We have just arrived in Amritsar. This is the Sikh capital. Home of the Sikh's holiest Temple the Golden Temple. We have just gotten off the train, after having spent 5 days in Kolkota.
Kolkota is a huge city. Over 15 million people. Walking around the streets, there are people every where. Poverty is very in your face, and the second you walk out the door of your guest house you are tailed by beggars. It's very hard to see.
Our first day we went to the Indian Museum and a Bengali movie, called Challenge.
The museum was what you would imagine the museums looked like in your grandparents day. Many of the display cases are relics themselves. There was a mummy and lots of animals in formaldehyde. Also a huge collection of sculptures. Which were quite fascinating. The Movie was awesome. We (read I) expected to want out half way through, but found it entertaining. Even though there were no subtitles we fully understood what was happening. The movie had it all. Fighting, comedy and yes, dancing. The fight sequences were so bad that even I was praying for more dancing. We can't wait to see our next Bollywood movie.
The following day we went shopping. I never thought I would say this but Sari shopping was kind of cool. Liza and I sat on these stools as the staff sat on raised mattresses before us and showed us all the multicoloured beautiful wares. When we eventually returned to buy a couple they even offered us chai (the best yet), and helped Liza try them on. In the mall we stumbled upon the Sindhi (regional group of Indians) New Year celebration. There was music and one of the band members put his hat on me and started playing music. I had no choice but to dance. They went from shop to shop, offering blessings and playing music, while the shop owners danced with open joy. One of the first things we have noticed about the Indian people, is how inclusive they are. They take great pride in sharing their culture with everyone.
The following day we hopped on the subway and went to the Kali Ghat. This is the most holy temple in Kolkota (for the Hindi). We were taken on a tour by a Brahman (so he said). He gave us blessings, and then tricked us into making a donation. Kinda like putting a piece of shit on a chocolate sundae, instead of the cherry.
Next day we went to the Mother Theresa house. We were never asked to make a donation, we were just welcome to come and see and sit. We also had the opportunity to participate in a mass, with the sisters. Seeing Mother Theresa's small room and reading of all her selfless acts, was very inspiring. It was a very powerful place to be and Liza and I both had to fight back tears. After that we took a Taxi to Science City. For those of you from Toronto, it's kind of like the Science Centre and the CNE from about twenty years ago all rolled into one, and then divided by 50. It was awesome. We even went on a roller coaster. I think I was the only person screaming...
The next day was our departure day. We stayed in our hotel room until they kicked us out, and then headed to Howrah Train Station. This is India's biggest train station. We waited there for the 4 hours before our train arrived and then we were off. The train was just what we were hoping for. We had our own berth all to ourselves and food and chai were brought to us regularly. The staff seemed to come more than was necessary to clean our berth, but it was probably to do with wanting a tip, and a bit of curiosity.
The one thing we really seem to notice is people (men) are blatantly staring at us. This happens all the time. I don't think that it's me as much as Liza that they are staring at. I am constantly glaring at people. They eventually look up at me and then look away, but come on guys, get a life. At least if you're going to stare, keep your eyes at eye level. We are in a much smaller place now and so we will see if that changes. I doubt it.
Well that's where we are now. Hope every one is doing well and can't wait to hear from you all.
Mark
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The New World
Namaste everyone. Liza and I have arrived safely in India. We spent a week in Chiang Mai and a couple of days in Bangkok.
Our 12 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai was relatively uneventful. I felt sick a lot of it and had to sleep for a couple of hours. Someone threw up all over the aisle about eight rows back, which of course made it worse. Got to our guest house in Chiang Mai, where Liza went to bed. I went downstairs for a beer to salute St. Patrick in the beautiful court yard. Two days later we moved to the guest house across the way. It was the same price but with a TV.
I went for a walk on one day and saw four of the 300 temples. Even I am starting to get tired of temple pictures. The highlight was a Monk in a glass box meditating. I could not believe my eyes. This man was in a full trance inside a glass box. My shutter finger was getting very itchy but I could not bring myself to take a picture of this. It took a lot to just get up close for a close up, which is when I realized he was made of wax. I still couldn't take a picture, it was very powerful. This was to honour a monk who has since passed away, but there were photographs of him giving his own wax statue a blessing.
