April 20, 2008
Our nice in the fancy Phnom Penh hotel was just what we needed. The free breakfast at the hotel was really nice... really nice coffee, fresh fruit juice, fantastic yogurt and muesli... oh so good. We decided that we needed a second night there. The hotel was kinda jerky about it and said we needed to move to another room that cost US$5 more (for a grand total of US$50). Yes, that's expensive. Oh well. It was only one more night... ad it WAS really nice.
I spent a big chunk of the day trying to use the internet cafe and catch up on my blog and photo journal. I got caught up on my photos, but the internet cafe was so crap that my blog posting got messed up and I lost most of it. Bastards. Oh well.
In order to find a good internet cafe, I actually walked around and ended up trying about four different places. At the last one, I had a interesting experience. I was looking for a cafe that I could make a phone call home using Skype. At the last place, the dude said there was a laptop in the back that I could make my call on. He showed me the laptop. While I was logging onto Skype the dude sort of hung around and kept talking to me. The conversation went sort of like this:
Dude: "How long have you been in Cambodia?" -- a pretty common question from Cambodians.
Me: "I only got here last night."
Dude: "What do you think of Cambodian people?"
Me: "I've been here for less than a day, but they seem very friendly. They smile a lot. I like that!"
Dude: "Do you have any friends in Cambodia?"
Me: "No, just the people I'm traveling with. I've only been here for a day, after all."
Dude: "Do you like dancing?"
Me: Now I was thinking, okay, this is getting wierd... I just wanted to make a phone call, then this guy won't stop being chatty! I respond, "Yeah, I enjoy dancing once in a while."
Dude: "There is a dance party tonight. Lots of music. Do you want to go with me?"
Me: Okay, this is getting wierder! "Aww man, no thanks... we had a rough day yesterday, I need to catch up on sleep. Now, I'm going to make my phone call..." That's when I started to ignore him and hope he left.... which he did...
The phone call wasn't successful... the internet was just too crap. I ended up using the computer for only about 5 minute after he left, even though he talked to me for about 15 minutes before. So, I went out to pay...
Dude: "Fifteen to thirty minutes, 1000 riel." -- note that the rate is 2000 riel per hour -- rounded up to the next 15 minutes (500 riel)
Me: "I don't think so. I only talked for about five minutes."
Dude: "Yes. 1000 riel."
Me: "I know I was trying to use the computer for about twenty minutes, but for the first fifteen, you were talking to me the whole time."
Dude: "Yes."
Me: "So then I was really only using it for 5 minutes on my own."
Dude: "Yes."
Me: "So you agree that I should only pay 500 riel."
Dude: "Yes."
Me, handing over a 500 riel note (that's about 12 cents -- yes I argued over 12 cents): "Okay, I'm going to go now."
Dude: "Good bye... I wish I could go with you..."
Okay, so this Cambodian dude was totally flirting with me. He wanted me. I am absolutely serious. He really said that he wished he could go with me and he really invited me to go dancing and make "friends."
Alex and I were excited to find a REAL SUPERMARKET close to our hotel in Phnom Penh. Apparently our hotel is located in an posher area of the city... banks, electronics stores, supermarkets, cafes, handicrafts stores, embassies, hotels, lots of businesses. It was busy and the roads were filled with honking cars, motorcycles, and the ever-ubiquitious tuk-tuks. We were DEFINITELY not in Laos anymore. Cambodia is hip and happening and moving places. Laos is a sleepy backwater place that is treading water and trying to keep up. Anyways, at this supermarket, Alex and I bought cheese, bread, wine, chocolate, peanut butter, beer, juice for lunch and snacking along with other essential sundries like shampoo and deodorant.
For dinner, we went to a pizza place near our hotel and grabbed some takeaway Hawaiian pizza which we enjoyed at the hotel while watching a movie on the TELEVISION (yes, we had a TV!) along with the rest of our cheese, bread, peanut butter, and wine from lunch.
It was an exhausting day!
April 21, 2008
I think we did even less today than the day before. We moved from our expensive fancy pants hotel to a cheaper guesthouse one block away. It was only US$20/night instead of US$50/night, but still had air conditioning, a TV, a refrigerator and a private bathroom with heated shower -- these are the necessary luxuries you normally have to pay out for.
Alex found out that our friends Andrew and Jenny from Spicythai Backpackers were also in Phnom Penh! We made plans to meet with them that night.
In the morning, Alex and I took a moto ride to the Russian Market to do some shopping. The Russian Market is apparently the place to go in Phnom Penh to buy souveniers, and bargain bootleg clothing products. I was surprised to see a large number local handicraft shops that were set up to promote local industry and provide all profits back to the community. There was a lot of charity work afoot all over Cambodia. Many of the products in these handicraft shops were made of recycled materials -- bracelets made from recycled cigarette wrappers, bags made from old sacks of rice, figurines made from pieces of scrap metal or bullets. Alex bought a heap load of souveniers and presents from shops like these. I was still offically "traveling light" so I only bought a bag made from an old sack of rice, an "Adidas" shirt and a pair of fake Birkenstocks. The fake sandals were so painful that I ended up throwing them out a couple days later.
That night, we went to a restaurant that I had read about in Lonely Planet and had been lusting over for at least a week. There was a Russian Restaurant in Phnom Penh and it was supposed to be really good. It totally surpassed my expectations. I had borscht, cabbage rolls, fresh bread, and a lot of vodka (probably like five shots). Alex had some beef stroganoff and only drank some gin and tonics. She said it was wierd that anyone could drink so much vodka straight at one meal. Vodka is easy for me... no problems :)
After the amazing Russian meal, we motoed up to the backpacker ghetto and met Andrew and Jenny for drinks. We stayed up late and drank a lot. We made plans for the next day.
April 22, 2008
Our plans today were more impressive than any before. We met up with Andrew and Jenny at the very fancy Hotel Phnom Penh and hung out at the pool all day long. I also spent a good amount of time in the steam room, sauna, and jacuzzi. Phnom Penh was already freakin' hot... why would I want to spend time sitting in a steam room? Who knows, maybe the heat was making me crazy. We stayed at the hotel for like six hours in the afternoon and only had to pay the day rate of US$5 each. Sweet deal!
The four of us reconvened that night for a meal at our first Cambodia restaurant. Indeed, I was in Cambodia for three full days and I hadn't had any actual Cambodian food at all. I was still reeling in the huge selection of Western stuff available in Phnom Penh and was living it up as much as I could. I had some amok with tofu for dinner -- its a baked stew like dish with lots of coconut milk and some spiciness. Pretty tasty.
April 23, 2008
So it was my fourth and final day in Phnom Penh. I guess it was time to do some sightseeing, after all. My stay in Phnom Penh was so far consumed with consumption and relaxing. I needed it, but I should do something touristy, I suppose, I guess.
Before sightseeing, Alex and I went for breakfast at a cafe near our guesthouse. I think it was called the "Garden Cafe 2". Anyways, it was the freakin' best breakfast I've had in all of Asia. Seriously. I got a breakfast for US$6.50. Yeah, kinda spendy, but it was totally worth it. I got:
* Freshly ground coffee -- oh so good.
* A glass of fresh fruit juice -- I chose the orange
* A large bowl of fresh sour yogurt
* A huge plate of fresh fruit -- two oranges, two bananas, a mango, and an APPLE! (Apples aren't that common in SE Asia since they need to be imported, usually from the U.S.A.)
* Real butter from France -- European butter is far tastier than any butter in North America
* A big jar of black currant jam from England -- more on this below
* Two eggs very fluffly scrambled
* A piece of sausage
* Three pieces of bacon
* A grilled tomato
* Two toasted slices of home cooked brown bread
Okay, that's more food than I would ever order for breakfast. I couldn't eat all the fruit and I took it most of it away for later. I cut up the mango and one of the bananas into pieces and mixed them into the yogurt with big spoonfuls of black currant jam. They gave me honey that I could have used, but I wanted the black currant jam -- totally my favourite flavour of jam. That cafe sure made a mistake putting the whole jar of jam on the table. I totally have the backpacker mentality now that free food should not be wasted. That jar started about half full, but
it ended close to empty. Woo hoo!
After that fantastic (and filling) breakfast, Alex and I met up with Jenny and Andrew at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. After indulging myself in the luxuries that Cambodia provides to its tourists who want to pay for it, I needed to explore the dark side of Cambodia history. The museum was dark indeed. It used to be a high school in the 1960s, but during the regime of Pol Pot in the 1970s it was used as the most infamous prison in the whole country. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 13,000 and 20,000 men and women were held at the prison over the four years it was active. Only 7 people survived. The prisoners were subjected to the harshest tortures and awful living conditions. The museum itself is a grim testament to its history... lots of photographs and empty cells remain. Some rooms just contain a metal bed with shackles attached to it. These rooms would have a single photograph on the wall showing an emaciated man shackled to it. There were hundreds of photographs of the prisoners themselves, taken on arrival. There were paintings showing the methods used to torture people. I was very shaken to be there. I felt goosebumps and shivers and had to grip my crucifix necklace to give me the strength to continue. That museum is one of the scariest places I've even been.
