11/25-26 Took the crazy nightbus to luang prabang. The bus driver and conductors both had ak-47 machine guns with them b/c apparently the night bus in this region can often get raided.
11/26 Thanksgiving! We arrived bright and early into Luang Prabang in time to see the huge procession of brightly orange clad monks collecting their food alms in the morning. Luang Prabang is a world heritage city for its well preserved french era architecture and plethora of temples. It's at the confluence of the mekong and some other river. It's a really nice city with the rivers, perfect weather and temps, clean and quiet streets, and laid back feel. A bit boring, but in a good way. A place my parents would really like with its chic cafes, great bakeries, good french and european food, art galleries, tourist markets, and just sort of classy vibe. Most of the tourists seemed to be affluent and of middle age or older. We just walked around and saw a bit of the city in the morning and got our baguettes and fruit shakes. In the afternoon we took a tuk tuk up to Tat Kuangsi Waterfall, which was a multi tiered fall of incredibly beauty similar to erawan falls in thailand. A couple huge falls and then lots of small cascades and sweet pools made even better by the cool blue milky color of the water. We hiked up to the top of the falls and then came back down to swim in the pools and do some waterfall jumping. I'll never get over how sweet the little pools and falls in limestone karsts areas are. Just like a disneyland fairies' wonderland.
Back in town that evening we had the task of trying to put together a thanksgiving feast. Conrad and I had walked around the town in the morning looking for an american expat throwing a party while whitney recovered from the bus ride. We did find one american expat who owned the lao lao garden bar, but this was the first year of his 5 years he wasn't throwing a party b/c of the lack of americans travelling this year. So we just went to the night food market and pieced together our thanksgiving dinner. The holiday is really about family, friends, and being thankful, which we had, so it didn't really matter what we had. We avoided the snails, toads, chicken toes, cow intestine, and other uknown things and settled for a vegetable and noodle buffet. 80 cents to fill a plate as high as you could with noodles, vegetables (including potatoes and pumpkin!). We were quite successful with our stacking and managed to stuff ourselves in good thanksgiving fashion. But don't worry America, we didn't let you down and have only vegetables, we stuffed ourselves even further by getting a whole fish and some chicken (hey it's poultry) legs and of course beer laos. We had also found a very good, but extremely overpriced bakery that had pumpkin pie. We bit the bullet in honor of thanksgiving and got a slice of pumpkin, apple, and in honor of SE asia, mango pie. We finished the night with some tiger beers by a fire at the american lao lao garden bar. Not a bad thanksgiving at all! We got kicked out of the bar at 11pm as laos has an 11pm curfew (unless of your you're chinese and own a chinese bar or bowling alley, b/c then, well, your country gives so much money to laos, you can do whatever you please), so grabbed some beer laos roadies and went back to our place to finish the pies.
The next morning we walked the town a bit, had some last baguettes together and then had fruitshakes in the shade by the mekong river. We all got our last beer laos together as I waited for the tuk tuk to take me to the airport. It was a sad sad goodbye as I had so much fun with conrad and whitney. They are so fun, good and adventurous, and great travellers. I always love being with them, and now I know travelling with them is great as well. Thanks Conrad and Whitney!!! It was great. Love ya and miss ya both!
I had hoped to bus to hanoi, vietnam, but apparently there are some decent mountains and crappy roads in between so the route would take 2+ days, which would have been fine if I had the time, but time is running low so I opted for the 40 minutes flight into hanoi and the 2 hour drive in crazy traffic from the airport to the old quarter.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Vang Vieng: The partyer's disneyland
11/23 We arrived in the late morning into Vang Vieng, a small and cute town situated along a scenic river with karst mountains everywhere. Amongst backpackers, vang vieng is known for its tubing. Now this isn't like tubing in the boise river or boulder creek. This is tubing on lao lao whiskey and beerlao! You rent a tube and a tuk tuk takes you up to the start. The tubing part of the river is 4km. But all the bars are located in the first 800m. We started about 1:30 and figured we'd have plenty of time to make it all the way back to vang vieng before dark. Boy were we wrong. Anyways, there are maybe 8 bars in the stretch. You start at the first bar with a beer and a free shot of lao lao whiskey. It has an incredibly sweet rope swing at least 25 or 30 feet high above the river. Quite scary the first time, but then great everytime after that. Especially with a few tall boy beer laos in us. Eventually it was time to move onto the next bar. As you're floating downriver. Laos guys throw ropes out to you to pull you in. When you get pulled in they quickly poor laos laos into your mouth and welcome you aboard. The bars, without the toys of the swings, ropes, and zip lines are sweet in themselves. Just a bunch of people from everywhere having fun, dancing, and good music. Throw in the water stuff, the Franks, and it's amazing!! Of course there were other things going on (read lots of drugs) and supposedly even mushroom shakes, though we steered clear even though a couple american girls were really wanting me to roll some joints for them since they had bought some maryjane and were completely sure that everyperson in colorado could roll a good joint with their eyes closed. By the time it got dark we hadn't even made it to the last bar, let alone the 3km's past that. So instead of tubing that part in our drunket state, we took a tuk tuk back to town where we feasted on baguettes. On a side note, the baguettes in laos are amazing. Thank God for the French influence there. It's so nice to have some good bread finally. We definitely got more than our fair share of the big 3 (beer laos, mango shakes ,and baguettes) in laos since they were all so incredibly cheap. We crashed early that night...around 9pm, but that's what happens when you start at 1.
The touristy part of vang vieng is interesting b/c it a bunch of people recuperating and watching reruns of friends and family guy and also lots of people in arm slings and foot bandages most likely from drunken river accidents (thought he one gal I did ask had broken her hand punching her boyfriend for cheating on her)
The rest of our days in vang vieng weren't so crazy, though of course they did involve plenty of beer laos
Our 2nd day we took a tour that first involved a boring buddha cave but then a sweet tubing trip inside a cave. You jump on this tube and then paddle into this cave that i only really accessible via floating inner tube. So that was a cool experience. After that we kayaked 12 km's of the river along the gorgeous mountains including the last 4 km's that we had missed on the tubing. We of course did stop at a bar when we got to the tubing area. It was the slide bar that we had missed before and featured a giant slide that shot you straight out and slightly up over the river. Very scary and very fast, even after having done it a couple time, but so much fun. That night we went out for beer laos and a fancy steak dinner for whitney's american birthday. (3.50 for steak, salad, french fries, fruit shake, and garlic bread on a baguette)
Our last day we rented bikes and toured the vang vieng rural countryside a bit, which was great. We stopped at a big cave and then did some swimming and rope swinging at a great little swimming hole called the blue lagoon. That night we rolled up to a bar with hammocks overlooking the river and watched the sunset over the karst mountains and river while sipping on beer laos and reflecting on how sweet laos is. One of the things we love about laos is how the family just lives in the store or hotel or business that they work at. This may happen in the other countries, but it's so noticeable here. You roll up to a conveniance store and the baby is just walking around chasing marbles on the floor. grandpa is leaning up against a case of beers, grandma is knitting on the floor and you can see the mattresses stored away to be brought out at night (and most of the day as well). Pretty nice really. Means you can live and work at the same place with no commuting and lots of sleeping. That night we got a massage and the usual chicken baguettes and fruitshakes before catching the incredibly windy and bumpy night bus to the world heritage city of luang prabang.
The touristy part of vang vieng is interesting b/c it a bunch of people recuperating and watching reruns of friends and family guy and also lots of people in arm slings and foot bandages most likely from drunken river accidents (thought he one gal I did ask had broken her hand punching her boyfriend for cheating on her)
The rest of our days in vang vieng weren't so crazy, though of course they did involve plenty of beer laos
Our 2nd day we took a tour that first involved a boring buddha cave but then a sweet tubing trip inside a cave. You jump on this tube and then paddle into this cave that i only really accessible via floating inner tube. So that was a cool experience. After that we kayaked 12 km's of the river along the gorgeous mountains including the last 4 km's that we had missed on the tubing. We of course did stop at a bar when we got to the tubing area. It was the slide bar that we had missed before and featured a giant slide that shot you straight out and slightly up over the river. Very scary and very fast, even after having done it a couple time, but so much fun. That night we went out for beer laos and a fancy steak dinner for whitney's american birthday. (3.50 for steak, salad, french fries, fruit shake, and garlic bread on a baguette)
Our last day we rented bikes and toured the vang vieng rural countryside a bit, which was great. We stopped at a big cave and then did some swimming and rope swinging at a great little swimming hole called the blue lagoon. That night we rolled up to a bar with hammocks overlooking the river and watched the sunset over the karst mountains and river while sipping on beer laos and reflecting on how sweet laos is. One of the things we love about laos is how the family just lives in the store or hotel or business that they work at. This may happen in the other countries, but it's so noticeable here. You roll up to a conveniance store and the baby is just walking around chasing marbles on the floor. grandpa is leaning up against a case of beers, grandma is knitting on the floor and you can see the mattresses stored away to be brought out at night (and most of the day as well). Pretty nice really. Means you can live and work at the same place with no commuting and lots of sleeping. That night we got a massage and the usual chicken baguettes and fruitshakes before catching the incredibly windy and bumpy night bus to the world heritage city of luang prabang.
Floating Away in Laos
11-19-09 We met up with our guide Seng and took a sawngthaew to Ban Khoun Kham from where we hiked up to a nice waterfall called tat namsanam for a very, very cold swim in phu hin bun national park. Saw some elephant poo, but no elephants.
