So we were collapsed in Si Pan Don in southern Laos near the Cambodian border in a bamboo hut on the Mekong.
Having decided to leave after just 1 day we prepared for the boat ride at 7am the next day. I slept ok ... and it rained a lot through the night. We had hired a couple of bikes the day before and when I woke up one was gone!!! but thankfully the guesthouse owner had just taken it to do some shopping. People down here seem to have even less than the people in the north. They are sweet but a little more difficult sometimes. The Mekong is very beautiful as usual. It does have a certain magic. Having taken the bikes back we got on the boat with a Scottish girl who was also leaving. As we boarded the boat it began to drissle lightly. I thought nothing of it as it had rained through the night and so I thought it was done raining. I had gotten used to the northern weather which had been so dry through February but by now it was March. As we set off the heavens opened. Of course Anett had suggested I wore a rain coat but of course I knew better. I got completely and utterly soaked like I've never been soaked before. I cradled my extremely non waterproof camera bag and wrapped myself around it in a attempt to keep it dry. Of course Frau Brummer (Anett) had a rucksack with a rain cap, she had a rain coat too with a hood. All my bagage was from Bangkok and was cheap imitation but I have to say it worked pretty well!!! Well sometimes....it didn't do my back much good.
Although we were being soaked, the Mekong was actually offering us one more extra special treat before we left. The heavy rain made the river even more beautiful. It looked fantastic! The rain was so heavy it made a mist which hung over the river and in this spray small wooden boats floated on the now completely flat surface with fisherman wearing only shorts sitting on the boats looking after their lines or making a break for the shore. In the background the palm trees were silhouetted by the sun. As we arrive at shore I climbed out into the water and pulled the boat to sure. The boat driver was bailing frantically by now. The rain of course stopped as soon as we got there. Now we had the long walk up to the bus again... still makes no sense. The bus driver had no tickets so the driver scribles Pakse on a piece of paper, tears it off and gives it to me. 'There you ticket!'....erm ok....I hope so! Anett is very amused when I give her the ticket. I think she still has it.
The bus was meant to leave at 9 but we have the usual wait until they have found a customer for every space which means sitting in a grubby food shop out of the intermittant rain until the bus looks like it might go. Whilst sipping my cafe lao (if that doesn't wake you up you're dead!) we are joined by a French man about my age, who has just come through Turkey, Iran, India, Vietnam and Cambodia. We have a chat about Iran for a while. He seems to have loved Iran and tells me it is easier to travel there than Cambodia! Cool.... think it's time to go back maybe?! Hmmm. Anyway the bus starts to look like it might go, so we get on. After a while another bus from Pakse pulls up and we spot Craig sitting on it. I call him over and tell him we're off. He's a bit surprised 'So it's that interesting here huh?!'...'fraid so.... byyyeeee!'. And we're off.
The bus conductor on this trip is interesting. He's built like a Thai boxer and is imaculately turned out in jeans and a white t-shirt. Very James Dean. He's very talkative to the locals and seems to love his job. It looks as if he's a retired contender who has packed up the gloves and is happy to work away on the buses. He is so switched on and makes sure everything runs right. I like it when these people are around as you have a sense of security about the trip. 3 hours later as we approach Pakse we stop and a tuk tuk driver gets on. He's poaching passengers. I recognise him..... it's the same dodgey driver with no papers that we had the other day. I warned a couple of interested tourists off and we're on our way again. Arriving at the southern bus station it's more of the same and we jump into the least chaotic tuk tuk to take us to the another bus station. Our plan is to get to Thai border at Chong Mek and cross by land. There is a pick up bus waiting to go when we arrive but we decide to slow things down a bit and refuse the shared pick up so that we can get fed and watered. Allegedly the next one leaves in an hour and after a rest we stroll through the very smelly market to find some Thai or Lao pop music. The language barrier had gotten huge down south and it was a struggle to get what we wanted so we headed back to the bus to negotiate. Problem is a bus left a short while ago and now are probably gonna have to wait till the bus is full before it goes. The taxis are pricey but we're getting impatient and would like to go now. A taxi driver took advantage and offered a good price and I asked to get our bags down but I've caused a problem now... the driver won't take the bags down and wants to do a deal. I try my best to wriggle out but I can't and realise quickly that this could get ugly and I remember giving Anett a very helpless look..... Help! We ended up chartering the whole pickup for a few dollars and to be honest who cares it. It was worth it. It's a long drive and we're tired and it's a welcome relief not to have our knees up around our ears for a change. Or have chickens pecking you or rat pee drip on you or..... (Lonely Planet's 'South East Asia on a shoe string suggests avoiding places where you may come into contact with live poulty in order to prevent contracting avian bird flu... In South East Asia!? Yeah OK!!! Are you taking the piss!?!?).
The earlier break in the weather and the massive rain fall has caused a real drop in temperature. For the first time in a long while it's very chilly even though it's midday. I'm still damp too and feeling the cold. The open pickup makes this even more noticeable. Arriving at the border we pass a massive queue of very old trucks waiting to transport goods across the border and are plonked at the barrier where there are stalls setup selling liquer and cigarettes. It's very like one of the dodgey Asian or Middle Eastern borders or frontier towns you see in Bond movies. In no mans land between the 2 gates there are dozens of stalls selling everything from Lao Lao to DVD players and at knock down prices. I bought a bottle of Lao Lao, sticky rice basket and some bangin' Lao tunes. Well actually a CD of cheesey Thai pop music of the type we have gotten used to hearing on the busses.
It's a fair walk and at immigration we fill out a few forms and get stamped out. This is it. Bye bye Laos but it's by no means the end of the adventure. At immigration we pass a group of what I would call the 'beautiful people'. Travellers who really can't get over themselves cos they are so cool. 'Here look everyone I've got a guitar!' Anyway we've seen these guys on and off through Laos but only in the easier places. Never off the beaten track and always in bar with a cigarette (and never actually playing the bloddy guitar!). They're not very cool today though. They thought that the visa was for 60 days because it said 30 days on it or cos they forgot what month it was. They are slapped with a huge $250 fine..... wooohoooo! 'What are we gonna do man?'... 'Bye now, have a nice trip'. Amused me anyway. They had always been too cool to talk to us before. Oh I'm being mean aren't I.
The Thai side of the border is being heavily moderised which is a sign of the kind of goods traffic flowing into an increasingly free Laos. Seeing this I realise I came just in time. For now though you have to walk around the modern terminal, which is under construction, and through a muddy market with live fish, almost live meat and all the other usual Asian Market goodies. You can get a live eel or a set of neon lights for your scooter just like duty free back home?! It's another long walk to the bus stop. We had planned to try and get as far as Ubon Ratchethani and then get the night train to Bangkok maybe stopping at Ayuthaya on the way. There's not direct bus to Ubon. We have to get a 2 hour pickup to Pik Bun and then a local bus, 1 hour, to Ubon. It's cheap though which is good cos we're low on Thai cash and I have to do a crafty dollar exchange. There isn't much cover here either and we're cold so Anett cracks open a bottle of Lao Lao, she really is East German, and takes a big swig! I'm quite shocked but it's a bloody good idea and gives instant warmth. Before long though we're on our way in a very chilly Sawngthaew (pickup if you remember... or literally translated 2 bench). It's obvious we are back in Thailand as the people are so lovely and we are chatted to by a few interested locals. It's still unusual for travellers to cross this border. They are amused by us. A little surprised by the swigging from the lao lao bottle in the brown paper bag too.
There's a quick transfer to a small bus at Pik Bun and there's a monk on board too! That must be good luck. We evetually pull into the train station and it's getting dark now. The bus driver goes without being paid though...oh well? Enquiring about the night train we find it's full but we can come back when it departs at 7 and go on standbye if someone cancels. The man is very helpful and gives us numbers for flights and buses and after a call we find there is a flight to Bangkok in 1 1/2 hours. I couldn't seem to get through to the book on the phone so we thought we'd have a gamble and go to the airport forfitting the bus and train. I had rung my uncle in Bangkok and my cousin who I had never met was over from LA but leaving that night. Also my aunt from Iran who I hadn't seen for about 20 odd years was over from Tehran so it was a good idea to go say Hi. It was gonna be close though. A Hilux pickup was touting for business outside and I had a haggle. A big friendly Thai policeman who had given us directions kindly helped us get the price down and with a wink waved us towards the pickup. 30 minutes later we were at the airport but the last Thai airways flight was full. We were offered the chance to go on standby and with nothing better to do we took it. We were last on the list though. We got some money grabbed some food and waited. I wasn't too hopeful but what the hell. the flight left at 20.15 and we had to come back at 20.00 to find out if we had a seat. At 20.00 the man went slowly through the list and finally got to us. He said 'Go buy a ticket quick!' so we bought a ticket, XRay'd the bags, checked in went through xray, ran to the plain, buckled up and took off in 10 minutes flat. On the plane Anett and myself had a good giggle even though we were sat in different rows. It was very amusing to us that we had been in a bamboo hut on the beach that morning and after an amazing journey were now on a 737 smelling like shit with a load of Thai business men on our way to Bangkok.
Arriving in Bangkok the contrast of the days journey was amazing. We queued for a taxi and luckily got a really good one. He flew across town to my uncles going on the tolled express way and we arrived in time to have a few drinks with my cousin Kian and see my aunt Keyvan. We were nackered but it didn't seem to matter. It was an fantastic journey as we started with no real idea where we would get to. After 30 minutes in a wooden boat with a single cyclinder engine, 3 hours on a local bus, a tuk tuk, a 2 hour Sawngthaew, a 30 minute walk across the border, a 2 hour Sawngthaew, a 1 hour local bus, a 30 minute pickup, a 1 hour flight, and a 45 minute taxi ride we had gone from a bamboo hut on the Mekong in Laos to my uncles chique abode in Bangkok. It's a journey I will never forget and was great fun. Mind you half a bottle of Lao Lao had dissappeared. We laughed about it a lot and slept very well that night.
At that point we didn't know there was a lot more craziness to come.
Again I'm behind with emails and am now in Sydney getting ready to go to Alice Springs in the morning but I'll catch up ASAP.
Lotsa love,
Kaveh.
March 31, 2005
March 28, 2005
Through Laos to the south
Oh dear I've left it too long without emailing again. This email is gonna be huge. The last month has been a little mad.
Last time I was in Luang Prabang waiting for the lens to turn up. I clicked send, walked next door and a big package was sitting on the counter with my name on it. Thank goodness!!! Mr. Bee had sent a bike to pick it up from the airport which was very nice. After a day with nothing to do but relax and get cleaned up I was now back in moving mode again and I contemplated the late bus which left in an hour.... it was now about 7pm. The bus runs through the night along the infamous route 13 and arrives in Vang Vieng at 3am. It was an unsavoury thought so I got in bed and decided to go for the 6.30 am bus instead the next morning.
The next morning I got up at 5 and headed for the bus station in the dark of morning. I was just in time as there was a husstle going on at the ticket office for the last tickets between a few travellers and some strange competition for tickets between some locals who were buying bulk tickets for other buses? Never worked that out, but they were irritating the man in the office. Anyway I got one of the last 5 tickets which meant a ride on the dreaded back seat. The back seat is the worst as it suffers the most from the bumpy roads, twists and bends. We pulled out early. The bus was a bigger long distance bus. It was fast too and the driver really got a move on. Again he was an excellent driver. Route 13 is notoious and regarded as the most dangerous journey in Laos amongst travellers thanks to Lonely Planets relentless promotion of attacks on vehicles by Mong bandits. In 2003 a few Swiss tourists were killed when the bus was ambushed and a number of passngers were shot. There were many attacks like this but Lonely Planet have over publicised this and travellers have over romanticised about it I think. The government have stamped these attacks out pretty much and we have a guard with a Kalashnikov on the bus as do all buses on this route. He's very relaxed dressed in civilian clothes with the gun hanging from his index finger as he merrily helps people with their bags using the other hand. It is a genuine risk though. The Mong are very anti government and generally live in villages in the hills where it has been very difficult to govern them. They are also famed for being the same tribe recruited by the CIA during Americas secret war on Laos to fight the cummunist Pathet Lao and the Vietnamese coming across the border. Many of these people are still hiding in the hills in the north near China and have been hunted for 40 years by the Lao government because of this.
Previously I hadn't described the landscape of northern Laos very much as I hadn't found good words. Basically if you imagine the harsh mountainous hills of Afganistan notorious for their difficulty. Now take the densest most beautiful Thai jungle and rice paddies and drop it onto the mountainous landscape and you're getting close and this is why the bus rides in the north had been so harsh. To take a picture that shows the beauty of Laos is very difficult. I have poured over any photographic book I can find while here and very few images really capture it. Many are very good but you have to be here. It's beauty isn't merely visual. It's harshness adds something that you can't capture in an image. The only images have seen that really get it are the portraits of the people in the fields taken by my good friend 'Cheeseburger'. Going south now, I expected the landscape to flatten fairly quickly as I thought the difficulty associated with route 13 was the banditry but the landscape gets even more mountainous and harsh. The road follows the land faithfully and this makes for a rough ride. Along the road there are many stilted villages perched precariously on the hillside. The scene is extraordinarily beautiful. After some time we pass a wrecked bus the same as ours. It has been at the layby for sometime. The small gathering of houses and huts around it have also been abandoned and the damage to the bus looks like that caused by gun fire. I wonder if it is the notorious bus from 2003??? I never find out but after a short while we pass several very young civilian clothed men carrying Kalashnikovs and as we stop for a pee break, more pass the bus, some uniformed some not so. Any ambush on a vehicle in these hills would impossible to escape from. The road is too difficult to make a hasty get away and the dangers feel very real when in such close proximity to these weapons, but this is exagerated in the mind by the Lonely Planet stories which amount to 1 attack 2 years ago. I have gotten used to seeing the home made hunting rifles Lao people often carry but these are a very different kind of gun.
Later we pass an overturned truck full of motorbikes and guarded by more men with guns and I become relaxed. It appears to just be how things are. The road begins to relent a little and after what seems like far too long and an unexpected food break we get to Vang Vieng. The journey took it's toll on me a little as I had been sat next to an American journalist intent on talking politics and as with all Asian busses the driver had played dreadful Asian pop music as load as possible the whole way. After 7 hours we pull into Vang Vieng and it's not what I had expected and is basically an abandoned American airstrip, quite a large one, surrounded by a small town next to the river on a flat plane between limestone hills. I eventually met up with Anett and Craig who had been tubing all day. This is a famed local attraction and involves sitting in truck tyre inner tube and flowing down river stopping every once in a while to drink beer or smoke yourself stupid on Opium or weed served from the river bank. Whilst waiting for them to arrive one man stands in the river giggling insanely at the water and making strange noises. He does this for a good half hour whilst elephants cross the river and backpackers sunbathe. Basically Vang Vieng is Laos trying to be Thailand and I instantly want to leave. Tubing for 4 hours is too boring for me and it also seems to be a little too long for Anett.
As the evening goes on Craig makes it known that he is coming all the way with us. For me however the old saying 'two's company, three's a crowd' couldn't be more true. Anett and myself have developed a travelling system which works so well and which suits what we want very well but Craig's presence just throws it off balance. He has no real plan or idea and is very happy to just get stuck in places. We decide to go to Vientiane the next morning very early at 6 and he expresses his dislike but I want to get a move on and we know the advantages of getting the 1st bus. Not sure how Anett feels I ask later and she too is not happy with him tagging on.
Sure enough, the next morning Craig oversleeps and we are left waiting. He then produces Thai baht at the bus station having had 2 days to change money so I am left paying for his food and bus ticket. I then find out that he owes Anett money too which is just not on. It is important that you travel with people who you an understanding with and it's clear that Craig wants to travel with us to save money rather than because we get on well so we decide that we will have to leave him in Vientiane.
The journey to Vientiane is very different, for a start it's only 3-4 hours. We are on the local bus rather than the Express I was on the previous day and I feel much more comfortable even though there is a motorbike filling the ayle along with the now standard sacks of rice. The road is also flatter and straighter and the scenery as usual is very good. I am also happier as I missed Anett's company the day before (Having a travel buddy has many hidden benefits. You don't have to talk to the person next to you if you don't want but if you do you can). As we pull into Vientiane I am surprised to find a very visually interesting town it is the most westernised part of Laos we have been to... well being the capital it is the most westerised part of Laos period. The town is very relaxed and has a really nice feel. It has visual aspects of Saigon, Hanoi and Phnom Phen but with a very relaxed Laos atmosphere. There is also a hint of the middle east about it???. A very nice tuk tuk driver takes us to a guest house and we check in before taking a look at the town. In order to press on and to shake off Craig myself and Anett book a VIP night bus to Pakse in the south for the following evening but are left wondering if we will want more time here.
By day Vientiane is very nice with a great climate, lovely food and friendly relaxed people. The Mekong river is also very pretty in the warm red sunset and on the other side Thailand is almost close enough to touch, this being a border point with crossings being made on the friendship bridge over the river. At night the town changes very much and there is very little to do... well not much anyway. This is when the NGO population are very visible. They drive around in $50,000 Land Cruisers and sip cool Beer Lao in bars whilst doted on by very pretty local dirls eger to hook a Farang man. Relations out of marriage with a foreigner are illegal in Laos but this seems to be overlooked here. NGO's apparently earn huge salaries to do very little from what I hear. I had experienced them further north. When waiting for my boats to leave they would pull up in a 4x4 dressed like jungle Jim in matching Kaki and smuggly charter a whole boat for 4 people whilst looking on at us with smugg smerks. I don't like what the NGO's are doing here. While the Laos people have so little and don't even have pens for schools, NGO's prance around earning 6 figure salaries to take surveys on how many children go to school or... what people thing of sanitation... or something rubbish like that.
