OK, we are back in Bangkok, surviving the heat and getting stuff done. Not much else to say, but I did want to share with you a nice, heartwarming story about our border crossing from Laos into Thailand.
We bought our tickets for our train ride from the Thai border to Bangkok in Vang Vieng. The ticket price included transportation from Vientiane to the border, and we were told to wait outside a certain restaurant at 4:00. No problem. 4:00 on the nose we were there, only to have a waiter from the restaurant tell us that the bus doesn't come until 5:30, and that we should wait across the street. We asked one more person to confirm because I thought that was cutting it close for a 7:00 train departure. But we got the same answer so we found some seats and sat around killing time and sweating.
At about 5:00, we see a man inquiring to a passing traveler as to whether she is going to Bangkok and waiting for transport. She said no, but luckily we overheard the conversation and showed our faces and told him we were. He said, "by train?" and we said, "yes". He said, "Let's go....I've been walking around looking and looking for you!". Yikes. So we piled into his comfortable air-conditioned minivan with a group of the friendliest Thais we have met heading out to catch the same train. They had been waiting and looking for us for 30 minutes. They were not concerned at all, and assured us we still had plenty of time. We thanked them profusely for not giving up and leaving us, and the driver said, "I cannot leave my people" or something to that effect.
This group consisted of a middle-aged man who lives in Washington D.C, Mr Song, and Bo, who we assumed is a business partner and 3 other ladies...they were all travelling on business from Bangkok. We chatted with Song the whole way to the border while he translated the conversation to Bo, who was clearly very interested in us and our travels.
At the border, the minivan left us, our new friends went to do some Duty free shopping and we put ourselves in the very slow moving and very long "Foreigner Passport" immigration line to depart Laos. It started to become a little disconcerting as to how slow the line was moving as we still had to find transportation across the bridge, go through Thailand immigration, and find transportation to the train station. As we are standing there, with about 10 people ahead of us to go, our friends come back from shopping and breeze through the "Thai Passport" line. Bo speaks rapidly to the immigration officer there, and then quickly waves us over to his line....they had made it OK for us to go through their line knowing we were pressed for time. (I don't think the surly immigration officer, however, appreciated the throngs of other falang that followed us into that line thinking it was open to all foreigners! I have a feeling they got turned back).
The kindness did not stop there. As we are getting our passports inspected and stamped, Bo comes over with two receipts for the Laos exit fee. He paid our way out of Laos! (So it was only 50 cents each, but the gesture and the time saved was so thoughtful). Then, we get ushered over by them again, as they have hired a minivan taxi to take them the rest of the way and the insist we pile in with them. And continue to refuse any money from us. So off we go into Thailand. Luckily the lines on the Thailand immigration were the same for everybody and not very long. Back in the minivan and off to the train terminal with 20 minutes to spare to sit down with our new friends and have a quick bite to eat. I honestly think we might not have made it had we been left to our own vices and ignorance about the transport.
We were blown away by their kindness, especially after we were the reason they were late in the first place! Thai hospitality and kindness at its best.
Bangkok is going well. We have been shopping and to the movies. The only movie playing in every single theatre is MI3, but we were craving a good ol cinema experience so we went. A bit on the loud side (volumes are frequently turned up way too lound in SE Asia....at least the speakers weren't crackling like they often are in the street), but an entertaining movie. Today we went to the HUGE weekend market...something like 10,000 vendors set up. We bought a cheap pair of binoculars and some socks. Dad, you would have absolutely hated this market. So many people, hot, and nothing but shopping. We didn't even enjoy it all that much, but we had to go check it out in pursuit of good bargains.
More shopping on the list, research, pages to be inserted into passports, airline tickets to pick up and a restocking of malaria meds. Fun stuff. Don't be hurt if we don't update you with all the fine details. The next post may very well come from Tanzania, Africa. However, if those rope swing pics ever come through, I promise to toss them up here.
Cheers!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
The Last of Laos
We are currently in Vientiane, Laos, the capital of the country. We arrived here yesterday by public bus/truck and once again, it is HOT. It was so nice up in the northern part of the country with all the mountains and daily rain showers and clouds. Still hot up there, but bearable. Here, it is hardly bearable. So I looked online, because we've been complaining so much and become so lethargic, I figured it must be well over 100 degrees. Phooey, it's only 90. But then I looked at Bangkok.....98. Yikes, I guess we should stop complaining. The best news, is that in Tanzania (our next big destination), the hottest temp I could find was in the mid 70's. Yay!
So we finished up our bike trip with one big marathon ride all the way from Luang Prabang back to Vang Vieng. We stopped at the half way point, but it was still early and decided to push on. Then stopped at the next major town and did peek our heads into a couple guesthouses, but no one was around so we took it as fate and made a final sprint for 'home'. That day we rode about 230km! It total, for our whole trip we figured we covered about 1,017 km. Not bad. That last day of riding was all backtracking, but in some ways coming from a new direction and being on bikes it didn't feel redundant at all. Even a change in the weather makes the scenery appear different. A beautiful ride none-the-less. Here is some more scenery photos for you to look at (are you tired of them yet?)...
This is about halfway between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. Just south of Phu Khoun.
A little closer to Vang Vieng. A look at the road we've been driving:
Really getting close to Vang Vieng now....
So we finished up our bike trip with one big marathon ride all the way from Luang Prabang back to Vang Vieng. We stopped at the half way point, but it was still early and decided to push on. Then stopped at the next major town and did peek our heads into a couple guesthouses, but no one was around so we took it as fate and made a final sprint for 'home'. That day we rode about 230km! It total, for our whole trip we figured we covered about 1,017 km. Not bad. That last day of riding was all backtracking, but in some ways coming from a new direction and being on bikes it didn't feel redundant at all. Even a change in the weather makes the scenery appear different. A beautiful ride none-the-less. Here is some more scenery photos for you to look at (are you tired of them yet?)...
This is about halfway between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. Just south of Phu Khoun.
A little closer to Vang Vieng. A look at the road we've been driving:
Really getting close to Vang Vieng now....
And finally, just about 20km north of Vang Vieng as we are trying to beat the setting sun...
We spent two days in Vang Vieng, staying at an organic farm/guesthouse outside of town. A nice way to get away from the falang hoards in town. (By the way mom, it is falang in Laos, and farang in Thailand...to refer to Westerners). They serve pretty good, all organic food, and mulberry everything (shakes, pancakes, etc) as their primary crop is mulberries.
The one thing everyone does in Vang Vieng is inner tube down a small stretch of the Nam Song River. While we envisioned a fast paced river with some mild rapids, we were a bit disappointed as it was pretty slow moving water, and lots of paddling (from which we are pathetically sore, thank you very much!). What they did have instead were many riverside bars serving an immense amount of BeerLao, and huge, gnarley rope swings! Two of them were crazy. The bamboo support stand/ladder/platform sat about 30 feet off the water, and you hold on to a handle connected to a big cable that is anchored way over your head, and once you get the courage to push yourself off the platform, you swing like mad, making a huge arch where at the peak of the swing you are just slightly lower than the platform from which you started, where you let go and plunge into the river. The first time I did it I was too scared to let go, so I swang back and forth a couple times (pretty darn fun), but the second time I let go at the peak (pretty fun as well). This was way scarier for me than those crazy zip lines for some reason. Keith went several more times than I did and perfected his piroette entry into the water as well as his backwards launch. We didn't bring our camera with us, but some girls we met took some pictures for us and promised to email them to us...we'll post them as soon as we get them.
