Despite being sold two "luxury sleeper" tickets back in crazy Hanoi our bus was neither luxurious nor did we manage to get any sleep! The combination of an infestation of extremely fast and jumpy baby cockroaches, poorly inflated tires on potholed roads and the by now familiar and only form Vietnamese road communication, the horn, meant sleep was simply not an option, so I instead resigned myself to 9hrs listening to Simon and Grafunkl's Greatest Hits on loop in a bid to calm myself enough to at least doze. Alicia as annoyingly as ever, was out like a light! In situations like this I have learnt to try and look at the positives in order to trick myself in to a better state of mind, and in this instance my solstice was provided by the local Vietnamese we picked up en-route to join an already packed bus. Whilst I genuinely felt for there sardine like plight in the isles of the bus, it did lead to me feeling much more appreciative of my seat.
At around 4am, the bus screeched to a halt and we were summoned to attention by our Nazi conductor who marched up and down the bus kicking the seats and screeching Nah Twang, Nah Twang, get off bus, Nah Twang. To be dropped off at 4am when we had expected 7am earliest came, as you would expect, as somewhat of a shock and it was only later that day that we cottoned on to their ploy knowing full well they wouldn’t get a full departing bus were tourists aware they would be left to fend for themselves in the middle of a big town at 4 in the morning, they advertised the arrival time as 7am. Anyway, the commadery amongst the outwitted travellers was quite high, and as usually happens in times of travel struggle, we teamed up with three Irish girls to go on an accommodation hunt. Surprisingly there were a few hotels still open for business but given the cheapest room was $50 a night we holed in for a few hours outside a 24hr convenience store playing sh it head, sharing stories, eating Oreos and drinking water, rock and roll!!!
Eventually people started to open shop again, and we walked around dozens of guesthouses all charging triple the normal rate (note to self, NEVER travel through Vietnam at TET). Close to giving up hope of ever finding a bed to rest our weary heads, we were approached by an angel from above accompanied by the chorus of heaven(a fat man on a motorbike)professing to own a new guesthouse round the corner. He plopped us both on the back and proceeded to drive the wrong way up a dual carriageway to the new guesthouse nearby. Usually we wouldn't accept such a proposal from a stranger on a bike, but when sleep-deprived and gagging for a clean room, anything sounds like a good plan!
Fortunately, the guesthouse was great as it was run by a family who had just opened it a few months earlier. We got the room by the kitchen and it felt like we were part of a home stay, as our hosts were so attentive and friendly the entire time. As is the norm after a long journey, we both had our showers and snoozed for a good few hours until we felt like normal human beings again... Oh the stresses and strains of travelling...
We both awoke at around 1pm and having found a laundrette to wash 10 days worth of clothes (I had been wearing the same underwear for 3days), we headed East towards what Nahtrang was most famous for, its beaches! As the promenade approached and the scent of the sea air stated to hit the my nostrils and I was becoming giddy by the prospect of a further snooze in the sand followed by a cool dip in the crystal clear waters. Sadly, the beach did not meet neither mine or Alicia’s expectations. Nahtrang had been sold as the beach capital of Nam and yes, it did have a beach, but you couldn’t really see it for the wash of tourists (mainly Vietnamese) and accompanying rubbish which had also littered the water. Alicia and I were starting to learn a VERY valuable lesson for any future trip to Vietnam, DO NOT TRAVEL AT TET. It would appear Nah Trang is also a very popular holiday destination for the local population making it feel more like Blackpool in its heyday than a South East Asian tropical paradise. To its credit however, you could see the place had potential and without the mass of people and rubbish, it would probably have been better appreciated by Alicia and I. As ever, we both made the most of the tools we had been given and following finding a spot on the beach, settled down to a few hours of sun bathing. Considering our surroundings, we had a very pleasant and relaxing afternoon.
Our evening entertainment was the beginning of Con Air, followed by some Thai food and an early night in preparation for a fuller days exploring on day2 in Nah Trang.
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Thursday, 1 July 2010
16th Feb 2010: Down the coast to Nha Trang
We decided to be smart about our travels the next day, so instead of taking a taxi we hired a bike for the day and set off on our adventure back to the beach. We had a coach to take that evening, so we had to check out, leave our bags behind reception and set off for a bit of beach action before our trip that evening.
Cycling doesn't come that naturally to me (apparently I look like a bit of a donkey on a bike) but I have to say that, despite the traffic and motorcycles, I felt fairly confident cycling in Vietnam! Maybe it was because so many people cycle, that I felt some sort of safety in numbers on the road..
We got to the beach which was absolutely packed (again) and searched for another bargain restaurant and deck chair combo. Unfortunately this time round we weren't as lucky. Yes we did manage to secure free deck chairs in exchange for a promise that we would have lunch in the restaurant, but, when we received our grilled fish it was completely off! Chewy, smelly and rather similar to cat food, Leon and I had no choice but to complain and return the terrible fish. The manager did give us some amazing garlic prawns in exchange but we were a little upset that they tried to pawn off some old fish to us. Some people never learn.
After another glorious day of sun bathing and swimming in the sea, we cycled back, grabbing some baguettes on the way, all ready for our journey for the evening. We had to wait in the travel agency for hours until the bus eventually arrived, and the scramble to get onto the sleeper coach was one of the funniest sights I have ever seen. About 25 people were following this coach around as it was trying its best to turn round in the road, almost knocking people off their feet because they were just following it so as to get onto the coachh first. Luckily we had learnt the trick of getting one person to man the bags, whilst the other one queued, so we secured some ground floor beds next to each other. The man who conducted the coach was evil however, and kept shouting at everyone (including me!) to take off their shoes, not use the toilet etc....we could tell this going to be VERY long journey!
Cycling doesn't come that naturally to me (apparently I look like a bit of a donkey on a bike) but I have to say that, despite the traffic and motorcycles, I felt fairly confident cycling in Vietnam! Maybe it was because so many people cycle, that I felt some sort of safety in numbers on the road..
We got to the beach which was absolutely packed (again) and searched for another bargain restaurant and deck chair combo. Unfortunately this time round we weren't as lucky. Yes we did manage to secure free deck chairs in exchange for a promise that we would have lunch in the restaurant, but, when we received our grilled fish it was completely off! Chewy, smelly and rather similar to cat food, Leon and I had no choice but to complain and return the terrible fish. The manager did give us some amazing garlic prawns in exchange but we were a little upset that they tried to pawn off some old fish to us. Some people never learn.
After another glorious day of sun bathing and swimming in the sea, we cycled back, grabbing some baguettes on the way, all ready for our journey for the evening. We had to wait in the travel agency for hours until the bus eventually arrived, and the scramble to get onto the sleeper coach was one of the funniest sights I have ever seen. About 25 people were following this coach around as it was trying its best to turn round in the road, almost knocking people off their feet because they were just following it so as to get onto the coachh first. Luckily we had learnt the trick of getting one person to man the bags, whilst the other one queued, so we secured some ground floor beds next to each other. The man who conducted the coach was evil however, and kept shouting at everyone (including me!) to take off their shoes, not use the toilet etc....we could tell this going to be VERY long journey!
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
15th Feb 2010: Post-Tet, Hoi An, Vietnam
It was officially the New Year in Vietnam and we were heading to the beach. Always a good way to start off a new year. The town was eerily quiet, save for a few tired looking tourists and taxi drivers doing the rounds. We had a quick breakfast in what was possibly the only open cafe in the vicinity, and jumped in a taxi down to the beach which was about a 10 minute drive away.
When we got there, we were amazed at how long, wide and beautiful this stretch of beach was. It´s strange because it isn´t one that people tend to talk about, but I suppose these ones sometimes turn out to be the best. There were some local families having picnics under the coconut trees and also quite a few tourists like us who were making the most of the fantastic weather.
We walked up the beach until we found a quiet spot and the restaurant behind it let us use their towels and lounge chairs for free, only if we promised to eat lunch there. The deal was made and we happily soaked up the sunshine and went swimming in the cool and very clean waters. This was truly a blissful day. Come lunch time we were ready to sample some grilled fish with chips and rice, and all in all again the food was pretty good and also quite cheap, considering we were in a rather touristy area.
We read, swam some more and just relaxed (it´s a hard life) for the rest of the day and around 4 pm decided to head back to our hotel. Unfortunately we couldn´t find any people to share a taxi with us as most people were clever enough to hire bikes from town. Instead I insisted we walk back until we were too tired to walk and THEN get a cab, which Leon agreed to but wasn´t too happy about! At least we managed to walk about half way and then jump into a taxi, thus saving us about 4 US dollars. As they say, every little helps.
When we got there, we were amazed at how long, wide and beautiful this stretch of beach was. It´s strange because it isn´t one that people tend to talk about, but I suppose these ones sometimes turn out to be the best. There were some local families having picnics under the coconut trees and also quite a few tourists like us who were making the most of the fantastic weather.
We walked up the beach until we found a quiet spot and the restaurant behind it let us use their towels and lounge chairs for free, only if we promised to eat lunch there. The deal was made and we happily soaked up the sunshine and went swimming in the cool and very clean waters. This was truly a blissful day. Come lunch time we were ready to sample some grilled fish with chips and rice, and all in all again the food was pretty good and also quite cheap, considering we were in a rather touristy area.
We read, swam some more and just relaxed (it´s a hard life) for the rest of the day and around 4 pm decided to head back to our hotel. Unfortunately we couldn´t find any people to share a taxi with us as most people were clever enough to hire bikes from town. Instead I insisted we walk back until we were too tired to walk and THEN get a cab, which Leon agreed to but wasn´t too happy about! At least we managed to walk about half way and then jump into a taxi, thus saving us about 4 US dollars. As they say, every little helps.
14th Feb: Valentine´s Day and Tet in Hoi An, Vietnam
The next day was officially our ‘walking tour’ day which basically meant picking some sites off the Lonely Planet guide and walking around Hoi An to see a bit more of it in order and try to appreciate why it was given the UNESCO stamp.
It was surprisingly quiet for Chinese New Year – back in KL I’m used to the loud drums and cheers coming from big crowds as some groups performed the traditional lion dance. However, in Hoi An this clearly wasn’t the case and if anything it was quieter than ever!
Nonetheless, we enjoyed some breakfast in a rather trendy looking cafe for croissants and coffee, and then set about on our walking tour.
We started off at a Japanese bridge near the river across to a lovely street full of shops on either side, where I bought a pretty bag at a bargain price thanks to Leon the negotiator! We then quietly admired some of the temples in town, most of which had messages hanging from the ceilings dedicated to loved ones who had died as well as those who are still living, as is the norm during Chinese New Year. We then wandered down the market, which again was fairly empty and quiet, before crossing the bridge to an island that is mainly full of houses and a few hotels. We wanted to stroll down the river bank but unfortunately the stench of the sewerage by the bridge prevented us from doing so, and instead we crossed back onto the mainland and headed near the market for lunch. We couldn’t find a seafood restaurant that featured in the Lonely Planet (oh how much we hate but love this guide book at the same time) so instead settled for one of the few places that was open and funnily enough only had tourists in it! It seems that all the locals had gone back to be with their families, or perhaps to another part of town that we just didn´t know about...
After lunch we meandered back to our hotel to chill out before a Valentine´s dinner in a beautiful restaurant aptly called the Secret Garden, set in a very romantice courtyard and with amazing food at decent prices, given the high quality of the food. We decided to brave it and tried a bottle of Vietnamese red wine from Dalat which was interesting (let´s say it´s not what we´re used to!) but after a while it was much easier to gulp down. Dinner consisted of a beef curry and fish dish with rice, both amazing and left us wanting more as always. Once our meal had settled down nicely, we strolled over to the river and saw that there was some sort of fun fair going on and given it was free entry, we made our way there to soak up the atmosphere. If I remember correctly, we tried our hand at a ´wheel of fortune´type game but sadly lost our one dollar, oh well. We sat by the waterside with other people and just watched the floating candles in the water, which people were buying and letting go, as a sort of good luck ritual for the new year. When we left the fair, Leon and I both bought our own floating candles to let go in the river, and thankfully neither of us fell in, nor did our candles go out (like some others did!)
All the candles in the water made for a beautiful sight and even though it wasn´t a crazy party that we were expecting, we both had a really memorable and enjoyable Tet in Vietnam.
It was surprisingly quiet for Chinese New Year – back in KL I’m used to the loud drums and cheers coming from big crowds as some groups performed the traditional lion dance. However, in Hoi An this clearly wasn’t the case and if anything it was quieter than ever!
Nonetheless, we enjoyed some breakfast in a rather trendy looking cafe for croissants and coffee, and then set about on our walking tour.
We started off at a Japanese bridge near the river across to a lovely street full of shops on either side, where I bought a pretty bag at a bargain price thanks to Leon the negotiator! We then quietly admired some of the temples in town, most of which had messages hanging from the ceilings dedicated to loved ones who had died as well as those who are still living, as is the norm during Chinese New Year. We then wandered down the market, which again was fairly empty and quiet, before crossing the bridge to an island that is mainly full of houses and a few hotels. We wanted to stroll down the river bank but unfortunately the stench of the sewerage by the bridge prevented us from doing so, and instead we crossed back onto the mainland and headed near the market for lunch. We couldn’t find a seafood restaurant that featured in the Lonely Planet (oh how much we hate but love this guide book at the same time) so instead settled for one of the few places that was open and funnily enough only had tourists in it! It seems that all the locals had gone back to be with their families, or perhaps to another part of town that we just didn´t know about...
After lunch we meandered back to our hotel to chill out before a Valentine´s dinner in a beautiful restaurant aptly called the Secret Garden, set in a very romantice courtyard and with amazing food at decent prices, given the high quality of the food. We decided to brave it and tried a bottle of Vietnamese red wine from Dalat which was interesting (let´s say it´s not what we´re used to!) but after a while it was much easier to gulp down. Dinner consisted of a beef curry and fish dish with rice, both amazing and left us wanting more as always. Once our meal had settled down nicely, we strolled over to the river and saw that there was some sort of fun fair going on and given it was free entry, we made our way there to soak up the atmosphere. If I remember correctly, we tried our hand at a ´wheel of fortune´type game but sadly lost our one dollar, oh well. We sat by the waterside with other people and just watched the floating candles in the water, which people were buying and letting go, as a sort of good luck ritual for the new year. When we left the fair, Leon and I both bought our own floating candles to let go in the river, and thankfully neither of us fell in, nor did our candles go out (like some others did!)
All the candles in the water made for a beautiful sight and even though it wasn´t a crazy party that we were expecting, we both had a really memorable and enjoyable Tet in Vietnam.
13th Feb 2010: Hoi An, Vietnam
The next day we lugged all our bags down stairs only to be greeted by a pig’s head on a table in the reception area! Yes, it was Tet (Chinese New Year) the following evening so people were preparing their offerings for the Gods...but I thought that the pig’s head was taking it a little far for my liking.
I stood outside and waited for Leon to settle the bill and was on the lookout for our coach to arrive to take us to Hoi An.
Lo and behold we weren’t greeted by a big coach but instead had the luxury of a packed minibus for 10 people. The driver explained that this being Tet, there weren’t many people travelling that day and that we would have to make do with the little bus. Luckily we were used to these sort of ‘surprises’ and really what mattered most to us at that point was to make it to Hoi An in one piece and at a safe speed.
We were extremely fortunate to have a sensible driver and a local father and son in the van, so the driver was quite careful as he didn’t want to scare the child. The drive down to Hoi An was one of the most pleasant we had been on so far, and we got to take in some spectacular views of the coast, with deserted, clean beaches out the windows and little by way of traffic to slow us down.
A bizarre stop we made as we approached Hoi An was at a marble shop, which was adorned with huge marble statues outside the building and lots of Vietnamese shop assistants who were trying to palm off their marble goods. We had to explain to them that most of us were travellers and therefore carrying around a 40Kg marble statue was not going to be possible!
