Young, Free and now...BROKE!

Ok, I feel in a better mood now and am prepared to finish of this write up....

21/10/06
Sight seeing day: Looked at an array of temples (again!) and went to the Royal Palace, which is now a Museum because the Royal Family were extradited from Laos in 1975. Great to look around, but not nearly as grand inside as you would expect. As in most buildings in Laos, you have to take your shoes off and walk around barefoot (even in the guesthouse!)

The most memorable part of the day was back at the guesthouse: Wayne blocked the toilet (due to a dodgy gut!) Every time he flushed the chain the water (etc…) rose further up the bowl…after numerous attempts to deal with the ‘problem’ (yes, hands were used!) he (to my horror) went and told the guesthouse owner! The owner then went across the road and got his wife (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to come and sort it out with a giant plunger!! I was so embarrassed - don’t know why – it wasn’t me!!!

The law states that everything here must shut by 11.30, and the vast majority of places here in Luang Prabang stick to this rule. Evidently there is not much nightlife, but we have met up with friends several nights in a row for dinner and drinks.

22/10/06

Shared a tuk-tuk with Roger, Iza and Michael (a Dutch guy we met in Vang Viang) to Kwang Xi waterfalls – journey and falls were stunning, yet again – this country (bar Vientiane) has ceased to disappoint. We spent the day swimming in the pools and climbing up part of the waterfall. Wayne (being Wayne) jumped off one of the waterfalls – everyone gasped in horror, questioning whether there were rocks under the surface?? Fortunately for him, there weren’t, and he started off a bit of a craze...
He also attempted to climb behind the waterfall (not the major one featuring in all the pics) but a reasonably sized one – but this time wasn’t so lucky and nearly slipped! Wayne (aka nature boy) also appreciated the bear rescue centre and tiger sanctuary (all animals were rescued from poachers) that was set in the surrounding jungle.

As with most evenings here, we browsed (and bartered) around the night market and managed to purchase a large proportion of Christmas presents (unfortunately today – 23/10/06 - we paid the price: $70 sea mail!!! so you better like the presents!)

23/10/06
5am start – deliberately got up early to watch the monks receive offerings from the locals and tourists willing to purchase bamboo bowls full of rice. Hundreds of saffron coloured robes paraded past us, but none of the monks seemed to acknowledge the gifts?!? Glad we got up – it was a unique scene and a great experience. After breakfast in a local café we wondered around Wat Xieng Thong, a traditional Lao temple, covered in mosaics and built in the mid 16th century. Its sweeping roof is said to resemble a birds wings (?!)

The rest of the day we have been doing ‘sweet fa’ – well Wayne has, I’ve been writing up this blog! Off to Chiang Mai in the morning, so our next entry will be from Northern Thailand. Hope you’re all well…

Ok folks - need to broadcast a warning to all you avid fans: this update will NOT be in any way, shape or form funny or even moderately entertaining....I anticipate that the content will be a gushing appreciation of the Lao landscape, culture and market stalls! If you’re still interested, here goes....

17/10/06
Having spent a few rather dull days in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), we booked ourselves onto the earliest bus out of there (nothing exciting to report for once – despite the fact that we were traveling on the infamous route 13 – renowned for staging regular bandit attacks on tourist buses!) and arrived 160 km away in Vang Viang. This tiny little town is very touristy in comparison to the rest of Laos, but this is because (a) it is located in one of the most stunning places on Earth: craggy karst limstone mountains covered in jungle conceal gigantic caves, crystal clear pools and gushing waterfalls.... (b) it offers fantastic out-door activities: caving, kayaking, tubing (will explain later) etc....and (c) despite the fact that the use of, and dealing in drugs is dealt with extremely seriously in Laos (one guy told us that his friends came here a few years ago, got caught smoking weed and were held at gun point by the cops until they coughed up $500 each!) Vang Viang openly advertises weed, mushrooms and opium on their food menus (see photograph!) Happy pizzas, happy shakes and happy coffee are all popular local cuisine?!? Evidently the night life in Vang Viang is excellent – despite the fact that there are only really two main places to go. Bizarrely pirated ‘Friends’ videos have taken over the town - most restaurants play ‘Friends’ on multiple TV screens and offer comfortable seating areas where you can lie down and watch.

