March 31 - May 7, 2001
Short Version
- Hanoi was constantly rainy; good preparation for England I guess.
- Laos is our favourite country thus far. It's completely innocent (eg. no one hassles you to buy things, people are genuinely friendly).
- ChangMai is surprisingly huge & americanized but it's got lots of great stuff & is very liveable (apparently in the worlds top 10 liveable cities).
- Thailand's island paradises of Koh Samui & Koh Tao are . . . well . . . island paradises!
Long Version
Vietnam (Hanoi)
Day 35: Nice flight to Hanoi in old North Vietnam. We were expecting a noticable change from the South but there hasn't been any yet (our travel book said the cyclo drivers wear Mao jackets!). Brett has been hit with some sort of bug & is out for the rest of the day.
Day 36: Brett still sick. Lou coo's encouraging words like "this is boring". Brett gets up enough energy to hunt down a CD discman to keep her quiet (& to make up for neglecting her birthday!). CD's are only $1.20 here (copies made in China). So far we've bought 15.
Day 37: Brett's feeling a bit better (our guess is it was a reaction to our malaria medication; the infamous Larium), so we opt for a tour of Hanoi's museum's. They're all closed (it's Monday). So we head to a few Pagoda's & Temples (they're always open!) & do a long slow walk home thru Hanoi's interesting Old Quarter.
Day 38: Our 7am bus arrives at 8:10am; 'traffic jam, traffic jam'. That must be Vietnamese for 'we're poorly organized'. One of the many dangers of travelling in India (yes I know we're in Vietnam) is that they seem to believe in fate. ie: if you're on a winding mountain pass behind a huge truck on a blind corner you pull out to pass because a collision is either fated or it's not. Whereas in the West we believe accidents are much more fated to happen if you drive like an idiot! There seems to be a bit of that in Vietnam as we notice when a lady pulls her moped from a tiny sidestreet, onto a busy road & across a lane of traffic to just inches from our bus without even looking. Our driver veers left sparing her life. In South Vietnam they just put up with crap like that but here our driver gives her a good yell then opens the bus door chases her down & has our guide yell at her some more. I congratulate him. Today's trip is to the Perfume pagoda; an important Buddhist pilgrimage site. The highlight however is the breathtaking scenery we row through to get there (I mean 'we' figuratively. It was actually two 60 year old ladies rowing 11 mostly big male tourists). Layers of greenery shading river side mountains. A sea of rice fields. With distant fog covered mountains nicely filling in the background. It looks like every Chinese painting we have ever seen. The lowlight is that after 1 day we now depend on our CD player & our cheap local batteries have already died twice!
Day 39: Off at the crack of 10 to see two nearby museums (we needed to leave that early since all Hanoi museums close for lunch from 11:30-1:30!!). The Revolutionary museums contained stacks of school girls (many of which seemed to fancy me!) learning about the glory of Ho Chi Minh's communist uprising. The 10 minutes we get in the History museum yielded the usual 'look we found fossils' stuff (beautifully displayed though!). Retire to our room for the afternoon (this hotel is the first in Vietnam that has a movie channel & we needed a good fix!).
Day 40: Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum is a site of immense importance here in Hanoi. Oddly it shuts at 10:30 in the morning & is closed entirely on Mondays & Fridays! A visit should take about 2 minutes but in order to show proper reverence they stretch it out for 1/2 an hour. They make you walk almost a mile . . . two by two . . . following a group of school children. You actually get to see 'Uncle Ho' as he's affectionately called. I guess they stuff a lot of things around here . . . Oh, Lou says he's embalmed; whatever!. Next is Uncle Ho's museum which is suprisingly suberb. It was built in 1990 just as Vietnam opened it's doors to the world & they must have had outside help because it's a showpiece of avant garde art and cultural history. ie) His handwritten notes are displayed in sculpture shaped like a brain in the form of the famous cave he hid in as he started "the revolution"; Brilliant! As it's now 11:30 everything is shut & we retreat to our hotel room. It overcast & drizzly (6 days straight) so we take a movie break, then knock off the last few museums. Tonite I get a $2 haircut. Our CD total is now at 25.