After this pit stop we went on our way to Hoi An, which is one of the few Vietnamese towns that are declared a UNESCO World Heritage town. As we approached Hoi An we drove to a travel agency, where a woman hopped in and proceeded to instruct the driver to drive off to some hotel out of town. This is a pretty annoying habit of some tour agents in Vietnam, who try and get tourists to stay in a particular hotel so that they make some commission. Leon and I, along with a few passengers, already had a room booked and so we insisted that they take us to our hotels instead. Thankfully they did and so we went to our hotel ‘with swimming pool’, as it said on the little card that we picked up from the previous hotel. It being Tet, we were very lucky to actually get a room at a decent price (USD12), given that most of them had been booked up by local Vietnamese who were taking the week off to celebrate. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised as the room was big with two double beds, it had a bath (which is very rare in a cheap hotel in Vietnam) and a TV. Air-con was a bit extra but of course we went for it, as the nights get extremely uncomfortable if you only have a fan in the room. We took a little tour of the hotel and found the swimming pool, which was an indoor pool probably about 3 x 3 metres in size, so we decided to sack off that idea and head into town.
As you approach the river the main center of Hoi An becomes much prettier, with cobbled streets, colourful hanging lanterns and quaint, old colonnial styled building and shops selling colourful bags, hats and all sorts of touristy trinkets. There is apparently a ban of motorcycles down the main lanes of the centre during peak time, but I think most locals ignore this rule and still speed down these roads but given that it is quite a small town, there isn’t quite the volume of traffic that you would see in other cities in Vietnam. We made our way across the main river and settled into one of the many restaurants to sample their 3000 dong local brew which was actually very good considering the price! After a couple of drinks we made our way down one of the many cobbled streets until we found a restaurant that we liked the look of. This was a tastefully decorated one (not the usual simple, plain one that we were accustomed to) and we again shared some rice, garlic prawns and grilled squid which was cooked to perfection. Since the following night was officially New Year, we figured that we would have a quiet one and save the celebrations for the following evening. Early nights was becoming the norm for us and frankly, neither of us were complaining about it as we love our sleep!
I stood outside and waited for Leon to settle the bill and was on the lookout for our coach to arrive to take us to Hoi An.
Lo and behold we weren’t greeted by a big coach but instead had the luxury of a packed minibus for 10 people. The driver explained that this being Tet, there weren’t many people travelling that day and that we would have to make do with the little bus. Luckily we were used to these sort of ‘surprises’ and really what mattered most to us at that point was to make it to Hoi An in one piece and at a safe speed.
We were extremely fortunate to have a sensible driver and a local father and son in the van, so the driver was quite careful as he didn’t want to scare the child. The drive down to Hoi An was one of the most pleasant we had been on so far, and we got to take in some spectacular views of the coast, with deserted, clean beaches out the windows and little by way of traffic to slow us down.
A bizarre stop we made as we approached Hoi An was at a marble shop, which was adorned with huge marble statues outside the building and lots of Vietnamese shop assistants who were trying to palm off their marble goods. We had to explain to them that most of us were travellers and therefore carrying around a 40Kg marble statue was not going to be possible!
After this pit stop we went on our way to Hoi An, which is one of the few Vietnamese towns that are declared a UNESCO World Heritage town. As we approached Hoi An we drove to a travel agency, where a woman hopped in and proceeded to instruct the driver to drive off to some hotel out of town. This is a pretty annoying habit of some tour agents in Vietnam, who try and get tourists to stay in a particular hotel so that they make some commission. Leon and I, along with a few passengers, already had a room booked and so we insisted that they take us to our hotels instead. Thankfully they did and so we went to our hotel ‘with swimming pool’, as it said on the little card that we picked up from the previous hotel. It being Tet, we were very lucky to actually get a room at a decent price (USD12), given that most of them had been booked up by local Vietnamese who were taking the week off to celebrate. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised as the room was big with two double beds, it had a bath (which is very rare in a cheap hotel in Vietnam) and a TV. Air-con was a bit extra but of course we went for it, as the nights get extremely uncomfortable if you only have a fan in the room. We took a little tour of the hotel and found the swimming pool, which was an indoor pool probably about 3 x 3 metres in size, so we decided to sack off that idea and head into town.
As you approach the river the main center of Hoi An becomes much prettier, with cobbled streets, colourful hanging lanterns and quaint, old colonnial styled building and shops selling colourful bags, hats and all sorts of touristy trinkets. There is apparently a ban of motorcycles down the main lanes of the centre during peak time, but I think most locals ignore this rule and still speed down these roads but given that it is quite a small town, there isn’t quite the volume of traffic that you would see in other cities in Vietnam. We made our way across the main river and settled into one of the many restaurants to sample their 3000 dong local brew which was actually very good considering the price! After a couple of drinks we made our way down one of the many cobbled streets until we found a restaurant that we liked the look of. This was a tastefully decorated one (not the usual simple, plain one that we were accustomed to) and we again shared some rice, garlic prawns and grilled squid which was cooked to perfection. Since the following night was officially New Year, we figured that we would have a quiet one and save the celebrations for the following evening. Early nights was becoming the norm for us and frankly, neither of us were complaining about it as we love our sleep!
12th Feb 2010: Wandering around Hue, Vietnam
Another day in Hue and this one was, surprise surprise, another boiling hot day! We decided to stretch our legs and walk across town to the Citadel, crossing the river to take in the views, battling with a bit of motorcycle-heavy traffic before reaching the gates of the Citadel.
En route Leon had to try on as many caps as possible, as he had managed to lose the last one that he had bought, again. Afterw3ards we toddled off to the Citadel’s main gates, amusingly declining the many tuk tuk drivers who offered to show us around for what seemed like quite a hefty price.
The grounds of the Citadel are absolutely massive, which neither of us had really expected. It was a mixture of well pruned gardens and lawns, long, unimposing halls that early emperors used to dwell in as well as larger, more decorative buildings used as theatres or residential dwellings for their mothers, families and so on.
It was a bit hauntingly quiet but very peaceful at the same time in the grounds and we spent most of the day just exploring these ancient buildings. Once lunch time descended we were more than ready to sample some of Hue’s finest food, and this time we took up the offer of a kind tuk tuk driver who, if I remember correctly, only asked for USD1 to take us to a famous seafood restaurant within the citadel walls that we had read about. You gotta love Asia and the cheap prices.
The seafood was divine and also very affordable – we had rice with prawns, a huge freshly cooked fish and vegetables as well, and probably some squid thrown in there for good luck! The waiter showed us how to roll up some Vietnamese spring rolls which consisted of the rice paper, thin slices of cucumber, some greens and fresh fish covered in spices. You roll it all up and dip it into a sweet and sour dipping sauce and the outcome is delicious! I eventually got impatient with the rice paper and just continued eating the fish and with a couple of local beers this was definitely a memorable lunch! What made it even better was the fact that the bill was so cheap, only about 6 quid per person, which is pretty much unheard of in the UK.
Finding our way back to the hotel was a bit of a mission and we did have to pop into a few shops along the way to try and get us out of the Citadel. Eventually we made it and along the way we took a detour into a huge supermarket, which is always an experience in itself in a foreign country. Sadly we couldn’t find any Milo for Leon (who had developed a love for this chocolate milk drink) but we did manage to buy a lot of groceries for half the normal price, simply because this is where the locals shopped, and not just the tourists.
For our last night in Hue we happily ate some cheap noodles down the road from the hotel and had went to the local pub for a few games of pool and some drinks. We met two really down to earth Aussie guys who were travelling on bikes with a local tour guide called Mr Pink (yes, like in Reservoir Dogs) who was taking them down the coast of Vietnam like us. What we found incredible was how much they were paying Mr Pink but I guess you need to make sure that you are in safe hands and that does come at a price in places. This was it for us and Hue and we were now ready for the trip down to Hoi An the next day.
En route Leon had to try on as many caps as possible, as he had managed to lose the last one that he had bought, again. Afterw3ards we toddled off to the Citadel’s main gates, amusingly declining the many tuk tuk drivers who offered to show us around for what seemed like quite a hefty price.
The grounds of the Citadel are absolutely massive, which neither of us had really expected. It was a mixture of well pruned gardens and lawns, long, unimposing halls that early emperors used to dwell in as well as larger, more decorative buildings used as theatres or residential dwellings for their mothers, families and so on.
It was a bit hauntingly quiet but very peaceful at the same time in the grounds and we spent most of the day just exploring these ancient buildings. Once lunch time descended we were more than ready to sample some of Hue’s finest food, and this time we took up the offer of a kind tuk tuk driver who, if I remember correctly, only asked for USD1 to take us to a famous seafood restaurant within the citadel walls that we had read about. You gotta love Asia and the cheap prices.
The seafood was divine and also very affordable – we had rice with prawns, a huge freshly cooked fish and vegetables as well, and probably some squid thrown in there for good luck! The waiter showed us how to roll up some Vietnamese spring rolls which consisted of the rice paper, thin slices of cucumber, some greens and fresh fish covered in spices. You roll it all up and dip it into a sweet and sour dipping sauce and the outcome is delicious! I eventually got impatient with the rice paper and just continued eating the fish and with a couple of local beers this was definitely a memorable lunch! What made it even better was the fact that the bill was so cheap, only about 6 quid per person, which is pretty much unheard of in the UK.
Finding our way back to the hotel was a bit of a mission and we did have to pop into a few shops along the way to try and get us out of the Citadel. Eventually we made it and along the way we took a detour into a huge supermarket, which is always an experience in itself in a foreign country. Sadly we couldn’t find any Milo for Leon (who had developed a love for this chocolate milk drink) but we did manage to buy a lot of groceries for half the normal price, simply because this is where the locals shopped, and not just the tourists.
For our last night in Hue we happily ate some cheap noodles down the road from the hotel and had went to the local pub for a few games of pool and some drinks. We met two really down to earth Aussie guys who were travelling on bikes with a local tour guide called Mr Pink (yes, like in Reservoir Dogs) who was taking them down the coast of Vietnam like us. What we found incredible was how much they were paying Mr Pink but I guess you need to make sure that you are in safe hands and that does come at a price in places. This was it for us and Hue and we were now ready for the trip down to Hoi An the next day.
11th Feb 2010: Chugging on down to Hue, Vietnam
We had a notion that the train would be stuffy and hot but the experience was quite the opposite. Since we were both on the top bunk, this meant that the air con was blowing directly on us and as a result, it was absolutely freezing! However, this was much more preferable than the other extreme, that is, to be sweating buckets in our sleep, so when we woke up the next day I’m pretty sure we gave each other a high five for the great train journey.
It was a few hours still until we arrived in Hue, and since there were no seats in our cabin or carriage, Leon and I found some small plastic stools and perched by the hot water dispenser with some really old Vietnamese guy who was lovely and kept talking to us in French (Leon gets mistaken for a Frenchman all the time).
We arrived in Hue on schedule and first impressions were that we had arrived in the middle of nowhere. As soon as we left the station we negotiated two one-man tuk-tuk bicycles to take us down town to our hotel that we had pre-booked. As we went down the main road, we could see the citadel across the river which was Hue’s main attraction, and the only reason we were there really. We pulled up close enough to where we thought our hotel with and the cheeky tuk tuk guys tried to double the price of our ride, saying that we had gone much further than negotiated. This was completely untrue, so we did what honourable people would do and stood our ground! Finally we managed to convince them to take the money we agreed on and luckily they moved along!
We wandered around the main tourist area looking for our hotel which we eventually located. The owner was very friendly (always a plus) and we were so ready for a nap that we didn’t mind the four floor trek to get to our room. My how the Vietnamese love their tall, narrow buildings...
Blissful hot showers and a 3 hour power nap later (!) and we were ready for some food. Settling for the pizzeria round the corner, Leon and I ploughed into our very tasty pizzas and went across the road for a swift pint (which I believe cost the equivalent of one pound sterling) before heading back to the room for some mindless TV and an early night. The big Hue sightseeing trip could wait until tomorrow...
It was a few hours still until we arrived in Hue, and since there were no seats in our cabin or carriage, Leon and I found some small plastic stools and perched by the hot water dispenser with some really old Vietnamese guy who was lovely and kept talking to us in French (Leon gets mistaken for a Frenchman all the time).
We arrived in Hue on schedule and first impressions were that we had arrived in the middle of nowhere. As soon as we left the station we negotiated two one-man tuk-tuk bicycles to take us down town to our hotel that we had pre-booked. As we went down the main road, we could see the citadel across the river which was Hue’s main attraction, and the only reason we were there really. We pulled up close enough to where we thought our hotel with and the cheeky tuk tuk guys tried to double the price of our ride, saying that we had gone much further than negotiated. This was completely untrue, so we did what honourable people would do and stood our ground! Finally we managed to convince them to take the money we agreed on and luckily they moved along!
We wandered around the main tourist area looking for our hotel which we eventually located. The owner was very friendly (always a plus) and we were so ready for a nap that we didn’t mind the four floor trek to get to our room. My how the Vietnamese love their tall, narrow buildings...
Blissful hot showers and a 3 hour power nap later (!) and we were ready for some food. Settling for the pizzeria round the corner, Leon and I ploughed into our very tasty pizzas and went across the road for a swift pint (which I believe cost the equivalent of one pound sterling) before heading back to the room for some mindless TV and an early night. The big Hue sightseeing trip could wait until tomorrow...
10th Feb 2010: Another day in Ha Long Bay
It was precisely 6 am when the drizzling began that morning, and at this exact time the alarm went off telling us to get out of bed and ready for some sea kayaking. Truth be told, the last thing I wanted to do that morning was get into a kayak and paddle around in freezing cold water, but of course this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and there was no way I would let my laziness take over.
Everyone gathered at the top deck looking distinctly sleepy-eyed but soon perked up as the boat pulled up beside a floating kayak centre in the middle of these massive limestone rocks.
Leon and I grabbed one of the newer looking kayaks (safety first!) and gently tested the waters. Once we got our paddling in sync it was incredible being able to meander around the karsts, stopping by some small caves to admire the sheer beauty of them. It started to brighten up a little as time passed and overall we had a lot of fun kayaking in the water. Nothing like some early morning exercise to get the blood flowing! After our 45 minutes were up, we all happily climbed back onboard the boat and were instructed by our tour guide to get ready for breakfast quickly as we were behind schedule. He was one of the most passively aggressive people we had ever come across as a group, so not to make him really angry we did as we were told and swiftly showered before heading up to breakfast.
When we got upstairs, what we were greeted with was one of the most hilarious moments on the trip. Sat in front of the TV were all the crew of the boat, watching some form of Vietnamese soft porn! I thought I could hear some dodgy sounds when I was in the shower but I thought I had been imagining things. Nope, at 8 o clock in the morning, as we sat having some fried eggs and bread, the guys on the boat thought it would be appropriate to watch some pornography. Whatever floats your boat, as the saying goes.
After an entertaining breakfast, we sailed on a little and took in the views once again, before saying goodbye to the others on our boat. Leon and I had to stay on the boat and they had an extra day as part of their package, which entailed staying on Cat Ba Island for the night.
The journey back was more beautiful than the previous day because the sun had thankfully decided to come out just for us. Once back on shore, we had a bit of a wait before we were ushered onto yet another minibus for our journey back to Hanoi. En route we stopped at a hotel which seemed to just cater for bus loads of tourists on their way back to Hanoi, with four floors full of hungry foreigners. We were fed some fried fish, rice, soup, spring rolls and omelette (the usual fare) which was bland but filled us up for the next few hours. Leon and I were both a little worried that we were pushing it a little as we had a train to catch that evening down to Hue, but had to pick up our rucksacks from the travel agency first. Despite the pretty horrific traffic on the way back, mainly as we approached Hanoi, we luckily made it on time to the agency and they kindly called a legal taxi for us to take us to Hanoi Railway Station. I say legal taxi because the taxis around Hanoi are notorious for fleecing tourists by speeding up their meters, so we were happy to wait for one of the government cabs who wouldn’t dream of doing that (in case they get found and sent to prison, then who knows what...)
Our train pulled up at the platform just after we had purchased some food for our journey: can of coke, check. Bag of crisps, check. Some funny coconut bun, check. We boarded the train and took time to inspect our cabin. It had two triple bunk beds in each one on our carriage, with air con and a window, with about 70 centimetres between the bunks for you to walk around (or just about turn around) in. After the brief wave of claustrophobia passed, we climbed up to our individual beds (we were both on the two top bunks) and could just about sit up. Leon, being taller than me, somewhat resembled the Hunchback of Notre Dame in the way that he was sitting! It was comfortable though and compared to long distance coach rides, much more pleasant and easier to get some sleep on a sleeper train. The only annoying part of the trip was realising that our tickets said that the price of the bunk was considerably cheaper than what we had paid the travel agent. Scrap that, we weren’t annoyed – we were fuming. I am pleased to say that this was the one and only time that we were royally ripped off in Vietnam but definitely would recommend everyone who visits Vietnam to watch out for scams like this.
