We left Lak Sao in Laos, and caught a mini bus towards the coast of Vinh, Vietnam.... not even mentioned in our shoestring guide to SE Asia! The entire city was destroyed in the war with French in the 50's/60's, then rebuilt, and then it was completely destroyed again in the war with the US, as it was apparently the starting point of the "Ho Chi Minh trail." Literally only two buildings were left standing, and we didnt get to see them. Our bus dropped us off, and we managed to stay in a slightly sleazy but very cheap room just blocks away. We nearly payed 15 bucks a night, but found a room with AC, cable(with tons of english channels, OMG, YESSSS!!!!), and bars on the window for 7 dollars a night! It was so nice(and cheap), we decided to veg out for a day and just relax and not travel, after having spent 2 straight days on the road.
There is nothing to do of note in Vinh, even after consulting google, so we just walked around and tried some random Vietnamese food, which is awesome. We got super lost, i sweated my shirt in to a swimming pool and we saw some interesting, "soviet style architecture." With wide streets, concrete buildings and a billion scooter parts stores, Vinh doesn't have too much going for it, but it was way better than people on the thorntree LP forum make it sound, and people were very friendly and nice to us. People online describe the Vinh posse as "hostile", but they seemed very friendly to us, and more just curious and excited about some actual foreigners making fools of themselves in their front yards.
After a day and a half we left our AC igloo of a room, and decided to splurge on a Super Nice leather bed bus to Hanoi. There was minubuses going on the 6 hour ride for 5 bucks, but they are prone to stopping at every last place to pick people up, deliver mail, drop off 100 cases of heineken(seriously), and fill up every last crevice on the bus with people... and that could have easily turned our 6 hour ride in to 3 week "oregon trail" like adventure. So, the 8 dollar VIP bus still went ultra slow on the 2 lane(1 on each side) road that goes North to South up the coast of Vietnam. I somehow imagined a faster system of roads since Vietnam has such an obvious one way up and down the coast route, but I was very wrong. Our bus gladly turned the 2 lane road in to a 3 lane road, driving down the center of the road, forcing every other vehicle left or right, but it still seemed like we went 30mph the whole way, which we basically did!
We got dropped off 10km outside of Hanoi, and I was so pissed I nearly killed our bus crew when I demanded a refund for our "expensive" tickets, and they laughed at me! the taxi ride in to town was looking to cost more than our 6 hour AC and leather seat bus ride! Finally, with Jin's cool headedness, we hopped a city bus in to town! I think we may be the only non Vietnamese people to ever take a Hanoi city bus, but it was surprisingly simple, and we found our way withing a km of our hostel!!!! Jin made some friends on the bus (as usual) and they said they'd help point us in the right direction towards our hostel when we got to our stop. Instead, when we got off, at 8pm, they called over a motor scooter taxi and tried to get me and Jin to ride backseat on a tiny motorscooter with 100lbs of luggage! Yeah Right! Plus, that isnt really our style when we can easily walk. They were in shock and told us to hold our bags very tight and looked at us like we were insane! But, after just 20 mins of wandering around, and only asking once for directions, we made it to our hostel!
We actually got sent to another hotel cause our hostel bumped us, but either way, we survived our first night in Hanoi(although I'm still a little upset after specifically choosing our fun hostel online, then getting sent to some ultra boring hotel upon arrival.)
Thursday, May 20, 2010
A Swift and Somewhat Sad Goodbye to Laos.
Hello from Viet Nam! Me and Jin unfortunately left Laos a few days ago and have now landed, via a very slow and pleasant bus ride, in Hanoi!
After about a week in Vientiane, and the succesful mission of getting our visas for vietnam, we decided to move on from the "provincial capital" as our throngs of followers are calling it and move on towards some much needed beaches(not there yet, tomorrow?)!
We meant to spend a couple days heading east towards the border, stopping at Kong Lo cave on the way. We left Vientiane on the the last bus of the day heading east, at 7AM! We finally stepped off the tourist only minivan buses and "VIP" busses(again tourist only) and ventured on to some local Lao transportation in order to hopefully see a bit more of the non gringo trail Lao. I suppose we succeded. The bus ride was super chill and not bad at all. Windows down, no AC, and a million more stops, plus the addition of a 7ft tall bulldozer tire in the bus aisle added to the ambiance of the ride. The bus was chill, and surprisingly not so hot, as long as we were moving. I just made sure to keep my hands and feet out of the aisle at all times in case the rope slipped and the several hundred pound tire rolled down the aisle and destroyed the dashboard and everything in its way(it squeezed in with about an inch to spare on either side, i have no idea how they got it in the bus to begin with!)
We got off the bus in Ban Na Hin, after a 6 hour ride. From there we stood around at the bus stop, a wooden 10mx10m porch with a roof in a gravel lot, staring around blankly for about 5minutes, with no idea what to do! Finally we saw a foreigner and with some key questions filled in the gaps from the lonely planet on exactly how to get to Kong Lo cave. There are Tuk Tuks that drive foreigners there every day at 10, but we had missed those, but we got on a local tuk tuk acting as a delivery man to all the restaurants and stores on the way, and made our way to the caves by around 2.
The cave begins by entering a campground looking field bordering a river, very NorCal, with a hefty admission of 25cents. We had to leave our bags at the ticket booth, a guy sitting on another very similar porch to the bus stop, and bought our cave tour tickets. The cave begins by crossing a tiny bamboo bridge, with a drawbridge center made of a log split in half. The drawbridge center(as we found out later is slid to one end at the end of the day so the boat tour operators can go under the very very low bridge and ride their boats down the river home. Upstream from the bridge is a beautiful 50m wide and round swimming hole, with an awesome oval shaped cave on one end, with a cliff like mountain rising up above the cave(pics to come soon.) We hopped on a tiny boat that only was about 12 inches deep, like a very long skinny and flat canoe, and our driver, with another "spotter" up front drove us into the cave. The cave is filled with water, and if you want to go farther in than 100feet, you have to go by boat, or swimming. The cave is somewhere around 7km long, but i'm not posiitive if that is accurate, but it very well could be. The water is very shallow, and our boat continuously slid on the gravel floor of the cave river. We drove through the dark of the cave, with a guy in front of the boat with a super bright headlamp giving directions, and a driver in back steering, although you could tell the driver knew the cave by heart. We drove in to the darkness, armed only with the super bright headlamps of our two guides, Jins headlamp(thanks mom!) and my tiny flashlight! The river in the cave was only about 50 feet wide mas o menos and big rocks occcasionally stuck out of the water, or giant boulders could be seen on the edge, just like in any normal non cave river.... SO COOL! after a while, we got to a beach with some stairs that led up to some very cool and colorfully lit stalagmites and stalagtites. We looked around for a bit, and then headed onward. Every once in a while we'd hit rapids, and the boat would try to power through them upstream and then would get stuck. Sometimes we'd make it through without getting stuck, but more often than not, we'd be wading through knee deep rapids in the dark, as our guides pushed the boat the 15 feet up the river over the obstacle. We'd get back in the boat, the driver would bail out the water a bit, and then we'd head on. The cave was in some places 20 feet high and in other places at least 150ft(the book says 100m, but that is probably just a very small area.) It was amazing, and so unique. After a 45 minute trip, we reached light again, and I thought we were back at the original mouth of the cave, but it was a totally seperate, yet similar opening. We drove out, went upstream, stopped for some unneeded snack break(i wanted back in the cool and mysterious cave), and then headed back the way we came!