The next day we did yet another cooking course. This one (Baan Thai) was the best one yet. They gave us fruit plates so we could taste some of the fruits we hadn't been brave enough to try yet, and a recipe book. A real recipe book, not a photocopy of Internet printouts. It was a full day and we took breaks between meals. Still at the end we could not finish our dishes, and ended up having to waddle our bloated selves to our taxi. The food was delicious (although mostly deep fried), and we met a few really nice people in the class.
Walking down the street one day we came upon a dental shop that offered laser tooth whitening. I was only 9000 Baht, which is about 300 dollars. A good deal... very good deal. We were informed that we might have sensitive teeth for the next day. That didn't sound too bad so we gave it a try. The whitening included a cleaning and a foot massage. After about 4 passes (15 minutes) it started to feel like someone was hooking live wires to my teeth. They had to stop and made a mold of my teeth so I could do the milder home version. For the next 5 hours I kept getting these zings of pain through my teeth. Liza made it through ten passes. Our teeth do appear a lot whiter now, though I don't think I'm going to be doing tooth paste commercials any time soon.
The other thing we did was go to the hospital to get rabies vaccinations. Apparently rabies is epidemic in India, and they don't exactly have ideal medical facilities here. The rabies treatment is non existent. We were amazed to see how well the hospitals in Thailand operated. They were very top of the line. The service we got was also incredible, and included a checkup. We got our first shot but after finding out that there was no way to keep the subsequent two shots refrigerated we had to abandon the plan. New plan... Don't touch animals.
We took a train to Bangkok, and stayed there two days while waiting for our flight to India. Bangkok was alright. Khao san was not at all as crazy as I had anticipated. I think the only thing to say about Bangkok is it's very seedy.
Well here we are in Kolkota. We were prepared for the worst, and are at our most vigilant. We have been very pleasantly surprised. The people of India have been wonderful. When we got to the airport we had to hire a taxi through the prepaid booth. This is literally a hole in the wall just big enough to stick your hand through. Kinda like making a crack deal?
We arrived at our guest house, and while we were settling in to our room there was a knock on the door. The manager wanted me to come with him. I was concerned at first that he was upset that I gave him wrong passport numbers. He took me to a window and pointed to an elderly man that I had passed on the way into the hotel. He asked if it was this man that had taken me to the hotel. I said no, I already knew that I wanted to stay at his hotel before I even left Bangkok, and that this was were I had asked the taxi to take me. He yelled at the now three men now waiting at the entrance, and they looked up hurt. I asked the manager if he wanted a commission to which he replied yes. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, and started to return to the room. I then turned to the manager and explained that as I walked in the man outside had said Tourist Inn, to which I replied yes that's where I'm going. He just shook his head. At first I was a little nervous about three guys hanging outside the hotel that thought I owed them money and then something in me changed. I will not be intimidated into giving out my money to scammers. And as if to make I point I made a point of meeting eyes with the man on our way to dinner.
As we finished our dinner the power on the street went out. We headed back to our guest house and found the lights out there too. We were invited by a couple of the staff to sit and wait for the lights to return. They were upgrading the power on the street and they were expecting power within an hour and a half. The two gentlemen told us of all the good and bad things in India. They told us some of their life stories and were genuinely welcoming, and helpful. This was another one of those real experiences, we both craved, and has set the tone for India.... Hopefully. Kolkota is apparently the cheapest place, but also the worst place for scams and thefts, and so if we can handle this then we are in for a wonderful surprise.
Our 12 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai was relatively uneventful. I felt sick a lot of it and had to sleep for a couple of hours. Someone threw up all over the aisle about eight rows back, which of course made it worse. Got to our guest house in Chiang Mai, where Liza went to bed. I went downstairs for a beer to salute St. Patrick in the beautiful court yard. Two days later we moved to the guest house across the way. It was the same price but with a TV.