After a long day, we were both shattered so it was off to bed nice and early. Luckily for us, the other people in the cabin were all part of a family going home for Chinese New Year and were decent folks so I was able to have a fairly peaceful sleep, save for the few bumps on the track along the way.
Everyone gathered at the top deck looking distinctly sleepy-eyed but soon perked up as the boat pulled up beside a floating kayak centre in the middle of these massive limestone rocks.
Leon and I grabbed one of the newer looking kayaks (safety first!) and gently tested the waters. Once we got our paddling in sync it was incredible being able to meander around the karsts, stopping by some small caves to admire the sheer beauty of them. It started to brighten up a little as time passed and overall we had a lot of fun kayaking in the water. Nothing like some early morning exercise to get the blood flowing! After our 45 minutes were up, we all happily climbed back onboard the boat and were instructed by our tour guide to get ready for breakfast quickly as we were behind schedule. He was one of the most passively aggressive people we had ever come across as a group, so not to make him really angry we did as we were told and swiftly showered before heading up to breakfast.
When we got upstairs, what we were greeted with was one of the most hilarious moments on the trip. Sat in front of the TV were all the crew of the boat, watching some form of Vietnamese soft porn! I thought I could hear some dodgy sounds when I was in the shower but I thought I had been imagining things. Nope, at 8 o clock in the morning, as we sat having some fried eggs and bread, the guys on the boat thought it would be appropriate to watch some pornography. Whatever floats your boat, as the saying goes.
After an entertaining breakfast, we sailed on a little and took in the views once again, before saying goodbye to the others on our boat. Leon and I had to stay on the boat and they had an extra day as part of their package, which entailed staying on Cat Ba Island for the night.
The journey back was more beautiful than the previous day because the sun had thankfully decided to come out just for us. Once back on shore, we had a bit of a wait before we were ushered onto yet another minibus for our journey back to Hanoi. En route we stopped at a hotel which seemed to just cater for bus loads of tourists on their way back to Hanoi, with four floors full of hungry foreigners. We were fed some fried fish, rice, soup, spring rolls and omelette (the usual fare) which was bland but filled us up for the next few hours. Leon and I were both a little worried that we were pushing it a little as we had a train to catch that evening down to Hue, but had to pick up our rucksacks from the travel agency first. Despite the pretty horrific traffic on the way back, mainly as we approached Hanoi, we luckily made it on time to the agency and they kindly called a legal taxi for us to take us to Hanoi Railway Station. I say legal taxi because the taxis around Hanoi are notorious for fleecing tourists by speeding up their meters, so we were happy to wait for one of the government cabs who wouldn’t dream of doing that (in case they get found and sent to prison, then who knows what...)
Our train pulled up at the platform just after we had purchased some food for our journey: can of coke, check. Bag of crisps, check. Some funny coconut bun, check. We boarded the train and took time to inspect our cabin. It had two triple bunk beds in each one on our carriage, with air con and a window, with about 70 centimetres between the bunks for you to walk around (or just about turn around) in. After the brief wave of claustrophobia passed, we climbed up to our individual beds (we were both on the two top bunks) and could just about sit up. Leon, being taller than me, somewhat resembled the Hunchback of Notre Dame in the way that he was sitting! It was comfortable though and compared to long distance coach rides, much more pleasant and easier to get some sleep on a sleeper train. The only annoying part of the trip was realising that our tickets said that the price of the bunk was considerably cheaper than what we had paid the travel agent. Scrap that, we weren’t annoyed – we were fuming. I am pleased to say that this was the one and only time that we were royally ripped off in Vietnam but definitely would recommend everyone who visits Vietnam to watch out for scams like this.
After a long day, we were both shattered so it was off to bed nice and early. Luckily for us, the other people in the cabin were all part of a family going home for Chinese New Year and were decent folks so I was able to have a fairly peaceful sleep, save for the few bumps on the track along the way.
9th Feb 2010: Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam
Ha Long Bay. I had been looking forward to this day since I saw my first poster of Ha Long Bay many years ago as a young teenager. The one with all the grand limestone rocks emerging from the emerald green water with a beautiful boat serenely drifting down the middle of it all. This was definitely a day that I hoped would live up to expectations, and in a lot of ways it did.
We started the day in a bit of a foul mood as we had to traipse all the way down to the travel agent with our heavy rucksacks at 7 in the morning, only to find that there was no one there, although the door was unlocked. As Leon went off on a mission to find us breakfast, I sat in the office thinking that my worst nightmare had come true, that is, that we had been part of a scandal, paid the money for the Ha Long Bay trip, only for the agent to have run off with it and here we were, left in the dark with no means of visiting the Bay. Fortunately my paranoia was just that, as 30 minutes later the man did show up and a little while later so did the minibus to take us down to Ha Long City.
As is very much the norm in South East Asia, our minibus did the rounds at all the guesthouses and hotels picking up more people for the trip and packing us all in like sardines in a tin. However, this didn’t stop us from feeling the excitement as we approached Ha Long Bay, nor did the dark clouds and grey sky that were looming, After disembarking we were put into two groups and luckily for us, Leon and I were put in a group of people who were really fun, down to earth and were overall a great crowd to spend a night on the boat with.
We boarded our boat and even though it wasn’t as luxurious as the brochure suggested (they never are anyway), it was a little bit like a pirate ship with a Vietnamese crew who were pretty much like modern day mercenaries, so all in all we were very happy indeed. Although the sun wasn’t out, the views were as spectacular as I imagined. Huge pinnacles of limestone were randomly dotted about in the sea and as we meandered through them, we were also served a hearty lunch of fish, vegetables, chicken, spring rolls and fruit which was much needed after the long journey there. To break up the day, we were dropped off at some spectacular caves in which there were some stalagmites resembling Margaret Thatcher, as well as one that looked a lot like a woman’s breast. After lots of picture taking we went back to the boat and just chilled by playing cards and having a few drinks whilst taking in the views. We retired to our little cabin after some supper and more cards, ready for the next day which we were told would involve some sea kayaking at 6 am!
We started the day in a bit of a foul mood as we had to traipse all the way down to the travel agent with our heavy rucksacks at 7 in the morning, only to find that there was no one there, although the door was unlocked. As Leon went off on a mission to find us breakfast, I sat in the office thinking that my worst nightmare had come true, that is, that we had been part of a scandal, paid the money for the Ha Long Bay trip, only for the agent to have run off with it and here we were, left in the dark with no means of visiting the Bay. Fortunately my paranoia was just that, as 30 minutes later the man did show up and a little while later so did the minibus to take us down to Ha Long City.
As is very much the norm in South East Asia, our minibus did the rounds at all the guesthouses and hotels picking up more people for the trip and packing us all in like sardines in a tin. However, this didn’t stop us from feeling the excitement as we approached Ha Long Bay, nor did the dark clouds and grey sky that were looming, After disembarking we were put into two groups and luckily for us, Leon and I were put in a group of people who were really fun, down to earth and were overall a great crowd to spend a night on the boat with.
We boarded our boat and even though it wasn’t as luxurious as the brochure suggested (they never are anyway), it was a little bit like a pirate ship with a Vietnamese crew who were pretty much like modern day mercenaries, so all in all we were very happy indeed. Although the sun wasn’t out, the views were as spectacular as I imagined. Huge pinnacles of limestone were randomly dotted about in the sea and as we meandered through them, we were also served a hearty lunch of fish, vegetables, chicken, spring rolls and fruit which was much needed after the long journey there. To break up the day, we were dropped off at some spectacular caves in which there were some stalagmites resembling Margaret Thatcher, as well as one that looked a lot like a woman’s breast. After lots of picture taking we went back to the boat and just chilled by playing cards and having a few drinks whilst taking in the views. We retired to our little cabin after some supper and more cards, ready for the next day which we were told would involve some sea kayaking at 6 am!
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
8th Feb 2010: Crazy, Crazy Hanoi
The following day we started early to make the most of our short stay in Hanoi and headed down for our free breakfast in anticipation. Sadly there was no buffet consisting of a selection of pastries, an egg station or fried noodles; instead our host Mr Jimmy sat us down and his staff presented us with 4 fried eggs (we didn’t ask for these but the gesture was kind enough), a plate piled up high with bread which was equivalent to a whole loaf, as well as some spread and a huge jar of jam which was a suspiciously bright shade of pink and tasted of sugar and not so much of strawberry.
After forcing ourselves to eat as much as possible (it was free after all), we were then subjected to a 20 minute-long lecture by Mr Jimmy outlining what we should do with our 4 weeks in Vietnam! However, he was really just trying to help us out and also sell as many of his own tours as possible, which is the norm in Vietnam, so with polite nods and uhmmings of ‘we’ll go away and have a think about it’, Leon and I made a dash for it and headed down on foot to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
Now by this time we were well into the later part of the morning which meant one thing: it was absolutely boiling outside. Not wanting to spend money unnecessarily, we braved the heat and the deadly traffic and walked for about half an hour until we made it eventually to the Mausoleum and Museum complex. Unfortunately we didn’t read the small print in the Lonely Planet which tells you that the Mausoleum is closed at lunchtime on Mondays. And what day was it? Correct. Monday. Instead we headed into the Museum which was fairly interesting, outlining the events that lead up to Vietnam War and HCM’s role as leader, but again lady luck was not on our side and we were promptly kicked out of the Museum after 40 minutes for them to close it down for the lunchbreak again.
Given that there was nothing in the vicinity for us to see or do, we decided to venture into town (which was another 30 mins in the direction we had just come from) to the Old Quarter to book our boat trip to Halong Bay. I’d highly discourage anyone from walking in the midday sun in Vietnam or anywhere for that fact, as we were both very flustered and just a bit irritable after what felt like a morning of walking for no reason! We made it to a tour agency which seemed legit (we’ll come to that later) and booked our trip for the following day, as well as our train ticket and open bus tickets for the rest of the journey. Feeling rather pleased with ourselves for getting the transport sorted, we did a little more venturing to get some much needed food down us, which consisted of more pho and fried noodles, and some local beer to wash those worries away... Refuelled and energetic, we made it back to the hotel and had a quick rest before heading out a little later for dinner. Wanting to keep the cost down, we found a food court in a shopping mall close to the main lake in the middle of Hanoi where we shared a rather large steamboat whilst listening to crazy Chipmunk music in the background. We also learned how to cross the road the Hanoi way by a lady who felt sorry for us, having stood by the roadside for about 5 minutes as the traffic was just too horrific! In Hanoi and elsewhere in Vietnam it's all about just walking at a steady pace across the road. This way the motorcyclists can just dodge around you as you walk on by! All in all, Hanoi was a city on speed and once you get used to the hustle and bustle, it's actually starts to grow on you a little. Not one for the faint hearted though, that's for sure.
After forcing ourselves to eat as much as possible (it was free after all), we were then subjected to a 20 minute-long lecture by Mr Jimmy outlining what we should do with our 4 weeks in Vietnam! However, he was really just trying to help us out and also sell as many of his own tours as possible, which is the norm in Vietnam, so with polite nods and uhmmings of ‘we’ll go away and have a think about it’, Leon and I made a dash for it and headed down on foot to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
Now by this time we were well into the later part of the morning which meant one thing: it was absolutely boiling outside. Not wanting to spend money unnecessarily, we braved the heat and the deadly traffic and walked for about half an hour until we made it eventually to the Mausoleum and Museum complex. Unfortunately we didn’t read the small print in the Lonely Planet which tells you that the Mausoleum is closed at lunchtime on Mondays. And what day was it? Correct. Monday. Instead we headed into the Museum which was fairly interesting, outlining the events that lead up to Vietnam War and HCM’s role as leader, but again lady luck was not on our side and we were promptly kicked out of the Museum after 40 minutes for them to close it down for the lunchbreak again.
Given that there was nothing in the vicinity for us to see or do, we decided to venture into town (which was another 30 mins in the direction we had just come from) to the Old Quarter to book our boat trip to Halong Bay. I’d highly discourage anyone from walking in the midday sun in Vietnam or anywhere for that fact, as we were both very flustered and just a bit irritable after what felt like a morning of walking for no reason! We made it to a tour agency which seemed legit (we’ll come to that later) and booked our trip for the following day, as well as our train ticket and open bus tickets for the rest of the journey. Feeling rather pleased with ourselves for getting the transport sorted, we did a little more venturing to get some much needed food down us, which consisted of more pho and fried noodles, and some local beer to wash those worries away... Refuelled and energetic, we made it back to the hotel and had a quick rest before heading out a little later for dinner. Wanting to keep the cost down, we found a food court in a shopping mall close to the main lake in the middle of Hanoi where we shared a rather large steamboat whilst listening to crazy Chipmunk music in the background. We also learned how to cross the road the Hanoi way by a lady who felt sorry for us, having stood by the roadside for about 5 minutes as the traffic was just too horrific! In Hanoi and elsewhere in Vietnam it's all about just walking at a steady pace across the road. This way the motorcyclists can just dodge around you as you walk on by! All in all, Hanoi was a city on speed and once you get used to the hustle and bustle, it's actually starts to grow on you a little. Not one for the faint hearted though, that's for sure.
Monday, 5 April 2010
Chaos at the airport and Hotel Civility, Hanoi, Vietnam: 6th Feb 2010
By the time we landed in Vietnam it was already 7pm in the evening and we were about to experience our first taste of the chaos that is Hanoi. When we went to the baggage carousel there seemed to be a dozen flights that had landed around the same time and, as a result, the fairly small arrivals hall somewhat resembled a market place with people shouting across the hall, kids running around and airport staff marching to and fro whenever the baggage carousels broke down (which happened quite often). We waited for almost 2 hours for our bags but apparently this was the norm in Hanoi airport i.e. no system is the way that their system worked!
Finally with backpacks to hand, we jumped into a local taxi and headed downtown to Hotel Civility, which we had booked online and looked quite decent on their website.
The journey into central Hanoi was an experience in itself. Evidently the way the traffic system worked was to use your horn as much as possible on the roads in order to warn other vehicles that you were coming through, and there was no stopping you. I have also never seen so many motorcycles on the roads before, and what was more incredible were the goods that people strapped onto the back of their bikes. Given that Chinese New Year was looming, there were 2 metre high mandarin trees and even a refrigerator strapped to the back of one bike! Malaysian traffic was starting to seem rather tame in comparison....
After what seemed like an eternity, we finally came up to a series of very tall, narrow buildings all built up right next to each other and lots more traffic. This could only signal that we were in the centre of town. Roads were windy, busy and motorbikes were swarming. We both held on for our lives even though we were sat in the safety of a car - it was that manic! Luckily we made it to our hotel in one piece and were greeted by the hotel staff, who took our bags and ushered us into the hotel. Really it wasn't anything like the website (some clever lighting going on there) and the staff all looked about 18 years old. When we were taken up to our room, up 7 flights of stairs (no joke), we thought that perhaps booking in advance was a mistake. Luckily the room turned out to be quite decent - it had hot water, a flat screen TV and aircon, so we happily agreed to stay for the next couple of nights. Bellies rumbling, we ventured down the road after quick showers and found an excellent French-Indochine restaurant where we devoured some pho (beef noodle soup) and fried rice. We also sampled our first local Vietnamese beer whose name I can't remember, but after a long day, it definitely washed the food down extremely well! With very little energy left, we decided to leave the exploring of Hanoi until the following day, and retired to bed in our room on the 8th floor (no elevators included).
Finally with backpacks to hand, we jumped into a local taxi and headed downtown to Hotel Civility, which we had booked online and looked quite decent on their website.
The journey into central Hanoi was an experience in itself. Evidently the way the traffic system worked was to use your horn as much as possible on the roads in order to warn other vehicles that you were coming through, and there was no stopping you. I have also never seen so many motorcycles on the roads before, and what was more incredible were the goods that people strapped onto the back of their bikes. Given that Chinese New Year was looming, there were 2 metre high mandarin trees and even a refrigerator strapped to the back of one bike! Malaysian traffic was starting to seem rather tame in comparison....