The next morning we drove to the river to set off on our kayak trip. The river was initially a bit too low, but as we sat there getting the stuff ready, the river started rising pretty quickly. This is b/c the chinese own a dam up above and begin releasing more water in the morning. The chinese are heavily invested in laos. laos doesn't have enough money to construch huge projects like dams, but china will build it for them, bring the electricity to china and then sell it for 3 times as much. Pretty crazy. But hydropower dams are being built all over laos. We kayaked all day, going through small villages, past lots of water buffaloes, and people just hanging out by the river bank. Towards the end of the day we reached phu hin bun (we were kayaking on the nam hin bun river) which was more jungle clad and had lots of big karst mountains around making the scenery quite stunning. When we reached the national park we just put the kayaks together and floated. Less than 1km from our final destination we came upon a large fallen tree in the water that we didn't see until the last minute. Conrad and Whitney's kayak was on the outside so they narrowly escaped, but Seng and I had to wait for them to get out of the way. We were able to duck the first branch but were flipped by a small branch sticking up. I was able to grab almost everything from the kayak except for our fish and meat for the night which quickly sunk. Shortly after we arrived at the village. It was a cool little village only accessible by foot or river float. Obviously no electricity or anything like that. The thing that we thought was the funniest and most interesting was how many farm animals were just running through the villages, and especially babies. It was bookoo babies: pigs, chickens, cows, waterbuffalo, dogs, cats, ducks, and humans! Babies everywhere. It was really windy and quite cold, so we huddled by a fire before curling up on blankets to sleep on the deck of the village leaders house. And by deck I mean open aired living/cooking/etc space.
Our 3rd day we kayaked most of the day to another similar village. From here though we dropped off our stuff, crossed the big river and then hiked a bit to a cave, or more like tunnel cave. It had a little stream running through it. We walked through the cave, partway in water, for 2 km's to reach the other side. The other side was a completely isolated valley surrounded on all sides by huge, towering, sharp, and completely vertical karsts. So the only way into the valley was by the tunnel. And guess what? There were some ancient angkor wat era ruins being strangled out by the jungle. AND a villege of about 6 to 8 houses. Complete with...yes, babies of all types. The cows and waterbuffalo and pigs and logs for the houses, and everything had to be carried through the cave and then the couple more kilometers through the dense jungle to the village. Pretty crazy. At that point we were feeling quite remote. Here we were in Laos, a country already quite remote with our kayaks parked at a village only accessible by two day boat ride or a very long walk, and on top of that in some hidden valley only accessible by a dark, watery 2km long cave. Of course the locals used torches to see in the cave. The village, which is in the national park had a porcupine caged up (which would shoot quills at you if you got too close apparently). This was sad to see considering it was a national park. That night was even colder and windier (conrad later referred to it as a gusthouse as opposed to the traditional guesthouse)than before, so we went to bed early and had to spoon to stay warm.
On the 4th day (Whitney's Laos Birthday!) we were to take a longtail boat 4 hours down the river to a small town that busses went through. It ended up taking quite a bit longer b/c of a cultural experience we were given...a very expensive one. Halfway down on our trip, we stopped along the river bank to pee. The dry bag with our cameras (and memory cards) was left on a little fence. We remembered we had left it about 5 mintues later. The boat had quite a small motor and had to go upstream, so 15 minutes after that we arrived at the bag had been left at. It was gone! Considering the remoteness of the village, it was quite obvious it couldn't be far. There had been one man with a little baby in a boat right there when we peed and figured he had picked it up. There were also some boys loading rice on that side of the river that may have possibly gotten it. We asked them (through Seng's interpretation) and they didn't have it, nor had they seen anyone other than the man. So we went to the other side of the river where the village was to ask if someone had picked it up. Now you have to realize we're really freaking out b/c not only are our cameras quite expensive, but also all our priceless pictures were there too. But I just knew it had to be there or in the area. But, in typical laos fashion (the full name of Laos is Lao PDR for people democratic republic or in other words lao people don't rush) seng was so frustratingly slow at asking people if they had it or had seen it. It seemed like he was just sitting and shooting the breeze and hardly trying. The man with the baby was nowhere to be found, and some people said he had gone out to tend his buffalo. This seemed a bit suspicious considering lao people don't rush and it was hard to beleive that in 15 minutes, during lunchtime no less, he would have crossed the river, put the baby away and gone rushing out to his buffalo. The village wasn't very large and we had soon asked everybody with no luck. Buffalo man's wife came home from the fields and she looked in their house and couldn't find it. We were really freaking out now, thinking the longer we waited, the less chance of getting it back we had. We sent conrad down stream with the boat driver just in case it had accidently fallen into the river and was going downstream. Whitney and I feared the buffalo man had taken it, run off towards a town to try and sell it. The nearest town with a road was 8 km away. I was ready to go try and track down buffalo man, but strangely, no one in the village knew where his heard was or where he might have gone. It was decided that whitney would stay at the village in case it showed up there and I would take a tractor towards town to try and hedge him off before he could sell the cameras if that was the case. Deep down inside I didn't think that would happen b/c first I had faith in just little village people that they would just be kind and also knew that used cameras don't fetch a whole lot in the laos markets. But before I left, we decided to put out a reward to anyone that could find the dry bag. We did this b/c the entire village was just sitting there watching us, doing nothing, but just watching the poor white people fret, and we hoped that by offering a reward, they would jump up (especially the kids) and try and find it. We asked Seng, and he said to offer 50 bucks (the equivalent of 10,000 dollars to us if you consider their average wage). Still no one really moved. A few minutes later, on the monks' loudspeaker, we heard them announce something in laos. I asked seng what they said and he said they had just talked about the reward. As soon as seng finished answering the question who do you think walked right into the village? Buffalo man with a huge smile on his face. As soon as I realized he had it, I gave him and whitney a big hug. He took us to his little grain barn and burried in the grain was the dry bag. Hmmm... Mighty suspicious if you ask me. It's hard to know if it was coincidence or not, but buffalo man seemed to appear out of the bushes at quite the right opportunity to receive the reward. So now we were in a bit of a sticky situation b/c we had offered 50 bucks to whoever found the bag, and he hadn't exactly found the bag as it had been with him the whole time. We were giving out the reward more to someone already there to go out and find it. Of course we had promised the reward, so we would honor it, but we really hated paying this guy so much money in front of all those people, especially the kids b/c what lesson did it teach them? Grab a white man's stuff and get lots and lots of money in reward! But we had no option really. We had hoped the guy would say no to the reward (as I feel any one of our neighbors would do if we offered up a reward for a lost cat or something), but he definitely wasn't going to do that, which made his whole thing even more suspicious. In the end we couldn't really be sure as to if he had just picked it up and would have given it to us or if he was waiting for a reward or how deep the whole thing went. Maybe all the villagers were involved. Even seng could have been involved. Who's to know, especially when all the conversation was in Laos. What I would have given to know laos then! But in the end we were thankful as we had retrieved everything. B/c of that fiasco and Seng being picky about what bus we took We didn't arrive into vientiane (the capital of laos) until around 1am. We were originally supposed to be in around 6 to catch the 8pm night bus to vang vieng. But while waiting for the bus to vientiane we had some beers to celebrate whitney's laos birthday.
So we spent a short night in vientiane before catching the early bus to vang vieng
The next morning we drove to the river to set off on our kayak trip. The river was initially a bit too low, but as we sat there getting the stuff ready, the river started rising pretty quickly. This is b/c the chinese own a dam up above and begin releasing more water in the morning. The chinese are heavily invested in laos. laos doesn't have enough money to construch huge projects like dams, but china will build it for them, bring the electricity to china and then sell it for 3 times as much. Pretty crazy. But hydropower dams are being built all over laos. We kayaked all day, going through small villages, past lots of water buffaloes, and people just hanging out by the river bank. Towards the end of the day we reached phu hin bun (we were kayaking on the nam hin bun river) which was more jungle clad and had lots of big karst mountains around making the scenery quite stunning. When we reached the national park we just put the kayaks together and floated. Less than 1km from our final destination we came upon a large fallen tree in the water that we didn't see until the last minute. Conrad and Whitney's kayak was on the outside so they narrowly escaped, but Seng and I had to wait for them to get out of the way. We were able to duck the first branch but were flipped by a small branch sticking up. I was able to grab almost everything from the kayak except for our fish and meat for the night which quickly sunk. Shortly after we arrived at the village. It was a cool little village only accessible by foot or river float. Obviously no electricity or anything like that. The thing that we thought was the funniest and most interesting was how many farm animals were just running through the villages, and especially babies. It was bookoo babies: pigs, chickens, cows, waterbuffalo, dogs, cats, ducks, and humans! Babies everywhere. It was really windy and quite cold, so we huddled by a fire before curling up on blankets to sleep on the deck of the village leaders house. And by deck I mean open aired living/cooking/etc space.
Our 3rd day we kayaked most of the day to another similar village. From here though we dropped off our stuff, crossed the big river and then hiked a bit to a cave, or more like tunnel cave. It had a little stream running through it. We walked through the cave, partway in water, for 2 km's to reach the other side. The other side was a completely isolated valley surrounded on all sides by huge, towering, sharp, and completely vertical karsts. So the only way into the valley was by the tunnel. And guess what? There were some ancient angkor wat era ruins being strangled out by the jungle. AND a villege of about 6 to 8 houses. Complete with...yes, babies of all types. The cows and waterbuffalo and pigs and logs for the houses, and everything had to be carried through the cave and then the couple more kilometers through the dense jungle to the village. Pretty crazy. At that point we were feeling quite remote. Here we were in Laos, a country already quite remote with our kayaks parked at a village only accessible by two day boat ride or a very long walk, and on top of that in some hidden valley only accessible by a dark, watery 2km long cave. Of course the locals used torches to see in the cave. The village, which is in the national park had a porcupine caged up (which would shoot quills at you if you got too close apparently). This was sad to see considering it was a national park. That night was even colder and windier (conrad later referred to it as a gusthouse as opposed to the traditional guesthouse)than before, so we went to bed early and had to spoon to stay warm.
