Na Hin

A ride through limestone caste mountains and heavily foliaged countryside got us to Na Hin, a tiny town in central Lao. For such a low-key point of our trip, it turned out to be a real highlight.

The town's nestled in a ring of mountains, jagged topped and tree laden. The main street is dirt & stone, and consists of little more than the central market, 2 restaurants and a guesthouse. Animals - pigs, cows, goats, dogs - wander around, and sometimes over to you for a curious look. The people were friendly, popping up to see if there's anything we want, or just for a chat to practice their English. We met one child, about 8 years old, who spoke very colloquial English despite never having left the village. In the evening we sat at a bar in the market, whilst Laos played pool, cows settled down to sleep, and a raging storm let loose its lightning over the mountains.

What I liked about the experience was the opportunity to just settle in and watch life in a different place, culture, and economic strata. It was so different to back home - mostly friends just talking.

Getting There, Some How - Travelling Lao style

With a "just flag anything down, you'll be fine. A sang taew should take you" our friends dropped Claire & I besides Route 13 - the main road heading south - and sped off towards Vientiane in the tuk-tuk. Looking around me I saw our a road, a restaurant and a few empty fields. The first two sang taews (utes with benches in the back) didn't stop. The next one didn't know the name of the town I was trying to get to and the fourth told us sang taews didn't go that far (I think) - that we'd need to get a bus. Thankfully the word for bus is the same in Lao as in Thai.


Shortly after a bus came rolling around the corner and Claire & I jumped on, getting wedged into the back seat, our bags taking up the aisle. The ride was four hours of un-air-conditioned joy, and the pancake we'd had for breakfast was starting to look thin. Finally the conductor motioned us to get off, we alighted again near a restaurant and little else. With a little help we found our way to the sang taew heading East towards our destination. Sharing the ride with us was three generations of Lao women, all dressed in their traditional, intricately woven dresses, the eldest of whom was chewing beetle-nut and who was less than pleased when we stopped to help another sang taew with a flat tire. An hour ride through a forest encircled by limestone caste mountains took us to our destination that day and dropped us just an hour before sun down. We spent the night in Na Hin, which I'll cover in the next post.


The second day of our unconfirmed adventure began with us trying to get to Tang Lo caves - an 8km cave that you can boat down in located in a national park. We awoke early and were at the market by 8, only to be told the only Sang Taew didn't leave till 11 and that the road was washed out so we'd need to take a boat part of the way. We sat for a while and contemplated a cow as it tried to push through a gate from its paddock to our seating after which we checked with the drivers how much the boat would coast - US$50 return! An exhorbinant amount due to tourism and the need to charter the whole boat with no other tourists to help bear the costs. Normally $50 wouldn't be too much of a problem, however we'd not budgeted for it, were going to have to spend more on food & accom than anticipated when I last drew money out and the nearest ATM or Bank was 2 days travel away in Vientiane or else in Vietnam. With much mathematics and reluctance we abandoned our plans to get to the caves.


Rushing now, we boarded the first Sang Taew back to route 13. From there we were efficiously transferred to a second Sang Taew, and 1.5 hours down the road into a minivan for the last leg, dropping us in Savanakhet. The minivan leg we shared with 17 others, though the bus seated 12 including the driver. Next to me was a girl of 4 or 5, when we stopped for a snack her parents bought her roast grasshopper on a stick, which she was very happy with.


I've come to know now that travel in Lao takes 2-3 hours per 100kms by bus or boat. I've also never travelled with so little certainty of being able to actually get to my destination, which is a liberating experience and travelling local style has let me see a little more into the lives of the Lao people.

Vientianne

An 8 hour, difficult bus ride from Luang Prabang (I've since learnt that the westerners living here all fly to avoid the trip) brought us to Vientiane. For the first 4 hours of the ride we were in the mountains of central Lao, twisting and turning to avoid a gradient. It was a bad sign when the bus-staff handed out sickness bags, and shortly after departure several people on the bus began to make room for lunch. At the lunch stop several more dashed from the bus to the nearest bush. Yours truly felt queasy enough not to eat lunch, but otherwise made it through ok.