We left the next day for Vientiane, and we are kind of petering out on the sightseeing and are a bit anxious to get to Bangkok and get a book on Africa so we can start planning that leg of our journey. So pretty laid back days here. We did go out this morning to see what I think is the largest stupa in the world. I don't know too much about it except that it has become the National symbol for Laos and is on the cover of our book, so we had to go see it and get a picture of one of us standing in front of it. Here it is:
We don't plan to so much else here. We've got an airconditioned room, so we're loving that naturally. We'll check out the local night market tonight then it's off to the border across the Friendship Bridge tomorrow evening and an overnight train to Bangkok.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Back on Motorbikes!
We finally did it. We found some motorbikes to rent in Laos. Not the best bikes, but they let us take them for more than one day at a reasonable rate, and they start, and the horn works. What more could you want?
We took a public bus from Luang Prabang south to Vang Vieng. It was very likely one of the best bus journeys we have had. I guess the travel gods decided we've had enough hardship on public transport and it was time to give us a break. Nothing special about the ride. Just a proper size bus, a middle age, cautious driver, seats to ourselves that weren't falling apart and no cargo or people in the aisle! And more really nice scenery.
Vang Vieng is not really a nice city, but its surroundings are spectacular. Lots of those limestone cliffs similar to what we saw in Halong Bay in Vietnam, but take out the bay. It has become a must on the backpacker route, which is why it is not a nice city. TV bars have taken over the street....every restaurant has a TV and it blares movies, or more likely Friends episodes...day and night. Kind of weird, but plenty of falang filling the places up. The moment we arrived into town, it started downpouring. Sheets of rain. And it didn't let up until sometime in the middle of the night. We woke the next day to cloudy skies, and thought we'd postpone our trip a day (it's not much fun riding in the rain), but when we looked at the map and the days left on our visa, and the clearing skies, we decided at the last minute to go.
A boy I met just outside of Vang Vieng after I had to turn around to pick up a piece of metal I thought fell off my bike after hitting a pothole...he wanted to practice his English for a while.
So the first day was spent heading right back where we came from...north towards Luang Prabang. We stopped about 100km shy of Luang Prabang, and stayed in a very small junction town called Phu Khoun, where the north-south Highway 13 meets the east-west Highway 7. We stayed the night in a not so nice place (not a lot of options here!), and met two very nice fellow travelers (Hi Lindsay and Sarah!).
Day two took us east about 130 km to a tourist destination town (but not hugely traveled) called Phonsavan. Not realizing it, this stretch of the drive took us through the last remaining hotspots for H'mong guerillas! Ooops. We were wondering what all those guys dressed in official uniforms with AK-47's were doing (they were Laos patrol officers obviously protecting/watching the road).
Phonsavan is home to the 'Plain of Jars', which is a grassy field littered with huge jars made of stone. They still don't know what purpose they served or when they were built. The best guess is sometime between 500 BC and 800 AD. We drove out and had a look at them late in the afternoon. Pretty strange. The other sight to see in and amongst the jars are many, many huge bomb craters courtesy of the American military and their "secret war". If you are fascinated by these mysterious jars, wikipedia does a pretty good job: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars
One of the many jars. We'll never tell what Keith found in there.....
Day three we really started to get into some remote areas. After heading about 60 more km east (through more stunning, lush, pituresque villages), we turned north onto what our map showed as a dirt road. We were prepared for the worst and were pleasantly surprised to find it paved the whole way. It has been fun to finally live up to the name of our website and get to some places a bit less traveled (by falang anyway). Driving through these small villages we are greeted in a variety of ways. Sometimes its an eager wave, sometimes a furrowed brow, sometimes a cautious smile, but most often a look of utter bewilderment followed by a delayed, yet beaming smile. Whoever is riding second has to do most of the waving, because they don't realize who/what we are until the first biker has passed. It is hilarious.
So there we are cruising through some of the most remote areas we have been where villages are getting a little fewer and farther between, and we get a flat. Good fortune continues to follow us as there was a village just 2 km up the road. We pushed my bike in and, I kid you not, I think the whole village came out to stare at us and the bike. Thank goodness one man there spoke very little English, enough to say, "I can fix here". We were so relieved because the only other option would have been to wait for and load the bike up onto the next bus. We spent a very pleasant hour there with most of the village surrounding either the bike and its repair progress or one of us showing them something from our bag. You know you are off the beaten path when you take out your camera and children run for their lives. Or if you approach a small child and he starts to scream bloody murder. So funny. We made it out of that remote stretch and to the next main highway junction town, Nam Neun, where we bedded down in another marginal guesthouse, but a lovely, peaceful town where they wake and go to sleep with the sun.
The villagers surrounding me as I am showing them pictures from home:
The next day (day 4) we turned back west and the map held true to its word as we nervously navigated a stretch of about 40km of dirt road. Not just dirt, but sharp rocks as well. We made it out without anymore flats, and eventually hit pavement again. The rest of the ride was uneventful, with more nice scenery, lots of friendly villages, and relatively good weather. Lots of rain lately, but thankfully most of it falls at night. We pushed on this day quite far, with no guarantee of a guesthouse at our intended destination, Muang Vieng Kham. Luckily there was one there...pretty rustic, with a room barely big enough to fit the bed, but our cheapest accommodation yet at $2.50.
Lots of limestone scenery. It is all so pretty!
Day 5 was a short ride! Yay! As the butts are starting to get sore. We are back in the land of falang-a-plenty, which in some ways is nice...access to hot showers, more variety of food at the restaurants and not so much staring. The town we stayed at is called Nong Khiaw and is, I think, the prettiest town we have seen yet. We are back into limestone cliff scenery and with the rainy days, and misty clouds, this place looked like a bit of a paradise. The main tourist destination here is to take a boat ride up the river one hour and stay in a more remote (but more touristy....is that an oxymoron?) village. We opted to just go up river for lunch at this village so that we could sleep where our bikes were. Quite a scenic river trip even with the sketchy rapids in the overloaded boat. Back in Nong Khiaw we splurged on an $8 room which got us a balcony with a view of the river, a soft mattress and a hot shower in a private bathroom. Heaven!
Here we are enjoying Beer Lao on our balcony after our first proper shower in days:
The view in Nong Khiaw from the bridge looking upriver:
More Nong Khiaw scenery. This is along the river on our boat ride:
And that brings us to today, where we are back in Luang Prabang for the THIRD time! Today's ride was long - 140 km. We are back onto main roads again, so potholes are becoming more scarce and the kilometers click by a little faster. We got another flat today (this time Keith's bike, mine was the first one). It was his front tire, and we knew there was a big town back 5 km, so we borrowed some tools, took of the wheel and rode back into town for a quick repair. Before setting back off, I glanced at my rear tire to find the tube bulging out of a whole in the tire! Back to town again for another repair. Then we were off, and it was smooth sailing through more great scenery to good ol Luang Prabang. Two more days and we should be back in Vang Vieng.