Ultimately, the Kong Lo Caves are fantastic. while not the most spectacular cave scenery in the world, it is some of the more unique, and the feeling of riding in a boat in the pitch black through a dark and large cavern on a motor boat is something that is truly fantastical! It made me want to start spelunking, minus my claustrophobic streak!
After we got out of the cave, we walked back around the swim hole to the "drawbridge" and passed some friendly Lao people playing guitar and chilling out by the river, then some friendly looking foreigners(as all the foreigners off the beaten track seemed much cooler than the ones we have previously been bumping in to.)We decided to skip the ride back to the guest house and buy some beers and chill by the river and walk back to the guest house, 1.5km away. I begged the guy to let us camp by the river, but they said it wasnt allowed at all. We imposed ourselves on the acoustic jam session and Jin made friends with the Lao posse while I was happy to talk to a cool guy i met from colorado. After a while, the sun began to go down, and amazingly, the Lao posse offered us a ride the 40km back to Ban Na Hin in their Air conditioned truck! The guitar crew chilled in the back, while we got to sit up front with Jin's new friends! We saved some money for the ride back to town, and didnt have to get up super early the next day to get back to town to catch the bus onwards towards the border.... worked out great! we found a cheap guest house in town, then woke up the next day and caught a bus to Lak Sao. From their, we stood confused in another gravel lot for ten minutes until another bus just happened to be heading straight for the coast of Vietnam, Vinh! It couldn't have been any easier!
Although I was sad to have it work out so smoothly and leave so quickly, it was nice to not have to stand around all day at bus stations or walk a mile with our bags, so I'm not complaining! I guess if you just throw yourself out there, and hope for the best, sometimes it works out!
After about a week in Vientiane, and the succesful mission of getting our visas for vietnam, we decided to move on from the "provincial capital" as our throngs of followers are calling it and move on towards some much needed beaches(not there yet, tomorrow?)!
We meant to spend a couple days heading east towards the border, stopping at Kong Lo cave on the way. We left Vientiane on the the last bus of the day heading east, at 7AM! We finally stepped off the tourist only minivan buses and "VIP" busses(again tourist only) and ventured on to some local Lao transportation in order to hopefully see a bit more of the non gringo trail Lao. I suppose we succeded. The bus ride was super chill and not bad at all. Windows down, no AC, and a million more stops, plus the addition of a 7ft tall bulldozer tire in the bus aisle added to the ambiance of the ride. The bus was chill, and surprisingly not so hot, as long as we were moving. I just made sure to keep my hands and feet out of the aisle at all times in case the rope slipped and the several hundred pound tire rolled down the aisle and destroyed the dashboard and everything in its way(it squeezed in with about an inch to spare on either side, i have no idea how they got it in the bus to begin with!)
We got off the bus in Ban Na Hin, after a 6 hour ride. From there we stood around at the bus stop, a wooden 10mx10m porch with a roof in a gravel lot, staring around blankly for about 5minutes, with no idea what to do! Finally we saw a foreigner and with some key questions filled in the gaps from the lonely planet on exactly how to get to Kong Lo cave. There are Tuk Tuks that drive foreigners there every day at 10, but we had missed those, but we got on a local tuk tuk acting as a delivery man to all the restaurants and stores on the way, and made our way to the caves by around 2.
The cave begins by entering a campground looking field bordering a river, very NorCal, with a hefty admission of 25cents. We had to leave our bags at the ticket booth, a guy sitting on another very similar porch to the bus stop, and bought our cave tour tickets. The cave begins by crossing a tiny bamboo bridge, with a drawbridge center made of a log split in half. The drawbridge center(as we found out later is slid to one end at the end of the day so the boat tour operators can go under the very very low bridge and ride their boats down the river home. Upstream from the bridge is a beautiful 50m wide and round swimming hole, with an awesome oval shaped cave on one end, with a cliff like mountain rising up above the cave(pics to come soon.) We hopped on a tiny boat that only was about 12 inches deep, like a very long skinny and flat canoe, and our driver, with another "spotter" up front drove us into the cave. The cave is filled with water, and if you want to go farther in than 100feet, you have to go by boat, or swimming. The cave is somewhere around 7km long, but i'm not posiitive if that is accurate, but it very well could be. The water is very shallow, and our boat continuously slid on the gravel floor of the cave river. We drove through the dark of the cave, with a guy in front of the boat with a super bright headlamp giving directions, and a driver in back steering, although you could tell the driver knew the cave by heart. We drove in to the darkness, armed only with the super bright headlamps of our two guides, Jins headlamp(thanks mom!) and my tiny flashlight! The river in the cave was only about 50 feet wide mas o menos and big rocks occcasionally stuck out of the water, or giant boulders could be seen on the edge, just like in any normal non cave river.... SO COOL! after a while, we got to a beach with some stairs that led up to some very cool and colorfully lit stalagmites and stalagtites. We looked around for a bit, and then headed onward. Every once in a while we'd hit rapids, and the boat would try to power through them upstream and then would get stuck. Sometimes we'd make it through without getting stuck, but more often than not, we'd be wading through knee deep rapids in the dark, as our guides pushed the boat the 15 feet up the river over the obstacle. We'd get back in the boat, the driver would bail out the water a bit, and then we'd head on. The cave was in some places 20 feet high and in other places at least 150ft(the book says 100m, but that is probably just a very small area.) It was amazing, and so unique. After a 45 minute trip, we reached light again, and I thought we were back at the original mouth of the cave, but it was a totally seperate, yet similar opening. We drove out, went upstream, stopped for some unneeded snack break(i wanted back in the cool and mysterious cave), and then headed back the way we came!
Ultimately, the Kong Lo Caves are fantastic. while not the most spectacular cave scenery in the world, it is some of the more unique, and the feeling of riding in a boat in the pitch black through a dark and large cavern on a motor boat is something that is truly fantastical! It made me want to start spelunking, minus my claustrophobic streak!
