The physical trip to Cambodia was short and sweet...not. Well, it wasn't that bad.
We got on the bus around 8:00 am and made it to the border about two hours later. The currency exchange was the most ghetto thing ever - it was literally women coming up to the bus and asking you to just exchange money with them on a back road!!! We were told there was no official exchange place at the border so we basically had to do it then cause we needed Cambodian Riel to pay for our visas.
After that dodgy deal we went through Vietnamese customs. This was even shadier as we queued for quite a long time as we watched the government officials blatantly pass other people's passports in front of ours with bribe money, I couldn't believe it! The wait and watching it was so frustrating but made me not want to give in and do it even more so we stuck it out.
We heard that getting a Camboadian visa was a pain but it was actually a piece of cake. After trekking our stuff over to Cambodian customs, we just paid for our visas, showed our vaccination booklets to the quarantine guy, and had our arrival cards stamped - wa la, we were done. By the way, isn't it weird that if you don't have a passport photo to give to Cambodian customs, you just give them a dollar instead? - And they don't even take a photo of you after that?!
We then headed a few more hours towards Phnom Penh. After arrival (we randomly journeyed with British Tom who Mairead and Lucy met in Kat Pa, who we then bumped into in Hoi An, and he also said he saw me and Laura tubing in Vang Vieng), the five of us went to some pizza place where it was cheaper for us to get two small pizzas instead of one medium, making our table of ten pizzas appear to have broken some type of Cambodian record for restaurant fat asses. It was pouring so we just drank some beers and played some dice back at the hotel afterwards.
The next morning we headed for The Killing Fields. The journey there was the worst of anything so far with us flying up and down so hard in the van we thought we were going to break our ribs. The river had flooded so we couldn't take the van all the way there, but didn't flood enough so we could take a boat. Therefore we ended up wading through muddy (and probably sewagy) water. I was sprinting through the gunk in my sneakers, but Laura and Mairead's flip flops kept getting stuck so it took a while. We then motorbiked it out to the fields which is basically an enormous mass grave that had been uncovered as it had held thousands of bodies from Pol Pot's massacre in the 1970s. It was really eerie to walk around, especially knowing that they hadn't uncovered several of the graves as of today.
After that we went to S-21 also known as Tuol Sleng Prison. The prison used to be a high school until PP's reign during which he converted each room into torture rooms/prison cells that the museum has bascially kept untouched for visitors to see. The creepiest thing was that a huge thunderstrom broke out while we were in there, forcing us to remain trapped in the prison for quite a long time which was so scary! It also was not funny when the storm had initially broken out - blowing the roof off of one of the buildings, knocking huge branches off of palm trees, and sending me and Lucy running which ended in me tripping over an iron bar in the doorway with me landing face down and scraping my knees (hey you, stop laughing!)
We went to the Russian Market afterwards which was nothing much. That evening we met up with Tom again and ate dinner by the water. Maybe this was what they referred to when they said Phnom Penh had been a hopping palce in the 1960s and it was starting to get better again cause the area was really cute with trendy bars and restaurants. At one point we sat at an outside place for drinks and an amputee came over and he drank a beer with us. His friend also came over (with his hairy pet spider) and told us that they were friends and were hurt by the same land mine. Not much else to say about that but shows that you still have to be careful of those things in Cambodia.
Post-riverside, we went to the most popular bar/club in Phnom Penh called Heart of Darkness. Really random was how the three hottest girls in the bar immediately befriended us and became our best friends for the night. They were pool sharks as well and I beat one when she got the 8 ball in, it was exciting for me cause they are regulars there at beating everyone. After Lucy got down with some Cambodian guys to some cheesy music, the dancefloor filled and we danced with the girls on stage and stayed till we wore ourselves out. It was fun being with the coolest girls of Phnom Penh!
The next morning we were off to Bangkok, with us bidding farewell to Cambodia and leaving them the required $25 departure fee at the airport, thanks again Kingdom!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Adventures in Vietnam (Part Three)
The night train to Saigon. Oh let me tell you about the night train to Saigon.
We get on this train thinking ooh yeah we get a private compartment unlike the train we had in Thailand. Well all I have to say is yuck! When we walked into our room, a family including baby and all were in there without tickets and had made a huge mess of everything - garbage everywhere, leftover food on the table and floor, and hair all over the sheets! Somehow having been able to control my gag reflex (don't really have one though - no uvula - FACT!) the train dude cleaned it up for us but we were all left a bit nauseated. 18 hours later we made it to Ho Chi Minh City (synonymous to Saigon.)
Our hotel was situated in a busy area in District One where a mechanical pulley lifted our bags up 5 flights of stairs (you don't know how badly I wanted to jump onto it to get to my room.) We went to the War Remnants Museum which shocked me a bit, not because it was biased towards Americans (not so biased at all actually) but moreso because it concentrated primarily on Agent Orange and how children had been born with deformities because of the chemicals dropped during the war. Sad to see but educational overall.
We had dinner at Bobby Brewers which is a bit like Starbucks; Mairead and Lucy stayed and watched a movie in the mini theater upstairs while Laura and I opted to go to the night market and buy some bootleg DVDs instead. We also walked through the park in central Saigon where all the couples sit on moptorbikes and make out, it was so funny!
The next morning Laura and I took a tour to the Cao Dai temple about an hour and a half away. We stopped along the way to watch people make some crafts, then headed onwards. Anyways, Cao Dai combines Buddhism, Christianity, and Taoism. All I can tell you is that the temple looked like the gingerbread house, I wanted to eat it (and still do.) It was pink and white and really pretty. We watched mass and headed onto lunch.
Our tour guide on this trek was really informative. And he fought for the south during the war so +10 for that one! (mainly considering what happened to me with the Viet Cong guy in Hanoi, it was relieving that I could admit to this guy that I was American and he still liked me.) He told us that his family after the war had been placed in re-education camps by northern Vietnamese for a few years, after which the Americans paid for them to move to California to help them out (and now they are living it up in the OC.) He was only taken to a 6 month Communist training camp post-war so he had to stay in Vietnam, but he became an English teacher afterwards. As a result of this, I think he was trying to practice talking some cool slang to us; when I asked him if we were leaving lunch (scary prawns I had to behead) he told me to take a chill pill and not to get my panties in a bunch!! Ha ha!
In the afternoon we visited the Cu Chi tunnels which is where the Viet Cong hid out during the war from the Southern Vietnamese and Americans even though it was located in the south. We learned all about the tunnels (and climbed through them on our knees - so small!), saw all kinds of bamboo knife traps (ouch) and I also shot an M16 (machine gun.) I swear I hit the target 3/5 times but I think they told me I didn't so they wouldn't have to give me a free souvenir. Someone else I met claimed the same thing so now I'm pretty positive that the target was mine.
After the tour the four of us met back up and went to the Binh Dinh Noodle Shop which is where the Viet Cong posed as waiters during the war, serving American soldiers and spying on them the whole time. When we got there it was nice to see that they hadn't made many alterations or modernized the place, which at the same time made it look rather unappetizing to eat at. We went to a really nice restaurant instead that had pretty bad service and a wide variety of cockroaches. Oh well! Lucy and I retired early to watch The Notebook. I hated this book but I trusted everyone (Jenn) on the movie being good. What a waste of a dollar! Anyone wanna buy it from me?
Current Location: Bangkok, almost time to say bye-bye!
We get on this train thinking ooh yeah we get a private compartment unlike the train we had in Thailand. Well all I have to say is yuck! When we walked into our room, a family including baby and all were in there without tickets and had made a huge mess of everything - garbage everywhere, leftover food on the table and floor, and hair all over the sheets! Somehow having been able to control my gag reflex (don't really have one though - no uvula - FACT!) the train dude cleaned it up for us but we were all left a bit nauseated. 18 hours later we made it to Ho Chi Minh City (synonymous to Saigon.)
Our hotel was situated in a busy area in District One where a mechanical pulley lifted our bags up 5 flights of stairs (you don't know how badly I wanted to jump onto it to get to my room.) We went to the War Remnants Museum which shocked me a bit, not because it was biased towards Americans (not so biased at all actually) but moreso because it concentrated primarily on Agent Orange and how children had been born with deformities because of the chemicals dropped during the war. Sad to see but educational overall.
We had dinner at Bobby Brewers which is a bit like Starbucks; Mairead and Lucy stayed and watched a movie in the mini theater upstairs while Laura and I opted to go to the night market and buy some bootleg DVDs instead. We also walked through the park in central Saigon where all the couples sit on moptorbikes and make out, it was so funny!
The next morning Laura and I took a tour to the Cao Dai temple about an hour and a half away. We stopped along the way to watch people make some crafts, then headed onwards. Anyways, Cao Dai combines Buddhism, Christianity, and Taoism. All I can tell you is that the temple looked like the gingerbread house, I wanted to eat it (and still do.) It was pink and white and really pretty. We watched mass and headed onto lunch.
Our tour guide on this trek was really informative. And he fought for the south during the war so +10 for that one! (mainly considering what happened to me with the Viet Cong guy in Hanoi, it was relieving that I could admit to this guy that I was American and he still liked me.) He told us that his family after the war had been placed in re-education camps by northern Vietnamese for a few years, after which the Americans paid for them to move to California to help them out (and now they are living it up in the OC.) He was only taken to a 6 month Communist training camp post-war so he had to stay in Vietnam, but he became an English teacher afterwards. As a result of this, I think he was trying to practice talking some cool slang to us; when I asked him if we were leaving lunch (scary prawns I had to behead) he told me to take a chill pill and not to get my panties in a bunch!! Ha ha!
In the afternoon we visited the Cu Chi tunnels which is where the Viet Cong hid out during the war from the Southern Vietnamese and Americans even though it was located in the south. We learned all about the tunnels (and climbed through them on our knees - so small!), saw all kinds of bamboo knife traps (ouch) and I also shot an M16 (machine gun.) I swear I hit the target 3/5 times but I think they told me I didn't so they wouldn't have to give me a free souvenir. Someone else I met claimed the same thing so now I'm pretty positive that the target was mine.
After the tour the four of us met back up and went to the Binh Dinh Noodle Shop which is where the Viet Cong posed as waiters during the war, serving American soldiers and spying on them the whole time. When we got there it was nice to see that they hadn't made many alterations or modernized the place, which at the same time made it look rather unappetizing to eat at. We went to a really nice restaurant instead that had pretty bad service and a wide variety of cockroaches. Oh well! Lucy and I retired early to watch The Notebook. I hated this book but I trusted everyone (Jenn) on the movie being good. What a waste of a dollar! Anyone wanna buy it from me?
Current Location: Bangkok, almost time to say bye-bye!