We took a public bus from Luang Prabang south to Vang Vieng. It was very likely one of the best bus journeys we have had. I guess the travel gods decided we've had enough hardship on public transport and it was time to give us a break. Nothing special about the ride. Just a proper size bus, a middle age, cautious driver, seats to ourselves that weren't falling apart and no cargo or people in the aisle! And more really nice scenery.
Vang Vieng is not really a nice city, but its surroundings are spectacular. Lots of those limestone cliffs similar to what we saw in Halong Bay in Vietnam, but take out the bay. It has become a must on the backpacker route, which is why it is not a nice city. TV bars have taken over the street....every restaurant has a TV and it blares movies, or more likely Friends episodes...day and night. Kind of weird, but plenty of falang filling the places up. The moment we arrived into town, it started downpouring. Sheets of rain. And it didn't let up until sometime in the middle of the night. We woke the next day to cloudy skies, and thought we'd postpone our trip a day (it's not much fun riding in the rain), but when we looked at the map and the days left on our visa, and the clearing skies, we decided at the last minute to go.
A boy I met just outside of Vang Vieng after I had to turn around to pick up a piece of metal I thought fell off my bike after hitting a pothole...he wanted to practice his English for a while.
So the first day was spent heading right back where we came from...north towards Luang Prabang. We stopped about 100km shy of Luang Prabang, and stayed in a very small junction town called Phu Khoun, where the north-south Highway 13 meets the east-west Highway 7. We stayed the night in a not so nice place (not a lot of options here!), and met two very nice fellow travelers (Hi Lindsay and Sarah!).
Day two took us east about 130 km to a tourist destination town (but not hugely traveled) called Phonsavan. Not realizing it, this stretch of the drive took us through the last remaining hotspots for H'mong guerillas! Ooops. We were wondering what all those guys dressed in official uniforms with AK-47's were doing (they were Laos patrol officers obviously protecting/watching the road).
Phonsavan is home to the 'Plain of Jars', which is a grassy field littered with huge jars made of stone. They still don't know what purpose they served or when they were built. The best guess is sometime between 500 BC and 800 AD. We drove out and had a look at them late in the afternoon. Pretty strange. The other sight to see in and amongst the jars are many, many huge bomb craters courtesy of the American military and their "secret war". If you are fascinated by these mysterious jars, wikipedia does a pretty good job: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars
One of the many jars. We'll never tell what Keith found in there.....
Day three we really started to get into some remote areas. After heading about 60 more km east (through more stunning, lush, pituresque villages), we turned north onto what our map showed as a dirt road. We were prepared for the worst and were pleasantly surprised to find it paved the whole way. It has been fun to finally live up to the name of our website and get to some places a bit less traveled (by falang anyway). Driving through these small villages we are greeted in a variety of ways. Sometimes its an eager wave, sometimes a furrowed brow, sometimes a cautious smile, but most often a look of utter bewilderment followed by a delayed, yet beaming smile. Whoever is riding second has to do most of the waving, because they don't realize who/what we are until the first biker has passed. It is hilarious.
So there we are cruising through some of the most remote areas we have been where villages are getting a little fewer and farther between, and we get a flat. Good fortune continues to follow us as there was a village just 2 km up the road. We pushed my bike in and, I kid you not, I think the whole village came out to stare at us and the bike. Thank goodness one man there spoke very little English, enough to say, "I can fix here". We were so relieved because the only other option would have been to wait for and load the bike up onto the next bus. We spent a very pleasant hour there with most of the village surrounding either the bike and its repair progress or one of us showing them something from our bag. You know you are off the beaten path when you take out your camera and children run for their lives. Or if you approach a small child and he starts to scream bloody murder. So funny. We made it out of that remote stretch and to the next main highway junction town, Nam Neun, where we bedded down in another marginal guesthouse, but a lovely, peaceful town where they wake and go to sleep with the sun.
The villagers surrounding me as I am showing them pictures from home:
The next day (day 4) we turned back west and the map held true to its word as we nervously navigated a stretch of about 40km of dirt road. Not just dirt, but sharp rocks as well. We made it out without anymore flats, and eventually hit pavement again. The rest of the ride was uneventful, with more nice scenery, lots of friendly villages, and relatively good weather. Lots of rain lately, but thankfully most of it falls at night. We pushed on this day quite far, with no guarantee of a guesthouse at our intended destination, Muang Vieng Kham. Luckily there was one there...pretty rustic, with a room barely big enough to fit the bed, but our cheapest accommodation yet at $2.50.
Lots of limestone scenery. It is all so pretty!
Day 5 was a short ride! Yay! As the butts are starting to get sore. We are back in the land of falang-a-plenty, which in some ways is nice...access to hot showers, more variety of food at the restaurants and not so much staring. The town we stayed at is called Nong Khiaw and is, I think, the prettiest town we have seen yet. We are back into limestone cliff scenery and with the rainy days, and misty clouds, this place looked like a bit of a paradise. The main tourist destination here is to take a boat ride up the river one hour and stay in a more remote (but more touristy....is that an oxymoron?) village. We opted to just go up river for lunch at this village so that we could sleep where our bikes were. Quite a scenic river trip even with the sketchy rapids in the overloaded boat. Back in Nong Khiaw we splurged on an $8 room which got us a balcony with a view of the river, a soft mattress and a hot shower in a private bathroom. Heaven!
Here we are enjoying Beer Lao on our balcony after our first proper shower in days:
The view in Nong Khiaw from the bridge looking upriver:
More Nong Khiaw scenery. This is along the river on our boat ride:
And that brings us to today, where we are back in Luang Prabang for the THIRD time! Today's ride was long - 140 km. We are back onto main roads again, so potholes are becoming more scarce and the kilometers click by a little faster. We got another flat today (this time Keith's bike, mine was the first one). It was his front tire, and we knew there was a big town back 5 km, so we borrowed some tools, took of the wheel and rode back into town for a quick repair. Before setting back off, I glanced at my rear tire to find the tube bulging out of a whole in the tire! Back to town again for another repair. Then we were off, and it was smooth sailing through more great scenery to good ol Luang Prabang. Two more days and we should be back in Vang Vieng.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Luang Prabang....Again
Yes, we are in Luang Prabang again. Just arrived today, via the same darn crowded, hard-seated, two-day boat journey as last time. It is a long story, but needless to say our transportation has not been necessarily efficient, easy or smooth here in Laos so far. The bane of this insane loop we made was worth it though, a little excursion to the jungle to fly around on zip lines and sleep in treehouses. More on that to come. I think it has been almost a week since our last post, and we have been busy, so settle in, Em is at the keyboard and she can be a bit wordy....