18/10/06
Took advantage of the outdoor activities on offer and along with 6 other people were led through the surrounding countryside to fabulous caves and local villages. One particular cave was engulfed in water, so we actually had to swim into the pitch black hole, with ‘waterproof torches’ (powered by what looked (and felt) like a moped battery hung around our necks. No—one got electrocuted despite the fact that copper was exposed? After lunch we jumped onto the inner-tube of a tractor tyre and floated down the Nam Xong River, stopping every now and again at riverside bars (you had to pull yourself in by grabbing hold of a bamboo pole!) These bars were a bit ‘18- to 30s’ but were wicked – they had flying-fox swings, which were a bit like zip-lines, but you had to grab hold of a bar and jump off a ‘lampost and a half’ high platform (not the most stable of constructions), and swing over the river until you built up the courage to let go. Fortunately (?!?) for me, I didn’t have to build up the courage on my second go. I simply leapt off this enormous platform and fell straight in (after shouting to the girl behind – moments before - that ‘there is no way I’m going to be able to hold onto this thing’!!!) After what seemed like an eternity I emerged to the surface and was greeted by wails of concern: ‘are you ok???” I could only just manage to swim (after severely winding myself) and could not muster up enough breath to shout ‘just about’! Needless to say I did NOT attempt it again! We all got a bit to engrossed in the swing, and ended up leaving the last bar too late. This meant that we were floating down the river on what are, in reality, gigantic rubber rings, in the pitch black with NO lights. Fortunately our tour guides were in kayaks and tried to speed up our progression by pushing us along. The people in our group were all lovely and definitely ‘made’ the day. We went out for dinner and drinks that night with Roger and Izabel (sorry if I’ve spelt that wrong!) whom we’ve been meeting up with frequently ever since! Roger repels silence and always has a story or joke to tell, so we are never short on conversation!!!!

19/10/06
In the hope of exploring the region independently we hired a motorbike. Unfortunately, a quarter of a mile down the road from the hire shop it broke down because the owner didn’t feel the need to supply petrol! ‘Slightly’ p***ed off, we wheeled the bike back to the shop and were given another bike – this time with fuel. The owner of the shop wasn’t even apologetic....these people are far too chilled out (probably due to the local cuisine!!)

We somehow navigated our way onto an ‘off road’ track, full of boulders and massive stones – not the best place to drive a bike....evidently I spent half the journey hopping on and off the back so that Wayne could maneuver the bike! Should have just walked and saved our dwindling supply of cash! Anyway, the scenery was, yet again, stunning and we managed to find the bluest natural lagoon you can imagine. It was gorgeous! The water was so clear that you could see thousands of fish swimming around you. After a little dip we decided to explore the nearby cave (Poukham Cave)...an hour and a half later we emerged from the mountainside in disbelief. It was the most enormous cave we have ever seen: pitch black with treacherous 50ft drops, beautiful stalagmite and stalactite formations and natural vase-like structures. Following the advice of some people we met on the climb up to the cave, we hired the ‘resident’ tour guide, who I can only describe as a living day ‘caveman’! He navigated this cave in barefoot, on surfaces that were both jagged in places and unbelievably slippery in others. If anyone is ever in Laos they HAVE to visit this cave, it is amazing! In fact, if anyone is ever intending on visiting SE Asia, visit Laos – it’s definitely the most beautiful country we have visited so far.

20/10/06
Although we could have stayed a lot longer in Vang Viang, we had to stick to an itinerary in Laos (due to a pre—booked flight to Thailand), and therefore boarded a bus to Luang Prabang early Friday morning. This bus journey was anything but dull...Lao was definitely rising into the premier league of ‘countries not to be missed‘. The scenery, which had got progressively better the further we drifted from Vientiane enroute to Vang Viang, was simply stunning (I’m running out of adjectives now!) The route took us up windy mountain roads surrounded by lush, green jungle and the occasional rural village (which weren’t ALL selling Pringles and Coca Cola – a sure sign that we really HAD gone rural.) I read in the rough guide that the Americans dropped the equivalent of a plane load of bombs into Laos, every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for a total of nine years!! With this in mind nature has done incredibly well to restore its beauty, because we could see very little evidence of this atrocity.