After lunch, the four of us continued our exploration of the dark Cambodian past and took a tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields -- a wooded field about 20 km outside of Phnom Penh. Prisoners from various sites in Cambodia were brought the the Killing Fields of Cheong Ek (and other similar sites around the country) to be killed in brutal, but simple, ways. Since bullets in 1970s Cambodia were rather expensive, prisoners were killed by hoes, shovels, sharp edges of palm leaves, beating against trees, and any other blunt objects that were on hand. There was a huge monument to the Cambodian Genocide there. The monument was full of skulls. Out tour guide showed us skulls with huge holes in them from the blows of hoes and shovels. The fields themselves consist of a huge number of mass graves. Some of these graves have been opened and are now open pits. These graves usually held 100 to 200 people. As we walked around the fields, we saw pieces of human bones sticking out of the dirt. There were 20,000 people killed and buried haphazardly in pits all over the killing fields there.
That night was Alex's and my last night in Phnom Penh, so we went out for dinner and drinks with Jenny and Andrew. We went to riverfront for a bit of a pub crawl. We started at the very swanky (and expensive) Foreign Correspondent's Club. We sat on the rooftop patio and drank half-price cocktails! Happy Hour is something that I didn't really appreciate before this trip. The opportunity to get cheap booze in the afternoon is definitely appreciated now :)
After Happy Hour ended, we walked up the river front for Mexican food. We ended up going to two more bars after dinner. We played pool att one. Alex and I beat Andrew and Jenny two to one while a really lame live band played Lounge music in English. I toasted our stay in Phnom Penh with a round of Jagermeister shots for everyone.
We parted ways with Andrew and Jenny there on the riverfront in Phnom Penh. However, we planned to meet up again at Burning Man in Nevada, USA at the end of August.
To be continued...
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Four Thousand Islands and Pi Mai Lao Part 2
April 14 and 15, 2008
In the morning, we checked out of the Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse in Pakse, Laos. While checking out, the staff dude looked at my last name and commented about it. I said, "Yeah, it's a Polish name." The staff dude said that the owner of the guesthouse, Mr. Vong, spoke Polish. I thought to myself, "No way... I've already heard him speak in excellent English and French... but Polish? No one in Southeast Asia speaks Polish." So I struck up Mr. Vong in conversation. His Polish was even better than mine. Apparantly he studied mechanical engineering in Warsaw for ten years. That makes for THREE really interesting guesthouse/hostel owners whose names end with -ong: Pong (Spicythai Backpackers in Chiang Mai, Thailand), Mr. Kong (Kong Keo Guesthouse in Phonsavan, Laos), and Mr. Vong (Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse in Pakse, Laos). Just odd...
Alex, Damaris, and I boarded a minibus to take us two hours south. From there, it was a short boat ride to Don Khone.
We had heard about Don Khone in Pakse. The staff of Sabaidy 2 said it was a really nice and quiet island to visit. Not really very rustic, but very comfortable. It was exactly what we were looking for. When we got to Don Khone, we realized our error. We were really supposed to go to Don Khong, not Don Khone. Their names are so similar, we got mixed up! Oh well, Don Khone was still a pretty island and we would stay there instead.
Don Khone was very pretty, but not quiet at all. Pi Mai Lao was still in full swing here and the villagers were PARTYING constantly. Our guesthouse (Mr. Pan's) had a restaurant and the staff of the restaurant were VERY aggressive about soaking people with water when they came by. We saw a pair of girls on a scooter totally wipe out while trying to dodge the water from their hose. Eep. Not only did they like to soak you, but they liked to spread lipstick on your face (as Alex found out, and I ran away from). They liked to put talcum powder in your hair and on your face, too. Oi!
Additionally, the villagers played a LOT of loud Lao music during the afternoon and evening. First the restaurant on one side of our guesthouse would play. Then the restaurant across the street. Then the house beside that. Then the house on the other side of our guesthouse. They were taking turns playing their music as loudly as possible. Sometimes they would play at the same same ("same same" -- that's a common saying on T-Shirts here -- I don't know why) time and try and drown each other out. I know that it's their biggest holiday of the year, but combined with my recent travel fatigue, it was really getting old for me fast.
Also, there were lots of roosters crowing. I just couldn't escape these guys. Would I never know peace again?
Don Khone is very rustic, too. They only have electricity for a few hours in the evening. The afternoons there are very very hot. Short of jumping into the Mekong River, there's no way to cool off in the afternoons. You can't even get an icy fruit shake to cool off with since there's no electricity to run the blenders.
Don Khone was VERY PRETTY, and had really nice food and cheap liquor, but it really was way too rustic for us to handle. We decided to bear with it for two days and then would take the boat to nearby Don Khong.
We spent the afternoons trying to lie in hammocks and barely surviving. I tried to drink a lot of water (probably like three hours per day) and take three or four showers per day to keep cool. I occasionally let the restaurant staff hose me down, too. Damaris didn't drink nearly enough water and started to feel ill. Doh. Drinking water is important, you know!
In the evenings we visited a pretty nice restaurant beside the river. One night, before sunset, we watched a bunch of locals on motorbikes set up a toll booth on the bridge beside the restaurant. It was not your normal kind of toll booth though. They made anyone who passed on their motorbikes stop and have some shots of Lao Lao before continuing. They were forcing people to drink and drive! That's something you'd never see in Canada!
The "Lao Lao Toll Booth"
We prefered to drink and sit. The restaurant had the cheapest liquor I had yet seen in Lao. They charged only 10,000 kip (about CA$1.20) for a generous shot of Pastis and a bottle of water. The water usually costs 2,000 kip (about CA$0.20). Getting a drink of imported liquor for only CA$1 was very cheap in Laos -- usually it cost closer to CA$3. We drank a lot of Pastis and Gin and Tonics there! They also had a fantastic Thai red curry with pumpkin there. Mmm!
Sunset on Don Khone
April 16 to 18, 2008
On the morning of April 16 we chartered a long tail boat to take us a hour and half back up river to Don Khong -- the real island we wanted. It turned out to be everything we wanted. They had twenty-four electricity, guesthouses with AIR CONDITIONING (since our stay in Don Khong, every guesthouse or hotel we've stayed in has had air conditioning). There were very few tourists there. Strangely enough, there weren't any crowing roosters as well. I saw chickens and chicks, so the roosters must have been somewhere... I just couldn't see or hear them. Maybe they kept them muzzled in some shack out back somewhere. Hallelujah! It was a very pretty island, too. Don Khong was like a holiday away from our holiday. I needed it!
We didn't see (or hear) any Pi Mai Lao celebrations on Don Khong. We knew they were still going somewhere, though. Our guesthouse kitchen was closed every night. When we asked why, they said it was because of Pi Mai Lao. We assumed that the cook was out drunk or passed out somewhere. Hehe.
We did very very little on Don Khong. We'd wake up in the morning and enjoy the free breakfast at our guesthouse -- Auberge sa la Done Khong. The guesthouse was less like your typical cheapo-guesthouse and more like an old French colonial hotel that was starting to show its rough edges. My bathroom was completely overrun with mosquitos and I was afraid to go in there. Otherwise, it was really quite pleasant. It cost me US$10/day. Not that bad, really.
Oh yeah! Back to the breakfast! They served really nice coffee (which I usually got two or three cups of), fried eggs, fruit salad, and very fluffy pancakes. They didn't have maple syrup (not that I would expect them, too), so we either spread sweetened condensed milk on our pancakes (much better than pouring puddles of it into coffee), or sprinkled sugar and lime juice. Most pancakes we had in Laos were too think and greasy. These were really good.
We spent a lot of time just sitting in our air conditioned rooms listening to music, reading, chatting, playing guessing games. I also spent time playing my Nintendo DS Lite. I finished up my book House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (it's really good -- highly recommended -- thanks Aleks (my cousin) for the suggestion!) and started The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (which Alex (my traveling buddy) traded to me). I also spent lots of time sitting on the deck chairs on the guesthouse patio. Life was hard. It was still excessively hot out, so you can't blame us for taking it easy.
Occasionally we ventured out to find food. My Lonely Planet guidebook told me that there was another guesthouse (the Mekong Guesthouse) in town that made the audacious claim that they served Canadian-style pancakes and Tim Horton's-style coffee. This was ludicrous. We had to investigate.
The pancakes were indeed very light and fluffy -- as I would expect proper pancakes from Canada. Sadly, they lacked maple syrup -- but honey made a very nice substitute. Alex admitted to being a Tim Horton's addict (she is from Hamilton, Ontario, after all). She confirmed that the coffee really did taste like Timmy's coffee! I don't know how they did it, but they did. Since they managed to meet our expectations, we went to that guesthouse twice. There were really only like four places to eat in town, so quite a few places managed to score our repeat business.
