinner tonight at the night market, i think, and go buy a thank you gift for tia. along the trail, when we needed to hack our way through the brush, he pulled out a swiss army knife and started slashing away, so we found a place here that sells machetes, and a guy who can carve tia's name into the handle.
then i think we'll lay low and look into catching a bus first thing tomorrow to vang vieng.
back in luang probang. its just so good here its difficult to pull ourselves away. anyone looking for a good, cheap vacation idea would be well suited to come here. but enough about you.
ashley and i did pry ourselves away from this fine city for the last three days, heading north to nong khiaow (incidentally, for those of you following along on a map or globe, if you notice discrepencies in city spellings, i am not to blame. every city here has 100 different spellings, so i usually go with the most phonetically appropriate). we decided on nong khiaow after a day trip to tad sae waterfalls, another absurdly gorgeous set of falls that pour turquoise water over wide limestone steps into various pools filled with bathing elephants. its like something you would find in wisconsin dells, but without the fat people. after climbing to a cave above the pools, and hiking through mountaintop jungles surrounded by, literally, hundreds of butterflies, ash and i decided to postpone our trip to vang vieng, a town reknowned for its innertubing and beer consumption, and head to the quiet and isolated north.
arrive in nong khiaow on thursday, after a uniquely laotian day of travel. our tuk-tuk to the bus station got a flat tire just blocks before the actual station. at the ticket counter we learned that our "bus" was actually more of a huge covered pickup truck with benches along either side. it was on this ride that ashley pointed out to me that many of the women of laos have huge feet, almost like a hobbit's. it was about this time that two men tried to maneuvre an obviously disgruntled, cow-tied goat into the truck next to ash. three and a half hours later...
nong khiaow is something to be seen. its a tiny town, one dirt road, no more than a thousand people living there, set on the nam ou river, surrounded on all sides by towering cliffs topped with lush green jungle. a huge bridge crosses the river giving the best place to watch a sunset or just marvel at the cliffs. our plan was to spend one night in town, and in the morning, take a boat one hour north to a town that has do-it-yourself hiking trails. earlier in the day we had stopped into a movie house (literally someone's house where you can pay to watch dvds) and chatted up the owner, a friendly local named tia, so after having dinner with a polish guy we met on the bus, we decided to head over to tia's to take in a film before calling it a night. at 9:00 when we arrived, the place was locked up, no sign of tia. now, he had told us that he was going to a party that night, but that he would be back by 7:oo, so when we didn't find him in the movie house, we decided to head up the town's only street and search out the party. after approximately 17 seconds of searching, we came upon tia as he stumbled out a front door to go pee in the street (not really unusual here). i called out his name, and badda boom, five minutes later, we're sitting in someone's living room drinking beer, dancing, and trying to keep up in a conversation with four lao people, only one of whom speaks english. five beers later, we start talking about our plans to head up river the next day, tia starts talking about how his friends just discovered a waterfall and were planning on opening a trekking company in town, one thing leads to another, and ashley and i, at midnight, sign up for a tour that's never been done, by a guide who's never guided, along a trail he has taken just once before, leaving at 8:00 the next morning. smart.
so... ashley and i wake up early, pack our bags and head over to le cinema, wondering aloud if tia will be awake, if he will remember our plans, and if we havent just made the biggest mistake of our trip. our fears increased when we arrived to find him unpacked and obviously hungover, but our curiousity took precedent, and against all odds, and an hour and a half of waiting for him to get ready, we set out in his jeep for what would turn out to be one of the most magical experiences of our trip.
forty minute drive out of town, we pull up to a hmong village and hike towards the mountains. walking through rice paddies, passing farmers hauling huge bags of rice or bundles of bamboo, every step we took got us further and further from any remnant of civilization. after two hours hike, we stopped for a break in a tiny village where kids fearfully ran into thatch huts. two more hours and we came into a larger hmong village where we would spend the night. we had lunch in the house of one family, with an audience of children giggling constantly just from looking at us, while the adults went on with their work. after lunch we walked an hour to a waterfall that, according to tia, has been seen only once before by a westerner, and that was a month earlier when it was discovered. this is entirely believable given the fact that there was no sign of a trail in or out as we bushwacked our way down a steep slope to reach it. after a couple hours exploring and washing off, we headed back to the village where ash and i laid back in awe at life in the village. we had dinner that night with a villager, who sold and then killed a duck to tia, who made an amazing meal (ashley had eggs). the conversation was predictably sparse, but entertaining. after dinner, the man and his two children curled up in one corner of the room, tia in another, and ashley and i in a third where we slept on a lifted bamboo mat to the sound of babies crying, pigs, ducks, goats, etc.