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Adventures in Vietnam (Part Two aka Hoi An Not to be Confused with Hanoi)
After a not so great time in Hanoi (except for the delightful backpackers hostel), we headed off to Hoi An on the 18 hour night bus. This bus SUCKED. Most of the seats were stuck in either a reclining or straight up position. Even worse, we boarded at 7:30 pm and they turned off the lights so we couldn't read or do anything! (The small lights above us didn't work either.) We stopped about two hours later in Ninh Binh thinking that was our dinner stop which turned out to be just 5 minutes giving us barely enough time to buy Oreos and Pringles and jump back on the bus. Turns out that the actual dinner stop was at 1:30 am but we didn't know how long we'd be there. I headed for the toilet but ran back in disgust as the area wreaked, the rain was pouring and I subsequently tripped and tumbled to my knees (been doing that a lot on this trip.) After sitting on the bus for quite a while, we decided to get out and order a quick noodle soup, but alas, by the time we went to pay the bus driver told us we were leaving (no soup for you!) After a brief stop in Hue in the morning (during which they wouldn't let us off the bus at the gas station "because it was illegal"), we finally made it to Hoi An in the early afternoon.
The first stop was lunch at The Cargo Club next to the river which had really good food, then it was time to start getting our clothes, etc. made. Hoi An is known for making tailor-made clothing. You can pick things out of catalogues or design them yourself and they make it for you by the next day. This turned out to be both good and bad. Good as I bought a red wool coat, a dressy outfit for weddings, a stretchy off the shoulder shirt, and three really nice bags. Bad because I got a pair of heels that are pretty disgusting looking, a bag for my mom which turned out awful (they made it wrong so I didn't have to buy it) and three skirts in red, purple, and white which I'm still deciding if I look like a figure skater in or not (I wore the purple one last night so I guess the verdict is they aren't too bad.) Best thing about it was that I got all that for less than $150 and the quality of most of the stuff is decent (though Lucy's dress-turned-shirt was a bit of a nightmare.)
We went out the first night to some place where we played cards where I immediately got on the whiskey and cokes. We next headed to some other popular bar I keep forgetting the name of called Now and Later or Before and After or something like that where Lucy and Mairead bumped into Tom and another guy, both of whom they'd met in Northern Vietnam. No drunkenness for me though, just a late late dinner and some bat, rat, and cockroach spottings on the way home (don't use that to form a bad impression - Hoi An is one of the nicest cities I've been to.)
The next day had us running from shop to shop (well mostly me because I had things made at five different places) to have alterations made on everything that fit improperly (is improperly a word?) Then we headed off to the beach on motorbikes. This was a really beautiful beach, I had no idea Vietnam was so stunning! The water wasn't fully clear but it was super warm, huts lined the beach, and the seafood was amazing. The only negative thing was the pain in the ass annoying women and kids that kept pestering us to buy ugly jewelry (I got suckered into a bracelet), Mentos, and tiger balm. I even got scolded for buying something from one woman after I told another she could come back to me after I eat. That had obviously been a tactic to get her to go away, duh lady!
That night we went back to that Once and Again bar or whatever it's called (good music by the way too, mostly British rock), and that guy Dua who I mentioned in the last post who we met on he plane to Hanoi randomly showed up. Just as I was tapping him to say hey as he'd gone over to Laura, I felt two hands on my shoulders and I'm like uh what? Turns out it was Darragh, the Irish guy we had went out with both nights in Luang Prabang in Laos. So random as Dua and Darragh had met each other on a Vietnamese train and were now staying in a hotel together in Hoi An!! We drank there for most of the night and expanded our group with a guy from Brooklyn and two other English dudes as well.
At closing time, our group of girls and Dua and Darragh decided to go to the Full Moon Bar (aka the Crazy Bar) not knowing where it was or anything about it. We got on motorbikes at different times and me and Darragh got pretty worried as we were driving for a good ten minutes or so into the middle of nowhere in the pitch black thinking this driver was taking us down to Nah Trang or somewhere deserted to kill us. After breathing a huge sigh of relief upon seeing everyone else at the bar, we played a few games of pool (I was the worst ever!!) and drew on the wall with chalk (it's all over the bar) we probably left around 5:00ish.
Then came the scuffle with the motorbike drivers. They tried to charge us 6x the price of what it had cost us to go there. We were arguing with them, then some Western chick who worked at the bar started talking down to us about how we should pay them that price and blah blah blah, I wanted to punch her. We were then gonna get on for a lower price but they were still being dicks to us so we decided to walk home instead. They obviously thought we were calling their bluff, and as I was very surprised at ourselves, we actually did walk the whole 4km! (I think it was actually more than that to be honest.) We belted out a medley of songs - Don't Look Back in Anger, Bohemian Rhapsody, etc. which made me feel like we were on a freedom march (as the drivers followed us for half of the trip) waking up a majority of Hoi An along the way. It was good fun though and we got to watch the sunrise as a bonus. We felt dead though after the hour and a half walk back that got us home around 7:00 am.
We came back to the hotel that morning only to find out that our hotel woman screwed up our night bus reservations and we were scrambling for options to get us to the next city (still undetermined where, just some place else.) As we thought we might be taking the train that afternoon, I raced up and down Hoi An telling all the shopkeepers that I had to have my items immediately. That back and forth running in the heat must have lost me about 3 lbs. Turns out in the end after all that that we were too late to get the train after all and would be staying another night in Hoi An (fine with me in the long run, I am out of patience with the physical traveling!)
We headed back to the beach where it started raining (would you expect anything less?) At least we had found a spot where the vendors were less annoying which pleased me for the most part. We went back to The Cargo Club for dinner which was the most amazing thing I had eaten the whole trip (tomato & mozzarella salad, steak with mashed potatoes, and chocolate mousse - I know it's western but my mouth is watering just thinking about it.) We had an easy night in as we had to be off to catch the overnight train around 1:00 pm the next day (we forfeited our bus tickets - Vietnam is just way too big.)
Current Location: Ko Phi Phi. Man do I wish I lived here.
The first stop was lunch at The Cargo Club next to the river which had really good food, then it was time to start getting our clothes, etc. made. Hoi An is known for making tailor-made clothing. You can pick things out of catalogues or design them yourself and they make it for you by the next day. This turned out to be both good and bad. Good as I bought a red wool coat, a dressy outfit for weddings, a stretchy off the shoulder shirt, and three really nice bags. Bad because I got a pair of heels that are pretty disgusting looking, a bag for my mom which turned out awful (they made it wrong so I didn't have to buy it) and three skirts in red, purple, and white which I'm still deciding if I look like a figure skater in or not (I wore the purple one last night so I guess the verdict is they aren't too bad.) Best thing about it was that I got all that for less than $150 and the quality of most of the stuff is decent (though Lucy's dress-turned-shirt was a bit of a nightmare.)
We went out the first night to some place where we played cards where I immediately got on the whiskey and cokes. We next headed to some other popular bar I keep forgetting the name of called Now and Later or Before and After or something like that where Lucy and Mairead bumped into Tom and another guy, both of whom they'd met in Northern Vietnam. No drunkenness for me though, just a late late dinner and some bat, rat, and cockroach spottings on the way home (don't use that to form a bad impression - Hoi An is one of the nicest cities I've been to.)
The next day had us running from shop to shop (well mostly me because I had things made at five different places) to have alterations made on everything that fit improperly (is improperly a word?) Then we headed off to the beach on motorbikes. This was a really beautiful beach, I had no idea Vietnam was so stunning! The water wasn't fully clear but it was super warm, huts lined the beach, and the seafood was amazing. The only negative thing was the pain in the ass annoying women and kids that kept pestering us to buy ugly jewelry (I got suckered into a bracelet), Mentos, and tiger balm. I even got scolded for buying something from one woman after I told another she could come back to me after I eat. That had obviously been a tactic to get her to go away, duh lady!
That night we went back to that Once and Again bar or whatever it's called (good music by the way too, mostly British rock), and that guy Dua who I mentioned in the last post who we met on he plane to Hanoi randomly showed up. Just as I was tapping him to say hey as he'd gone over to Laura, I felt two hands on my shoulders and I'm like uh what? Turns out it was Darragh, the Irish guy we had went out with both nights in Luang Prabang in Laos. So random as Dua and Darragh had met each other on a Vietnamese train and were now staying in a hotel together in Hoi An!! We drank there for most of the night and expanded our group with a guy from Brooklyn and two other English dudes as well.
At closing time, our group of girls and Dua and Darragh decided to go to the Full Moon Bar (aka the Crazy Bar) not knowing where it was or anything about it. We got on motorbikes at different times and me and Darragh got pretty worried as we were driving for a good ten minutes or so into the middle of nowhere in the pitch black thinking this driver was taking us down to Nah Trang or somewhere deserted to kill us. After breathing a huge sigh of relief upon seeing everyone else at the bar, we played a few games of pool (I was the worst ever!!) and drew on the wall with chalk (it's all over the bar) we probably left around 5:00ish.
Then came the scuffle with the motorbike drivers. They tried to charge us 6x the price of what it had cost us to go there. We were arguing with them, then some Western chick who worked at the bar started talking down to us about how we should pay them that price and blah blah blah, I wanted to punch her. We were then gonna get on for a lower price but they were still being dicks to us so we decided to walk home instead. They obviously thought we were calling their bluff, and as I was very surprised at ourselves, we actually did walk the whole 4km! (I think it was actually more than that to be honest.) We belted out a medley of songs - Don't Look Back in Anger, Bohemian Rhapsody, etc. which made me feel like we were on a freedom march (as the drivers followed us for half of the trip) waking up a majority of Hoi An along the way. It was good fun though and we got to watch the sunrise as a bonus. We felt dead though after the hour and a half walk back that got us home around 7:00 am.
We came back to the hotel that morning only to find out that our hotel woman screwed up our night bus reservations and we were scrambling for options to get us to the next city (still undetermined where, just some place else.) As we thought we might be taking the train that afternoon, I raced up and down Hoi An telling all the shopkeepers that I had to have my items immediately. That back and forth running in the heat must have lost me about 3 lbs. Turns out in the end after all that that we were too late to get the train after all and would be staying another night in Hoi An (fine with me in the long run, I am out of patience with the physical traveling!)
We headed back to the beach where it started raining (would you expect anything less?) At least we had found a spot where the vendors were less annoying which pleased me for the most part. We went back to The Cargo Club for dinner which was the most amazing thing I had eaten the whole trip (tomato & mozzarella salad, steak with mashed potatoes, and chocolate mousse - I know it's western but my mouth is watering just thinking about it.) We had an easy night in as we had to be off to catch the overnight train around 1:00 pm the next day (we forfeited our bus tickets - Vietnam is just way too big.)
Current Location: Ko Phi Phi. Man do I wish I lived here.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Adventures in Vietnam (Part One aka Oy Ya Yoy Hanoi)
Sos, here's some Hanoi shenanigans...