One night, we were eating at this guesthouse patio overlooking the river. There weren't many other tourists in town, but there were some. There were a couple of families from France. That night, while the French parents chatted with each other (and smoked like chimnies), the kids were happily playing with each other. I guess one of the kids (I think he was only three years old) got bored and decided to play with us for a while. He spent like an hour sitting on Damaris' lap demanding that we draw pictures of cars, trucks, dolphins, bananas and other things. Once it was announced that it was I that was the artiste, the kid switched over to my lap and made me draw for him. It was mostly Damaris and Alex that spoke to the kid, though. Damaris speaks flawless French (as she should, since she is from Switzerland). Alex's French is better than mine, too, since she went to university in Montreal and took French immersion.
The kid was a liar, though. When we asked him where he was from, he said he was from Marseilles. His parents' corrected him and said that they were really from Nantes! Punk!
The riverfront view on Don Khong.
Alex tries to "roll up the rim" on her Tim Horton's coffee on Don Khong
April 19, 2008
Today was the last day on Alex's and my visas for Laos. We had to exit the country that day. We said our goodbyes to Damaris (I promised I would visit her if I ended up backpacking in Europe next year). She was going to go north through Laos to return to Chiang Mai, while we were headed south into Cambodia.
It was a long day of travel. We spent a long time at the border. There was a lot of border bureaucracy (e.g.: crap) to deal with. First we had to pay our US$2 "exit fee" to get leave Laos. Then we had to pay US$21 to get our visa for Cambodia. Finally, we had to pay a US$1 "entrance fee" to enter Cambodia. Really, most of these fees were really enforced bribes to the border guards. The only cost we were really supposed to pay was US$20 for the Cambodia visa. Damn border guards. There really wasn't much we could do.
Much of the journey was spent in a couple of different minibuses. The bus had seating for thirteen people, but there was usually about fifteen people in it. The air conditioning was weak so we had to travel with the windows open. One section of the road was completely made out of dust and sand, so we ate a lot of dirt. Bleck. The ride was so long that the guys in the back of the bus kept lighting up cigarettes. Some of them had the decency to try and keep close to the windows to keep the smoke out, but not all of them did. Double triple vomity bleck.
I was excited to reach Cambodia, though. Laos really sucked for beer and liquor. Beer Lao is not good. Many people say that it's one of the better beers available in Southeast Asia. I think they are wrong. W R O N G. Lao Lao is really harsh stuff, too. The problem is, though, that Laos claims to be a communist country (they're not really communist though -- see rant below) and they are landlocked -- so the selection of imported products is pretty limited. Cambodia claims to be a democratic country (they've got some issues with that, too, though), and is not landlocked. Hence, the selection of imported products is much better. The most popular Cambodia beer, Angkor, is pretty decent, too.
We finally pulled into Phnom Penh at like 10:30 PM. Alex and I had pre-decided that would stay in a REAL HOTEL when we got to Phnom Penh. We had lived on the cheap in Laos for a full thirty days, and we needed a taste of luxury to relieve our travel fatigue. The auberge on Don Khong was nice, but we needed more! Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia, and the biggest city we've been in since Bangkok in Thailand, so it was a good candidate for a recharge.
We had a couple choice locations picked out in our guidebooks, so we grabbed a tuk-tuk from the backpacker ghetto that the minibus from Laos dropped us off in and puttered over to the swankier section of town. Alas, the first two hotels we looked for were closed or moved. We walked around for like an hour in after-dark Phnom Penh (which many people say you shouldn't do), before finding the Anise Hotel. We got a really swanky (by our standards) room for US$45. Yes, that's really expensive, but we deserved it. It was 11:30 PM and we were tired of looking. We got a couple of draught Angkor beers from the hotel bar, cracked open the minibar and looted it for chocolate, cleaned the dust and dirt from ourselves with the shower and passed out.
To be continued...
Rant about Communism in Laos!
Oh yeah! I wanted to rant about the communist government in Laos. I didn't really feel comfortable ranting about this while I was actually in Laos, but now that I'm in Cambodia, here goes.
Laos is trying out the same messed up form of communism that China and Vietnam are doing. I don't like the regular socialist form of Communism either, but the capitalist form of Communism popular in Asia these days is just messed up. The people of Laos have to pay to send their kids to school or get health care from hospitals. That's not real communism -- not even close. That's just an example of greedy government leadership. They're just saying they're "communist" to maintain their grip on power while they continue to exploit their population. That's greedy and just plain evil.
In the morning, we checked out of the Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse in Pakse, Laos. While checking out, the staff dude looked at my last name and commented about it. I said, "Yeah, it's a Polish name." The staff dude said that the owner of the guesthouse, Mr. Vong, spoke Polish. I thought to myself, "No way... I've already heard him speak in excellent English and French... but Polish? No one in Southeast Asia speaks Polish." So I struck up Mr. Vong in conversation. His Polish was even better than mine. Apparantly he studied mechanical engineering in Warsaw for ten years. That makes for THREE really interesting guesthouse/hostel owners whose names end with -ong: Pong (Spicythai Backpackers in Chiang Mai, Thailand), Mr. Kong (Kong Keo Guesthouse in Phonsavan, Laos), and Mr. Vong (Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse in Pakse, Laos). Just odd...
Alex, Damaris, and I boarded a minibus to take us two hours south. From there, it was a short boat ride to Don Khone.
We had heard about Don Khone in Pakse. The staff of Sabaidy 2 said it was a really nice and quiet island to visit. Not really very rustic, but very comfortable. It was exactly what we were looking for. When we got to Don Khone, we realized our error. We were really supposed to go to Don Khong, not Don Khone. Their names are so similar, we got mixed up! Oh well, Don Khone was still a pretty island and we would stay there instead.
Don Khone was very pretty, but not quiet at all. Pi Mai Lao was still in full swing here and the villagers were PARTYING constantly. Our guesthouse (Mr. Pan's) had a restaurant and the staff of the restaurant were VERY aggressive about soaking people with water when they came by. We saw a pair of girls on a scooter totally wipe out while trying to dodge the water from their hose. Eep. Not only did they like to soak you, but they liked to spread lipstick on your face (as Alex found out, and I ran away from). They liked to put talcum powder in your hair and on your face, too. Oi!
Additionally, the villagers played a LOT of loud Lao music during the afternoon and evening. First the restaurant on one side of our guesthouse would play. Then the restaurant across the street. Then the house beside that. Then the house on the other side of our guesthouse. They were taking turns playing their music as loudly as possible. Sometimes they would play at the same same ("same same" -- that's a common saying on T-Shirts here -- I don't know why) time and try and drown each other out. I know that it's their biggest holiday of the year, but combined with my recent travel fatigue, it was really getting old for me fast.
Also, there were lots of roosters crowing. I just couldn't escape these guys. Would I never know peace again?
Don Khone is very rustic, too. They only have electricity for a few hours in the evening. The afternoons there are very very hot. Short of jumping into the Mekong River, there's no way to cool off in the afternoons. You can't even get an icy fruit shake to cool off with since there's no electricity to run the blenders.
Don Khone was VERY PRETTY, and had really nice food and cheap liquor, but it really was way too rustic for us to handle. We decided to bear with it for two days and then would take the boat to nearby Don Khong.
We spent the afternoons trying to lie in hammocks and barely surviving. I tried to drink a lot of water (probably like three hours per day) and take three or four showers per day to keep cool. I occasionally let the restaurant staff hose me down, too. Damaris didn't drink nearly enough water and started to feel ill. Doh. Drinking water is important, you know!
In the evenings we visited a pretty nice restaurant beside the river. One night, before sunset, we watched a bunch of locals on motorbikes set up a toll booth on the bridge beside the restaurant. It was not your normal kind of toll booth though. They made anyone who passed on their motorbikes stop and have some shots of Lao Lao before continuing. They were forcing people to drink and drive! That's something you'd never see in Canada!
The "Lao Lao Toll Booth"
We prefered to drink and sit. The restaurant had the cheapest liquor I had yet seen in Lao. They charged only 10,000 kip (about CA$1.20) for a generous shot of Pastis and a bottle of water. The water usually costs 2,000 kip (about CA$0.20). Getting a drink of imported liquor for only CA$1 was very cheap in Laos -- usually it cost closer to CA$3. We drank a lot of Pastis and Gin and Tonics there! They also had a fantastic Thai red curry with pumpkin there. Mmm!
Sunset on Don Khone
April 16 to 18, 2008
On the morning of April 16 we chartered a long tail boat to take us a hour and half back up river to Don Khong -- the real island we wanted. It turned out to be everything we wanted. They had twenty-four electricity, guesthouses with AIR CONDITIONING (since our stay in Don Khong, every guesthouse or hotel we've stayed in has had air conditioning). There were very few tourists there. Strangely enough, there weren't any crowing roosters as well. I saw chickens and chicks, so the roosters must have been somewhere... I just couldn't see or hear them. Maybe they kept them muzzled in some shack out back somewhere. Hallelujah! It was a very pretty island, too. Don Khong was like a holiday away from our holiday. I needed it!