I went for a walk on one day and saw four of the 300 temples. Even I am starting to get tired of temple pictures. The highlight was a Monk in a glass box meditating. I could not believe my eyes. This man was in a full trance inside a glass box. My shutter finger was getting very itchy but I could not bring myself to take a picture of this. It took a lot to just get up close for a close up, which is when I realized he was made of wax. I still couldn't take a picture, it was very powerful. This was to honour a monk who has since passed away, but there were photographs of him giving his own wax statue a blessing.
The next day we did yet another cooking course. This one (Baan Thai) was the best one yet. They gave us fruit plates so we could taste some of the fruits we hadn't been brave enough to try yet, and a recipe book. A real recipe book, not a photocopy of Internet printouts. It was a full day and we took breaks between meals. Still at the end we could not finish our dishes, and ended up having to waddle our bloated selves to our taxi. The food was delicious (although mostly deep fried), and we met a few really nice people in the class.
Walking down the street one day we came upon a dental shop that offered laser tooth whitening. I was only 9000 Baht, which is about 300 dollars. A good deal... very good deal. We were informed that we might have sensitive teeth for the next day. That didn't sound too bad so we gave it a try. The whitening included a cleaning and a foot massage. After about 4 passes (15 minutes) it started to feel like someone was hooking live wires to my teeth. They had to stop and made a mold of my teeth so I could do the milder home version. For the next 5 hours I kept getting these zings of pain through my teeth. Liza made it through ten passes. Our teeth do appear a lot whiter now, though I don't think I'm going to be doing tooth paste commercials any time soon.
The other thing we did was go to the hospital to get rabies vaccinations. Apparently rabies is epidemic in India, and they don't exactly have ideal medical facilities here. The rabies treatment is non existent. We were amazed to see how well the hospitals in Thailand operated. They were very top of the line. The service we got was also incredible, and included a checkup. We got our first shot but after finding out that there was no way to keep the subsequent two shots refrigerated we had to abandon the plan. New plan... Don't touch animals.
We took a train to Bangkok, and stayed there two days while waiting for our flight to India. Bangkok was alright. Khao san was not at all as crazy as I had anticipated. I think the only thing to say about Bangkok is it's very seedy.
Well here we are in Kolkota. We were prepared for the worst, and are at our most vigilant. We have been very pleasantly surprised. The people of India have been wonderful. When we got to the airport we had to hire a taxi through the prepaid booth. This is literally a hole in the wall just big enough to stick your hand through. Kinda like making a crack deal?
We arrived at our guest house, and while we were settling in to our room there was a knock on the door. The manager wanted me to come with him. I was concerned at first that he was upset that I gave him wrong passport numbers. He took me to a window and pointed to an elderly man that I had passed on the way into the hotel. He asked if it was this man that had taken me to the hotel. I said no, I already knew that I wanted to stay at his hotel before I even left Bangkok, and that this was were I had asked the taxi to take me. He yelled at the now three men now waiting at the entrance, and they looked up hurt. I asked the manager if he wanted a commission to which he replied yes. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, and started to return to the room. I then turned to the manager and explained that as I walked in the man outside had said Tourist Inn, to which I replied yes that's where I'm going. He just shook his head. At first I was a little nervous about three guys hanging outside the hotel that thought I owed them money and then something in me changed. I will not be intimidated into giving out my money to scammers. And as if to make I point I made a point of meeting eyes with the man on our way to dinner.
As we finished our dinner the power on the street went out. We headed back to our guest house and found the lights out there too. We were invited by a couple of the staff to sit and wait for the lights to return. They were upgrading the power on the street and they were expecting power within an hour and a half. The two gentlemen told us of all the good and bad things in India. They told us some of their life stories and were genuinely welcoming, and helpful. This was another one of those real experiences, we both craved, and has set the tone for India.... Hopefully. Kolkota is apparently the cheapest place, but also the worst place for scams and thefts, and so if we can handle this then we are in for a wonderful surprise.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Fire on the Mountain
Hello all, Mark here writing to you from Udon Thani, Thailand. Since we last wrote we have driven through out of control brushfires at insane speeds, gotten loaded while tubing down a river making friends, and spent a few days holed up in a hotel getting over our bugs.
