Vientienne; A Capital Adventure

From Vang Vieng we travelled to the capital of Laos, Vientienne (45,000kip or $5.60 for the 4hr bus). On the whole, I tend to prefer smaller cities with character and have found only a small handfull of capital cities that are interesting and approach the charm of smaller places. Usually big capitals are devoid of culture and are quite boring. Vientienne did not challenge this opinion. The resteraunts and cafes are concentrated in a small tourist area on the Mekong, beyond this area there is nothing but souless and dirty shop fronts. In order to get away from this atmosphere, we rented a scooter for a day ($6.20) and headed south-east to Wat Xieng Khuan (Buddha Park or spirit city). Unfortunately maps are few in Laos and I am prone to worry about being lost, wasting time and running out of fuel etc. So when we hit a dirt/mud road that just got more rural as it went on, I got anxious. Nevertheless, my trusty companion was confident in the locals and their nodding of directions and finally we made it to what turned out to be an amazing tourist attraction. The park was built in 1958 and is a bizzare but inspiring amalgamation of Hindu and Buddhist iconagraphy. The largest concrete monument is a three-tiered 'pumpkin' composed of hell, earth and heaven. You can enter through earth and both decend to hell to be surrounded by devils and ascend to heaven for an amazing view of the whole park.This park may be 'touristy' but the statues are very powerful and if you do as we did and have a cheese/bagette picnic on the mekong, you will be very fulfilled at the end of the day.

In a further effort to get out of the city, the second half of the day was spent on our scooter going in the opposite direction to the Dreamtime Eco-Retreat. This journey was much the same as the previous one, except twice as long on a muddy road (our poor scooter was taking a beating) with an added adventure on sand in the middle of the bush. I might have known, but it turns out that an eco-retreat is a euphamism for place where tree-hugging 'hippies' smoke lots of marajuana and 'relax'. I consider myself mildly eco-aware/friendly and I will always defend peoples right to have their own beliefs and to share them, but this place was a little too extreme for me. There are signs in the traditional toilets (you squat over the groud) that say 'toilet paper means killing trees' and the resteraunt only serves meat if specially requested. It was an adventure to get there (and to shower in a bucket in full view of the surrounding bush) and loved the log cabin, the candlelit atmosphere, the hammock and the gentle silence of the bush, but I felt as though I was not welcome because I am not percieved to be a 'hippie'. We did get to play a few games of scrabble too, which made the trip totally worth it. 

Interesting note on the traffic in Asia; beware! They either ride scooters or drive massive 4x4's and falangs are generally considered to be annoying. On the way back to the city, I saw a man who was pretty much dead after being hit by one of these big cars and 5 minutes after this I got hit or more accurately, side swiped by another one of these 4x4s (I was mostly surprised and it only hurt for a bit). Needless to say I was happy to get out of Vientienne for our next stop; Hue, Vietnam.   

Northern Laos Part 2

Buckets cost about $2 for 4 shots.

You know, travel through Asia teaches you to just stop asking questions. In Australia one can fall in to the habit of asking a waiter to describe a meal in more depth so as to make an informed choice, you can inquire about where the wifi router is located or how long it takes to get your laundry done. In Asia you just know that you don't speak Lao or Thai and they don't speak English (and why should they, I am not an elitist on this issue) so why bother?! This also means that you are likely to get ripped off or miss out on things you may have wanted to know just because you have formed a habit of keeping your mouth shut (repeated miscommunications and misunderstandings will do this to you). Some would argue that this habit would be benificial for a woman, but in my case this frequently results in getting crap food that I can't (or perhaps prefer not to) eat. Its a good thing that food here only costs $3. As a psychologist in training, I should know that it is the job of a scientist to always as questions.


Anyway back to travel. David and I are now in Vang Vieng, one of the delights of the banana pancake trail. This place is a mecca of 20-something backpackers that are interested in one thing; tubing. After recovering from being mildly drunk (in David's case, very drunk) the night before, a group of us ventured out in to the daylight to begin our adventure on the river. After getting your oversized rubber tube, a tuk tuk takes you out to the first stop on the river. A free shot is a requirement at the first bar, even before you have entered the water, and the atmosphere is like big day out on speed!

The day progresses in the following sequence; beer, floating down the river on your tube, beer, jumping out of trees on massive rope swings, beer, free shots, more floating and so on. In my case, I even found some guys to have a mud volleyball match with. This soon denegrated in to a full on mud fight and more death defying jumps off trees into the water. This sequence happens every day to the several hundreds of tourists who flock to this area. One of the guys we had been hanging out with since Luang Prabang has done this for 18 days in a row. For me, it was a fantastic experience and seriously fun, but I think once is enough. Don't be fooled by the first picture in this blog, I had decided long before I went on this trip that I genuinely don't understand the need to get drunk all the time. Unfortunately getting drunk is pretty much the point of tubing. Personally I believe that it's unnatural to have upwards of 6 drinks in 2hrs anyway (unless it is water).