We didn't see (or hear) any Pi Mai Lao celebrations on Don Khong. We knew they were still going somewhere, though. Our guesthouse kitchen was closed every night. When we asked why, they said it was because of Pi Mai Lao. We assumed that the cook was out drunk or passed out somewhere. Hehe.
We did very very little on Don Khong. We'd wake up in the morning and enjoy the free breakfast at our guesthouse -- Auberge sa la Done Khong. The guesthouse was less like your typical cheapo-guesthouse and more like an old French colonial hotel that was starting to show its rough edges. My bathroom was completely overrun with mosquitos and I was afraid to go in there. Otherwise, it was really quite pleasant. It cost me US$10/day. Not that bad, really.
Oh yeah! Back to the breakfast! They served really nice coffee (which I usually got two or three cups of), fried eggs, fruit salad, and very fluffy pancakes. They didn't have maple syrup (not that I would expect them, too), so we either spread sweetened condensed milk on our pancakes (much better than pouring puddles of it into coffee), or sprinkled sugar and lime juice. Most pancakes we had in Laos were too think and greasy. These were really good.
We spent a lot of time just sitting in our air conditioned rooms listening to music, reading, chatting, playing guessing games. I also spent time playing my Nintendo DS Lite. I finished up my book House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (it's really good -- highly recommended -- thanks Aleks (my cousin) for the suggestion!) and started The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (which Alex (my traveling buddy) traded to me). I also spent lots of time sitting on the deck chairs on the guesthouse patio. Life was hard. It was still excessively hot out, so you can't blame us for taking it easy.
Occasionally we ventured out to find food. My Lonely Planet guidebook told me that there was another guesthouse (the Mekong Guesthouse) in town that made the audacious claim that they served Canadian-style pancakes and Tim Horton's-style coffee. This was ludicrous. We had to investigate.
The pancakes were indeed very light and fluffy -- as I would expect proper pancakes from Canada. Sadly, they lacked maple syrup -- but honey made a very nice substitute. Alex admitted to being a Tim Horton's addict (she is from Hamilton, Ontario, after all). She confirmed that the coffee really did taste like Timmy's coffee! I don't know how they did it, but they did. Since they managed to meet our expectations, we went to that guesthouse twice. There were really only like four places to eat in town, so quite a few places managed to score our repeat business.
One night, we were eating at this guesthouse patio overlooking the river. There weren't many other tourists in town, but there were some. There were a couple of families from France. That night, while the French parents chatted with each other (and smoked like chimnies), the kids were happily playing with each other. I guess one of the kids (I think he was only three years old) got bored and decided to play with us for a while. He spent like an hour sitting on Damaris' lap demanding that we draw pictures of cars, trucks, dolphins, bananas and other things. Once it was announced that it was I that was the artiste, the kid switched over to my lap and made me draw for him. It was mostly Damaris and Alex that spoke to the kid, though. Damaris speaks flawless French (as she should, since she is from Switzerland). Alex's French is better than mine, too, since she went to university in Montreal and took French immersion.
The kid was a liar, though. When we asked him where he was from, he said he was from Marseilles. His parents' corrected him and said that they were really from Nantes! Punk!
The riverfront view on Don Khong.
Alex tries to "roll up the rim" on her Tim Horton's coffee on Don Khong
April 19, 2008
Today was the last day on Alex's and my visas for Laos. We had to exit the country that day. We said our goodbyes to Damaris (I promised I would visit her if I ended up backpacking in Europe next year). She was going to go north through Laos to return to Chiang Mai, while we were headed south into Cambodia.
It was a long day of travel. We spent a long time at the border. There was a lot of border bureaucracy (e.g.: crap) to deal with. First we had to pay our US$2 "exit fee" to get leave Laos. Then we had to pay US$21 to get our visa for Cambodia. Finally, we had to pay a US$1 "entrance fee" to enter Cambodia. Really, most of these fees were really enforced bribes to the border guards. The only cost we were really supposed to pay was US$20 for the Cambodia visa. Damn border guards. There really wasn't much we could do.
Much of the journey was spent in a couple of different minibuses. The bus had seating for thirteen people, but there was usually about fifteen people in it. The air conditioning was weak so we had to travel with the windows open. One section of the road was completely made out of dust and sand, so we ate a lot of dirt. Bleck. The ride was so long that the guys in the back of the bus kept lighting up cigarettes. Some of them had the decency to try and keep close to the windows to keep the smoke out, but not all of them did. Double triple vomity bleck.
I was excited to reach Cambodia, though. Laos really sucked for beer and liquor. Beer Lao is not good. Many people say that it's one of the better beers available in Southeast Asia. I think they are wrong. W R O N G. Lao Lao is really harsh stuff, too. The problem is, though, that Laos claims to be a communist country (they're not really communist though -- see rant below) and they are landlocked -- so the selection of imported products is pretty limited. Cambodia claims to be a democratic country (they've got some issues with that, too, though), and is not landlocked. Hence, the selection of imported products is much better. The most popular Cambodia beer, Angkor, is pretty decent, too.
We finally pulled into Phnom Penh at like 10:30 PM. Alex and I had pre-decided that would stay in a REAL HOTEL when we got to Phnom Penh. We had lived on the cheap in Laos for a full thirty days, and we needed a taste of luxury to relieve our travel fatigue. The auberge on Don Khong was nice, but we needed more! Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia, and the biggest city we've been in since Bangkok in Thailand, so it was a good candidate for a recharge.
We had a couple choice locations picked out in our guidebooks, so we grabbed a tuk-tuk from the backpacker ghetto that the minibus from Laos dropped us off in and puttered over to the swankier section of town. Alas, the first two hotels we looked for were closed or moved. We walked around for like an hour in after-dark Phnom Penh (which many people say you shouldn't do), before finding the Anise Hotel. We got a really swanky (by our standards) room for US$45. Yes, that's really expensive, but we deserved it. It was 11:30 PM and we were tired of looking. We got a couple of draught Angkor beers from the hotel bar, cracked open the minibar and looted it for chocolate, cleaned the dust and dirt from ourselves with the shower and passed out.
To be continued...
Rant about Communism in Laos!
Oh yeah! I wanted to rant about the communist government in Laos. I didn't really feel comfortable ranting about this while I was actually in Laos, but now that I'm in Cambodia, here goes.
Laos is trying out the same messed up form of communism that China and Vietnam are doing. I don't like the regular socialist form of Communism either, but the capitalist form of Communism popular in Asia these days is just messed up. The people of Laos have to pay to send their kids to school or get health care from hospitals. That's not real communism -- not even close. That's just an example of greedy government leadership. They're just saying they're "communist" to maintain their grip on power while they continue to exploit their population. That's greedy and just plain evil.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
New Photos Posted: Si Phan Don
Hiiiiiiiii....
I've uploaded another album of photos to my Picasa Web Albums. Now you can enjoy the beauty of Si Phan Don (The"Four Thousand Islands") of Laos without leaving your chair! See, I'm out here seeing these things so that you don't have to. Just leave the hard work to me.
This photo album will be the LAST one from Laos. The next one should be for Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, which I'm in right now.
You'd also see a blog post today with my story leading up to this point (Vientiane to here). However, the internet and computers here are so CRAP that after I wrote it and thought I had posted it, I discovered that about 90% of it was missing. @(&#$%^^@#%. Sorry, I don't have the heart to rewrite it today.
--
Rob Sz
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
I've uploaded another album of photos to my Picasa Web Albums. Now you can enjoy the beauty of Si Phan Don (The"Four Thousand Islands") of Laos without leaving your chair! See, I'm out here seeing these things so that you don't have to. Just leave the hard work to me.
This photo album will be the LAST one from Laos. The next one should be for Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, which I'm in right now.
You'd also see a blog post today with my story leading up to this point (Vientiane to here). However, the internet and computers here are so CRAP that after I wrote it and thought I had posted it, I discovered that about 90% of it was missing. @(&#$%^^@#%. Sorry, I don't have the heart to rewrite it today.
--
Rob Sz
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
New Photos Posted: Pakse
Howdy Hi.
I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It's stifingly hot outside, but they've got lots of fans in here to try and keep us from sliding off of our seats in slicks of slippery sweat. I've also got myself a cold Asahi Super Dry beer from the Lucky Supermarket to keep myself cool. I am SO RELIEVED that there is an actual selection of beers here in Cambodia. Yay democracy! Yippee capitalism! There's an Indian restaurant next door, and it smells like curry in here. Dee-licious!
Anyways, the internet is VERY slow here, but, just for you, I've uploaded a new album of photos on my Picasa Web Albums. It's only a few pictures, but you should be able to see what the Pi Mai Lao (Lao New Years) festival looked like in Pakse, including some of my escapades on my crazy jeep ride.
Enjoy!