Anyway after we spend 1 night and 2 days in Vientiane we are satisfied that we have seen enough. Another day would be ok but not necessary. A tuk tuk picks us up from the guest house and after saying goodbye to Craig, we are taken to a small bus by the river... is this a VIP bus!!?? Thankfully no. This bus takes us to the bus terminal where we board a very nice coach. The bigger towns in Laos all operate like this with a north and south bus station and tuk tuks shuttling you between them. The bus heads out of town and we settle down to try and sleep. 30 mins later the pop music starts and a large number of baby faced 18 year old spotty backpackers in the back, resite very boring travel stories largely consisting of the words 'maaaannn', 'ya know', 'like' and 'yeaaahhhh' with so few other words being used that I can't establish if any information is actually being exchanged. So not much sleep for me. I find the drive amazing though as the driver is very good and very fast, apexing corners on the wrong side of the road. He is on a real mission and after a couple of hours it's clear why. We stop to deliver parts and fix another VIP bus. We make many stops in the night including 1 at Savanakhet, a large town half way down.
After 10 hours and some very flat rural landscapes we pull into Pakse. As soon as the door opens a tuk tuk driver gets on and starst harassing me! I ask him to get off and I'll think about it when I get off so he waits by the door and as soon as my foot touches the ground he starts again!!! Oh god. Our proximity to Cambodia is all of a sudden all to obvious and the relaxed Laoness as I call it has gone. Anett negotiates a tuk tuk and we take off. On the way the police pull all the tuk tuks over to do a license check and ours is the only one with no papers! Great. Eventually we give and jump into another. He then gets stopped by a bus going to Si Pan Don, trying to poach passengers before they get to the station. We turn him down as it seem a little suspect and get to the station where the 1st bus going appears to be pickup for the same price as the nice bus we turned down....DAMN!! Ah well. We get on, but the legit bus behind is really pissed off as the pickup has poached all his passengers. We don't want to wait for that bus though as we want to get a room but the bus driver attempts to ram us and then to cut us off but we make a quick get away...phew! 3 hours later we are chucked out and told to walk down to the boat pier. There is a road but he won't go down it.... this is a real nonsense and irritates as we are tired and have big packs. At the pier we have another haggle on our hands. Me and Anett want to go to the smaller quieter island but they won't take us unless we charter a whole boat.. although he doesn't tell us this and it gets very confusing. In the end it works out and we just pay up and go.
This is where the Mekong river seperates into an archipelago forming 'Si pan don' or '4000 islands'. It's very shallow and we bottom out the tiny wooden long tail boat frequently. Bit scarey!!! Arriving I just give in to the first guest house we find and we have a bamboo hut on the river. And so we crash with exhaustion. Whilst the river is beautiful here we are left feeling uninspired as it does not hold the same magic as the north. On further inspection there is little to do and the place is full of backpacker types who are only interested in smoking themselves silly including an English guy who arrived 6 months ago and decided this was the place to start a guest house. Since then he has been making a lot of plans. This seems to involve waking up, smoking, havinjg a nap, smoking, walking around, smoking, having another smoke and then...... smoking! A unanimous decision is made that we will leave the next day... despite the huge effort made to get here we have had enough and will head to Thailand.
That was nearly a month ago and will have to carry on in another email as my eyes are too tired.
Missing you all a lot.
Love, Kaveh
Last time I was in Luang Prabang waiting for the lens to turn up. I clicked send, walked next door and a big package was sitting on the counter with my name on it. Thank goodness!!! Mr. Bee had sent a bike to pick it up from the airport which was very nice. After a day with nothing to do but relax and get cleaned up I was now back in moving mode again and I contemplated the late bus which left in an hour.... it was now about 7pm. The bus runs through the night along the infamous route 13 and arrives in Vang Vieng at 3am. It was an unsavoury thought so I got in bed and decided to go for the 6.30 am bus instead the next morning.
The next morning I got up at 5 and headed for the bus station in the dark of morning. I was just in time as there was a husstle going on at the ticket office for the last tickets between a few travellers and some strange competition for tickets between some locals who were buying bulk tickets for other buses? Never worked that out, but they were irritating the man in the office. Anyway I got one of the last 5 tickets which meant a ride on the dreaded back seat. The back seat is the worst as it suffers the most from the bumpy roads, twists and bends. We pulled out early. The bus was a bigger long distance bus. It was fast too and the driver really got a move on. Again he was an excellent driver. Route 13 is notoious and regarded as the most dangerous journey in Laos amongst travellers thanks to Lonely Planets relentless promotion of attacks on vehicles by Mong bandits. In 2003 a few Swiss tourists were killed when the bus was ambushed and a number of passngers were shot. There were many attacks like this but Lonely Planet have over publicised this and travellers have over romanticised about it I think. The government have stamped these attacks out pretty much and we have a guard with a Kalashnikov on the bus as do all buses on this route. He's very relaxed dressed in civilian clothes with the gun hanging from his index finger as he merrily helps people with their bags using the other hand. It is a genuine risk though. The Mong are very anti government and generally live in villages in the hills where it has been very difficult to govern them. They are also famed for being the same tribe recruited by the CIA during Americas secret war on Laos to fight the cummunist Pathet Lao and the Vietnamese coming across the border. Many of these people are still hiding in the hills in the north near China and have been hunted for 40 years by the Lao government because of this.
Previously I hadn't described the landscape of northern Laos very much as I hadn't found good words. Basically if you imagine the harsh mountainous hills of Afganistan notorious for their difficulty. Now take the densest most beautiful Thai jungle and rice paddies and drop it onto the mountainous landscape and you're getting close and this is why the bus rides in the north had been so harsh. To take a picture that shows the beauty of Laos is very difficult. I have poured over any photographic book I can find while here and very few images really capture it. Many are very good but you have to be here. It's beauty isn't merely visual. It's harshness adds something that you can't capture in an image. The only images have seen that really get it are the portraits of the people in the fields taken by my good friend 'Cheeseburger'. Going south now, I expected the landscape to flatten fairly quickly as I thought the difficulty associated with route 13 was the banditry but the landscape gets even more mountainous and harsh. The road follows the land faithfully and this makes for a rough ride. Along the road there are many stilted villages perched precariously on the hillside. The scene is extraordinarily beautiful. After some time we pass a wrecked bus the same as ours. It has been at the layby for sometime. The small gathering of houses and huts around it have also been abandoned and the damage to the bus looks like that caused by gun fire. I wonder if it is the notorious bus from 2003??? I never find out but after a short while we pass several very young civilian clothed men carrying Kalashnikovs and as we stop for a pee break, more pass the bus, some uniformed some not so. Any ambush on a vehicle in these hills would impossible to escape from. The road is too difficult to make a hasty get away and the dangers feel very real when in such close proximity to these weapons, but this is exagerated in the mind by the Lonely Planet stories which amount to 1 attack 2 years ago. I have gotten used to seeing the home made hunting rifles Lao people often carry but these are a very different kind of gun.
Later we pass an overturned truck full of motorbikes and guarded by more men with guns and I become relaxed. It appears to just be how things are. The road begins to relent a little and after what seems like far too long and an unexpected food break we get to Vang Vieng. The journey took it's toll on me a little as I had been sat next to an American journalist intent on talking politics and as with all Asian busses the driver had played dreadful Asian pop music as load as possible the whole way. After 7 hours we pull into Vang Vieng and it's not what I had expected and is basically an abandoned American airstrip, quite a large one, surrounded by a small town next to the river on a flat plane between limestone hills. I eventually met up with Anett and Craig who had been tubing all day. This is a famed local attraction and involves sitting in truck tyre inner tube and flowing down river stopping every once in a while to drink beer or smoke yourself stupid on Opium or weed served from the river bank. Whilst waiting for them to arrive one man stands in the river giggling insanely at the water and making strange noises. He does this for a good half hour whilst elephants cross the river and backpackers sunbathe. Basically Vang Vieng is Laos trying to be Thailand and I instantly want to leave. Tubing for 4 hours is too boring for me and it also seems to be a little too long for Anett.
As the evening goes on Craig makes it known that he is coming all the way with us. For me however the old saying 'two's company, three's a crowd' couldn't be more true. Anett and myself have developed a travelling system which works so well and which suits what we want very well but Craig's presence just throws it off balance. He has no real plan or idea and is very happy to just get stuck in places. We decide to go to Vientiane the next morning very early at 6 and he expresses his dislike but I want to get a move on and we know the advantages of getting the 1st bus. Not sure how Anett feels I ask later and she too is not happy with him tagging on.
Sure enough, the next morning Craig oversleeps and we are left waiting. He then produces Thai baht at the bus station having had 2 days to change money so I am left paying for his food and bus ticket. I then find out that he owes Anett money too which is just not on. It is important that you travel with people who you an understanding with and it's clear that Craig wants to travel with us to save money rather than because we get on well so we decide that we will have to leave him in Vientiane.
The journey to Vientiane is very different, for a start it's only 3-4 hours. We are on the local bus rather than the Express I was on the previous day and I feel much more comfortable even though there is a motorbike filling the ayle along with the now standard sacks of rice. The road is also flatter and straighter and the scenery as usual is very good. I am also happier as I missed Anett's company the day before (Having a travel buddy has many hidden benefits. You don't have to talk to the person next to you if you don't want but if you do you can). As we pull into Vientiane I am surprised to find a very visually interesting town it is the most westernised part of Laos we have been to... well being the capital it is the most westerised part of Laos period. The town is very relaxed and has a really nice feel. It has visual aspects of Saigon, Hanoi and Phnom Phen but with a very relaxed Laos atmosphere. There is also a hint of the middle east about it???. A very nice tuk tuk driver takes us to a guest house and we check in before taking a look at the town. In order to press on and to shake off Craig myself and Anett book a VIP night bus to Pakse in the south for the following evening but are left wondering if we will want more time here.
By day Vientiane is very nice with a great climate, lovely food and friendly relaxed people. The Mekong river is also very pretty in the warm red sunset and on the other side Thailand is almost close enough to touch, this being a border point with crossings being made on the friendship bridge over the river. At night the town changes very much and there is very little to do... well not much anyway. This is when the NGO population are very visible. They drive around in $50,000 Land Cruisers and sip cool Beer Lao in bars whilst doted on by very pretty local dirls eger to hook a Farang man. Relations out of marriage with a foreigner are illegal in Laos but this seems to be overlooked here. NGO's apparently earn huge salaries to do very little from what I hear. I had experienced them further north. When waiting for my boats to leave they would pull up in a 4x4 dressed like jungle Jim in matching Kaki and smuggly charter a whole boat for 4 people whilst looking on at us with smugg smerks. I don't like what the NGO's are doing here. While the Laos people have so little and don't even have pens for schools, NGO's prance around earning 6 figure salaries to take surveys on how many children go to school or... what people thing of sanitation... or something rubbish like that.
Anyway after we spend 1 night and 2 days in Vientiane we are satisfied that we have seen enough. Another day would be ok but not necessary. A tuk tuk picks us up from the guest house and after saying goodbye to Craig, we are taken to a small bus by the river... is this a VIP bus!!?? Thankfully no. This bus takes us to the bus terminal where we board a very nice coach. The bigger towns in Laos all operate like this with a north and south bus station and tuk tuks shuttling you between them. The bus heads out of town and we settle down to try and sleep. 30 mins later the pop music starts and a large number of baby faced 18 year old spotty backpackers in the back, resite very boring travel stories largely consisting of the words 'maaaannn', 'ya know', 'like' and 'yeaaahhhh' with so few other words being used that I can't establish if any information is actually being exchanged. So not much sleep for me. I find the drive amazing though as the driver is very good and very fast, apexing corners on the wrong side of the road. He is on a real mission and after a couple of hours it's clear why. We stop to deliver parts and fix another VIP bus. We make many stops in the night including 1 at Savanakhet, a large town half way down.
After 10 hours and some very flat rural landscapes we pull into Pakse. As soon as the door opens a tuk tuk driver gets on and starst harassing me! I ask him to get off and I'll think about it when I get off so he waits by the door and as soon as my foot touches the ground he starts again!!! Oh god. Our proximity to Cambodia is all of a sudden all to obvious and the relaxed Laoness as I call it has gone. Anett negotiates a tuk tuk and we take off. On the way the police pull all the tuk tuks over to do a license check and ours is the only one with no papers! Great. Eventually we give and jump into another. He then gets stopped by a bus going to Si Pan Don, trying to poach passengers before they get to the station. We turn him down as it seem a little suspect and get to the station where the 1st bus going appears to be pickup for the same price as the nice bus we turned down....DAMN!! Ah well. We get on, but the legit bus behind is really pissed off as the pickup has poached all his passengers. We don't want to wait for that bus though as we want to get a room but the bus driver attempts to ram us and then to cut us off but we make a quick get away...phew! 3 hours later we are chucked out and told to walk down to the boat pier. There is a road but he won't go down it.... this is a real nonsense and irritates as we are tired and have big packs. At the pier we have another haggle on our hands. Me and Anett want to go to the smaller quieter island but they won't take us unless we charter a whole boat.. although he doesn't tell us this and it gets very confusing. In the end it works out and we just pay up and go.
This is where the Mekong river seperates into an archipelago forming 'Si pan don' or '4000 islands'. It's very shallow and we bottom out the tiny wooden long tail boat frequently. Bit scarey!!! Arriving I just give in to the first guest house we find and we have a bamboo hut on the river. And so we crash with exhaustion. Whilst the river is beautiful here we are left feeling uninspired as it does not hold the same magic as the north. On further inspection there is little to do and the place is full of backpacker types who are only interested in smoking themselves silly including an English guy who arrived 6 months ago and decided this was the place to start a guest house. Since then he has been making a lot of plans. This seems to involve waking up, smoking, havinjg a nap, smoking, walking around, smoking, having another smoke and then...... smoking! A unanimous decision is made that we will leave the next day... despite the huge effort made to get here we have had enough and will head to Thailand.
That was nearly a month ago and will have to carry on in another email as my eyes are too tired.
Missing you all a lot.
Love, Kaveh
February 27, 2005
Lovely Luang Prabang and Northern Laos
So we arrivied in Luang Prabang.
Having pulled up at the side of the river and climbed the sandy bank to street level we found a tuk tuk and went with a German woman who knew a good guesthouse. We checked in to our 4 dollar room and went out to see a bit of the town. I made a list of good photo opertunities as well for the next day so that I could do some work. On the way we hired bicycles and went to the night market. I had a Lao meal called Orlam with deer which was very tastey and very different to the other asian food I've had so far. The night market is fantastic and is totally hastle free and peaceful with lots of stalls selling local handicrafts. It's lit with naked bulbs cabled to local shops and buildings. Generally the stalls are run by women and are neatly laid out on the ground along the street.
The whole town looks fantastic. It is apparent that tourism has had a big effect and is still on the slow increase. There are many internet cafes but the architecture is very old and mostly from the days of the French colonies. After a not so good sleep from the noise I went out with the camera but as I set up by the river the camera jammed. On closer inspection it was clear that one lens had taken a knock on the boat trip and was now broken. This was very bad as it was my favourite lens for that camera and the landscape lens which was what I wanted in Laos. It would take a few days of calls and emails interupted by power cuts and an 8 hour time difference to arrange another to be sent from London.
In the evening we went to the night market to eat at the food stalls. The grilled mekong fish was delicious and we also had a big noodle soup prepared by a big lady with a small girl of about 8 wealding a knife as big as herself. They start young out here! After a couple of gin and tonics we headed home. Unfortunately the next morning Anett's stomach was not happy and had dissagreed with the Mekong fish. The room was also too noisey to sleep so we moved to the very nice Mano guest house at 8 dollars for a very nice room. We got alot of sleep and Anett got better. She agreed to take a short trip north and come back for the package and so we spent our last day cycling to the grave of Henri Mouhot who is known for descoverig Ankor What and exploring Laos. It was a strange place and a long bike ride.... very long. On the way back we played with some sweet kids. One was very cheeky and about 3 or 4. He kept winking and smiling and then came up and threw a broken bottle at me with a big smile on his face. No damage though.
In the afternoon we got a tourist bus to the local waterfalls. This is a very touristy thing to do but you can swim in them and they are very nice. There is also a rope swing which is good fun. They keep a tiger in a cage there also. He/she is very beautiful and quite docile. It's a real tourist trap and on the way back we stop at a whiskey village where they make the local Lao Lao which is very like vodka. It's not a nice place and the kids are pushy when trying to sell stuff. One girl makes a gesture of cutting my throat when I say no thanks! NICE!
After several days exploring the area it's time to move on though and we get up early for the morning bus to Nong Kiew. It's a 3 hour drive and the bus is packed with sacks of rice and bags are piled high on the roof. The seats all fill and then there are people on the floor and next to the driver. It's uncomfortable but the road is not bad and we get there in good time. Anett has left it till we get on the bus though to tell me she hates busses and her mood slowly deteriorates. Nong Kiew isn't the nicest place in the world until you sample the view of the Nam Ou river from the bridge and watch the locals fishing and washing in the river. We book into a very very basic guest house and get some food and I take a look around leaving Anett to find out where she put her sense of humour ;).
We only stay for one night and the next morning we take the 1 hour boat to Muang Noi Neua having heard it is a beautiful area with no road access and all transport via river or foot. The river journey is nice and in much smaller boats than on the Mekong. Arriving in Muang Noi Neua we find a very quiet town with a lot of bamboo bungalows for hire with hamocks on the balcony. It's a struggle to find one so we head to the end of town and finally get the 2 very last ones on the river bank right at the end with a great view of the river. From this village you can trek to some other villages which can only be reached by foot. A local girl convinces us to go fishing with her instead though and we arrange for her and her brother to take us fishing the following afternoon. There are only a few hours of electricity a day and all lights go out at 10pm which is very nice as candle light is used and so we spent the evening with a german girl and an american man and have a few laughs over some Lao Lao.