After we got out of the cave, we walked back around the swim hole to the "drawbridge" and passed some friendly Lao people playing guitar and chilling out by the river, then some friendly looking foreigners(as all the foreigners off the beaten track seemed much cooler than the ones we have previously been bumping in to.)We decided to skip the ride back to the guest house and buy some beers and chill by the river and walk back to the guest house, 1.5km away. I begged the guy to let us camp by the river, but they said it wasnt allowed at all. We imposed ourselves on the acoustic jam session and Jin made friends with the Lao posse while I was happy to talk to a cool guy i met from colorado. After a while, the sun began to go down, and amazingly, the Lao posse offered us a ride the 40km back to Ban Na Hin in their Air conditioned truck! The guitar crew chilled in the back, while we got to sit up front with Jin's new friends! We saved some money for the ride back to town, and didnt have to get up super early the next day to get back to town to catch the bus onwards towards the border.... worked out great! we found a cheap guest house in town, then woke up the next day and caught a bus to Lak Sao. From their, we stood confused in another gravel lot for ten minutes until another bus just happened to be heading straight for the coast of Vietnam, Vinh! It couldn't have been any easier!
Although I was sad to have it work out so smoothly and leave so quickly, it was nice to not have to stand around all day at bus stations or walk a mile with our bags, so I'm not complaining! I guess if you just throw yourself out there, and hope for the best, sometimes it works out!
5.1-5.16老挝
呆了16天，其实就在从北部到中部的4个地方。这里山都很漂亮，但基本未开发为攀爬景点。 
第二站万荣（Vang Vieng），据介绍像阳朔，确实山漂亮，但旱季水浅，橡皮筏漂流太慢，自己游还怕蹬到河底石头。岩洞啊自然景观是不错，但整个镇变成为旅游点而存在。沿河漂流、河中一个岛都完全变成酒吧。镇上都是住宿，餐馆，旅行社。没有任何当地原始习俗 。
除了首都万象（隔河就是泰国），其他几个地方电力不能承受商用的空调（极少数住家户有空调）。所以只有在万象享受到空调，而呆得最长，最热的琅布拉邦只有整天浸在汗里。
老挝人很善良，友好。一般不会敲棒棒。同一地域价格很统一，但有时感觉很死板。
吃得最多的就是米粉。一般是鸡汤加薄荷，九层塔，小葱，可能鱼露，糖之类的，自己加生的蔬菜和青柠进去。汤超好喝。各种不一样种类的米粉。
这里盛产糯米，当地人就一小袋菜或牛肉干加一带饭就是一餐。可以直接用手捏糯米蘸菜或夹菜吃。
这里盛产糯米，当地人就一小袋菜或牛肉干加一带饭就是一餐。可以直接用手捏糯米蘸菜或夹菜吃。
老挝还是挺穷的。富人还是有，但大多人都简单的过着生活。经过的村宅居民住在竹席围着的吊脚楼里，厚厚的稻草棚顶。城市里还是水泥房多。
山区就不说了，生态环境当然好。即使有一小秃坡，但四周都是茂密的山林。城市就很漂亮，尽量种各种不同的果树，花树。对于只有雨季跟旱季的地域，很容易种格式漂亮的树，何时都有漂亮的花开。不过法国殖民地的关系，很多漂亮的洋式建筑就是那时留下来的吧。
第一站琅布拉邦（Luang Prabang），
（下午5点夜市开始搭棚，我买了2件T恤，一条半截裙子，一个斜挎包）
我们住在两河交接的半岛的夜市附近，一呆就呆了一个星期。
对那个大巴及其不满。一米宽的床是睡2个人，而且床还不及我长。车一转弯就是撞两边。颠得我五脏六腑错了位...没喝水的情况下都上了无数次厕所。一有停车的机会我都会下来走走，除了睡着了的时候。不过不晕车的人应该没我怎么痛苦。我是一上车就想睡觉的，而这个卧铺车还没地坐（下铺可以侧着车行进的方向坐，还是不舒服）。
终于到了Luang Prabang。脚着地的瞬间觉得这辈子都不想再回到车上。完全像养老一样，一天可能干一件事（还因为太热，出门2-3个小时后就必须找阴凉处休息下）。其中了一天去上了学做老挝菜的课很有意思，跟师傅去菜市场学到很多不同的佐料！（图片如下其他英文文章...）
最舒服的一天就是去瀑布游泳。那个水之凉，我都不想出来了。可惜只去了半天。
最舒服的一天就是去瀑布游泳。那个水之凉，我都不想出来了。可惜只去了半天。
第二站万荣（Vang Vieng），据介绍像阳朔，确实山漂亮，但旱季水浅，橡皮筏漂流太慢，自己游还怕蹬到河底石头。岩洞啊自然景观是不错，但整个镇变成为旅游点而存在。沿河漂流、河中一个岛都完全变成酒吧。镇上都是住宿，餐馆，旅行社。没有任何当地原始习俗 。
（太热了，穿睡衣就出门了，不过也就在我们住的地方后面）
第三站首都——万象（Vientiane）。一个没有高楼大厦的城市感觉很是安宁。Ben很喜欢这里的便利店。有空调不说，还有世界各地的小吃。（主要是他找到他喜欢的习惯的小吃了）。7层楼高的象征 位于整个城市最漂亮宽敞的几条街道中心。算是当地最高的建筑。
（最遥远那个建筑，下面文章也有其他照片）
第四站班纳欣（Ban Na Hin）。从万象往西去越南的路上，一山系下的ko long岩洞有浅水流过，可乘小木船游览。洞深且长，基本无照明。两个船夫各携头灯同行。一船最多3个游客。不是当地人同行，我绝对不敢自己穿过此洞。走走停停用了2个小时游完次岩洞。 照片忘了放电脑上...下次传！
第四站班纳欣（Ban Na Hin）。从万象往西去越南的路上，一山系下的ko long岩洞有浅水流过，可乘小木船游览。洞深且长，基本无照明。两个船夫各携头灯同行。一船最多3个游客。不是当地人同行，我绝对不敢自己穿过此洞。走走停停用了2个小时游完次岩洞。 照片忘了放电脑上...下次传！
除了首都万象（隔河就是泰国），其他几个地方电力不能承受商用的空调（极少数住家户有空调）。所以只有在万象享受到空调，而呆得最长，最热的琅布拉邦只有整天浸在汗里。
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Vientiane
In front of the Patuxai(literally meaning "victory gate", thanks wikipedia!) in Vientiane. This is called the Arc de Triomphe of Vientiane or the "vertical runway," because it was built using cement the US had donated to build a new runway at the airport. The Patuxai was finished in 1968 and built as a monument to the people's struggle in their fight for independence from France.
The view from the top. At 7 floors, this is one of the tallest structures in Vientiane.
We still haven't figured out what this building is, but it is right next to the Patuxai, and one of the largest in the city.