I think we last left you at the peak of the water festival here in Luang Prabang. We spent one day fully emerged in the festivities which included a very large morning market engulfing most of the main streets, followed by an afternoon on the Mekong where it was one big party. The party consisted of throwing water and flour on people and rubbing grease on the faces. In addition, there were fun activities such as firing rather impressive homemade rockets off of bamboo platforms, and climbing races up bamboo poles to get to the goodies dangling from the top of them (it took a good hour before the first person was able to reach the top of the pole...very entertaining, especially when some falang gave it a whirl). The streets of the city were mayhem as well. Full on dousing, loud music, dancing, and probably too much Beer Lao and Lao lao (the local whiskey). We partook as long as we could stand, then sought solace in our room till the water was put away. The next day was the big processional and apparently even crazier water throwing, but we opted out of it and took a bus north to our next destination.
Having fun at the celebration on the Mekong (we had our own bag of flour, so were able to get some revenge!):
I'm watching the bamboo pole climbing competition here. Is it just me, or do I look like a giant?
Rocket launching:
There were two things we really wanted to do in Laos. One was to rent motorbikes in Luang Prabang and drive a big loop in the northern region. We quickly discovered that it was not possible. They no longer rent motorbikes to foreigners in Luang Prabang - the most believable reason we heard being that the tuk tuk drivers were losing business, so they organized themselves and got the government to put a ban on it. The other thing we really wanted to do was the Gibbon Experience which is where you spend three days in the jungle sleeping in treehouses and gliding on zip lines over the forest canopy. This had a jumping off point near Huay Xai, but we didn't do it on the first run because we thought we'd be driving there on bikes. No problem, we'll rent bikes in a town farther north of Luang Prabang...or so we thought.
So off we set...our first experience on the public buses of Laos. We were able to jump on the bus just as it was leaving, and one of the first things the driver did was hand out not one, but two plastic bags to each person on the bus. This turned out to be a wise choice on their part. What a road! And what a driver! Beautiful, stunning scenery. Curvy, hairpin turns and an aggressive driver. Made for all kinds of good entertainment for us as we made the five hour journey.
We learned two important things about how the buses work here. Number 1: people show up 1-2 hours early to secure a seat and the bus will leave when it is full, which could be an hour before the scheduled time. Number 2: They don't stop for pee breaks....ever. I was reminded on that journey how quickly we can lose our modesty. Here's a funny picture: Me standing at the front of the bus full of locals and a smattering of falang, gesturing with my hands towards my crotch because "toilet", "loo", "restroom", and "bathroom" weren't working and pleading for him to wait two minutes. Unfortunately the villagers here didn't understand those words either, so we (me, Keith and another tourist) ran like mad for the most secluded spot in the village we could find and did what nature demands. The funniest thing is that literally 2 km down the road, the bus pulls over for its apparent scheduled stop (along the side of the road) to a chorus of relieved sighs from all the locals after which they filed off the bus, spreading out to find their own bush, tree, whatever! He could have just told us! Too funny.
We stopped that day in a small town called Udomxai. It is described in our book as nothing more than a pass through town where three highways intersect. But we found it to be a beautiful and pleasant town. The new years festivities were in full swing, but on a smaller and more mellow scale than in Luang Prabang. It continues to delight us how easily the locals are amused. One bucket of water thrown creates shouts of joy, giggles, screams and hoots. Throw that water on a falang, in a falang-less town like Udomxai, and multiply that amusement by 10. We were literally cheered by a truckful of men passing through as we took our buckets of water with a smile. We got our second Laos massage here. We are growing quite fond of their technique...a nice cross between Swedish and Thai. This one was a nice experience: laying on a not-so-clean mattress in a rickety wooden building and listening to the waxing and waning sounds of the celebrations around us: kids playing in the river, drunken shouts, sing-alongs to bad Asian music, water splashing, screams of delight and laughter. Nice.
The next day took us to an even smaller town called Luang Nam Tha, not as pretty as Udomxai, but more geared for tourists. And we found some bikes to rent! But the price was ridiculous as was the quality of the motorbikes. Nevertheless we rented them for just a day and drove out to another small town to enjoy more scenery and get off a crowded bus for a day. Finally we were able to firm up some plans for the Gibbon Experience and we set off the following day on a doozie of a 'bus' ride.
We tried to be prudent and got to the bus station an hour early only to find the bus completely full (I forgot to mention - on the bus from Udomxai to Luang Nam Tha, Keith counted 20 proper seats and 39 people!). They told us no problem, another bus is coming. Not much of a bus - the back of truck with benches and a rack for luggage on the top. Some funny facts from this ride:
- 1.5 hours waiting at station
-1st stop - 1 km out of town for petrol
- huge traffic jam after some fight between a Chinese construction crew and a Lao man
- 2nd stop - 3 km out of town at the bus driver's house to pick up his lunch
- people in our 'bus' : 5 on each bench, one on floor and lots of cargo on the floor, 6 in the cab
- rusty braces holding up this overloaded luggage rack that are snapping one by one
- terrible, terrible, dusty, bumpy, curvy, bumpy, back-breaking road (we were literally bruised from banging our backs into our metal backrests)
- ran over a snake. driver stopped to pick it up and take it home with him for dinner I suppose
- Even after 6 hours of this Keith saying, "but it's a good experience, right?"
Here is a look at our 'bus':
We arrived at our destination, which was no more than a small village with one 'guesthouse' (more of a homestay) which is also the pick up point in the morning for the Gibbon Experience (their truck comes from Huay Xai in the south).
That night in rained and stormed like crazy and continued to do so in the morning. The family kept saying that the truck wouldn't make in on those roads that become instant mud pits. Nevertheless, they arrived right on time, and whisked us off for one more hour of bumpy road riding to the start of our jungle experience.
The Gibbon Experience is really a cool thing. Gibbons are a small type of ape that are endangered. As a conservation project a foreigner set up this tourism experience to generate money. We pay slightly expensive rates to sleep for two nights in treehouses that overlook the jungle canopy, and spend our days sliding on zip lines and hiking in the jungle. They in turn get our money and pay it to locals who act as forest rangers to police illegal poaching (they are frequently ex-poachers themselves) as well as employing the locals as guides and cooks for us. Really a cool concept, and it seems to be working. They are expanding their cable network all the time and with no advertising are booked up well ahead.
We went in as a group of 10, but were split up into two groups after the initial introduction. Our group spent most of the first day walking to treehouse #4, which ended up being quite a brutal walk. Thanks to the recent rain, it also gave us our first experience with leeches! Yuck. Those suckers are fast. We spent that night at the house getting to know each other and falling asleep to the sounds of the jungle and praying for no rain, hoping the ground would dry up for the next day. Each treehouse is slightly different. Most of them have a toilet (hole in floor), and shower (#4 being the exception - we had to shower in the waterfall), and great pads and plush comforters. 'Kitchens' are on the jungle floor where the guides prepare wonderful meals and zip them into us.