Next day I get up early and take some pics of the river valley and then relax in my hammock for most of the morning before we make our way to the river for a few hours fishing and with Noi and Eng. They take us up river in their wooden kayak which we all paddle and then lay the nets. Noi encourages the fish into the net by thumping the water with a large bamboo pole and we get quite a few after laying the nets 3 times. We then prepare a BBQ on the sandy river bank and grill the fish which we eat with sticky rice and some vegetables picked by from the bank. It's a great day and the views are amazing as people pass in kayaks singing away. Lao people love singing. We decided to try the big trek to Ban Phong the next day. This involves leaving Muang Noi very early and trekking into the jungle and rice fields to Ban Na 1 hour away. In Ban Na you rent a bungalow and trek the 3 hours to Ban Phong which is a Mong village in the hills. You have to allow 7 hours for this trip as there is no guaranteed accomodation in Ban Phong so time must be allowed for the trek back to Ban Na in daylight and so we set out early the following morning. Arriving in Ban Na we get a bungalow at Chantanom guest house, one of 2 in the village and after a break we set off for Ban Phong. It's a hard trek and we have decided if we have any problems or get lost we will turn back. After one hour we have crossed the river 4 times and it is looking as if we may have made a wrong turn somewhere. The path forks into 3 ahead and trying each we find they don't match the description and so both feeling apprehensive we turn back. This is no bad thing as 7 hours is hard going and on our return to Ban Na we walk to another village 'Ban Huay Bo' 1 hour away. It's a big village with stilted bamboo houses and naked kids running round asking for pens and sometimes money. The locals are keen for us to spend money and it is clear that they are quite poor but also quite happy. It is like being in a time warp and going back 500 years with pigs and chickens wandering around freely. We speak to one woman and she asks if either of us have children. She tells us she has had 8 babies of which only 3 survived. This is a reminder of how poor Laos is and how poor healthcare is. Also reminders of the American bombardment are everywhere. Bomb casings are used as steps or building materials or ornaments etc and there are many. Earlier in Muang Noi I had seen a man preparing breakfast on a fire where he used shell casings to put his pot on. I wasn't sure and asked him and he happily nodded and then with a stick drew a picture and wrote 105 saying 'boooom boooom' to indicate that they were 105 shells. These casing were from the Indochina war and can also be found everywhere. He was very nice as are most people and very jolly.
We spend 2 nigths at Ban Na and get some very good sleep. The guesthouse is run by a very nice family and though we don't want to leave we have to head back for my package in Luang Prabang. Also the experience is being spoiled by an old Swedish sailer who has decided to stay for a while and also seems to think he is the boss round here. He's a real pratt and adores the sound of his own drunken voice so in the morning we get up for the 1 hour walk starting at 7 am and then catch the 6 hour boat down to Luang Prabang. It's a good trip and we are joined by Inis from germany who we had met a few nights before. We don't waste too much time in Luang Prabang and have to make a new plan as the package has not arrived, deciding to go north west this time towards the Chinese border to Luang Namtha via Oudomxai. This involves a 5 hour bus to Oudomxai followed by another 4 hour bus to Luang Namtha and so we split the journey into 2 halves. The road is very rough and unfinished in places and we get to Oudomxai very tired.
Oudomxai is a weird place and very much a frontier town with travellers remaining unhasstled as they are not of much interest to these locals who trade goods with the Chinese. Unsure what to do we take a look at the Stuppa and get chatting to several monks who are incredibly keen to practise their English and learn more and so we exchange english lessons for lessons in Lao culture for 5 hours as well as having a photo session of poloroids and portraits which is great fun. That evening we get some food and notice a big wedding celebration is going on in the restaurant. The people are very nice in Oudomxai and we are invited in but feering a Lao Lao session we kindly decline and head back for an early night.
Our guest house looks very respectable and we are very comfortable but in the night I'm woken to find Anett standing on my bed shreeking...'It's a rat It's a rat Kaveh!' I think I'm dreaming and go back to sleep but she wakes me again and when I realise what's going on I jump up and stand on the bed too. I can hear it moving. It had been wriggling under her pillow after finding a lolly pop on the table...YUK!!! And it was big! Like a cat. I went downstairs and tried to tell the uninterested staff which involved doing a rat impression that made them wet themselves and the drawing a picture which horrified them and so we swapped rooms. Apparently rats dig holes in the mattresses and hide there...EW! So no sleep after that and a 6 am start to Namtha. I felt like crap. It's a long very hard drive which makes some locals throw up out of the window and when we arrive I'm nackered so we grab the closest guesthouse. I'm now so tired that it's my turn for a sense of humour failure and so I sleep the day away top make it up.
I'm a little unsure of Namtha at first. The place is ugly and the Acka tribes women pester you. One very agressive woman comes up to sell me bracelets. She's about 45 and when I refuse whispers cager cager in an evil voice with an equally evil smile. I don't know what she's on about and look in the bag she's russtling to see a large bundle of Ganga... Oh ganga ganga! No thanks! ...... Opium? No!!! She mimics taking a drag off a joint and says...mmmmhhh good ganga ganga! No no no!! Why no no no!!??? Oh god! I actually find her very amuzing and can't help laughing as the days go by and she keeps trying with her pals. Even the locals hate them and she often pretends to cry.
We manage to find out that a local black Thai village is holding a festival and we cycle there to see it. It's great. Tribal music and dancing with games and plenty of Lao Lao being consumed by very happy people dressed in the tribal costume which they wear normally. It only happens every 3 years and we are very lucky to see it by accident. It's a good day and we cycle many miles and come to many villages. In one particular village they are very much still a traditional tribe and when I get my camera out they run scared. It takes a while to show them that it's a polaroid and I will give them a photo of themselves. Once they realise I have a queue of women with the babies standing waiting for a portrait and realising that I am gonna run out of film we make a quiet exit after taking about 10 pics. It was very funny especially when one baby burst into tears everytime I went near him with the camera. His mother so wanted a picture.
The day is spoiled a little by Anett's agressive attitude. I feel like I'm getting a constant ear bashing and we get on each others nerves a little but I guess that's what happens when you travel with someone for this long. I hope it will subside as we have decided to head back to Ban Na and it's a long trip. Sure enough after the 4 hour bus to Oudomxai it's getting better. We meet some people who are going the same way which is fortunate as we know there is no scheduled transport to Nong Kiew and so we group up and arrange to go by Sawngtheang. These are converted pickups run by the bus stations which ,when enough are travelling, make unscheduled and scheduled journeys between towns. I am surprised how much better they are to travel in than the bus. There is a rack on the back so extra passengers can hang off too and the bags get piled on top. The journey is going well until the driver stops to inspect a large rodent being offered by a tribal woman. It's a type of rat with a beaver like head and it has a noose round it's neck which it wriggles to get free from. He buys it, probably for dinner, and it is not happy. We refuse to have it in the back and so he ties it to the roof but after 10 minutes it pees down the open sides of the truck and all over us which stinks. Then later after dropping some people off he tries to put it in the back and it is very pissed off and ready to bite anyone if it gets free. We ask him to move it as one bite would mean a rabies jab and probably a 3 day trip to Bangkok which the locals don't realise and so they laugh but equally he doesn't want it in the cab and drops it off at his house on the way, then dumps us all into a tuk tuk which takes us the rest of the way. I guess he couldn't wait to stick it on the barby. Another sleepless night in Nong Kiew and the 1 hour boat trip to Muang Noi. While waiting 3 hours for the boat I get roped into helping carry an engine down to the river to be fitted to a speedboat taxi. That'll teach me to stand there taking pictures. Good fun though. On arrival we dump the big bags in a bungalow and trek the 1 hour to Ban Na which we take steadily. I have noticed that we are beginning to walk like Lao people. Small steps at a steady pace carrying fairly large loads and though tired we make it in good time, but we find Alf is still there. Ah well, the family are surprised and happy to see us which is nice.
We get the last 2 bungalows and chill out for the rest of the day with a plan to make the 1 1/4 hour trek to Huoyxen, a neighbouring village, the next day and then have another go at the 7 hours to Ban Phong and back the following day. We make Huoyxen and it's a nice walk passing a 65 to 70 year old woman carrying a tree (I'm not kidding) but both of us have to admit that the travelling has made us too tired to take on Ban Phong. This is also down to the food which is in short supply. You can have sticky rice and vegetables, stick rice and chicken (grisstle), sticky rice and chicken (grisstle) curry, sticky rice and potato curry and the meals are small. Up hear they run out of food quite quickly (especially eggs and bread) as everything is brought from the fields or the villages including bottled water and beer lao for the tourists. This involves Mama at 49 and Peng her daughter in law trekkiing the one hour to Muang Noi and carrying up to 20 kilos each in bamboo back pacs or on bamboo poles on the shoulder. They are a wealthy family. The poorer people carry a lot more and at much older ages. You can see the people from Ban Phong making the 3 hour journey to the Market every week bare foot. They also have to walk an our every day to get water from the river which is used for the toilet and for drinking.
When I started travelling I was about 90-92 kilos. When I left Thailand I was 85 kilos and I have no idea what I weigh now but the loss is very visible in the mirror. I have also become a walking machine and have become much better at walking on the uneven paths from village to village. They are real ankle breakers and so you don't rush. I have done all the trekking in sandles which I find much better than my shoes especially when crossing rivers.
In the evening we have a full moon party Lao style on the river bank and drink a lot of Lao Lao. It's good fun but Alf is spoiling the atmosphere spewing venim about the western world and all this crap he loves talking about. He doesn't realise that like our Lao friends we just want to have a relaxing evening by the river and would really like him to shut up! The following day we make a few trips, in order to get away from Alf, with Craig from Canada and in the evening we are invited to join the village at a wedding which is a huge event. They have a big stereo which they crank up with asian techno music and do they're silly dance which involves boys and girls standing in front of each other in a long line and shoffeling their feet. It's hillarious. The stereo is powered by a generator as it is a special occasion. Normally electricity is supplied by a few propellor powered generators which Papa and others drop into the river when they go down for their evening bath. Each one is at a little damn in the river made from tree branches.
The locals are incredibly generous feeding us and plying us with Lao Lao and inviting us to dance. The children have games to play and we have couple of friends who can't afford to play so we pay. The teenager I pay for insists that I have the sweet he won. His family are very well liked in the village but have no money. They are trying to build a house but can't afford nails and so as Craig has become part of the family they ask him for help which is embarrasing and hard for them to do. Of course he does and they are very grateful. Thong, the eldest can't afford to get married which involves paying a Dawry of 700 dollars. After a lot of Lao Lao Anett and I turn in quietly avoiding Alf and preparing for the Trek and boat ride back to Luang Prabang which we make in the morning after a sad goodbye to the family. Mama gives us a bag of sticky rice and a couple of bananas each for the trip.
And Luang Prabang is where I am now. Anett has gone ahead while I wait for my lens which still has not arrived and I will have to catch her up. It is in Lao and has been promissed for today but who knows. I hope it comes as we only have 9 days left on our visas and have plans for the south and have become a fairly slick travelling team so it would be a shame to part company now. It does however give me a chance to enjoy the fantastic steaks at my guesthouse but my body is not used to the meat and digestion is a little painful. Still good though ;)
Anyway that's the story so far. I know it's a long one but I hope you enjoy it.
Lots of love,
Kaveh
Having pulled up at the side of the river and climbed the sandy bank to street level we found a tuk tuk and went with a German woman who knew a good guesthouse. We checked in to our 4 dollar room and went out to see a bit of the town. I made a list of good photo opertunities as well for the next day so that I could do some work. On the way we hired bicycles and went to the night market. I had a Lao meal called Orlam with deer which was very tastey and very different to the other asian food I've had so far. The night market is fantastic and is totally hastle free and peaceful with lots of stalls selling local handicrafts. It's lit with naked bulbs cabled to local shops and buildings. Generally the stalls are run by women and are neatly laid out on the ground along the street.
The whole town looks fantastic. It is apparent that tourism has had a big effect and is still on the slow increase. There are many internet cafes but the architecture is very old and mostly from the days of the French colonies. After a not so good sleep from the noise I went out with the camera but as I set up by the river the camera jammed. On closer inspection it was clear that one lens had taken a knock on the boat trip and was now broken. This was very bad as it was my favourite lens for that camera and the landscape lens which was what I wanted in Laos. It would take a few days of calls and emails interupted by power cuts and an 8 hour time difference to arrange another to be sent from London.
In the evening we went to the night market to eat at the food stalls. The grilled mekong fish was delicious and we also had a big noodle soup prepared by a big lady with a small girl of about 8 wealding a knife as big as herself. They start young out here! After a couple of gin and tonics we headed home. Unfortunately the next morning Anett's stomach was not happy and had dissagreed with the Mekong fish. The room was also too noisey to sleep so we moved to the very nice Mano guest house at 8 dollars for a very nice room. We got alot of sleep and Anett got better. She agreed to take a short trip north and come back for the package and so we spent our last day cycling to the grave of Henri Mouhot who is known for descoverig Ankor What and exploring Laos. It was a strange place and a long bike ride.... very long. On the way back we played with some sweet kids. One was very cheeky and about 3 or 4. He kept winking and smiling and then came up and threw a broken bottle at me with a big smile on his face. No damage though.
In the afternoon we got a tourist bus to the local waterfalls. This is a very touristy thing to do but you can swim in them and they are very nice. There is also a rope swing which is good fun. They keep a tiger in a cage there also. He/she is very beautiful and quite docile. It's a real tourist trap and on the way back we stop at a whiskey village where they make the local Lao Lao which is very like vodka. It's not a nice place and the kids are pushy when trying to sell stuff. One girl makes a gesture of cutting my throat when I say no thanks! NICE!
After several days exploring the area it's time to move on though and we get up early for the morning bus to Nong Kiew. It's a 3 hour drive and the bus is packed with sacks of rice and bags are piled high on the roof. The seats all fill and then there are people on the floor and next to the driver. It's uncomfortable but the road is not bad and we get there in good time. Anett has left it till we get on the bus though to tell me she hates busses and her mood slowly deteriorates. Nong Kiew isn't the nicest place in the world until you sample the view of the Nam Ou river from the bridge and watch the locals fishing and washing in the river. We book into a very very basic guest house and get some food and I take a look around leaving Anett to find out where she put her sense of humour ;).
We only stay for one night and the next morning we take the 1 hour boat to Muang Noi Neua having heard it is a beautiful area with no road access and all transport via river or foot. The river journey is nice and in much smaller boats than on the Mekong. Arriving in Muang Noi Neua we find a very quiet town with a lot of bamboo bungalows for hire with hamocks on the balcony. It's a struggle to find one so we head to the end of town and finally get the 2 very last ones on the river bank right at the end with a great view of the river. From this village you can trek to some other villages which can only be reached by foot. A local girl convinces us to go fishing with her instead though and we arrange for her and her brother to take us fishing the following afternoon. There are only a few hours of electricity a day and all lights go out at 10pm which is very nice as candle light is used and so we spent the evening with a german girl and an american man and have a few laughs over some Lao Lao.
Next day I get up early and take some pics of the river valley and then relax in my hammock for most of the morning before we make our way to the river for a few hours fishing and with Noi and Eng. They take us up river in their wooden kayak which we all paddle and then lay the nets. Noi encourages the fish into the net by thumping the water with a large bamboo pole and we get quite a few after laying the nets 3 times. We then prepare a BBQ on the sandy river bank and grill the fish which we eat with sticky rice and some vegetables picked by from the bank. It's a great day and the views are amazing as people pass in kayaks singing away. Lao people love singing. We decided to try the big trek to Ban Phong the next day. This involves leaving Muang Noi very early and trekking into the jungle and rice fields to Ban Na 1 hour away. In Ban Na you rent a bungalow and trek the 3 hours to Ban Phong which is a Mong village in the hills. You have to allow 7 hours for this trip as there is no guaranteed accomodation in Ban Phong so time must be allowed for the trek back to Ban Na in daylight and so we set out early the following morning. Arriving in Ban Na we get a bungalow at Chantanom guest house, one of 2 in the village and after a break we set off for Ban Phong. It's a hard trek and we have decided if we have any problems or get lost we will turn back. After one hour we have crossed the river 4 times and it is looking as if we may have made a wrong turn somewhere. The path forks into 3 ahead and trying each we find they don't match the description and so both feeling apprehensive we turn back. This is no bad thing as 7 hours is hard going and on our return to Ban Na we walk to another village 'Ban Huay Bo' 1 hour away. It's a big village with stilted bamboo houses and naked kids running round asking for pens and sometimes money. The locals are keen for us to spend money and it is clear that they are quite poor but also quite happy. It is like being in a time warp and going back 500 years with pigs and chickens wandering around freely. We speak to one woman and she asks if either of us have children. She tells us she has had 8 babies of which only 3 survived. This is a reminder of how poor Laos is and how poor healthcare is. Also reminders of the American bombardment are everywhere. Bomb casings are used as steps or building materials or ornaments etc and there are many. Earlier in Muang Noi I had seen a man preparing breakfast on a fire where he used shell casings to put his pot on. I wasn't sure and asked him and he happily nodded and then with a stick drew a picture and wrote 105 saying 'boooom boooom' to indicate that they were 105 shells. These casing were from the Indochina war and can also be found everywhere. He was very nice as are most people and very jolly.