The only quibble I had with this journey: toilets. Lao people are renowned for being laid back and always appear to be very chilled out (as I said before – I attribute this to the ‘Happy Menus’ – although I am aware that most locals don’t touch the stuff!) They simply can’t be bothered to carry out trivial tasks and this attitude has created a big problem for western women! Here the concept of a toilet, which has been simplified to a ‘hole in the ground’ in Vietnam and much of Asia, has been taken one step further by the people of Laos. If you need to go to the toilet enroute to Luang Prabang you get to pick your own place to pee! Why bother with a fancy ceramic surround?!? (To be fair to Laos, we did witness 3 Cambodian girls pulling down their pants and sh*tting in the grounds of the Angkor Wat – a toilet break in-between sales jobs!!)

Luang Prabang is another UNESCO World Heritage site and, as expected, is a gorgeous colonial town, littered with temples, bakeries and cafes. My favourite feature is the ‘night market' - which offers a fabulous array of handicrafts: carvings, paintings, silk fabrics and bags – SHOPPING HEAVEN!

We are staying in a 5$/night guesthouse, facing the River Mekong. We have spent hours just wondering the streets, sitting in cafes and soaking in the atmosphere – I love this place! So much so that I am fed up of sitting at this computer, having spent over an hour on typing up this account, and am off now to explore some more.... I will finish this write up in a few hours time...

13/10/06:

Woke up at 4am (?!?) and took a tuk-tuk (see bleary eyed pics - will post them a.s.a.p) to the temples of Angkor in hope of catching the sunrise (an apparent must-see) at Angkor Wat. This must-see was a cloudy murk and a complete waste of time! It was too dark to appreciate the temple, so we were advised by our 'tour guide' (who in actual fact was just the tuk-tuk driver from the dirt cheap hotel and had absolutely no real clue about the temples) to go and get breakfast at his ‘commission earning’ stall and start exploring later. The picture of the guy sleeping in a tuk-tuk in amongst the temple pictures is the enthusiastic ‘fountain of knowledge’ himself… he had to be woken by a fellow ‘tour guide’ when we returned from the ‘Angkor Wat’ - we’d obviously got him up far too early.

Despite the disappointing start, and the fact that we had to decipher info on the temples ourselves, our day at the temples was a fantastic experience and we were glad that we’d got up early, as the temperature was bearable for most of the morning. We spent over 10 hours in the complex as we wanted to see as much as possible in 1 day. The entrance fee was 20 GBP each, which completely swallowed up our day’s budget. We therefore hoped that we could get away with 1 days sightseeing, rather than the intended 2. I was really, really surprised at how much I enjoyed it, it was so much better than I had anticipated. The size of these structures is awesome, and the amount of detail that goes into each stone is incredible. The fact that they are still standing with such grandeur, after almost 1000 years (sometimes more), withstanding numerous wars and natural catastrophes, is really remarkable. Although we managed to see the main Hindu and Buddhist monuments (Angkor Thom: Bayon, Phimeanakas, Terrace of Elephants, Terrace of Leper Kings; Thommanom; Ta Keo; Ta Prohm; Banteay Kdei; Pre Rup (oldest – 961) and Srah Strang; Pasat Kravan and finally, Angkor Wat) we only saw a tiny proportion of the 100 + monuments in the complex. Our favorite was of course Angkor Wat, which is just humungous and very regal. The steps to the top were almost vertical, and since the steps are so narrow (half the size of my size 6 foot) it was a bit hair-raising! Mum – you would have hated it!! Not many people ventured up to the top precisely because of this obstruction.

All the temples are unique, which meant that you didn’t get bored (as I thought we would) of visiting temple after temple….The Bayon (see pics of the structures with four faces carved on each of the 54 towers) was an impressive site and Ta Prohm looked like it was being reclaimed by nature: massive tree roots sprawled haphazardly across the temples walls. It felt like you were in an Indiana Jones movie!