After Laura's and my debacle at the Laos airport, we met an English guy on the plane named Dua (remember that name for future entries, that's all I have to say about that for the moment.) Our one hour Vietnam Airlines flight (lovely plane by the way) landed us in Hanoi around 6:00 pm on Sunday night. The airport was super nice, which was not a sign for things to come.
After riding in a taxi (our first real car in weeks), we reached the hotel and met Lucy and Mairead. Hanoi was absolutely insane in terms of traffic. Everyone drives motorbikes and it's practically impossible to cross the street, like Frogger x 391. Once we got semi-adjusted to that and settling in to the hotel, we headed off for a Pizza restaurant where I spotted a rat during dinner, yum! We went to some small bar that made a really good drink called a Dirty Girl or a Nasty Lady or something like that and celebrated Laura's belated birthday for the first time (out of about five more times to come) as a whole group.
The next day we didn't do much but switch hotels to a backpacker hostel where the owners and people were super friendly which made me want to stay there for the rest of the trip. It was also the only hostel that was set up dorm style that we actually stayed in this entire time. We were in a 10 girl bunk bedded room with showers upstairs; at night the owners had a barbeque on the roof and we played dice games with the other travelers which subsequently sent us on a dice hunt for the next 5 days.
The following morning was a nightmare for me. Laura, Lucy, and I went to see Ho Chi Minh's dead embalmed body (why you ask? I don't know, there's nothing else to do in Hanoi) and after checking out his old house (or whatever it was) and his used car collection (oh, how exciting), the three of us got two motorbikes back to the hostel. Stupid me got on the motorbike myself witht he driver and they got on the other one together (no problem, we've been doing this the whole time), but I got on the one with a driver who was wearing a Viet Cong hat (lots of people wore these in Hanoi.) I'd had no problem up until that point telling people that I was American, but as I wasn't thinking when this guy asked me, I told him I was, and then he started ranting about how two of his family members died in the war in 1972. I just kept saying I was sorry, but then he was telling me how his face got messed up (disfigured mouth) from serving in the army as well, although he was no older than late 20s which made it impossible for him to have gotten the injury from an American soldier. Anyways, then he was going on about how now there are amputees because of us (and what seemed like particularly me) and then went on again about his family. When I got off the bike (where he dropped me in the wrong location) he said something like "Americans who work here - I have this for them" - then opened his glove compartment and took out his butcher knife!!! I didn't think he was gonna do anything because we were on a crowded street and he just wanted to intimidate me or teach me a lesson or something (he also tried to charge me more after showing me the knife but I wouldn't give it to him, just gave him the proper amount and stormed off.)
I walked around for about 15 mjinutes trying to follow directions people were giving me but I couldn't find our street so I hopped on another motor bike. This driver kept thinking I was saying the street was Ngo Quyen rather than Ngo Huyen and was trying to get me to get off at the fancy hotels where I was like nuh uh, do I look like I can afford that?! After a 20 minute ride I just told him to drop me off at the lake. I hopped on another motor bike which took at least another 20 minutes and after again stopping on that fancy street, and then stopping to ask directions multiple times (don't these drivers knwo their own city?) we finally found the street. Only thing was that after I gave him more money than we had originally bargained for, he was then trying to get me to pay him more and I refused; I thought hew was going to run me over with his bike. BAD DAY.
Once I finally arrived back at the hostel, the owner told me my friends didn't see me there so they went for coffee (I know I shouldn't have believed him but I wasn't in the mood for a joke), turns out they had been scouring the street for me for an hour. I got over it pretty quickly as Lucy and I headed to a water park near the city during the afternoon. This place was like something out of a horror film. It was connected to a deserted amusement park and half the rides were closed, definitely not a place you'd want to get stuck at night. We had fun anyway (aside from me snapping my back in half on this stupid ride where the force you to go face forward on a mat) and had our own motorbike driver that came back to the park to pick us up.
Nightmare bus ride followed after my nightmare day, more on that next. Meanwhile, you can read about Lucy's motor bike accident in Hanoi here.
After Laura's and my debacle at the Laos airport, we met an English guy on the plane named Dua (remember that name for future entries, that's all I have to say about that for the moment.) Our one hour Vietnam Airlines flight (lovely plane by the way) landed us in Hanoi around 6:00 pm on Sunday night. The airport was super nice, which was not a sign for things to come.
After riding in a taxi (our first real car in weeks), we reached the hotel and met Lucy and Mairead. Hanoi was absolutely insane in terms of traffic. Everyone drives motorbikes and it's practically impossible to cross the street, like Frogger x 391. Once we got semi-adjusted to that and settling in to the hotel, we headed off for a Pizza restaurant where I spotted a rat during dinner, yum! We went to some small bar that made a really good drink called a Dirty Girl or a Nasty Lady or something like that and celebrated Laura's belated birthday for the first time (out of about five more times to come) as a whole group.
The next day we didn't do much but switch hotels to a backpacker hostel where the owners and people were super friendly which made me want to stay there for the rest of the trip. It was also the only hostel that was set up dorm style that we actually stayed in this entire time. We were in a 10 girl bunk bedded room with showers upstairs; at night the owners had a barbeque on the roof and we played dice games with the other travelers which subsequently sent us on a dice hunt for the next 5 days.
The following morning was a nightmare for me. Laura, Lucy, and I went to see Ho Chi Minh's dead embalmed body (why you ask? I don't know, there's nothing else to do in Hanoi) and after checking out his old house (or whatever it was) and his used car collection (oh, how exciting), the three of us got two motorbikes back to the hostel. Stupid me got on the motorbike myself witht he driver and they got on the other one together (no problem, we've been doing this the whole time), but I got on the one with a driver who was wearing a Viet Cong hat (lots of people wore these in Hanoi.) I'd had no problem up until that point telling people that I was American, but as I wasn't thinking when this guy asked me, I told him I was, and then he started ranting about how two of his family members died in the war in 1972. I just kept saying I was sorry, but then he was telling me how his face got messed up (disfigured mouth) from serving in the army as well, although he was no older than late 20s which made it impossible for him to have gotten the injury from an American soldier. Anyways, then he was going on about how now there are amputees because of us (and what seemed like particularly me) and then went on again about his family. When I got off the bike (where he dropped me in the wrong location) he said something like "Americans who work here - I have this for them" - then opened his glove compartment and took out his butcher knife!!! I didn't think he was gonna do anything because we were on a crowded street and he just wanted to intimidate me or teach me a lesson or something (he also tried to charge me more after showing me the knife but I wouldn't give it to him, just gave him the proper amount and stormed off.)
I walked around for about 15 mjinutes trying to follow directions people were giving me but I couldn't find our street so I hopped on another motor bike. This driver kept thinking I was saying the street was Ngo Quyen rather than Ngo Huyen and was trying to get me to get off at the fancy hotels where I was like nuh uh, do I look like I can afford that?! After a 20 minute ride I just told him to drop me off at the lake. I hopped on another motor bike which took at least another 20 minutes and after again stopping on that fancy street, and then stopping to ask directions multiple times (don't these drivers knwo their own city?) we finally found the street. Only thing was that after I gave him more money than we had originally bargained for, he was then trying to get me to pay him more and I refused; I thought hew was going to run me over with his bike. BAD DAY.
Once I finally arrived back at the hostel, the owner told me my friends didn't see me there so they went for coffee (I know I shouldn't have believed him but I wasn't in the mood for a joke), turns out they had been scouring the street for me for an hour. I got over it pretty quickly as Lucy and I headed to a water park near the city during the afternoon. This place was like something out of a horror film. It was connected to a deserted amusement park and half the rides were closed, definitely not a place you'd want to get stuck at night. We had fun anyway (aside from me snapping my back in half on this stupid ride where the force you to go face forward on a mat) and had our own motorbike driver that came back to the park to pick us up.
Nightmare bus ride followed after my nightmare day, more on that next. Meanwhile, you can read about Lucy's motor bike accident in Hanoi here.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Adventures in Laos (Part Three)
So this bus we took to Vang Vieng was the scariest thing ever. First of all, some idiots took our seats but it wasn't worth fighting over since there were still two next to each other in the back row of the bus. Thejourney started (after the best banana pancakes ever) and I quickly realized it was not going to be a comfortable trip what with the guy next to me sitting on my left leg for a majority of it. The guy initially laid down in the aisle to get more comfortable, but gave that up after about half an hour as sitting on me was the better option. He also fell on me and Laura twice when walking back to his seat.
The bus ride itself seemed like it was part of a wacky cartoon. It was literally twists and turns consistently for five hours. And I'm talking twisting around mountains with ravines that had drops thousands of feet deep, it was truly terrifying. The scenery was nothing like anything I'd ever seen before, but it was so scary to look at at the same time. There were also tons of bamboo huts constructed on the sides of these mountains, it's unbelievable how people can live hanging over a ravine (although you can just drive through Beverly Hills as Erica, Liz and I did and I was crapping myself just as much on that drive.)
We finally reached Vang Vieng which is known for it's water sports. It's a really cute, chilled out town, my favorite up to that point of the trip. There's only one main road to explore, which we did, followed by eating some chips at a bar while watching the uncovered terrorist plot at Heathrow last week. Later on we ate at one of the four "Friends' restaurants - these were literally restaurants with comfy seats and pillows you lay out on while eating and watching continuous episodes of Friends (in English but with funny subtitles.) We literally sat there and watched at least three hours of it on the first night which was necessary for relaxing.
The next day we slept late (finally!) till almost 1:00 pm as I woke up to ants crawling on my chest (only 4 but still, plus I found a little colony of them next to my head!!) and ate at the Luang Prabang Bakery (it's just called that even though we were in Vang Vieng) and then headed off to the tubing station.
VV is known for river tubing which was our afternoon activity. You basically get a black rubber tube and float down the river, just how it sounds. The first stop was about two minutes down from the starting point where Laura got off to do a zip line and I stayed in the water to watch whilst having spiders jump all over me. About five minutes down from there were got off the tubes (you are pulled in by guys who either extend bamboo sticks or throw tubes to you) and went up to the first bar. This place was so cool, basically it was tons of bamboo huts (instead of tables at a bar, it's your own hut) where we got drinks from the main hut and then drank in our private one wih two Israeli guys we'd met. There was a volleyball court (we didn't play cause it was raining) and they were playing techno/dance music which was cracking me up. They had a crazy zip cord back and forth thing called the Flying Fox which we both cringed at after seeing a girl accidentally belly flop off of it and bruise her whole thigh.
We headed on down about another ten minutes to the next bar which played reggae and rock music (we floated up to it playing 'Welcome to the Jungle'.) We sat with the two guys and three Israeli girls eating some noodle soup with Bob Marley playing in the background. We went to these water caves but I elected to not go in cause it was pitch black, so I just trekked back through the jungly area and got bitten about 29,469 times instead.