We spend 2 nigths at Ban Na and get some very good sleep. The guesthouse is run by a very nice family and though we don't want to leave we have to head back for my package in Luang Prabang. Also the experience is being spoiled by an old Swedish sailer who has decided to stay for a while and also seems to think he is the boss round here. He's a real pratt and adores the sound of his own drunken voice so in the morning we get up for the 1 hour walk starting at 7 am and then catch the 6 hour boat down to Luang Prabang. It's a good trip and we are joined by Inis from germany who we had met a few nights before. We don't waste too much time in Luang Prabang and have to make a new plan as the package has not arrived, deciding to go north west this time towards the Chinese border to Luang Namtha via Oudomxai. This involves a 5 hour bus to Oudomxai followed by another 4 hour bus to Luang Namtha and so we split the journey into 2 halves. The road is very rough and unfinished in places and we get to Oudomxai very tired.
Oudomxai is a weird place and very much a frontier town with travellers remaining unhasstled as they are not of much interest to these locals who trade goods with the Chinese. Unsure what to do we take a look at the Stuppa and get chatting to several monks who are incredibly keen to practise their English and learn more and so we exchange english lessons for lessons in Lao culture for 5 hours as well as having a photo session of poloroids and portraits which is great fun. That evening we get some food and notice a big wedding celebration is going on in the restaurant. The people are very nice in Oudomxai and we are invited in but feering a Lao Lao session we kindly decline and head back for an early night.
Our guest house looks very respectable and we are very comfortable but in the night I'm woken to find Anett standing on my bed shreeking...'It's a rat It's a rat Kaveh!' I think I'm dreaming and go back to sleep but she wakes me again and when I realise what's going on I jump up and stand on the bed too. I can hear it moving. It had been wriggling under her pillow after finding a lolly pop on the table...YUK!!! And it was big! Like a cat. I went downstairs and tried to tell the uninterested staff which involved doing a rat impression that made them wet themselves and the drawing a picture which horrified them and so we swapped rooms. Apparently rats dig holes in the mattresses and hide there...EW! So no sleep after that and a 6 am start to Namtha. I felt like crap. It's a long very hard drive which makes some locals throw up out of the window and when we arrive I'm nackered so we grab the closest guesthouse. I'm now so tired that it's my turn for a sense of humour failure and so I sleep the day away top make it up.
I'm a little unsure of Namtha at first. The place is ugly and the Acka tribes women pester you. One very agressive woman comes up to sell me bracelets. She's about 45 and when I refuse whispers cager cager in an evil voice with an equally evil smile. I don't know what she's on about and look in the bag she's russtling to see a large bundle of Ganga... Oh ganga ganga! No thanks! ...... Opium? No!!! She mimics taking a drag off a joint and says...mmmmhhh good ganga ganga! No no no!! Why no no no!!??? Oh god! I actually find her very amuzing and can't help laughing as the days go by and she keeps trying with her pals. Even the locals hate them and she often pretends to cry.
We manage to find out that a local black Thai village is holding a festival and we cycle there to see it. It's great. Tribal music and dancing with games and plenty of Lao Lao being consumed by very happy people dressed in the tribal costume which they wear normally. It only happens every 3 years and we are very lucky to see it by accident. It's a good day and we cycle many miles and come to many villages. In one particular village they are very much still a traditional tribe and when I get my camera out they run scared. It takes a while to show them that it's a polaroid and I will give them a photo of themselves. Once they realise I have a queue of women with the babies standing waiting for a portrait and realising that I am gonna run out of film we make a quiet exit after taking about 10 pics. It was very funny especially when one baby burst into tears everytime I went near him with the camera. His mother so wanted a picture.
The day is spoiled a little by Anett's agressive attitude. I feel like I'm getting a constant ear bashing and we get on each others nerves a little but I guess that's what happens when you travel with someone for this long. I hope it will subside as we have decided to head back to Ban Na and it's a long trip. Sure enough after the 4 hour bus to Oudomxai it's getting better. We meet some people who are going the same way which is fortunate as we know there is no scheduled transport to Nong Kiew and so we group up and arrange to go by Sawngtheang. These are converted pickups run by the bus stations which ,when enough are travelling, make unscheduled and scheduled journeys between towns. I am surprised how much better they are to travel in than the bus. There is a rack on the back so extra passengers can hang off too and the bags get piled on top. The journey is going well until the driver stops to inspect a large rodent being offered by a tribal woman. It's a type of rat with a beaver like head and it has a noose round it's neck which it wriggles to get free from. He buys it, probably for dinner, and it is not happy. We refuse to have it in the back and so he ties it to the roof but after 10 minutes it pees down the open sides of the truck and all over us which stinks. Then later after dropping some people off he tries to put it in the back and it is very pissed off and ready to bite anyone if it gets free. We ask him to move it as one bite would mean a rabies jab and probably a 3 day trip to Bangkok which the locals don't realise and so they laugh but equally he doesn't want it in the cab and drops it off at his house on the way, then dumps us all into a tuk tuk which takes us the rest of the way. I guess he couldn't wait to stick it on the barby. Another sleepless night in Nong Kiew and the 1 hour boat trip to Muang Noi. While waiting 3 hours for the boat I get roped into helping carry an engine down to the river to be fitted to a speedboat taxi. That'll teach me to stand there taking pictures. Good fun though. On arrival we dump the big bags in a bungalow and trek the 1 hour to Ban Na which we take steadily. I have noticed that we are beginning to walk like Lao people. Small steps at a steady pace carrying fairly large loads and though tired we make it in good time, but we find Alf is still there. Ah well, the family are surprised and happy to see us which is nice.
We get the last 2 bungalows and chill out for the rest of the day with a plan to make the 1 1/4 hour trek to Huoyxen, a neighbouring village, the next day and then have another go at the 7 hours to Ban Phong and back the following day. We make Huoyxen and it's a nice walk passing a 65 to 70 year old woman carrying a tree (I'm not kidding) but both of us have to admit that the travelling has made us too tired to take on Ban Phong. This is also down to the food which is in short supply. You can have sticky rice and vegetables, stick rice and chicken (grisstle), sticky rice and chicken (grisstle) curry, sticky rice and potato curry and the meals are small. Up hear they run out of food quite quickly (especially eggs and bread) as everything is brought from the fields or the villages including bottled water and beer lao for the tourists. This involves Mama at 49 and Peng her daughter in law trekkiing the one hour to Muang Noi and carrying up to 20 kilos each in bamboo back pacs or on bamboo poles on the shoulder. They are a wealthy family. The poorer people carry a lot more and at much older ages. You can see the people from Ban Phong making the 3 hour journey to the Market every week bare foot. They also have to walk an our every day to get water from the river which is used for the toilet and for drinking.
When I started travelling I was about 90-92 kilos. When I left Thailand I was 85 kilos and I have no idea what I weigh now but the loss is very visible in the mirror. I have also become a walking machine and have become much better at walking on the uneven paths from village to village. They are real ankle breakers and so you don't rush. I have done all the trekking in sandles which I find much better than my shoes especially when crossing rivers.
In the evening we have a full moon party Lao style on the river bank and drink a lot of Lao Lao. It's good fun but Alf is spoiling the atmosphere spewing venim about the western world and all this crap he loves talking about. He doesn't realise that like our Lao friends we just want to have a relaxing evening by the river and would really like him to shut up! The following day we make a few trips, in order to get away from Alf, with Craig from Canada and in the evening we are invited to join the village at a wedding which is a huge event. They have a big stereo which they crank up with asian techno music and do they're silly dance which involves boys and girls standing in front of each other in a long line and shoffeling their feet. It's hillarious. The stereo is powered by a generator as it is a special occasion. Normally electricity is supplied by a few propellor powered generators which Papa and others drop into the river when they go down for their evening bath. Each one is at a little damn in the river made from tree branches.
The locals are incredibly generous feeding us and plying us with Lao Lao and inviting us to dance. The children have games to play and we have couple of friends who can't afford to play so we pay. The teenager I pay for insists that I have the sweet he won. His family are very well liked in the village but have no money. They are trying to build a house but can't afford nails and so as Craig has become part of the family they ask him for help which is embarrasing and hard for them to do. Of course he does and they are very grateful. Thong, the eldest can't afford to get married which involves paying a Dawry of 700 dollars. After a lot of Lao Lao Anett and I turn in quietly avoiding Alf and preparing for the Trek and boat ride back to Luang Prabang which we make in the morning after a sad goodbye to the family. Mama gives us a bag of sticky rice and a couple of bananas each for the trip.
And Luang Prabang is where I am now. Anett has gone ahead while I wait for my lens which still has not arrived and I will have to catch her up. It is in Lao and has been promissed for today but who knows. I hope it comes as we only have 9 days left on our visas and have plans for the south and have become a fairly slick travelling team so it would be a shame to part company now. It does however give me a chance to enjoy the fantastic steaks at my guesthouse but my body is not used to the meat and digestion is a little painful. Still good though ;)
Anyway that's the story so far. I know it's a long one but I hope you enjoy it.
Lots of love,
Kaveh
February 20, 2005
Into Laos
Hello everyone,
It hasn't been so long since my last email but it has been very busy and very interesting so I thought I would email again before I forget it all.
Last email I was in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand preparing to travel into Laos with Anett. We had booked the bus to the border and an overnight stay with food and the boat to Luang Prabang for very little money at our guest house and were picked up by the minibus in the morning for the drive to Chiang Khong on the Thai border. The bus ride took a good 4 hours and was easy going. The last 2 hours were especially nice going through the very north of Thailand which is beautiful with large rice farms and big houses in small tidy villages. The people here seemed wealthy and very warm and relaxed with a good lifestyle. The sun was going down as we approached the border and the hills and fields were very pretty with bamboo shelters dotted everywhere. We arrived in Chiang Khong on the Mekong river which seperates Laos and Thailand for a lot of the border. The town was very nice and the people very relaxed. The guesthouse was setup for the border crossing with minivans for Chiang Mai and it's own fuel supply, a small restaurante and rooms on the river bank constructed from bamboo with a terrace overlooking the river. It was nearly 2 months since I was last on the Mekong in Vietnam and it was very nice to be back especially as the Northern end is very different.
We had our meal and looked around town where no-one was pushing to sell us stuff. It was so relaxed and a good sign of things to come. I also had the best bacon baguette ever... it's so long since I had real bacon!!! In the morning we had breakfast on the terrace over the river as dawn broke and then climbed into a pickup truck for the short drive to the immigration point where we filled a form in and walked down the key to get on a boat taxi and make the 5min crossing to Huay Xai on the Laos border. It's funny as it feels like it's just one town with a river running through it but it is 2 countries and 2 towns. The whole process is very friendly and very organised with one official politely guiding you to whatever you need. Not what I expected at all.
After a short tuk tuk ride we were on the key waiting to board our slow boat to Luang Prabang. This was an interesting process as the tickets have numbers on so they know how many people they have but some tourists as in Cambodia are adament that they are seat numbers. Myself and Anett have our own word for this lot, 'Special!'. Again I'm affraid it seemed to be the French but more about that later. Whenever these moments occur we say 'Oh, a little bit special huh!' which amuses us immensely. In the end I pipe up and inform the most 'special' travellers that these are not seat numbers and that if they want to sit in that seat everyone in the boat will have to move probably turning the boat over. I didn't make any new friends but they stopped being a pain in the arse!!! In asia you have to be early and get on the boat, bus, plane and sit and wait if you want a seat. No prancing off for an iced coffee or a leasurely cigarrette.
Anyway the boat became overloaded very quickly with many people complaining but sure enough another boat was quickly provided. I have found that if you wait a bit and let the locals do things their way it generally works out ok and they are very smart, organised and have very ingenious ways of solving problems, but you have to be patient. We depart eventually and head down the mighty Mekong. The trip is 6-7 hours. As we progress the river becomes quite amazing, boiling and bubbling with a strong current as it is low and dry. The surrounding scenery just gets more and more beautiful and after a couple of hours I cannot believe how amazing Laos looks. along the banks of the river river there are big white sandy beaches sometimes with the odd person who has paddled there in a boat to fish or to work in the steep jungle. The banks climb steeply into huge hills covered in dense jungle which are very impressive in scale and climb into more hills growing into the distance. Occasionally a small bamboo village appears often with beautiful vegetable gardens on the river bank above a sandy beach. This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen and I'm affraid a photo or words can't really do it justice.
The river does run fast and into rapids in places and the driver often requests that we sit low or move to even out the weight of the boat. It is quite dangerous and the driver expertly manouvers the long narrow boat through the rapids. It is a little hair raising but great fun. We are often overtaken by the insane speed boats, passengers packed in with helmets and life jackets, eyes wide as they rocket in the very load boats down the river. It is a long journey with a hard seat but there is space to move around. Many 'Special' people are a little fed up though. There is a very sweet lady selling beer on the boat and I can't resist a picture or 10. In the evening after 6 hours we pull into a town and it becomes apparent that I have misunderstood a little. This is a 2 day trip with 2 6-7 hour boats. Pulling in to the town of Pak Beng it's clear many people are not so happy but myself and Anett are enjoying the boat ride so much we are quite happy to go on another day. I have to run up the steep bank to get a room quickly and we get a good guesthouse overlooking the river. On my return I find Anett has done a deal with a couple of kids to carry our bags up which is very welcome. They are brothers, one about 18-20 and the other perhaps 10-12. The little one speaks better english so they work as a team and this little guy carries my bag sometimes breaking into a run with such ease I can't really believe it. Bloody thing is so heavy.
Electricity is a random affair and after 10pm the lights go out with candle light only. We have dinner on a terrace over the river and meet a very nice Dutch couple going the other way. After the best sleep we have had in a long time we wake up and have breakfast as dawn breaks over the steep hills/mountains and the river. Again it's an amazing sight. We go down to the river and get on a different boat for the 2nd leg. Again I'm affraid the French have forgotten their tickets. Now my gripe with the French isn't that they make mistakes. It's that when they do they are so rude and make such little effort to make themselves understood. They seem to think it is implicit that they should be understood and have what they want. They appear to believe it is still a colony. I find it amazing that they behave in this way and it is a constant source of amazement/irritation to me considering what they have done to South East Asia in the past. Whatever happens I find it impossible to be so rude to the local people as they try so hard and are so nice, most of the time ;0). Sometimes you must give as good as you get but it must be in good humour and with some patience.
The 2nd leg is again very beautiful, maybe even more so. The lifestyle of the people is incredible with little wooden boats and small bamboo villages with no road access. We chat to some other tourists and sleep a little. After 5 hours the landscape begins to flatten and we come to larger villages until we eventually reach a beutiful lush area of vegetable gardens on the banks with old French colonial buildings between the palm trees. This is Luang Prabang and it is very beautiful. I am already very impressed with Laos and connot believe that I was originally going to skip it.
I had to devote a whole email to this journey as it was so impressive and easily the highlight up to that point. That was 2 weeks ago now but I'll have to catch up in the next few emails.
Again I hope you're all well and have enjoyed all the news from home so do send more.
Lots of love Kaveh.
It hasn't been so long since my last email but it has been very busy and very interesting so I thought I would email again before I forget it all.
Last email I was in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand preparing to travel into Laos with Anett. We had booked the bus to the border and an overnight stay with food and the boat to Luang Prabang for very little money at our guest house and were picked up by the minibus in the morning for the drive to Chiang Khong on the Thai border. The bus ride took a good 4 hours and was easy going. The last 2 hours were especially nice going through the very north of Thailand which is beautiful with large rice farms and big houses in small tidy villages. The people here seemed wealthy and very warm and relaxed with a good lifestyle. The sun was going down as we approached the border and the hills and fields were very pretty with bamboo shelters dotted everywhere. We arrived in Chiang Khong on the Mekong river which seperates Laos and Thailand for a lot of the border. The town was very nice and the people very relaxed. The guesthouse was setup for the border crossing with minivans for Chiang Mai and it's own fuel supply, a small restaurante and rooms on the river bank constructed from bamboo with a terrace overlooking the river. It was nearly 2 months since I was last on the Mekong in Vietnam and it was very nice to be back especially as the Northern end is very different.
We had our meal and looked around town where no-one was pushing to sell us stuff. It was so relaxed and a good sign of things to come. I also had the best bacon baguette ever... it's so long since I had real bacon!!! In the morning we had breakfast on the terrace over the river as dawn broke and then climbed into a pickup truck for the short drive to the immigration point where we filled a form in and walked down the key to get on a boat taxi and make the 5min crossing to Huay Xai on the Laos border. It's funny as it feels like it's just one town with a river running through it but it is 2 countries and 2 towns. The whole process is very friendly and very organised with one official politely guiding you to whatever you need. Not what I expected at all.
After a short tuk tuk ride we were on the key waiting to board our slow boat to Luang Prabang. This was an interesting process as the tickets have numbers on so they know how many people they have but some tourists as in Cambodia are adament that they are seat numbers. Myself and Anett have our own word for this lot, 'Special!'. Again I'm affraid it seemed to be the French but more about that later. Whenever these moments occur we say 'Oh, a little bit special huh!' which amuses us immensely. In the end I pipe up and inform the most 'special' travellers that these are not seat numbers and that if they want to sit in that seat everyone in the boat will have to move probably turning the boat over. I didn't make any new friends but they stopped being a pain in the arse!!! In asia you have to be early and get on the boat, bus, plane and sit and wait if you want a seat. No prancing off for an iced coffee or a leasurely cigarrette.
Anyway the boat became overloaded very quickly with many people complaining but sure enough another boat was quickly provided. I have found that if you wait a bit and let the locals do things their way it generally works out ok and they are very smart, organised and have very ingenious ways of solving problems, but you have to be patient. We depart eventually and head down the mighty Mekong. The trip is 6-7 hours. As we progress the river becomes quite amazing, boiling and bubbling with a strong current as it is low and dry. The surrounding scenery just gets more and more beautiful and after a couple of hours I cannot believe how amazing Laos looks. along the banks of the river river there are big white sandy beaches sometimes with the odd person who has paddled there in a boat to fish or to work in the steep jungle. The banks climb steeply into huge hills covered in dense jungle which are very impressive in scale and climb into more hills growing into the distance. Occasionally a small bamboo village appears often with beautiful vegetable gardens on the river bank above a sandy beach. This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen and I'm affraid a photo or words can't really do it justice.