On the 4th day (Whitney's Laos Birthday!) we were to take a longtail boat 4 hours down the river to a small town that busses went through. It ended up taking quite a bit longer b/c of a cultural experience we were given...a very expensive one. Halfway down on our trip, we stopped along the river bank to pee. The dry bag with our cameras (and memory cards) was left on a little fence. We remembered we had left it about 5 mintues later. The boat had quite a small motor and had to go upstream, so 15 minutes after that we arrived at the bag had been left at. It was gone! Considering the remoteness of the village, it was quite obvious it couldn't be far. There had been one man with a little baby in a boat right there when we peed and figured he had picked it up. There were also some boys loading rice on that side of the river that may have possibly gotten it. We asked them (through Seng's interpretation) and they didn't have it, nor had they seen anyone other than the man. So we went to the other side of the river where the village was to ask if someone had picked it up. Now you have to realize we're really freaking out b/c not only are our cameras quite expensive, but also all our priceless pictures were there too. But I just knew it had to be there or in the area. But, in typical laos fashion (the full name of Laos is Lao PDR for people democratic republic or in other words lao people don't rush) seng was so frustratingly slow at asking people if they had it or had seen it. It seemed like he was just sitting and shooting the breeze and hardly trying. The man with the baby was nowhere to be found, and some people said he had gone out to tend his buffalo. This seemed a bit suspicious considering lao people don't rush and it was hard to beleive that in 15 minutes, during lunchtime no less, he would have crossed the river, put the baby away and gone rushing out to his buffalo. The village wasn't very large and we had soon asked everybody with no luck. Buffalo man's wife came home from the fields and she looked in their house and couldn't find it. We were really freaking out now, thinking the longer we waited, the less chance of getting it back we had. We sent conrad down stream with the boat driver just in case it had accidently fallen into the river and was going downstream. Whitney and I feared the buffalo man had taken it, run off towards a town to try and sell it. The nearest town with a road was 8 km away. I was ready to go try and track down buffalo man, but strangely, no one in the village knew where his heard was or where he might have gone. It was decided that whitney would stay at the village in case it showed up there and I would take a tractor towards town to try and hedge him off before he could sell the cameras if that was the case. Deep down inside I didn't think that would happen b/c first I had faith in just little village people that they would just be kind and also knew that used cameras don't fetch a whole lot in the laos markets. But before I left, we decided to put out a reward to anyone that could find the dry bag. We did this b/c the entire village was just sitting there watching us, doing nothing, but just watching the poor white people fret, and we hoped that by offering a reward, they would jump up (especially the kids) and try and find it. We asked Seng, and he said to offer 50 bucks (the equivalent of 10,000 dollars to us if you consider their average wage). Still no one really moved. A few minutes later, on the monks' loudspeaker, we heard them announce something in laos. I asked seng what they said and he said they had just talked about the reward. As soon as seng finished answering the question who do you think walked right into the village? Buffalo man with a huge smile on his face. As soon as I realized he had it, I gave him and whitney a big hug. He took us to his little grain barn and burried in the grain was the dry bag. Hmmm... Mighty suspicious if you ask me. It's hard to know if it was coincidence or not, but buffalo man seemed to appear out of the bushes at quite the right opportunity to receive the reward. So now we were in a bit of a sticky situation b/c we had offered 50 bucks to whoever found the bag, and he hadn't exactly found the bag as it had been with him the whole time. We were giving out the reward more to someone already there to go out and find it. Of course we had promised the reward, so we would honor it, but we really hated paying this guy so much money in front of all those people, especially the kids b/c what lesson did it teach them? Grab a white man's stuff and get lots and lots of money in reward! But we had no option really. We had hoped the guy would say no to the reward (as I feel any one of our neighbors would do if we offered up a reward for a lost cat or something), but he definitely wasn't going to do that, which made his whole thing even more suspicious. In the end we couldn't really be sure as to if he had just picked it up and would have given it to us or if he was waiting for a reward or how deep the whole thing went. Maybe all the villagers were involved. Even seng could have been involved. Who's to know, especially when all the conversation was in Laos. What I would have given to know laos then! But in the end we were thankful as we had retrieved everything. B/c of that fiasco and Seng being picky about what bus we took We didn't arrive into vientiane (the capital of laos) until around 1am. We were originally supposed to be in around 6 to catch the 8pm night bus to vang vieng. But while waiting for the bus to vientiane we had some beers to celebrate whitney's laos birthday.
So we spent a short night in vientiane before catching the early bus to vang vieng
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Chillaxin in Southern Laos
11/12
Took a bus from Kratie to the Cambodia/Laos border. The border was pretty hilarious. It was just two random delapidated stilted wooden buildings. One to leave cambodia where there was a 1 dollar "fee", then a 100 meter walk to the one to enter Laos where the guy there decided to charge a 2 dollar "fee". Which I guess makes sense b/c we had to wake the poor guy up. There was no video security or anything like that, but one guy was there with a digital camera taking photos of all the white people crossing the border. Maybe for his own fun, but maybe for something official. The healthcare checkpoint was only guarded by a rooster, so we breezed through that, wary of catching bird flu from the inspector.
We then hopped on some big old passenger truck and took a short ride on an extremely pot-holed rode to the riverside of the mekong. It was now completely dark, but we hopped into a little longtail boat and headed off to Don Dhet, one of the islands in Si Phan Don (the 4000 islands). We checked into a place and then had fruitshakes and our first drink of the infamous beer lao. There is no electricity there from 10pm to 4pm, so it was definitely a sweaty night in our bungalows without a fan.
The next morning we got up early to take advantage of the slightly "cooler" morning air to ride bicycles to Don Khon Island. To get between the islands you cross a bridge that housed the only rail line ever built by the french in laos. From there we continued to bike until we came to the otherside and there is a powerful waterful as part of the mekong tumbles through some cataracts. The waterfall wasn't very tall or anything, but still very impressive with the huge amount of water of the mekong tumbling down and creating all that force. The ride there and back was scenic, through some rice fields and quiet villages. The 4000 islands are known as being the most relaxed place in Laos, a country that is known as one of the most relaxed places in the world. And we found that to be true. Almost everyone was just sitting in their hammocks or sleeping under a tree or in their store. And just very quiet and peaceful. So slow moving.
After our bike ride, we broke laos tradition and instead of spending the rest of the day in hammocks along the river sleeping and reading, we took the Happy Boat Tour which was a party barge type thing. We were on it with 2 germans (burndt and Anya), an Irishwoman (danielle, who was a covert bbc reporter paid to just chill in asia until some sort of story came up, but most recently she had been doing undercover reporting in Burma where the bbc is prohibited), and 2 aussie gals. The tour involved motoring to some island, swimming in the mekong all day to stay cool with beer lao bottles and buckets of lao whiskey and coke. At some point we had a fish bbq and then moved back to the river for more buckets and swimming. Then a mud fight of course! Eventually we got out tubes, tied them to the boat and took off back towards don dhet, all drunk and having a good time.
11/14 Took the boat then bus to Pakse and then another bus to Paksong, high up on the Bolaven Plateau where the air was magically and refreshingly cool. We celebrated the cool air with a thai bbq. The Bolaven plateau is noted for its cool air, waterfalls, and coffee plantations.
11/15 Rented motor bikes and drove 55km to Namtok Katamatok, the supposed largest waterfall in SE Asia. It's 120m tall (400ft) and truly impressive. You can't get down to the base of it, but even from a distance it's incredible as it tumbles off of the jungly plateau. The sound alone is crazy loud and then just watching the water crash onto the rocks and make all that mist. A most awesome waterfall indeed. The 55k there was an adventure as well. The first 10 km was on the "good" road according to the guy we rented from, but it was a paved road pockmarked with giant motorcycle swallowing potholes. So we had to get our swerve on and basically play mario kart with our real life scooters dodging potholes, oncoming traffic, chickens, water buffalo, cows, dogs, pigs, little kids, etc. After the paved pothole madness it was just a bumpy dirt road. On the way back we stopped at two other impressive waterfalls and swam at the top of one. It also poured and poured rain on the back. Brought me back a little to my sumatra motor biked days being on a cold and high plateau in pouring rain. I luckily had my rain coat with me, so I didn't get too wet and cold. But conrad and whitney just had their shorts and t-shirts, so they were icicles (whitney a shaking icicle) when we got back to our guesthouse. We were very thankful (for the first time) to have piping hot noodle soup to eat.
That night we went out to some carnival thing. There was this came with coffee beans where you put money on how many beans you thought were under the cup. It was fairly easy to see how many beans were under the cup, yet the two laotians playing were guessing wrong half the time. All of our eyes lit up with the thought of how much kip (laos money) we could make off this came, b/c it just seemed so simple. But after a short time we had all lost about 2 bucks and were done betting (2 bucks = two large beer lao's). But we were determined to figure out how we were losing, b/c it was so easy to see how many beans were under the cup. So we stayed some more and watched and realized that the guy with the beans had two co horts that were also betting and winning and losing money (which of course didn't matter b/c they were all together). These guys were used to draw you into betting b/c they would lay down stupid bets and lose. Say you saw that there were 2 beans under the cup, they'd bet 3 or 1 and lose, and we'd think how easy it was since it was obviously 2. But as soon as we bet, when it was obviously 2, it would become 3. So we figured out that the bean man would add or subtract beans magician style at the last moment after you had bet, so that you couldn't win and the to players in with him were just used to build up your confidence. There was also some weird cheat thing that would go on to draw you in as well. But we became quite intrigued with the game and went around to lots of different dealers where we could immediately spot the two helpers, and we were entertained watching them suck other people in. We of course could get really into it and talk english to each other, b/c no one else could understand. We were frustrated at our stupidness for being scammed and losing 2 bucks on the game, but of course it was 2 bucks for a whole night of good entertainment.