From Luang Prabang we took a mini van back to Vang Vieng, where we were going to give tubing another shot and enjoy the really good pancakes. The mini bus drove so fast that I seriously thought our driver had something wrong with him. At our first stop I even mentioned to another passenger that perhaps if we all say something together he might slow down. She got on another van instead, and apperently had a much smoother ride. It started getting very smoky and we were flying around these tight mountainous roads. At one point we stopped, and when I looked up I noticed that the road ahead was blocked by opaque smoke and there was a 30 foot fire on the side of the road. The driver started backing up, but then decided to go forward. The 2 ladies in front of us started to get very nervous and then Liza put her foot down. She said, "whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa .... stop, i'm taking control now." She did this becasue most people on the bus were petrified, and the bus driver didn't really seem sure as to what to do. She was thanked later on! We stopped for a few moments and the driver started to say something along the lines of it's okay, the fire is gone. The Aussie guy in front of me (Brad) also stated that it should be fine, as they were controlled brush fires. Other cars started to come through the smoke from the other side, which was when I started to relax a bit. My main fear was the visibility. If we started to drive in to the smoke and it became too thick we would have been in a lot of trouble. Instead it cleared up in about 30 feet and all was fine. We passed crazy fires on either side of the road, one was even hitting the power lines. Liza was on fire in the van as far as her joke telling and set the whole van at ease. We ended up making friends with the two dutch ladies and Brad, and made plans to meet the following day for some tubing action.
The next day at about 12:30 we met with Brad. One of the other ladies had taken ill (this is what I call foreshadowing). We got our tubes and headed to the jump off. We made friends with the others in the Tuk Tuk as well. Last time we did the tubing we were the only ones on the river. This time it was like a full on party. I felt a little old but took on the attitude that this was my party. We had many drinks and and Brad and I tried eating wasps. We had to spit them out because no matter how much we chewed, there was no way to get them down. about half way down the river were the last bar is we hired a boat to return us. I really don't remember much from this point on. Liza and I met with Brad and Kathryn (another one of the tubers from the Tuk Tuk) for dinner. After this we went to a full moon party. Except for Kathryn we tuckered out by about 11:30 and headed home. I remember waking up at about 6:00 am and waking Liza up to say, "hey where's the money belt?" (contains money and passports). It was nowhere to be seen. We looked everywhere and started to assume the worst. We went down to the front desk and checked. We questioned the kids in our hallway... Nothing. We were going to have to cancel our trip and return home, then I looked at the bed and noticed something sticking out from behind the mattress ... saved again. We both have no idea how it go there, but St. Christopher and St. Anthony came through for us again! We did learn a valuable lesson though. We learned how important that stuff is, and how screwed we would be if we lost it. As if to hammer the meaning in I saw a young girl crying in the internet cafe next door. She was on the phone (Skype) with her embassy, she had lost her passport, credit cards and money.
Later that day we were supposed to be getting on a bus to Vientiane. I had to get the tickets changed for the next day. I was burning up, my throat hurt and my stomach and butt were doing weird things. The bit of hang over probably didn't help either. I was okay for the next day. But when we woke in Vientiane the following day I was really having stomach problems. For a second I started thinking malaria, and then I remembered how I felt the morning after chicken wings from Tags in Whitehorse on several occasions. The next day I wasn't much better so I started taking antibiotics for Travellers Diarhea. It's been three days but today I feel much better.