--
Rob Sz
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It's stifingly hot outside, but they've got lots of fans in here to try and keep us from sliding off of our seats in slicks of slippery sweat. I've also got myself a cold Asahi Super Dry beer from the Lucky Supermarket to keep myself cool. I am SO RELIEVED that there is an actual selection of beers here in Cambodia. Yay democracy! Yippee capitalism! There's an Indian restaurant next door, and it smells like curry in here. Dee-licious!
Anyways, the internet is VERY slow here, but, just for you, I've uploaded a new album of photos on my Picasa Web Albums. It's only a few pictures, but you should be able to see what the Pi Mai Lao (Lao New Years) festival looked like in Pakse, including some of my escapades on my crazy jeep ride.
Enjoy!
--
Rob Sz
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Forging Further South: Vientiane to Pakse (Pi Mai Lao part 1)
Sorry for the lack-of-updates lately. I've recently passed through a pretty rural area with sketchy and expensive internet access. Now I'm in Siem Reap, Cambodia -- an actual real city -- so updates can continue.
April 10, 2008 (continued)
Anyways, I last wrote about getting to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
We only stayed in Vientiane for one night. We booked ourselves onto an overnight sleeper bus to Pakse in the far south of Laos. We still got to spend the day enjoying the cafes, restaurants, and internet joints of Vientiane. We spent about three hours in the morning sitting in the JoMa cafe in Vientiane. Yes, even though we visited it six times in Luang Prabang, we were positively itching to hit up its branch in the capital. I was well rewarded with excellent coffee, quiche, and pain au chocolat (a chocolate croissant!).
The sleeper bus was a painful experience, to say the least.
Aside: AAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!! I just realized that the internet connection at the shit internet cafe I was just at has caused me to lose about one hour's worth of writing on this post. I'm going to have to rewrite it from scratch. ARGH!GH!G#H@!$G!H$G#!H$G#%*^@%$@#^$% Sorry folks, it probably won't be as good the second time around.
That night, Alex and I boarded an overnight sleeper bus to Pakse in the far south of Laos. While waiting for the bus, we ran into Lisa (from England) whom we met at the internet cafe earlier that day. The overnight sleeper bus was quite an experience. We knew that we were supposed to be sleeping on bunks, but we didn't really expect that bunks to be extremely-Asian sized (though I guess we should have expected it). We had to sleep two people per bunk. I was going to share a bunk with Alex, but Lisa was traveling alone and was assigned to share a bunk with some random Lao guy (RLG). Both her and RLG felt uncomfortable sharing a bunk together so Alex and RLG switched. I ended up sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder with RLG. Fortunately, I took a Gravol pill and passed out for most of the eight hour bus ride.
April 11, 2008
We arrived in Pakse at 6 AM and checked into the Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse in town. Since Alex and I were supposed to meet Damaris (the Swiss girl we met in Spicythai Backpackers in Chiang Mai, Thailand), Alex and I picked up the triple room. However, since Damaris wasn't supposed to show up for two more days, Lisa joined us in the room that night.
All of us had a rough night and we really took it easy that day. It was extremely hot and our guesthouse didn't have air conditioning, so it was all we could do just to stay ALIVE.
April 12,2008
Alex and Lisa went on a bus tour of the Bolaven Plateau outside of Pakse. I really wasn't feeling well, so I decided to stay in town. Why wasn't I feeling well? It was probably a combination of the extreme heat, the bad sleep the day before, travel fatigue, relative lack of decent places to eat in the small city of Pakse, the crappiness of Lao beers, and I was suffering from diarrhea! To top it off, Pakse was basically the ugliest town I'd seen in my travels. Lots of run down concrete buildings with no character or charm. Ugh.
I spent the day being asocial and spent most of it reading House of Leaves and playing Nintendo DS Lite in my room. I made good progress on Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales and Cooking Mama 2.
I also made the decision that I would try and avoid taking out any more money when I was in Laos. I only had about eight days left in the country and I had about 600,000 kip. I figured, that if I lived as cheaply as possible, I could squeeze through.
April 13, 2008
I still wasn't feeling that great in the morning. When you travel for a long time, you definitely feel your ups and downs. I was definitely at a "down" point in the cycle.
Thankfully, I got out of it today. I realized that my decision to spend the last week of my time in Laos living as cheaply as possible would NOT work. Being as cheap as possible never really makes me happy, to be honest. Spending money on good food and drink almost always makes me happy, so I decided that I had to spend my way out of my depression (do any politicians read this blog? hello!).
I know that one reason for my depression is the difficulty in finding good coffee in Laos. Almost all the time, the Laotians serve their coffee with puddles of sickeningly sweet condensed milk pooling in the bottom of the glass. They use WAY TOO MUCH of the stuff -- and I don't even like it. The coffee is often instant coffee, too. Y U C K. I wasn't a real coffeeholic when I left home, but when most days I do rarely more than visit the cafe or some restaurant, getting a nice coffee is important to me. I'm definitely a "foodie", so getting good stuff is key! Instant coffee with too much condensed milk is NOT GOOD STUFF.
Anyways, this rant does eventually go somewhere. That morning in Pakse, Alex and I went to Sinouk Cafe and ordered cappucinos. The cafe serves coffee grown on its own private plantation on the Bolaven Plateau. It was a very good cappucino and instantly made me feel better when I drank it. Seriously. I felt depressed before drinking it, and much better after. I'm not the kind of person who is unable to function before having a coffee in the morning, but that day, I definitely needed a good brew!
We met up with Damaris early that afternoon. She had arrived right in time for the Pi Mai Lao (Lao New Year) celebrations in Pakse. These celebrations are held right during the HOTTEST (lucky us!) time of the year. It's the time of year that the Buddha statues are washed with holy water in all of the temples in the country. Because it's so freakin' hot, almost every person is also washed (let's say, more like splashed, deluged, soaked and showered) with water, too. There's a lot of water flying around. Since the colour of my skin gave me away as a visible minority in Laos, and the Lao people love to have a good time, I was a HUGE TARGET and got way wet all the time.
Anyways! Damaris, Alex, and I bought some Cornettos (remember that I was spending my way out of my depression) and headed down to the temple in Pakse to watch the New Year's festivities. There was a neato parade that wound its way down the main street in town then circled around the temple grounds.
After the parade, the three of us went to Nazim Indian Restaurant in town (since it was the ONLY place that was open -- also, it was the fourth time I went there to eat because the town had so few restaurants, and most were closed for Pi Mai Lao). The scene in front of the restaurant was one of carnage... pure carnage. Water guns, buckets, and hoses were all being liberally used by the staff of the restaurant and its patrons. The targets were the patrons and staff of the restaurant, and ANYONE else who happened to pass by the restaurant, regardless if they were walking or in any sort of vehicle. Lots of Lao people piled into pick-up trucks or tuk-tuks and drove up and down the main street of town to participate in the wide spread water fights. The fighting was thick and furious.
As I watched (and happily participated) in the water fight fury, I watched the people in trucks with awe. I thought to myself, "It sure would be fun to ride in one of those trucks!" Not too long late, a jeep full of Lao dudes pulled up beside the restaurant to get vigourously hosed down. I saw my chance! I jumped into the back of the jeep! The Lao dudes were happy for me to join them! They briefly implied that they might return to the restaurant later, and that was good enough for me! I waved "bye bye" to Alex and Damaris at the restaurant. Alex said something back like "Where are you going? Ack!", but I couldn't really hear her -- we were off and revving!
We drove up the main street real slow-like. There was lots of singing, chanting and shouting (in addition to throwing water balloons made from condoms). Since the jeep was filled only with guys, whenever a truck or scooter filled with girls went by, there was lots of cat-calling and whistling. We drove up 11 km (it took like an hour) to a temple and stopped. Surprise, surprise, the dudes had a full case of Beer Lao in the front of the jeep. We drank a bunch and headed back to town. I know that I resolved not to drink more Beer Lao (since it sucks), but I couldn't refuse my guys.
On the way back, the Lao dudes let me sit in the front passenger seat of the jeep. It was more fun than standing in the back and nearly falling out of the jeep with every bump, but it made me a MUCH MORE VISIBLE target. I think having white skin was basically like wearing a big bullseye on the face (since that's where a few water balloons exploded on me).
It was all good fun!
Despite the fun of the first day of Pi Mai Lao in Pakse, Alex, Damaris and I decided to skip town and head farther south to Si Phan Don (the "Four Thousand Islands") at the extreme south end of Laos. We booked our tickets and were going to head out in the morning!
To be continued..
April 10, 2008 (continued)
Anyways, I last wrote about getting to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
We only stayed in Vientiane for one night. We booked ourselves onto an overnight sleeper bus to Pakse in the far south of Laos. We still got to spend the day enjoying the cafes, restaurants, and internet joints of Vientiane. We spent about three hours in the morning sitting in the JoMa cafe in Vientiane. Yes, even though we visited it six times in Luang Prabang, we were positively itching to hit up its branch in the capital. I was well rewarded with excellent coffee, quiche, and pain au chocolat (a chocolate croissant!).
The sleeper bus was a painful experience, to say the least.