Back on the tubes we just continued floating the whole rest of the way down during which Laura and I had finally separated hands. I was the one at a disadvantage at first when I couldn't catch up to her (I remained about 30 feet behind and got stuck on a rock), but eventually 4 guys caught up to me so I had company for the last 20 minutes of the tubing. At the end (where my feet got completely stuck in the mud) this woman told us her bar there was open 24 hours, which was the same bar the Israelis had told us about so we decided we would come back later that night.
For dinner, Laura and I ate at the most popular Friends bar, devoured our Western food (yummy food in all of the town by the way) and watched about 4 hours of episodes again. The only crappy parts of this experience were spotting a mouse climbing up the wall near us, and the waiter ripping me off. Basically I counted out the money we owed a couple of times, gave it to him, and instead of leaving abruptly, waited around for him to count it without paying attention during which he slyly pocketed 20,000 kip then laughed at me claiming I owed him more. I counted three times and thought maybe it was my mistake (though I didn't think I made any), and after I left, I counted all of my money and the guy definitely stole from me. It's only $2 but come on, we were tipping him as well! I was really angry.
After this we attempted to find this Rainbow Island bar from earlier on. As the bar wasn't too close to our hotel, we crossed some random bamboo bridge which was deserted and found ourselves at this hotel made of individual huts with a tiny bar that had just 2 patrons. We asked some Lao guy who was randomly hanging around the huts where the bar was and we trusted him (which in retrospect was probably dumb) to take us to it. It turns out the guy was actually the bartender or whatever you'd call it for our place. The bar was literally a hut with 4 bar stools that was dark - he went inside, turned on blinking lights and started blasting Red Hot Chili Peppers!?! He had a Beer Lao with us as he offered us the marijuana/opium/mushroom menu (thanks but no thanks.) We couldn't stop talking about how random it was (especially when he started playing Arctic Monkeys) and I became obsessed with staring at these weird animals behind us which looked like skunks but I think in the end were actually some species of bird.
We must have been under some spell (or a drugged noodle soup perhaps) as one of the Israeli guys had put an idea into our heads earlier that rather than taking the bus to Vientiane, we should kayak there instead - which of course is exactly what we did. We drove in a pick up truck for about an hour to the river; Laura and I were so nervous because even though we had helmets and lifejackets (dorky photos to follow) there were going to be low grade rapids, but they were still rapids after all. The two of us paddled in a rubber boat (said to be untippable) but we were going too slow so they made us change into a plastic (very tippable) boat until we reached the rapids. At that point we each got into plastic boats with a guide and another tour person which turned out to be easy when gliding throug them. We stopped for lunch and had a yummy barbequed meal of god knows what kind of meat (said to be chicken but still lovely nonetheless) and kayaked a bit more (with Laura and I doing two whole rapids by ourselves!) The only problem for me on the whole kayaking journey was at the end when we swam to the exit point of the river. As I'm a pretty bad swimmer, even in a lifejacket, the current kept taking me away. I couldn't even hold onto the rocks I was banging into and I simply just waved goodbye as I thought I'd meet up with everyone again somewhere in Cambodia. Luckily one of the tour guides came out to save me but it was scary!! Afterwards we drove about another hour and a half picking up random hitchhikers along the way who paid the driver when they got off.
At Vientiane we decided to live it up after checking out one hostel with a hole for a toilet (I don't do holes in hostels, just everywhere else) and as it was pouring we settled for a nice room for $12 (okay considering all our rooms in Laos were $2 per person the whole time (NOT KIDDING.)) It was Laura's birthday so after a battle with an ATM, we had a nice dinner in Chinatown.
The tuk tuk driver then took us to a club called Soradith (like Meredith - same same but different) which was hopping with Lao locals. A bit strange as the staff seemed to outnumber the patrons (they all had black shirts with white numbers on the backs which was so funny when they all stood next to each other at the bar.) The DJ played hip hop and dance music and the people in the club were so friendly, maybe even a bit over friendly as the cheers-ed you literally every 30 seconds with their drinks. I was a bit skeeved by the end of the night thoguh when one of the security guys was whispering in my ear in Lao and then telling me he loved me. It was overdue our time to go!!
Next day in Vientiane (sketchy city with humongous rectangular shaped potholes that you could easily fall into) we went to the cenral market that contained the city's department store (basically Tri-County Flea Market with lots of silk stuff) and then took a tiny public bus to a Buddha Park. The park was really cool; it basically contained dozens of big and little buddhas in different positions including one where you can cluimb into its mouth (again photos to follow.)
We tuk tuked it to the airport where we didn't realize there was a $10 departure fee per person. This was a bit of a problem as we literally didn't have enough money to pay for it! We were scraping up kip, baht, and pounds, and there was no ATM so we thought we'd be stuck on Laos forever (not such a bad thing but I'd prefer it to have been in Luang Prabang or Vang Vieng.) Luckily some important airport guy let Laura get money from an emergency debit thingy at the duty free shop and we were saved.
Current Location: Saigon, hot and sweaty.
The bus ride itself seemed like it was part of a wacky cartoon. It was literally twists and turns consistently for five hours. And I'm talking twisting around mountains with ravines that had drops thousands of feet deep, it was truly terrifying. The scenery was nothing like anything I'd ever seen before, but it was so scary to look at at the same time. There were also tons of bamboo huts constructed on the sides of these mountains, it's unbelievable how people can live hanging over a ravine (although you can just drive through Beverly Hills as Erica, Liz and I did and I was crapping myself just as much on that drive.)
We finally reached Vang Vieng which is known for it's water sports. It's a really cute, chilled out town, my favorite up to that point of the trip. There's only one main road to explore, which we did, followed by eating some chips at a bar while watching the uncovered terrorist plot at Heathrow last week. Later on we ate at one of the four "Friends' restaurants - these were literally restaurants with comfy seats and pillows you lay out on while eating and watching continuous episodes of Friends (in English but with funny subtitles.) We literally sat there and watched at least three hours of it on the first night which was necessary for relaxing.
The next day we slept late (finally!) till almost 1:00 pm as I woke up to ants crawling on my chest (only 4 but still, plus I found a little colony of them next to my head!!) and ate at the Luang Prabang Bakery (it's just called that even though we were in Vang Vieng) and then headed off to the tubing station.
VV is known for river tubing which was our afternoon activity. You basically get a black rubber tube and float down the river, just how it sounds. The first stop was about two minutes down from the starting point where Laura got off to do a zip line and I stayed in the water to watch whilst having spiders jump all over me. About five minutes down from there were got off the tubes (you are pulled in by guys who either extend bamboo sticks or throw tubes to you) and went up to the first bar. This place was so cool, basically it was tons of bamboo huts (instead of tables at a bar, it's your own hut) where we got drinks from the main hut and then drank in our private one wih two Israeli guys we'd met. There was a volleyball court (we didn't play cause it was raining) and they were playing techno/dance music which was cracking me up. They had a crazy zip cord back and forth thing called the Flying Fox which we both cringed at after seeing a girl accidentally belly flop off of it and bruise her whole thigh.
We headed on down about another ten minutes to the next bar which played reggae and rock music (we floated up to it playing 'Welcome to the Jungle'.) We sat with the two guys and three Israeli girls eating some noodle soup with Bob Marley playing in the background. We went to these water caves but I elected to not go in cause it was pitch black, so I just trekked back through the jungly area and got bitten about 29,469 times instead.
Back on the tubes we just continued floating the whole rest of the way down during which Laura and I had finally separated hands. I was the one at a disadvantage at first when I couldn't catch up to her (I remained about 30 feet behind and got stuck on a rock), but eventually 4 guys caught up to me so I had company for the last 20 minutes of the tubing. At the end (where my feet got completely stuck in the mud) this woman told us her bar there was open 24 hours, which was the same bar the Israelis had told us about so we decided we would come back later that night.
For dinner, Laura and I ate at the most popular Friends bar, devoured our Western food (yummy food in all of the town by the way) and watched about 4 hours of episodes again. The only crappy parts of this experience were spotting a mouse climbing up the wall near us, and the waiter ripping me off. Basically I counted out the money we owed a couple of times, gave it to him, and instead of leaving abruptly, waited around for him to count it without paying attention during which he slyly pocketed 20,000 kip then laughed at me claiming I owed him more. I counted three times and thought maybe it was my mistake (though I didn't think I made any), and after I left, I counted all of my money and the guy definitely stole from me. It's only $2 but come on, we were tipping him as well! I was really angry.
After this we attempted to find this Rainbow Island bar from earlier on. As the bar wasn't too close to our hotel, we crossed some random bamboo bridge which was deserted and found ourselves at this hotel made of individual huts with a tiny bar that had just 2 patrons. We asked some Lao guy who was randomly hanging around the huts where the bar was and we trusted him (which in retrospect was probably dumb) to take us to it. It turns out the guy was actually the bartender or whatever you'd call it for our place. The bar was literally a hut with 4 bar stools that was dark - he went inside, turned on blinking lights and started blasting Red Hot Chili Peppers!?! He had a Beer Lao with us as he offered us the marijuana/opium/mushroom menu (thanks but no thanks.) We couldn't stop talking about how random it was (especially when he started playing Arctic Monkeys) and I became obsessed with staring at these weird animals behind us which looked like skunks but I think in the end were actually some species of bird.
We must have been under some spell (or a drugged noodle soup perhaps) as one of the Israeli guys had put an idea into our heads earlier that rather than taking the bus to Vientiane, we should kayak there instead - which of course is exactly what we did. We drove in a pick up truck for about an hour to the river; Laura and I were so nervous because even though we had helmets and lifejackets (dorky photos to follow) there were going to be low grade rapids, but they were still rapids after all. The two of us paddled in a rubber boat (said to be untippable) but we were going too slow so they made us change into a plastic (very tippable) boat until we reached the rapids. At that point we each got into plastic boats with a guide and another tour person which turned out to be easy when gliding throug them. We stopped for lunch and had a yummy barbequed meal of god knows what kind of meat (said to be chicken but still lovely nonetheless) and kayaked a bit more (with Laura and I doing two whole rapids by ourselves!) The only problem for me on the whole kayaking journey was at the end when we swam to the exit point of the river. As I'm a pretty bad swimmer, even in a lifejacket, the current kept taking me away. I couldn't even hold onto the rocks I was banging into and I simply just waved goodbye as I thought I'd meet up with everyone again somewhere in Cambodia. Luckily one of the tour guides came out to save me but it was scary!! Afterwards we drove about another hour and a half picking up random hitchhikers along the way who paid the driver when they got off.