Tommorow we will be taking a bus to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. We plan on spending a few days there, and then taking the night train to Bangkok. A few days in Bangkok and then we are off to INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From Luang Prabang we took a mini van back to Vang Vieng, where we were going to give tubing another shot and enjoy the really good pancakes. The mini bus drove so fast that I seriously thought our driver had something wrong with him. At our first stop I even mentioned to another passenger that perhaps if we all say something together he might slow down. She got on another van instead, and apperently had a much smoother ride. It started getting very smoky and we were flying around these tight mountainous roads. At one point we stopped, and when I looked up I noticed that the road ahead was blocked by opaque smoke and there was a 30 foot fire on the side of the road. The driver started backing up, but then decided to go forward. The 2 ladies in front of us started to get very nervous and then Liza put her foot down. She said, "whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa .... stop, i'm taking control now." She did this becasue most people on the bus were petrified, and the bus driver didn't really seem sure as to what to do. She was thanked later on! We stopped for a few moments and the driver started to say something along the lines of it's okay, the fire is gone. The Aussie guy in front of me (Brad) also stated that it should be fine, as they were controlled brush fires. Other cars started to come through the smoke from the other side, which was when I started to relax a bit. My main fear was the visibility. If we started to drive in to the smoke and it became too thick we would have been in a lot of trouble. Instead it cleared up in about 30 feet and all was fine. We passed crazy fires on either side of the road, one was even hitting the power lines. Liza was on fire in the van as far as her joke telling and set the whole van at ease. We ended up making friends with the two dutch ladies and Brad, and made plans to meet the following day for some tubing action.
The next day at about 12:30 we met with Brad. One of the other ladies had taken ill (this is what I call foreshadowing). We got our tubes and headed to the jump off. We made friends with the others in the Tuk Tuk as well. Last time we did the tubing we were the only ones on the river. This time it was like a full on party. I felt a little old but took on the attitude that this was my party. We had many drinks and and Brad and I tried eating wasps. We had to spit them out because no matter how much we chewed, there was no way to get them down. about half way down the river were the last bar is we hired a boat to return us. I really don't remember much from this point on. Liza and I met with Brad and Kathryn (another one of the tubers from the Tuk Tuk) for dinner. After this we went to a full moon party. Except for Kathryn we tuckered out by about 11:30 and headed home. I remember waking up at about 6:00 am and waking Liza up to say, "hey where's the money belt?" (contains money and passports). It was nowhere to be seen. We looked everywhere and started to assume the worst. We went down to the front desk and checked. We questioned the kids in our hallway... Nothing. We were going to have to cancel our trip and return home, then I looked at the bed and noticed something sticking out from behind the mattress ... saved again. We both have no idea how it go there, but St. Christopher and St. Anthony came through for us again! We did learn a valuable lesson though. We learned how important that stuff is, and how screwed we would be if we lost it. As if to hammer the meaning in I saw a young girl crying in the internet cafe next door. She was on the phone (Skype) with her embassy, she had lost her passport, credit cards and money.
Later that day we were supposed to be getting on a bus to Vientiane. I had to get the tickets changed for the next day. I was burning up, my throat hurt and my stomach and butt were doing weird things. The bit of hang over probably didn't help either. I was okay for the next day. But when we woke in Vientiane the following day I was really having stomach problems. For a second I started thinking malaria, and then I remembered how I felt the morning after chicken wings from Tags in Whitehorse on several occasions. The next day I wasn't much better so I started taking antibiotics for Travellers Diarhea. It's been three days but today I feel much better.
Tommorow we will be taking a bus to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. We plan on spending a few days there, and then taking the night train to Bangkok. A few days in Bangkok and then we are off to INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, March 6, 2009
All things Laos
We are in Laos now and loving it!! I'm pretty sure I speak for both Liza and I when I say this is our favorite. Laos seems to be everything we thought travel would be. Walking down streets lined with temples, exchanging smiles and greetings with the very friendly locals. The art and people make for picture perfect sights at every turn.
I will start with our departure from Vietnam. On our second last night we went to the Red Bridge Cooking School. It was one of the better cooking courses we have done so far. It included a tour of the market, and a boat ride up the Mekong river. The market tour was awesome. Our guide Su Su was hilarious. She showed us all the right produce to make amazing meals and help our libido's. Woo - Hoo. We then took a boat ride up the Mekong to the cooking school. We saw lots of rural Vietnamese life, and of course rice patties. The meals we prepared tasted wonderful, and the chef that led the class had a great dry sense of humour, that made me laugh lots. The next day we took a bus to a town called Hue. From here we were supposed to get a bus the next day to Savannakhet, Laos. All the buses seemed to be full. We thought we were going to be stuck in this fairly boring town.