Vang Vieng is also scenically, very beautiful. The town is surrounded by limestone cliffs and as perviously mentioned, there is a river running through it. This means that there are an abundance of caves, kayaking, trekking, rockclimbing etc. One of my favourite days in Laos was spent cycling 13km through various small villages to a triangle of 3 caves. We had some drama with a tour guide charging us 10,000kip for lights and then demanding more money afterwards for his services (unbeknownst to us – he just came with us for no reason for gods sake!). Nonetheless caving is always lovely as it is quite, serene and beautiful as the stalegtites sparkle in the minimal light. On the ride back, we stopped in for lunch at an organic mulberry farm and we had dinner that night at the only Irish pub in Laos. Vang Vieng is a fun place to be and you will get stuck there if you aren't careful.

Northern Laos Part 1

So here is my Laos experience so far. Luang Prabang is composed of charming cafes, resteraunts and the most laid back market in all of Asia. What I like about this country is that the people do not hassle you. They will help you is you show an interest in their tours/handicrafts/food etc but other than that you can walk the streets and enjoy the French colonial architechture, the quite serenity of the Mekong and the buddhist way of life without any hassles.Crepes are in abundance in Luang Prabang, as are beautiful waterfalls (unfortuantely it was raining and we were unable to see these).

From Luang Prabang we went east by mini van (approaximately $15 for 6 hr journey; these really are the best travel option in Laos) to Phonsavan, which boasts the plain of jars. The various distances between towns in Laos are really not that immense, however the mountain ranges in Laos do make for 55km per hour jouneys. This particular trip was excruciating! The winding road and sheer drop made almost everyone sick and as it had started to rain the day the higher we ascended up the mountain the colder it got! Yes it it gets cold in Asia. I had every layer of clothing on possible and even huddling around a coal fire was not sufficient to fight off the (I'm estimating 4 degree) chill.

Phonsavan itself is not a special place, and the cold rain (and cold showers!!) made for a very interesting 2 days. We did visit the plain of jars, which is composed of a series of fields with 'mysterious' jars that were carved out of solid boulders sometime between 300 and 80 BC. No one knows what they  were for but I am with the locals – they were either massive jars of rice wine (none left I checked) or funeral pots. Unfortunately there is a lack of biological evidence to support the latter argument.

Phonsavan also appears to be the centre of the UXO clean up in Laos. There is an information centre which explains that Laos is still relatively poor largely because agriculture and export has stalled. The local people are afraid to farm certain areas due to unexploded ordinance and most have to search for and sell scrap metal (i.e. unexloded bombs) in order to supliment their income. This very often leads to dismemberment and death. During the vietnam war, the Americans dropped, on average (underestimate), half a tonne of ammunition for every person in Laos at the time. Phonsavan is filled with gardens sporting small and large projectiles as ornaments. Although it had stopped raining and we could also see a little sun, we decided to leave this cold and slightly somber place for the backpacker haven of Vang Vieng.

Laotian Odyssey

After 3 weeks in Thailand, the time had come to pack up ouir old kit bags and traverse across the wilderness into Laos. Ok so the border crossing isn't 'wilderness' but it was mildly hectic. I suggested that we leave early at about 7 or 8 am so as to have plenty of time to get to the border and get our visas processed, bad idea. My travel companion does not do anything quickly and prefers a sedentiary pace of life. So early turned in to a casual breakfast before meandering along to the bus station. As it was already 9am, we were not able to get a bus ticket to Chiang Rai earlier than 11.30. The bus I would describe as a pre-war vehicle and must have had no shock absorbers. Thus we spent a painful 4 hrs bouncing around on our seats as the poor bus struggled to do 50km/hr up hills. 

After this journey we were in no mood to do the next leg to the border town of Chiang Khong, but we figured it was our duty as backpackers to endure a certain amount of pain and the thought of dragging out the journey when our destination was only (according to the bus company) 2.5hrs away. There was a bus leaving right away but we decided on the next one in favour of getting some lunch. This also turned out to be a bad idea. That first bus was relatively ok in terms of looks, the next was not. The one we took was overcrowed and they just kept packing them in! David appeared none to excited to have to sit on the floor in between seats for half the journey. However, much to our surprise, this journey (although round about, a straight route would have been an hour) was not unbearable. As more people got off, we were able to move seats and get some room and it is amazing how much easier a long journey is with a cool breeze rather than circulated airconditioning. Along the way, the sun set over the inumerable rice paddys and gentle mountains. I have never seen more of an amazing sight in the mix of burnt orange and brilliant green in my life.