Aside: AAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!! I just realized that the internet connection at the shit internet cafe I was just at has caused me to lose about one hour's worth of writing on this post. I'm going to have to rewrite it from scratch. ARGH!GH!G#H@!$G!H$G#!H$G#%*^@%$@#^$% Sorry folks, it probably won't be as good the second time around.
That night, Alex and I boarded an overnight sleeper bus to Pakse in the far south of Laos. While waiting for the bus, we ran into Lisa (from England) whom we met at the internet cafe earlier that day. The overnight sleeper bus was quite an experience. We knew that we were supposed to be sleeping on bunks, but we didn't really expect that bunks to be extremely-Asian sized (though I guess we should have expected it). We had to sleep two people per bunk. I was going to share a bunk with Alex, but Lisa was traveling alone and was assigned to share a bunk with some random Lao guy (RLG). Both her and RLG felt uncomfortable sharing a bunk together so Alex and RLG switched. I ended up sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder with RLG. Fortunately, I took a Gravol pill and passed out for most of the eight hour bus ride.
April 11, 2008
We arrived in Pakse at 6 AM and checked into the Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse in town. Since Alex and I were supposed to meet Damaris (the Swiss girl we met in Spicythai Backpackers in Chiang Mai, Thailand), Alex and I picked up the triple room. However, since Damaris wasn't supposed to show up for two more days, Lisa joined us in the room that night.
All of us had a rough night and we really took it easy that day. It was extremely hot and our guesthouse didn't have air conditioning, so it was all we could do just to stay ALIVE.
April 12,2008
Alex and Lisa went on a bus tour of the Bolaven Plateau outside of Pakse. I really wasn't feeling well, so I decided to stay in town. Why wasn't I feeling well? It was probably a combination of the extreme heat, the bad sleep the day before, travel fatigue, relative lack of decent places to eat in the small city of Pakse, the crappiness of Lao beers, and I was suffering from diarrhea! To top it off, Pakse was basically the ugliest town I'd seen in my travels. Lots of run down concrete buildings with no character or charm. Ugh.
I spent the day being asocial and spent most of it reading House of Leaves and playing Nintendo DS Lite in my room. I made good progress on Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales and Cooking Mama 2.
I also made the decision that I would try and avoid taking out any more money when I was in Laos. I only had about eight days left in the country and I had about 600,000 kip. I figured, that if I lived as cheaply as possible, I could squeeze through.
April 13, 2008
I still wasn't feeling that great in the morning. When you travel for a long time, you definitely feel your ups and downs. I was definitely at a "down" point in the cycle.
Thankfully, I got out of it today. I realized that my decision to spend the last week of my time in Laos living as cheaply as possible would NOT work. Being as cheap as possible never really makes me happy, to be honest. Spending money on good food and drink almost always makes me happy, so I decided that I had to spend my way out of my depression (do any politicians read this blog? hello!).
I know that one reason for my depression is the difficulty in finding good coffee in Laos. Almost all the time, the Laotians serve their coffee with puddles of sickeningly sweet condensed milk pooling in the bottom of the glass. They use WAY TOO MUCH of the stuff -- and I don't even like it. The coffee is often instant coffee, too. Y U C K. I wasn't a real coffeeholic when I left home, but when most days I do rarely more than visit the cafe or some restaurant, getting a nice coffee is important to me. I'm definitely a "foodie", so getting good stuff is key! Instant coffee with too much condensed milk is NOT GOOD STUFF.
Anyways, this rant does eventually go somewhere. That morning in Pakse, Alex and I went to Sinouk Cafe and ordered cappucinos. The cafe serves coffee grown on its own private plantation on the Bolaven Plateau. It was a very good cappucino and instantly made me feel better when I drank it. Seriously. I felt depressed before drinking it, and much better after. I'm not the kind of person who is unable to function before having a coffee in the morning, but that day, I definitely needed a good brew!
We met up with Damaris early that afternoon. She had arrived right in time for the Pi Mai Lao (Lao New Year) celebrations in Pakse. These celebrations are held right during the HOTTEST (lucky us!) time of the year. It's the time of year that the Buddha statues are washed with holy water in all of the temples in the country. Because it's so freakin' hot, almost every person is also washed (let's say, more like splashed, deluged, soaked and showered) with water, too. There's a lot of water flying around. Since the colour of my skin gave me away as a visible minority in Laos, and the Lao people love to have a good time, I was a HUGE TARGET and got way wet all the time.
Anyways! Damaris, Alex, and I bought some Cornettos (remember that I was spending my way out of my depression) and headed down to the temple in Pakse to watch the New Year's festivities. There was a neato parade that wound its way down the main street in town then circled around the temple grounds.
After the parade, the three of us went to Nazim Indian Restaurant in town (since it was the ONLY place that was open -- also, it was the fourth time I went there to eat because the town had so few restaurants, and most were closed for Pi Mai Lao). The scene in front of the restaurant was one of carnage... pure carnage. Water guns, buckets, and hoses were all being liberally used by the staff of the restaurant and its patrons. The targets were the patrons and staff of the restaurant, and ANYONE else who happened to pass by the restaurant, regardless if they were walking or in any sort of vehicle. Lots of Lao people piled into pick-up trucks or tuk-tuks and drove up and down the main street of town to participate in the wide spread water fights. The fighting was thick and furious.
As I watched (and happily participated) in the water fight fury, I watched the people in trucks with awe. I thought to myself, "It sure would be fun to ride in one of those trucks!" Not too long late, a jeep full of Lao dudes pulled up beside the restaurant to get vigourously hosed down. I saw my chance! I jumped into the back of the jeep! The Lao dudes were happy for me to join them! They briefly implied that they might return to the restaurant later, and that was good enough for me! I waved "bye bye" to Alex and Damaris at the restaurant. Alex said something back like "Where are you going? Ack!", but I couldn't really hear her -- we were off and revving!
We drove up the main street real slow-like. There was lots of singing, chanting and shouting (in addition to throwing water balloons made from condoms). Since the jeep was filled only with guys, whenever a truck or scooter filled with girls went by, there was lots of cat-calling and whistling. We drove up 11 km (it took like an hour) to a temple and stopped. Surprise, surprise, the dudes had a full case of Beer Lao in the front of the jeep. We drank a bunch and headed back to town. I know that I resolved not to drink more Beer Lao (since it sucks), but I couldn't refuse my guys.
On the way back, the Lao dudes let me sit in the front passenger seat of the jeep. It was more fun than standing in the back and nearly falling out of the jeep with every bump, but it made me a MUCH MORE VISIBLE target. I think having white skin was basically like wearing a big bullseye on the face (since that's where a few water balloons exploded on me).
It was all good fun!
Despite the fun of the first day of Pi Mai Lao in Pakse, Alex, Damaris and I decided to skip town and head farther south to Si Phan Don (the "Four Thousand Islands") at the extreme south end of Laos. We booked our tickets and were going to head out in the morning!
To be continued..
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Jars and Bombs
April 6, 2008
It's been a few years since I went on a roller coaster ride, however, I think I managed to find the closest thing today. We took a grueling nine hour bus ride through the mountains from Vang Vieng, Laos to Phonsavan, Laos. There were bumps. There were turns. There were sharp jolts. There were more turns and more bumps ... for hours at a time. It was in a full-sized bus, so we weren't overly crowded. Every seat was full, but we weren't really packed in like sardines, so that was a small mercy. The music wasn't as loud as rides before either, so that was good, too. It was the longest and roughest ride that I've experienced so far, though.
On several bus rides before, the bus staff would hand out plastic bags to people if they wanted them. The plastic bags are not for holding food or gabage... they are PUKE BAGS. On this bus ride, there were a few people that used the puke bags with gusto and passion. Poor Chris was seated beside a Lao women and behind two other Lao women who were basically vomitting for the entire ride. It was disgusting. The women in front of Chris would fill up her puke bag so often that she had to keep chucking them out the window.
Oh yeah, that reminds me! I wanted to rant about the manners of Lao people. They are the friendliest people I've ever met, but they do some things that really bother me.
1. Spitting in public. It's not just Lao people that spit in public. I've seen Thais do it, too. I hear and see it basically every day here. They often preceed the spit with a really solid HOOORRRKKK to get as much as they can out. Both men and women do it. It's disgusting.
2. Littering. People will throw out their garbage anywhere. I've seen so many plastic bags and bottles pitched out bus windows on the side of highways that I want to weep. I know that the Lao government wants to market Laos as a Eco Tourism Destination, but they have to keep the roads and countryside clean if they want it to work! Laos is developing very quickly these days and they're starting to pick up the consumer culture of the Thais (and our own). Since there are so many vendors selling disposable goods and little snacks in disposable packaging now, I'm sure the problem with roadside litter will get worse here before it gets better.
Enough ranting.
We got to Phonsavan and found the guesthouse that was recommended by our guidebooks, Kong Keo. The owner of the guesthouse is quite a character: Mr. Kong (though his friends call him Crazy Kong). It's funny that we keep meeting guesthouse owners who's names rhyme with "ong" -- first Pong in Chiang Mai, then Kong in Phonsavan.