The river does run fast and into rapids in places and the driver often requests that we sit low or move to even out the weight of the boat. It is quite dangerous and the driver expertly manouvers the long narrow boat through the rapids. It is a little hair raising but great fun. We are often overtaken by the insane speed boats, passengers packed in with helmets and life jackets, eyes wide as they rocket in the very load boats down the river. It is a long journey with a hard seat but there is space to move around. Many 'Special' people are a little fed up though. There is a very sweet lady selling beer on the boat and I can't resist a picture or 10. In the evening after 6 hours we pull into a town and it becomes apparent that I have misunderstood a little. This is a 2 day trip with 2 6-7 hour boats. Pulling in to the town of Pak Beng it's clear many people are not so happy but myself and Anett are enjoying the boat ride so much we are quite happy to go on another day. I have to run up the steep bank to get a room quickly and we get a good guesthouse overlooking the river. On my return I find Anett has done a deal with a couple of kids to carry our bags up which is very welcome. They are brothers, one about 18-20 and the other perhaps 10-12. The little one speaks better english so they work as a team and this little guy carries my bag sometimes breaking into a run with such ease I can't really believe it. Bloody thing is so heavy.
Electricity is a random affair and after 10pm the lights go out with candle light only. We have dinner on a terrace over the river and meet a very nice Dutch couple going the other way. After the best sleep we have had in a long time we wake up and have breakfast as dawn breaks over the steep hills/mountains and the river. Again it's an amazing sight. We go down to the river and get on a different boat for the 2nd leg. Again I'm affraid the French have forgotten their tickets. Now my gripe with the French isn't that they make mistakes. It's that when they do they are so rude and make such little effort to make themselves understood. They seem to think it is implicit that they should be understood and have what they want. They appear to believe it is still a colony. I find it amazing that they behave in this way and it is a constant source of amazement/irritation to me considering what they have done to South East Asia in the past. Whatever happens I find it impossible to be so rude to the local people as they try so hard and are so nice, most of the time ;0). Sometimes you must give as good as you get but it must be in good humour and with some patience.
The 2nd leg is again very beautiful, maybe even more so. The lifestyle of the people is incredible with little wooden boats and small bamboo villages with no road access. We chat to some other tourists and sleep a little. After 5 hours the landscape begins to flatten and we come to larger villages until we eventually reach a beutiful lush area of vegetable gardens on the banks with old French colonial buildings between the palm trees. This is Luang Prabang and it is very beautiful. I am already very impressed with Laos and connot believe that I was originally going to skip it.
I had to devote a whole email to this journey as it was so impressive and easily the highlight up to that point. That was 2 weeks ago now but I'll have to catch up in the next few emails.
Again I hope you're all well and have enjoyed all the news from home so do send more.
Lots of love Kaveh.
February 05, 2005
Hong Kong and Northern Thailand
Hello everyone.
Well another border Approaches. I am in the north of Thailand in Chiang Mai at the moment having just returned from Pai, near the Burmese border. My visa for Thailand started to get close to running out on my return to Bangkok after Krabi so rather than rushing through Thailand I decided to get a cheap flight to Hong Kong. I packed light and took the warmest clothes I had having that Hong Kong would be chilly. The flight was with Dragonair, a Hong Kong/Chinese airline and was very good and very empty. On landing in Hong Kong it was sunny but fresh like London but as the evening wore on it became very cold and everyone was wearing ski jackets. The old airport is not in use and I guess will be reclaimed or high rise and so the entry into Hong Kong is ot very exciting. In fact on arrival the whole landscape apart from the container port is pretty underwhelming.
In the evening I go out to try and find some good Chinese food, but it's so cold I go and buy a scarf first. I go to 'Peking Restaurant' which is in the guide book and get sat at a table with other people very much like Wong Kee in London. The food is great, bit big though. this is not a town to eat on your own. After dinner I go walking and the place feels, well to be honest, grumpy and unfriendly especially after Bangkok. Over 2 days I walked a lot of Hong Kong. I had Dim Sum at Sweet Dynasty and walked around the Pok Fu Lam country park for 2 hours. Went to Soho, Boho and Kowloon but just couldn't find a lot to like about the place. Even the food was dissapointing although eating in places where only Chinese eat is good fun. The camera shops were a big let down too. I think if I had gone to Hong Kong first before seeing Singapore, Hanoi, Bangkok etc, I would have liked it but after Bangkok it is a big let down. Bangkok is busy, funny, noisey, sunny and very alive. The food and shopping are both better that Hong Kong. I also much prefered Singaore to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is far too grumpy.
Anyway back to Bangkok and sunshine. What a relief! I spent a few days hanging out with the family in Bangkok and doing shopping for bits and pieces. Many of my clothes have fallen apart and everything is so cheap in Thailand. I start making plans for northern Thailand and Laos. I will need to travel lighter there so I buy one of the excellent copy Lowe Alpine backpacks on Koa San Rd for 20 quid. They copy everything! I'm all set and go to the train station to buy my ticket for Chiang Mai on the sleeper train. I also book a trek in the hilltribes having been told that Chiang Mai is busy and I should book accomodation and activities. The next evening I go to the train station and we set off. The train is good and notyet full but when we reach Ayutaya, the old capital about 1 hour from Bangkok, a group of 10 Dutch trekkers boards the train. They are next to me and instantly get cans of beer out and make lots of noise. The 2 Thai ladies in the 70's are not impressed and despite efforts by their tour leader to keep them quiet, they continue to whhhoooopp and drink all evening. I quickly go to bed when a particularly unattractive and especially drunk member of their group shows an unhealthy interest in me.
The next morning we pull into Chiang Mai and get off the train. I am greeted by the Tuk Tuk driver I have already paid for and he takes me to my guest house where I am met by a very friendly and amusing lady who owns the place. She sent me to my room which is very basic but clean and only 150 BAHT a night, 2 quid! I went straight into the town to explore and walk for hours. Chiang Mai is lovely. It's relaxed and friendly and everyone is very happy here. There are a lot of expats and the place is very cool with old Vespa's and VW Beetle's. There are coffee shops and veggie restaurantes and the food is excellent. On returning to the guest house I am greeted by the landlady who explains to myself and a german girl that we are trhe only people on the trek and we will have to wait till more people arrive the day after. I'm ok with that and go out to find some night life. Everything shuts early in Chinag Mai but I find a couple of well known places with live music. One 'Brasserie' is empty apart from a lot of mosquitos and the other 'Riverside' is packed with pissed teenagers. The music is excellent but being on my own I go home to sleep and somehow I don't feel secure walking.
I walk around town the next day, more good food, more relaxing and then in the evening we meet our trekking guide Mr.Ton. He is very funny. Next morning we make a start and drive to the elephant sanctuary where we go elephant riding. Myself and Anett from Germany are the only long term solo travellers and so we pair up for the trip. After the elephants we have lunch at a waterfall and then trek fro 2 hours to the local Karen tribes. Much like in Vietnam the tribes live in stillted houses and are farming communities. There are many pigs other animals running around as well as small children. In the evening we have an excellent meal prepared by Mr Ton and then we are entertained by the local children. Once they all go to bed Mr Ton entertains us round the fire with hillarious and very rude jungle songs. He is very good fun and makes the trip very amusing.
The night gets extremely cold and sleeping is difficult so after breakfast, the 3 hour walk is quite welcome. We get to our campsite after visiting several Karen villages and cool down in the waterfall. Sitting down to another excellent meal one of the guides called Buffalo Bill produces a Squirel with a sqewer up it's bum and proceeds to merrily barbeque it. A couple of the girls scream 'No No Stop' and he just looks at them as if to say 'What? I'm hungry!' He incinerates the squirel and pulls eats it tail first whilst muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly' to himself. He has been stoned out of his mind all day and smokes very strange looking cigarettes which he rolls in dried banana leaves. This is opium country! On the final day trekking we have breakfast while Buffalo Bill sits smoking hiomself out of his tree again muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly....hehehheheheheheh' and then we sprint the last hour in 40 mins and go bamboo rafting which is great fun. Back in Chiang Mai, Anett and I decide to have a days rest and then go to Pai together followed by Laos as we both have the same plans.
A day in Chiang Mai goofing around and then we are off to Pai. After 3.5 hours in a private minibus which cost 190 Baht we get to Pai which is very chilled. Pai was once a Lisu village, a tribe originating in Tibet, near the Burmese border but has now become a hippie destination for Narco tourists and expats. It's nice though so we find a cheap guesthouse and hire a couple of motorbikes. The sites mentioned in the guide books such as the natural springs amount to nothing very interesting and so we head to the bars for some beers and a chat. The bars are full of dread locked, tattoed young travelers or middle aged hippies caught in a time warp. The next day we explore the local villages on the bikes which is the best thing to do there. The scenery is lovely and the bikes are so cheap at 2 quid per day as is petrol. The mountain roads are demading but fun and we cover quite a few miles along the roads near the Burmese border.
The food in Pai is also excellent and very varied with many foreign restaurantes owned by expats. We find a swimming pool and chat to a Lisu woman who is married to a Scottsman. She looks like a Mongal and is quite stunning and very friendly and happy as are all the people in Pai. The place is full of hippies though and whilst driving around you are beconned to the side of the road with a smoking gesture and offered opium which is for sale at most of the affore mentioned crap sites. This place is really setup for the narco tourists and although very pretty you begin to realise that 3 days is enough.
It is quite hard to find fellow travellers in Thailand who are not interested in the drugs, or prostitution or the full moon parties but luckily neither myself or Anett are interested in these attractions and so travelling together proves easy. And so we head back to Chiang Mai the next day happy with our 3 days in Pai and looking foreward to the trip to Laos... even if I do have a stinking cold. so tomorrow we make our way to Laos by bus and along the Mekong River on the slow boat with an overnight stop at a guest house. Being the dry season, the small fast boats are too dangerous as the often hit rocks. Anyway the crash helmets look stupid! so we'll go the slow way.
So I hope you're all well. Miss you lots so drop me a line when you can.
Kaveh.Hello everyone.
Well another border Approaches. I am in the north of Thailand in Chiang Mai at the moment having just returned from Pai, near the Burmese border. My visa for Thailand started to get close to running out on my return to Bangkok after Krabi so rather than rushing through Thailand I decided to get a cheap flight to Hong Kong. I packed light and took the warmest clothes I had having that Hong Kong would be chilly. The flight was with Dragonair, a Hong Kong/Chinese airline and was very good and very empty. On landing in Hong Kong it was sunny but fresh like London but as the evening wore on it became very cold and everyone was wearing ski jackets. The old airport is not in use and I guess will be reclaimed or high rise and so the entry into Hong Kong is ot very exciting. In fact on arrival the whole landscape apart from the container port is pretty underwhelming.
In the evening I go out to try and find some good Chinese food, but it's so cold I go and buy a scarf first. I go to 'Peking Restaurant' which is in the guide book and get sat at a table with other people very much like Wong Kee in London. The food is great, bit big though. this is not a town to eat on your own. After dinner I go walking and the place feels, well to be honest, grumpy and unfriendly especially after Bangkok. Over 2 days I walked a lot of Hong Kong. I had Dim Sum at Sweet Dynasty and walked around the Pok Fu Lam country park for 2 hours. Went to Soho, Boho and Kowloon but just couldn't find a lot to like about the place. Even the food was dissapointing although eating in places where only Chinese eat is good fun. The camera shops were a big let down too. I think if I had gone to Hong Kong first before seeing Singapore, Hanoi, Bangkok etc, I would have liked it but after Bangkok it is a big let down. Bangkok is busy, funny, noisey, sunny and very alive. The food and shopping are both better that Hong Kong. I also much prefered Singaore to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is far too grumpy.
Anyway back to Bangkok and sunshine. What a relief! I spent a few days hanging out with the family in Bangkok and doing shopping for bits and pieces. Many of my clothes have fallen apart and everything is so cheap in Thailand. I start making plans for northern Thailand and Laos. I will need to travel lighter there so I buy one of the excellent copy Lowe Alpine backpacks on Koa San Rd for 20 quid. They copy everything! I'm all set and go to the train station to buy my ticket for Chiang Mai on the sleeper train. I also book a trek in the hilltribes having been told that Chiang Mai is busy and I should book accomodation and activities. The next evening I go to the train station and we set off. The train is good and notyet full but when we reach Ayutaya, the old capital about 1 hour from Bangkok, a group of 10 Dutch trekkers boards the train. They are next to me and instantly get cans of beer out and make lots of noise. The 2 Thai ladies in the 70's are not impressed and despite efforts by their tour leader to keep them quiet, they continue to whhhoooopp and drink all evening. I quickly go to bed when a particularly unattractive and especially drunk member of their group shows an unhealthy interest in me.
The next morning we pull into Chiang Mai and get off the train. I am greeted by the Tuk Tuk driver I have already paid for and he takes me to my guest house where I am met by a very friendly and amusing lady who owns the place. She sent me to my room which is very basic but clean and only 150 BAHT a night, 2 quid! I went straight into the town to explore and walk for hours. Chiang Mai is lovely. It's relaxed and friendly and everyone is very happy here. There are a lot of expats and the place is very cool with old Vespa's and VW Beetle's. There are coffee shops and veggie restaurantes and the food is excellent. On returning to the guest house I am greeted by the landlady who explains to myself and a german girl that we are trhe only people on the trek and we will have to wait till more people arrive the day after. I'm ok with that and go out to find some night life. Everything shuts early in Chinag Mai but I find a couple of well known places with live music. One 'Brasserie' is empty apart from a lot of mosquitos and the other 'Riverside' is packed with pissed teenagers. The music is excellent but being on my own I go home to sleep and somehow I don't feel secure walking.
I walk around town the next day, more good food, more relaxing and then in the evening we meet our trekking guide Mr.Ton. He is very funny. Next morning we make a start and drive to the elephant sanctuary where we go elephant riding. Myself and Anett from Germany are the only long term solo travellers and so we pair up for the trip. After the elephants we have lunch at a waterfall and then trek fro 2 hours to the local Karen tribes. Much like in Vietnam the tribes live in stillted houses and are farming communities. There are many pigs other animals running around as well as small children. In the evening we have an excellent meal prepared by Mr Ton and then we are entertained by the local children. Once they all go to bed Mr Ton entertains us round the fire with hillarious and very rude jungle songs. He is very good fun and makes the trip very amusing.
The night gets extremely cold and sleeping is difficult so after breakfast, the 3 hour walk is quite welcome. We get to our campsite after visiting several Karen villages and cool down in the waterfall. Sitting down to another excellent meal one of the guides called Buffalo Bill produces a Squirel with a sqewer up it's bum and proceeds to merrily barbeque it. A couple of the girls scream 'No No Stop' and he just looks at them as if to say 'What? I'm hungry!' He incinerates the squirel and pulls eats it tail first whilst muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly' to himself. He has been stoned out of his mind all day and smokes very strange looking cigarettes which he rolls in dried banana leaves. This is opium country! On the final day trekking we have breakfast while Buffalo Bill sits smoking hiomself out of his tree again muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly....hehehheheheheheh' and then we sprint the last hour in 40 mins and go bamboo rafting which is great fun. Back in Chiang Mai, Anett and I decide to have a days rest and then go to Pai together followed by Laos as we both have the same plans.
A day in Chiang Mai goofing around and then we are off to Pai. After 3.5 hours in a private minibus which cost 190 Baht we get to Pai which is very chilled. Pai was once a Lisu village, a tribe originating in Tibet, near the Burmese border but has now become a hippie destination for Narco tourists and expats. It's nice though so we find a cheap guesthouse and hire a couple of motorbikes. The sites mentioned in the guide books such as the natural springs amount to nothing very interesting and so we head to the bars for some beers and a chat. The bars are full of dread locked, tattoed young travelers or middle aged hippies caught in a time warp. The next day we explore the local villages on the bikes which is the best thing to do there. The scenery is lovely and the bikes are so cheap at 2 quid per day as is petrol. The mountain roads are demading but fun and we cover quite a few miles along the roads near the Burmese border.
The food in Pai is also excellent and very varied with many foreign restaurantes owned by expats. We find a swimming pool and chat to a Lisu woman who is married to a Scottsman. She looks like a Mongal and is quite stunning and very friendly and happy as are all the people in Pai. The place is full of hippies though and whilst driving around you are beconned to the side of the road with a smoking gesture and offered opium which is for sale at most of the affore mentioned crap sites. This place is really setup for the narco tourists and although very pretty you begin to realise that 3 days is enough.
It is quite hard to find fellow travellers in Thailand who are not interested in the drugs, or prostitution or the full moon parties but luckily neither myself or Anett are interested in these attractions and so travelling together proves easy. And so we head back to Chiang Mai the next day happy with our 3 days in Pai and looking foreward to the trip to Laos... even if I do have a stinking cold. so tomorrow we make our way to Laos by bus and along the Mekong River on the slow boat with an overnight stop at a guest house. Being the dry season, the small fast boats are too dangerous as the often hit rocks. Anyway the crash helmets look stupid! so we'll go the slow way.
So I hope you're all well. Miss you lots so drop me a line when you can.
Kaveh.