Inside the top floor of the Patuxai, looking towards the river and our hotel.
Our cooking class at Tamnak Lao Restaurant in Luang Prabang
We decided to take a cooking class in Luang Prabang. Luckily, we were the only people to sign up that day, so we got the whole day to ourselves with the teacher/chef. The school was part of the Tamnak Lao Restaurant in LP. The restaurant has a website, www.TamnakLao.net
The class is from 10 to 5, but because of our ëxpertise" we finished around 4. We paid 25 dollars each, and got to spend the entire day one on one with the chef, asking him all the questions we want, and doing our best to squeeze every last bit of detail from what he was saying. The day started out with a trip to the Phousy Market, or LP's supermarket. Here was all the ingredients needed to cook basically any kind of Lao or Thai food. The chef showed us around himself, answered all our questions, helped us bargain, and even waited around while we found some more water buffalo jerkey. Jin piqued his brain constantly, trying to figure out what the contents were of the multitude of unlabeled bags of food which were everywhere. The market was fun, and was certainly much more interesting than the previous trip we had made alone, when we were totally clueless.
Jin certainly got the most out of it, and i'd be pretty confident to say that we could cook some pretty legit Lao cuisine now, especially given all the right ingredients. We watched the chef cook lunch, then made same dishes ourselves, then ate them! After lunch, we watched the chef cook 3 more meals, then chose 2 of them to cook ourselves. We then cooked a third meal, Laap, or an amazing Lao meat salad(Soooo Good!) We will post some recipes soon. We got to make 3 meals in total, then got to eat them for dinner! So all in all, we had 5 full dishes, a personal tour of the market and a few hours of private cooking instruction one on one with a professional chef, not too bad!
Our class began with a trip to the Phousy Market in Luang Prabang. This market is a collection of fake tshirts, fake electronics, fruit, vegetables, meat, more fake stuff, pharmacies, drug stores, and anything else one could possibly find in Laos. It is generally referred to as L.P. only "supermarket." Every other market in town is no bigger than a UPS delivery truck.
The chef, mincing chicken on his little 3 legged tree trunk cutting board!
Lunch!
Our dinner. On the left was a curry dish, and the right the Laap(amazing meat salad.) This was the patio outside the school were we got to eat and take our tea breaks. Across the walkway of the tiny alley you may be able to spot the signs for the book exchange where I picked up the Dharma Bums and Twilight!
Ben pretending to be a Lao chef!
Jin waiting for me to quit taking pictures so we could eat!
Tubing in the Vang Vieng/Rocket Day!
The view from our hotel in Vang Vieng. Despite the amazing view's our hotel was extremely shabby. Our room consisted of a towel rack, a tiny metal table and a king sized mattress on a fairly dirty floor. However, the hotel was cheap, in the heart of town, and fairly secure..... plus it had screens on the window, a huge luxury!
Vang Vieng is basically long L shaped roads with a bunch of other random streets scattered around. When we got to town we were greeted by a gravel parking lot(possibly a runway as well) that was aproximately 1000m long(maybe longer) by 250m wide, woo hoo! Our bus, after traveling the 5 hours from Luang Prabang drove through the gravel lot and towards the main road. It dropped us off at the "bus station" which is basically what every tour guide calls their office. We walked in to town with our bags on our back and searched for someplace cheap, not scalding hot, and near stuff. The town is basically a bunch of 19 and 20 year old European and Australian teenagers who somehow escaped from home and all gathered to party in some random Lao truckstop. The main attraction(and only attraction within the city) is inner tubing down the river. You basically pay 7 dollars for trip, including the tuk tuk ride 2 miles up the road. The Tuk Tuk drops you off, and there is a small stairway leading to the river, and then about 15 bars over the next 200m of the river, on both sides. All the bars have trapeze style rope swings, high jump platforms, and one even a waterslide. Each bar has a small dock, where the bartenders throw a rope with an empty plastic soda or water bottle on the end(which floats, a la a life preserver.) Every bar has a person throwing these "life preservers"at you, until you grab hold of one, while floating down the river, and they pull you in. From there, there is buckets(literally) of drinks as well as food, and other tasty treats. It is basically a million college kids going crazy on the edge of some poor Lao river. It seems as though every bar does their best to think up more dangerous ways to enter the water than the next!
Unfortunately, this year has been really dry, and the river is really low. Jin has been a little sick and on antibiotics, so she couldnt drink, and there was hardly anyone on the river that day anyways, so it was basically a few groups of friends hanging out at each bar. It was cool, but not the best excuse i've seen to party and my motivation to get crazy at 1pm on a wednesday in 100 degree heat isn't what it used to be. I was basically excited to just sit in a tube and float down the river and swim all day. However, because of the low water, the river was moving well below walking speed and after 4 hours of swimming and "tubing" we had only gone one mile. The point is to tube back to the center of town, pull out your tube and start partying more, but the river was moving soooo slow, and we were in danger of not making it back before dark, and the 6pm cutoff time to return our tubes by. Finally, Me and Jin pulled our tubes out of the river, baking in the sun, and got a tuk tuk to drive us back the 1 plus mile to the center of town. it was wayyy too hot and dirty outside to be walking through town, and our tubes might have exploded rolling on the concrete. The tar in the roads was seriously melting to our shoes as we walked, it was so hot!
One reason for the quiet day on the river, was that it was "Rocket Day!" I'd never heard of this holiday, but it certainly was fun! We first noticed something strange sitting down for breakfast and seeing trucks and tuk tuks driving through town with 20foot long colorful arrow like sticks angled from the back over the front carriage of the car. The flatbed part of each truck had maybe 10 or 20 people standing up, wearing super silly clothes, with pots and pans, faces painted, etc. At first I thought this is what the insanely crazy local bars did to drum up business in the quiet morning hours. Later, right after we paid for the tubes, we found out it was Rocket Day, and that all the bars on the river would be closed so the employees could party. The bars were open, though not all of them. The rockets, which basically resembled the model rockets young boys build, but between 5 and 25 feet long were insane.... Some more resembling actual missiles than a boy's toy. They went off from various locations throughout the day, reaching a crescendo around sunset. Some went a few hundred feet, some well over a couple thousand feet... It got hard to estimate. But I know they definitely went way higher than the ones i built and launched when I was 13 or so, which was around 1200 feet max. Some had white smoke, some black, it was definitely a sight to see.... My first Rocket Day!
P.S. Lao is home to some of the world's best traveller hippy tshirt/basketball jerseys. You can't go an hour in this country without seeing a 20 year old wearing the "tubing in the Vang Vieng" jersey.... So I had to steal it for our title! Sorry Lao T Shirt Makers!!!