Wayne’s words of wisdom regarding the temples were offered whilst exploring the Angkor Wat: ‘this is a wicked place to play hide and seek’ – typical Wayne!!! Hahaha - Rich I think, at that point, he wished you were there instead of me!

That evening, to top off a really cool day, we went to a REALLY cool restaurant: The Deadfish Tower (unfortunately the camera battery had died by that time so we don’t have any pics ) It was a bright, funky, multi-level open planned space, with a crocodile pit (where you could feed the 13 crocs with fish – which of course ‘nature boy’ chose to do) and the option of sitting on cushions on the floor – which ‘nature boy’ – with his long legs, chose not to do! There was live dancing and music and a really great atmosphere – recommend it to anyone who happens to be in Siem Reap!

14/10/06

Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored! Wished we’d splashed out and gone back to the temples as there is NOTHING to do in Siem Reap – it really is just a service centre with accommodation and restaurants for the tourists who intelligently chose to spend their days looking at the temples.

We did however find a live King Cobra Show to go to (guess whose idea that was…) We both held a whip snake (although I must add that Wayne only did it after I’d done it – to make sure they didn’t think he was a ‘wuss’!) We looked round the ‘mini’ farm and saw a massive 6m long (about 5” wide) python and 2 cobras. The show was pretty cool – as we were the only 2 in the audience – yes I told you this was Waynes’ idea (where he found out about it I have no idea!) It was really good though, as they made US participate. They wrapped a python round our legs: it was incredibly strong and squeezed a bit too tight – I wanted them to get it off! We also held it round our neck?!?!? Moments of madness…. The scariest part was when they ‘made us’ (well since we were the only ones there we had to otherwise the show would be ruined!) crouch in front of 3 cobras (only about 1 metre away)….we survived though. The bloke (Mr D) was a nutter – he was kissing the cobras and dodging there attempted attacks. Our tuk-tuk driver (the guy who drove us round the temples) got a free viewing of the show so he was chuffed with us.

15/10/06

Other travelers had told us that the main place to visit in Cambodia is the temples, so we hadn’t planned to bother wasting time traveling around the country, when there was very little else to see. Instead we flew to Vientiane. The flight was hilarious – it was like a bus! We stopped off at an airport in the south, right outside the entrance door…let a few people off, let a few more on, and continued on our trip. It was very odd! We weren’t sure what was going on at first, because they didn’t explain anything! The actual plane was an old-ish propeller plane, and so the flight was a bit bumpy and loud (Claire – I thought of you!!)

Vientiane is in a word: ‘dull’. If I could re-write the guidebooks on this city I would simply write: ‘don’t bother’. There is absolutely NOTHING to do here, hence the lack of photos. We visited the museum today (which summed up the state of the city – dull) and paid (stupidly) to walk up the Patourxai (Arc de Triomphe – attempted French look-a-like). The most interesting fact about this monument is that the country used US aid money (intended for the completion of the airport) to complete this over-promoted structure. It is therefore more famously known as ‘the vertical runway’!

We have spent most of our time (due to slight illness – which I think our bodies timed immaculately well considering the place we are in) in our hotel room. Luckily we decided to splash out a bit and booked a hotel with a nice clean room and satellite tv. We have therefore spent most of our time here reading books and watching films – just like being at home!

We are off to Vang Viang tomorrow morning and can’t wait to get out of here…should be cool as there is plenty of stuff to do in this small town: caving, trekking, tubing, white water rafting and kayaking…roll on tomorrow!