11/16 We walked to three other waterfalls on the plateau. First we went to Tad Champee which was an incredibly scenic and secluded falls that we enjoyed a nice dip in the very refreshing water. Next we went to Tad Fan, which is a twin falls dropping 100 meters off of the plateau. It was breathtaking, but only a bit more breathtaking than the ledge you had to stand out on to get a view of the falls. The last falls was, of course, another beautiful one called Tad Yuang. After we got done hiking to the falls, we hitch hiked a ride back to Pakse, where we got some good indian food (and some roti canais!) and then caught a night bus headed for vientiene, the capital city. The bus was super sweet as it was a sleeper bus, which meant we each had beds. We were only going as far as Tha Kaek though, so we got off at 1 am there. We hitched a ride towards town. We got picked up by an employee of one of the guest houses, so we were dropped there. The available rooms there smelled terrible, so we turned it down and walked the 1km to the next recommended guesthouse. It, and the ones nearby were all full, so we walked the next km to downtown where we finally found a guesthouse and went to bed a bit after 3am. A crazy night for sure.
11/17 Today our main job was to do laundry, buy toothpaste, and book a tour to the national park we wanted to go to. Only the toothpaste proved easy. The tour company we wanted to go through has no office here yet, even though that's what we had thought originally. But the branch in pakse said it would be easy to find other companies here. Well, there were definitely no other companies here and the tourist info office was closed for some reason (perhaps public holiday). We finally were able to get a hold of a guy to let us into the tourist office and get some info, but there wasn't anything good. So we called the company we wanted to go with originally and who is based in vientienne. They said they had nothing and couldn't, so we were kind of bumming and not knowing what to do. But as is my asian moto of nothing is impossible, don't believe anything from anyone, and be persistant, we tried another number from the same company and were able to book a tour, and only 1 day later then we hoped. With the Laundry conrad and whitney gave someone our clothes who asked for 2 dollars and they assumed would wash it. This is yet to be determined. But we are psyched for our tour in Phin Hun Bun national park.
Tonight we have a date to sip beer lao along the cool breezes of the mekong as the sun sets across the river over thailand.
Tomorrow we plan to just hang out in Tha Kaek, do some reading, perhaps a massage, and anything else there is to do here before our trip that takes off on the 19th and goes until the 22nd.
11/18 Didn't do much except head to the tha kaek market where Conrad made sure to buy the highly endangered pengalin to bbq up that night. j/k. But yes, it was one of the more crazy markets I have been to in asia yet with plenty of frogs, snails, snakes, rats, squirrels, and giant flying squirrels to be had. As well as some even more sketchy animals like the pangolins and beavers
Took a bus from Kratie to the Cambodia/Laos border. The border was pretty hilarious. It was just two random delapidated stilted wooden buildings. One to leave cambodia where there was a 1 dollar "fee", then a 100 meter walk to the one to enter Laos where the guy there decided to charge a 2 dollar "fee". Which I guess makes sense b/c we had to wake the poor guy up. There was no video security or anything like that, but one guy was there with a digital camera taking photos of all the white people crossing the border. Maybe for his own fun, but maybe for something official. The healthcare checkpoint was only guarded by a rooster, so we breezed through that, wary of catching bird flu from the inspector.
We then hopped on some big old passenger truck and took a short ride on an extremely pot-holed rode to the riverside of the mekong. It was now completely dark, but we hopped into a little longtail boat and headed off to Don Dhet, one of the islands in Si Phan Don (the 4000 islands). We checked into a place and then had fruitshakes and our first drink of the infamous beer lao. There is no electricity there from 10pm to 4pm, so it was definitely a sweaty night in our bungalows without a fan.
The next morning we got up early to take advantage of the slightly "cooler" morning air to ride bicycles to Don Khon Island. To get between the islands you cross a bridge that housed the only rail line ever built by the french in laos. From there we continued to bike until we came to the otherside and there is a powerful waterful as part of the mekong tumbles through some cataracts. The waterfall wasn't very tall or anything, but still very impressive with the huge amount of water of the mekong tumbling down and creating all that force. The ride there and back was scenic, through some rice fields and quiet villages. The 4000 islands are known as being the most relaxed place in Laos, a country that is known as one of the most relaxed places in the world. And we found that to be true. Almost everyone was just sitting in their hammocks or sleeping under a tree or in their store. And just very quiet and peaceful. So slow moving.
After our bike ride, we broke laos tradition and instead of spending the rest of the day in hammocks along the river sleeping and reading, we took the Happy Boat Tour which was a party barge type thing. We were on it with 2 germans (burndt and Anya), an Irishwoman (danielle, who was a covert bbc reporter paid to just chill in asia until some sort of story came up, but most recently she had been doing undercover reporting in Burma where the bbc is prohibited), and 2 aussie gals. The tour involved motoring to some island, swimming in the mekong all day to stay cool with beer lao bottles and buckets of lao whiskey and coke. At some point we had a fish bbq and then moved back to the river for more buckets and swimming. Then a mud fight of course! Eventually we got out tubes, tied them to the boat and took off back towards don dhet, all drunk and having a good time.
11/14 Took the boat then bus to Pakse and then another bus to Paksong, high up on the Bolaven Plateau where the air was magically and refreshingly cool. We celebrated the cool air with a thai bbq. The Bolaven plateau is noted for its cool air, waterfalls, and coffee plantations.
11/15 Rented motor bikes and drove 55km to Namtok Katamatok, the supposed largest waterfall in SE Asia. It's 120m tall (400ft) and truly impressive. You can't get down to the base of it, but even from a distance it's incredible as it tumbles off of the jungly plateau. The sound alone is crazy loud and then just watching the water crash onto the rocks and make all that mist. A most awesome waterfall indeed. The 55k there was an adventure as well. The first 10 km was on the "good" road according to the guy we rented from, but it was a paved road pockmarked with giant motorcycle swallowing potholes. So we had to get our swerve on and basically play mario kart with our real life scooters dodging potholes, oncoming traffic, chickens, water buffalo, cows, dogs, pigs, little kids, etc. After the paved pothole madness it was just a bumpy dirt road. On the way back we stopped at two other impressive waterfalls and swam at the top of one. It also poured and poured rain on the back. Brought me back a little to my sumatra motor biked days being on a cold and high plateau in pouring rain. I luckily had my rain coat with me, so I didn't get too wet and cold. But conrad and whitney just had their shorts and t-shirts, so they were icicles (whitney a shaking icicle) when we got back to our guesthouse. We were very thankful (for the first time) to have piping hot noodle soup to eat.
That night we went out to some carnival thing. There was this came with coffee beans where you put money on how many beans you thought were under the cup. It was fairly easy to see how many beans were under the cup, yet the two laotians playing were guessing wrong half the time. All of our eyes lit up with the thought of how much kip (laos money) we could make off this came, b/c it just seemed so simple. But after a short time we had all lost about 2 bucks and were done betting (2 bucks = two large beer lao's). But we were determined to figure out how we were losing, b/c it was so easy to see how many beans were under the cup. So we stayed some more and watched and realized that the guy with the beans had two co horts that were also betting and winning and losing money (which of course didn't matter b/c they were all together). These guys were used to draw you into betting b/c they would lay down stupid bets and lose. Say you saw that there were 2 beans under the cup, they'd bet 3 or 1 and lose, and we'd think how easy it was since it was obviously 2. But as soon as we bet, when it was obviously 2, it would become 3. So we figured out that the bean man would add or subtract beans magician style at the last moment after you had bet, so that you couldn't win and the to players in with him were just used to build up your confidence. There was also some weird cheat thing that would go on to draw you in as well. But we became quite intrigued with the game and went around to lots of different dealers where we could immediately spot the two helpers, and we were entertained watching them suck other people in. We of course could get really into it and talk english to each other, b/c no one else could understand. We were frustrated at our stupidness for being scammed and losing 2 bucks on the game, but of course it was 2 bucks for a whole night of good entertainment.
11/16 We walked to three other waterfalls on the plateau. First we went to Tad Champee which was an incredibly scenic and secluded falls that we enjoyed a nice dip in the very refreshing water. Next we went to Tad Fan, which is a twin falls dropping 100 meters off of the plateau. It was breathtaking, but only a bit more breathtaking than the ledge you had to stand out on to get a view of the falls. The last falls was, of course, another beautiful one called Tad Yuang. After we got done hiking to the falls, we hitch hiked a ride back to Pakse, where we got some good indian food (and some roti canais!) and then caught a night bus headed for vientiene, the capital city. The bus was super sweet as it was a sleeper bus, which meant we each had beds. We were only going as far as Tha Kaek though, so we got off at 1 am there. We hitched a ride towards town. We got picked up by an employee of one of the guest houses, so we were dropped there. The available rooms there smelled terrible, so we turned it down and walked the 1km to the next recommended guesthouse. It, and the ones nearby were all full, so we walked the next km to downtown where we finally found a guesthouse and went to bed a bit after 3am. A crazy night for sure.