This is treehouse #1 as seen from where you launch. A relatively short cable ride:
Dinner at Treehouse #4 with our treehouse mates:
The second day we got up early, walked back to the main hub of treehouses, settled into treehouse #3 and spent the rest of the day zipping around on the cables. There are two or three really long lines that give amazing, fantastic views of the jungle. It is really hard to describe the experience. A bit scary each time you launch yourself off a little platform with nothing more that a harness and a roller (and a second safety line), but oh, so very fun. The treehouses sit about 30-40 meters up and are built on strangler fig trees (huge trees with an immense root structure). Treehouse #3 was a nice sleep as well. There were rumors that a pit viper had taken up residence in the roof, but luckily we never saw it. Something else was living up there, but I think it was just a rat or squirrel (too loud to be a snake). The next morning we woke to a mysterious fog, and the incredible sound of the Gibbons singing. They have such a unique and interesting sound. We never saw any, but we got a good listen at them and feel good about helping in a small way to save them. That last day, we just zipped around, checking out the other treehouses and shot fun movies while flying through the air. A short one hour walk out, and a 3 hour bumpy and dusty ride and we were back into Huay Xai - right where we started our Laos journey.
Keith's self-portrait midway on one of the more spectacular cables:
Zipping!
A bear! The Gibbon people saved this little guy after it's momma was poached. He is cute, but getting big fast. They are trying to figure out what to do with him as he is quickly becoming too big and aggressive to be a pet much longer.
The next two days are the same as a couple weeks ago. Two days down the Mekong. You can read the previous blog to see how that went.
I think we last left you at the peak of the water festival here in Luang Prabang. We spent one day fully emerged in the festivities which included a very large morning market engulfing most of the main streets, followed by an afternoon on the Mekong where it was one big party. The party consisted of throwing water and flour on people and rubbing grease on the faces. In addition, there were fun activities such as firing rather impressive homemade rockets off of bamboo platforms, and climbing races up bamboo poles to get to the goodies dangling from the top of them (it took a good hour before the first person was able to reach the top of the pole...very entertaining, especially when some falang gave it a whirl). The streets of the city were mayhem as well. Full on dousing, loud music, dancing, and probably too much Beer Lao and Lao lao (the local whiskey). We partook as long as we could stand, then sought solace in our room till the water was put away. The next day was the big processional and apparently even crazier water throwing, but we opted out of it and took a bus north to our next destination.
Having fun at the celebration on the Mekong (we had our own bag of flour, so were able to get some revenge!):
I'm watching the bamboo pole climbing competition here. Is it just me, or do I look like a giant?
Rocket launching:
There were two things we really wanted to do in Laos. One was to rent motorbikes in Luang Prabang and drive a big loop in the northern region. We quickly discovered that it was not possible. They no longer rent motorbikes to foreigners in Luang Prabang - the most believable reason we heard being that the tuk tuk drivers were losing business, so they organized themselves and got the government to put a ban on it. The other thing we really wanted to do was the Gibbon Experience which is where you spend three days in the jungle sleeping in treehouses and gliding on zip lines over the forest canopy. This had a jumping off point near Huay Xai, but we didn't do it on the first run because we thought we'd be driving there on bikes. No problem, we'll rent bikes in a town farther north of Luang Prabang...or so we thought.
So off we set...our first experience on the public buses of Laos. We were able to jump on the bus just as it was leaving, and one of the first things the driver did was hand out not one, but two plastic bags to each person on the bus. This turned out to be a wise choice on their part. What a road! And what a driver! Beautiful, stunning scenery. Curvy, hairpin turns and an aggressive driver. Made for all kinds of good entertainment for us as we made the five hour journey.
We learned two important things about how the buses work here. Number 1: people show up 1-2 hours early to secure a seat and the bus will leave when it is full, which could be an hour before the scheduled time. Number 2: They don't stop for pee breaks....ever. I was reminded on that journey how quickly we can lose our modesty. Here's a funny picture: Me standing at the front of the bus full of locals and a smattering of falang, gesturing with my hands towards my crotch because "toilet", "loo", "restroom", and "bathroom" weren't working and pleading for him to wait two minutes. Unfortunately the villagers here didn't understand those words either, so we (me, Keith and another tourist) ran like mad for the most secluded spot in the village we could find and did what nature demands. The funniest thing is that literally 2 km down the road, the bus pulls over for its apparent scheduled stop (along the side of the road) to a chorus of relieved sighs from all the locals after which they filed off the bus, spreading out to find their own bush, tree, whatever! He could have just told us! Too funny.
We stopped that day in a small town called Udomxai. It is described in our book as nothing more than a pass through town where three highways intersect. But we found it to be a beautiful and pleasant town. The new years festivities were in full swing, but on a smaller and more mellow scale than in Luang Prabang. It continues to delight us how easily the locals are amused. One bucket of water thrown creates shouts of joy, giggles, screams and hoots. Throw that water on a falang, in a falang-less town like Udomxai, and multiply that amusement by 10. We were literally cheered by a truckful of men passing through as we took our buckets of water with a smile. We got our second Laos massage here. We are growing quite fond of their technique...a nice cross between Swedish and Thai. This one was a nice experience: laying on a not-so-clean mattress in a rickety wooden building and listening to the waxing and waning sounds of the celebrations around us: kids playing in the river, drunken shouts, sing-alongs to bad Asian music, water splashing, screams of delight and laughter. Nice.
The next day took us to an even smaller town called Luang Nam Tha, not as pretty as Udomxai, but more geared for tourists. And we found some bikes to rent! But the price was ridiculous as was the quality of the motorbikes. Nevertheless we rented them for just a day and drove out to another small town to enjoy more scenery and get off a crowded bus for a day. Finally we were able to firm up some plans for the Gibbon Experience and we set off the following day on a doozie of a 'bus' ride.
We tried to be prudent and got to the bus station an hour early only to find the bus completely full (I forgot to mention - on the bus from Udomxai to Luang Nam Tha, Keith counted 20 proper seats and 39 people!). They told us no problem, another bus is coming. Not much of a bus - the back of truck with benches and a rack for luggage on the top. Some funny facts from this ride:
- 1.5 hours waiting at station
-1st stop - 1 km out of town for petrol
- huge traffic jam after some fight between a Chinese construction crew and a Lao man
- 2nd stop - 3 km out of town at the bus driver's house to pick up his lunch
- people in our 'bus' : 5 on each bench, one on floor and lots of cargo on the floor, 6 in the cab
- rusty braces holding up this overloaded luggage rack that are snapping one by one
- terrible, terrible, dusty, bumpy, curvy, bumpy, back-breaking road (we were literally bruised from banging our backs into our metal backrests)
- ran over a snake. driver stopped to pick it up and take it home with him for dinner I suppose
- Even after 6 hours of this Keith saying, "but it's a good experience, right?"
Here is a look at our 'bus':
We arrived at our destination, which was no more than a small village with one 'guesthouse' (more of a homestay) which is also the pick up point in the morning for the Gibbon Experience (their truck comes from Huay Xai in the south).
That night in rained and stormed like crazy and continued to do so in the morning. The family kept saying that the truck wouldn't make in on those roads that become instant mud pits. Nevertheless, they arrived right on time, and whisked us off for one more hour of bumpy road riding to the start of our jungle experience.
The Gibbon Experience is really a cool thing. Gibbons are a small type of ape that are endangered. As a conservation project a foreigner set up this tourism experience to generate money. We pay slightly expensive rates to sleep for two nights in treehouses that overlook the jungle canopy, and spend our days sliding on zip lines and hiking in the jungle. They in turn get our money and pay it to locals who act as forest rangers to police illegal poaching (they are frequently ex-poachers themselves) as well as employing the locals as guides and cooks for us. Really a cool concept, and it seems to be working. They are expanding their cable network all the time and with no advertising are booked up well ahead.