Well another border Approaches. I am in the north of Thailand in Chiang Mai at the moment having just returned from Pai, near the Burmese border. My visa for Thailand started to get close to running out on my return to Bangkok after Krabi so rather than rushing through Thailand I decided to get a cheap flight to Hong Kong. I packed light and took the warmest clothes I had having that Hong Kong would be chilly. The flight was with Dragonair, a Hong Kong/Chinese airline and was very good and very empty. On landing in Hong Kong it was sunny but fresh like London but as the evening wore on it became very cold and everyone was wearing ski jackets. The old airport is not in use and I guess will be reclaimed or high rise and so the entry into Hong Kong is ot very exciting. In fact on arrival the whole landscape apart from the container port is pretty underwhelming.
In the evening I go out to try and find some good Chinese food, but it's so cold I go and buy a scarf first. I go to 'Peking Restaurant' which is in the guide book and get sat at a table with other people very much like Wong Kee in London. The food is great, bit big though. this is not a town to eat on your own. After dinner I go walking and the place feels, well to be honest, grumpy and unfriendly especially after Bangkok. Over 2 days I walked a lot of Hong Kong. I had Dim Sum at Sweet Dynasty and walked around the Pok Fu Lam country park for 2 hours. Went to Soho, Boho and Kowloon but just couldn't find a lot to like about the place. Even the food was dissapointing although eating in places where only Chinese eat is good fun. The camera shops were a big let down too. I think if I had gone to Hong Kong first before seeing Singapore, Hanoi, Bangkok etc, I would have liked it but after Bangkok it is a big let down. Bangkok is busy, funny, noisey, sunny and very alive. The food and shopping are both better that Hong Kong. I also much prefered Singaore to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is far too grumpy.
Anyway back to Bangkok and sunshine. What a relief! I spent a few days hanging out with the family in Bangkok and doing shopping for bits and pieces. Many of my clothes have fallen apart and everything is so cheap in Thailand. I start making plans for northern Thailand and Laos. I will need to travel lighter there so I buy one of the excellent copy Lowe Alpine backpacks on Koa San Rd for 20 quid. They copy everything! I'm all set and go to the train station to buy my ticket for Chiang Mai on the sleeper train. I also book a trek in the hilltribes having been told that Chiang Mai is busy and I should book accomodation and activities. The next evening I go to the train station and we set off. The train is good and notyet full but when we reach Ayutaya, the old capital about 1 hour from Bangkok, a group of 10 Dutch trekkers boards the train. They are next to me and instantly get cans of beer out and make lots of noise. The 2 Thai ladies in the 70's are not impressed and despite efforts by their tour leader to keep them quiet, they continue to whhhoooopp and drink all evening. I quickly go to bed when a particularly unattractive and especially drunk member of their group shows an unhealthy interest in me.
The next morning we pull into Chiang Mai and get off the train. I am greeted by the Tuk Tuk driver I have already paid for and he takes me to my guest house where I am met by a very friendly and amusing lady who owns the place. She sent me to my room which is very basic but clean and only 150 BAHT a night, 2 quid! I went straight into the town to explore and walk for hours. Chiang Mai is lovely. It's relaxed and friendly and everyone is very happy here. There are a lot of expats and the place is very cool with old Vespa's and VW Beetle's. There are coffee shops and veggie restaurantes and the food is excellent. On returning to the guest house I am greeted by the landlady who explains to myself and a german girl that we are trhe only people on the trek and we will have to wait till more people arrive the day after. I'm ok with that and go out to find some night life. Everything shuts early in Chinag Mai but I find a couple of well known places with live music. One 'Brasserie' is empty apart from a lot of mosquitos and the other 'Riverside' is packed with pissed teenagers. The music is excellent but being on my own I go home to sleep and somehow I don't feel secure walking.
I walk around town the next day, more good food, more relaxing and then in the evening we meet our trekking guide Mr.Ton. He is very funny. Next morning we make a start and drive to the elephant sanctuary where we go elephant riding. Myself and Anett from Germany are the only long term solo travellers and so we pair up for the trip. After the elephants we have lunch at a waterfall and then trek fro 2 hours to the local Karen tribes. Much like in Vietnam the tribes live in stillted houses and are farming communities. There are many pigs other animals running around as well as small children. In the evening we have an excellent meal prepared by Mr Ton and then we are entertained by the local children. Once they all go to bed Mr Ton entertains us round the fire with hillarious and very rude jungle songs. He is very good fun and makes the trip very amusing.
The night gets extremely cold and sleeping is difficult so after breakfast, the 3 hour walk is quite welcome. We get to our campsite after visiting several Karen villages and cool down in the waterfall. Sitting down to another excellent meal one of the guides called Buffalo Bill produces a Squirel with a sqewer up it's bum and proceeds to merrily barbeque it. A couple of the girls scream 'No No Stop' and he just looks at them as if to say 'What? I'm hungry!' He incinerates the squirel and pulls eats it tail first whilst muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly' to himself. He has been stoned out of his mind all day and smokes very strange looking cigarettes which he rolls in dried banana leaves. This is opium country! On the final day trekking we have breakfast while Buffalo Bill sits smoking hiomself out of his tree again muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly....hehehheheheheheh' and then we sprint the last hour in 40 mins and go bamboo rafting which is great fun. Back in Chiang Mai, Anett and I decide to have a days rest and then go to Pai together followed by Laos as we both have the same plans.
A day in Chiang Mai goofing around and then we are off to Pai. After 3.5 hours in a private minibus which cost 190 Baht we get to Pai which is very chilled. Pai was once a Lisu village, a tribe originating in Tibet, near the Burmese border but has now become a hippie destination for Narco tourists and expats. It's nice though so we find a cheap guesthouse and hire a couple of motorbikes. The sites mentioned in the guide books such as the natural springs amount to nothing very interesting and so we head to the bars for some beers and a chat. The bars are full of dread locked, tattoed young travelers or middle aged hippies caught in a time warp. The next day we explore the local villages on the bikes which is the best thing to do there. The scenery is lovely and the bikes are so cheap at 2 quid per day as is petrol. The mountain roads are demading but fun and we cover quite a few miles along the roads near the Burmese border.
The food in Pai is also excellent and very varied with many foreign restaurantes owned by expats. We find a swimming pool and chat to a Lisu woman who is married to a Scottsman. She looks like a Mongal and is quite stunning and very friendly and happy as are all the people in Pai. The place is full of hippies though and whilst driving around you are beconned to the side of the road with a smoking gesture and offered opium which is for sale at most of the affore mentioned crap sites. This place is really setup for the narco tourists and although very pretty you begin to realise that 3 days is enough.
It is quite hard to find fellow travellers in Thailand who are not interested in the drugs, or prostitution or the full moon parties but luckily neither myself or Anett are interested in these attractions and so travelling together proves easy. And so we head back to Chiang Mai the next day happy with our 3 days in Pai and looking foreward to the trip to Laos... even if I do have a stinking cold. so tomorrow we make our way to Laos by bus and along the Mekong River on the slow boat with an overnight stop at a guest house. Being the dry season, the small fast boats are too dangerous as the often hit rocks. Anyway the crash helmets look stupid! so we'll go the slow way.
So I hope you're all well. Miss you lots so drop me a line when you can.
Kaveh.Hello everyone.
Well another border Approaches. I am in the north of Thailand in Chiang Mai at the moment having just returned from Pai, near the Burmese border. My visa for Thailand started to get close to running out on my return to Bangkok after Krabi so rather than rushing through Thailand I decided to get a cheap flight to Hong Kong. I packed light and took the warmest clothes I had having that Hong Kong would be chilly. The flight was with Dragonair, a Hong Kong/Chinese airline and was very good and very empty. On landing in Hong Kong it was sunny but fresh like London but as the evening wore on it became very cold and everyone was wearing ski jackets. The old airport is not in use and I guess will be reclaimed or high rise and so the entry into Hong Kong is ot very exciting. In fact on arrival the whole landscape apart from the container port is pretty underwhelming.
In the evening I go out to try and find some good Chinese food, but it's so cold I go and buy a scarf first. I go to 'Peking Restaurant' which is in the guide book and get sat at a table with other people very much like Wong Kee in London. The food is great, bit big though. this is not a town to eat on your own. After dinner I go walking and the place feels, well to be honest, grumpy and unfriendly especially after Bangkok. Over 2 days I walked a lot of Hong Kong. I had Dim Sum at Sweet Dynasty and walked around the Pok Fu Lam country park for 2 hours. Went to Soho, Boho and Kowloon but just couldn't find a lot to like about the place. Even the food was dissapointing although eating in places where only Chinese eat is good fun. The camera shops were a big let down too. I think if I had gone to Hong Kong first before seeing Singapore, Hanoi, Bangkok etc, I would have liked it but after Bangkok it is a big let down. Bangkok is busy, funny, noisey, sunny and very alive. The food and shopping are both better that Hong Kong. I also much prefered Singaore to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is far too grumpy.
Anyway back to Bangkok and sunshine. What a relief! I spent a few days hanging out with the family in Bangkok and doing shopping for bits and pieces. Many of my clothes have fallen apart and everything is so cheap in Thailand. I start making plans for northern Thailand and Laos. I will need to travel lighter there so I buy one of the excellent copy Lowe Alpine backpacks on Koa San Rd for 20 quid. They copy everything! I'm all set and go to the train station to buy my ticket for Chiang Mai on the sleeper train. I also book a trek in the hilltribes having been told that Chiang Mai is busy and I should book accomodation and activities. The next evening I go to the train station and we set off. The train is good and notyet full but when we reach Ayutaya, the old capital about 1 hour from Bangkok, a group of 10 Dutch trekkers boards the train. They are next to me and instantly get cans of beer out and make lots of noise. The 2 Thai ladies in the 70's are not impressed and despite efforts by their tour leader to keep them quiet, they continue to whhhoooopp and drink all evening. I quickly go to bed when a particularly unattractive and especially drunk member of their group shows an unhealthy interest in me.
The next morning we pull into Chiang Mai and get off the train. I am greeted by the Tuk Tuk driver I have already paid for and he takes me to my guest house where I am met by a very friendly and amusing lady who owns the place. She sent me to my room which is very basic but clean and only 150 BAHT a night, 2 quid! I went straight into the town to explore and walk for hours. Chiang Mai is lovely. It's relaxed and friendly and everyone is very happy here. There are a lot of expats and the place is very cool with old Vespa's and VW Beetle's. There are coffee shops and veggie restaurantes and the food is excellent. On returning to the guest house I am greeted by the landlady who explains to myself and a german girl that we are trhe only people on the trek and we will have to wait till more people arrive the day after. I'm ok with that and go out to find some night life. Everything shuts early in Chinag Mai but I find a couple of well known places with live music. One 'Brasserie' is empty apart from a lot of mosquitos and the other 'Riverside' is packed with pissed teenagers. The music is excellent but being on my own I go home to sleep and somehow I don't feel secure walking.
I walk around town the next day, more good food, more relaxing and then in the evening we meet our trekking guide Mr.Ton. He is very funny. Next morning we make a start and drive to the elephant sanctuary where we go elephant riding. Myself and Anett from Germany are the only long term solo travellers and so we pair up for the trip. After the elephants we have lunch at a waterfall and then trek fro 2 hours to the local Karen tribes. Much like in Vietnam the tribes live in stillted houses and are farming communities. There are many pigs other animals running around as well as small children. In the evening we have an excellent meal prepared by Mr Ton and then we are entertained by the local children. Once they all go to bed Mr Ton entertains us round the fire with hillarious and very rude jungle songs. He is very good fun and makes the trip very amusing.
The night gets extremely cold and sleeping is difficult so after breakfast, the 3 hour walk is quite welcome. We get to our campsite after visiting several Karen villages and cool down in the waterfall. Sitting down to another excellent meal one of the guides called Buffalo Bill produces a Squirel with a sqewer up it's bum and proceeds to merrily barbeque it. A couple of the girls scream 'No No Stop' and he just looks at them as if to say 'What? I'm hungry!' He incinerates the squirel and pulls eats it tail first whilst muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly' to himself. He has been stoned out of his mind all day and smokes very strange looking cigarettes which he rolls in dried banana leaves. This is opium country! On the final day trekking we have breakfast while Buffalo Bill sits smoking hiomself out of his tree again muttering 'Lubbly Jubbly....hehehheheheheheh' and then we sprint the last hour in 40 mins and go bamboo rafting which is great fun. Back in Chiang Mai, Anett and I decide to have a days rest and then go to Pai together followed by Laos as we both have the same plans.
A day in Chiang Mai goofing around and then we are off to Pai. After 3.5 hours in a private minibus which cost 190 Baht we get to Pai which is very chilled. Pai was once a Lisu village, a tribe originating in Tibet, near the Burmese border but has now become a hippie destination for Narco tourists and expats. It's nice though so we find a cheap guesthouse and hire a couple of motorbikes. The sites mentioned in the guide books such as the natural springs amount to nothing very interesting and so we head to the bars for some beers and a chat. The bars are full of dread locked, tattoed young travelers or middle aged hippies caught in a time warp. The next day we explore the local villages on the bikes which is the best thing to do there. The scenery is lovely and the bikes are so cheap at 2 quid per day as is petrol. The mountain roads are demading but fun and we cover quite a few miles along the roads near the Burmese border.
The food in Pai is also excellent and very varied with many foreign restaurantes owned by expats. We find a swimming pool and chat to a Lisu woman who is married to a Scottsman. She looks like a Mongal and is quite stunning and very friendly and happy as are all the people in Pai. The place is full of hippies though and whilst driving around you are beconned to the side of the road with a smoking gesture and offered opium which is for sale at most of the affore mentioned crap sites. This place is really setup for the narco tourists and although very pretty you begin to realise that 3 days is enough.
It is quite hard to find fellow travellers in Thailand who are not interested in the drugs, or prostitution or the full moon parties but luckily neither myself or Anett are interested in these attractions and so travelling together proves easy. And so we head back to Chiang Mai the next day happy with our 3 days in Pai and looking foreward to the trip to Laos... even if I do have a stinking cold. so tomorrow we make our way to Laos by bus and along the Mekong River on the slow boat with an overnight stop at a guest house. Being the dry season, the small fast boats are too dangerous as the often hit rocks. Anyway the crash helmets look stupid! so we'll go the slow way.
So I hope you're all well. Miss you lots so drop me a line when you can.
Kaveh.
January 12, 2005
The land of the ladyboys!!!
Well hello from the land of lady boys!!!
I've been in Thailand for 3 and a bit weeks now. After flying in from Cambodia I was met at the airport by my uncles driver and taken to his house in the east of the city 'which was nice!'. I spent a few days with friends from the tour in Bangkok and enjoyed the food and shopping and the city which looks great and is good fun. The weather is amazing and there a hell of a lot to do. I met my uncles secretary Toom who took me and Olivia out for food and she has been good fun and a good eating companion. After the guys left for more tours I stayed on and waited for Elaine to arrive from the tour and after dong the usual backpacker stuff in Koa San Rd we booked a bus to Krabi. The plan was to get there early and do 5 days of diving while Elaine climbed and then the others would be there for new year.
The bus took 12 hours and allowed us to see what southern Thailand looks like. It was a good trip and on arrival we had a 30min ride in a pickup truck to the hotel at Ao Nang beach in Phranang bay. We checked, cleaned up and went for dinner. The town was a proper sea side resort and was fairly busy, just about everyone being Swedish. Even the menus were in swedish. The next morning I we went to the beach and looked around to book our activities. I found good dive shop but sensed Elaine was not 100% about Ao Nang so held of on booking my place to dive phi phi in case in ended up on my own and looking for a room. We took a long tail to Ton Sai and had Xmas lunch on the beach (This was xmas day). After lunch we walked to Raily and found some bars with full moon party planned and Elaine felt happier. Raily was very beautiful.
We headed back to Ao Nang and I went to book my dive trip but on getting to the shop a group of 10 Swedes walked out having booked every place on the boat....Damn!!! So I boked a trip on the 27th (a birthday treat I thought). The next morning I woke up to what felt like a bad dream at about 8.30 (I later realised that this was the earthquake shakin the room). Elaine left for her climbing on Raily and I got up to find a room for when she left as she had decided to pull after all having 'had enough of Asia'. I found a room and went back to the hotel.... I thought about finding another dive boat but decided to get the camera and do some work on Raily beach photographing the climbers. I set of to get a long tail from the beach to Raily but as I walked to the beach an english couple ran towrds me and asked a bike taxi to take them way as far as posible. There was a load crack which i thought was a gun and people were running saying a huge wave was coming. The crack was a boat snapping.
I felt no wind and no storm and carried on to the beach will everone running, driving and riding the other way. As I got closer I saw a huge wave coming to shore at great speed and it reared up.... people were just standing looking at it and then it hit the seafront with a load smack as it splashed as high as the palm trees!!! All the boats were smashed or in shop windows and well you know the rest.
I got very sick that night and the next day. Elaine, having had quite an ordeal went back to Bangkok but I hung on for Olivia and the others to arrive. We spent new yr together which was good and then one by one headed back to Bangkok and other places. I've now been back in Bangkok for a week and have gotten to know the town very well. Toom has taken me to many different eating venue including a home ook where a family open their backyard as a restaurant for locals in the evening and a local food hall/market where workers eat at lunch ... that was yummy. I've tried nearly every form of transport in an attempt to avoid the terrible traffic. Meter taxi, Motorbike taxi, tuk tuk, river taxi, sky train, subway...... only the buses have not been tried. My favourite is the river taxi with the collapsingroof to avoid the bridges. This is not the same thing as the big river taxis on the main river but the local takis on the small rivers running through the city. I've done a river tour, been to the reclining budha and been to the unfamous Phat Phong to see a ping pong show at a girly club (use your imagination). Getting to Koa San rd from my uncle's house involves a motorbike taxi in the morning to the sky train... then sky train acroos to the centre of town where I get the boat taxi to nr koa san ..... being on the other side of town to everyone has meant I have seen a hell of a lot to Bangkok and it's a great place. It's everything you imagine a south est asian city to be and more and getting around and eating in Thailand is incredibly cheap... you just can't believe it.