Vientiane occupied our next few days, including taking in the major sights through a leisurely 2 hour bike ride, catching up with friends, and Claire did a one-day dying & weaving course at a local women's training centre. Vientiane's small, restaurant filled and reminds me most of Mornington (less the yuppie factor). I still find it odd to look across the Maekhong to see an unimportant Thai city that seems bigger and more 'developed' - if shopping malls and cinemas are the judgment measure. As I'd been to Vientiane before this part of the trip was mostly about catching up with a friend, and Claire really enjoyed the weaving.

Over the weekend a couple of friends, Claire & I traveled to Ban Pako eco-lodge in a park a few hours from Vientiane by tuk-tuk & boat. It was great to push back beside the river, have a few beers and watch the old-growth forest not be logged. We even got a massive lightning storm to provide a light show.


The eco-lodge was also hosting a meeting for Lao forestry students, about 100, who slept in tents during the storm. That didn't stop them being up at 5am, singing, playing drums and guitars, and generally getting very excited whilst they waited for their bus. We had an excellent seat for the concert as the bus-stop seemed to be right outside our room.

Luang Prabang

The former royal capital - mainly former because the royal family is presumed to be 'former' - was a welcome destination for a few days. Now protected by world heritage status, Luang Prabang maintains the vestiges of an Asian capital with colonial influences - basically the main strip of town hasn't changed in 150 years.

The view from the hill (including wat) that overlooks the city was probably my favourite, taking the town, palace, river and jungle beyond. We spent a day looking around the sites, a day at the waterfall, and a day shopping and having a massage, things that probably should have taken us two days only. The waterfall also has an animal recovery centre for a tiger and asian bears recovered from animal poachers.

After spending time in not-nice Huay Xai it was nice to meet the 'lovely' Lao people that friends and guidebooks have mentioned. The next stage is for us to find the cheap food promised as we are finding local food to be costing 2-3 what it would in Thailand.

Driftin'

From the Lao-Thai border we drifted at a leisurely rate on the boat to Luang Prabang, the former royal capital. Tellingly the ferry journey is known as the 'slow boat' and takes 2 days, encompassing 15 hours of boating. As the only other option is the oft fatal 'fast boat' Claire & I purchased cushions and prepared to sit for a long time. At the initial boarding we were pleased to grab the 'first class' seats - cushioned seats pulled from a bus - rather than the benches, and were even more so when the boat owner brought on boards plastic seats to fill the aisles. I suspect that the boat was at about double its capacity, and the punters rage higher than that. Thankfully just before we set sail the owner decided to send a second boat and we traveled in a relatively less congested manner.

Surprisingly, the trip was quite pleasurable as there were some nice people on the boat to talk to and the scenery beautiful. The second day, in particular, provided some spectacular scenery - the chocolate river, lush green forest, and in the distance near transparent mountain ranges.

Late on the second day two members of one of the Lao hill tribes joined our boat for the ride to Luang Prabang. Marginalised and impoverished the tribes people have have received little if any schooling, many not even speaking the national language. At one point, one of the western tourists was writing in her journal, the tribesman lent over to watch her write, fascinated as he saw the unintelligible scrawl fill pages. I assume that he knew what writing is, but was entranced to watch it actually take place.

The Mud Experience

For our first three days in Lao, Claire & I joined a trek into the Bokeo National Park rain forest with The Gibbon Experience group (www.gibbonx.org).

The trek involved a 4 hour walk into the rain forest including very high zip-wires/flying foxes across the valleys, two nights in a tree house in the the rain forest canopy, and then a walk out. I even took the optional 6 hour walk on the second day. Ideally you can see or hear gibbons near the tree houses but we weren't so lucky.