After what seemed like an eternity, we finally came up to a series of very tall, narrow buildings all built up right next to each other and lots more traffic. This could only signal that we were in the centre of town. Roads were windy, busy and motorbikes were swarming. We both held on for our lives even though we were sat in the safety of a car - it was that manic! Luckily we made it to our hotel in one piece and were greeted by the hotel staff, who took our bags and ushered us into the hotel. Really it wasn't anything like the website (some clever lighting going on there) and the staff all looked about 18 years old. When we were taken up to our room, up 7 flights of stairs (no joke), we thought that perhaps booking in advance was a mistake. Luckily the room turned out to be quite decent - it had hot water, a flat screen TV and aircon, so we happily agreed to stay for the next couple of nights. Bellies rumbling, we ventured down the road after quick showers and found an excellent French-Indochine restaurant where we devoured some pho (beef noodle soup) and fried rice. We also sampled our first local Vietnamese beer whose name I can't remember, but after a long day, it definitely washed the food down extremely well! With very little energy left, we decided to leave the exploring of Hanoi until the following day, and retired to bed in our room on the 8th floor (no elevators included).
7th Feb 2010:New Country number six.. Vietnam!
The next morning marked we were both feeling the excitement, both packing haphazardly and doing silly dances to mark our last day in Laos and what was about to be our sixth new country on Our Big Adventure. As far as killing time goes (our flight wasn't until mid afternoon), we did quite well and the highlight to note was the massive grilled fish that we ate in a roadside stall for the equivalent of about 4 pounds! Another 3 hours in a coffee shop sipping the cheapest filtered coffee that money can buy and then we were finally ready to head down to the airport. Me being my father's daughter, we made it to the airport in very good time, so good in fact that we had to wait another hour until we were actually allowed to check in! Nonetheless, we made it on that plane and off we went into the sunset. Good bye Laos and Good Evening Vietnam!
Monday, 29 March 2010
Vientiane - Laos, of all the hotels in all the world!! - 6th February 2010
Having suffered from an evening of nibbling at the hand of whatever creatures frequented the medieval beds in our downgraded hotel the day was to start with a new house hunt. Thankfully the 3 hours wandering on arrival in the dark was not necessary this time round and with my new appreciation for the layout of this small and relaxed city, I was able to find a replacement hotel within 30mins within the same price change and , cross fingers, devoid of bed bugs.
With the new hotel room key in hand I returned to the old digs (which also smelt of wet dog) picked up sleepy Alicia, and we headed down to the civilised bakery from the previous day for coffee and banana cake. Having checked in our bags we were just about to head off for some more exploring when we spotted some Mark and Lucy, some travelling buddies, at reception who had booked in to the room next to ours 10 minutes after us!. Now, I know this may not seem like a particularly interesting point in today's blog, but when you consider the circumstances of the meeting, it it actually deserves a mention.
We first met Mark and Lucy in a bar in Luang Prabang two weeks earlier and ended up getting very drunk and staying up till the wee hours of the morning with them. Although we got on very well, we were unable to make any plans to meet them again due to my illness and, at that stage neither of us new where we would be going next. We then randomly bumped in to them on our first evening in Ponsavan six-ish days later and three days after this in Vang Vieng were we went tubing with them. Neither of the last two times did we organise to meet them but ended up bumping in to them anyway. So you see, for them to check in to the room next to us, on the same day, in a Guest House with a 100 rooms and in a city with 1000 Guest Houses is rather a coincidence.
Once the shock of this chance encounter had subsided, we made plans Io meet them both for dinner and Alicia and I continued on our wander , which as mentioned in the previous blog means not really seeing very much. Needles to say we ended up at the strip your skin off chlorinated "Olympic" pool where we spent the day swimming whilst feeling your eyes bleed and sunbathing.
The late afternoon and evening heralded a day of True Blood season 2 watching (we had been carrying around the DVD in our rucksacks for two months waiting patiently for an opportunity to watch it having become well and truly addicted in Hong Kong) courtesy of the Guest Houses DVD player we rented.
4 episodes and a little sleep later it was time for dinner with Mark and Lucy. Following a long indecisive walk around town we ended up at the Indian restaurant from the following evening where gorged on yum yum spicy Indian food that would give any Brick Lane curry house a run for their money!!! The evening was concluded with a few bottles of crap/cheap red wine, music, good chat and cards back at the hotel room before retiring at an outlandish 3am!!!
With the new hotel room key in hand I returned to the old digs (which also smelt of wet dog) picked up sleepy Alicia, and we headed down to the civilised bakery from the previous day for coffee and banana cake. Having checked in our bags we were just about to head off for some more exploring when we spotted some Mark and Lucy, some travelling buddies, at reception who had booked in to the room next to ours 10 minutes after us!. Now, I know this may not seem like a particularly interesting point in today's blog, but when you consider the circumstances of the meeting, it it actually deserves a mention.
We first met Mark and Lucy in a bar in Luang Prabang two weeks earlier and ended up getting very drunk and staying up till the wee hours of the morning with them. Although we got on very well, we were unable to make any plans to meet them again due to my illness and, at that stage neither of us new where we would be going next. We then randomly bumped in to them on our first evening in Ponsavan six-ish days later and three days after this in Vang Vieng were we went tubing with them. Neither of the last two times did we organise to meet them but ended up bumping in to them anyway. So you see, for them to check in to the room next to us, on the same day, in a Guest House with a 100 rooms and in a city with 1000 Guest Houses is rather a coincidence.
Once the shock of this chance encounter had subsided, we made plans Io meet them both for dinner and Alicia and I continued on our wander , which as mentioned in the previous blog means not really seeing very much. Needles to say we ended up at the strip your skin off chlorinated "Olympic" pool where we spent the day swimming whilst feeling your eyes bleed and sunbathing.
The late afternoon and evening heralded a day of True Blood season 2 watching (we had been carrying around the DVD in our rucksacks for two months waiting patiently for an opportunity to watch it having become well and truly addicted in Hong Kong) courtesy of the Guest Houses DVD player we rented.
4 episodes and a little sleep later it was time for dinner with Mark and Lucy. Following a long indecisive walk around town we ended up at the Indian restaurant from the following evening where gorged on yum yum spicy Indian food that would give any Brick Lane curry house a run for their money!!! The evening was concluded with a few bottles of crap/cheap red wine, music, good chat and cards back at the hotel room before retiring at an outlandish 3am!!!
Vientiane, Laos - 5th Feb 2010: Public pools and bowling alleys
Our first proper day in Vientiane turned out to be a lot better than expected! Initally, when you look at what to do in Vientiane you realise that, actually, there isn't much to do here. It's a small capital city, with few landmarks, some restaurants and lots of government looking buildings but not much else. Over breakfast at Jom Cafe (nice scandi bakery that seems to popular in South East Asia), we decided to firsly go out and buy our plane ticket to Hanoi for the following day. Unfortunately, seats on all planes were full so we had to stay one more day in Vientiane before we could head off to Hanoi. Once we got the ticket sorted, we decided to check out the local swimming pool, which I think was also the pool they use for national sporting events! It wasn't much to look at but it was 25 metres long and very heavily chlorinated, so at least we didn't have to worry about catching anything in the water! While we were sunbathing and swimming, we got chatting with a couple in their 50s who came from Chesterfield of all places, and the gentleman loved talking about how much they enjoy eating roti canai in KL. It was great to have some pool time, as it seemed to get hotter by the minute in Laos! Next stop was the local bowling alley, which looked like an alley that you'd find in a 60s film, quite old but pretty decent lanes and mainly frequented by local guys and girls. We donned our bowling shoes and Leon taught me how to bowl properly, at the age of 26! It becomes a much more exciting game when you actually start knocking the pins down(!) so we ended up playing 3 games and I think I even almost reached 100... almost...
After 3 games we thought that enough was enough, our arms were starting to hurt, so with our new-found energy we decided to walk down to a market in search of a headphone splitter! Once we were there we entered the labyrinth that was the market which sold everything from jade figurines to toasters, refrigerators and yes, our splitter. With our task fulfilled, we headed back to our hotel (a new one, as we needed to move to save money!) and had a rest before dinner. We ended up in a great Indian restaurant which was cheap, authentic and pretty spicy! To end the day, we took in some live music in the centre of town where we met another couple who were also on a round the world trip. It seems that this travelling thing was a band wagon that lots of people our age were jumping on, and after exchanging some stories over a few bevvies, we headed home, satisfied that we had actually been fairly active that day!
After 3 games we thought that enough was enough, our arms were starting to hurt, so with our new-found energy we decided to walk down to a market in search of a headphone splitter! Once we were there we entered the labyrinth that was the market which sold everything from jade figurines to toasters, refrigerators and yes, our splitter. With our task fulfilled, we headed back to our hotel (a new one, as we needed to move to save money!) and had a rest before dinner. We ended up in a great Indian restaurant which was cheap, authentic and pretty spicy! To end the day, we took in some live music in the centre of town where we met another couple who were also on a round the world trip. It seems that this travelling thing was a band wagon that lots of people our age were jumping on, and after exchanging some stories over a few bevvies, we headed home, satisfied that we had actually been fairly active that day!
Vientiane, Laos, 4th Feb 2010 - Broken seats and sushi!
The morning after the night before and I remembered dancing around in the bucket bar and almost having a pancake on the way home. Yup, we were feeling a bit rubbish and as a result, decided to take the afternoon bus down to Vientiane and spend a few precious hours in bed for some much needed sleep.
Once the headache subsided, Leon and I got our stuff together and headed down to the ticket office where the bus took us to ANOTHER travel agency and made us wait for an hour for the bus down to Vientiane. As always, you never know what you are going to get with the so-called VIP buses, so when our decent looking bus arrived, we both let out huge sighs of relief and got onboard. Not so fast.
Even though we were the first people on the bus, we also managed to secure possibly the worst seats - well I did, as Leon's was actually functioning properly. It seemed that the 'seat' part of my chair was broken, so everytime we went over a bump I would basically fall off my seat and practically skim the floor! Much to Leon's amusement, and to those around us, this happened pretty much the whole way down to Vientiane, which was about a 5 hour journey! On the way we also stopped off at a restaurant which charged us about 4,000 riel to use the bathroom, which Leon was rather angry about (and subsequently has requested that I put this into the blog).
By the time we got to Vientiane it was approaching early evening, so we knew that we had to find a room quickly to beat the crowds that were undoubtedly drafting in on other buses from south Laos and the like. And so we walked. We must have walked into about 10 different guesthouses that were all full, and quickly our spirits were lowering as we realised the downfall of taking an afternoon bus. given that I'm not as strong or as big as Leon, I was feeling the pain of carrying my backpack around and so I took a seat in a cafe while Leon kindly went around Vientiane in search of a decent place to stay. Now Vientiane isn't a large city, in fact it's rather small, but when you are very tired from a long bus journey, a simple task takes a lot longer than usual. Thankfully after about another hour(!) or so, Leon found a room to stay in which was a little over budget but had aircon (yay!) and there weren't any obvious creepy crawlies in sight. After a pretty horrendous few hours, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner in a Japanese restaurant with sushi, california rolls and miso soup etc and it was divine! It was by far the nicest meal we had in the last 4 days and needless to say, we were both very stuffed and extremely content after dinner. With full bellies and big smiles, we retired to bed for yet another early night in front of the tele, since having a TV was of course another luxury that we usually couldn't afford!
Once the headache subsided, Leon and I got our stuff together and headed down to the ticket office where the bus took us to ANOTHER travel agency and made us wait for an hour for the bus down to Vientiane. As always, you never know what you are going to get with the so-called VIP buses, so when our decent looking bus arrived, we both let out huge sighs of relief and got onboard. Not so fast.
Even though we were the first people on the bus, we also managed to secure possibly the worst seats - well I did, as Leon's was actually functioning properly. It seemed that the 'seat' part of my chair was broken, so everytime we went over a bump I would basically fall off my seat and practically skim the floor! Much to Leon's amusement, and to those around us, this happened pretty much the whole way down to Vientiane, which was about a 5 hour journey! On the way we also stopped off at a restaurant which charged us about 4,000 riel to use the bathroom, which Leon was rather angry about (and subsequently has requested that I put this into the blog).
By the time we got to Vientiane it was approaching early evening, so we knew that we had to find a room quickly to beat the crowds that were undoubtedly drafting in on other buses from south Laos and the like. And so we walked. We must have walked into about 10 different guesthouses that were all full, and quickly our spirits were lowering as we realised the downfall of taking an afternoon bus. given that I'm not as strong or as big as Leon, I was feeling the pain of carrying my backpack around and so I took a seat in a cafe while Leon kindly went around Vientiane in search of a decent place to stay. Now Vientiane isn't a large city, in fact it's rather small, but when you are very tired from a long bus journey, a simple task takes a lot longer than usual. Thankfully after about another hour(!) or so, Leon found a room to stay in which was a little over budget but had aircon (yay!) and there weren't any obvious creepy crawlies in sight. After a pretty horrendous few hours, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner in a Japanese restaurant with sushi, california rolls and miso soup etc and it was divine! It was by far the nicest meal we had in the last 4 days and needless to say, we were both very stuffed and extremely content after dinner. With full bellies and big smiles, we retired to bed for yet another early night in front of the tele, since having a TV was of course another luxury that we usually couldn't afford!
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Vang Vieng - No Tube Necessary.......!! 3rd Feb 2010
The third day of our Vang Vieng tour arrived with the combined sounds of simultaneous sctatching coming from the roof of our new accomodation,(a bamboo bungalow away from the defening din of the bucket bar which although VERY basic, was quiet and cheap at $3), and the clucking of what sounded a rooster being hit with a big stick. Thankfully both these irritable noises waitied until 8am to present themselves and we took the free alarm call to make for an early wake up. If truth be told I had a nervous/apprehensive/excited feeling for the day of Tubing ahead of us anyway so sleeping any longer was out of the question.
We atarted the day with a breakfast from the generic Vang Vieng menu which was a little heavier than usual to line the stomach and made our way to Friends Bar no17 at around 11am to meet some travelling buddiees we picked up in Luang Prabang who were to share the days fun and frivolities with us. Although 11am sounds a little early to start a day of drinking and floating, we ahd been assured by many previous participants of the sport that a start any later would be a waste of valuable Tuebing time and with this advice firmly lodged we made our way to the Tube Shop.
The clue being in the name, this shop sells, or should I say hires only one thing, that being old overinflated truck inner tubes for 5GBP day (inclusive of transfer to the first bar of the river run). Being the only place in Vang Vieng offering this service and with in excess of 200-300 customers a day, Alicia and I concluded that the owner of the shop is likely to be the richest man in the WHHOOOLLLLLEE of Laos. We parted with our cash, had a number scribbled on whatever piece of bare flesh was showing to signify our tube number for the purpose of deposits, (again we reckon at least 40% of participants dont make it back in time to return theri tube thus making more money for the King of Vang Vieng ie...the Tube Shop owner) ,stuffed ourselves 16 strong on to a Tuk Tuk designed for 6 at most,and made our way to the first bar on the river. The time was now 12pm.
The next still as yet undertmined amount of time were spent drinking, swimming, drinking, diving in to the river, drinking, swinging off impossibly high swings in to the river, drinking, playing mud volleyball, drinking, tubing from one bar to the next, drinking, flying down zip wires in to the river and er , you guessed it, drinking. As the day unfolds the bits inbetween the drinking ie, the zip wires, swings etc.., get even more hazardous and you can see where and how all the injuries happen. All in all(we think) we had a fun afternoon quickly settling in to the vibe which was unlike anything I had ever expirieced and which thankkfully was not the 18-30 crew does Costa Brava I was expecting. Thankfully neither of us sustained any battle wounds bar banging headaches the next day and, we also managed to get abck in time to recieve our deposit.
As way of some advice for future tubers, there isnt really any need for a tube, given there are about 20 bars within walking or swimming distance of one another, if anything they become cumbersome to look after a few choice beverages and the most likley injury you will sustain is being hit in the head by one of the many lines the bars throw in to the water to pull you in.. The hardcore tubers (including one guy we met who was on his 100th day of tubing........mentalist) dont bother with tubes after the first or second visit.
Although we thoroughly enjoyed our Tubing time neither I nor Alicia has any inclination to participate again. We figure that as we both managed to evade even a scratch on our first visit, we wouldnt be taking the chance again!!!