Royal Palace Museum and Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang, Laos
We spent a day visiting the former Palace of the Lao Royal Family. The palace grounds were directly across from our hotel in Luang Prabang. They are only open early in the morning, then closed for a couple hours at lunch, and then open again from 130 to 4. Inside the palace, as is customary in most places in Luang Prabang, no one is allowed to wear shoes. The palace is absolutely gorgeous and refreshingly simple and understated, something I cannot say about some of the other royal homes I have visited in my life(not too many.) I believe I already described the Palace a bit in my other posts, but it is worth talking about it a bit more. The entrance was a large grand room with doorways on all four sides, one leading outside, the one straight ahead leading to the throne room, and on each side large galleries, one a dining hall, the other a sitting room. The tour goes counter clockwise around the rooms of the palace, which all connect, forming a large circle. No pictures are allowed inside unfortunately, and no books of the palace were for sale anywhere. The first room after the entrance room was a large sitting room with murals from floor to ceiling. The murals were in a sort of impressionist, neo Van Gogh style. They were from waist level, to the top of the 15 foot ceiling, and all the way around the room, which was at least 25 feet long by 15 feet wide. The murals depicted everyday life in Luang Prabang and the countryside of Laos, scenes or rivers, markets, strees, and elephants. From there, we saw several hallways filled with large steel drums, very intricately designed, and then entered the main throne room(directly ahead of the doorway.) The throne room was decorated floor to ceiling in dichro glass mosaics. The mosaics depicted more life from Laos, and were made using glass from Japan. I wont describe the Palace completely, but other rooms were filled antique Buddhas from all over Asia, and some over a thousand years old. The Buddhas were made of gold, clay, quartz crystal, wood, and any other material that could be fashioned in to the appropriate shape. The King and Queen had seperate bedrooms. The rooms were massive, at least 25 feet by 15 feet, and had giant furniture. Despite the scale of the furniture, the rooms seemed rather empty, with tons of open floor space. Again, the highlights for me were the gifts from other countries, especially the moon pieces from the USA.
Overall the Palace was spectacular, yet understated. It was very stylish, but totally not overdone. It was simple, and tastefully furnished. The art, furniture, and belongings of the Royal family were all oversized, but because of the scale of the Palace, they fit in perfectly. The Palace overall was maybe only 15 rooms and at most 10,000 square feet. This made it large, and grandiose, but by no means gaudy or out of place in Lao. It was the most beautifully simple, and livable royal palace I have ever seen, and the kind of place a normal person may actually want to live, not just dream of living in.
Wat Xieng Thong was quite cool as well. I wont go in to depth on it, but the grounds were surrounded by small, very intricately buildings that were all quite impressive. One building was a sort of garage for the Royal funeral carriage. This building had another amazing "tree of life" mosaic, once again made of dichro glass. The main Wat(temple), shown in the picture with Jin holding the postcard, is the oldest Wat in Luang Prabang and one of the most beautiful. The Wat on the Royal Palace grounds is brighter and flashier, but that may just be because it is almost done being restored, while Wat Xieng Thong seems to be in a bit more "original" condition. Inside was the usual oversided Buddha shrine(old hat by now) and amazing woodwork everywhere. People came in and out, taking off their shoes at the door, and bowing to their knees offering prayers to the Buddha. Me and Jin relaxed in the dark shade inside for a few minutes, trying to save ourselves from the baking heat of the outdoors.
Overall, the Wat and Palace are two of the highlights of Luang Prabang. The whole city is amazing, and these places only add to it, but certainly do not define the class and beauty of the city. The night market, stunning fruit trees, and riverfront walkways make Luang Prabang what it is, and without any of the elements, it would not be the same.
Kuang Xi Waterfall, Luang Prabang
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Luang Prabang's peninsula
Bungalows on the edge of the Mae Kok River, towards the tip of Luang Prabang's peninsula
One of Luang Prabang's many narrow alleyways
some of the many beautiful trees scattered everywhere throughout L.P.
Looking West (?) across the peninsula of LP with the Mekong River below.
Getting into Laos
Crossing in to Laos from China, we had to walk across the border and meet the bus on the other side.
View of Sisavangvong Road in Luang Prabang, day and night. This is the main street, and home of the night market.
The view of the night market from our hotel, Thalien Guest House, on Sisavangvong Road, Luang Prabang
Jin at the Night Market on Sisavangvong Road, Luang Prabang.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Luang Prabang!
Ok, Jin just yelled at me for posting too long, and blocking out all the pictures she just posted below! Please check page 2, they are pretty cool, and basically recap the end of our stay in China.
We got to Luang Prabang on the night of the 1st, and caught a small Tuk Tuk(motorcycle with a small truck bed on the back) to the main street. We arrived at about 8pm, and were so happy to finally be somewhere, besides on a bus! The city is more like a country town, until you get to the main street on the peninsula. The peninsula of Luang Prabang lies between the Mekong River, and another River and the entire thing is protected as a UNESCO world Heritage site. It so so beautiful here, and the main street is closed down to cars and features a market in the center of the road about 3 blocks long from 5pm until 10 every night. We walked down the main street through the market, and looked for the cheap hostels listed in the LP(lonely planet.) The only ones we found weren't that nice, and fairly unimpressive, and nearly double the cost of that listed in the LP.... listed at 30,000kip per room, actually 5o,000. Luckily, we found an awesome little hotel in the middle of the main street shopping area. Our room is ultra clean, very cool, super quiet, and seemingly rather secure. The owner is really nice, and we were able to score the room for 50,000 kip a night, or about $6.25! A bit more than we had been paying in China, but a lot nicer! Plus, our room, although not underground has the feel of a basement, with two eternally running vent fans pointing outside, glass bricks for windows, and a super powerful oscillating fan pointed straight at our bed! Not too bad!
Luang Prabang is amazing. The city is so quiet and beautiful. There is zero hustle and bustle here, and it feels like Hawaii 70 years ago(or probably thailand around that time.) There is backpackers and travellers from all over the world everywhere, and everyone is just chilling on "Lao time." The night market is beautiful, and has awesome tshirts, silly Lao basketball jerseys, baggy long hippy shorts and pants made of cool ethnic home made fabrics, tons of wood stuff, crystals, fruit smoothies, silver items, womens clothing, and all kinds of other handmade nick nacks and souvenirs! The restaurants here have amazing Lao food, Thai food, Indian food, French food(Lao was a french colony), and general western food! Everything is between 8000 to 60,000 Kip, or 1 to 8 US dollars(exchange rate is 1 dollar to 8200kip)! t shirts are 25000 kip, a pound of mangos is 6000 Kip(best mangos since hawaii!)
The town is sooo chill, no hurry at all, nada. There are amazing cafes with awesome coffee, with small tables and comfy chairs under amazing trees covered in fruit! The rivers are on both sides of the peninsula, making the area about 20 blocks long by about 3 blocks wide. We are right in the middle. Everyone is chilling, and there is basically nothing to do, but wander around, eat, drink, sit by the river, drink coffee, rent bicycles, go to the Wat(temples), the small museums, or take a tuk tuk to the waterfalls outside of town.