11/17 Today our main job was to do laundry, buy toothpaste, and book a tour to the national park we wanted to go to. Only the toothpaste proved easy. The tour company we wanted to go through has no office here yet, even though that's what we had thought originally. But the branch in pakse said it would be easy to find other companies here. Well, there were definitely no other companies here and the tourist info office was closed for some reason (perhaps public holiday). We finally were able to get a hold of a guy to let us into the tourist office and get some info, but there wasn't anything good. So we called the company we wanted to go with originally and who is based in vientienne. They said they had nothing and couldn't, so we were kind of bumming and not knowing what to do. But as is my asian moto of nothing is impossible, don't believe anything from anyone, and be persistant, we tried another number from the same company and were able to book a tour, and only 1 day later then we hoped. With the Laundry conrad and whitney gave someone our clothes who asked for 2 dollars and they assumed would wash it. This is yet to be determined. But we are psyched for our tour in Phin Hun Bun national park.
Tonight we have a date to sip beer lao along the cool breezes of the mekong as the sun sets across the river over thailand.
Tomorrow we plan to just hang out in Tha Kaek, do some reading, perhaps a massage, and anything else there is to do here before our trip that takes off on the 19th and goes until the 22nd.
11/18 Didn't do much except head to the tha kaek market where Conrad made sure to buy the highly endangered pengalin to bbq up that night. j/k. But yes, it was one of the more crazy markets I have been to in asia yet with plenty of frogs, snails, snakes, rats, squirrels, and giant flying squirrels to be had. As well as some even more sketchy animals like the pangolins and beavers
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Rare Irrawaddy Dolphins
11/11/09
We started the day a bit slow in Kratie, partly due to being tired, but mostly due to how incredibly hot it was. Kratie is a nice little town that sits along the mighty mekong river. We hit up the market for some fruit and fresh baguettes. Thank you French!! Laos and cambodia (and hopefully vietnam) have good bread, the only place in asia, due to the heavy french influence. We then rented some motor bikes and headed into the countryside along the mekong. Cambodia life here is very 3rd world, and as elsewhere in cambodia, dominated by the hammock, the wheelbarrow, the tuk tuk seat, or whatever other device can be used for sleeping away the hot days. We have figured the cambodians have a life similar to the cat, sleeping most of the day and night.
Our first stop was along the river where we roused a boatmen from a nap to take us to look for the extremely endangered Mekong Irrawaddy Dolphin. There is apparently only 50 or so of these noseless freshwater dolphins in the mekong, but they stick to certain areas and are thus still easy to find in this protected zone. So we ended up getting to see quite a few. At least 10 from the boat and 3 from shore. We watched them swim around hunting for fish for about an hour before heading back to shore to take a nap under the shade. We continued on up the river for several more miles, stopping for some 5 cent icecream cones and some ice fruit desert (sorta similar to the ABC in malaysia) to try and stay somewhat cool. We also tried to get some food, which we eventually did, but was extremely difficult b/c we still haven't learned how to ask for food or prices in Khmer language and the people just in general weren't too excited to sell us some food (very untypical asian) as I think it would mean getting up from the hammock.
On the way back to Kratie, we took a dirt road to some village and along the way, some people sweating the in rice fields invited us with a hand motion to come help them. So we worked a bit with their special tool, harvesting their rice with them.
We're just hanging out the morning today waiting for the bus from phnom penh that will take us to the laos border and that is supposed to be also delivering us our passports with our laos visas. So if all goes well, we'll be in Laos tonight.
This part of cambodia, aside from the heat, is much nicer though b/c people are back to being more friendly (though a cautious friendly) and less of trying to sell you things (for 1 dolla). Tourism isn't so big here like it is in the other 3 cambodian places we've been. And I like the much more relaxed feel. This definitely isn't so much scambodia as cambodia. Though of course hard bargaining is still a necessity.
We started the day a bit slow in Kratie, partly due to being tired, but mostly due to how incredibly hot it was. Kratie is a nice little town that sits along the mighty mekong river. We hit up the market for some fruit and fresh baguettes. Thank you French!! Laos and cambodia (and hopefully vietnam) have good bread, the only place in asia, due to the heavy french influence. We then rented some motor bikes and headed into the countryside along the mekong. Cambodia life here is very 3rd world, and as elsewhere in cambodia, dominated by the hammock, the wheelbarrow, the tuk tuk seat, or whatever other device can be used for sleeping away the hot days. We have figured the cambodians have a life similar to the cat, sleeping most of the day and night.
Our first stop was along the river where we roused a boatmen from a nap to take us to look for the extremely endangered Mekong Irrawaddy Dolphin. There is apparently only 50 or so of these noseless freshwater dolphins in the mekong, but they stick to certain areas and are thus still easy to find in this protected zone. So we ended up getting to see quite a few. At least 10 from the boat and 3 from shore. We watched them swim around hunting for fish for about an hour before heading back to shore to take a nap under the shade. We continued on up the river for several more miles, stopping for some 5 cent icecream cones and some ice fruit desert (sorta similar to the ABC in malaysia) to try and stay somewhat cool. We also tried to get some food, which we eventually did, but was extremely difficult b/c we still haven't learned how to ask for food or prices in Khmer language and the people just in general weren't too excited to sell us some food (very untypical asian) as I think it would mean getting up from the hammock.
On the way back to Kratie, we took a dirt road to some village and along the way, some people sweating the in rice fields invited us with a hand motion to come help them. So we worked a bit with their special tool, harvesting their rice with them.
We're just hanging out the morning today waiting for the bus from phnom penh that will take us to the laos border and that is supposed to be also delivering us our passports with our laos visas. So if all goes well, we'll be in Laos tonight.
This part of cambodia, aside from the heat, is much nicer though b/c people are back to being more friendly (though a cautious friendly) and less of trying to sell you things (for 1 dolla). Tourism isn't so big here like it is in the other 3 cambodian places we've been. And I like the much more relaxed feel. This definitely isn't so much scambodia as cambodia. Though of course hard bargaining is still a necessity.
Sihounikville, Sun, Sauce, and the Sales
So took the bus from PP to Sihounikville. We arrived at night, got our rooms and then headed for some street noodles. At the noodle stand we also got a pitcher of angkor beer to go. Of course a pitcher to go, means beer in a bag...just like tea or pop in a bag everywhere else in asia. After we finished that, we headed to a bar with 50 cent draft angkors and 2 dolla (I forgot to mention before that both the USD and the Riel are used anywhere anytime) mekong whiskey buckets. We had a good time there and eventually made our way back to kyle and lindsey's nice hotel where we went swimming in our unds in their pool. At first we tried to be quiet, but then all the guards (especially the ones sleeping on the lawnchairs poolside) knew we were there, but they could care less. It is scambodia after all.
The next day we headed out to the beach where we were able to rent beach chairs and umbrellas for the whole day for just buying one mango shake or draft beer (again 50 cents). Of course we bought a few more than that and just chilled and swam in the ocean all day. Also got some beachside massages. We splurged on a seaside dinner with fresh red snapper, a salad, and amazing baked potatoes for 3 bucks. They also had mekong buckets for 1.5 dolla here and tasty cocktails for 1.5.
Something funny: a mangy dog ran under Conrad's beach chair. Conrad was trying to shoe him away, but wasn't having any luck. So he asked the guy in charge of the bar/restaurant that we were at to help him get rid of the dog as the guy had been fairly successful at getting away the annoying beach vendors. But the man didn't have the best english and thought that Conrad wanted the dog cooked for dinner! In siem reap lots of the western restaurants had signs saying, "we serve no worms, insects, dogs, snakes, or lizards"
After a quick shower in the bathroom of the sale's hotel, we all caught the night bus to phnom penh which was continuing on to Siem Reap for the Sales. Conrad, Whitney, and I got off. Our goal was to try and higher a taxi to Kratie in northern cambodia b/c the next bus there wasn't until the morning and would didn't want to stay in phnom penh another night, plus the bus would take an incredibly long time. But Phnom penh was absolutely dead at 12:30 at night. We finally found a minivan loaded with cargo that was going in the morning, and were able to convince it to take us there that night for a bit of dough. Turned out to be an ok ride, b/c we could lay the seat down onto our bags so that it was sort of a "sleeper" van. The ride was long, on incredibly rough and often potholed dirt roads. But we made it safe and sound into Kratie about 6am the next day, which was also good b/c we hadn't wasted a day travelling.
The next day we headed out to the beach where we were able to rent beach chairs and umbrellas for the whole day for just buying one mango shake or draft beer (again 50 cents). Of course we bought a few more than that and just chilled and swam in the ocean all day. Also got some beachside massages. We splurged on a seaside dinner with fresh red snapper, a salad, and amazing baked potatoes for 3 bucks. They also had mekong buckets for 1.5 dolla here and tasty cocktails for 1.5.
Something funny: a mangy dog ran under Conrad's beach chair. Conrad was trying to shoe him away, but wasn't having any luck. So he asked the guy in charge of the bar/restaurant that we were at to help him get rid of the dog as the guy had been fairly successful at getting away the annoying beach vendors. But the man didn't have the best english and thought that Conrad wanted the dog cooked for dinner! In siem reap lots of the western restaurants had signs saying, "we serve no worms, insects, dogs, snakes, or lizards"
After a quick shower in the bathroom of the sale's hotel, we all caught the night bus to phnom penh which was continuing on to Siem Reap for the Sales. Conrad, Whitney, and I got off. Our goal was to try and higher a taxi to Kratie in northern cambodia b/c the next bus there wasn't until the morning and would didn't want to stay in phnom penh another night, plus the bus would take an incredibly long time. But Phnom penh was absolutely dead at 12:30 at night. We finally found a minivan loaded with cargo that was going in the morning, and were able to convince it to take us there that night for a bit of dough. Turned out to be an ok ride, b/c we could lay the seat down onto our bags so that it was sort of a "sleeper" van. The ride was long, on incredibly rough and often potholed dirt roads. But we made it safe and sound into Kratie about 6am the next day, which was also good b/c we hadn't wasted a day travelling.