We atarted the day with a breakfast from the generic Vang Vieng menu which was a little heavier than usual to line the stomach and made our way to Friends Bar no17 at around 11am to meet some travelling buddiees we picked up in Luang Prabang who were to share the days fun and frivolities with us. Although 11am sounds a little early to start a day of drinking and floating, we ahd been assured by many previous participants of the sport that a start any later would be a waste of valuable Tuebing time and with this advice firmly lodged we made our way to the Tube Shop.
The clue being in the name, this shop sells, or should I say hires only one thing, that being old overinflated truck inner tubes for 5GBP day (inclusive of transfer to the first bar of the river run). Being the only place in Vang Vieng offering this service and with in excess of 200-300 customers a day, Alicia and I concluded that the owner of the shop is likely to be the richest man in the WHHOOOLLLLLEE of Laos. We parted with our cash, had a number scribbled on whatever piece of bare flesh was showing to signify our tube number for the purpose of deposits, (again we reckon at least 40% of participants dont make it back in time to return theri tube thus making more money for the King of Vang Vieng ie...the Tube Shop owner) ,stuffed ourselves 16 strong on to a Tuk Tuk designed for 6 at most,and made our way to the first bar on the river. The time was now 12pm.
The next still as yet undertmined amount of time were spent drinking, swimming, drinking, diving in to the river, drinking, swinging off impossibly high swings in to the river, drinking, playing mud volleyball, drinking, tubing from one bar to the next, drinking, flying down zip wires in to the river and er , you guessed it, drinking. As the day unfolds the bits inbetween the drinking ie, the zip wires, swings etc.., get even more hazardous and you can see where and how all the injuries happen. All in all(we think) we had a fun afternoon quickly settling in to the vibe which was unlike anything I had ever expirieced and which thankkfully was not the 18-30 crew does Costa Brava I was expecting. Thankfully neither of us sustained any battle wounds bar banging headaches the next day and, we also managed to get abck in time to recieve our deposit.
As way of some advice for future tubers, there isnt really any need for a tube, given there are about 20 bars within walking or swimming distance of one another, if anything they become cumbersome to look after a few choice beverages and the most likley injury you will sustain is being hit in the head by one of the many lines the bars throw in to the water to pull you in.. The hardcore tubers (including one guy we met who was on his 100th day of tubing........mentalist) dont bother with tubes after the first or second visit.
Although we thoroughly enjoyed our Tubing time neither I nor Alicia has any inclination to participate again. We figure that as we both managed to evade even a scratch on our first visit, we wouldnt be taking the chance again!!!
Friday, 26 March 2010
Vang Vieng- A cycling we will go.. 2nd Feb 2010
Unfortunately, hard as we tried to avoid it, we still managed to find a guesthouse where you could hear the rubbish trance music coming from the Bucket Bar on the island down the road but Leon and I were determined to carry out our day's plan, despite the lack of sleep. We found some semi-decent bicycles in the centre of town (they had two wheels and the brakes worked, which was good enough!) and set off on our explorations. The thing is, we seem to make a habit of sightseeing during the hottest part of the day, so even 3 minutes into our journey Leon was sweating buckets and I definitely had more than just a glow going on! Nonetheless, there were too many caves in Vang Vieng calling out for us to explore them so off we went, across the river to the other side, where all the caves were located. This involved cycling through some villages where the roads consisted of a lot of red earth and stones, so you can imagine how sore our bums were feeling by the time we made it to the first cave. We gingerly cycled through a massive field to Cave number one (I was still paranoid about cycling over a hidden unexploded ordnance), where we were greeted by a bored looking girl and two huge dogs in a little hut with a sign overhead demanding that we paid a fee. It seemed like everyone was out to make a buck in Laos, but dutifully we paid the fee (it wasn't a great deal of money anyway) and off we went. We were gone for about 20 seconds before we were stopped by a Laotian man who asked us if we had a torch with us. Ah, no we didn't. So much for being prepared for all eventualities. However this was the answer the man was looking for, as he produced two very old looking torches from his backpack and again for a bit of money, we could now actually see what we were doing in the caves!!! It was a bit spooky as we were the only people at the first cave, which was incredibly dark (of course) and actually had a few tunnels in it which you could carry on crawling through to do a bit more exploration. I, however, was too much of a chicken to go much further than 5 metres so instead Leon and I sat outside and took in the quietness and the fresh air. We decided to go to the second cave which was 5 minutes down the road and again, we were the only people there! It seemed like everyone else in Vang Vieng was tubing... Cave number two was larger, more impressive but again, being the only people there, and without a guide, we decided to cycle back and have some lunch. We had it to a peaceful restaurant on the river side with great views and OK food and this was where I encountered my first HUGE lizard in Asia. It was walking past me, brushed my foot and I literally stood up, did a little dance and screamed like a little girl, much to the amusement of Leon and the 20 other people there who didn't seem too fussed about the lizard at all. It was about 50 cm long so I'm not too embarrassed about my reaction! After a leisurely lunch, we decided to head back for a rest and wait until the weather was a little more cycling-friendly. Around 5 pm we headed back out towards the caves and watched the sun go down over the paddy fields with the hills in the background, which was very beautiful indeed. Although there were more caves to be seen, fatigue had taken over us that day but we were happy that we made it to two of them and also managed to get a bit of exercise on those bikes. With the sensible sightseeing done, we were ready to take on the tubing that was planned for day 3 in Vang Vieng!
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Vang Vieng - Friends anyone? 1st Feb 2010
Following the terrifying bus journey down from Ponsavan we opted for what appears to be the most popular form of mass(ish) transport in the mountains of Laos, a mini-van. And with the memories of seven hours of narrow windy mountainous roads still fresh in our minds, it is easy to see why this is the preferred mode of transport. Though we were crammed in, sardine stylee, with zero leg room it was still a vast improvement and with the fear factor down to a bare minimum, it was possible to finally appreciate the dramatic landscape that enveloped us for most of the journey. The rolling soft sided mountain jungles gave way to saw toothed peaks the closer we got to Vang Vieng and 5 ish hours later we arrived at the destination we hadn't intended on visiting, thanks mainly to the discouraging lonely planet review we had previously read.
Having being dumped at the bus station out of town (the tourist bus stations always seem to be just far enough out of town so you have no choice but to take a taxi or a Tuk Tuk) we had to take take a Tuk Tuk to the heart of the town via the now common detour Tuk Tuk drivers take to their mates guest houses. Having failed to find any accommodation within our budget price range - (we did try hard I promise!!!), we settled in to our rather luxurious, by travelling standards, guest house, dumped our bags, showered off and went off exploring!
Vang Vieng is famous for its surrounding limestone cliffs which rise vertically from flat farm land 100's of meters in to the sky, most of which house caves which carve deep in to the sides of the cliffs and, it is also infamous for "tubing" and the easily marketable and profitable hedonism that supports this local industry. As we stepped out of the hotel for the first time we were greeted by our first vision of a victim of tubing, a chap covered in mud and unable to walk without the support of his friends and who had clearly succumb to one too many opium pipes or a vast quantity of booze, either way he was in a bad state. Not wanting to interfere and as he had friends around him, we simply stepped over his muddy body, whistled as if nothing had happened and continued exploring.
15 minutes of wandering later we concluded that this part of Vang Vieng at least, is set up for people to drink/get high, go tubing, drink some more, get higher and then have hangovers. The shops of the town were either Internet cafe's, bars and restaurants weirdly all with the same menu one for food and one "happy menu", and video bar,. lots and lots and lots of video bars all blasting out Friends or Family Guy 24 hours a day. A first Alicia and I found the staff of these video bars a little frosty but it didn't take long to sympathise with their constant life of Friends on loop.
Despite my depressive and grown up initial musings on our new surroundings Alicia and I both new deep down that come two days time we would be at one with the town, making full use of the same same menus(the food and not the happy ones), enjoying the video bars and the tubing....which will be explained in more detail very soon!!!
As we had put the next day aside for mountain biking round the cliffs and for cave exploring, we put our heads down early, trying to block out the trance music from the "bucket bar" across the river, and quickly drifted off to slumber land.
Having being dumped at the bus station out of town (the tourist bus stations always seem to be just far enough out of town so you have no choice but to take a taxi or a Tuk Tuk) we had to take take a Tuk Tuk to the heart of the town via the now common detour Tuk Tuk drivers take to their mates guest houses. Having failed to find any accommodation within our budget price range - (we did try hard I promise!!!), we settled in to our rather luxurious, by travelling standards, guest house, dumped our bags, showered off and went off exploring!
Vang Vieng is famous for its surrounding limestone cliffs which rise vertically from flat farm land 100's of meters in to the sky, most of which house caves which carve deep in to the sides of the cliffs and, it is also infamous for "tubing" and the easily marketable and profitable hedonism that supports this local industry. As we stepped out of the hotel for the first time we were greeted by our first vision of a victim of tubing, a chap covered in mud and unable to walk without the support of his friends and who had clearly succumb to one too many opium pipes or a vast quantity of booze, either way he was in a bad state. Not wanting to interfere and as he had friends around him, we simply stepped over his muddy body, whistled as if nothing had happened and continued exploring.
15 minutes of wandering later we concluded that this part of Vang Vieng at least, is set up for people to drink/get high, go tubing, drink some more, get higher and then have hangovers. The shops of the town were either Internet cafe's, bars and restaurants weirdly all with the same menu one for food and one "happy menu", and video bar,. lots and lots and lots of video bars all blasting out Friends or Family Guy 24 hours a day. A first Alicia and I found the staff of these video bars a little frosty but it didn't take long to sympathise with their constant life of Friends on loop.
Despite my depressive and grown up initial musings on our new surroundings Alicia and I both new deep down that come two days time we would be at one with the town, making full use of the same same menus(the food and not the happy ones), enjoying the video bars and the tubing....which will be explained in more detail very soon!!!
As we had put the next day aside for mountain biking round the cliffs and for cave exploring, we put our heads down early, trying to block out the trance music from the "bucket bar" across the river, and quickly drifted off to slumber land.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Phonsavan: Rocky Roads and Jars Aplenty
Our bus to Phonsavan was the only one in the bus depot and the passenger list was approximately 90% locals and 10% tourists. Glancing out the window, we could see that there were about 5 buses full of tourists only going down to Vang Vieng. Finally we were (sort of) making it off the beaten track a little bit. The bus itself was packed, and strapped to the top of it was a motorbike and about 20 big boxes of toilet paper which I found very amusing. The journey itself was NOT so amusing. We're talking 5 hours going uphill on the windiest roads that I have ever been on, being driven by a man who looked about 18 and who was more concerned about flirting with some girls than he was about the safety of the passengers. Leon was still a bit fragile from his illness so I sat there praying for most of the time that he wouldn't be sick en route (thankfully he wasn't). To make matters worse, the bus driver thought it would be fun to stick on some really loud, horrible Lao hip hop music and I believe it was at this point that I had my first pang of homesickness. Or perhaps I was just fearing for my life. Either way, we were thankful when we started driving along some flat stretch of road as we were nearing Phonsavan, and even managed to appreciate the beautiful country side which bore a very strong resemblance to the hills that you get back in England. Finally we reached Phonsavan and jumped into a van that took us into the heart of town, where we could find a guesthouse for the next 2 days.
Phonsavan is really like something out of the wild west, with a lot of dusty roads and oldish buildings, and not much else. The place was bombed heavily and as a result, they had to rebuild from scratch in the 70s so I imagine that not many places in Laos look a lot like Phonsavan. It's not pretty, but the grittiness of the place made it seem more real, and not somewhere that just catered for tourists. We settled for the Nice Hotel and were just lucky enough to catch a documentary that MAG (Mines Advisory Group)were showing that evening. The film was pretty powerful, and the statistics are pretty horrendous i.e. the Americans dropped 2 tonnes worth of bombs per Laotian during the Secret War. We retired to bed pretty early after a long journey and a pretty sombre evening, as we were off to see the Plain of Jars bright and early the next day.
We visited all three sites within the Plain of Jars (there are others but they haven't been fully cleared off unexploded ordinances to render them safe for tourists I think) and it really wasn't like anything else I've ever seen. Yes, they are just massive stone jars but it's the fact that we really don't know what they were used for that makes them all the more mysterious and quite fascinating. After a while of course they do start to look a little samey, but we were able to take in some beautiful scenery and some funky pictures as well (soon to be uploaded on flickr!) The tour also included a visit to a 'whisky village' where we all sampled some Lao Lao whisky (I thought it was awful) and then to see an old Russian tank as well. All in all it was a memorable experience, although hopefully in future they will do something about the road to get to Phonsavan, as I don't wish that kind of hellish journey on anyone. Given that there isn't much else on offer in Phonsavan, we decided to head down to Vang Vieng the next day, instead of going straight to Vientiane, which was our original plan. I think it was the 20 hour bus journey that put us off more than anything else and I'm glad we went, because Vang Vieng turned out to be a pretty memorable place.
Phonsavan is really like something out of the wild west, with a lot of dusty roads and oldish buildings, and not much else. The place was bombed heavily and as a result, they had to rebuild from scratch in the 70s so I imagine that not many places in Laos look a lot like Phonsavan. It's not pretty, but the grittiness of the place made it seem more real, and not somewhere that just catered for tourists. We settled for the Nice Hotel and were just lucky enough to catch a documentary that MAG (Mines Advisory Group)were showing that evening. The film was pretty powerful, and the statistics are pretty horrendous i.e. the Americans dropped 2 tonnes worth of bombs per Laotian during the Secret War. We retired to bed pretty early after a long journey and a pretty sombre evening, as we were off to see the Plain of Jars bright and early the next day.
We visited all three sites within the Plain of Jars (there are others but they haven't been fully cleared off unexploded ordinances to render them safe for tourists I think) and it really wasn't like anything else I've ever seen. Yes, they are just massive stone jars but it's the fact that we really don't know what they were used for that makes them all the more mysterious and quite fascinating. After a while of course they do start to look a little samey, but we were able to take in some beautiful scenery and some funky pictures as well (soon to be uploaded on flickr!) The tour also included a visit to a 'whisky village' where we all sampled some Lao Lao whisky (I thought it was awful) and then to see an old Russian tank as well. All in all it was a memorable experience, although hopefully in future they will do something about the road to get to Phonsavan, as I don't wish that kind of hellish journey on anyone. Given that there isn't much else on offer in Phonsavan, we decided to head down to Vang Vieng the next day, instead of going straight to Vientiane, which was our original plan. I think it was the 20 hour bus journey that put us off more than anything else and I'm glad we went, because Vang Vieng turned out to be a pretty memorable place.
Luang Prabang: The Illness
After a heavy night we decided to treat ourselves with a massage which definitely helped us both feel a little less fragile. The appetites soon kicked in and we sampled some fine Laos food consisting of fish cooked in banana leaf, rice and some steamed vegetables. The vegetables looked a little suspect as they still had a little bit of sand/dirt on them, but we were too hungry to care. We then decided to take a tour around Luang Prabang but this only took about an hour as it is such a small place. Definitely one of the highlights was meeting a really friendly, and quite ancient Laotian man who was selling ice cream from his little bicycle. Unfortunately the ice cream also looked a little suspect so we got rid of them once the little man rode off down the road! The hunger kicked in again and this time it was a milkshake for Leon, a chocolate cake between us and an ice lemon tea that did the trick for me. As it was coming close to sunset, we followed some people's advice and headed up Phu Si which was a hill in the centre of town that has a temple at the top where you can take in the views and the sunset over Luang Prabang. Unsurprisingly, we were met at the top by other tourists who obviously had been told the same thing or also read the same excerpt from the Lonely Planet. Still, it was rather peaceful and we got chatting to a couple from London - one of which actually used to work with Ewen and Siobhan, which goes to show that the world really is a very, very small place. As we headed down we bumped into another couple (the ones from Brighton) who invited us along to dinner with some friends in the Pizzeria down the road from where we were staying. Dinner time came along and to our disappointment, the pizzas weren't of the calibre that we are used to back at home, and instead looked like a hot quiche gone wrong. Leon ordered a vegetarian version and we have a theory that this was the source of his illness that was to come. Unfortunately from that evening and for the next 3 days Leon was not in a very good state (I won't go into detail but it involved lots of liquids, high fever and bad stomach cramps). We had to stay in Luang Prabang until he got better and fortunately after 3 days he was back to his normal self. In that time I played nurse and got a lot of reading done. We were ready to leave Luang Prabang and looked forward to visiting the Plain of Jars, which was our next destination in Laos.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Caves and Waterfalls in Luang Prabang
When we woke up at 7 am I think we both realised that booking a day trip after a 2 day journey down the Mekong was a bit ambitious as both of us were feeling more than a little bit tired the next day. Nonetheless, being the troopers that we are, we got up, had a swift breakfast and went down to meet the others who would be joining us on our trip. We were marched down to where the boats were and again it dawned on us that we would have to go on yet another boat for about 2 hours to get to the caves. Note to self: never book a trip when you are feeling very hungry, tired and therefore not thinking straight. The boat we got on was about a metre wide and 3 metres long, holding 8 people in total. The trip in itself was quite an experience as we all thought that this thing would fall apart any minute now. Thankfully that wasn't the case. We were dropped off initially at what they called the Whisky Village which came as a surprise, given that this wasn't on our itinerary but we went with the flow and checked out the village. Sadly it was really a mini village that was designed for locals to sell their bottles of whisky (with lizards and snakes inside) and scarves, so neither one of us really felt like we wanted to be there. After an hour we finally got back on the boat and headed down to the caves, which ended up being some caves that we passed by on our journey the way before from Pak Beng.