after breakfast we set out on a grueling hike, higher up into the mountain, along a practically nonexistant trail that links two villages who rarely visit one another. we past a few locals, mainly water buffalo, stopping frequently to rip leeches off out feet and stare at the views that changed every five minutes. we stopped for lunch in the next village, washed down with warm beer mixed with coke (not as bad as it sounds), and convinced a man from the village to play the ken, a bagpipe-like instrument we saw hanging on his wall. one more hour of hiking, meeting farmers along the way, some who spoke only hmong, before arriving in our last village where we hired a boat to take us home, for the most beautiful 45 minute ride of my life. on either side of the river were massive rock walls, hanging over tiny riverside huts with mothers bathing little kids and men throwing nets from their canoes. by the time we made it back to nong khiaow, it was just getting dark and ashley and i congratulated ourselves on making the right choice, as stupid as it may have seemed at the time.
since we spent all of our money on the trek, and no atms within 100 miles, tia had told us before we set out that we could spend our last night at his place, so when we got back, i took what little money we had left to buy beers for he and his wife, who cooked for the four of us a giant helping of lao style barbeque. we stayed up late talking about the trek and drinking beer while his friends from town came in and out to talk to us and practice their english.
this morning we planned on buying a couple bananas to tide us over for the bus ride to luang probang, but when we came out of our room, found tia's wife setting out plates of eggs and sausages and fries for us. it was all just so much to take in, the generosity and openness of a family that makes so little compared to a family in the u.s.
the bus ride back was quiet. i think we both wanted to let the past few days sink in. every time our truck would pass a group of kids walking down the street, more often than not they would wave, and when i wave back, they smile, and dont stop until the truck is out of sight. we saw a traditional hmong wedding party as we passed through a village when we were about half way home. this country just seems to have something incredible waiting around every turn, and i know i've probably sounded spectacularly cheesy for this entire entry, but theres no other way i can explain it all. what ive written can't even begfin to do it justice.
and that brings us to right now. we'll have dinner tonight at the night market, i think, and go buy a thank you gift for tia. along the trail, when we needed to hack our way through the brush, he pulled out a swiss army knife and started slashing away, so we found a place here that sells machetes, and a guy who can carve tia's name into the handle.
then i think we'll lay low and look into catching a bus first thing tomorrow to vang vieng.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
made it to laos, and so far it has been worth the effort.
to get here we had three travel options: speed boat down the mekong, slowboat down the mekong, or a bus and they all sounded awful. the speedboats are incredibly dangerous. we heard multiple tales of crashes, breakdowns, and other incidents so the speedboat plan was rooted out immediately. the slow boats, we had heard, were terrible, taking two days total, people packed in like cattle on a ramshackle barge. it was supposed to be excruciating, and that's why we had originally planned on the bus.
but after arriving to the thai border, we hadn't talked to anyone who had ever actually taken the bus, though there were whispers of horror stories; 15 hours over washed out roads with no a/c and no toilet. small uncomfortable seats. and we met a gaggle of people all set to take the slow boat in the morning, so we gambled and bought tickets for the cattle boat.
as it turns out, the cattle boat was a full on booze cruise.
i sat in my seat for maybe the first 30 minutes. after that, i was standing in the back, with 20 other travellers, drinking beer lao, listening to music, and at the party's apex, singing along in a chorus of "living on a prayer" by bon jovi (the second time that's happened here). i can see how sitting still on that boat for seven hours, two days in a row would be a nightmare, but those nightmares are apparently reserved for those not willing to have a few mid afternoon beers.
midway thru the two day cruise we spent the night at an insignificant town, pak beng, where we had dinner and turned in early. ashley didn't get much sleep that night after we killed two cockroaches in our room, right before the power for the whole city went out, leaving her to lie in darkness, recounting stories we'd heard about creepy crawly things turning up under the covers. i slept fine.
next day, back on the boat, the party section looked more like a coma ward as those who had gone all in the night before were now paying the price. and even though it was uncomfortable, the ride was stunning, drifting by small villages of stilted bamboo houses along the river, kids swimming, and men fishing. it was a truly visceral southeast asian experience.
now we're in luang probang, a small city that's not nearly as touristy as anything we saw in thailand. its quiet, and relaxed, and feels like a genuine town as opposed to a backpacker camp. if this is what laos is like, we will be very happy. we celebrated our arrival last night by hitting the bars with our new international entourage. everything in the city shuts down at 11, but there were rumors of a late night spot just outside of town.
so what do lao people do when the bars close down? they go bowling.