Day 41: This is the one time I'm (Brett) actually prepared to arrive 2 hours early for an international flight. The potentional hassle factor flying out of 'North' Vietnam is enormous. But we escape unscathed & spend 90 minutes listening to CD's.
Laos
Laos is a tiny country nestled between Vietnam & Thailand. It, like Cambodia, fell to the communists after the Vietnam war. It's quite poor but has a surprising array of services for the traveller. Airport taxi's are always a scam & the Laos union has organized a fare of $5US for the 7 minute ride to our hotel! We wander the streets of Vientiane (the capital), plan the next 2 weeks, see a few sites & extend our 15 day visa's (only after begging the guy since it was 45 minutes before closing!)Day 42: Off to Laos's premier "Eco Resort"; Lao Pako! $27 for a bamboo bungalow with cold shower (& an admittedly lovely balcony). We opt for a one nite visit! The only activities are 2 forest hikes & tubing on the river; which I do several times while Lou relaxes on the balcony! The highlight was probably the public bus you take to get there. Our's had the requisite live chickens, 6 huge bags of coal, tons of people standing & of course it left 1 hour late.
Day 43: Lou's a little nervous on the boat ride back. Possibly because we're in a motorized homemade canoe & any movement instantly tips the boat! While we wait for the bus (one hour late) we entertain ourselves by watching the local kids giggle as we put our discman headphones to their ears. One of the reasons we came to Laos was to get to "virgin" tourist territory. In other countries the kids assault you with cries of "sum monee" & "stune stylo" but here when we try to give them a souvenir pen they each play with it in turn then return it to us!!! Back in Vientiene we've found a new hotel. A four star gem where $38 buys you a/c, satellite tv, fridge, pool, taxi to/from airport & a lovely buffet breakfast. We skip our siteseeing plans and Lou spends the afternoon by the pool while I get my best massage ever ($3/hour).
Day 44: Off to the "Plain of Jars"; Laos's answer to Easter Island. We fly Laos Aviation which has killed more than their fare share of passengers over the years. Apparently they have one new plane that's quite good & we adjust our schedule so that we only fly on that plane! There are only 2 "touts" at the airport (we were the only white people on the plane) & the guy we choose ends up being a delightful chap who has built an empire (a 4 room hotel & 2 cars) out of nothing & has moved his family out of their poor village. We tour 3 "jar sites"; all out in lovely, peaceful countryside. Each site contains hundreds of jars varying from 4 to 7 feet tall, all hewn from solid stone & weighing many tons. No one knows how they got them there or what they were used for. The best bets are funeral urns & wine jugs. Back in the city (town?) we're walking along when I notice something slide down my knapsack. Turns out it was my wife! She'd fallen down a hole in the sidewalk (pavement to the UK's). There's a little blood & her concern turns to the obvious; "Keep walking, I'm embarrassed!". About 5 minutes later I'm allowed to clean the blood away. About 30 minutes later she's compossed enough to pose for a picture by the gaping sidewalk hole. Unfortunately, before I can get a picture, two old ladies start giggling (they saw the whole thing) & Louise makes a run for it. That evening our host (actually his "woman") prepares a lovely local meal & we chat the nite away.
Day 45: Fly back to Vientiane (the only city served by a non ancient Chinese plane). Check back into our delightful hotel & decide to rent another motorbike (there's not much traffic in Vientiane!). After a spot of getting lost (embarrassing considering the lack of roads) we arrive at the "Buddha park". Apparently some monk built 100 cement Buddha's/Hindu gods etc. The park is quite interesting but that didn't stop the communist government from kicking him out of the country (on an interesting sidenote a picture of the park is included in the government's "Visit Laos" campaign). Back in town we find a store that sells UK goods (hurrah!) & Lou spots tins of spaghetti (she used to bring crates of the stuff home from England in her luggage). It's about the same price as a steak & chips dinner at a nice restaurant. She gives it some thought . . .