Anyway I'm off to Hong Kong for a few days as I need to get out and come back to renew my visa and then I willl make my way north and across the border into Laos!!! Can't wait.
Love you all and miss you loads.
If you want to go to Thailand don't be put off by the pictures. It's great here and tourism is the best thing for them now. I hope all your friends are safe and sound (Especially Kajsa, Gabriella and Joi. I'm very sorry for the Swedes. There were so many here)
Kaveh.
I've been in Thailand for 3 and a bit weeks now. After flying in from Cambodia I was met at the airport by my uncles driver and taken to his house in the east of the city 'which was nice!'. I spent a few days with friends from the tour in Bangkok and enjoyed the food and shopping and the city which looks great and is good fun. The weather is amazing and there a hell of a lot to do. I met my uncles secretary Toom who took me and Olivia out for food and she has been good fun and a good eating companion. After the guys left for more tours I stayed on and waited for Elaine to arrive from the tour and after dong the usual backpacker stuff in Koa San Rd we booked a bus to Krabi. The plan was to get there early and do 5 days of diving while Elaine climbed and then the others would be there for new year.
The bus took 12 hours and allowed us to see what southern Thailand looks like. It was a good trip and on arrival we had a 30min ride in a pickup truck to the hotel at Ao Nang beach in Phranang bay. We checked, cleaned up and went for dinner. The town was a proper sea side resort and was fairly busy, just about everyone being Swedish. Even the menus were in swedish. The next morning I we went to the beach and looked around to book our activities. I found good dive shop but sensed Elaine was not 100% about Ao Nang so held of on booking my place to dive phi phi in case in ended up on my own and looking for a room. We took a long tail to Ton Sai and had Xmas lunch on the beach (This was xmas day). After lunch we walked to Raily and found some bars with full moon party planned and Elaine felt happier. Raily was very beautiful.
We headed back to Ao Nang and I went to book my dive trip but on getting to the shop a group of 10 Swedes walked out having booked every place on the boat....Damn!!! So I boked a trip on the 27th (a birthday treat I thought). The next morning I woke up to what felt like a bad dream at about 8.30 (I later realised that this was the earthquake shakin the room). Elaine left for her climbing on Raily and I got up to find a room for when she left as she had decided to pull after all having 'had enough of Asia'. I found a room and went back to the hotel.... I thought about finding another dive boat but decided to get the camera and do some work on Raily beach photographing the climbers. I set of to get a long tail from the beach to Raily but as I walked to the beach an english couple ran towrds me and asked a bike taxi to take them way as far as posible. There was a load crack which i thought was a gun and people were running saying a huge wave was coming. The crack was a boat snapping.
I felt no wind and no storm and carried on to the beach will everone running, driving and riding the other way. As I got closer I saw a huge wave coming to shore at great speed and it reared up.... people were just standing looking at it and then it hit the seafront with a load smack as it splashed as high as the palm trees!!! All the boats were smashed or in shop windows and well you know the rest.
I got very sick that night and the next day. Elaine, having had quite an ordeal went back to Bangkok but I hung on for Olivia and the others to arrive. We spent new yr together which was good and then one by one headed back to Bangkok and other places. I've now been back in Bangkok for a week and have gotten to know the town very well. Toom has taken me to many different eating venue including a home ook where a family open their backyard as a restaurant for locals in the evening and a local food hall/market where workers eat at lunch ... that was yummy. I've tried nearly every form of transport in an attempt to avoid the terrible traffic. Meter taxi, Motorbike taxi, tuk tuk, river taxi, sky train, subway...... only the buses have not been tried. My favourite is the river taxi with the collapsingroof to avoid the bridges. This is not the same thing as the big river taxis on the main river but the local takis on the small rivers running through the city. I've done a river tour, been to the reclining budha and been to the unfamous Phat Phong to see a ping pong show at a girly club (use your imagination). Getting to Koa San rd from my uncle's house involves a motorbike taxi in the morning to the sky train... then sky train acroos to the centre of town where I get the boat taxi to nr koa san ..... being on the other side of town to everyone has meant I have seen a hell of a lot to Bangkok and it's a great place. It's everything you imagine a south est asian city to be and more and getting around and eating in Thailand is incredibly cheap... you just can't believe it.
Anyway I'm off to Hong Kong for a few days as I need to get out and come back to renew my visa and then I willl make my way north and across the border into Laos!!! Can't wait.
Love you all and miss you loads.
If you want to go to Thailand don't be put off by the pictures. It's great here and tourism is the best thing for them now. I hope all your friends are safe and sound (Especially Kajsa, Gabriella and Joi. I'm very sorry for the Swedes. There were so many here)
Kaveh.
December 29, 2004
Tsunami
Hi all,
Just to say I'm safe and only have a dose food poisoning to complain about. I was walking to the beach when the wave hit. The only time I will ever have dozens of bekini clad Swedish girls running towards me screaming....literally! (Ao Nang in Krabi is full of Swedish people...even the shops have swedish signs). Everyone was shouting run!!!!! run!!!! wave wave!!
My room mate was very lucky as she had been climbing with her rope man standing on the beach. He had to drop her and they ran for it. She made it by the skin of her teeth... the people behind her weren't as lucky. I had a long wait before she turned up having walked crawled and swum back which was a great relief as I was expecting a trip to the morg.. :o/ She's headed back to Bangkok now but I'm gonna stick around and wait for some friends who will be here for new yr.
I was due to dive on Ko Phi Phi but there was no room on the boat so I decided to go and take some pictures of the beautiful views from the rocks on the beach... I was on my way to get a bat whn the wave came. The boats are all match sticks now and th ons that aren't are in restaurant windows. I must say we were very lightly hit and extremely lucky. People from Phi Phi have been arriving here but a lot of hotels are empty due to cancelled holidays. The locals are obviously very upset. I'm nackered so I'm off for a nap now... the dodgey prawn curry has taken it's toll.
Merry Xmas and a happy new year to you all. Missing you lots,
Kaveh. X.
Just to say I'm safe and only have a dose food poisoning to complain about. I was walking to the beach when the wave hit. The only time I will ever have dozens of bekini clad Swedish girls running towards me screaming....literally! (Ao Nang in Krabi is full of Swedish people...even the shops have swedish signs). Everyone was shouting run!!!!! run!!!! wave wave!!
My room mate was very lucky as she had been climbing with her rope man standing on the beach. He had to drop her and they ran for it. She made it by the skin of her teeth... the people behind her weren't as lucky. I had a long wait before she turned up having walked crawled and swum back which was a great relief as I was expecting a trip to the morg.. :o/ She's headed back to Bangkok now but I'm gonna stick around and wait for some friends who will be here for new yr.
I was due to dive on Ko Phi Phi but there was no room on the boat so I decided to go and take some pictures of the beautiful views from the rocks on the beach... I was on my way to get a bat whn the wave came. The boats are all match sticks now and th ons that aren't are in restaurant windows. I must say we were very lightly hit and extremely lucky. People from Phi Phi have been arriving here but a lot of hotels are empty due to cancelled holidays. The locals are obviously very upset. I'm nackered so I'm off for a nap now... the dodgey prawn curry has taken it's toll.
Merry Xmas and a happy new year to you all. Missing you lots,
Kaveh. X.
December 16, 2004
Cambodia
Dear all,
Well another email and another country has gone by in a flash. My last night in Saigon was great fun. Myself and a friend from the tour met up with my Vietnamese friend Vu and went out all day and evening enjoying the bike taxis in the traffic and the food and drink. We ate in a very cool place where they cook rice in clay pots, then smash them and through the hot ball of rice across the restaurante to another waitor. We finished off the evening in the market with a beer.
The next morning we were off at 5am after getting in at 1am for the 9 hour bus ride to Phnom Pen. The early start ensures a smoother border crossing. I was waiting for the rough ride I had heard about but it never really happened. I thought it was quite good!
There is some waiting around at the border and the door to the bus is pounced on by a heard of women with hands full of money all competing to buy your Vietnamese Dong and trade for Cambodian Rial. They are quite intimidating but the exchange rate is reasonable and it's a good way to change the money. They look a bit rough though and I don't think it's a lucrative trade... :0/
Once over the border you're struck by the difference in appearance of the people... they are darker and more indian looking and tougher looking. There is also a very strong difference in character. Vietnamese people come across as proud, strong, respectful, charming and happy. The Cambodians look desperate and a little damaged. As we drive further there is also a lack of scooters compared to Vietnam and surprisingly there are lots of very expensive 4x4's and Mercedes Benz!!! I'm confused...this supposed tobe more rugged and poorer that Vietnam. We come to a ferry to cross the river and there is a queue of these cars as well as lots of small children begging (we've been asked not to give them anything as this encourages them to depend on begging). Many of them are dissabled from mines.
The countryside is very flat compared to Vietnam where there is always a mountain within eyeshot. Getting closer to Phnom Pen more expensive cars drive through organised traffic and past proper petrol stations with modern buildings and large car dealerships with shiny Lexus, Toyota and Mercedes. It's a big surprise. Later that evening when we go out it becomes apparent that this country is backpacker central and I beging to miss Vietnam.
The next day we take a tour of the city and start with the Royal palace and temple Wat Nom. Tourists everywhere!!! Beggers too. We go for lunch to the bodhi tree which is full of backpackers trying to look as cool as possible. After lunch we cross the road and go straight into the Prison known as S21 where the Kmer Rouge tortured and killed. It's so weird to go from cool backpacker cafe to this. As we go around looking at the sells and walls of photos of the people killed... some people are obviously not coping with this very well. A lot of people are in tears and there is blood splattered all over the place, although some people seem to want the t-shirt. It's the beginning of a difficult afternoon as we move onto the killing fields. As we pull into the carpark a man with no legs is being beaten up horribly because he is drunk and has been begging. It's very hard to do nothing but interfering apparently makes things worse. We go into the killing fields and as we walk around there is clothing sticking out of the ground everywhere. I nearly step on a human jaw bone sticking out of the ground and there are bits of bone sticking out of the ground everywhere where they only partialy finished clearing the graves out. Tourists are wandering around snapping away and walking on everything and to be honest I'm starting to get pissed off cos it's like a theme park. A tower has been built which houses human skulls but it doesn't appear to be well looked after.
Time to leave and go back to Phnom Pen.
On day 3 we leave at 5am to get the boat the crosses the country to Siem Reap. It's a fantastic boat ride and the lake is massive taking 5 hours to cross in avery unstable speed boat bus thingy. It's a bit like a narrow boat with a very cool twin turbo V12 diesel in the back (I couldn't help having a look) that feels like it may capsize at any minute.
Arrival in the floating village on the outskirts of Siem Reap is insane. The boat gets swamped with people trying to sell you a taxi ride or carry your bags for money, and kids trying to get there hands on some spare food. They rifle the through the boat, which is again trying to capsize (I nearly fell in), for anything they can find. There are a lot of French tourists on the boat and I don't want to say anyhting about the French but they are all SOOO RUDE!! You sit anywhere but these guys all pay porters to sit in théir numbered seat and general bahve appallingly One in particular who makes my life difficult.... and then the boat owner's by putting his foot through a window and refusing to pay for it. In fact all the tourists have changed compared to the people we meet in Vietnam. They are alll backpackers or pensioner wannabe National Geographics. Cap, neckerchief, white photographers waist coat, shorts, hiking boots and a complete lack of spacial awareness. Yes I'm having a rant but it's actually really good fun and all part of the experience.
Siem Reap is even more of a backpacker zone than Phnom Pen. We go for lunch and walk into the Purple Pumpkin... it's a tippical south east asian dusty town with french architecture everywhere but the Purple Pumpkin is like walking into a really cool bar in Soho with modern minimalist furniture all in white and cillout beds with wireless network and amazing food (Black Ice tea is so good). I'm completely confused!
Next day we go off to Angkor Wat at 5 am for the sunrise. I won't go into detail... amazing, huge beautiful... go see it! The complex is massive with many other temples. Also the kids in the carpark are very funny! so buy something from them cos it's worth it just for the entertainment. Beware, they are much smarter than you or I. That evening we went to the mine museum to watch a play by the kids who live there, about the country's history. The museum is run by Akera who was trained by the Kmer Rouge to lay mines from the age of 5. He estimates he has layed 20,000 mines. He now spends all his money looking after children injured by mines and going out to clear mines himself. He has cleared many more than he has layed but still goes out every week to clear more.
This morning I said goodbye to the group who are going to Bangkok in a pickup truck... I was jealous, then I saw the truck!!! Good luck to em. I fly there tomorrow! ;0) Despite this email sounding negative Cambodia has been great fun but after Vietnam it is a little too cushy and just ver touristy and not what you expect at all. It's confusing and weird but then after what happened here it kind of makes sense. I like Cambodia but love Vietnam.
Missing you all, but not that much ;0)
Love, Kaveh.
Well another email and another country has gone by in a flash. My last night in Saigon was great fun. Myself and a friend from the tour met up with my Vietnamese friend Vu and went out all day and evening enjoying the bike taxis in the traffic and the food and drink. We ate in a very cool place where they cook rice in clay pots, then smash them and through the hot ball of rice across the restaurante to another waitor. We finished off the evening in the market with a beer.
The next morning we were off at 5am after getting in at 1am for the 9 hour bus ride to Phnom Pen. The early start ensures a smoother border crossing. I was waiting for the rough ride I had heard about but it never really happened. I thought it was quite good!
There is some waiting around at the border and the door to the bus is pounced on by a heard of women with hands full of money all competing to buy your Vietnamese Dong and trade for Cambodian Rial. They are quite intimidating but the exchange rate is reasonable and it's a good way to change the money. They look a bit rough though and I don't think it's a lucrative trade... :0/
Once over the border you're struck by the difference in appearance of the people... they are darker and more indian looking and tougher looking. There is also a very strong difference in character. Vietnamese people come across as proud, strong, respectful, charming and happy. The Cambodians look desperate and a little damaged. As we drive further there is also a lack of scooters compared to Vietnam and surprisingly there are lots of very expensive 4x4's and Mercedes Benz!!! I'm confused...this supposed tobe more rugged and poorer that Vietnam. We come to a ferry to cross the river and there is a queue of these cars as well as lots of small children begging (we've been asked not to give them anything as this encourages them to depend on begging). Many of them are dissabled from mines.
The countryside is very flat compared to Vietnam where there is always a mountain within eyeshot. Getting closer to Phnom Pen more expensive cars drive through organised traffic and past proper petrol stations with modern buildings and large car dealerships with shiny Lexus, Toyota and Mercedes. It's a big surprise. Later that evening when we go out it becomes apparent that this country is backpacker central and I beging to miss Vietnam.
The next day we take a tour of the city and start with the Royal palace and temple Wat Nom. Tourists everywhere!!! Beggers too. We go for lunch to the bodhi tree which is full of backpackers trying to look as cool as possible. After lunch we cross the road and go straight into the Prison known as S21 where the Kmer Rouge tortured and killed. It's so weird to go from cool backpacker cafe to this. As we go around looking at the sells and walls of photos of the people killed... some people are obviously not coping with this very well. A lot of people are in tears and there is blood splattered all over the place, although some people seem to want the t-shirt. It's the beginning of a difficult afternoon as we move onto the killing fields. As we pull into the carpark a man with no legs is being beaten up horribly because he is drunk and has been begging. It's very hard to do nothing but interfering apparently makes things worse. We go into the killing fields and as we walk around there is clothing sticking out of the ground everywhere. I nearly step on a human jaw bone sticking out of the ground and there are bits of bone sticking out of the ground everywhere where they only partialy finished clearing the graves out. Tourists are wandering around snapping away and walking on everything and to be honest I'm starting to get pissed off cos it's like a theme park. A tower has been built which houses human skulls but it doesn't appear to be well looked after.
Time to leave and go back to Phnom Pen.
On day 3 we leave at 5am to get the boat the crosses the country to Siem Reap. It's a fantastic boat ride and the lake is massive taking 5 hours to cross in avery unstable speed boat bus thingy. It's a bit like a narrow boat with a very cool twin turbo V12 diesel in the back (I couldn't help having a look) that feels like it may capsize at any minute.
Arrival in the floating village on the outskirts of Siem Reap is insane. The boat gets swamped with people trying to sell you a taxi ride or carry your bags for money, and kids trying to get there hands on some spare food. They rifle the through the boat, which is again trying to capsize (I nearly fell in), for anything they can find. There are a lot of French tourists on the boat and I don't want to say anyhting about the French but they are all SOOO RUDE!! You sit anywhere but these guys all pay porters to sit in théir numbered seat and general bahve appallingly One in particular who makes my life difficult.... and then the boat owner's by putting his foot through a window and refusing to pay for it. In fact all the tourists have changed compared to the people we meet in Vietnam. They are alll backpackers or pensioner wannabe National Geographics. Cap, neckerchief, white photographers waist coat, shorts, hiking boots and a complete lack of spacial awareness. Yes I'm having a rant but it's actually really good fun and all part of the experience.
Siem Reap is even more of a backpacker zone than Phnom Pen. We go for lunch and walk into the Purple Pumpkin... it's a tippical south east asian dusty town with french architecture everywhere but the Purple Pumpkin is like walking into a really cool bar in Soho with modern minimalist furniture all in white and cillout beds with wireless network and amazing food (Black Ice tea is so good). I'm completely confused!