At Vientiane we decided to live it up after checking out one hostel with a hole for a toilet (I don't do holes in hostels, just everywhere else) and as it was pouring we settled for a nice room for $12 (okay considering all our rooms in Laos were $2 per person the whole time (NOT KIDDING.)) It was Laura's birthday so after a battle with an ATM, we had a nice dinner in Chinatown.
The tuk tuk driver then took us to a club called Soradith (like Meredith - same same but different) which was hopping with Lao locals. A bit strange as the staff seemed to outnumber the patrons (they all had black shirts with white numbers on the backs which was so funny when they all stood next to each other at the bar.) The DJ played hip hop and dance music and the people in the club were so friendly, maybe even a bit over friendly as the cheers-ed you literally every 30 seconds with their drinks. I was a bit skeeved by the end of the night thoguh when one of the security guys was whispering in my ear in Lao and then telling me he loved me. It was overdue our time to go!!
Next day in Vientiane (sketchy city with humongous rectangular shaped potholes that you could easily fall into) we went to the cenral market that contained the city's department store (basically Tri-County Flea Market with lots of silk stuff) and then took a tiny public bus to a Buddha Park. The park was really cool; it basically contained dozens of big and little buddhas in different positions including one where you can cluimb into its mouth (again photos to follow.)
We tuk tuked it to the airport where we didn't realize there was a $10 departure fee per person. This was a bit of a problem as we literally didn't have enough money to pay for it! We were scraping up kip, baht, and pounds, and there was no ATM so we thought we'd be stuck on Laos forever (not such a bad thing but I'd prefer it to have been in Luang Prabang or Vang Vieng.) Luckily some important airport guy let Laura get money from an emergency debit thingy at the duty free shop and we were saved.
Current Location: Saigon, hot and sweaty.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Adventures in Laos (Part Two)
So, my days are getting all messed up but Luang Prabang wrap-up goes like this:
We arrived there in the afternoon from the boat and stayed at the Mixay Guesthouse (?) which was simple but was one of the nicer places we stayed in (with the softest bed - all these places have beds that are like wooden boards.) Laura and I walked through the night market which sells things like Laos foods, scarves, souvenir shirts, and bags. All of a sudden the vendors jumped up from their spots, gathered their stuff and started running. I was wondering if it was a police raid but that wouldn't have made sense considering this was a well-known everyday market. Instead I think they spotted some color in the sky and made a run for it because they predicted when the rain was going to come. We went to eat dinner in a French-style bakery restaurant (Luang Prabang has these all over the place and they have delicious looking food.) I went for a pizza (had to for a change) and was too full to get the seven desserts I planned to order from the case.
We were tipped by the often-wrong Lonely Planet to go to Hive Bar which was actually pretty good. It was a dimly lit lounge that played hip hop and reggae (first place I've been to like that in Asia) which totally reminded me of a New York lounge. We met these guys (2 Irish, 1 Welsh, 1 Israeli) who we sat with all night which was good craic.
Next day Laura and I took a boat that held about 15 people to some caves (I forget what they're called.) We stopped at a village along the way known for making wine with dead snakes in the bottle (photo upcoming.) The caves were nice (basically a buddha-worshipping spot with tons of them laid out) but I didn't think the trip was worth it because it took an hour and a half to get there and we stayed for just half an hour (and I wasn't too impressed.) On the way back we stopped at a paper-making village before stopping off at a random tree at the side of the river so the driver could grab a beehive. He was picking live bees out of it, squeezing the honey out and giving cups of it to the kids on the boat, and eating the live larvae, it was so gross!! In the afternoon we went to the nearby waterfalls via a road that had our bodies flying up and down for the entire ride. These waterfalls were my favorite of the trip (I think primarily because of the height) as opposed to the smaller ones in Thailand. We drank fruit shakes out of plastic bags and on the way back met 3 people in our minivan who were actually from NY, the first Americans I'd met on the trip (1 from Niagara Falls, 2 from Farmingdale.)
That night we ate at another French bakery which was soooo good again. Then we went to the same bar as the night before and sat with the same guys. Afterwards we all went to this afterhours Vietnamese bar in the middle of nowhere. Ashley, Becky, Steven, and Pauline (slow boat buddies) all showed up as well so we had a big entourage. We drank for a while as they played really bad 80s heavy metal music videos and when we left the bar people had completely boarded up the doors so it had looked closed from the outside. Major sketch!
More to write starting with our crazy bus ride to Vang Vieng; currently in Hoi An, Vietnam where I had clothes tailor-made but they mostly came out styled like I walked out of 1982. Taking the 20 hour overnight train this afternoon to Saigon.
We arrived there in the afternoon from the boat and stayed at the Mixay Guesthouse (?) which was simple but was one of the nicer places we stayed in (with the softest bed - all these places have beds that are like wooden boards.) Laura and I walked through the night market which sells things like Laos foods, scarves, souvenir shirts, and bags. All of a sudden the vendors jumped up from their spots, gathered their stuff and started running. I was wondering if it was a police raid but that wouldn't have made sense considering this was a well-known everyday market. Instead I think they spotted some color in the sky and made a run for it because they predicted when the rain was going to come. We went to eat dinner in a French-style bakery restaurant (Luang Prabang has these all over the place and they have delicious looking food.) I went for a pizza (had to for a change) and was too full to get the seven desserts I planned to order from the case.
We were tipped by the often-wrong Lonely Planet to go to Hive Bar which was actually pretty good. It was a dimly lit lounge that played hip hop and reggae (first place I've been to like that in Asia) which totally reminded me of a New York lounge. We met these guys (2 Irish, 1 Welsh, 1 Israeli) who we sat with all night which was good craic.
Next day Laura and I took a boat that held about 15 people to some caves (I forget what they're called.) We stopped at a village along the way known for making wine with dead snakes in the bottle (photo upcoming.) The caves were nice (basically a buddha-worshipping spot with tons of them laid out) but I didn't think the trip was worth it because it took an hour and a half to get there and we stayed for just half an hour (and I wasn't too impressed.) On the way back we stopped at a paper-making village before stopping off at a random tree at the side of the river so the driver could grab a beehive. He was picking live bees out of it, squeezing the honey out and giving cups of it to the kids on the boat, and eating the live larvae, it was so gross!! In the afternoon we went to the nearby waterfalls via a road that had our bodies flying up and down for the entire ride. These waterfalls were my favorite of the trip (I think primarily because of the height) as opposed to the smaller ones in Thailand. We drank fruit shakes out of plastic bags and on the way back met 3 people in our minivan who were actually from NY, the first Americans I'd met on the trip (1 from Niagara Falls, 2 from Farmingdale.)
That night we ate at another French bakery which was soooo good again. Then we went to the same bar as the night before and sat with the same guys. Afterwards we all went to this afterhours Vietnamese bar in the middle of nowhere. Ashley, Becky, Steven, and Pauline (slow boat buddies) all showed up as well so we had a big entourage. We drank for a while as they played really bad 80s heavy metal music videos and when we left the bar people had completely boarded up the doors so it had looked closed from the outside. Major sketch!
More to write starting with our crazy bus ride to Vang Vieng; currently in Hoi An, Vietnam where I had clothes tailor-made but they mostly came out styled like I walked out of 1982. Taking the 20 hour overnight train this afternoon to Saigon.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Adventures in Laos (Part One aka Journey from Hell)
So, Laos was great! I've never seen scenery like it in my life, it was really breathtaking (again, no photos yet.)
We started out the trip by crossing the Mekong River from Chiang Khong in Thailand to Husai (spelling?) in Laos which took about 5 minutes in a dinky boat. We got our passports stamped and exchanged money - I did about $200 and the stack of money I recieved in return made me look like a millionaire (well, I technically was because I had over 13 million kip.) We took a minibus about 5 minutes to the main boat area which was my first encounter with Laos being a really random country - the driver was blasting 'Short Dick Man'!!! As we had nearly shat our pants after seeing the speedboat we were all peopared to take the slow boat. Well...not really.
We got on this boat (via a narrow wooden blank we had to cross with our huge rucksacks) that I think was supposed to hold about 40 people, but they managed to cram at least 80 in!!! There were two rows of hard wooden benches upon which mine and Laura's asses barely fit, meanwhile all the seats in front of us were tripled up. (I have great photos of this soon to come.) I was next to the window, I mean open air, and the bottom side of the boat was slanted so I sat for the next 6 hours with my legs squished with a bolt jamming into my ass. It was tre uncomfortable. About an hour into the journey we pulled over and there was a hut of kids selling snacks that walked through the boat with their merch. We stopped a few more times to pick up some random Laotians (?) and their gear and finally made it to Pak Bang where as soon as we got off the boat we were herded with people trying to take us to buy 'happy shakes.' We headed to a guesthouse in this tiny town with Ashley and Becky (from Kanchanaburi) and their new travelling mates British Steven and Irish Pauline and Natalie. I'm slightly offended that the guesthouse owner knocked on their doors to offer them pot, opium, and heroin and didn't offer us, though he did ask us if we were married (and then told Steven that all these Western girls say they are married but they always sleep with him anyway - GROSS!) We all went to dinner where I spotted a rat running across the wall (2+ years of living with mice will train you to spot rodents easily) sending everyone into a squirmish. The entire town shut off their electricity at 10:00 pm so it was lights out for us early.
The next morning we woke up and I had my first banana pancakes in Laos and they were absolutely amazing!! We all headed for the boat and this time Laura and I were more sociable by sitting in the back with everyone. I read an entire book (it was a 7 hour trip after all) and we layed on the dried muddy floor attempting to take naps. We finally made it to Luang Prabang in the early evening, and after surviving walking the tiny plank were off in a tuk tuk to a guesthouse.
There's a queue here for the computer so I'll write more this week. Just you wait until my Hanoi entry cause it's J-U-I-C-Y!!!
We started out the trip by crossing the Mekong River from Chiang Khong in Thailand to Husai (spelling?) in Laos which took about 5 minutes in a dinky boat. We got our passports stamped and exchanged money - I did about $200 and the stack of money I recieved in return made me look like a millionaire (well, I technically was because I had over 13 million kip.) We took a minibus about 5 minutes to the main boat area which was my first encounter with Laos being a really random country - the driver was blasting 'Short Dick Man'!!! As we had nearly shat our pants after seeing the speedboat we were all peopared to take the slow boat. Well...not really.