We went in as a group of 10, but were split up into two groups after the initial introduction. Our group spent most of the first day walking to treehouse #4, which ended up being quite a brutal walk. Thanks to the recent rain, it also gave us our first experience with leeches! Yuck. Those suckers are fast. We spent that night at the house getting to know each other and falling asleep to the sounds of the jungle and praying for no rain, hoping the ground would dry up for the next day. Each treehouse is slightly different. Most of them have a toilet (hole in floor), and shower (#4 being the exception - we had to shower in the waterfall), and great pads and plush comforters. 'Kitchens' are on the jungle floor where the guides prepare wonderful meals and zip them into us.
This is treehouse #1 as seen from where you launch. A relatively short cable ride:
Dinner at Treehouse #4 with our treehouse mates:
The second day we got up early, walked back to the main hub of treehouses, settled into treehouse #3 and spent the rest of the day zipping around on the cables. There are two or three really long lines that give amazing, fantastic views of the jungle. It is really hard to describe the experience. A bit scary each time you launch yourself off a little platform with nothing more that a harness and a roller (and a second safety line), but oh, so very fun. The treehouses sit about 30-40 meters up and are built on strangler fig trees (huge trees with an immense root structure). Treehouse #3 was a nice sleep as well. There were rumors that a pit viper had taken up residence in the roof, but luckily we never saw it. Something else was living up there, but I think it was just a rat or squirrel (too loud to be a snake). The next morning we woke to a mysterious fog, and the incredible sound of the Gibbons singing. They have such a unique and interesting sound. We never saw any, but we got a good listen at them and feel good about helping in a small way to save them. That last day, we just zipped around, checking out the other treehouses and shot fun movies while flying through the air. A short one hour walk out, and a 3 hour bumpy and dusty ride and we were back into Huay Xai - right where we started our Laos journey.
Keith's self-portrait midway on one of the more spectacular cables:
Zipping!
A bear! The Gibbon people saved this little guy after it's momma was poached. He is cute, but getting big fast. They are trying to figure out what to do with him as he is quickly becoming too big and aggressive to be a pet much longer.
The next two days are the same as a couple weeks ago. Two days down the Mekong. You can read the previous blog to see how that went.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Arrived in Laos
(Lots of pictures on this blog...watch out! )
A bit of a time has passed since our last update and we've covered a fair bit of miles, crossing into Laos and heading down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. The border crossing into Laos was very relaxed and easy. We checked out of Thailand on the shores of the Mekong river, payed the equivalent of $0.50 for the small ferry (ok, a larger canoe, basically) across the muddy and low river, arriving at the other side. We passed through customs which was not much more than a tired, bored immigration officer in a one room building, and officially entered Laos.
We've timed our arrival in Laos to coincide with the lunar new year celebration, Songkran, that is offically held from April 14th to the 16th. There is another name for the festival as well: WATER FESTIVAL. We were first indroduced to the events on the short bus ride from Chaing Rai to the Thai border. The bus was not air conditioned and the windows were wide open as we passed through a small, remote town. The local kids must have been bored and decided to start the festivities a few days early. Result: a pail full of water, tossed through the open widows, dousing all.
Water dousing on the street of Luang Prabang.
After a night in the border town of Huay Xai, pronounced "way sigh", we boarded a large wooden boat, packed with foreigners on small, uncomfortable, wooded bench seats. The ride would take two days to reach the cultural heart of Laos, Luang Prabang. The ride was stunning. Em and I both had a preconceived picture of the Mekong river from how we saw it almost 1000 kilometes downstream in Vietnam. There it ran wide and flat, carrying sewage , plastic and other pollution from all the villages and towns upstream. In northern Laos it is much smaller, cleaner, faster and runs through a dramatic limestone valley. See pictures below:
A small village on the shore of the Mekong.
A similar boat to ours, heading upstream.
A look upstream the Mekong from our guesthouse in Pak Beng, the halfway point of our river journey:
We arrived in Luang Prabang at about 6:00 pm the next day, after an overnight stop in a small town called Pak Beng which is set up to accommodate the foreigners passing through. We settled into an OK $10 room and spent the next day exploring the town, the markets, the wats, the used bookstores and the street vendors. We found a great $0.50 per plate, buffet vegetarian food stand for dinner and then booked a kayak trip for the next day.
The view of town from a wat-on-a-hill.
The kayak trip was down the Nam Siang, a scenic 2 hour drive north through several small, montguard villages. We stopped in two of them and our guide took us around showing us a typical house and a school, and explaining their animist and spiritual beliefs. Then we hit the water in our double kayak and paddled down about 15 km. On our trip back to town, riding in the back of a pickup, we were easy targets for more water festival dousings. Kinda nice in the hot weather.
Em taking a paddle break.
Today we headed out of town again to some great waterfalls, a must-see of Luang Prabang. We were soaked before we got there as we were again, in the back of a tuk-tuk, and a favored target of the water-dousing stations along the way. At the top of the multi-tiered falls, Em and I stopped for a swim and a few jumps off of a small cliff. About 15 young Buddhist monks, in their bright orange sarongs, joined us and the locals. What a pretty sight: The limestone cliffs, the emerald green water, the dark green jungle and bright orange monks. Picture time, eh?
The monks are very young and they had as much fun as us.
Here is Em under some of the falls.
A look at the falls from afar....stunning aren't they?
More waterfall fun, here is me at the very top of the falls! Don't worry, it's not as scary as it looks.
The next few days will find us enjoying and participating in the official days of the festival. More water throwing for sure, but also the sand sculpting of Buddhist stupas on the shores of the Mekong, a parade, a large market, and several other more traditional Songkran festivities.
On a different note....to see photos from our cooking school in Chiang Mai, go to this website:
http://www.cookinthai.com/photo/20060402/index.htm
A bit of a time has passed since our last update and we've covered a fair bit of miles, crossing into Laos and heading down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. The border crossing into Laos was very relaxed and easy. We checked out of Thailand on the shores of the Mekong river, payed the equivalent of $0.50 for the small ferry (ok, a larger canoe, basically) across the muddy and low river, arriving at the other side. We passed through customs which was not much more than a tired, bored immigration officer in a one room building, and officially entered Laos.
We've timed our arrival in Laos to coincide with the lunar new year celebration, Songkran, that is offically held from April 14th to the 16th. There is another name for the festival as well: WATER FESTIVAL. We were first indroduced to the events on the short bus ride from Chaing Rai to the Thai border. The bus was not air conditioned and the windows were wide open as we passed through a small, remote town. The local kids must have been bored and decided to start the festivities a few days early. Result: a pail full of water, tossed through the open widows, dousing all.
Water dousing on the street of Luang Prabang.