Khmer Rouge
We spent our morning in Phnom Penh trying to arrange what we would do, which is more difficult with 5 people, 2 of which are staying in another part of town and then also getting our laos visas in order. After we had that set, we tuk tuked over to the S-21 (Tual Sleng)prison camp. It was a school turned prison camp during the Khmer Rouge era (the late 70's) that was used as a prison, torture area, and just killing area. It's been turned into a museum now. A very sobering one in that. It's a terrible story in which the khmer rouge an aggerian communist group took over, kicked everyone out of phnom penh, and killed all educated people. At least 2 million of the 8 million population (1/4 of it) were killed during the khmer rouge. And it was only 30 years ago, so it still has its affects here psychologically. I think the people are less trusting, less friendly than other places. I mean, anyone over 30 living here, lived through the khmer rouge (and lots through the american bombing of the vietnam war), so they witnessed all the killing. And lots of times no khmer rouge cambodians turned to killing their fellow countrymen just so they could survive themselves. So even 30 years afterwards, it's a real mess, and you can still kind of feel it. And even to this day, there are about 700 reported deaths a year due to unexploded ordinance and land mines from the khmer rouge. In cambodia, you definitely don't go off the trodden trail for fear of landmines. So when it's time to pee, whitney goes one way on the road to pee and conrad and I to the other. After visiting S-21 we decided we didn't need to visit the killing fields which are basically fields filled with 1000's of skulls all piled up that have been dug up from the times of the khmer rouge. In Phnom Penh you can also shoot ak-47 machine guns and rocket launchers (probably one of the only places in the world to do this an not be in the millitary), which you sickeningly shoot at cows, goats, or another animal of your choice. But we of course found this quite in poor taste after the museum we visited and had no intentions of doing that. So we instead decided to catch a bus to Sihounikville, a beach resort. It was in the opposite direction of the way that the franks and I were going, but we wanted to spend the last few days with the sales before they headed to angkor wat and phnom penh was not a good place to do this.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Scambodia
Got up as early as we could on the 5th and took the water taxi, then the tram to the bus station to catch a bus to aranyaprathet at the cambodia/thai border. Ignored all the calls that you needed to pay extra money for a special visa, and just walked over into poipet cambodia where the visa was simple enough. The busses to siem reap (the city where angkor wat is) were all finished, so we had to take a taxi. The taxi took us to some random place in cambodia where a man, luc, gave us a "free" ride to, not the hostel we wanted to go to, but another one he said that was good, which of course he was connected with, just as the taxi had been connected with him. It was ok though b/c we got a sweet deal at the place we stayed (8 bucks for the 3 of us with free internet and cable tv and hot shower). Of course luc wanted us to take his tuk tuk tour of angkor. We weren't so sure if we wanted his tour, so we walked around town and checked some other places as well as ate at an amazing place with great noodles and fruit shakes. In the end we decided to go with luc on his tour.
The next morning we were up at 5am so we could catch the sunrise on Angkor Wat, which was pretty stunning. Then we walked around the giant temple complex built by one of the jayavarman kings (known to us as javaman). We ate some nice breakfast in front of the temple and then went back to our driver, who it turns out wasn't luc, but someone who worked for him. This new driver showed us the route he was going to take us on, which wasn't where we had wanted to go, which maybe we'd have known if luc had shown up for our 10 oçlock meeting, which he didn't. The proposed route was one we wanted to do on our bikes. And then we had been promised the driver would be a guide, but he just drove you to the temples and then slept in a hammock while he waited for you. So with this is mind, and after a bit of arguing with luc on the phone, we paid the driver for the ride to angkor and then decided to find a different driver. We also bought a nice guide book for 5 bucks (cover price of 30). There are no copyright laws in scambodia, so it makes book prices really cheap. I got a laos lonely planet for 3 bucks (I had bought the indonesia one for 37 in KL) here as well. So with our new driver we told him we wanted to go out and seem some further out temples while we had a tuk tuk so we could bike the next day to the closer temples. So that day after Angkor Wat temple we went to banteay Srei temple with it's incredibly intricate designs. It also had no shade and we nearly died of heat, so we lovingly refer to it as the temple of fire as well. From here we went a ways out to the hills and jungle. We happened to arrive just in time for a tour of a wildlife rehab center, which was pretty cool. Then we hiked up to this area (Kbal Spean) where there were some carvings in the bed of the river. Pretty amazing considering there is a river constantly washing over it, and how one carves in a river is crazy too. But it wasn't as amazing as the freezing waterfall that we showered under up there. A much needed refresher. After coming back from Kbal Spean we went to Banteay Samre temple and then on to Pre Rup for a nice sunset. On pre rup you could climb up to the top and watch it there. We were greeted with cold beers on the top for 1 dolla (everything there was 1 dolla) and we couldn't resist. There was a large japanese tour group on top already (but no problem for us b/c even whitney was much taller) and when the sun sunk they all clapped excitedly, like perhaps it was an event that doesn't always happen.
The next day we rented bikes to do the main circle. We visited the temples of Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Preah Khan, the victory gates of Angkor Thom, and then the Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Lepers, Baphuon, and Bayon temple all inside of ankor thom. Ta Prohm may have been my favorite temple. It had been left to nature as opposed to restored like the others, so it had more of an indiana jones temple feel (they actually filmed laura croft tomb raider with angelina jolie there apparently). It was sweet b/c it was all crumbly with moss growing everywhere and giant trees and strangler figs just growing out of the temple with their huge roots going down into the cracks in the blocks. I also liked Preah Khan a lot b/c it had the same feeling, but with no tourists there, so we had it to ourselves. And Bayon was also sweet with it's huge faces everywhere. For sunset we walked up Phnom Bakheng to the Bakheng temple to watch the sun fall over tonle sap lake. Of course that night we ended with some tasty noodles and mango shakes and a khmer style massage.
11/8 In the morning we took a tuk tuk to the Ruluos group farther afield from siem reap and visite preah ko, bakong (the oldest of the major temples), and Lolei. We then bussed to phnom penh where we met up with Kyle and Lindsey Sales. We didn't like phnom penh at all as it was dirty, hot, stinky, and just not very nice, so we made plans to get out.
But the temples of angkor were definitely sweet. Amazing that something so big could be built way back then and in such heat. Adding to the experience of the temples was the horde of women and children that were always trying to sell you things at the temple entrances. You were always hearing cold water sir, one dolla, hey lady you want fruit, one dolla. You remember me sir, you come back and buy from me sir. One dolla. Of course cambodia is a place full of bargaining, so we could always get great deals. The walk away method is amazing and I think we always got what we wanted doing that. And whitney is an intense bargainer. As Kyle Sales would say, when he needed a good deal he'd call Catan over (catan is whitney's nickname here due to her skills at a board game back home).
The next morning we were up at 5am so we could catch the sunrise on Angkor Wat, which was pretty stunning. Then we walked around the giant temple complex built by one of the jayavarman kings (known to us as javaman). We ate some nice breakfast in front of the temple and then went back to our driver, who it turns out wasn't luc, but someone who worked for him. This new driver showed us the route he was going to take us on, which wasn't where we had wanted to go, which maybe we'd have known if luc had shown up for our 10 oçlock meeting, which he didn't. The proposed route was one we wanted to do on our bikes. And then we had been promised the driver would be a guide, but he just drove you to the temples and then slept in a hammock while he waited for you. So with this is mind, and after a bit of arguing with luc on the phone, we paid the driver for the ride to angkor and then decided to find a different driver. We also bought a nice guide book for 5 bucks (cover price of 30). There are no copyright laws in scambodia, so it makes book prices really cheap. I got a laos lonely planet for 3 bucks (I had bought the indonesia one for 37 in KL) here as well. So with our new driver we told him we wanted to go out and seem some further out temples while we had a tuk tuk so we could bike the next day to the closer temples. So that day after Angkor Wat temple we went to banteay Srei temple with it's incredibly intricate designs. It also had no shade and we nearly died of heat, so we lovingly refer to it as the temple of fire as well. From here we went a ways out to the hills and jungle. We happened to arrive just in time for a tour of a wildlife rehab center, which was pretty cool. Then we hiked up to this area (Kbal Spean) where there were some carvings in the bed of the river. Pretty amazing considering there is a river constantly washing over it, and how one carves in a river is crazy too. But it wasn't as amazing as the freezing waterfall that we showered under up there. A much needed refresher. After coming back from Kbal Spean we went to Banteay Samre temple and then on to Pre Rup for a nice sunset. On pre rup you could climb up to the top and watch it there. We were greeted with cold beers on the top for 1 dolla (everything there was 1 dolla) and we couldn't resist. There was a large japanese tour group on top already (but no problem for us b/c even whitney was much taller) and when the sun sunk they all clapped excitedly, like perhaps it was an event that doesn't always happen.
The next day we rented bikes to do the main circle. We visited the temples of Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Preah Khan, the victory gates of Angkor Thom, and then the Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Lepers, Baphuon, and Bayon temple all inside of ankor thom. Ta Prohm may have been my favorite temple. It had been left to nature as opposed to restored like the others, so it had more of an indiana jones temple feel (they actually filmed laura croft tomb raider with angelina jolie there apparently). It was sweet b/c it was all crumbly with moss growing everywhere and giant trees and strangler figs just growing out of the temple with their huge roots going down into the cracks in the blocks. I also liked Preah Khan a lot b/c it had the same feeling, but with no tourists there, so we had it to ourselves. And Bayon was also sweet with it's huge faces everywhere. For sunset we walked up Phnom Bakheng to the Bakheng temple to watch the sun fall over tonle sap lake. Of course that night we ended with some tasty noodles and mango shakes and a khmer style massage.