Day 46: Today we head up to Vang Vieng; a lovely area surrounded by rivers, caves & mountains. We opt to skip the 7am tourist bus so we can lounge around our hotel some more. At 1:10pm we try to get on the 1:30 govt bus but see that people are already hanging out the door. Luckily they add a 2pm bus; however this is a "private" bus which I guess is Laos for "no windows & dodgy tires". The 3 hour trip stretches past 4 hours as the driver stops to do his shopping but we arrive unscathed in time to get a decent hotel.
Day 47: Awesome day tour kayaking the river & being guided deep into the caves. The scenery is breathtaking, it's our favourite day thus far!
Day 48: Today is the start of the Laos new year. Which is basically a 4 day excuse to douse everyone with water (+ flour & the occasional lipstick). We literally had to walk gauntlets of kids with super soakers, hoses & pans filled with water. Luckily it's 38 degrees & it's a welcome relief. There are no tours today (since all the guides are off drinking) so we rent bikes & head to a local cave. Turns out it's party central; they've set up a merry go 'round for the little kids while the bigs kids get a beer tent with live music booming out of towering speakers (that's a pretty huge undertaking for Laos). We spend a few hours just sitting amongst the revellry & swinging into the swimming hole.
Day 49: Six hour bus ride to Luang Prabang; Laos old imperial city. The ride is quite scenic & the bus isn't too crowded (4 on the roof & a few sitting on lawn chairs in the aisle sleeping on my shoulder). This is the place to be for Laos new year & we reserved our room (site unseen) 2 days ago. The a/c doesn't work, the screen door won't lock, the fan doesn't turn & the toilet only 1/2 flushes. The bed bugs are the worst part. But it's likely the last room in the city so we put up with it. They promise to move us tomorrow.
Day 50: Our new room is lovely (there's even decent water pressure - but still no shower curtain so as in all Asian backpacker hotels the water just sprays all over the bathroom!). We take a 2 hour trip up the Mekong to the Cave of 1000 Buddha's. There's hundreds of Lao there ritually bathing the Buddha's in order to up their chances of getting a good reincarnation. Upon our return we head to a shop to get a Miranda (the local Fanta) only to have shot glasses shoved in our faces by the completely plastered staff. Happy Laos New Year!! We alternate between glasses of Lao beer, Lao whiskey & rice wine (I mostly alternate to the beer) while the staff (mostly in their teens) drop one by one behind the counter (the youngest; about 11, was already passed out there when we arrived). After several hours so few of them can stand that they shut the store. I was a little conservative in my drinking but Louise politely accepted what she was offered. I walk her around for an hour, then we head to the room for an early nite (it's 5:30pm).
Day 51: Lou emerges from her comatose state around 8am & we do a quick tour of town. The Royal Palace was converted to a museum when the Commies took over in 1975. There's lovely views from a hill in the town centre & we hit the best Wat's (Temples). But the highlight is the New Year procession; just like the Santa Claus parade except with monks; stacks of 4 year old girls in traditional garb & everyone tossing buckets of water. We watch from the safety of our restaurant as an English girl (no not Louise; 1/2 the people we've met on this trip are English) nearly gets run over twice while dousing people with a bucket she stole from the local kids! We had been anxiously awaiting the dance at the Royal Palace tonite & we are delighted to see a procession of lanterns marching towards us. But it goes downhill from there. The dance is lit by 2 cars whose headlights blind those sitting opposite. The kids mostly mumble there songs & each hesitantly looks at the other to see what dance move they should do next. Quite a change from the polish of Bali but I guess 25 years of a repressive government can do that to you.
Day 52: A scenic one hour ride stopping at local tribal villages then; The Best Waterfall We've Ever Seen!!!!! Layers of water cascading down a hundred feet over beautiful limestone to azure pools of blue!! And thats only level one. A 10 minute climb takes you to another picture perfect spot where you can leap from 10' cliffs into the pools below. A further climb yields level three with an interesting cave to climb in & more peaceful swimming. A final scramble up the rock yields the source: streams coming from everywhere winding their way through the forest. The view of the surronding countryside is breathtaking. After a delightul picnic lunch we follow a trail thru the woods and end up back where we started. Ahhh . . .