The zip-wires were a definite highlight. Pushing off from the platform you quickly gather pace as you whip passed bamboo and trees, with a rush break out of the last tree and then sail over the rain forest canopy 30ms below, the floor 2oms further, and have views stretching kilometres away over the rain forest. It's the closest I'll come to flying and only temporarily scary on the longer glides if you think about what you're doing.



Another highlight was the opportunity to be in the rain forest, which is amazingly detailed a ground level and awe inspiring at canopy level. Noise never stops in the rain forest, even if our sightings of wildlife were low.

At the first local hut we stayed they had a pet baby Asian bear which was highly cute and pat-able. They had no plan of what to do with it when it reached adulthood.

The walks were particularly demand as, having chosen to take the trip in the wet season, most of the paths had turned to deep mud. Living in the mud were also highly active leeches. At one point I was eking along over a very deep mud patch, one foot on the less-slippery edges of the path when I looked down to see several large leeches waving up at me, begging me to slip. I didn't slip that time, but did on many occasions. Amazingly Claire & I managed to only get blood-sucked on one occasion each, though vigilance did lead to a lot of picking & flicking of leeches off shoes, legs and feet.


Overall the trip was rewarding, mixing beauty with very difficult, strenuous slogs through the mud. When we finished, muscles aching and leeches removed, the memory of flying, seeing the rain forest at first hand and a sense of accomplishment meant it was a positive experience.

Chiang x 2 & Into Lao

After a lazy 17 hour over-night train ride Claire & I arrived in sunny Chiang Mai - the train being 3.5 hours late. Overnight the seats are converted into beds and are overall comfortable, in fact I would have liked a bit longer of a lie in.

Claire & I found my favourite guest house in Chiang Mai, which despite a change of name and ownership has found its way into the hands of an equally (though less quirky) Thai proprieter. (Siri Guest House, $14, really nice). We took a couple of quiet days in Chiang Mai with little done but reading and relaxing.

From Chiang my a hair-raising bus ride took us to Chiang Sean. Whilst the average speed of the bus looked respectable, it varied between very slow (1st gear - gravity x heavy bus) up steep hills to very fast (6th gear + gravity x heavy bus) on the mountaneous terrain. The north of Thailand is particularly beautiful, full of bright green forest/rain forest as the rainy season's just begun.

In Chiang Sean we had probably the best meal yet - the local delicacy roasted/baked fish or chicken cooked with a marinade of chilli and corriander inside a bamboo tube over coals. The town's very quite, but sits right on the Maekong river. We did, however, stay in a nightmare guest house (Gin's Guest House, $10) that should be avoided at all costs.

A sang taew (sort of a bus, more like a ute with benches & a roof) took us to the border crossing into Lao PDR. Tomorrow our adventure's in Lao begin after a night in a very nice guesthouse over looking the Maekong (BAP Guest House, $14).

Kan-Chana-Buri

Kanchanaburi (Kan-Chan-Arb-Uree in Australian) was our destination for the first few days this week.

Our first days were spent paying or respects to the POWs who worked on the Thai-Burma railway under Japanese enforcement. The museum is well researched and provides a strong intellectual and emotional background to understand what occurred in the area. I found the POW cemetery moving, in particular the personalised epitaths. Some had quotes, many religious comments, but the ones I found most moving were the personal, immediate comments such as "In loving memory of Tim, we love and miss you, Mum & Dad". The lack of pretension and still obvious love and sadness is what I connect with.

In traveling to Hellfire Pass I learnt not to accept the advise of the Tourism Authority (the buses & trains recommended did not connect, leaving us to hire a very expensive taxi) nor to trust the Lonely Planet on prices. Still, it's all part of the adventure.

The following day we went to Erawan National Park to see the waterfall and forest. The fall's spread over seven levels ('steps') with small waterfalls, the highest about 3ms and small pools to swim in, so long as you didn't mind the fish nibbling your toes. It was peaceful after Bangkok, fresh away from the smog, and felt good to be out in the national park that felt relatively unaffected by tourists or bureaucrats.