After a night in the border town of Huay Xai, pronounced "way sigh", we boarded a large wooden boat, packed with foreigners on small, uncomfortable, wooded bench seats. The ride would take two days to reach the cultural heart of Laos, Luang Prabang. The ride was stunning. Em and I both had a preconceived picture of the Mekong river from how we saw it almost 1000 kilometes downstream in Vietnam. There it ran wide and flat, carrying sewage , plastic and other pollution from all the villages and towns upstream. In northern Laos it is much smaller, cleaner, faster and runs through a dramatic limestone valley. See pictures below:
A small village on the shore of the Mekong.
A similar boat to ours, heading upstream.
A look upstream the Mekong from our guesthouse in Pak Beng, the halfway point of our river journey:
We arrived in Luang Prabang at about 6:00 pm the next day, after an overnight stop in a small town called Pak Beng which is set up to accommodate the foreigners passing through. We settled into an OK $10 room and spent the next day exploring the town, the markets, the wats, the used bookstores and the street vendors. We found a great $0.50 per plate, buffet vegetarian food stand for dinner and then booked a kayak trip for the next day.
The view of town from a wat-on-a-hill.
The kayak trip was down the Nam Siang, a scenic 2 hour drive north through several small, montguard villages. We stopped in two of them and our guide took us around showing us a typical house and a school, and explaining their animist and spiritual beliefs. Then we hit the water in our double kayak and paddled down about 15 km. On our trip back to town, riding in the back of a pickup, we were easy targets for more water festival dousings. Kinda nice in the hot weather.
Em taking a paddle break.
Today we headed out of town again to some great waterfalls, a must-see of Luang Prabang. We were soaked before we got there as we were again, in the back of a tuk-tuk, and a favored target of the water-dousing stations along the way. At the top of the multi-tiered falls, Em and I stopped for a swim and a few jumps off of a small cliff. About 15 young Buddhist monks, in their bright orange sarongs, joined us and the locals. What a pretty sight: The limestone cliffs, the emerald green water, the dark green jungle and bright orange monks. Picture time, eh?
The monks are very young and they had as much fun as us.
Here is Em under some of the falls.
A look at the falls from afar....stunning aren't they?
More waterfall fun, here is me at the very top of the falls! Don't worry, it's not as scary as it looks.
The next few days will find us enjoying and participating in the official days of the festival. More water throwing for sure, but also the sand sculpting of Buddhist stupas on the shores of the Mekong, a parade, a large market, and several other more traditional Songkran festivities.
On a different note....to see photos from our cooking school in Chiang Mai, go to this website:
http://www.cookinthai.com/photo/20060402/index.htm
Friday, April 07, 2006
"Uh-Oh" Discovered
Throughout Thailand, we have been serenaded by an elusive creature. It usually occurs after dusk, and is a very loud and very distinct song. Something like this: It begins with a subtle clicking chatter as it warms up. Then the words are always the same....'Uh-Oh'. The 'Uh' is said in a very staccato-like fashion with an upward intonation. Followed quickly by the 'Oh' which is drawn out a little and with a downward intonation. Repeat about 5 times. The last 'Uh-Oh' is quite faded compared to the first 4 as if this creature has become weary. Then it stops as abruptly as it began. Maybe to be repeated shortly therafter, maybe it will be another half hour, maybe you won't hear it again for days.
We heard this all over in the southern part of Thailand when we were traveling with my folks. Then in Vietnam, nothing. Back in Thailand, and there it is again. What the heck is it? Someone said it was a gecko, because instead of sounding like 'Uh Oh', you could convince yourself the words are 'Geck-o'. I didn't think that was right, because the run of the mill geckos that are always on our ceiling at night just make a little, soft chirping sound. Nothing like the vibrance of this song. So I suggested some kind of insect. While the sound was maybe too big for an insect, I still thought it was possible as there are some loud insects around here.
Sometimes we would hear this thing, and it would be so loud, we would be sure that we were close enough to see it, but we could never find it. One time was up on top of that wat where we climbed 1,000 stairs. I was right next to it, but couldn't see anything...further convincing me it was some kind of bug if it can be so close and still stay hidden. Then on our motorbike ride around northern Thailand, we were again close, only to be eluded once again, as whatever it was was hiding in a gutter.
Last night, the mystery was solved. We had checked into our room in Chiang Rai. I'm lying on the bed letting the fan cool me down, Keith is hanging wet sarongs out on our back 'porch'. The song starts. And it is loud. I think about getting up to see if I can see it, but I think, 'Ah heck. It's just a cricket or something and I'm sure it's in the crack of the concrete wall or something, and this fan feels so nice....' Then Keith comes back in in a hurry, and whispers, 'Get up! And gives me the SCUBA signal to look out on the wall. And there it is, in all its beauty:
I guess it was a gecko after all....or at least in the gecko family. I would say he was about 8 inches long and 2 inches wide at his thickest, dwarfing all those plain green-brown geckos that adorn our ceiling at night! Keith said his whole body moved as he was making the sound.
Aren't you happy mom and dad, to finally know? I'm sure you're still losing sleep over it....
We spent a very lazy week in Chiang Mai. Nothing to write about as a large part of it was spent staring at a computer screen. We had one day of exercise, where we rode bikes, ran, did strength training, swam, and played tennis! OK, let me clarify. We rode 5 minutes on flat ground to get to the park, where we ran for about 13 minutes, followed that up with 20 pushups, another 5 minute ride back to the hotel, where we had floating races in the pool. Tennis was later that day after the sun went down, and while we sweated buckets, I don't think our heartrates were doing anything too dramatic. After all this....we were both so pathetically sore the next day we couldn't get up like we promised ourselves to repeat the performance. We were only able to accomplish some more floating races.
We are now about 200 km northeast of Chiang Mai in a smaller city called Chiang Rai. We spent today on motorbikes. We drove out to a small mountain village close to the Burma border that was settled largely by Chinese. Tea and coffee are the main crops there now, which are quickly replacing the once all-too lucrative opium crops that once dominated this region. It was a beautiful drive out there...very dramatic scenery, even though the haze is back.
Here's looking down on the city from a wat-on-a-hill.
We continue north tomorrow, and hopefully crossing over to the Laos border. We then spend one month in Laos, then off to Africa! Tickets are booked and it is official. A painful decision after pondering visiting Burma and/or Nepal, but Africa it is.
We heard this all over in the southern part of Thailand when we were traveling with my folks. Then in Vietnam, nothing. Back in Thailand, and there it is again. What the heck is it? Someone said it was a gecko, because instead of sounding like 'Uh Oh', you could convince yourself the words are 'Geck-o'. I didn't think that was right, because the run of the mill geckos that are always on our ceiling at night just make a little, soft chirping sound. Nothing like the vibrance of this song. So I suggested some kind of insect. While the sound was maybe too big for an insect, I still thought it was possible as there are some loud insects around here.
Sometimes we would hear this thing, and it would be so loud, we would be sure that we were close enough to see it, but we could never find it. One time was up on top of that wat where we climbed 1,000 stairs. I was right next to it, but couldn't see anything...further convincing me it was some kind of bug if it can be so close and still stay hidden. Then on our motorbike ride around northern Thailand, we were again close, only to be eluded once again, as whatever it was was hiding in a gutter.