11/8 In the morning we took a tuk tuk to the Ruluos group farther afield from siem reap and visite preah ko, bakong (the oldest of the major temples), and Lolei. We then bussed to phnom penh where we met up with Kyle and Lindsey Sales. We didn't like phnom penh at all as it was dirty, hot, stinky, and just not very nice, so we made plans to get out.
But the temples of angkor were definitely sweet. Amazing that something so big could be built way back then and in such heat. Adding to the experience of the temples was the horde of women and children that were always trying to sell you things at the temple entrances. You were always hearing cold water sir, one dolla, hey lady you want fruit, one dolla. You remember me sir, you come back and buy from me sir. One dolla. Of course cambodia is a place full of bargaining, so we could always get great deals. The walk away method is amazing and I think we always got what we wanted doing that. And whitney is an intense bargainer. As Kyle Sales would say, when he needed a good deal he'd call Catan over (catan is whitney's nickname here due to her skills at a board game back home).
Conrad, Whitney, Changs, and Mango Shakes in Bangkok
Arrived early into Bangkok, where it was suprisingly chilly. Felt like an early morning in june in estes to me.
Made it back to my favorite guesthouse where I ordered a mango shake and waited for the franks. When they arrived I was waiting for them with 3 big changs. We did a few random things around bangkok, got a massage, and went to the golden mount temple for sunset. The night was good fun with several buckets (and refilled buckets from 7-11 sneakily added by the gibster) and more changs.
We all woke up in the morning and realized that we had bought something while under the influence. Not a big LOVE MOM tattoo, but 3 bracelets from the northern hill tribes.
A most excellent reunion with amazing friends in a great city to have one.
Made it back to my favorite guesthouse where I ordered a mango shake and waited for the franks. When they arrived I was waiting for them with 3 big changs. We did a few random things around bangkok, got a massage, and went to the golden mount temple for sunset. The night was good fun with several buckets (and refilled buckets from 7-11 sneakily added by the gibster) and more changs.
We all woke up in the morning and realized that we had bought something while under the influence. Not a big LOVE MOM tattoo, but 3 bracelets from the northern hill tribes.
A most excellent reunion with amazing friends in a great city to have one.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Thailand: 1970's
Stayed the night at a lovely guesthouse in Trang with a very friendly family. The next morning, took a van to Hat Yao and then a boat on to Ko Libong (incase you forgot ko = island in Thai). It's a nice little tropical island with lots of flowers and a couple fishing villages and no cars. The fishing villages are all muslim, which meant I had a nice roti canai for breakfast upon arrival before taking a motorbike the 10km on a dirt road to the other side of the island. There are only three small places to stay on the island, all on the same beach. As it's the low season (which dramatically ends on nov. 1st), I got a great deal on my beachside bungalow run by a really friendly family as well. Had a great day of weather, so spent the afternoon wondering around the beach and wading to a nearby island and then just doing some reading in the hammock and playing beach pong with the owner's 3 kids. And of course swimming in the andaman sea. I had forgotten just how warm the water in Thailand is. Malaysia and indo have warm water, but thailand is even warmer. It's like bathwater, except it doesn't cool down so you can stay forever. I was also the only tourist on the whole island. The trang islands are still a bit more off the beaten path being farther and harder to reach than phuket and phi phi. So this added to the fact that it was low season, meant I was the only one on the whole island. I had dinner that night in a nearby fishing village. I think it's rare for tourists to wonder into the villages for eating so it drew quite the crowd and commotion to come see the farang eat at the local place.
The next morning, got up bright and early to great weather to take a longtail boat and go dugong spotting. Dugongs, also known as sea cows, are a very endangered sea living relative of the infamous florida manatee. Saw 4 on the trip, or the same 1 4 times, who knows. They just come up for a couple fairly quick breaths, like a whale, before diving back down to munch on the sea grass.
After I was done with the dugong tour, I took a boat back to hat yao on the mainland. As I was barterig over the cost of the motorbike ride to the next port I was going to, 3 japanese expats who live in bangkok stopped by and told me they'd take me there in their car. They live in bangkok and work for a magazine that is published in bangkoks for all the japanese expats living there. These guys' jobs were to write the travel section each weak, so they get to go to these different islands to write about them and the places to stay. Not a bad job. It was 1pm when I arrived at the port and turns out I had missed the last boat which goes at noon to ko mook, so I would have to do an expensive charter. But, I have been in asia long enough to know there is always another way. So I asked around the port and found a boat heading to ko mook just carrying supplies and I could hitch a ride with it. It was amazing how smooth of a travel day it had been. I had never had to wait, from the time I got finished with the dugong tour until my arrival in ko mook, more than 5 minutes for any kind of transport. I couldn't hardly believe it, especially after being in indonesia. It was a good thing too b/c a few minutes after landing on ko mook, it started pouring. There was a woman on the cargo boat with me and she led me to the place she worked at called cocos. They had nice bungalows, but out of my price range. The two owners were incredibly nice though and gave me a tent to pitch on their beach. The owners were both totally chilled thai guys who had lived at one point in LA and I enjoyed just sitting and talking with them. After the rain ended I walked around the fishing village there and then to the otherside of the island to Farang beach where most of the accomadation was. The beach there was gorgeous with huge karst rock cliffs on either side and islands in the distance and empty as well. Although ko mook was a bit more developed for tourism than ko libong, it was still quite empty. I had the whole beach and the sunset to myself. On the way home I stopped at ate at this really nice woman's restaurant, and she was so happy to have me there to talk to. I wanted to do a tour the next day, but to charter a whole tour yourself was quite expensive, but I couldn't fin any other tourists, so I told her my dilemma. She said to come back the next morning.
The next morning (Halloween!!), walking by her place, she came running out telling me she had found 3 other people to share with. So that was most excellent.
The first stop was a place called emerald cave. It was this cave into the limestone cliff that you had to swim about 100 yards, 80 of it in pitch black (the guide who was far ahead did have torch) to this small emerald lagoon and white beach inside the mountain with the only opening to the outside world, straight up. It was quite spectacular and very amazing. Apparently pirates back in the day used to hide their treasure in there. A lost and hidden beach and lagoon. Something straight out of pirates of the caribbean. The swim to it and back to the ocean was pretty intense b/c of the total darkness and the waves, which were small but had a crashing noise amplified by the cave and tunnel. I'm a good swimmer, but at one point, even I was a bit nervous I'd get lost, but apparently there were no side passages.
The next place we went was ko kradan for some snorkelling and then onto the gorgeous white beach there with good views of the turquoise sea and surrounding karst islands. We did the short hike to the otherside of the island for views to that side.
When the tour was over, we all just sat around on the ko mook beach and read and then swam, b/c again, the water is so insanely warm here. Back at my bungalow area, the guys had prepared me a big halloween feast (that they would end up not charging me for as a gift) of some spicy peanut curry and then a huge, huge fresh fish. We also had some fresh grilled pumpkin for halloween and a desert of papaya picked from one of their trees. After the dinner, I walked back to the other side of the island to a place owned by an australian guy (brian) and his thai wife who were having a halloween party. Every tourist on the island was at the party... all 7 of us. The three other people from my tour (max--french canadian, manny--brit, izzy--aussie), some old irish guy, and then an american couple (virginia--from texas and robbie from florida). Costumes were in short supply, but fun was not.
The next day, the guys I was staying with had hooked me up for a homestay at a muslim fishing village on an island in ao phang nga marine park where I was going next. So I took the boat to the mainland, bus to trang and then bus to phang nga town. When I got off the bus a woman came up to me and asked if I needed any tourist info. I was interested in the tours they had and how to get to this island where I would be staying, so I went with her. Turned out she did the tours and booking with the same people I was going to stay with, so she was able to arrange all the transport and everything for me. Again, such smooth travel.
Took a boat ride to ko panyi, which is a little island in the bay. The fishing village is quite interesting b/c it's completely on stilts. None of it is on land. There is a huge giant karst rock as the island, but nothing can be built on it, so instead the people have built a village on stilts. At low tide there is land muddy land exposed, but at medium and high tides it's all water underneath. It's so crazy where they build! I would imagine there are some older people on the island who have never touched foot on actual land. They have a soccer field, but it's a cement "field" on stilts. Needless to say the island was gorgeous and and stunning views, especially at sunset of the bay filled with giant limestone islands. These limestone islands are so spectacular b/c they just just straight up out of the water 100's of feet high. Impressive impressive impressive. I again had the island to myself. During the day, lots of tours come to this island from phuket on their day trips, but I had it all to myself in the afternoon and evenings. They made me a huge tasty seafood meal and I just enjoyed the view under the full moon. The full moon is the one thing that has been keeping me in check in terms of time on this trip, b/c it's such a blatant reminder...and well, there is only 1 more full moon left on my trip!
The next morning I went on the full day trip of the phang nga bay and marine park. Only one other guy, a dutch geologist, was on my tour. And what a great tour it was. First of all, I was glad to be on a traditional and smaller longtail boat compared to the huge budget boats with 40 some people coming from phuket or the fancy schmancy modern speedboats coming from phuket b/c it allowed us to go into smaller caves and areas such as that, as well as I got much better views with only two of us on the boat. We first explored the mangroves and some back passageways there, and then we visited some of the main sites such as hidden lagoons, huge caves and tunnels that we could go from one side of the island to the other buy going under the mountain in the boat. We also visited one where we got out and walked through a cave to a hidden lagoon on the inside of the island. We had lunch on a secluded beach. And we also visited the famed james bond island which is one of the main tourist draws b/c the island just sits awkwardly balanced over the water, like it will fall anytime. And also I guess b/c it was featured in james bond's man with the golden gun. And lastly we saw some places where people 3000 years ago lived in cliff dwellings and had some hieroglyphics. But the best part of the tour was definitely just cruising by and checking out all the crazy gorgeous limestone karsts jutting out of the water.