We got on this boat (via a narrow wooden blank we had to cross with our huge rucksacks) that I think was supposed to hold about 40 people, but they managed to cram at least 80 in!!! There were two rows of hard wooden benches upon which mine and Laura's asses barely fit, meanwhile all the seats in front of us were tripled up. (I have great photos of this soon to come.) I was next to the window, I mean open air, and the bottom side of the boat was slanted so I sat for the next 6 hours with my legs squished with a bolt jamming into my ass. It was tre uncomfortable. About an hour into the journey we pulled over and there was a hut of kids selling snacks that walked through the boat with their merch. We stopped a few more times to pick up some random Laotians (?) and their gear and finally made it to Pak Bang where as soon as we got off the boat we were herded with people trying to take us to buy 'happy shakes.' We headed to a guesthouse in this tiny town with Ashley and Becky (from Kanchanaburi) and their new travelling mates British Steven and Irish Pauline and Natalie. I'm slightly offended that the guesthouse owner knocked on their doors to offer them pot, opium, and heroin and didn't offer us, though he did ask us if we were married (and then told Steven that all these Western girls say they are married but they always sleep with him anyway - GROSS!) We all went to dinner where I spotted a rat running across the wall (2+ years of living with mice will train you to spot rodents easily) sending everyone into a squirmish. The entire town shut off their electricity at 10:00 pm so it was lights out for us early.
The next morning we woke up and I had my first banana pancakes in Laos and they were absolutely amazing!! We all headed for the boat and this time Laura and I were more sociable by sitting in the back with everyone. I read an entire book (it was a 7 hour trip after all) and we layed on the dried muddy floor attempting to take naps. We finally made it to Luang Prabang in the early evening, and after surviving walking the tiny plank were off in a tuk tuk to a guesthouse.
There's a queue here for the computer so I'll write more this week. Just you wait until my Hanoi entry cause it's J-U-I-C-Y!!!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Adventures in Thailand (Part Three)...(I So Need To Get My Ass Started on Laos Already)
So I'm currently in Vang Vieng in Laos and I just heard about this uncovered terrorist plot on UK to US flights. I HATE TERRORISTS, THEY ARE ASSHOLES! Ok, that's all I have to say about that.
Man, I really wanna update about Laos, but I know I've gotta do the Chiang Mai update so here it goes:
Last Tuesday we arrived in Chiang Mai which is one of the biggest cities in northern Thailand. Our guesthouse was really nice, it had a pool and a really cute restaurant/porch area. We went that night to the night market. During a stop in a cafe it started pouring, which therefore ruined our night and sent us home early. No worries though as we had a 4 person room for the night so it was still good.
On Wednesday, we walked around the neighborhood for a bit. We decided to have a chilled out day rather than sightsee more temples so we just went back to the guesthouse and swam and headed out for the night. We went to this road of bars and stayed in one which was a Thai reggae/rasta bar. Kind of strange seeing a Thai band with dreads play Bob Marley but it was okay. Lucy ate a fried cricket which was probably the highlight of the night (still don't have photos up yet.) This was probably the beginning of the worst 24 hours of the trip for me though during which I cried for about 17 hours of it. I had massive PMS combined with a call to my boyfriend followed by a group argument adding up to me not going to sleep until 4:00 am and then having to wake up for our jungle trek around 7:30 the next morning.
We headed about an hour outside of Chiang Mai to do another elephant trek for about 45 minutes. Laura and I shared a seat on top of our starving elephant. These elephants were sucking bananas out of our hands with their trunks before you could even blink. Literally two seconds after we'd feed it one (it would lift its trunk over its head to get it from us), the trunk would be right back us again, and if you didn't feed it, it would start prodding you and other passengers with it's trunk. Quite funny but annoying after a while.
Next came the trek on which Mairead did not join us as she had a massive Thai whiskey hangover. Lucky her because this trek was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, no joke!! Laura and I wanted to quit after the first ten minutes. It was like straight uphill walking but with no break because everyone was going so fast. The flat parts were fine (despite having to walk on tiny little muddy ledges over massive ravines) but the uphill seriously killed me. We stopped at one waterfall to "shower" and the walking was probably only about 2 1/2 hours in total on the first day but as most of it was uphill I seriously wanted to die. By the time we reached our hut, Mairead simply asking me how the trek was caused me to start crying (intended discreetfully and hopefully a bit successful) inside my mosquito net for the next hour. I was so exhausted from the walk and drained from everything the night before that I contemplated staying in the Karen village and not ever leaving. I felt so miserable that I was still fighting (and not succeeding well that time) at holding back tears at the dinner table and then I was still so upset that I couldn't bring myself to join in the group activities till an hour after everyone started playng games, etc. After that rest I felt a bit better so I attempted to participate. Everyone was so nice, there were about 12 of us (some English, Danish, Dutch, Swiss, Canadian) plus our leader Bond and his helpers who were smoking their brains out. We played some drinking games (though I wasn't drinking) in which if you mess up you get a "black pancake" - which is the black grease from the bottom of the barbeque smudged all over your face (of course me being my typical self was the last one to avoid getting dirtied, and even that was because everyone threw all the beer cans at me at the end of the game since I hadn't messed up at all - can't wait to post photos of that.) The hut we slept in was so cool - it was a bamboo hut elevated all on wooden poles overlooking the entire jungle and mountains. We had mosquito nets which gave it a romantic setting (well, at least I thought so), I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was going to the toilet during the nigth in the dark with all those crazy dogs howling about.
As I had seriously contemplated joining the 2 day trekkers the next day (ours was 3 day), I thought that this was the hardest thing I'd ever done and I didn't want to disappoint myself from giving up so easily so I stayed on schedule. The second day only consisted of 8 of us and I'm glad I stuck to it because it was ten times easier than the first. We did a lot of uphill for the first half hour but our group wasn't as fast that day so it was easier and more relaxed. We had a two hour lunch (which I helped cook) and then did my favorite part of the trek which was deeper in the jungle with lots of up and down muddy steps (thank you Oasis for providing me with a catalogue of songs to sing in my head to help get me through it.) No strange animal spottings surprisingly, we saw a horned spider which was okay but I actually couldn't care less about touching or walking into bugs as I was too nervous about slipping down the steep slopes and was way too busy concentrating on that. We finished literally 2 1/2 hours earlier than we were told we would which was the best news I had heard all week (seriously.) This time we slept in a smaller hut lower to the ground but next to a waterfall. After singing campfire songs and having a gay ole time, we played Chairs which is basically I Have/I Never and if you've done something that agrees with what the person standing said you have to get up and find another seat, but one seat is missing so if you are left standing it's your turn. It was a bit difficult because we did it on the benches surrounding the campfire and we kept getting smoke in our eyes but it was really fun and I felt ten times better than I did the night before.
After a kickass french toast breakfast on Saturday morning, the hike was even shorter than the previous days (but still a bit difficult for me as it was mostly downhill so I was basically running down the mountains the whole time.) We had a final waterfall stopover and then did bamboo rafting, which was a slight bit wilder than the one we did in Kanchanaburi. After arriving back in Chiang Mai, I got myelf a $2 manicure (yeah, it's off already) and had a group dinner with our new trek friends. We all went out that night back to that reggae bar, but Noelle the Canadian and I ditched the place for a bit to get a Thai massage. Man do those hurt! The woman was prodding me so hard with her fingers/elbows in the back that I wanted to scream, while at the same time tickling me that I wanted to explode with laughter. She also stepped on my legs which felt really good but I think I've decided I'm more of a hand/head massage person (though for $4 the hour massage was definitely worth it.)
We went to one other bar afterwards which was more of a rock bar. Some scary youngish yet stylish Thai guy with long hair named "Boy" and his friend "Sing" were really creeping me out. Boy was hitting on me (particularly laughable is this line - Boy: "Why don't you speak Thai?" Me: "Because I learned Spanish and Italian in school." Boy: "If you had a Thai boyfriend then you could learn Thai." Me: "I have an English boyfriend, sorry." Then Boy told Sing like 5 times that "She is leaving!!!!" I thought they were going to haul me off with them to the Thai mafia headquarters, but we then busted out of there quickly.
Next morning (Sunday), Laura and I headed off to Chiang Khong (Mairead and Lucy went back to Bangkok then on to Hanoi where we'll meet them on Sunday.) There isn't too much to do in Chiang Khong since it's only really the stopover point for getting into Laos so what did we do? Get another Thai massage of course! This one was much better though and felt really good.
On the minivan ride to CK, after having read about the whirlpools, hidden rocks, and fatalities on the Mekong River regarding the speedboat to Laos, and especially after seeing the size of it upon arriving, we immediately switched our plans to take the slow boat. More on that to come in the next chapter of my trip.
Without giving too much away, we're currently in the land of happy (happy meaning anything here with a 'happy' in front of it = drugs in your food.) I don't plan to have any on purpose and am hoping not to have any accidentally You can tune in to find out what happens in Adventures in Laos.
Man, I really wanna update about Laos, but I know I've gotta do the Chiang Mai update so here it goes:
Last Tuesday we arrived in Chiang Mai which is one of the biggest cities in northern Thailand. Our guesthouse was really nice, it had a pool and a really cute restaurant/porch area. We went that night to the night market. During a stop in a cafe it started pouring, which therefore ruined our night and sent us home early. No worries though as we had a 4 person room for the night so it was still good.
On Wednesday, we walked around the neighborhood for a bit. We decided to have a chilled out day rather than sightsee more temples so we just went back to the guesthouse and swam and headed out for the night. We went to this road of bars and stayed in one which was a Thai reggae/rasta bar. Kind of strange seeing a Thai band with dreads play Bob Marley but it was okay. Lucy ate a fried cricket which was probably the highlight of the night (still don't have photos up yet.) This was probably the beginning of the worst 24 hours of the trip for me though during which I cried for about 17 hours of it. I had massive PMS combined with a call to my boyfriend followed by a group argument adding up to me not going to sleep until 4:00 am and then having to wake up for our jungle trek around 7:30 the next morning.
We headed about an hour outside of Chiang Mai to do another elephant trek for about 45 minutes. Laura and I shared a seat on top of our starving elephant. These elephants were sucking bananas out of our hands with their trunks before you could even blink. Literally two seconds after we'd feed it one (it would lift its trunk over its head to get it from us), the trunk would be right back us again, and if you didn't feed it, it would start prodding you and other passengers with it's trunk. Quite funny but annoying after a while.
Next came the trek on which Mairead did not join us as she had a massive Thai whiskey hangover. Lucky her because this trek was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, no joke!! Laura and I wanted to quit after the first ten minutes. It was like straight uphill walking but with no break because everyone was going so fast. The flat parts were fine (despite having to walk on tiny little muddy ledges over massive ravines) but the uphill seriously killed me. We stopped at one waterfall to "shower" and the walking was probably only about 2 1/2 hours in total on the first day but as most of it was uphill I seriously wanted to die. By the time we reached our hut, Mairead simply asking me how the trek was caused me to start crying (intended discreetfully and hopefully a bit successful) inside my mosquito net for the next hour. I was so exhausted from the walk and drained from everything the night before that I contemplated staying in the Karen village and not ever leaving. I felt so miserable that I was still fighting (and not succeeding well that time) at holding back tears at the dinner table and then I was still so upset that I couldn't bring myself to join in the group activities till an hour after everyone started playng games, etc. After that rest I felt a bit better so I attempted to participate. Everyone was so nice, there were about 12 of us (some English, Danish, Dutch, Swiss, Canadian) plus our leader Bond and his helpers who were smoking their brains out. We played some drinking games (though I wasn't drinking) in which if you mess up you get a "black pancake" - which is the black grease from the bottom of the barbeque smudged all over your face (of course me being my typical self was the last one to avoid getting dirtied, and even that was because everyone threw all the beer cans at me at the end of the game since I hadn't messed up at all - can't wait to post photos of that.) The hut we slept in was so cool - it was a bamboo hut elevated all on wooden poles overlooking the entire jungle and mountains. We had mosquito nets which gave it a romantic setting (well, at least I thought so), I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was going to the toilet during the nigth in the dark with all those crazy dogs howling about.