We did basically nothing on our first full day here. We just sat around and drank coffee, ate bagels(YESSS!), looked at books at the book exchange, walked to the river, and were just happy to not be on a bus! Today, monday, we awoke and ate more bagels(my idea!), drank more coffee(my idea again!), then went to the town market, which is very strange, and then the Royal Palace, which is now turned in to a museum. The Phosy market, is part flea market, part fruit stand, butcher, vegetable market, part fake stuff market, with a lot of cell phones, home items, plastic stuff and other things mixed in. Basically a Lao walmart. Not a whole lot of great stuff was there, but we did get some more great mangos(yes!), some laundry detergent to wash our clothes in the sink, some water buffalo jerky, and a really silly fake Casio watch with a hilarious multicolored light show for a light! The watch was the highlight for me. It is literally the exact watch I wore from when i was 7 to 12 years old, the old school black plastic casio with the day, date and time listed on it, but the light, instead of the normal white or yellow, flashes from green to red to blue.... basically like a Phish concert! So i'm happy! Plus it took the place of my much more hip looking 3dollar Chinese watch that broke in 2 weeks!
After the light show, i mean market, me and Jin hopped the Tuk Tuk back to our hood, and went to the Royal Palace Museum which is right across from our hostel. The palace is amazing, and the perfect example of Lao style. Very subdued, beautiful and chill, but with lots of taste! The first room had amazing murals all over the wall, all the way around the large 10mx6m room and up to the 5m tall ceilings, all pictures of Lao life in the 1930s but in a Van Gogh sorta style... Super cool!
The rest of the museum had a cool throne, a ton of 1000 plus year old buddhas collected by the king, some old buddhist artwork, really chill art deco furniture, and some amazing Japanese Glass mosaics covering the wall of another even more giant room. The Dichromatic glass depicted life in Lao and was really cool, and totally covered the huge throne room walls! We got to see the king and queens seperate bedrooms, and the rest of the palace too, including some more cool crystals, swords, artwork, and gifts given to the king and queens from countries all around the world! The highlight of the gifts for me was a Lao flag that was taken to the moon aboard Apollo 11, and some tiny moon rocks given to the king of Lao by the US govt. Another cool item was the silver box given to Lao by JFK and dated February of 1963. After the palace, we were starving, so we came to a local restaurant with free WiFi and got some awesome Thai soups, and Pad Se Ew(which is totally different than the ones I eat back home.) I've now typed a novel, and if anyone is still reading, Thank You for your stamina and undying interest! Jin also finally got to post all the pics she has been editing from our trip to China, and which I have now buried on page 3! She is great though, and I super appreciate all her tireless picture editing to preserve our trip online through this blog! The net here is very slow, and this cafe(one of the many in town that offers free wifi), totally empty at our 4pm dinner, has the fastest internet of any internet cafe in town....
Ok, i'm off to happy hour with Jin, she has almost finished reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe while I have written this, and we better pay and get out, before this restaurant kicks us out! Love to everyone, and check out the pics on the next few pages!
We got to Luang Prabang on the night of the 1st, and caught a small Tuk Tuk(motorcycle with a small truck bed on the back) to the main street. We arrived at about 8pm, and were so happy to finally be somewhere, besides on a bus! The city is more like a country town, until you get to the main street on the peninsula. The peninsula of Luang Prabang lies between the Mekong River, and another River and the entire thing is protected as a UNESCO world Heritage site. It so so beautiful here, and the main street is closed down to cars and features a market in the center of the road about 3 blocks long from 5pm until 10 every night. We walked down the main street through the market, and looked for the cheap hostels listed in the LP(lonely planet.) The only ones we found weren't that nice, and fairly unimpressive, and nearly double the cost of that listed in the LP.... listed at 30,000kip per room, actually 5o,000. Luckily, we found an awesome little hotel in the middle of the main street shopping area. Our room is ultra clean, very cool, super quiet, and seemingly rather secure. The owner is really nice, and we were able to score the room for 50,000 kip a night, or about $6.25! A bit more than we had been paying in China, but a lot nicer! Plus, our room, although not underground has the feel of a basement, with two eternally running vent fans pointing outside, glass bricks for windows, and a super powerful oscillating fan pointed straight at our bed! Not too bad!
Luang Prabang is amazing. The city is so quiet and beautiful. There is zero hustle and bustle here, and it feels like Hawaii 70 years ago(or probably thailand around that time.) There is backpackers and travellers from all over the world everywhere, and everyone is just chilling on "Lao time." The night market is beautiful, and has awesome tshirts, silly Lao basketball jerseys, baggy long hippy shorts and pants made of cool ethnic home made fabrics, tons of wood stuff, crystals, fruit smoothies, silver items, womens clothing, and all kinds of other handmade nick nacks and souvenirs! The restaurants here have amazing Lao food, Thai food, Indian food, French food(Lao was a french colony), and general western food! Everything is between 8000 to 60,000 Kip, or 1 to 8 US dollars(exchange rate is 1 dollar to 8200kip)! t shirts are 25000 kip, a pound of mangos is 6000 Kip(best mangos since hawaii!)
The town is sooo chill, no hurry at all, nada. There are amazing cafes with awesome coffee, with small tables and comfy chairs under amazing trees covered in fruit! The rivers are on both sides of the peninsula, making the area about 20 blocks long by about 3 blocks wide. We are right in the middle. Everyone is chilling, and there is basically nothing to do, but wander around, eat, drink, sit by the river, drink coffee, rent bicycles, go to the Wat(temples), the small museums, or take a tuk tuk to the waterfalls outside of town.
We did basically nothing on our first full day here. We just sat around and drank coffee, ate bagels(YESSS!), looked at books at the book exchange, walked to the river, and were just happy to not be on a bus! Today, monday, we awoke and ate more bagels(my idea!), drank more coffee(my idea again!), then went to the town market, which is very strange, and then the Royal Palace, which is now turned in to a museum. The Phosy market, is part flea market, part fruit stand, butcher, vegetable market, part fake stuff market, with a lot of cell phones, home items, plastic stuff and other things mixed in. Basically a Lao walmart. Not a whole lot of great stuff was there, but we did get some more great mangos(yes!), some laundry detergent to wash our clothes in the sink, some water buffalo jerky, and a really silly fake Casio watch with a hilarious multicolored light show for a light! The watch was the highlight for me. It is literally the exact watch I wore from when i was 7 to 12 years old, the old school black plastic casio with the day, date and time listed on it, but the light, instead of the normal white or yellow, flashes from green to red to blue.... basically like a Phish concert! So i'm happy! Plus it took the place of my much more hip looking 3dollar Chinese watch that broke in 2 weeks!