We found a lady across from our hotel that sold us two tickets. Now we have read horror stories about this bus ride and we were very nervous. Tourists have been stuck sitting on the floor and then left at the border waiting for another bus. Sometimes they will put you on a nice bus to the border, and then put you on a overcrowded local bus. Well someone was watching over us. We were on a local bus but we had seats the whole way, and it wasn't over crowded. Upon arriving in Savannakhet it was like having a weight lifted off our chests. There was an immediate change in the feel in Laos. The people of Vietnam all seem to want to knock you ever to get to the front of the line all the while helping themselves to your money with their ridiculous overcharging of tourists. In Laos we were offered local prices for just about everything and treated with smiles and honesty.
Our first night in Savannakhet we went for a walk and drink with two Japanese men (Hiroki, and Masami) we had met on the bus. They were really cool, and we enjoyed having them be a part of our travels. The following day we went to a dinosaur museum. It was very small, but we were given the tour by the curator and the local paleontologist. He even showed us a french documentary that he was in. Two days later we took a bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
In Vientiane we eventually (our Tuk Tuk driver got lost) got to our hotel which was a bit of a splurge (swanky). I woke up the following morning feeling a little ill. I went and toured all the sites, and then when I got back to the hotel I was bed ridden. It must have been some kind of flu. I was up the next day, but still not 100% (I couldn't eat). The next day I was back to normal, and hungry. We took a bus on this day to Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng was like the young tourist mecca. I don't know if I'm getting old but the town was full of young twenty year olds. They all thought that they were "The complete traveller." The truth is all they wanted to do was get drunk and get laid. The Laotian people are very modest, and all the hotels have posters, indicating rules for respectable behaviour. These rules are posted, and written everywhere. So what makes these kids think it's okay to walk down the street in a bikini, and no shirt for the guys. Couldn't they feel the glares of the locals as they passed them? These kids were literally spitting in the face of their hosts. I went for a walk down the main back packer area one night and was amazed to see a bunch of kids in open air bars watching re-runs of Friends. It was at this point that I realized that all the joys of "the backpacker" life that I was looking forward to was just a trend. They all read the Lonely Planet and follow it like a bible, while learning nothing of the countries they are visiting. I could go on a big rant here but I will curb it. Actually I will finish it with the tale of this last character I met. I am walking out of the woods (Liza is back at the hotel, we got a lot of sun this day) and come upon this guy exiting another trail. I ask him where he is coming from and he tells me he was at this temple all day, reading Siddhartha. He then asked me where I was staying. I told him I was staying in a bigger hotel as it was time to spoil ourselves. He then went on to tell me how he has stopped consuming so much. He says consumerism is ruining the earth. He then goes on to tell me that he travels for six months every year, to avoid Sweden's winters. I guess you don't need to consume so much if you are well off enough to travel like that every year. I just found this to be pompous bullshit. This guy was so pleased with himself, it's as though he didn't realize the hypocrisy he was living.
Anyways Vang Vieng was awesome other than that. Tubing down the Nam song river was the highlight. You sit in tubes and float down the river, stopping at bars that are set up along the way. We stopped at one where we were offered free shots of Lao Lao (local homemade rice whisky). A great and scenic journey. We both got too much sun, but oh well. Liza spent one day in the hotel dealing with the same illness I had just gotten over (sorry honey). Another highlight was the Chocolate, Banana, Coconut pancakes we had for dessert every night.
We are now in Luang Prabang. This is the artsy town of Laos. Silk and textiles everywhere, as well as beautiful temples, and boutique hotels. We will enjoy this for a while and then I believe we will go back to Vientiane, and then to Bangkok. We'll see, there are so many options that it changes all the time. We are both getting a bit of travellers fatigue but we are still enjoying every day. Thanks for following and we look forward to seeing you all.
Mark
I will start with our departure from Vietnam. On our second last night we went to the Red Bridge Cooking School. It was one of the better cooking courses we have done so far. It included a tour of the market, and a boat ride up the Mekong river. The market tour was awesome. Our guide Su Su was hilarious. She showed us all the right produce to make amazing meals and help our libido's. Woo - Hoo. We then took a boat ride up the Mekong to the cooking school. We saw lots of rural Vietnamese life, and of course rice patties. The meals we prepared tasted wonderful, and the chef that led the class had a great dry sense of humour, that made me laugh lots. The next day we took a bus to a town called Hue. From here we were supposed to get a bus the next day to Savannakhet, Laos. All the buses seemed to be full. We thought we were going to be stuck in this fairly boring town.