There are two caves - one is situated up some windy steps and is known as the 'Big Cave' and without a torchlight it was rather difficult to see a lot inside it! There was a buddha and some offerings in front of it, and that was about it. Down we went to the small cave, bypassing some young kids selling little birds in cages as it was apparently good luck to release them. I thought it was really cruel, and buying them would just make the kids catch more birds, so we hotstepped it to the smaller cave to check it out. This one was filled with thousands of little and large buddha figures, as people would come to the cave to pray and leave a statue inside. It was interesting but to call it a cave was a little far fetched. However, we both appreciated that this was an important place and that people made pigrimages to the cave in the old days, so all in all we didn't feel that it had been a complete waste of time. We took in the lovely scenery again as we made our way back to the mainland, and by this point both of us were worrying profusely as we were meant to be at the agency at 12 o clock and it was already 12 30 pm!
Back in Luang Prabang we grabbed some sandwiches and our swimming gear and ran down to the agency who luckily said that we would be picked up by the minivan which would take us to the waterfall. One thing we learnt about Luang Prabang is that time means little to them, so there is never a need to panic because you will eventually get to where you need to be. In the mini van we were all quite cosy (there were 13 as opposed to the 9 that are meant to be in the van) and endured a rather bumpy ride up to the waterfall. However, when we made it to the falls we were both very glad that we made it there as they were absolutely beautiful. The main part of the waterfall was about a 15 minute walk from the main gate and when you make it up there, they are a lot bigger and higher than either of us imagined them to be. The water was a baby blue colour and as you walk down, there are certain pools that the public can swim in. We chose to swim in the largest area which had a rope that swung off a tree so that you could launch yourself into it, which was a lot of fun! I wish we had the photo to hand so that we could show everyone, but that will come (when we find an internet connection that's fast enough...)
Around 5 pm, happy and exhausted, we all drove back to Luang Prabang town and Leon and I had some dinner (vegetarian stall food which cost us a quid each) before heading to Utopia, which is a restaurant/bar place that quite a few people had raved on about.
Utopia itself is worth mentioning as it is set quite far away in a residential area, and as you walk inside you are greeted by low tables, recliners, a sandy volleyball court and an impressive view of the Mekong river. It was full of travellers and deservedly so, as I could imagine that a lot of people come here to chill out during the day and party at night. We ended up playing Giant Jenga (and currently hold the record of the highest number of levels) and met some nice people from Brighton and Norway, and ended up at the infamous Bowling Alley that is the only place in town that is open past 12 midnight. Luang Prabang has a curfew for everyone, which is midnight, which means that everyone who wants to stay up later ends up going to this bowling alley. It was raucous, packed, and full of neon lights. I have a rather hazy recollection of it but I remember NOT getting to bowl and talking to a lot of random people who we kept bumping into in town. All in all it was a fun day, and at 3 am we sheepishly knocked on our guesthouse door so that they could open up and let us tip toe off to bed.
There are two caves - one is situated up some windy steps and is known as the 'Big Cave' and without a torchlight it was rather difficult to see a lot inside it! There was a buddha and some offerings in front of it, and that was about it. Down we went to the small cave, bypassing some young kids selling little birds in cages as it was apparently good luck to release them. I thought it was really cruel, and buying them would just make the kids catch more birds, so we hotstepped it to the smaller cave to check it out. This one was filled with thousands of little and large buddha figures, as people would come to the cave to pray and leave a statue inside. It was interesting but to call it a cave was a little far fetched. However, we both appreciated that this was an important place and that people made pigrimages to the cave in the old days, so all in all we didn't feel that it had been a complete waste of time. We took in the lovely scenery again as we made our way back to the mainland, and by this point both of us were worrying profusely as we were meant to be at the agency at 12 o clock and it was already 12 30 pm!
Back in Luang Prabang we grabbed some sandwiches and our swimming gear and ran down to the agency who luckily said that we would be picked up by the minivan which would take us to the waterfall. One thing we learnt about Luang Prabang is that time means little to them, so there is never a need to panic because you will eventually get to where you need to be. In the mini van we were all quite cosy (there were 13 as opposed to the 9 that are meant to be in the van) and endured a rather bumpy ride up to the waterfall. However, when we made it to the falls we were both very glad that we made it there as they were absolutely beautiful. The main part of the waterfall was about a 15 minute walk from the main gate and when you make it up there, they are a lot bigger and higher than either of us imagined them to be. The water was a baby blue colour and as you walk down, there are certain pools that the public can swim in. We chose to swim in the largest area which had a rope that swung off a tree so that you could launch yourself into it, which was a lot of fun! I wish we had the photo to hand so that we could show everyone, but that will come (when we find an internet connection that's fast enough...)
Around 5 pm, happy and exhausted, we all drove back to Luang Prabang town and Leon and I had some dinner (vegetarian stall food which cost us a quid each) before heading to Utopia, which is a restaurant/bar place that quite a few people had raved on about.
Utopia itself is worth mentioning as it is set quite far away in a residential area, and as you walk inside you are greeted by low tables, recliners, a sandy volleyball court and an impressive view of the Mekong river. It was full of travellers and deservedly so, as I could imagine that a lot of people come here to chill out during the day and party at night. We ended up playing Giant Jenga (and currently hold the record of the highest number of levels) and met some nice people from Brighton and Norway, and ended up at the infamous Bowling Alley that is the only place in town that is open past 12 midnight. Luang Prabang has a curfew for everyone, which is midnight, which means that everyone who wants to stay up later ends up going to this bowling alley. It was raucous, packed, and full of neon lights. I have a rather hazy recollection of it but I remember NOT getting to bowl and talking to a lot of random people who we kept bumping into in town. All in all it was a fun day, and at 3 am we sheepishly knocked on our guesthouse door so that they could open up and let us tip toe off to bed.
Pak Beng to Luang Prabang: Oldie Worldie Laos
Leon being ever the efficient man that he is, managed to get us down to the boat before anyone else, and therefore secured us some front row, comfy seats as opposed to the wooden benches that latecomers would have to endure. This boat was a much bigger and newer version than the one we had been on the day before, so we both had a feeling that this ride would be more enjoyable. And we were right. The second trip to Luang Prabang was more beautiful and I didn't feel sick at all. The limestone cliffs that surrounded us as we were about 2 hours away from Luang Prabang are unforgettable, and the atmosphere on the boat was amazing - everyone was looking forward to getting to our destination, having spent almost a day and a half in total on a slow boat! We arrived in Luang Prabang on schedule (around 4 pm)and like everyone else, made our way into town to find a guesthouse to settle down in and shower after a very long journey.
We ended up on the main stretch which is a street in the old town (where most tourists flock to) that is lined with restaurants, guesthouses and has the night market down one end. The buildings were old colonnial in style, and you did feel like you were being transported back in time. Everyone is laid back, traffic isn't bad at all, and we found a lovely if not slightly expensive guesthouse to stay in (which actually felt like a hotel, for once!) with a flat screen TV and a bathroom that didn't smell like damp, at last! Happily, we cleaned up, got dressed and headed out for some dinner of rice, laap (Laotian salad) and a vegetable curry. We managed to find a travel agency that had a day trip to some famous caves and waterfall for the following day, so feeling rather happy with our quick decision making, we retired to bed to watch some tacky HBO movie (this becomes a bit of a recurring theme).
We ended up on the main stretch which is a street in the old town (where most tourists flock to) that is lined with restaurants, guesthouses and has the night market down one end. The buildings were old colonnial in style, and you did feel like you were being transported back in time. Everyone is laid back, traffic isn't bad at all, and we found a lovely if not slightly expensive guesthouse to stay in (which actually felt like a hotel, for once!) with a flat screen TV and a bathroom that didn't smell like damp, at last! Happily, we cleaned up, got dressed and headed out for some dinner of rice, laap (Laotian salad) and a vegetable curry. We managed to find a travel agency that had a day trip to some famous caves and waterfall for the following day, so feeling rather happy with our quick decision making, we retired to bed to watch some tacky HBO movie (this becomes a bit of a recurring theme).
Chiang Khong to Huay Xai, Laos and beyond
Chiang Khong, as we soon found out, really serves as a border crossing town and not much more. By around 8 pm the streets grew extremely quiet and the shops were all shut for the evening. This wasn't such a bad thing for us, given that we were pretty knackered after a long bus journey, so we decided to head down to the riverside for some supper and head to bed.
The next morning it was another early rise, and sure enough the roosters were sounding off at 6 am and we got our gear together in anticipation of our onward journey to Laos. The Mekong river looked very peaceful, and as we ate our breakfast we were both shaking our heads in disbelief that we were actually going across to Laos and to do that meant taking a small tail boat trip that lasts for a minute or so.
At the other side, in Laos that is, we arrived in Huay Xai which is again the equivalent of Chiang Khong i.e. a border town and not much else. Being Malaysian, I for once had the privilege of not having to queue or pay for a visa whereas Leon had to go through some formalities of purchasing a visa before being able to carry on with the journey. This should have been a simple affair that lasted 15 minutes maximum, but the system was so shocking because, frankly, there was no system. People turned up in their boats, handed over passports and documents, and waited for what seemed like a lifetime whilst the border officials manually filled in some information onto a computer database before processing the visas. Eventually, after about 1 hr 30 minutes, Leon's name was called out and we were allowed to leave the 'immigration area'.
The next part of the trip was one that we had both been looking forward to. That is, the slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. We jumped into a tuk tuk and made our way to the other pier where we found our boat and luckily secured some seats towards the front. This was at 9 am. Little did we know that the boat wouldn't leave until it was full, and that ended up being at 12 30 pm! However, we had been warned about the poor timekeeping in Laos and the acronym PDR or Please Don't Rush, so instead we befriended a lovely German lady who was on a cycling trip in Laos, as well as some crazy Belgian guys (who weren't crazy, they were good fun but very lively!) and settled in for the trip. Finally we set off around midday and with the stunning scenery and gentle sway of the boat, we both felt extremely lucky to be able to do this trip. Unfortunately I started feeling a little ill towards the end of the 8 hour journey ( I think that this was due to sitting sideways to the direction of travel) but luckily kept it together until we reached Pak Beng. There isn't a lot to say about Pak Beng, it really serves as a stopover in the middle of nowhere for people going to Luang Prabang! We all managed to stay in what seemed like a nice-ish guesthouse for 260 Baht but both Leon and I felt like there were some unwanted creepy crawlies in our beds at night. Oh well, that's all part of the fun, I guess... Another early night after a fairly decent meal and we were up again at 6 am to secure more comfortable seats for our onward journey the next day to Luang Prabang.
The next morning it was another early rise, and sure enough the roosters were sounding off at 6 am and we got our gear together in anticipation of our onward journey to Laos. The Mekong river looked very peaceful, and as we ate our breakfast we were both shaking our heads in disbelief that we were actually going across to Laos and to do that meant taking a small tail boat trip that lasts for a minute or so.
At the other side, in Laos that is, we arrived in Huay Xai which is again the equivalent of Chiang Khong i.e. a border town and not much else. Being Malaysian, I for once had the privilege of not having to queue or pay for a visa whereas Leon had to go through some formalities of purchasing a visa before being able to carry on with the journey. This should have been a simple affair that lasted 15 minutes maximum, but the system was so shocking because, frankly, there was no system. People turned up in their boats, handed over passports and documents, and waited for what seemed like a lifetime whilst the border officials manually filled in some information onto a computer database before processing the visas. Eventually, after about 1 hr 30 minutes, Leon's name was called out and we were allowed to leave the 'immigration area'.
The next part of the trip was one that we had both been looking forward to. That is, the slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. We jumped into a tuk tuk and made our way to the other pier where we found our boat and luckily secured some seats towards the front. This was at 9 am. Little did we know that the boat wouldn't leave until it was full, and that ended up being at 12 30 pm! However, we had been warned about the poor timekeeping in Laos and the acronym PDR or Please Don't Rush, so instead we befriended a lovely German lady who was on a cycling trip in Laos, as well as some crazy Belgian guys (who weren't crazy, they were good fun but very lively!) and settled in for the trip. Finally we set off around midday and with the stunning scenery and gentle sway of the boat, we both felt extremely lucky to be able to do this trip. Unfortunately I started feeling a little ill towards the end of the 8 hour journey ( I think that this was due to sitting sideways to the direction of travel) but luckily kept it together until we reached Pak Beng. There isn't a lot to say about Pak Beng, it really serves as a stopover in the middle of nowhere for people going to Luang Prabang! We all managed to stay in what seemed like a nice-ish guesthouse for 260 Baht but both Leon and I felt like there were some unwanted creepy crawlies in our beds at night. Oh well, that's all part of the fun, I guess... Another early night after a fairly decent meal and we were up again at 6 am to secure more comfortable seats for our onward journey the next day to Luang Prabang.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Chiang Rai Hill Trek Day 3: Waterfall and on to Chiang Khong
We woke up in the garden shed feeling a little itchy and extremely sleepy. Leon informed me that he had about 2 hours sleep, as he kept feeling himself getting bitten throughout the night. I went straight to the shower and despite it being cold, I was happy to be clean once again! We had another breakfast of rice, fish, vegetables and omelette, packed out things and said farewell to Aunty Anne, who I was actually growing very fond of. We left the Akha village and headed for another village which was again a really good walk, with amazing views of the forest and not much else, although we did start walking on roads as opposed to jungle trails. We made it the other village where we sat and watched a presentation on the villages in the surrounding area, and were surprised to see that all seven of them were pretty close together but didn't mingle at all.
Afterwards, we again learned more about the tribes and their way of life in the Hilltribe Museum. After this brief bit of education, Leon, Jahe and I walked up to the final part of our trek, which was the waterfall. I wasn't expecting the waterfall to be that forceful but it was really powerful and extremely cold to swim in! Leon let me try out the water first (what a gentleman) and after I gave him the thumbs up, we both set about swimming and walking around in the waterfall, which we had all to ourselves. Jahe made like a cat and slept in the sunshine while we swam, and once we were suitably chilly enough, we decided to follow suit and laid out on the rocks and soaked up some sun. The appetites kicked in and Jahe handed over our lunches to us which consisted of chicken, rice and vegetables wrapped in a banana leaf. The meat looked very tough and dubious so Leon and I tried to politely poke at it for a while and stuck to the rice and veg. It wasn't anything to write home about but it did the trick. After 3 hours of waterfall and sunbathing, we made our way back to the previous village to wait for our pick up truck to take us back to Chiang Rai. All in all we had a fun and memorable time trekking, and when we said bye to Jahe back at our guesthouse, Leon and I felt like we were saying goodbye to a family member that we were just getting to know. As someone once said, travelling is the saddest of all pleasures and I think we both understood the meaning of that when we waved goodbye to the lovely Jahe.
However, we quickly had to put our sadness aside and get back into the swing of things as we had a bus to catch to Chiang Khong. After a swift change of clothes, a few minutes on the internet and with the help of the lady who ran our guesthouse, we had booked a room in Chiang Khong for the night and needed to get the last bus there!