After the light show, i mean market, me and Jin hopped the Tuk Tuk back to our hood, and went to the Royal Palace Museum which is right across from our hostel. The palace is amazing, and the perfect example of Lao style. Very subdued, beautiful and chill, but with lots of taste! The first room had amazing murals all over the wall, all the way around the large 10mx6m room and up to the 5m tall ceilings, all pictures of Lao life in the 1930s but in a Van Gogh sorta style... Super cool!
The rest of the museum had a cool throne, a ton of 1000 plus year old buddhas collected by the king, some old buddhist artwork, really chill art deco furniture, and some amazing Japanese Glass mosaics covering the wall of another even more giant room. The Dichromatic glass depicted life in Lao and was really cool, and totally covered the huge throne room walls! We got to see the king and queens seperate bedrooms, and the rest of the palace too, including some more cool crystals, swords, artwork, and gifts given to the king and queens from countries all around the world! The highlight of the gifts for me was a Lao flag that was taken to the moon aboard Apollo 11, and some tiny moon rocks given to the king of Lao by the US govt. Another cool item was the silver box given to Lao by JFK and dated February of 1963. After the palace, we were starving, so we came to a local restaurant with free WiFi and got some awesome Thai soups, and Pad Se Ew(which is totally different than the ones I eat back home.) I've now typed a novel, and if anyone is still reading, Thank You for your stamina and undying interest! Jin also finally got to post all the pics she has been editing from our trip to China, and which I have now buried on page 3! She is great though, and I super appreciate all her tireless picture editing to preserve our trip online through this blog! The net here is very slow, and this cafe(one of the many in town that offers free wifi), totally empty at our 4pm dinner, has the fastest internet of any internet cafe in town....
Ok, i'm off to happy hour with Jin, she has almost finished reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe while I have written this, and we better pay and get out, before this restaurant kicks us out! Love to everyone, and check out the pics on the next few pages!
We made it to Laos!!!! Jin is an official Road Warrior!
I guess the title says it all, we made it to Laos..... at last! We are now in Luang Prabang in central part of northern Laos. This city was described as "one of the most romantic cities in SE Asia" by the Lonely Planet, and I'd have to agree(although it also the first city we've stayed at in SE Asia!)
We had a harrowing 26 plus hour bus ride from Kunming, China to here. After that i'd definitely add Jin to the "seasoned road warrior" status... It dwarfed the 18 hour train ride we had the night before from Guelin to Kunming.
i guess i'll recap our road here. We left Yangshuo, China on the 29th and caught an hour and a half minibus to Guelin. From there we caught a train around 630pm. Our hard beds were comfortable as always, and our train had more foreign tourists on it than all previous train rides from the entire 8 weeks before combined. We had a great time hanging with a guy from Israel, a girl from the Czech Republic, and a really nice couple from Australia(who had spent the past month in Yangshuo climbing the awesome rocks nearby.) The train was relaxing, and I got to do some research on Lao and continue reading my book, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Arriving in Kunming around noon on the 30th, we were worried that it would be difficult to find train or bus tickets to Laos because of the May 1 Labor Day holiday, which is a huge event in China. Fortunately, after we got off the train, we were able to buy a bus ticket immedietely for later that night. Lacking any real info on Laos, and unsure of where exactly we wanted to start, we initially chose to get off at Udomxai, in northern Laos. However, after consulting the LP, we decided that it wasnt really the kind of place we wanted to spend our first days in the country at. Apparently Udomxai is filled with Chinese workers who have come to the country seeking employment and have turned it in to a sort of truck stop fronteir town of immigrants and with more Chinese culture than Lao. So, we talked to our bus driver and he changed our ticket to 4hrs down the road, Luang Prabang. Not bad for an extra 3 dollars!
We spent the day in Kunming, which is a pretty nice city as far as places in China go. It has been described as the florida of china, with a large retirement population and awesome weather year round. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic on a city bus after going to the post office to lighten our bags a little(sending stuff home,) and only got to the bus station 25 minutes before our bus left for Laos!
The bus was nice, and pretty luxurious compared to the other buses at the bus station in Kunming. It had a wide aisle and small double beds on one side and very skinny twin beds on the other side. Initially me and Jin thought we had seperate beds, but we actually had a double bed(actually about the size of a really really short(5'4" tall) twin bed.) At first we were super excited at how big and luxurious our beds were, but then we were told we were sharing a bed, and i'm sure the look on our face had more than a twinkle of unease.
The trip started off fine, heading down the roads of China towards the border. It was quite curvy in China, but that was just the beginning!
Around 10pm, we decided to head to bed. Maybe 15 minutes later the bus stopped and I thought we were taking a bathroom break.....On the side of the highway. But then we started going again.... Then the bus stopped a couple minutes later.... Then we started going again..... Then we stopped a couple minutes later..... This went on at least 15 times. the engine seemed to just stop running while we driving down the highway. It even stopped running in a tunnel, which is when I almost went and killed the bus driver for getting me killed in a Chinese tunnel(a constant fear of mine throughout china, tons of tunnels, with horrible crazy drivers passing everywhere, UGH.... AHHHH!!!)
Then we stopped again, and the drivers(at least 4 of them) got out and managed to actually fix the problem, to my shock! We then continued on and I semi fell asleep by midnight. The curvy road caused us to roll around all night, banging our legs and bodies on the windows and bars on the side of the bed. I definitely slept a little, i'm just not exactly sure when. I woke up around 5:30am in Mengla near the border. We were told that the bus couldn't cross the border until it opened around 8 or 9, so we would stop for a few hours.
I got an hour of amazing sleep, which did wonders for me. Unfortunately, close to 7am, I was awoken by a man, we think, who wanted to exchange my US dollars for Lao Kip. Jin was angry that he woke us up, and wouldn't let me do any business with him! I would have sworn that he was a girl had I not opened my eyes; we still aren't positive.
The Chinese border crossing was uneventful, and we made it to the Lao border area by around 9ish. There was a huge push of people trying to get to the tiny makeshift border stamping building. People were pushing, passing their passports to their friends at the front of the line, and everyone had some form of currency tucked in to their passport as they handed it to the Lao Guard! after a wait for quite a while, we were able to get to the front of the line, where Jin got her passport stamped. After putting no money inside her passport, the guard asked for 20yuen, or a bit more than 3US dollars. We gave him 20,000 Kip, or around $2.50. Jin was not amused, but I thought this was a classic border crossing moment! She was even more upset when I made it out without bribing him, but I guess that is one perk of being an American. 3 dollars may seem small, but if you imagine 1000, or even 300 Chinese people each giving you 3 dollars, that adds up to a fortune real fast, especially in Lao, where a decent hotel is 7 dollars, and a meal is 3 bucks!