We stayed that night in Chiang Khong and I will say that eating dinner was an experience in and of itself. We were seated outside on beautiful teak furniture and surrounded by tropical gardens with bright garden lights that were reflected on the vastness of the Mekong.  

We were up at 7am the next morning (David had now gotten the idea that I dislike dawdling) and through a protracted and thoroughly un-official manner we managed to get our lao visas. Next was our slow boat journey. This consisted of a 6hr slow chugg up the Mekong to Pakbeng in Laos, an overnight stop in a sort of nothing town and a further 9hr journey the next day to Luang Prabang. Contrary to popular opinion (i.e. lonely planet and various blogs) we didn't need a pillow as both boats were quite comfortable if not a little cramped in the case of the second journey. 

Finally after an epic 3 day odyssey we arrived in the quite charming French colonial town of Luang Prabang. I have discovered as a result of this quest that I like cafes immensely and I dislike having the same introductory conversations over and over again with other backpackers (this discovery resulted from having to make small talk with the others crammed in to our slow boat, most of whom we would never see again). Actually I am in two minds about this dislike. Is it better to enrich my backpacking social life with friends that I may only see for two days and never see again? Or should I save myself the agony of telling 200 vacuous people that I am Australian, I study psychology, I have traveled to many places blah blah...? I have to admit that I am too old to enjoy getting smashed for no reason (not that I ever did), in which case other backpackers are useful, and I will also say that I always did prefer to travel alone. Thoughts?

Larger than life: An elephant experience

In as much as I generally dislike doing 'touristy' things, I do believe in involving myself fully in the varied experiences that are considered unique to a region. I am not inclined to object to doing something that many other people do on the basis of principle. This small preamble is a in fact a lead up to me telling you that I went to be a Manhout for a day. To lamens a Manhout is someone who takes care of elephants. 

I should clarify that I am a devout believer in animal rights. I am not at ease with circuses, zoos and anything that exploits animals for human entertainment. I do however support animal refuges. The Baanchang Elephant Camp is of such. They do not make their elephants dance, perform and neither do they make use of sharp instruments to 'train' their elephants. They explain that the point of carry such devices as the 'hook' you may have seen is to protect themselves. Elephants are after all, wild animals with large tusks.  You may ask then what is the point of operating 'manhout courses'?! The point of tourists coming to the camp is not to get tacky photos of themselves in elephant trunks (of which the trainers will refuse to make the elephants do). The point is to monetarily support the camp (elephants eat 300kg of food a day) so that they may be able to also buy more land for their elephants. Everything they have, they worked for without governmental support. For example, the day I went our guide had not had any sleep. He had been up all night rescuing a 23 year old elephant whose sole existance revolved around taking touists on 20min rides.This elephant had cost the camp approximately $20,000. 

My experience began by learning about elephants and committing to memory the commands the mahouts give them to go forward, right, left etc. We would need these later as we directed our elephants through the forest on a 1 hr trek. Before you object, elephants eat for 18hrs a day and sleep for only 4 – the trek is in service of their exercise, we ride bareback so as not to hurt them and there is a 15 break for them after half an hour. In gratitude for our ride, we then were able to bathe our elephants (which they love) and feed them again. It is hard for me to communicate how much the mahouts love their elephants. They NEVER take holidays or even leave the camp for more than three hours. They feed, clean up after and even sleep with their elephants, their family. I went with a sceptical mind such that I thought it was all a gimmic aimed at gulible touists but, it was amazing to take a peek at their family environment and share in their love for the two tonne gentle giants of Thailand.  

Rebecca 2: Nature 0 - Trekking Take Two

SO I am not a big fan of cities in general. I like to explore what a place has to offer in a day and then refine my tourist experience to something more specific to my tastes. In the case of Chiang Mai, there is an abundance of beautiful countryside to traverse. I booked an eco-trek through the Mae Taeng province (1hr outside of the city) for 1,200 Baht. This I have to say is AMAZING value for money as I got 3 days of trekking/sightseeing, 2 nights accommodation and all meals for this price ($40). Considering my budget is 900 Baht a day - I was happy. After picking up everyone (2 Austrians, 1 Dutch guy who lives in the Caribbean, 3 English fellas, 1 Welsh guy and 2 Koreans who didn't speak English), we headed to our first stop; an elephant ride. This 20 min ride was overrated and I am morally/ethically opposed to how they train the elephants but these types of touisty attractions are always included in these trips. However the next 3 hours of walking was what I was more interested in. This trek was not as hard (but very close to it) as my mountain climbing in Chiang Dao, but with my full backpack and the midday sun beating down on us, it was a considerable effort to scale yet another mountain. I have to say that I do enjoy a full day of sweating (aka, hard work), it makes me feel fulfilled, like I have accomplished something. The countryside was so varied and beautiful. We were hiking through banana plantations, bamboo forests, rain forests and cornfields.