Last night, the mystery was solved. We had checked into our room in Chiang Rai. I'm lying on the bed letting the fan cool me down, Keith is hanging wet sarongs out on our back 'porch'. The song starts. And it is loud. I think about getting up to see if I can see it, but I think, 'Ah heck. It's just a cricket or something and I'm sure it's in the crack of the concrete wall or something, and this fan feels so nice....' Then Keith comes back in in a hurry, and whispers, 'Get up! And gives me the SCUBA signal to look out on the wall. And there it is, in all its beauty:
I guess it was a gecko after all....or at least in the gecko family. I would say he was about 8 inches long and 2 inches wide at his thickest, dwarfing all those plain green-brown geckos that adorn our ceiling at night! Keith said his whole body moved as he was making the sound.
Aren't you happy mom and dad, to finally know? I'm sure you're still losing sleep over it....
We spent a very lazy week in Chiang Mai. Nothing to write about as a large part of it was spent staring at a computer screen. We had one day of exercise, where we rode bikes, ran, did strength training, swam, and played tennis! OK, let me clarify. We rode 5 minutes on flat ground to get to the park, where we ran for about 13 minutes, followed that up with 20 pushups, another 5 minute ride back to the hotel, where we had floating races in the pool. Tennis was later that day after the sun went down, and while we sweated buckets, I don't think our heartrates were doing anything too dramatic. After all this....we were both so pathetically sore the next day we couldn't get up like we promised ourselves to repeat the performance. We were only able to accomplish some more floating races.
We are now about 200 km northeast of Chiang Mai in a smaller city called Chiang Rai. We spent today on motorbikes. We drove out to a small mountain village close to the Burma border that was settled largely by Chinese. Tea and coffee are the main crops there now, which are quickly replacing the once all-too lucrative opium crops that once dominated this region. It was a beautiful drive out there...very dramatic scenery, even though the haze is back.
Here's looking down on the city from a wat-on-a-hill.
We continue north tomorrow, and hopefully crossing over to the Laos border. We then spend one month in Laos, then off to Africa! Tickets are booked and it is official. A painful decision after pondering visiting Burma and/or Nepal, but Africa it is.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Election Day in Thailand
We are back in Chiang Mai...have been for several days after successfully completing our motorbike loop. We have been spending a large part of our time here in the city on the internet doing massive amounts of research as to where we should go after Laos. I can't stand it anymore, so I thought I'd do a blog instead...
Today is a big day for Thailand. Voting is taking place for I'm sure several offices, but the most important being for prime minister. Not sure if it is making the news back home, but for the past month there have been huge protests throughout the country trying to force the very corrupt Prime Minister to step down. He has refused, and elections are carrying on. The opposition parties are all boycotting the election in hopes of making the entire thing invalid. Starting yesterday, here in Chiang Mai, they are not serving any alcohol until tomorrow afternoon for the occasion....to keep people in their right mind and calm I suppose. Makes for quiet nights along the main streets in town.
Back to our bike trip. The rest of it was pretty uneventful. We had nice riding, and some great views. Our butts are finally recovered after a day yesterday of not doing much at all. Highlights for the rest of the ride were the best pillows EVER in a random guesthouse called Ban Farang in Khun Yuam. I'm telling you, it was heaven. For some reason good pillows are hard to come by in SE Asia. Also, we got hit with two large storms (both at night luckily) that brought lots of rain, thunder and lightening in Khun Yuam, and some wind thrown in the next night in Mae Sarieng. This made our last two days of riding much cooler and the air much fresher. The best views of the ride were coming out of Mae Sarieng and heading 'home' to Chiang Mai. So green and lush...what we were expecting from the jungle along the whole ride. After coming out of that nice, mountainous scenery, the rest of that last day was just a slog of a ride. Straighter, busier roads at higher speeds. I was happy to see our guesthouse in Chiang Mai...I think 200 km that last day. It took about 7 hours with lots of breaks.
And now we hang out here for a week doing things like getting a visa for Laos, restocking on malaria meds, shopping, figuring out where to go next (it is looking like we're headed to Africa after Laos), taking a cooking course, and lounging by our pool (yes, we of course picked a guest house with a pool!). We did the cooking class today. It was very nice, and surprisingly easy. We will be happy to cook you all up some tasty Thai food. The best today was Panaeng Curry and Mango with Sticky Rice. Yum.
Some pictures from the last half of the motorbike journey:
A precarious, brave, and oblivious cat on a roof near our guesthouse in Mae Sariang:
We didn't get any good pictures of the really great scenery, but this is a view of the tail end of it:
A nice river we took a quick rest at that runs through a national park. Notice the long sleeve shirt and pants. We were actually cold for a while! Yippee!
A 'picnic' lunch stop. Consisting of mostly deep fat fried goodies from a market we stopped at earlier. Ugh. We felt heavy after that.
Today is a big day for Thailand. Voting is taking place for I'm sure several offices, but the most important being for prime minister. Not sure if it is making the news back home, but for the past month there have been huge protests throughout the country trying to force the very corrupt Prime Minister to step down. He has refused, and elections are carrying on. The opposition parties are all boycotting the election in hopes of making the entire thing invalid. Starting yesterday, here in Chiang Mai, they are not serving any alcohol until tomorrow afternoon for the occasion....to keep people in their right mind and calm I suppose. Makes for quiet nights along the main streets in town.
Back to our bike trip. The rest of it was pretty uneventful. We had nice riding, and some great views. Our butts are finally recovered after a day yesterday of not doing much at all. Highlights for the rest of the ride were the best pillows EVER in a random guesthouse called Ban Farang in Khun Yuam. I'm telling you, it was heaven. For some reason good pillows are hard to come by in SE Asia. Also, we got hit with two large storms (both at night luckily) that brought lots of rain, thunder and lightening in Khun Yuam, and some wind thrown in the next night in Mae Sarieng. This made our last two days of riding much cooler and the air much fresher. The best views of the ride were coming out of Mae Sarieng and heading 'home' to Chiang Mai. So green and lush...what we were expecting from the jungle along the whole ride. After coming out of that nice, mountainous scenery, the rest of that last day was just a slog of a ride. Straighter, busier roads at higher speeds. I was happy to see our guesthouse in Chiang Mai...I think 200 km that last day. It took about 7 hours with lots of breaks.
And now we hang out here for a week doing things like getting a visa for Laos, restocking on malaria meds, shopping, figuring out where to go next (it is looking like we're headed to Africa after Laos), taking a cooking course, and lounging by our pool (yes, we of course picked a guest house with a pool!). We did the cooking class today. It was very nice, and surprisingly easy. We will be happy to cook you all up some tasty Thai food. The best today was Panaeng Curry and Mango with Sticky Rice. Yum.
Some pictures from the last half of the motorbike journey:
A precarious, brave, and oblivious cat on a roof near our guesthouse in Mae Sariang:
We didn't get any good pictures of the really great scenery, but this is a view of the tail end of it:
A nice river we took a quick rest at that runs through a national park. Notice the long sleeve shirt and pants. We were actually cold for a while! Yippee!
A 'picnic' lunch stop. Consisting of mostly deep fat fried goodies from a market we stopped at earlier. Ugh. We felt heavy after that.
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