Day 53: Apparently the town's other waterfall is dry this time of year so we ferry across the river to see a village, temple & cave. Fairly mundane stuff. Later we go to a village where they fashion leftover war arms into fences etc. but they're all closed for the new year. It seems we've run out of things to see. Happily we were able to change our flight so we fly out tomorrow (3 days early).
Day 54: We developed the photo's we took of the Lao's getting plastered for New Years & today we deliver them (their restaurant has been shut most of the time since then - they take their New Years very seriously around here). They have quite a giggle fest looking at them. On the way back to our hotel we're lucking enough to see the procession moving the Pha Bang (the most sacred Buddha statue in all Laos) to it's new home.
Thailand
Our flight to Chang Mai, Thailand's premier trekking destination, is uneventful which is lucky since it was on Lao Aviation. We're immediately struck by how Americanized it is. There's a Pizza Hut & a working ATM at the airport (most other airports we've been to scarcely have working toilets), in town we pass a Sizzler & our neighbourhood is loaded with American style services. A really striking change from Laos.Day 55: April is not a good time to go trekking in northern Thailand. It's 38 degrees celsius & dry as a bone. We opt for a two day trek that promises lots of water activities. It's just as disorganized as every other tour we've been on but the elephant ride & waterfalls were great. The two hour trek to the village though is a struggle against overheating & we are not well rewarded as the village has road access (apparently they all do) & we don't see any villagers the whole nite!
Day 56: We finally walk up & see a few villagers, but then it's time to go. Our trek is thru parched land in baking heat past a dry creekbed to a waterfall that looks more like a leaky faucet. Must be beautiful in the rainy season though. The bamboo rafting is an adventure (since there's only 2" of water & our guide is an 8 year old). Tonite we relax at our hotel's pool & watch lots of HBO!
Day 57: A strange thing happened today. Yes we rented a motorbike & Lou didn't scream her brains out, but it was more than that. We saw fat people. Asian fat people! In the 8 weeks we've been here we've never seen anyone over size 10. Today we saw three!! At dinner we figured out why. We were at a KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken for the acronymonily challenged) and every 3rd Asian was fat. It's wild to realize how western culture can impact the world! (Yes it's also a little wild that we would stoop as low as KFC.)
Day 58: Chang Mai is famous for it's temples. You literally stumple over them as you walk around. So we scour our 3 Thailand travel books & select the two best temples. By noon we're dead from the heat & head back for a swim. We spend the afternoon sorting thru the 17 rolls of film we just got developed. Then we head to the fascinating nite market. Chang Mai's got quite a lively nite scene!
Day 59: To the airport early since Lou wants more Pizza Hut! Today we fly to Sukhothai; Thailand's Imperial city in the 13th century. There's lots of excellent ruins & we basically have the place to ourselves.
Day 60: See sentence three above.
Day 61: Sukhothai's airport is the most civilized we've ever been too. The lily filled ponds & rows of flowers are so beautiful we took a picture when we arrived. We enjoy our choice of free drinks as we sit under one of the many open air red tile roofed buildings. Then wham; the twice daily plane arrives & we're off. Eighteen minutes early! Today's destination is Koh Samui; one of Thailand's premier beach destinations!
Day 62-63: Walking along the beach & relaxing at our hotels beautiful pool. Plus watching lots of HBO.
Day 64-65: Planned on a trip around the island, but it's a bit rainy & overcast so we're stuck at the pool/beach/HBO! Lou buys a can of tuna to feed the resident cat & her 4 tiny kittens (I mean tinny!).
Day 66-72 (May 1-7): Ferry to Koh Tao, 90 minutes north of Koh Samui. It's basically for scuba divers only. Most hotels won't let you stay there unless you dive with them! We do 11 dives over 7 days. It's excellent although the visibility & weather are a little worse than normal. We see a school of squid, several blue-spotted rays and a 6' barracuda on top of all the usual beautiful reef fish. Post diving we kayaked to an even smaller island where we saw a giant clam, snorkeled with sharks (just 4' long) & spent a day mopeding on motocross trails (ie Koh Tao's roads).