The tuk tuk arrived and whisked us off to the bus station in good time. A few days before hand we had spoken to a very kind lady who worked there who informed us that we had until 5pm to get the last bus. We were looking around for her in the station and then I heard someone say 'here, here Chiang Khong bus!'. We looked up at the buses and she was there, waving at us with a beaming smile on her face. I couldn't believe she had remembered us! We were the last ones on the bus and literally left a minute after we got on it. Sometimes the timing works out perfectly, and in this instance it really had.
Now usually I wouldn't describe a bus but this local bus is worth talking about. It was probably about 30 years old, with actually desk fans hooked up to the ceiling, and bright red seats that were designed to fit on 3 people on each. The floor of the bus was wooden and held together by a couple of rusty nails, and the interior was green, yellow and red, which made it look like a Jamaican party bus! Bizarrely, the bus also had a flat screen 21 inch plasma TV, and halfway through the journey the driver thought it would be fun to stick on some Thai Karaoke music videos. I lost count but I think I watched 10 or 12 of those in a row, and every single one had the same theme... guy cheats on girlfriend, girlfriend is very upset when she sees him with another girl, guy apologizes but doesn't look like he cares that he has been caught, girlfriend hands him back a heart shaped locket on a necklace. After 5 hours on this bus, we finally made it to Chiang Khong in the early evening.
Afterwards, we again learned more about the tribes and their way of life in the Hilltribe Museum. After this brief bit of education, Leon, Jahe and I walked up to the final part of our trek, which was the waterfall. I wasn't expecting the waterfall to be that forceful but it was really powerful and extremely cold to swim in! Leon let me try out the water first (what a gentleman) and after I gave him the thumbs up, we both set about swimming and walking around in the waterfall, which we had all to ourselves. Jahe made like a cat and slept in the sunshine while we swam, and once we were suitably chilly enough, we decided to follow suit and laid out on the rocks and soaked up some sun. The appetites kicked in and Jahe handed over our lunches to us which consisted of chicken, rice and vegetables wrapped in a banana leaf. The meat looked very tough and dubious so Leon and I tried to politely poke at it for a while and stuck to the rice and veg. It wasn't anything to write home about but it did the trick. After 3 hours of waterfall and sunbathing, we made our way back to the previous village to wait for our pick up truck to take us back to Chiang Rai. All in all we had a fun and memorable time trekking, and when we said bye to Jahe back at our guesthouse, Leon and I felt like we were saying goodbye to a family member that we were just getting to know. As someone once said, travelling is the saddest of all pleasures and I think we both understood the meaning of that when we waved goodbye to the lovely Jahe.
However, we quickly had to put our sadness aside and get back into the swing of things as we had a bus to catch to Chiang Khong. After a swift change of clothes, a few minutes on the internet and with the help of the lady who ran our guesthouse, we had booked a room in Chiang Khong for the night and needed to get the last bus there!
The tuk tuk arrived and whisked us off to the bus station in good time. A few days before hand we had spoken to a very kind lady who worked there who informed us that we had until 5pm to get the last bus. We were looking around for her in the station and then I heard someone say 'here, here Chiang Khong bus!'. We looked up at the buses and she was there, waving at us with a beaming smile on her face. I couldn't believe she had remembered us! We were the last ones on the bus and literally left a minute after we got on it. Sometimes the timing works out perfectly, and in this instance it really had.
Now usually I wouldn't describe a bus but this local bus is worth talking about. It was probably about 30 years old, with actually desk fans hooked up to the ceiling, and bright red seats that were designed to fit on 3 people on each. The floor of the bus was wooden and held together by a couple of rusty nails, and the interior was green, yellow and red, which made it look like a Jamaican party bus! Bizarrely, the bus also had a flat screen 21 inch plasma TV, and halfway through the journey the driver thought it would be fun to stick on some Thai Karaoke music videos. I lost count but I think I watched 10 or 12 of those in a row, and every single one had the same theme... guy cheats on girlfriend, girlfriend is very upset when she sees him with another girl, guy apologizes but doesn't look like he cares that he has been caught, girlfriend hands him back a heart shaped locket on a necklace. After 5 hours on this bus, we finally made it to Chiang Khong in the early evening.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Chiang Rai Hill Trek Day 2: Bamboo cups and Crazy Aunty Anne 21st Jan
The following day we were again rather rudely awaken by the pigs and roosters, who seemed to be having some sort of barn party around 5 am. Although we were used to this from our stay at Naga Hill, it still baffles me that the village tribe don't get sick of the din which they have to put up with every day. The family woke up around 6 am and thankfully Jahe didn't need us to get up until 8. Sleepily we headed down for our cold showers and wandered into the kitchen, where breakfast (rice,vegetables and fried fish) was already waiting for us on the table. Now I am rather used to having nasi lemak in Malaysia for breakfast every now and then, but these guys have the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It makes you really think about how lucky we are to have the choice of steak on one day and pasta the next!
We packed up our things and said our goodbyes before heading up to 'The viewpoint', which is a little hut up in the hills about a half hour walk from the village and the view from up there is spectacular. What you get is a panoramic view of never ending forest and blue sky, and the only sound you can hear is the running fresh water that they directed down from a source in the hills, so that they can go up there and cook a meal and chill out. We sat there and took in the view, had a snooze and then got to work.
Jahe and his friend started chopping up bamboo and in about 5 minutes they made some bamboo cups to drink our water and tea from. They then chopped up longer pieces of bamboo and lined them with banana leaves, then instructed Leon and I to fill these with rice and some water. This was to make sticky rice, and Jahe used another bit of bamboo to make an egg dish (basically an omelet but steamed inside a bit of bamboo). Leon then attempted to make a couple more cups- the first one was a little small but he soon got the hang of it and made a perfect one the second time. We then made some chop sticks out of bamboo, whilst Jahe got to work on making the soup. By the time lunch was ready we were all starving and the food was amazing! The thais love to eat a chilli paste/salsa with every meal, and they brought some along to add some more flavour to the meal. After lunch and some washing up, we sat outside the hut and had a mid afternoon nap. Definitely an afternoon that we will never forget.
Having awoken from our post lunch nap, it was time to leave our scenic hill top view point and begin our trek to the next village. The walk through the hill side wasn't too tough and as the main heat of the day had subsided it was much more pleasant than the ascent to the viewpoint. Having slowly climbed the hills for the duration of our walk , we had a perfect panoramic view of the Akha tribe as we descended to the village. We had been given an overview of what to expect in terms of village differences by the Mirror Art Group the previous day, and even before we entered the village you could see quite a marked difference. The Lafu are pretty much fully self sustained whereas the Akha are farmers second and trading entrepreneurs first. This in turn means the Akha are more affluent. The majority of the buildings in in the Akha village were made of timber ( apart from one bamboo hut near the entrance) with corrugated iron roofs whereas in the Lahu, they were all made from bamboo.
As we entered the village , you could immediately feel that the inhabitants were very used to tourists and Alicia and didn't get a very "authentic" feeling compared with our previous days experience. That being said, we remained open minded as we made our way to the center of the Village. Having left us on our own for a few minutes, Jahe returned and lead us off to our evenings dwelling. It did take me somewhat by surprise when we started making our way back to the village entrance and noticing that there were many many tourists staying I half expected they might be full and that we would be spending the night in the forest....Thankfully this was not the case and Jahe introduced us to our hostess for the evening who Alicia and I slightly unfairly named "Crazy Auntie Anne". Anne lived in the one bamboo building in the village near the entrance to the village I referred to earlier. Tonight Alicia and wouldn't be spending our evening in Anne's house, but in the quarters that had been assigned for visitors next to the house. The sleeping shack can only be compared to a garden shed and had a feel to it a similar to what I imagine a solitary confinement cell in a Japanese prisoner of war camp might be like....Again here I am being a bit mean, but the we had become used to the relatively luxurious accommodation of the night before. We then had a meal of fish, vegetables, chili salsa rice and tea followed by a display of traditional Akha dancing by the women of the tribe. Anne insisted Alicia and I dress up as one of the locals for the evening which was also fun...We then retired for an evening of restless none sleeping.
We packed up our things and said our goodbyes before heading up to 'The viewpoint', which is a little hut up in the hills about a half hour walk from the village and the view from up there is spectacular. What you get is a panoramic view of never ending forest and blue sky, and the only sound you can hear is the running fresh water that they directed down from a source in the hills, so that they can go up there and cook a meal and chill out. We sat there and took in the view, had a snooze and then got to work.
Jahe and his friend started chopping up bamboo and in about 5 minutes they made some bamboo cups to drink our water and tea from. They then chopped up longer pieces of bamboo and lined them with banana leaves, then instructed Leon and I to fill these with rice and some water. This was to make sticky rice, and Jahe used another bit of bamboo to make an egg dish (basically an omelet but steamed inside a bit of bamboo). Leon then attempted to make a couple more cups- the first one was a little small but he soon got the hang of it and made a perfect one the second time. We then made some chop sticks out of bamboo, whilst Jahe got to work on making the soup. By the time lunch was ready we were all starving and the food was amazing! The thais love to eat a chilli paste/salsa with every meal, and they brought some along to add some more flavour to the meal. After lunch and some washing up, we sat outside the hut and had a mid afternoon nap. Definitely an afternoon that we will never forget.
Having awoken from our post lunch nap, it was time to leave our scenic hill top view point and begin our trek to the next village. The walk through the hill side wasn't too tough and as the main heat of the day had subsided it was much more pleasant than the ascent to the viewpoint. Having slowly climbed the hills for the duration of our walk , we had a perfect panoramic view of the Akha tribe as we descended to the village. We had been given an overview of what to expect in terms of village differences by the Mirror Art Group the previous day, and even before we entered the village you could see quite a marked difference. The Lafu are pretty much fully self sustained whereas the Akha are farmers second and trading entrepreneurs first. This in turn means the Akha are more affluent. The majority of the buildings in in the Akha village were made of timber ( apart from one bamboo hut near the entrance) with corrugated iron roofs whereas in the Lahu, they were all made from bamboo.
As we entered the village , you could immediately feel that the inhabitants were very used to tourists and Alicia and didn't get a very "authentic" feeling compared with our previous days experience. That being said, we remained open minded as we made our way to the center of the Village. Having left us on our own for a few minutes, Jahe returned and lead us off to our evenings dwelling. It did take me somewhat by surprise when we started making our way back to the village entrance and noticing that there were many many tourists staying I half expected they might be full and that we would be spending the night in the forest....Thankfully this was not the case and Jahe introduced us to our hostess for the evening who Alicia and I slightly unfairly named "Crazy Auntie Anne". Anne lived in the one bamboo building in the village near the entrance to the village I referred to earlier. Tonight Alicia and wouldn't be spending our evening in Anne's house, but in the quarters that had been assigned for visitors next to the house. The sleeping shack can only be compared to a garden shed and had a feel to it a similar to what I imagine a solitary confinement cell in a Japanese prisoner of war camp might be like....Again here I am being a bit mean, but the we had become used to the relatively luxurious accommodation of the night before. We then had a meal of fish, vegetables, chili salsa rice and tea followed by a display of traditional Akha dancing by the women of the tribe. Anne insisted Alicia and I dress up as one of the locals for the evening which was also fun...We then retired for an evening of restless none sleeping.
Hill Trek Day 1: Elephants and Ban Yafu 20th Jan
After a rather relaxing stay at Naga Hill, Leon and I were feeling a little sad when we checked into the Mirror Art Guesthouse, which was 4 times cheaper but you could certainly tell by the room! Nonetheless, we were more excited about going on our 2 day hill trek the next day, so took a deep breath and made the most of our last day in Chiang Rai. The following morning we were up bright and early, and were greeted by Jahe, who was to be our guide for the entire trip. He initially came across as a quiet man, but as we got to know him we found his English to be a lot better than most guides, but he was just a bit shy about using it. Jahe is from the Lahu tribe, and we found out that we would be staying in his village that evening, and he was extremely excited to be taking us to see his home.
So off we went in the sawng thaew (open back van, pretty comfy although you can really feel/taste the dust when you're driving around!) and after being shown around a wet market and another Wat (which we had already seen), they took us about 45 minutes outside of Chiang Rai towards the more remote hillside.
That was where the Mirror Art Foundation was based and this was where we had our induction for the trip. The Mirror Art Group are an NGO (one of many in Chiang Rai) whose main aim is to protect the heritage of local hill tribes and help them to cope with the changing world around them. Alot of tribes are being forced to move out of the hills and towards the main city centre, thus taking away their self-sustaining way of life and forcing them to go mainstream i.e.sell their handicraft in the markets but a lot of them find this extremely difficult and also upsetting. We met Thellie, a Brit who has lived in Chiang Rai and worked for Mirror Art for the last 3 years, and he gave us a great insight into the work they have been doing and also the etiquette that needs to be practised when going to stay with these families. They don't like girls and boys to hold hands, kiss or touch at all really - all fairly different from the way of life back in the UK! However, of course we were more than happy to abide by the rules... which a lot of other tourists seem to break!
We were dropped off at the Elephant village, took a few photos of a MASSIVE snake that lived in a cage, just by a cafe (very random), and then faced our 2 hour elephant ride to the Lahu village. Our Elephant guide called How - was a funny man who looked about 45 but was actually Leon's age, and our lovely elephant was called Haiti. Haiti, we were told, was 39 years old and seemed like a lovely elephant. We weren't too sure about the bumpy 2 hour ride we were about to go on, and seeing that we would be doing some steep uphill and down hill elephant riding, I have to say both Leon and I were quite relieved when we reached the Lahu village (called Ban Yafu) both fully intact.
The Yafu village is fairly remote compared to others, as there isn't a road near by (the closest one is about an hour or so away), and because of this the village itself is pretty poor. We could sense this from the very basic bamboo houses, but most if not all houses had electricity for some part of the day and clean water, which I imagine some even poorer village tribes do not have. The place was full of life, with lots of chickens running around and LOTS of pigs and dogs (I stayed well away!)because each family keeps these animals, who live happily under their houses.
We were quite fortunate in that Jahe had arranged for us to stay with the village teacher, who was evidently the wealthiest out of the lot as he and his wife had the most modern house (built of concrete blocks as opposed to wooden ones) and they had a separate kitchen, whereas most families had their kitchen in the house. When I say kitchen what they really have is a big fire place in the middle of the house, almost like an indoor barbecue, which also helps to keep the termites away! As it was nearing sunset, we sat on the verandah of the teachers house, sipped on some Chang and took in the breathtaking view of the hills.
I was then taken to the kitchen where I dutifully helped the teacher's wife chop some vegetables and make dinner, whilst Leon sat and played with Naneh, Jahe's very adorable and energetic 3 year old daughter. This was the start of our education on the Yafu, who stick to the tradition that women cook, clean and weave, whereas the men build and chop things up! Dinner consisted of steamed white rice, vegetable soup and vegetable stir fry, which was all very delicious, and having had a tiring day we watched some thai tv version of The Bold and the Beautiful before putting our heads down to sleep around 9 pm. To our surprise, our host (the teacher) came out of his room with a massive rifle, only to inform us that he was off out to go hunting for some chickens! Leon was keen to go along but I pursuaded him to stay (phew!) and we dozed off to bed whilst the other men in the village went off on their hunt. Day one in Ban Yafu was extremely interesting and although we were told that this particular tribe were very shy and reserved, we really found them to be very welcoming and were very grateful to stay with such gracious people.
So off we went in the sawng thaew (open back van, pretty comfy although you can really feel/taste the dust when you're driving around!) and after being shown around a wet market and another Wat (which we had already seen), they took us about 45 minutes outside of Chiang Rai towards the more remote hillside.
That was where the Mirror Art Foundation was based and this was where we had our induction for the trip. The Mirror Art Group are an NGO (one of many in Chiang Rai) whose main aim is to protect the heritage of local hill tribes and help them to cope with the changing world around them. Alot of tribes are being forced to move out of the hills and towards the main city centre, thus taking away their self-sustaining way of life and forcing them to go mainstream i.e.sell their handicraft in the markets but a lot of them find this extremely difficult and also upsetting. We met Thellie, a Brit who has lived in Chiang Rai and worked for Mirror Art for the last 3 years, and he gave us a great insight into the work they have been doing and also the etiquette that needs to be practised when going to stay with these families. They don't like girls and boys to hold hands, kiss or touch at all really - all fairly different from the way of life back in the UK! However, of course we were more than happy to abide by the rules... which a lot of other tourists seem to break!