Stayed another quiet night on the fishing village, and left the next morning back to phang nga town. I was lucky to have gone on the tour the day before b/c this day was ugly and cloudy, though just a sprinkle of rain. Back at phang nga town, I took a motor bike to Phra Sang Manora national park and spent the day walking around there. It had some cool caves and rainforest, but the best was the streams in the area that were blocked by some unique limestone formations into lots of clear blue pools for swimming. So I hiked up the nature trail one way and came back by walking and swimming through the creek. The pools were how you might imagine a fairyland, with tall trees and big roots everywhere and then these pools with cascading waterfalls coming out of each one. Reminded me of the pools in the animated movie Fern Gully that takes place in the australian rainforest (and is a great movie by the way), and which of course has some rainforest fairies.
Back in phang nga, I explored around a bit. It's a nice town with limestone karsts cliffs everywhere as well. Went up to a buddhist temple with a nice view of the town and then made it back in time to catch my night bus (fancy double decker) to bangkok to meet up with the infamous conrad and whitney.
I was very lucky to experience this last bit of thailand that I did. The fact that I was in some of the less touristy areas combined with the turn of the offseason to the start of the higher season is what made it so great. I feel like I got to experience thailand like it was back in the 1970's. You always hear from old backpackers (that I meet in other countries) who travelled in the 70's when the hippy trail was first starting about how completely amazing thailand was with its friendly people, empty beaches, etc but how now they think it's ruined and won't go back. Well, I think I was lucky to see this b/c I can tell you it was definitely much different from when I was there in march-april at places like ko tao, samui, and phi phi.
The next morning, got up bright and early to great weather to take a longtail boat and go dugong spotting. Dugongs, also known as sea cows, are a very endangered sea living relative of the infamous florida manatee. Saw 4 on the trip, or the same 1 4 times, who knows. They just come up for a couple fairly quick breaths, like a whale, before diving back down to munch on the sea grass.
After I was done with the dugong tour, I took a boat back to hat yao on the mainland. As I was barterig over the cost of the motorbike ride to the next port I was going to, 3 japanese expats who live in bangkok stopped by and told me they'd take me there in their car. They live in bangkok and work for a magazine that is published in bangkoks for all the japanese expats living there. These guys' jobs were to write the travel section each weak, so they get to go to these different islands to write about them and the places to stay. Not a bad job. It was 1pm when I arrived at the port and turns out I had missed the last boat which goes at noon to ko mook, so I would have to do an expensive charter. But, I have been in asia long enough to know there is always another way. So I asked around the port and found a boat heading to ko mook just carrying supplies and I could hitch a ride with it. It was amazing how smooth of a travel day it had been. I had never had to wait, from the time I got finished with the dugong tour until my arrival in ko mook, more than 5 minutes for any kind of transport. I couldn't hardly believe it, especially after being in indonesia. It was a good thing too b/c a few minutes after landing on ko mook, it started pouring. There was a woman on the cargo boat with me and she led me to the place she worked at called cocos. They had nice bungalows, but out of my price range. The two owners were incredibly nice though and gave me a tent to pitch on their beach. The owners were both totally chilled thai guys who had lived at one point in LA and I enjoyed just sitting and talking with them. After the rain ended I walked around the fishing village there and then to the otherside of the island to Farang beach where most of the accomadation was. The beach there was gorgeous with huge karst rock cliffs on either side and islands in the distance and empty as well. Although ko mook was a bit more developed for tourism than ko libong, it was still quite empty. I had the whole beach and the sunset to myself. On the way home I stopped at ate at this really nice woman's restaurant, and she was so happy to have me there to talk to. I wanted to do a tour the next day, but to charter a whole tour yourself was quite expensive, but I couldn't fin any other tourists, so I told her my dilemma. She said to come back the next morning.
The next morning (Halloween!!), walking by her place, she came running out telling me she had found 3 other people to share with. So that was most excellent.
The first stop was a place called emerald cave. It was this cave into the limestone cliff that you had to swim about 100 yards, 80 of it in pitch black (the guide who was far ahead did have torch) to this small emerald lagoon and white beach inside the mountain with the only opening to the outside world, straight up. It was quite spectacular and very amazing. Apparently pirates back in the day used to hide their treasure in there. A lost and hidden beach and lagoon. Something straight out of pirates of the caribbean. The swim to it and back to the ocean was pretty intense b/c of the total darkness and the waves, which were small but had a crashing noise amplified by the cave and tunnel. I'm a good swimmer, but at one point, even I was a bit nervous I'd get lost, but apparently there were no side passages.
The next place we went was ko kradan for some snorkelling and then onto the gorgeous white beach there with good views of the turquoise sea and surrounding karst islands. We did the short hike to the otherside of the island for views to that side.
When the tour was over, we all just sat around on the ko mook beach and read and then swam, b/c again, the water is so insanely warm here. Back at my bungalow area, the guys had prepared me a big halloween feast (that they would end up not charging me for as a gift) of some spicy peanut curry and then a huge, huge fresh fish. We also had some fresh grilled pumpkin for halloween and a desert of papaya picked from one of their trees. After the dinner, I walked back to the other side of the island to a place owned by an australian guy (brian) and his thai wife who were having a halloween party. Every tourist on the island was at the party... all 7 of us. The three other people from my tour (max--french canadian, manny--brit, izzy--aussie), some old irish guy, and then an american couple (virginia--from texas and robbie from florida). Costumes were in short supply, but fun was not.
The next day, the guys I was staying with had hooked me up for a homestay at a muslim fishing village on an island in ao phang nga marine park where I was going next. So I took the boat to the mainland, bus to trang and then bus to phang nga town. When I got off the bus a woman came up to me and asked if I needed any tourist info. I was interested in the tours they had and how to get to this island where I would be staying, so I went with her. Turned out she did the tours and booking with the same people I was going to stay with, so she was able to arrange all the transport and everything for me. Again, such smooth travel.
Took a boat ride to ko panyi, which is a little island in the bay. The fishing village is quite interesting b/c it's completely on stilts. None of it is on land. There is a huge giant karst rock as the island, but nothing can be built on it, so instead the people have built a village on stilts. At low tide there is land muddy land exposed, but at medium and high tides it's all water underneath. It's so crazy where they build! I would imagine there are some older people on the island who have never touched foot on actual land. They have a soccer field, but it's a cement "field" on stilts. Needless to say the island was gorgeous and and stunning views, especially at sunset of the bay filled with giant limestone islands. These limestone islands are so spectacular b/c they just just straight up out of the water 100's of feet high. Impressive impressive impressive. I again had the island to myself. During the day, lots of tours come to this island from phuket on their day trips, but I had it all to myself in the afternoon and evenings. They made me a huge tasty seafood meal and I just enjoyed the view under the full moon. The full moon is the one thing that has been keeping me in check in terms of time on this trip, b/c it's such a blatant reminder...and well, there is only 1 more full moon left on my trip!
The next morning I went on the full day trip of the phang nga bay and marine park. Only one other guy, a dutch geologist, was on my tour. And what a great tour it was. First of all, I was glad to be on a traditional and smaller longtail boat compared to the huge budget boats with 40 some people coming from phuket or the fancy schmancy modern speedboats coming from phuket b/c it allowed us to go into smaller caves and areas such as that, as well as I got much better views with only two of us on the boat. We first explored the mangroves and some back passageways there, and then we visited some of the main sites such as hidden lagoons, huge caves and tunnels that we could go from one side of the island to the other buy going under the mountain in the boat. We also visited one where we got out and walked through a cave to a hidden lagoon on the inside of the island. We had lunch on a secluded beach. And we also visited the famed james bond island which is one of the main tourist draws b/c the island just sits awkwardly balanced over the water, like it will fall anytime. And also I guess b/c it was featured in james bond's man with the golden gun. And lastly we saw some places where people 3000 years ago lived in cliff dwellings and had some hieroglyphics. But the best part of the tour was definitely just cruising by and checking out all the crazy gorgeous limestone karsts jutting out of the water.
Stayed another quiet night on the fishing village, and left the next morning back to phang nga town. I was lucky to have gone on the tour the day before b/c this day was ugly and cloudy, though just a sprinkle of rain. Back at phang nga town, I took a motor bike to Phra Sang Manora national park and spent the day walking around there. It had some cool caves and rainforest, but the best was the streams in the area that were blocked by some unique limestone formations into lots of clear blue pools for swimming. So I hiked up the nature trail one way and came back by walking and swimming through the creek. The pools were how you might imagine a fairyland, with tall trees and big roots everywhere and then these pools with cascading waterfalls coming out of each one. Reminded me of the pools in the animated movie Fern Gully that takes place in the australian rainforest (and is a great movie by the way), and which of course has some rainforest fairies.
Back in phang nga, I explored around a bit. It's a nice town with limestone karsts cliffs everywhere as well. Went up to a buddhist temple with a nice view of the town and then made it back in time to catch my night bus (fancy double decker) to bangkok to meet up with the infamous conrad and whitney.
I was very lucky to experience this last bit of thailand that I did. The fact that I was in some of the less touristy areas combined with the turn of the offseason to the start of the higher season is what made it so great. I feel like I got to experience thailand like it was back in the 1970's. You always hear from old backpackers (that I meet in other countries) who travelled in the 70's when the hippy trail was first starting about how completely amazing thailand was with its friendly people, empty beaches, etc but how now they think it's ruined and won't go back. Well, I think I was lucky to see this b/c I can tell you it was definitely much different from when I was there in march-april at places like ko tao, samui, and phi phi.
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