Hope all are well, keep e-mailing us….. lots of love E and W xxx

10/10/06: Nha Trang to HCM City (aka Saigon)
WHY DON’T WE LEARN?? : Bus + Vietnam don’t work well together… our 7 hour journey expanded into a near 12 hour nightmare, yet again. Although spacious, we had our very own 60 year old (as she loved to express on numerous occasions - via sign language) Vietnamese stalker! She was traveling with her sister from Nha Trang to her home village on the outskirts of Saigon. At first we thought her nosey-ness was just innocent curiosity, as we did appear to be the only foreigners on the bus. She was sitting in the seat in front of us and kept turning around and smiling. Once Wayne had moved to some spare seats to try and sleep, she made the most of this golden opportunity: quickly slipping into the seat next to me and started trying to communicate (obviously she spoke NO English). At first I thought she was quite sweet and foolishly told her where we were staying (this later turned out to be one of the worst mistakes I have EVER made as she got fellow passengers to translate that she wanted to meet us at 9am outside out hotel the next day!)….but before I realized how psychotic she was I attempted to play along with her conversation and got the gist of what she was trying to say: 1. She was 60 – and how old were we? 2. Where were we from? 3. She’d had an American boyfriend (I assumed during the War) who had promised to return back from the US to marry her, but then never did (now we can empathize with him!) Following this revelation, she had a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure no-one else was looking and then proceeded to roll up her trouser leg (!!!) revealing a self-induced tattoo of the name ‘ANDY’ (which I assumed was this American lover…) She carried on trying to ask questions about our family and then kept saying ‘babyson babyson…’ whilst pointing at Wayne…we later found out from a girl who spoke a little English, that she wanted to adopt us!!! Hahaha. I truly believe that Wayne reminder her of the long lost American soldier, which is why this double infatuation materialized. Anyway, since she wouldn’t stop talking (and I had been sitting next to her for over 2 hours) I - following Wayne’s advice - tried to read my book. This didn’t work – she kept tapping me on the leg; grabbing my hand, kissing it and then stroking my cheek!! I was getting soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo irritated! When it reached 5.15pm she actually grabbed my book out of my hand indicating that the light was too poor to read in. To make matters worse she had been spitting grape seeds onto my foot for the entire journey! To cut a very long story short we managed to persuade her not to turn up outside our hotel the following day, in exchange for her telephone number, home address and the promise of a phone call and visit as soon as we returned to Saigon. Thankfully we failed to mention that our return would certainly not be within her lifetime….harsh but I think fair! Under any other circumstance we could have politely sneaked away, but in the cramped and confined environment of a Vietnamese bus there was No escape – hence it was to our great relief when our teary eyed stalker reached her stop and reluctantly left us to continue our journey.

By the time we reached our hotel they had assumed we were a ‘no show’ and had given our room to someone else! Fortunately they had a ‘sister’ hotel across the road which had a room available. This worked in our favour as the hotel was fab – breakfast and dinner was included in the price of our room (which was on par with any other accommodation we had stayed in!) The hotel was also immaculately clean (another big PLUS) as guests had to remove their shoes before going upstairs.

11/10/06: Cu Chi Tunnels
Signed up to a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. During the War this area supported the Vietcong (VC), who along with the local villagers quite literally dug themselves out of harms way - creating a massive tunnel network of over 250km and spread over 3 different levels! Tunnels were at places as small as 80cm high and 80com wide - although they have now been widened to accommodate (FATTER - as our guide continually reminded us) western tourists.

Our tour guide was a bit of an odd character - born locally in Saigon, moved to the US with his father in the 40s and therefore fought (to his shame - well so he now says) for the US Navy. He has been shunned by his country, and although a trained Dr can't work here - the only job he can get - ironically - is as a tour guide around the Cu Chi Tunnels - the location he fought at during the war?!? Wasn't entirely sure whether to believe him. He also, irritatingly (is that a word?!?) kept asking us if we could understand him as he doesn't talk English: only American (very funny joke..)

The day was really interesting: we saw numerous booby traps used by the Vietnamese and we were some of the only people (brace enough) to crawl through a small section of the tunnels - very HOT, SWEATY, CLAUSTROPHOBIC and PITCH BLACK - we couldn’t see anything and kept bumping into the person in fronts bum! haha. Apologies in advance for the revealing pictures you will see of me in the tunnels - I didn't realise how far you can see down my top whilst crawling! Wayne could have told me!

Wayne also paid to shoot 10 rounds on an AK47 - the noise was CRAZY! It was incredibly loud - I jumped back everytine he fired. He loved it.

12/10/06

Explored Saigon: Reunification House, Cathedral, Saigon Zoo (very cramped, inhumane cages - best feature (hence photos) = crocodile pits) and War Remnants Museum (which was excellent.)