As I had seriously contemplated joining the 2 day trekkers the next day (ours was 3 day), I thought that this was the hardest thing I'd ever done and I didn't want to disappoint myself from giving up so easily so I stayed on schedule. The second day only consisted of 8 of us and I'm glad I stuck to it because it was ten times easier than the first. We did a lot of uphill for the first half hour but our group wasn't as fast that day so it was easier and more relaxed. We had a two hour lunch (which I helped cook) and then did my favorite part of the trek which was deeper in the jungle with lots of up and down muddy steps (thank you Oasis for providing me with a catalogue of songs to sing in my head to help get me through it.) No strange animal spottings surprisingly, we saw a horned spider which was okay but I actually couldn't care less about touching or walking into bugs as I was too nervous about slipping down the steep slopes and was way too busy concentrating on that. We finished literally 2 1/2 hours earlier than we were told we would which was the best news I had heard all week (seriously.) This time we slept in a smaller hut lower to the ground but next to a waterfall. After singing campfire songs and having a gay ole time, we played Chairs which is basically I Have/I Never and if you've done something that agrees with what the person standing said you have to get up and find another seat, but one seat is missing so if you are left standing it's your turn. It was a bit difficult because we did it on the benches surrounding the campfire and we kept getting smoke in our eyes but it was really fun and I felt ten times better than I did the night before.
After a kickass french toast breakfast on Saturday morning, the hike was even shorter than the previous days (but still a bit difficult for me as it was mostly downhill so I was basically running down the mountains the whole time.) We had a final waterfall stopover and then did bamboo rafting, which was a slight bit wilder than the one we did in Kanchanaburi. After arriving back in Chiang Mai, I got myelf a $2 manicure (yeah, it's off already) and had a group dinner with our new trek friends. We all went out that night back to that reggae bar, but Noelle the Canadian and I ditched the place for a bit to get a Thai massage. Man do those hurt! The woman was prodding me so hard with her fingers/elbows in the back that I wanted to scream, while at the same time tickling me that I wanted to explode with laughter. She also stepped on my legs which felt really good but I think I've decided I'm more of a hand/head massage person (though for $4 the hour massage was definitely worth it.)
We went to one other bar afterwards which was more of a rock bar. Some scary youngish yet stylish Thai guy with long hair named "Boy" and his friend "Sing" were really creeping me out. Boy was hitting on me (particularly laughable is this line - Boy: "Why don't you speak Thai?" Me: "Because I learned Spanish and Italian in school." Boy: "If you had a Thai boyfriend then you could learn Thai." Me: "I have an English boyfriend, sorry." Then Boy told Sing like 5 times that "She is leaving!!!!" I thought they were going to haul me off with them to the Thai mafia headquarters, but we then busted out of there quickly.
Next morning (Sunday), Laura and I headed off to Chiang Khong (Mairead and Lucy went back to Bangkok then on to Hanoi where we'll meet them on Sunday.) There isn't too much to do in Chiang Khong since it's only really the stopover point for getting into Laos so what did we do? Get another Thai massage of course! This one was much better though and felt really good.
On the minivan ride to CK, after having read about the whirlpools, hidden rocks, and fatalities on the Mekong River regarding the speedboat to Laos, and especially after seeing the size of it upon arriving, we immediately switched our plans to take the slow boat. More on that to come in the next chapter of my trip.
Without giving too much away, we're currently in the land of happy (happy meaning anything here with a 'happy' in front of it = drugs in your food.) I don't plan to have any on purpose and am hoping not to have any accidentally You can tune in to find out what happens in Adventures in Laos.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Did You Know? (Thailand Edition)
- In most public places the toilets are a hole in the ground you use via squatting? (I'm a bit out of practice since I haven't done this since Italy '93)
- Flushing the toilet when they are holes means taking buckets of water and tossing it into the hole to push everything down? (this includes our current toilet in our guest house)
- There are geckos everywhere on the walls and ceilings, including in most of our hotel rooms? (one committed accidental suicide last night by falling from the restaurant awning straight onto the ground)
- The shower is not separated in the bathroom; it's placed on the wall and you just walk into the bathroom and use it? (the water hits the toilet, sink, etc)
- There are 7-11s all over Thailand? (like every 5 blocks)
- There are also McDonalds, Subway, Swensons, Dunkin Donuts, & Blockbuster? (not sure why considering they sell bootleg DVDs on the street)
- You can buy bottles of whiskey in the bar which comes with a bucket of ice for super cheap?
- They may do this in London and NY (though not that I am aware of), cockroaches fly? (as did one that brushed against my head about 15 minutes ago when I was eating)
- The speedboat that takes you from Thailand to Laos is the scariest thing ever? (we switched to the slow boat, we'd rather save ourselves than go on that deathtrap - I am NOT kidding, I almost shit myself just from looking at it)
Current Situation: In Chiang Khong (spelling?), going to immigration tomorrow morning, then onto the two day slow boat to Laos. Am no longer worried about the journey itself, bit still a little bit about the communist guerrillas awaiting my arrival.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Adventures in Thailand - Part Two
What I wrote on my last post seems like ages ago, but I think it was only on Monday. This recap may be LONG.
So, on Sunday night we took an overnight train from Bangkok to some place that begins with a P. This train was hysterical. It wasn't like one of those nice overnight trains that you take in Europe where you have your own compartment and share it with others. This train had one walkway in the middle of the car and beds on each side, one on top, one on the bottom. So the four of us had our own space anyway but still it was just very old school and strange, like from a movie once again. Mairead and I were on the bottom beds and had open windows next to us; she had to fight off a flying cokroach during the night but it was one of the best nights of sleep I'd had so far. We were supposed to arrive in P place at 4:30 am, but didn't get there until 6:30 am. The bus station was supposedly around the corner (it wasn't) so we took some local bus to it where the lady bus driver wanted to be our friends and gave us her phone number and address (as did one of the workers in Nam Tok, really random!) We got the bus to Sukothai which I think was the first capital of Thailand?
There are two parts of Sukothai - the old city and the new city. My advice for both - don't bother going to either - this place is BORING!!! From what I saw of the new city, it was smelly and seemed blah. We stayed in the old city where there's absolutely nothing to do. By the way I forgot to mention in lots of places here (like the internet cafe I'm in right now) or the guesthouse in Sukothai you have to remove your shoes before going in. I kind of like being able to walk around stores and hotels without shoes, a bit random but everything's been clean so far so I like it. Anyway, in Sukothai, we rented bikes and of course it started pissing down with rain. I didn't bring a proper rain jacket, just a crappy emergency plastic poncho that I'd bought in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I got very wet. When we went to the 'museum cafe' for lunch, all they had were Lays potato chips, which was not what I was hoping for. When the rain ceased we rode around the sites of the old city. Saw some more big buddhas and temples which is funny to me because in Europe all anyone does is see churches, and here I'm doing the same just with buddhas and temples, it gets boriung fast!
Not sure if I mentioned this before but there are dogs everywhere here. They are scary when they growl cause I think they've got the rabies and are out to zombify me, but I've learned this past week that it's mostly males trying to hump the ladies and the ladies howling back and telling them to get off (and they try and try again, particularly underneath where I've been sleeping lately (in bamboo huts) and under the dinner table.) So, I saw my first few dead dogs on Sukothai and a dead snake which was slightly disturbing but all part of the action I guess.
So as there's nothing to do there, we just ate dinner at a local restauarant where I got beef and rice, and the amount of beef they gave me added up to less than the size of my palm, talk about portion control! (I had fried ice cream after though which made up for it nicely.)
The next day we left there and got a 5 hour bus to Chiang Mai which is where I am now. I finished reading A Million Little Pieces and cried for a good portion of the ride, but I recommend it. Anyways, we reached the bus station and got picked up by the people from our guesthouse. Speaking of which I'm starving and we have dinner soon there so I'm going to head back right about now.
I'll write about my Chiang Mai/jungle adventures in the next entry, not sure when. I'm off to Laos in two days on some scary speed boat to run myself into the arms of communist guerrillas. If you don't hear from me again it was nice knowing you!
So, on Sunday night we took an overnight train from Bangkok to some place that begins with a P. This train was hysterical. It wasn't like one of those nice overnight trains that you take in Europe where you have your own compartment and share it with others. This train had one walkway in the middle of the car and beds on each side, one on top, one on the bottom. So the four of us had our own space anyway but still it was just very old school and strange, like from a movie once again. Mairead and I were on the bottom beds and had open windows next to us; she had to fight off a flying cokroach during the night but it was one of the best nights of sleep I'd had so far. We were supposed to arrive in P place at 4:30 am, but didn't get there until 6:30 am. The bus station was supposedly around the corner (it wasn't) so we took some local bus to it where the lady bus driver wanted to be our friends and gave us her phone number and address (as did one of the workers in Nam Tok, really random!) We got the bus to Sukothai which I think was the first capital of Thailand?
There are two parts of Sukothai - the old city and the new city. My advice for both - don't bother going to either - this place is BORING!!! From what I saw of the new city, it was smelly and seemed blah. We stayed in the old city where there's absolutely nothing to do. By the way I forgot to mention in lots of places here (like the internet cafe I'm in right now) or the guesthouse in Sukothai you have to remove your shoes before going in. I kind of like being able to walk around stores and hotels without shoes, a bit random but everything's been clean so far so I like it. Anyway, in Sukothai, we rented bikes and of course it started pissing down with rain. I didn't bring a proper rain jacket, just a crappy emergency plastic poncho that I'd bought in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I got very wet. When we went to the 'museum cafe' for lunch, all they had were Lays potato chips, which was not what I was hoping for. When the rain ceased we rode around the sites of the old city. Saw some more big buddhas and temples which is funny to me because in Europe all anyone does is see churches, and here I'm doing the same just with buddhas and temples, it gets boriung fast!