12 of us piled into a tuk-tuk for the 10 minute ride to the bowling alley, where i assumed that ashley and i would shine like midwestern diamonds on the lanes and embarrass the europeans in bowling, but it wasn't meant to be. after two games, our high score was 70 and in the end we lost once to team england/spain and again to a danish girl teamed up with a local ringer.
today we got up early and made our way to a nearby national park whose main attraction is a gorgeous waterfall. again, we had our entire posse in tow as we hiked to the top for killer views of blue skies and lush green mountains. once we had worked up a sweat, we hiked back down to where the falls tumble into a series of turquoise pools that look like they were made for swimming. we spent more than an hour there swimming in under smaller falls and jumping off trees into the pools. it was amazing. ashley and i have had a few moments on this trip where things have been so perfect that they almost look fake, and this was one of them. i felt like i was swimming in a waterfall at a mini golf course.
tonight we'll take it easy, have a nice dinner, and hang out with some new friends before the group begins to dissipate. tomorrow we might head out to some nearby caves for some exploring and spelunking, or we may just walk around the city. as always, it's brutally hot, so another trip to falls might also be in order. my guess is that our next town will be vang vieng, about three hours south by bus, a city that has a party reputation, but is also famous for river tubing. after that i would think we will head towards vientiane. we're told that all of these cities have a noticeable french influence, in the food and architecture, so we're anxious to see what differences there are between here and thailand. if nothing else, it seems already as though its a much slower pace of life, which is fine by me.
to get here we had three travel options: speed boat down the mekong, slowboat down the mekong, or a bus and they all sounded awful. the speedboats are incredibly dangerous. we heard multiple tales of crashes, breakdowns, and other incidents so the speedboat plan was rooted out immediately. the slow boats, we had heard, were terrible, taking two days total, people packed in like cattle on a ramshackle barge. it was supposed to be excruciating, and that's why we had originally planned on the bus.
but after arriving to the thai border, we hadn't talked to anyone who had ever actually taken the bus, though there were whispers of horror stories; 15 hours over washed out roads with no a/c and no toilet. small uncomfortable seats. and we met a gaggle of people all set to take the slow boat in the morning, so we gambled and bought tickets for the cattle boat.
as it turns out, the cattle boat was a full on booze cruise.
i sat in my seat for maybe the first 30 minutes. after that, i was standing in the back, with 20 other travellers, drinking beer lao, listening to music, and at the party's apex, singing along in a chorus of "living on a prayer" by bon jovi (the second time that's happened here). i can see how sitting still on that boat for seven hours, two days in a row would be a nightmare, but those nightmares are apparently reserved for those not willing to have a few mid afternoon beers.
midway thru the two day cruise we spent the night at an insignificant town, pak beng, where we had dinner and turned in early. ashley didn't get much sleep that night after we killed two cockroaches in our room, right before the power for the whole city went out, leaving her to lie in darkness, recounting stories we'd heard about creepy crawly things turning up under the covers. i slept fine.
next day, back on the boat, the party section looked more like a coma ward as those who had gone all in the night before were now paying the price. and even though it was uncomfortable, the ride was stunning, drifting by small villages of stilted bamboo houses along the river, kids swimming, and men fishing. it was a truly visceral southeast asian experience.
now we're in luang probang, a small city that's not nearly as touristy as anything we saw in thailand. its quiet, and relaxed, and feels like a genuine town as opposed to a backpacker camp. if this is what laos is like, we will be very happy. we celebrated our arrival last night by hitting the bars with our new international entourage. everything in the city shuts down at 11, but there were rumors of a late night spot just outside of town.
so what do lao people do when the bars close down? they go bowling.
12 of us piled into a tuk-tuk for the 10 minute ride to the bowling alley, where i assumed that ashley and i would shine like midwestern diamonds on the lanes and embarrass the europeans in bowling, but it wasn't meant to be. after two games, our high score was 70 and in the end we lost once to team england/spain and again to a danish girl teamed up with a local ringer.
today we got up early and made our way to a nearby national park whose main attraction is a gorgeous waterfall. again, we had our entire posse in tow as we hiked to the top for killer views of blue skies and lush green mountains. once we had worked up a sweat, we hiked back down to where the falls tumble into a series of turquoise pools that look like they were made for swimming. we spent more than an hour there swimming in under smaller falls and jumping off trees into the pools. it was amazing. ashley and i have had a few moments on this trip where things have been so perfect that they almost look fake, and this was one of them. i felt like i was swimming in a waterfall at a mini golf course.
tonight we'll take it easy, have a nice dinner, and hang out with some new friends before the group begins to dissipate. tomorrow we might head out to some nearby caves for some exploring and spelunking, or we may just walk around the city. as always, it's brutally hot, so another trip to falls might also be in order. my guess is that our next town will be vang vieng, about three hours south by bus, a city that has a party reputation, but is also famous for river tubing. after that i would think we will head towards vientiane. we're told that all of these cities have a noticeable french influence, in the food and architecture, so we're anxious to see what differences there are between here and thailand. if nothing else, it seems already as though its a much slower pace of life, which is fine by me.
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