We were dropped off at the Elephant village, took a few photos of a MASSIVE snake that lived in a cage, just by a cafe (very random), and then faced our 2 hour elephant ride to the Lahu village. Our Elephant guide called How - was a funny man who looked about 45 but was actually Leon's age, and our lovely elephant was called Haiti. Haiti, we were told, was 39 years old and seemed like a lovely elephant. We weren't too sure about the bumpy 2 hour ride we were about to go on, and seeing that we would be doing some steep uphill and down hill elephant riding, I have to say both Leon and I were quite relieved when we reached the Lahu village (called Ban Yafu) both fully intact.
The Yafu village is fairly remote compared to others, as there isn't a road near by (the closest one is about an hour or so away), and because of this the village itself is pretty poor. We could sense this from the very basic bamboo houses, but most if not all houses had electricity for some part of the day and clean water, which I imagine some even poorer village tribes do not have. The place was full of life, with lots of chickens running around and LOTS of pigs and dogs (I stayed well away!)because each family keeps these animals, who live happily under their houses.
We were quite fortunate in that Jahe had arranged for us to stay with the village teacher, who was evidently the wealthiest out of the lot as he and his wife had the most modern house (built of concrete blocks as opposed to wooden ones) and they had a separate kitchen, whereas most families had their kitchen in the house. When I say kitchen what they really have is a big fire place in the middle of the house, almost like an indoor barbecue, which also helps to keep the termites away! As it was nearing sunset, we sat on the verandah of the teachers house, sipped on some Chang and took in the breathtaking view of the hills.
I was then taken to the kitchen where I dutifully helped the teacher's wife chop some vegetables and make dinner, whilst Leon sat and played with Naneh, Jahe's very adorable and energetic 3 year old daughter. This was the start of our education on the Yafu, who stick to the tradition that women cook, clean and weave, whereas the men build and chop things up! Dinner consisted of steamed white rice, vegetable soup and vegetable stir fry, which was all very delicious, and having had a tiring day we watched some thai tv version of The Bold and the Beautiful before putting our heads down to sleep around 9 pm. To our surprise, our host (the teacher) came out of his room with a massive rifle, only to inform us that he was off out to go hunting for some chickens! Leon was keen to go along but I pursuaded him to stay (phew!) and we dozed off to bed whilst the other men in the village went off on their hunt. Day one in Ban Yafu was extremely interesting and although we were told that this particular tribe were very shy and reserved, we really found them to be very welcoming and were very grateful to stay with such gracious people.
Monday, 18 January 2010
13th - 18th Jan: Naga Hill Retreat
Naga Hill Retreat is only 15 minutes away from the centre of Chiang Rai but it is situated right next to a large, beautiful lake with a University and park perched at the other side of the lake. When we arrived at Naga hill we were stunned - it was so peaceful, and all the bungalows were far enough from one another that it felt like you were staying there on your own. We were greeted by Tri, who is such a smiley, welcoming Thai lady with a little 2 month old daughter and lovely husband. She showed us around the main grounds (salt water pool that was 25 m long and faced the hills, amazing! and chilled restaurant bar area) before showing us to our bungalow. It had a large double bed, fan, and out door bathroom and bath tub, which looked extremely inviting. To top it all off, there was a hammock outside our front door for lazing about.... we were in heaven. Having not been in a pool since Malaysia, Leon and I quickly dashed off and made it to the pool side in about 20 seconds after dumping our stuff. I kid you not when I say it was probably 2 degrees centigrade in that pool, but after a while you get used to it! And so it began, our routine of swimming, reading, sunbathing, eating and making new friends. We ventured out during our stay there to the hot springs (not worth the trek, just a number of big bath tubs in the middle of nowhere) and attempted to go fishing in the lake. Fishing was hilarious in hindsight, and we had to go to some local fisher men to help us untangle our line! No fish were caught and we barely got the line in the water... if someone can give some tips on casting off, then please share!! We were woken up every morning by the darn roosters (around 5 am) and many mosquitos were cursed and killed, but overall it was such a relaxing 5 days.... We made friends with Kaew who is a 29 year old Thai guy who works there and is hilarious... he wants to set up his own resort by the sea someday and we'll definitely go and visit him once it is done. Tonight, now we are back in Chiang Rai, we'll be meeting up with Nicolas and Paul, 2 lovely Austrian men who are there on business and pleasure and told many tales about their 'Journeys to the end of the world'. So far we are having a wonderful time, but of course are missing all our friends and family at the same time.
Chiang Rai: White Temples and Night Bazaars
Chiang Rai, as Leon rightly put it, is a sleepy town (a bit like the area around TMC in Bangsar) but still with it's fair share of young backpackers and older tourists... lots of Thai women trying to entice poor Leon into their Lair to get a backrub, whilst throwing some evils over to me because they thought I was his Thai girlfriend (a theme that I think I'm going to have to get used to for the next 3 months!) Highlights of our time exploring this town have been the night bazaar which sells the usual trinkets and woolly hats, but also a place where everyone seems to go to for their evening meal. We had a really tasty hotpot with veg and seafood (100 Baht, so under 2 quid) and some tempura which was the best that I've ever had! We did a day of site seeing as well which included the White temple, which is a modern buddhist temple that has murals of the twin towers (NY), keanu reeves and star trek as opposed to your usual olden day murals... Then up to the Monkey caves (which was literally a cave with lots of monkeys around it). We made it to the Golden Triangle which was where the main trading between Burma, Laos and Thailand took place, and apparently a lot of opium being produced still across the waters in Burma. Then off to the Opium Museum to brush up on our history, then down to another temple before we drove back to our guesthouse for more night bazaar fun! That evening we played our first gig in the Cat bar, where Sam (the husband of Cat, who owns the bar) invites people to Jam With Sam (or for Sam, as we soon discovered) and sing your heart out. This was a dream come true, and whilst Leon strummed away on the guitar with one-toothed Sam, I belted out a few numbers including Hotel California, Yellow and Under The Bridge. I knew I'd manage to get my karaoke fix, one way or another!After stumbling back home to bed at 2 am, we were ready for our next part of the trip... Naga Hill Retreat...
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Sat 9th - Sun 10th Jan - Khaosan to Chaing Rai
Having departed on our trip woefully underpreparred in some respects (thinking that 5 pairs of underwear and a matching number set of socks would suffice as well as one pair of shorts) and not being allowed to purchase any of the goods I so desperatley needed, and I quote what I have heard on sooooooo many occasions from Alicia, "it will eb cheaper in Thailand." , today was my opportunity to indulge in some retail therapy, Thai style. With this in miond we headed off earlyish to the infamous Khaosan Road, a haven for European Backpackers offering cheap accomodation, even cheaper booze and row upon row of stalls selling the same tshirts, shorts, sun glasses etc etc.... Following lots of haggling, which became tiremsome quickly, we hot footed it away with plastic bags full of all cheap garments agreeing never to return......
On returning to the Thewat for a quick nap, we made our way by skytrain to the centre of town for dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, http://www.pda.or.th/restaurant/. The restaurant was conceptualized in part to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning and to generate income to support various development activities of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) within Thailand. Despite tere not being an Asian face dining in the restaurant, we found service and food were excellent and the setting, including several action figures made entirley out of different coloured condoms fun and quirky.
From here we grabbed a taxi and headed off to meet Alicoa's school frined Jolanda for drinks in a retro bar not far away. En route home, we were pulled over and frisked by the Thai police, which wasnt much fun, although I beleive we may have been questioned more thoroughly had I not told the lead officer I was from Manchester, upon which he decied I was a Manchester United fan which just so happend to be his favourite team!!
With the arrival of Sunday 10th Jan came the chance to escape the big cities which have been our home for the last month or so and we jetted off with trusty Air Asia to a town at the North Eastern point of Thailand , Chang Rai. Campared to Bangkok this place is a sleepy place, although it still has a tourist feel to it given it is the main spring board point to Laos as well as being the home to hill trekking and home stays with local tribes. We checked in to our clean and roomy guest house and headed off to familiarise ourselves with the new surroundings.......
On returning to the Thewat for a quick nap, we made our way by skytrain to the centre of town for dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, http://www.pda.or.th/restaurant/. The restaurant was conceptualized in part to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning and to generate income to support various development activities of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) within Thailand. Despite tere not being an Asian face dining in the restaurant, we found service and food were excellent and the setting, including several action figures made entirley out of different coloured condoms fun and quirky.
From here we grabbed a taxi and headed off to meet Alicoa's school frined Jolanda for drinks in a retro bar not far away. En route home, we were pulled over and frisked by the Thai police, which wasnt much fun, although I beleive we may have been questioned more thoroughly had I not told the lead officer I was from Manchester, upon which he decied I was a Manchester United fan which just so happend to be his favourite team!!
With the arrival of Sunday 10th Jan came the chance to escape the big cities which have been our home for the last month or so and we jetted off with trusty Air Asia to a town at the North Eastern point of Thailand , Chang Rai. Campared to Bangkok this place is a sleepy place, although it still has a tourist feel to it given it is the main spring board point to Laos as well as being the home to hill trekking and home stays with local tribes. We checked in to our clean and roomy guest house and headed off to familiarise ourselves with the new surroundings.......
Friday, 8 January 2010
Friday 8th Jan, 2010: Make like a Tourist in BKK
Friday was the day of Tourism Bangkok, 2010. We put on our comfy shoes and tuk tuk-ed it down to the Grand Palace on this sweltering day. I figured that since we only had 3 nights in Bangkok, Leon ought to see some of the major sites and really tick them off his list of must sees. The Grand Palace was very packed on Friday and to make matters worse, Leon was not wearing the appropriate clothing to visit the Palace so he had to rent some long, bright blue trousers which made him look like he had escaped from a Bangkok prison - I have photos to keep this memory alive, and trust me I shall be sharing these with everyone!
We made our way around and took lots of snap shots including the mini angkor wat model, the emerald buddha (from the outside, no photography of said buddha allowed from inside the wat) and having lost a lot of minerals and water through sweat (again), we decided to stroll down the street and see where it would take us. The traffic was as immense and noisy as ever, and I couldn't believe that it was actually ten times worse than in KL... never again will I say a bad word against my country's traffic jams. We arrived at a market, wolfed down some freshly made fish cakes, and decided to increase the 'tourist factor' by 5 and take a river trip for an hour. Although a bit of a rip off, it was a beautiful day and we got a speedy boat to ourselves down the river, where we could take in the cityscape and see how Thais lived along the riverbank. It was really sweet actually seeing lots of people sat at home in their living room watching tele, even though they were really only a couple of inches above water and were being held up by some not-so-sturdy looking stilts!
We breezed on down the river past Wat Arun which housed the infamous Reclining Buddha but having had enough of the bouncy boat, decided to direct our driver back to shore and set off on foot again down to Sam Phrang market. Now this was quite a distance and I think we really did work out those quads, but eventually we made it there! The market was full baskets and trays full of flowers (my mum would have had a field day), chillis, fresh veg and the usual clothes and trinkets. Luck would have it that we stumbled across a shopping mall that was like an air conditioned Little India, and went up to the food court for some lunch and a little time to reflect on our busy day.
In the evening, after a quick power nap as it rained cats and dogs outside, we ventured down to Sukhumvit Road via taxi and Skytrain and had a lovely meal at Cabbages and Condoms, which is a famous restaurant that gives proceeds to AIDS research, and afterwards met my friend Jolanda, her sister and some of their friends for a few drinks in a retro bar where the locals all frequent. All in all it has been a busy time for us in Bangkok, and we are both looking forward to a little quiet time in Chiang Rai....
We made our way around and took lots of snap shots including the mini angkor wat model, the emerald buddha (from the outside, no photography of said buddha allowed from inside the wat) and having lost a lot of minerals and water through sweat (again), we decided to stroll down the street and see where it would take us. The traffic was as immense and noisy as ever, and I couldn't believe that it was actually ten times worse than in KL... never again will I say a bad word against my country's traffic jams. We arrived at a market, wolfed down some freshly made fish cakes, and decided to increase the 'tourist factor' by 5 and take a river trip for an hour. Although a bit of a rip off, it was a beautiful day and we got a speedy boat to ourselves down the river, where we could take in the cityscape and see how Thais lived along the riverbank. It was really sweet actually seeing lots of people sat at home in their living room watching tele, even though they were really only a couple of inches above water and were being held up by some not-so-sturdy looking stilts!
We breezed on down the river past Wat Arun which housed the infamous Reclining Buddha but having had enough of the bouncy boat, decided to direct our driver back to shore and set off on foot again down to Sam Phrang market. Now this was quite a distance and I think we really did work out those quads, but eventually we made it there! The market was full baskets and trays full of flowers (my mum would have had a field day), chillis, fresh veg and the usual clothes and trinkets. Luck would have it that we stumbled across a shopping mall that was like an air conditioned Little India, and went up to the food court for some lunch and a little time to reflect on our busy day.
In the evening, after a quick power nap as it rained cats and dogs outside, we ventured down to Sukhumvit Road via taxi and Skytrain and had a lovely meal at Cabbages and Condoms, which is a famous restaurant that gives proceeds to AIDS research, and afterwards met my friend Jolanda, her sister and some of their friends for a few drinks in a retro bar where the locals all frequent. All in all it has been a busy time for us in Bangkok, and we are both looking forward to a little quiet time in Chiang Rai....
Smiley Cabbies and a relaxing day in Thewet
Thursday 7th Jan: We left Changi airport at 3 pm and landed ahead of schedule in Bangkok, which was a promising start. However, having had a fish ball noodle soup at the airport before departure, my tummy was telling me that something was not quite right. Nonetheless, we got into a cab and headed off to Thewet, which was described as a chilled, family friendly place for the over 30s which was really more down our alley than the Ibiza-esque area of Khao San. NEVER in my life have I met such a smiley cab driver. As we zoomed down the highway and passed the tolls, Thinkanon ( I think his name was) suddenly stopped at the road side, turned to us saying 'sorry sorry mam. sorry sir' and ran off to the rest room as he was pretty desperate to go! After relieving himself, we went on our way to Thewet, passing the crazy tuk tuk and general drivers on the road as we reached our destination.
Thewet is in the Northwest part of Bangkok city and is located next to the National Library and wet market. Apart from the 7 Eleven, this place really was sleepyville, lined with a couple of chilled guesthouses that welcomed anyone and everyone to stay for a night or three (as long as you take your shoes of, of course).
Our chosen guesthouse is clean, our room is an ensuite and really looked like something our of a chalet in the swiss alps! Allowing ourself the luxury of aircon, we have now extended our stay there until tomorrow (Sunday) as we feel pretty much at home down this particular Soi.
On the first day we took time to adapt to our surroundings, had some phad thai, fish and rice for dinner and just relaxed. Leon and I were feeling a little groggy and I was waiting for my stomach to settle, so it was an early night for us. For the first time in my life, I tried out earplugs to get some shut eye, but unfortunately getting a room facing the road meant that we had to endure the honks of the passing traffic below and the procession of children in the morning (we didn't realise there was a school very close by!) However, at least we got some sleep and were ready to do the touristy things in Bangkok on the Friday morning.
Thewet is in the Northwest part of Bangkok city and is located next to the National Library and wet market. Apart from the 7 Eleven, this place really was sleepyville, lined with a couple of chilled guesthouses that welcomed anyone and everyone to stay for a night or three (as long as you take your shoes of, of course).
Our chosen guesthouse is clean, our room is an ensuite and really looked like something our of a chalet in the swiss alps! Allowing ourself the luxury of aircon, we have now extended our stay there until tomorrow (Sunday) as we feel pretty much at home down this particular Soi.
On the first day we took time to adapt to our surroundings, had some phad thai, fish and rice for dinner and just relaxed. Leon and I were feeling a little groggy and I was waiting for my stomach to settle, so it was an early night for us. For the first time in my life, I tried out earplugs to get some shut eye, but unfortunately getting a room facing the road meant that we had to endure the honks of the passing traffic below and the procession of children in the morning (we didn't realise there was a school very close by!) However, at least we got some sleep and were ready to do the touristy things in Bangkok on the Friday morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