We booked ourselves a tour for the next day and had dinner in the guesthouse. The dinner consisted of very yummy coconut soup and barbecued shishkebobs. The kebobs were grilled on an open fire in half an old bomb shell.
Bombs are everywhere in Phonsavan. The region is the centre of the largest bombing campaign in history. From 1964 to 1973 the United States aided the Lao Royalists in their civil war against the Pathet Lao communist forces. The Pathet Lao were centred in the northeastern provinces of the country and were subjected to a massive bombing campaign by the Americans, even though that the Americans had signed treaties stipulating the neutrality of Laos. The entire bombing campaign was a secret -- not even the American Congress knew what the American military was doing.
As a result, bombs and landmines litter many parts of Laos. Development of the country is slowed because many bombs still remain hidden in fields, under roads, and in the forests. They can really be almost anywhere. The bombs are being cleared, but its a labourious and painstaking process.
Anyways! Yeah, dinner was good (and cheap). We drank from Beer Lao. Alex and Chris went to bed early and I continued sitting around chatting with Jan and Becks -- both from England. I had actually met Jan twice before -- he slept in the bunk below mine in Spicythai Backpackers in Chiang Mai and I ran into him while tubing in Vang Vieng. While sitting around the patio there, we met Kong's brother, Wel. He was totally hammered, but talked with us for at least an hour before pulling out a mattress and falling asleep on the patio. With that, it was time for us to go to bed, too.
April 7, 2008
In the morning Kong returned from the party he went to the night before. He was still wearing the same clothes and said that he was hungover from drinking and smoking too much. He showed us his pot plants in the front yard of the guesthouse. Someone asked him if many people smoke in Phonsavan. Kong proudly told us that "No one smokes in Phonsavan, only me and my brother!"
Kong and his other other brother, Insin, were our tour guides that day. Despite his hungover state, Kong would still drive the bus on the tour. The man is a trooper! On the tour that day was Alex, Chris, Becks, Jan, and I.
Our first stop was the market where we picked up food for breakfast. We got sticky rice, various meats on various sticks, some pork steamed in banana leaves, some bamboo shoots, and some fruit.
We then drove to a field outside of town that was littered with bomb craters. Kong told us about The Secret War and its affect on the country. From there, we drove to a Hmong village where people used old bomb shells as construction material. They used bomb shells to make fences, stilts for houses, barbecues, anvils, lamps, and flower and herb gardens. Apparently the village used to have many more bombs around it, but they were sold off for scrap metal a while ago. The few houses that still keep bombs around consider them to be "savings accounts" and are waiting for the price of iron to increase before selling them.
For lunch, we treked down a steep mountain trail to the base of a waterfall for a picnic. I was looking forward to my steamed pork, hoping it would be similar to the pork that I had in the Akha village on my trek. Alas, it wasn't even close! It was sloppy pasty substance consisting of pork and flour. It tasted so bad, I could only take a couple of nibbles before rejecting it. That says a lot, considering I eat almost anything! The rest of the food was good, thankfully. While eating, Kong told us amusing stories about water buffalo. I'll repeat one for you right now!
Did you know why the water buffalo seems to be missing many of its front teeth and smiles with its upper lip covering the top half of its mouth? Well, according to legend, back in the mists of time Buddha gave the water buffalo an important message to deliver to the people on earth. Buddha wanted the people to live a quiet life without much work. He wanted the villagers to have only one meal every three days to keep things on the down low. When the water buffalo descended from heaven he got mixed up and told the villagers to have three meals every single day. Oh man! When Buddha found out, he was so angry that he threw a hammer and knocked up many of the water buffalo's teeth (that seems like a very un-Buddha-like thing to do, to me!). As further punishment, the water buffalo was sent to earth to labour in the fields with the villagers in order to help them meet the needs of growing all the food they would need in order to eat three times a day. Silly water buffalo.
After lunch we climbed up the waterfall a bit and went for a swim in the refreshingly crisp (read: cold) water there. It was fun to swim under the falling water! It was a hot day, so it was worth it.
We climbed back the hill side and saw many cascades of water all the way up. It was beautiful. However, when we got to the top, we had a gruesome discover! A leach had attached itself to Chris' foot! TWO leaches had attached themselves to Alex's foot! GROSS! We had to pull them off. It was the second time that we had encountered leaches, since Chris was molested by one our trek before. Thankfully, I still remained leach free.
After the waterfall we drove to the Plain of Jars. It was a bit of a drive. On the way Kong swore and shouted at other drivers on the road that were in his way. It was pretty hilarious. He was the least-Lao-like Lao person I've met in Laos so far.
The plains around Phonsavan are covered with hundreds (maybe thousands) of ancient stone jars. No one really knows how old they really are, or who created them, or what they were used for. They were all carved from solid pieces of limestone, and many of them weigh several tons. There are like 80 groups of jars on the plains, but only 3 of them have been cleared of bombs and are safe to visit.
The Jars are definitely "the" tourist attraction of Northeastern Laos. Many tours visit all three of the open sites. Our tour only visited the one since, to be honest, one plain full of stone jars looks like any other plain full of stone jars.
That night was huge drunken piss up and dinner at the guest house. All of the people from the tour were there, including crazy Kong and his brother. Many other people from the guest house came out to drink too. We drank a LOT of beer and a LOT of Lao Lao. Quite shammered we got, lemme tell you. It was for a good cause, though. In a couple days Chris had to part ways with us since she was going north to Vietnam, but we were heading south to the south part of Laos then to Cambodia. It was sad, but we agreed to meet up again in the future. The current plan is for the three of us to meet up in August for the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Brent (from Spicythai Backpackers) has completely sold me on going to the festival and he's going to indoctrinate us there. It should be good.
April 8, 2008
Ugh. Head hurts today. Alex was in rough shape, too. Chris was doing okay. We knew it would be a quiet day. We hunted around for internet access, but both of the internet shops in town said that the internet wasn't working that day. Doh. Instead, we spent most of the day sitting around the guesthouse reading. At night, we went to the Mine Advisory Group (MAG) Information Centre in town to watch a couple of documentaries about the bombings and bomb removal programs in Laos. It's pretty heart wrenching to see what this country had to go through, and is still going through today. It's estimated that, at the current rate, it will still take one hundred years to clean up all the unexploded bombs left behind by the bombings more than thirty years ago.
April 9, 2008
We woke up early and got a ride with Insin back to the bus station. Alex and I parted ways with Chris. She boarded a northbound bus to Xam Neua (and eventually Hanoi in Vietnam) while we boarded a southbound bus to Vientiane -- the capital city of Laos.
This bus ride was a brutal one, too. Nine and a half hours long, back over the mountains again. It was hot since the air conditioning didn't work well. The driver played the CRAPTASTIC Lao music louder than before, and I wasn't successful drowning it out with my iPod. Thankfully, there were so few people on the coach-sized bus that we each had lots of space. We both had empty seats beside us so we could stretch out.
Vientiane isn't really much like the rest of Laos. I hadn't seen a single other traffic light in my first three weeks in the country -- until I got to Vientiane. There were lots of cars zipping by, too, so we actually had to wait and look both ways before crossing the streets. If this city were the only city in the whole country that people got to see, I'd feel sad for them, since it's not representative of the country at all.
We booked ourselves into a hotel room for one night. Vientiane was only a stop-over for us... we were on our way to Pakse (in the southern part of Laos), and the busy big city wasn't the place we really wanted to be.
Regardless, since its the capital, the city actually has good food. For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant and had really cheap and really tasty curry. I enjoy Thai curries, but I think Indian ones are much better.
To be continued!
It's been a few years since I went on a roller coaster ride, however, I think I managed to find the closest thing today. We took a grueling nine hour bus ride through the mountains from Vang Vieng, Laos to Phonsavan, Laos. There were bumps. There were turns. There were sharp jolts. There were more turns and more bumps ... for hours at a time. It was in a full-sized bus, so we weren't overly crowded. Every seat was full, but we weren't really packed in like sardines, so that was a small mercy. The music wasn't as loud as rides before either, so that was good, too. It was the longest and roughest ride that I've experienced so far, though.
On several bus rides before, the bus staff would hand out plastic bags to people if they wanted them. The plastic bags are not for holding food or gabage... they are PUKE BAGS. On this bus ride, there were a few people that used the puke bags with gusto and passion. Poor Chris was seated beside a Lao women and behind two other Lao women who were basically vomitting for the entire ride. It was disgusting. The women in front of Chris would fill up her puke bag so often that she had to keep chucking them out the window.
Oh yeah, that reminds me! I wanted to rant about the manners of Lao people. They are the friendliest people I've ever met, but they do some things that really bother me.
1. Spitting in public. It's not just Lao people that spit in public. I've seen Thais do it, too. I hear and see it basically every day here. They often preceed the spit with a really solid HOOORRRKKK to get as much as they can out. Both men and women do it. It's disgusting.