We stayed at the Jolly Frog Guest House, whose highest virtues were its price (double room $8) , nice open area over looking the river and cleanliness. On the flip side, the roof sagged, walls were paper thin, and the neighbours noisy.

Week 1 - made it to the beach already!

The first week away was spent catching up with friends in Bangkok, the first chance I've had to see people since leaving last year. Thankfully most people I met were still here, and it appears I've caught most of them just before moving on, which is great.

Claire & I spent the weekdays in Bangkok. Early in the week we went to my favorite massage shop and for $8 each the flight was massaged out of us (Jetstar were fine, by the way - just like a regular economy flight without the poor food). Needing visas for Lao we trekked out to North-East Bangkok and after three forms of transport and some local assistance we managed to find it. It's possible to have visa granted in an hour for an additional 200Baht, the conversation went as follows -
Assistant: "would you like expr..."
James & Claire: "Yes"
I've also enjoyed getting back to speaking Thai and have found it coming back as I've been getting around.

On Wednesday we rode the public ferry of Chao Praya River (the main river in Bangkok) and took a ride in the Khlongs (canals). It was interesting to see the variety of life on the Khlongs, from falling over shakes, to mansions. The majority of boats on the Khlongs were tourist chartered small, noisy boats which I felt bad about as many people's living rooms and bedrooms are on the water.

Over the weekend my friends and I went to Pranburi beach, about 3 hours South-West of Bangkok. The beach was nice, the water blue and weather hot. We had a guesthouse right on the beach with a particularly Mediterranean feel. The only problem were the numerous jelly fish that made swimming impossible, damn.

Back in the Big Smoke

Well, our first four days back in Bangkok have confirmed that much is the same, and only a few things have changed. As a now cliched and always daggy tourist purchase reads 'same same, but different'. Actually, I've had to add the grammar to the sentence.

What's the same is the people with their colour, vibrance and good humour. Just walking the streets is full of moving colour (mostly the taxis), people smiling, and everyone doing their best to be suay (beautiful). Stepping out or riding a skytrain is just a joyous experience.

What's changed is a spreading affluence and feeling of gentrification. More upmarket buildings and bourgeois spending options abound and seem to be targetted at Thai's as well as Falang (Westerners). I get the feeling that there's a growing confidence, wealth, and willingess to engage in new Western products and lifestyle choices - whilst this might be good or bad, its meant that there are now actually cafes available other than Starbucks. What I've liked is the engagement doesnt' appear to be sycophantic, more an evaluation of other choices that're then adopted into the Thai style of life.

Pre-Departure Troubles...Again

Riding home from my last day at work, after the obligatory travelling-haircut the move out of my apartment over the next two days was on my mind. Pedalling up Wellington St, on a wet, revolting day I was making progress between the parked cars on my left and the stationary cars stuck in traffic on my right.

Pedalling hard on a slight incline wasn't so bad, and I'd be home soon. Then a door opened, from the road-side, giving me just time to exclaim 'oh shit' - not in an aggresive but rather resigned tone - before my bike met mettle, I got airborne temporarily, and then i landed on the bitchumen. Quite happy not to have gone through the window I got up, conducted an internal audit (legs ok? yep, arms? yep, blood? still all inside). After the obligatory swapping of contact details with the car's driver I got on the bike again, pedalled on and three cars further a pedestrian stepped in front of me. I swerved, braked, and luckily avoided him but had to take a cautionary jump off my bike to avoid making contact between face and road. He may have copped a slightly larger serve than deserved, but there were mitigating circumstances.

Sure that the bike Gods were out to get me I was rode on and was pleased to get home with no more incidents and only bruises to show for it. Next time I set out, I'll remember to sacrifice the bull.

Whilst there's no ongoing injuries, the move was made extra special. I was left to reflect on my similarly trouble departure for Thailand last time (http://james2626.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html) - I don't think it'll stop me going though.

Now, on to Thailand (again)...