We found a lady across from our hotel that sold us two tickets. Now we have read horror stories about this bus ride and we were very nervous. Tourists have been stuck sitting on the floor and then left at the border waiting for another bus. Sometimes they will put you on a nice bus to the border, and then put you on a overcrowded local bus. Well someone was watching over us. We were on a local bus but we had seats the whole way, and it wasn't over crowded. Upon arriving in Savannakhet it was like having a weight lifted off our chests. There was an immediate change in the feel in Laos. The people of Vietnam all seem to want to knock you ever to get to the front of the line all the while helping themselves to your money with their ridiculous overcharging of tourists. In Laos we were offered local prices for just about everything and treated with smiles and honesty.
Our first night in Savannakhet we went for a walk and drink with two Japanese men (Hiroki, and Masami) we had met on the bus. They were really cool, and we enjoyed having them be a part of our travels. The following day we went to a dinosaur museum. It was very small, but we were given the tour by the curator and the local paleontologist. He even showed us a french documentary that he was in. Two days later we took a bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
In Vientiane we eventually (our Tuk Tuk driver got lost) got to our hotel which was a bit of a splurge (swanky). I woke up the following morning feeling a little ill. I went and toured all the sites, and then when I got back to the hotel I was bed ridden. It must have been some kind of flu. I was up the next day, but still not 100% (I couldn't eat). The next day I was back to normal, and hungry. We took a bus on this day to Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng was like the young tourist mecca. I don't know if I'm getting old but the town was full of young twenty year olds. They all thought that they were "The complete traveller." The truth is all they wanted to do was get drunk and get laid. The Laotian people are very modest, and all the hotels have posters, indicating rules for respectable behaviour. These rules are posted, and written everywhere. So what makes these kids think it's okay to walk down the street in a bikini, and no shirt for the guys. Couldn't they feel the glares of the locals as they passed them? These kids were literally spitting in the face of their hosts. I went for a walk down the main back packer area one night and was amazed to see a bunch of kids in open air bars watching re-runs of Friends. It was at this point that I realized that all the joys of "the backpacker" life that I was looking forward to was just a trend. They all read the Lonely Planet and follow it like a bible, while learning nothing of the countries they are visiting. I could go on a big rant here but I will curb it. Actually I will finish it with the tale of this last character I met. I am walking out of the woods (Liza is back at the hotel, we got a lot of sun this day) and come upon this guy exiting another trail. I ask him where he is coming from and he tells me he was at this temple all day, reading Siddhartha. He then asked me where I was staying. I told him I was staying in a bigger hotel as it was time to spoil ourselves. He then went on to tell me how he has stopped consuming so much. He says consumerism is ruining the earth. He then goes on to tell me that he travels for six months every year, to avoid Sweden's winters. I guess you don't need to consume so much if you are well off enough to travel like that every year. I just found this to be pompous bullshit. This guy was so pleased with himself, it's as though he didn't realize the hypocrisy he was living.
Anyways Vang Vieng was awesome other than that. Tubing down the Nam song river was the highlight. You sit in tubes and float down the river, stopping at bars that are set up along the way. We stopped at one where we were offered free shots of Lao Lao (local homemade rice whisky). A great and scenic journey. We both got too much sun, but oh well. Liza spent one day in the hotel dealing with the same illness I had just gotten over (sorry honey). Another highlight was the Chocolate, Banana, Coconut pancakes we had for dessert every night.
We are now in Luang Prabang. This is the artsy town of Laos. Silk and textiles everywhere, as well as beautiful temples, and boutique hotels. We will enjoy this for a while and then I believe we will go back to Vientiane, and then to Bangkok. We'll see, there are so many options that it changes all the time. We are both getting a bit of travellers fatigue but we are still enjoying every day. Thanks for following and we look forward to seeing you all.
Mark
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