Next day we go off to Angkor Wat at 5 am for the sunrise. I won't go into detail... amazing, huge beautiful... go see it! The complex is massive with many other temples. Also the kids in the carpark are very funny! so buy something from them cos it's worth it just for the entertainment. Beware, they are much smarter than you or I. That evening we went to the mine museum to watch a play by the kids who live there, about the country's history. The museum is run by Akera who was trained by the Kmer Rouge to lay mines from the age of 5. He estimates he has layed 20,000 mines. He now spends all his money looking after children injured by mines and going out to clear mines himself. He has cleared many more than he has layed but still goes out every week to clear more.
This morning I said goodbye to the group who are going to Bangkok in a pickup truck... I was jealous, then I saw the truck!!! Good luck to em. I fly there tomorrow! ;0) Despite this email sounding negative Cambodia has been great fun but after Vietnam it is a little too cushy and just ver touristy and not what you expect at all. It's confusing and weird but then after what happened here it kind of makes sense. I like Cambodia but love Vietnam.
Missing you all, but not that much ;0)
Love, Kaveh.
December 09, 2004
More Vietnam
Hello again,
As my time in Vietnam is finishing I have some time to write again.... thank goodness as it is all fresh in the mind. In my last email I was in Na Trang on my way to Whale Island. As we asrrived in Whale island it was still raining after a very nice drive. Whale Island is a small resort island owned by a Frenchman and his Vietnamese wife. It takes about 60 guests and is very pretty with white sand palm trees and blue water. We arrived for lunch and as we ate lunch the rain stopped and the sun came out... and I mean it really came out. 30 degrees with a sea breeze and 28 degree water! MMmmmm.
Everyone relaxed and had a swim and enjoyed the food and a sleep. We slept in bamboo bungalows which was so nice... ytou could hear the sea all night and the insect chirping. The next morning a group of us went to the reef (it's a bit rich to call it a reef... a few rocks and some coral) for a snorkel. This was great fun and the water was perfect. Lots of clown fish (Nemo).
We went back for lunch, meals were served in a bamboo shelter over looking the beach. Most of the group played games on the beach after lunch. I went for a siesta which I had only planned for 30 mins but which went on for 3 hours. The island was a great place to rest and be away from the crazy cities and most people would have happily stayed longer that the 3 days we had but upon arriving back at Na Trang I was realy happy to be back in husstle of proper Vietnam.
We had one more night in Na Trang where we ate at the Sailing club on the beach. This is very expensive by Vietnamese standards at about 3 pounds with most meals costing about 1 pound and it was excellent. The relaxation was soon over as we had to catch the reunification express to Ho Chi Minh over night, soft sleeper this time and I find that I would rather be on the hard as it's cleaner. In Ho Chi Minh or Saigon as the centre is known to locals, I met up with Vu a friend from London and we went out for the afternoon and evening. He got his friends to take us everywhere on motorbike taxi and we went all over district 1. It was great to see the town like this and too get away from the group too. After the pagodas, Ice coffee, head massage, hair cut, and dinner we went to a local bar and had the local beer. I was the only non Vietnamese person at most of the places he took me which was cool. Lonely Planet has got this city all wrong!!!
Next morning was an early start on a bus to the Mekong Delta. After the bus we boarded a boat and toured the delta and local businesses all day. This ranged from tile making to pottery, but mostly farming with something like 80% of Vietnams produce coming from this area which takes up 10% of the country. In the evening we stayed with a family in a dorm they run on a river. The Mekong Delta is basically an extremely fertile swamp area interconnected by rivers acting as roads. It reminded me of the Grand Union canal and spending the summer on Jon's boat. Just a lot more humid!!! I'm actually enjoying the humidity.
In the morning another early start took us by boat to the water market and to watch the locals making rice paper which I had a go at and also sweets and pop corn. This was great fun! Vietnamese people work and eat all the time!! I haven't mentioned the poverty but this is a poor country. There are hardly any beggers though which is a strange contrast to London with dozens of beggers down Tottenham Court Road.
Anyway... I'm in Saigon till the day after tomorrow where as part of a slightly different group I'll be leaving for Cambodia for 1 week. I'll be going solo once we reach Siem Reap and Angkor though which I'm looking forward to now. I like the people in my group a lot but I am starting to crave my own schedule and pace (and so is the Hasselblad... note to Adri ;)...).
I hope you're all well and miss you all.... keep in touch. It's good to hear from people.
Lots of love,
Kaveh.
As my time in Vietnam is finishing I have some time to write again.... thank goodness as it is all fresh in the mind. In my last email I was in Na Trang on my way to Whale Island. As we asrrived in Whale island it was still raining after a very nice drive. Whale Island is a small resort island owned by a Frenchman and his Vietnamese wife. It takes about 60 guests and is very pretty with white sand palm trees and blue water. We arrived for lunch and as we ate lunch the rain stopped and the sun came out... and I mean it really came out. 30 degrees with a sea breeze and 28 degree water! MMmmmm.
Everyone relaxed and had a swim and enjoyed the food and a sleep. We slept in bamboo bungalows which was so nice... ytou could hear the sea all night and the insect chirping. The next morning a group of us went to the reef (it's a bit rich to call it a reef... a few rocks and some coral) for a snorkel. This was great fun and the water was perfect. Lots of clown fish (Nemo).
We went back for lunch, meals were served in a bamboo shelter over looking the beach. Most of the group played games on the beach after lunch. I went for a siesta which I had only planned for 30 mins but which went on for 3 hours. The island was a great place to rest and be away from the crazy cities and most people would have happily stayed longer that the 3 days we had but upon arriving back at Na Trang I was realy happy to be back in husstle of proper Vietnam.
We had one more night in Na Trang where we ate at the Sailing club on the beach. This is very expensive by Vietnamese standards at about 3 pounds with most meals costing about 1 pound and it was excellent. The relaxation was soon over as we had to catch the reunification express to Ho Chi Minh over night, soft sleeper this time and I find that I would rather be on the hard as it's cleaner. In Ho Chi Minh or Saigon as the centre is known to locals, I met up with Vu a friend from London and we went out for the afternoon and evening. He got his friends to take us everywhere on motorbike taxi and we went all over district 1. It was great to see the town like this and too get away from the group too. After the pagodas, Ice coffee, head massage, hair cut, and dinner we went to a local bar and had the local beer. I was the only non Vietnamese person at most of the places he took me which was cool. Lonely Planet has got this city all wrong!!!
Next morning was an early start on a bus to the Mekong Delta. After the bus we boarded a boat and toured the delta and local businesses all day. This ranged from tile making to pottery, but mostly farming with something like 80% of Vietnams produce coming from this area which takes up 10% of the country. In the evening we stayed with a family in a dorm they run on a river. The Mekong Delta is basically an extremely fertile swamp area interconnected by rivers acting as roads. It reminded me of the Grand Union canal and spending the summer on Jon's boat. Just a lot more humid!!! I'm actually enjoying the humidity.
In the morning another early start took us by boat to the water market and to watch the locals making rice paper which I had a go at and also sweets and pop corn. This was great fun! Vietnamese people work and eat all the time!! I haven't mentioned the poverty but this is a poor country. There are hardly any beggers though which is a strange contrast to London with dozens of beggers down Tottenham Court Road.
Anyway... I'm in Saigon till the day after tomorrow where as part of a slightly different group I'll be leaving for Cambodia for 1 week. I'll be going solo once we reach Siem Reap and Angkor though which I'm looking forward to now. I like the people in my group a lot but I am starting to crave my own schedule and pace (and so is the Hasselblad... note to Adri ;)...).
I hope you're all well and miss you all.... keep in touch. It's good to hear from people.
Lots of love,
Kaveh.
Singapore to Vietnam
Dear all,
Well it has been a bit busy for the last 2 weeks!!! I fine and well and have just gotten back from the tailors in Hoi Anh to get some clothes made... Anyway the story so far:
I landed in Singapore 2 weeks ago and spent a night there which was enough time to eat and walk around a little. Singapore is like Selfridges, Harrods and Oxford St on steroids with a Swedish cleaning company! Very clean, very efficient and with great weather... it was 32 degrees. It also has massive Xmas decorations with big musical xmas trees. One night didn't seems enough as although many people don't rate Singapore I think it probably deserves a little more exploring... maybe on my next stop. (Seems like ages ago now).
I landed in Hanoi a day later and was relieved to find that a transit had been booked and I was driven straight to the hotel through some very poor countryside. It looked quite run down. The driving and traffic became a little mad and after Singapore it was quite a shock. I was really jet lagged and so when I checked into the hotel I went to sleep. When I woke up it was evening and as I stept out for a walk I must admit I was a little intimidated by the atmosphere.... it was very dark with lots of side allies and noise and I clung onto my belongings as I walked through the old quarter where I was based. It was dry cool and very sunny...PERFECT! The whole place runs on Honda C90's and you are asked if you want to hire a motorbike taxi at every corner. After a walk round the lake and dinner I went back to the hotel wondering if I was happy to be there. I didn't sleep that night and trhe next morning I decided to go out a 6am and walk around. This turned out to be a great idea as the town had not woken up fully and as I walked the city began to wake up so I could slowly get used to the madness that is Hanoi!!! The people doing there excersizes by the lake in te morning is great and as the town wakes up it changes throughout the day. You soon learn that saying no with a smile has a great effect and people smile back with a big grin and leave you a lone (you get hasstled a fair bit but as you get used to it it becomes 2nd nature).
After exploring Hanoi for a couple of days I found that it is very much like Tehran! Justa replace taxis with scooters! I met up with the group I would be touring Vietnam with and found that I was very lucky to get suck a great bunch of people and by now was very relaxed with in Hanoi, especially the old quarter.
After 4 days we left Hanoi with a guide and went off to the Hoa Binh province for a 2 day trek over 25 kms in the hilltribes. The first day was easy but as we arrived at the first tribe 1 of us showed signs of food poisoning... 1 then became 3 as the night went on including myself and a honeymoon couple!...That night we all froze...it was soooo cold. The next morning the other 2 ill people went on by jeep but I decided to give it a go although I felt awful by now and the sanitary conditions were pretty disgusting... I won't go into detail but the experience of going to the toilet made 1 person vomit. As we walked my condition got much worse... the walk was very steep and downhill for 8 hours and I could not eat of keep any food in me at all. We reached a village after 6 hours and I was totally gone so I got a bike ride to the homestay village where we would spend the night. A tiny girl on a Honda C90 drove me across some pretty demanding roads like it was a trip to school and I was so greatful to get to the stilted house and collapse into a waiting bed... the hospitality was amazing. The honeymooners turned up at the same time after a 3 hour jeep and scooter ride which had taken it's toll. We all died!!
I had pretty bad dissintary now and was very weak and tired. I didn't eat and was so sick of going to the toilet...but somehow still glad to be there.
The next morning I managed a pancake and began the 2nd 10km walk, this time much easier. The group were great and I was looked after well. This is also where I found out that 'Kaveh' means prostitute or street girl in Vietnamese. The walk was good but I was struggling with food and just carried on because the villages were so great and the tribal people so sweet especially the children who shouted hello all the time.
We got to the bus and then were on our way back to Hanoi... such a relief. In Hanoi we had 2 a free day the next day and I began to recover quite quickly. The following day we departed for Hoa Long bay. The weather wasn't great and despite my illness I missed the hilltribe areas. Hoa Long bay was relaxing though and we went Kayaking and played cards and got very drunk on the local rice wine.... WOW!!! I nearly went blind! Hoa Long bay was a short stop and the weather was not so great with wind and rain and it was pretty cool.... cold.
When we arrive back at Hanoi we were greated with the news thatTyphoons had caused severe flooding in central Vietnam and that our night train to Hue was cancelled. This was dissapointing as we were all keen to get out of Hanoi... (it's great but it can drive you a little mad). Fortunately our tour leader Noah, had a friend who lived in a small farming village which rarely saw foreigners (who they call potatos by the way) and had invited us to come over. This was a very rare and fortunate opertuntiy to see the real Vietnam.
I've just type a whole section and lost it as the internet is not good so i'll retype in brief. After the village we managed to get the train to Hue (which is not worth a mention) and then a bus the following day from Hue to Hoi An passing through a fantastic moutainous drive, Da Nang and also China beach. On arrivla in Hoi An we all went to the tailors for our fitting and over the next 2 days enjoyed having our clothes made and walking around the relaxed market town.
I am now in Na Trang having made the 9 hour train ride from Hoi An where I started writing this, to Na Trang where we will get the bus to Whale Island in the morning. I'm not home sick yet but it has been raining a lot and amd keen to move on to somewhere new with maybe some better weather. I am really enjoying Vietnam though and would lobve to come back again at a slower pace. Hanoi is great and the hill tribes were wonderful.
I miss you all,
Love,
Kaveh.
Well it has been a bit busy for the last 2 weeks!!! I fine and well and have just gotten back from the tailors in Hoi Anh to get some clothes made... Anyway the story so far:
I landed in Singapore 2 weeks ago and spent a night there which was enough time to eat and walk around a little. Singapore is like Selfridges, Harrods and Oxford St on steroids with a Swedish cleaning company! Very clean, very efficient and with great weather... it was 32 degrees. It also has massive Xmas decorations with big musical xmas trees. One night didn't seems enough as although many people don't rate Singapore I think it probably deserves a little more exploring... maybe on my next stop. (Seems like ages ago now).
I landed in Hanoi a day later and was relieved to find that a transit had been booked and I was driven straight to the hotel through some very poor countryside. It looked quite run down. The driving and traffic became a little mad and after Singapore it was quite a shock. I was really jet lagged and so when I checked into the hotel I went to sleep. When I woke up it was evening and as I stept out for a walk I must admit I was a little intimidated by the atmosphere.... it was very dark with lots of side allies and noise and I clung onto my belongings as I walked through the old quarter where I was based. It was dry cool and very sunny...PERFECT! The whole place runs on Honda C90's and you are asked if you want to hire a motorbike taxi at every corner. After a walk round the lake and dinner I went back to the hotel wondering if I was happy to be there. I didn't sleep that night and trhe next morning I decided to go out a 6am and walk around. This turned out to be a great idea as the town had not woken up fully and as I walked the city began to wake up so I could slowly get used to the madness that is Hanoi!!! The people doing there excersizes by the lake in te morning is great and as the town wakes up it changes throughout the day. You soon learn that saying no with a smile has a great effect and people smile back with a big grin and leave you a lone (you get hasstled a fair bit but as you get used to it it becomes 2nd nature).
After exploring Hanoi for a couple of days I found that it is very much like Tehran! Justa replace taxis with scooters! I met up with the group I would be touring Vietnam with and found that I was very lucky to get suck a great bunch of people and by now was very relaxed with in Hanoi, especially the old quarter.
After 4 days we left Hanoi with a guide and went off to the Hoa Binh province for a 2 day trek over 25 kms in the hilltribes. The first day was easy but as we arrived at the first tribe 1 of us showed signs of food poisoning... 1 then became 3 as the night went on including myself and a honeymoon couple!...That night we all froze...it was soooo cold. The next morning the other 2 ill people went on by jeep but I decided to give it a go although I felt awful by now and the sanitary conditions were pretty disgusting... I won't go into detail but the experience of going to the toilet made 1 person vomit. As we walked my condition got much worse... the walk was very steep and downhill for 8 hours and I could not eat of keep any food in me at all. We reached a village after 6 hours and I was totally gone so I got a bike ride to the homestay village where we would spend the night. A tiny girl on a Honda C90 drove me across some pretty demanding roads like it was a trip to school and I was so greatful to get to the stilted house and collapse into a waiting bed... the hospitality was amazing. The honeymooners turned up at the same time after a 3 hour jeep and scooter ride which had taken it's toll. We all died!!
I had pretty bad dissintary now and was very weak and tired. I didn't eat and was so sick of going to the toilet...but somehow still glad to be there.
The next morning I managed a pancake and began the 2nd 10km walk, this time much easier. The group were great and I was looked after well. This is also where I found out that 'Kaveh' means prostitute or street girl in Vietnamese. The walk was good but I was struggling with food and just carried on because the villages were so great and the tribal people so sweet especially the children who shouted hello all the time.
We got to the bus and then were on our way back to Hanoi... such a relief. In Hanoi we had 2 a free day the next day and I began to recover quite quickly. The following day we departed for Hoa Long bay. The weather wasn't great and despite my illness I missed the hilltribe areas. Hoa Long bay was relaxing though and we went Kayaking and played cards and got very drunk on the local rice wine.... WOW!!! I nearly went blind! Hoa Long bay was a short stop and the weather was not so great with wind and rain and it was pretty cool.... cold.
When we arrive back at Hanoi we were greated with the news thatTyphoons had caused severe flooding in central Vietnam and that our night train to Hue was cancelled. This was dissapointing as we were all keen to get out of Hanoi... (it's great but it can drive you a little mad). Fortunately our tour leader Noah, had a friend who lived in a small farming village which rarely saw foreigners (who they call potatos by the way) and had invited us to come over. This was a very rare and fortunate opertuntiy to see the real Vietnam.
I've just type a whole section and lost it as the internet is not good so i'll retype in brief. After the village we managed to get the train to Hue (which is not worth a mention) and then a bus the following day from Hue to Hoi An passing through a fantastic moutainous drive, Da Nang and also China beach. On arrivla in Hoi An we all went to the tailors for our fitting and over the next 2 days enjoyed having our clothes made and walking around the relaxed market town.
I am now in Na Trang having made the 9 hour train ride from Hoi An where I started writing this, to Na Trang where we will get the bus to Whale Island in the morning. I'm not home sick yet but it has been raining a lot and amd keen to move on to somewhere new with maybe some better weather. I am really enjoying Vietnam though and would lobve to come back again at a slower pace. Hanoi is great and the hill tribes were wonderful.
I miss you all,
Love,
Kaveh.
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