I was feeling pretty alright when we got back on the bus. About a half hour later, we got to a "weigh station," which really seemed more like an excuse to pay off more Lao officials! We were told it would be at least 2 or 3 hours, but after our smooth bus drivers talked to the guards, and I'm sure exchanged a bit more Kip, we made it out in less than an hour! Woo Hoo!
From there, the trip got wayyyy worse! We had about 300Km of dirt highway on the curviest mountain roads you've ever been on! imagine driving to an unheard of Colorado mountain town, on a dirt road in a 60ft long bus, lying in a bed for 10 plus hours! It was insane! I was semi sick feeling the entire day, rolling back and forth around every curve! Jin wasnt much better. The bus just keeped bumping and we kept bouncing and rolling.... all day!
at last, we made it! around 8pm. I swear i had been on a small boat on stormy seas for the last day and a half.
Luang Prabang! At Last!
We had a harrowing 26 plus hour bus ride from Kunming, China to here. After that i'd definitely add Jin to the "seasoned road warrior" status... It dwarfed the 18 hour train ride we had the night before from Guelin to Kunming.
i guess i'll recap our road here. We left Yangshuo, China on the 29th and caught an hour and a half minibus to Guelin. From there we caught a train around 630pm. Our hard beds were comfortable as always, and our train had more foreign tourists on it than all previous train rides from the entire 8 weeks before combined. We had a great time hanging with a guy from Israel, a girl from the Czech Republic, and a really nice couple from Australia(who had spent the past month in Yangshuo climbing the awesome rocks nearby.) The train was relaxing, and I got to do some research on Lao and continue reading my book, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Arriving in Kunming around noon on the 30th, we were worried that it would be difficult to find train or bus tickets to Laos because of the May 1 Labor Day holiday, which is a huge event in China. Fortunately, after we got off the train, we were able to buy a bus ticket immedietely for later that night. Lacking any real info on Laos, and unsure of where exactly we wanted to start, we initially chose to get off at Udomxai, in northern Laos. However, after consulting the LP, we decided that it wasnt really the kind of place we wanted to spend our first days in the country at. Apparently Udomxai is filled with Chinese workers who have come to the country seeking employment and have turned it in to a sort of truck stop fronteir town of immigrants and with more Chinese culture than Lao. So, we talked to our bus driver and he changed our ticket to 4hrs down the road, Luang Prabang. Not bad for an extra 3 dollars!
We spent the day in Kunming, which is a pretty nice city as far as places in China go. It has been described as the florida of china, with a large retirement population and awesome weather year round. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic on a city bus after going to the post office to lighten our bags a little(sending stuff home,) and only got to the bus station 25 minutes before our bus left for Laos!
The bus was nice, and pretty luxurious compared to the other buses at the bus station in Kunming. It had a wide aisle and small double beds on one side and very skinny twin beds on the other side. Initially me and Jin thought we had seperate beds, but we actually had a double bed(actually about the size of a really really short(5'4" tall) twin bed.) At first we were super excited at how big and luxurious our beds were, but then we were told we were sharing a bed, and i'm sure the look on our face had more than a twinkle of unease.
The trip started off fine, heading down the roads of China towards the border. It was quite curvy in China, but that was just the beginning!
Around 10pm, we decided to head to bed. Maybe 15 minutes later the bus stopped and I thought we were taking a bathroom break.....On the side of the highway. But then we started going again.... Then the bus stopped a couple minutes later.... Then we started going again..... Then we stopped a couple minutes later..... This went on at least 15 times. the engine seemed to just stop running while we driving down the highway. It even stopped running in a tunnel, which is when I almost went and killed the bus driver for getting me killed in a Chinese tunnel(a constant fear of mine throughout china, tons of tunnels, with horrible crazy drivers passing everywhere, UGH.... AHHHH!!!)
Then we stopped again, and the drivers(at least 4 of them) got out and managed to actually fix the problem, to my shock! We then continued on and I semi fell asleep by midnight. The curvy road caused us to roll around all night, banging our legs and bodies on the windows and bars on the side of the bed. I definitely slept a little, i'm just not exactly sure when. I woke up around 5:30am in Mengla near the border. We were told that the bus couldn't cross the border until it opened around 8 or 9, so we would stop for a few hours.
I got an hour of amazing sleep, which did wonders for me. Unfortunately, close to 7am, I was awoken by a man, we think, who wanted to exchange my US dollars for Lao Kip. Jin was angry that he woke us up, and wouldn't let me do any business with him! I would have sworn that he was a girl had I not opened my eyes; we still aren't positive.
The Chinese border crossing was uneventful, and we made it to the Lao border area by around 9ish. There was a huge push of people trying to get to the tiny makeshift border stamping building. People were pushing, passing their passports to their friends at the front of the line, and everyone had some form of currency tucked in to their passport as they handed it to the Lao Guard! after a wait for quite a while, we were able to get to the front of the line, where Jin got her passport stamped. After putting no money inside her passport, the guard asked for 20yuen, or a bit more than 3US dollars. We gave him 20,000 Kip, or around $2.50. Jin was not amused, but I thought this was a classic border crossing moment! She was even more upset when I made it out without bribing him, but I guess that is one perk of being an American. 3 dollars may seem small, but if you imagine 1000, or even 300 Chinese people each giving you 3 dollars, that adds up to a fortune real fast, especially in Lao, where a decent hotel is 7 dollars, and a meal is 3 bucks!
I was feeling pretty alright when we got back on the bus. About a half hour later, we got to a "weigh station," which really seemed more like an excuse to pay off more Lao officials! We were told it would be at least 2 or 3 hours, but after our smooth bus drivers talked to the guards, and I'm sure exchanged a bit more Kip, we made it out in less than an hour! Woo Hoo!
From there, the trip got wayyyy worse! We had about 300Km of dirt highway on the curviest mountain roads you've ever been on! imagine driving to an unheard of Colorado mountain town, on a dirt road in a 60ft long bus, lying in a bed for 10 plus hours! It was insane! I was semi sick feeling the entire day, rolling back and forth around every curve! Jin wasnt much better. The bus just keeped bumping and we kept bouncing and rolling.... all day!
at last, we made it! around 8pm. I swear i had been on a small boat on stormy seas for the last day and a half.
Luang Prabang! At Last!
Dehang, hike to the waterfalls
On the way there.
Liusha Waterfall, the Highest Waterfall in China
Snacks from the river on the walk back to Dehang!
Liusha Waterfall, the Highest Waterfall in China
Snacks from the river on the walk back to Dehang!
Yangshuo, China
At Kaya, the most popular reggae bar in the world that barely ever plays music.
On the Li river boat ride see the 20 yuan bill view.
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