Not sure if I mentioned this before but there are dogs everywhere here. They are scary when they growl cause I think they've got the rabies and are out to zombify me, but I've learned this past week that it's mostly males trying to hump the ladies and the ladies howling back and telling them to get off (and they try and try again, particularly underneath where I've been sleeping lately (in bamboo huts) and under the dinner table.) So, I saw my first few dead dogs on Sukothai and a dead snake which was slightly disturbing but all part of the action I guess.
So as there's nothing to do there, we just ate dinner at a local restauarant where I got beef and rice, and the amount of beef they gave me added up to less than the size of my palm, talk about portion control! (I had fried ice cream after though which made up for it nicely.)
The next day we left there and got a 5 hour bus to Chiang Mai which is where I am now. I finished reading A Million Little Pieces and cried for a good portion of the ride, but I recommend it. Anyways, we reached the bus station and got picked up by the people from our guesthouse. Speaking of which I'm starving and we have dinner soon there so I'm going to head back right about now.
I'll write about my Chiang Mai/jungle adventures in the next entry, not sure when. I'm off to Laos in two days on some scary speed boat to run myself into the arms of communist guerrillas. If you don't hear from me again it was nice knowing you!
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Adventures in Thailand - Part One
I've only been in Thailand for five days but it feels like ten. Hopefully I can add some photos to this entry unlike the last one, we'll see how it goes.
So, I took off on Thursday morning on Etihad Airlines which is like, the nicest airline ever! Very plush seats, lots of leg room, almost 70 movies to choose from, plus albums and tv shows. Food was okay too. Also I'd like to thank them as I've taken their comfy pillow for all of my upcoming bus rides. Abu Dhabi airport seemed nice but I only saw it for about 5 seconds so hopefully I'll see it more on my way back.
I arrived on Friday morning and met Laura, Lucy, and Mairead at the airport as they'd just flown back from some of the islands. We went to our guesthouse on Khao San Road which looks kind of like a super busy Chinatown full of backpackers. Bangkok stinks! And I mean stinks as in smells, reaks, pewwy yucky, vomitous, blaghy odor.
Of all places to go to first, we ate at Swensons. For those of you who don't know, Swensons was an ice cream place in the U.S. that as far as I know closed down years ago. We had some early morning ice cream, then took a tuk tuk (mini taxi on three wheels) to some temples during the day. I can't remember the names of them cause there were so many but they were amazing {annoyed I can't upload photos right now.}
We were exhausted at night, so we just went for drinks at one bar while Laura got her hair braided and then retired to bed.
We had arranged a tour at a travel place in Bangkok, so on Saturday we took a minibus to the floating market about an hour and a half from the city. First you get in this motor boat that holds about 8-10 people that takes you to the market itself. Then you hire a row boat with a driver that takes you around this river market where people are selling stuff from boats (hot foods, exotic fruits, hats.) It's cool at first but I think the novelty wears off after about five minutes.
After that we stopped at the Kanchaburi War Cemetary, had lunch on a floating restaurant, then we were off to the Jeath Museum and the Bridge Over River Kwai. The musuem basically explained the Japanese enforcement of building the bridge and the Thai-Burma railway by primarily Austrailian, English, and Dutch POWS during WWII and how they suffered when building it. I attempted to cross the bridge but there were hug gaps all along the sides with nothing to save you if you fall into the river so I turned and went back.
Next we took this wacky train (which I have a video of) to Nam Tok. This train was the most primitive train I've ever been on. It just had two rows of seats facing each other and it was bouncing the whole way like we were on a roller coaster. There were 13 year old school children in our car who asked to practice their English with us which was cute. My girl gave me a grasshopper made out of bamboo which was nice but I couldn't carry it for the whole trip so I gave it to another kid when I got to Nam Tok, hopefully she won't see him with it!
When we arrived, we were taken by pick-up truck (meaning you sit in the back of a covered pick-up truck on a bench - literally), to Somnuk Elephant Camp. It was basically a floating hostel in the middle of the jungle/mountains with nothing around. It seriously looked like we were on Survivor, that's the only way I could describe it. We had to walk across these tiny planks to get to our rooms (with our huge backpacks on, I thought I was going to fall into the river.) The bathrooms were pretty buggy which grossed me out but I managed to handle it. We had dinner upstairs and then drank afterwards with fellow travelers (about 12 of us.)
The next morning we woke up at 6:30 am to do elephant bathing. I was shitting myself when I saw the elephants, they are huge!!! I climbed onto one and held onto the trainer for dear life, that thing had to have been at least 9 feet tall. We went down this muddy hill (again fearing for my life) until we reached the bathing area in the river next to our rooms. We scrubbed the elephants while sitting on them, and the trainers had us stand on the elephants and make embarassing glamour poses with them. It was definitely the best part of the trip so far.
After that we took proper elephant rides. Mairead and I sat on a seat that was propped on the elephant and walked around for a bit. I refused to get on the front of the elephant but Mairead did, and she looked like my servant which I'll show you in the photos when I post them. We then went on a bamboo raft which was very peaceful but pretty boring. Basically you just ride slowly down the river on a raft made of bamboo.
We then took a pick-up truck to Elwin Waterfalls which is a waterfall park with 7 levels. You can go swimming in each level but you can only go sliding down rocks/jumping at the 4th level. I was a complete chicken about getting in the water because there are tons of fish ranging from an inch in size to a foot and a half swimming all around you and nipping you. I jumped right out of the water as soon as I got in, but got myself back in by trying to maneuver myself into a tube but falling in the water by accident. It was fine with the fish after a while because if you keep moving they won't bother you. I didn't slide down the smooth rocks though because I was being too much of a coward for that.
We climbed so many dirty, muddy, rocky hills to each level of the falls that our legs were killing us by the end of the day. We went to Hellfire Pass after that (busy day!!) which was an area of the railway where the POWs had to dig through rock to build it. We walked down and then up the 250+ steps (that's right after our waterfall trekking) and saw some of the original rails. We checked out the museum for a bit before heading back to Bangkok on a minibus.
I can't write anymore because my brain is on overload, and this was all just from the first three days. Tomorrow I'm going on a 3 day trek through the jungle near Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, eek!
So, I took off on Thursday morning on Etihad Airlines which is like, the nicest airline ever! Very plush seats, lots of leg room, almost 70 movies to choose from, plus albums and tv shows. Food was okay too. Also I'd like to thank them as I've taken their comfy pillow for all of my upcoming bus rides. Abu Dhabi airport seemed nice but I only saw it for about 5 seconds so hopefully I'll see it more on my way back.
I arrived on Friday morning and met Laura, Lucy, and Mairead at the airport as they'd just flown back from some of the islands. We went to our guesthouse on Khao San Road which looks kind of like a super busy Chinatown full of backpackers. Bangkok stinks! And I mean stinks as in smells, reaks, pewwy yucky, vomitous, blaghy odor.
Of all places to go to first, we ate at Swensons. For those of you who don't know, Swensons was an ice cream place in the U.S. that as far as I know closed down years ago. We had some early morning ice cream, then took a tuk tuk (mini taxi on three wheels) to some temples during the day. I can't remember the names of them cause there were so many but they were amazing {annoyed I can't upload photos right now.}
We were exhausted at night, so we just went for drinks at one bar while Laura got her hair braided and then retired to bed.
We had arranged a tour at a travel place in Bangkok, so on Saturday we took a minibus to the floating market about an hour and a half from the city. First you get in this motor boat that holds about 8-10 people that takes you to the market itself. Then you hire a row boat with a driver that takes you around this river market where people are selling stuff from boats (hot foods, exotic fruits, hats.) It's cool at first but I think the novelty wears off after about five minutes.
After that we stopped at the Kanchaburi War Cemetary, had lunch on a floating restaurant, then we were off to the Jeath Museum and the Bridge Over River Kwai. The musuem basically explained the Japanese enforcement of building the bridge and the Thai-Burma railway by primarily Austrailian, English, and Dutch POWS during WWII and how they suffered when building it. I attempted to cross the bridge but there were hug gaps all along the sides with nothing to save you if you fall into the river so I turned and went back.
Next we took this wacky train (which I have a video of) to Nam Tok. This train was the most primitive train I've ever been on. It just had two rows of seats facing each other and it was bouncing the whole way like we were on a roller coaster. There were 13 year old school children in our car who asked to practice their English with us which was cute. My girl gave me a grasshopper made out of bamboo which was nice but I couldn't carry it for the whole trip so I gave it to another kid when I got to Nam Tok, hopefully she won't see him with it!
When we arrived, we were taken by pick-up truck (meaning you sit in the back of a covered pick-up truck on a bench - literally), to Somnuk Elephant Camp. It was basically a floating hostel in the middle of the jungle/mountains with nothing around. It seriously looked like we were on Survivor, that's the only way I could describe it. We had to walk across these tiny planks to get to our rooms (with our huge backpacks on, I thought I was going to fall into the river.) The bathrooms were pretty buggy which grossed me out but I managed to handle it. We had dinner upstairs and then drank afterwards with fellow travelers (about 12 of us.)
The next morning we woke up at 6:30 am to do elephant bathing. I was shitting myself when I saw the elephants, they are huge!!! I climbed onto one and held onto the trainer for dear life, that thing had to have been at least 9 feet tall. We went down this muddy hill (again fearing for my life) until we reached the bathing area in the river next to our rooms. We scrubbed the elephants while sitting on them, and the trainers had us stand on the elephants and make embarassing glamour poses with them. It was definitely the best part of the trip so far.
After that we took proper elephant rides. Mairead and I sat on a seat that was propped on the elephant and walked around for a bit. I refused to get on the front of the elephant but Mairead did, and she looked like my servant which I'll show you in the photos when I post them. We then went on a bamboo raft which was very peaceful but pretty boring. Basically you just ride slowly down the river on a raft made of bamboo.
We then took a pick-up truck to Elwin Waterfalls which is a waterfall park with 7 levels. You can go swimming in each level but you can only go sliding down rocks/jumping at the 4th level. I was a complete chicken about getting in the water because there are tons of fish ranging from an inch in size to a foot and a half swimming all around you and nipping you. I jumped right out of the water as soon as I got in, but got myself back in by trying to maneuver myself into a tube but falling in the water by accident. It was fine with the fish after a while because if you keep moving they won't bother you. I didn't slide down the smooth rocks though because I was being too much of a coward for that.
We climbed so many dirty, muddy, rocky hills to each level of the falls that our legs were killing us by the end of the day. We went to Hellfire Pass after that (busy day!!) which was an area of the railway where the POWs had to dig through rock to build it. We walked down and then up the 250+ steps (that's right after our waterfall trekking) and saw some of the original rails. We checked out the museum for a bit before heading back to Bangkok on a minibus.
I can't write anymore because my brain is on overload, and this was all just from the first three days. Tomorrow I'm going on a 3 day trek through the jungle near Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, eek!
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