2. Littering. People will throw out their garbage anywhere. I've seen so many plastic bags and bottles pitched out bus windows on the side of highways that I want to weep. I know that the Lao government wants to market Laos as a Eco Tourism Destination, but they have to keep the roads and countryside clean if they want it to work! Laos is developing very quickly these days and they're starting to pick up the consumer culture of the Thais (and our own). Since there are so many vendors selling disposable goods and little snacks in disposable packaging now, I'm sure the problem with roadside litter will get worse here before it gets better.
Enough ranting.
We got to Phonsavan and found the guesthouse that was recommended by our guidebooks, Kong Keo. The owner of the guesthouse is quite a character: Mr. Kong (though his friends call him Crazy Kong). It's funny that we keep meeting guesthouse owners who's names rhyme with "ong" -- first Pong in Chiang Mai, then Kong in Phonsavan.
We booked ourselves a tour for the next day and had dinner in the guesthouse. The dinner consisted of very yummy coconut soup and barbecued shishkebobs. The kebobs were grilled on an open fire in half an old bomb shell.
Bombs are everywhere in Phonsavan. The region is the centre of the largest bombing campaign in history. From 1964 to 1973 the United States aided the Lao Royalists in their civil war against the Pathet Lao communist forces. The Pathet Lao were centred in the northeastern provinces of the country and were subjected to a massive bombing campaign by the Americans, even though that the Americans had signed treaties stipulating the neutrality of Laos. The entire bombing campaign was a secret -- not even the American Congress knew what the American military was doing.
As a result, bombs and landmines litter many parts of Laos. Development of the country is slowed because many bombs still remain hidden in fields, under roads, and in the forests. They can really be almost anywhere. The bombs are being cleared, but its a labourious and painstaking process.
Anyways! Yeah, dinner was good (and cheap). We drank from Beer Lao. Alex and Chris went to bed early and I continued sitting around chatting with Jan and Becks -- both from England. I had actually met Jan twice before -- he slept in the bunk below mine in Spicythai Backpackers in Chiang Mai and I ran into him while tubing in Vang Vieng. While sitting around the patio there, we met Kong's brother, Wel. He was totally hammered, but talked with us for at least an hour before pulling out a mattress and falling asleep on the patio. With that, it was time for us to go to bed, too.
April 7, 2008
In the morning Kong returned from the party he went to the night before. He was still wearing the same clothes and said that he was hungover from drinking and smoking too much. He showed us his pot plants in the front yard of the guesthouse. Someone asked him if many people smoke in Phonsavan. Kong proudly told us that "No one smokes in Phonsavan, only me and my brother!"
Kong and his other other brother, Insin, were our tour guides that day. Despite his hungover state, Kong would still drive the bus on the tour. The man is a trooper! On the tour that day was Alex, Chris, Becks, Jan, and I.
Our first stop was the market where we picked up food for breakfast. We got sticky rice, various meats on various sticks, some pork steamed in banana leaves, some bamboo shoots, and some fruit.
We then drove to a field outside of town that was littered with bomb craters. Kong told us about The Secret War and its affect on the country. From there, we drove to a Hmong village where people used old bomb shells as construction material. They used bomb shells to make fences, stilts for houses, barbecues, anvils, lamps, and flower and herb gardens. Apparently the village used to have many more bombs around it, but they were sold off for scrap metal a while ago. The few houses that still keep bombs around consider them to be "savings accounts" and are waiting for the price of iron to increase before selling them.
For lunch, we treked down a steep mountain trail to the base of a waterfall for a picnic. I was looking forward to my steamed pork, hoping it would be similar to the pork that I had in the Akha village on my trek. Alas, it wasn't even close! It was sloppy pasty substance consisting of pork and flour. It tasted so bad, I could only take a couple of nibbles before rejecting it. That says a lot, considering I eat almost anything! The rest of the food was good, thankfully. While eating, Kong told us amusing stories about water buffalo. I'll repeat one for you right now!
Did you know why the water buffalo seems to be missing many of its front teeth and smiles with its upper lip covering the top half of its mouth? Well, according to legend, back in the mists of time Buddha gave the water buffalo an important message to deliver to the people on earth. Buddha wanted the people to live a quiet life without much work. He wanted the villagers to have only one meal every three days to keep things on the down low. When the water buffalo descended from heaven he got mixed up and told the villagers to have three meals every single day. Oh man! When Buddha found out, he was so angry that he threw a hammer and knocked up many of the water buffalo's teeth (that seems like a very un-Buddha-like thing to do, to me!). As further punishment, the water buffalo was sent to earth to labour in the fields with the villagers in order to help them meet the needs of growing all the food they would need in order to eat three times a day. Silly water buffalo.
After lunch we climbed up the waterfall a bit and went for a swim in the refreshingly crisp (read: cold) water there. It was fun to swim under the falling water! It was a hot day, so it was worth it.
We climbed back the hill side and saw many cascades of water all the way up. It was beautiful. However, when we got to the top, we had a gruesome discover! A leach had attached itself to Chris' foot! TWO leaches had attached themselves to Alex's foot! GROSS! We had to pull them off. It was the second time that we had encountered leaches, since Chris was molested by one our trek before. Thankfully, I still remained leach free.
After the waterfall we drove to the Plain of Jars. It was a bit of a drive. On the way Kong swore and shouted at other drivers on the road that were in his way. It was pretty hilarious. He was the least-Lao-like Lao person I've met in Laos so far.
The plains around Phonsavan are covered with hundreds (maybe thousands) of ancient stone jars. No one really knows how old they really are, or who created them, or what they were used for. They were all carved from solid pieces of limestone, and many of them weigh several tons. There are like 80 groups of jars on the plains, but only 3 of them have been cleared of bombs and are safe to visit.
The Jars are definitely "the" tourist attraction of Northeastern Laos. Many tours visit all three of the open sites. Our tour only visited the one since, to be honest, one plain full of stone jars looks like any other plain full of stone jars.
That night was huge drunken piss up and dinner at the guest house. All of the people from the tour were there, including crazy Kong and his brother. Many other people from the guest house came out to drink too. We drank a LOT of beer and a LOT of Lao Lao. Quite shammered we got, lemme tell you. It was for a good cause, though. In a couple days Chris had to part ways with us since she was going north to Vietnam, but we were heading south to the south part of Laos then to Cambodia. It was sad, but we agreed to meet up again in the future. The current plan is for the three of us to meet up in August for the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Brent (from Spicythai Backpackers) has completely sold me on going to the festival and he's going to indoctrinate us there. It should be good.
April 8, 2008
Ugh. Head hurts today. Alex was in rough shape, too. Chris was doing okay. We knew it would be a quiet day. We hunted around for internet access, but both of the internet shops in town said that the internet wasn't working that day. Doh. Instead, we spent most of the day sitting around the guesthouse reading. At night, we went to the Mine Advisory Group (MAG) Information Centre in town to watch a couple of documentaries about the bombings and bomb removal programs in Laos. It's pretty heart wrenching to see what this country had to go through, and is still going through today. It's estimated that, at the current rate, it will still take one hundred years to clean up all the unexploded bombs left behind by the bombings more than thirty years ago.
April 9, 2008
We woke up early and got a ride with Insin back to the bus station. Alex and I parted ways with Chris. She boarded a northbound bus to Xam Neua (and eventually Hanoi in Vietnam) while we boarded a southbound bus to Vientiane -- the capital city of Laos.
This bus ride was a brutal one, too. Nine and a half hours long, back over the mountains again. It was hot since the air conditioning didn't work well. The driver played the CRAPTASTIC Lao music louder than before, and I wasn't successful drowning it out with my iPod. Thankfully, there were so few people on the coach-sized bus that we each had lots of space. We both had empty seats beside us so we could stretch out.
Vientiane isn't really much like the rest of Laos. I hadn't seen a single other traffic light in my first three weeks in the country -- until I got to Vientiane. There were lots of cars zipping by, too, so we actually had to wait and look both ways before crossing the streets. If this city were the only city in the whole country that people got to see, I'd feel sad for them, since it's not representative of the country at all.
We booked ourselves into a hotel room for one night. Vientiane was only a stop-over for us... we were on our way to Pakse (in the southern part of Laos), and the busy big city wasn't the place we really wanted to be.
Regardless, since its the capital, the city actually has good food. For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant and had really cheap and really tasty curry. I enjoy Thai curries, but I think Indian ones are much better.
To be continued!
New Photos Posted: Phonsavan
Hi! More pictures up. Enjoy seeing some fun stuff from Phonsavan.
Laters. I'm out of time to write for today. I'm heading on an overnight bus from Vientiane, Laos to Pakse, Laos in less than an hour. I'll try to get caught up later!
--
Rob Sz
Laters. I'm out of time to write for today. I'm heading on an overnight bus from Vientiane, Laos to Pakse, Laos in less than an hour. I'll try to get caught up later!
--
Rob Sz
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