Eve: flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia (much better than the usual bus - on;y 45 mins!) Hotel was basic, but can't really complain for 2 GBP a night. Major concern was the bathroom, which in a word was 'filthy.' Oh and the wholes in the wall - v anxious re: insects, hence we battled with the mosquito net all through the night - it kept falling off the hook (lamp shade) during the night and the frame landed on our heads on numerous occasions - very annoying! Also, realised that most men in cambodia are arrogant, chauvinistic twats who refuse to deal with women – this was a big mistake on their part as they were left to deal with Wayne – who didn’t really know what they were on about half the time!! (hahah – he told me to write that!!) Well that is a generalisation, but we did meet a few of those characters.

Anyway, I have waffled on a lot so I will continue this blog in a few hours, after we have refuled....at moment in an internet cafe in Vientiane, Laos...be back later....

Not the most exciting of entries but here goes....

Hoi An is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site; primarily because the towns’ diverse architecture (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese + European) managed to escape war damage. It is full of traditional old wooden shop fronts; making it an enjoyable place to spend copious amounts of money...unfortunately we did! We both invested in a tailor made suit (completed in less than 24 hours!), tailor made shoes, various souvenirs and refreshments in-between fittings (see dragon fruit picture – has anyone else ever seen this before? So cool – its got a bright pink rim when you cut it open and the fruit is white with tiny black seeds – a mix between watermelon and kiwi).

Aside from shopping we also managed to hire a scooter and visit the beach (which has been damaged by the typhoon and was therefore not as picturesque as it would have been the previous week). However, this worked to our advantage as the beach was deserted - the only people around were local women trying to sell anything and everything: from pineapples to pringles, backrubs to bracelets!! I opted for a french manicure (beth you should be proud!) which only cost 1GBP.

We also decided to do an excursion to My Son - a World Heritage Site of listed ruins created by the Cham people in about 400AD, and also home to a number of unexploded mines. This trip was, in a word, 'crap'. The tour guide didn't tell us anything about the ruins, so to us they just appeared to be a pile of bricks put together without cement. Through our cynicism we did however meet a like-minded couple, who we have since been out with a couple of times (see pics: dan = guy with curly hair/ laura = girl with blonde hair). They are doing a similar trip so they will possibly feature in a few of these blogs down the line...

The last thing to mention about Hoi An is the crazy autumn full moon festival that was going on from the eve we arrived until the eve we left (yet again immaculate timing!) The festival seemed to be a Vietnamese version of Halloween: kids dressed up as dragons and danced around to the beat of a drum for hours on end, trying to entice money from tourists and elders...day in day out. The first night we thought it was quite interesting, by the fourth I had a constant headache. It did however highlight another cultural difference: where as in the UK we would never dream of allowing begging kids into restaurants to annoy our customers while they eat, in Vietnam it is completely fine - they can annoy customers so much that they actually leave before ordering! haha

After 4 days in Hoi An we took a night bus to Nha Trang (suprisingly uneventful: bareable this time, although the coach did break down at 3am - flat tyre. I was amazed that the driver managed to find somewhere open at that time in the morning to sort it out - but he did!) Nha Trang has a great night life - we ended up staying out last night until 4am (a GREAT achievement for me these days - as I'm usually falling asleep by 10.30pm!) Its amazing how many people you meet from previous destinations along the way - a total of 8 of us ended up in the same bar in Nha Trang last night: small world.

The beach in Nha Trang is beautiful, but we havent found that much to do during the day. The blue and red boats in the pictures are unique to this town: eyes have been painted on the sides to 'spot fish'. We plan to look around a bit more tomorrow and will then move on to Saigon (HCM City) on Tuesday...

I will try and put the pics on now, if not tomorrow, so keep checking out the site. Sorry for not including any in these blogs - it just takes far to long to upload each photo individually.

Hope everyone is well and I hope the travel tales are a bit more exciting next time...although this blog is pretty dull we have in fact enjoyed Hoi An and Nha Trang...v odd!

Take Care, E and W xxx