That night we stayed in a local village at the top, again with amazing views. My group made for great company and it was fun to drink Chang, sing and play games on the open air veranda. Trekking for the next two days was much of the same. Hours of walking intermixed with swimming in waterfalls, talking to locals, fires at night and some quite good food. Our final day went "white water rafting" and "bamboo rafting" (this was another crappy touritsy attraction that isn't worth getting excited about). All in all I'd say great value for money, fun and very fulfilling but do not attempt these treks if you aren't reasonably fit. They don't tell you beforehand, but some of the climbs can be murderous.

This little girl was so shy with everyone else but was fascinated by my hair. She spent the morning putting clips in it with a big smile on her face.

Rebecca 1: Nature 0

Monday the 28^th of Feburary. We again rented a scooter (although we upgraded the manual for an auto with much more comfortble seats), we left our packs at the guest house and rode 3hrs out of Chiang Mai to Tham Chiang Dao. Dave was excited to see nature and I just wanted out of the city. After a bit of riding around, with both Dave and I at the wheel, we mangaged to find the best room yet at Malee's nature bungalows (with a massive double bed, no showering over the toilet and the place has a pool!). Malee Is a lively lady that has been there for 15 years, running the place with her Swiss-German husband Kurt. 

This is a rural refueling station - I am pretty sure my grandfather had one when I was very small!

So far we have walked up to a Buddhist wat in the rainforest (which had spectacular views). We have also been underground in Chiang Dao's cave system (20Baht entry and 200Baht for a guide; yes you need a guide to help you see in the dark). The caves were not the most impressive I have seen and while it was fun to squeeze in between various crevaces, upon reflection, I would have liked to hear some information about their formation etc. This would have been infinately better than our Thai man, who pointed at innocuous formations saying 'elephant', 'frog', 'milk' (this was in reference to two boulders that looked like lopsided breasts). It was fun nonetheless to be out and about doing things rather than eating, of which we do a lot.

Speaking of being out and about, I can now say I have completed one of the most grueling (in my opinion) hike/climb in my life. We set out at noon (in the heat of the day, silly I know) armed with sunscreen and hats, a GPS, 600ml of water each and a packet of 5 cream filled biscuits each in case we got hungry, with the intention of hitting the FLAGS trail. Thank god I insisted on the GPS because even with it's marvellous directions we got lost. So that was the beginning of my adventure, 1hrs worth of walking on the wrong trail. This was fine enough but where I went wrong was to suggest that if we only did a little of our own trailmaking (i.e. rock climbing using our trusty GPS) we wouldn't have to go back to the very beginning. Bad idea. After 5 mins of perilous adventure in which I was sure one of us was going to either get bitten by a funnel web spider or fall to our death, I ventured an opinion that we should in fact begin again. This is what we did. 

So, it is 1pm and we have 5hrs to scale a 4.5km trail that is 1200m up. Sound easy? Well in our case this actually translates to about 2.5hrs of climbing (seriously its a very steep incline the entire way). After 30mins of intense climbing where every one step is two backwards due to the loose footing, my calfs were screaming at me and I was drenched in sweat. The GPS, although informative, was telling me I had 2 more hours of this pain. We were determined. It got to a point at which we had to stop and rest every 20m due to the intense hardship we were going through. Being determined, we struggled on and even though the last 100m (the hardest) was directly up a sheer rock face – we made it!!!!!! Standing on top of what I deem a mountain, I was elated. The views of Chiang Dao valley were beautiful. 

I sacrificed Dave to the mountain gods.

Unfortunately our elation was short lived as we only had 20mins of resting before going down became the task at hand. The thick bamboo and leafy forest which at first had seemed quite beautiful was now a dangerous slippery slide of loose leaves and red dirt. All in all I'd have to say that I was quite proud of myself for complteing the trek itself, but when you are covered from head to toe in lathers of sweat, dirt, leaves, cobwebs and swatted mosquitos, all you want is water (we had finished ours on the trip up) and ice-cream! Billabongs have never tasted so good. We did in 3.5hrs what our hotellier tells us he does in 5hrs (even though he is about 60, I'm still proud). My reward was a soothing dip in the pool and 3 courses at dinner...ahh more food. Rebecca 1, nature 0!