Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Ko Long Cave, Laos
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Hanoi
Hanoi is awesome. Getting off the bus from Vinh, I was a little disappointed by the lack of obvious sights to see, or beautiful buildings... But this is just hidden behind some crazy neighborhoods and a bunch of cheap plastic signs. The city is full of narrow streets going in every direction. Every sidewalk is either covered in hundreds of parked scooters, or in street food stands with tiny tables and chairs made for 4 year olds. The tiny tables and chairs, are not just at some, or most street food stands, but at EVERY stand, along with most cheap restaurants. It is kinda fun, but also a little ridiculous eating with your knees over your food, and sitting 6 inches above the ground. The food is amazing, and cheap, but almost exclusively Pho, or Vietnamese noodle soup. We did our best to locate everything that wasn't Pho, but youhave to be really committed and very brave. Then you have to point at exactly what other people are eating, and explain that you don't want Pho!
We stayed in the old quarter on both our trips there. At first, the old quarter doesn't seem all that old or fantastic. The streets are really narrow, and very chaotic, filled with cheap lighted signs, tons of scooters, dirty food stands, not so special stores, and millions of power wires.
My favorite thing to do in the city, besides eating, was seeing Ho Chi Minhs body on display. Probably one of the strangest things i've ever done, the experience was entirely surreal. We were hurried in to the large marble mausoleum, and watched extra closely by the armed military guards in their best uniforms. Uncle Ho is lying in a glass case in a high ceilinged room, looking white as can be, and with extra long pointy fingers in an extremely Mr. Burns-esque manner. We were rushed through the room, and no cameras were allowed at all, so it was hard to get a real grip on what I saw, but I do know that it was strange, damn strange! There are rumors that he has been replaced with a fax model, madame tussards style, and I would say that those are extremely well founded. If he is real, then he definitely will not be brought back to life anytime soon, but probably more likely to be made in to a really fancy candle.
We saw the "hanoi hilton" and the hanoi hilton... I have pictures to prove it. It was surreal seeing where McCain was held for so long, and thinking that 30 years later, I was wandering around the streets outside with Mercedes and Gringos aplenty... and yes there is an actual Hanoi Hilton Hotel.
After our 3rd day of wandering around, and our second trip to the city, we finally found the fancy part of the city, or embassy area. This is the old French style I was expecting and is extremely nice. The area is really nice, and has some awesome bakeries, great parks, and some really cool old buildings that really bring you back to the Colonial days.
The old quarter is really cool, and if you can get past the obvious ugliness, and wander down some old alleys and look behind the plastic signs, you will see some really cool buildings, and get really experience the classic Hanoi. The city overall is tons of fun, and has lots of great sights and beautiful buildings. The traffic is truly awesome, and is a sight in itself. The food is great, cheap, and its really silly sitting in a chair for a 4 year old and eating some Pho with fresh hot peppers and a plate of mint leaves. Overall, Hanoi is the best city i've been in since Hong Kong or Beijing, has the best street food of maybe anywhere we've been so far, and is entertaining if doing nothing but just walking down the street!
We stayed in the old quarter on both our trips there. At first, the old quarter doesn't seem all that old or fantastic. The streets are really narrow, and very chaotic, filled with cheap lighted signs, tons of scooters, dirty food stands, not so special stores, and millions of power wires.
My favorite thing to do in the city, besides eating, was seeing Ho Chi Minhs body on display. Probably one of the strangest things i've ever done, the experience was entirely surreal. We were hurried in to the large marble mausoleum, and watched extra closely by the armed military guards in their best uniforms. Uncle Ho is lying in a glass case in a high ceilinged room, looking white as can be, and with extra long pointy fingers in an extremely Mr. Burns-esque manner. We were rushed through the room, and no cameras were allowed at all, so it was hard to get a real grip on what I saw, but I do know that it was strange, damn strange! There are rumors that he has been replaced with a fax model, madame tussards style, and I would say that those are extremely well founded. If he is real, then he definitely will not be brought back to life anytime soon, but probably more likely to be made in to a really fancy candle.
We saw the "hanoi hilton" and the hanoi hilton... I have pictures to prove it. It was surreal seeing where McCain was held for so long, and thinking that 30 years later, I was wandering around the streets outside with Mercedes and Gringos aplenty... and yes there is an actual Hanoi Hilton Hotel.
After our 3rd day of wandering around, and our second trip to the city, we finally found the fancy part of the city, or embassy area. This is the old French style I was expecting and is extremely nice. The area is really nice, and has some awesome bakeries, great parks, and some really cool old buildings that really bring you back to the Colonial days.
The old quarter is really cool, and if you can get past the obvious ugliness, and wander down some old alleys and look behind the plastic signs, you will see some really cool buildings, and get really experience the classic Hanoi. The city overall is tons of fun, and has lots of great sights and beautiful buildings. The traffic is truly awesome, and is a sight in itself. The food is great, cheap, and its really silly sitting in a chair for a 4 year old and eating some Pho with fresh hot peppers and a plate of mint leaves. Overall, Hanoi is the best city i've been in since Hong Kong or Beijing, has the best street food of maybe anywhere we've been so far, and is entertaining if doing nothing but just walking down the street!
Vinh
Vinh. It was our first taste of Vietnam, and is not even in our Lonely Planet SE Asia Guidebook despite having around a quarter of a million people. There isn't much to the city, but that perhaps is its best asset. There are zero tourists there, and as long as you dont plan on doing much, it is a great place to relax for a couple days. The streets are wide, and long, and there is almost no sites to see. However, we did find some awesome food to eat, and a great, super cheap hotel to stay in. We ended up staying for a couple days, just to relax, do some laundry and chill after having no AC for our entire stay in Laos. We basically just ate cheap street food, got lost walking around and finding nothing, saw some old Soviet style architecture, watched a few movies on HBO, and did a whole lot of nothing. Not a bad way to spend a couple days after 2 full days on the road from Vientiane.
Headed Out
Ok, sorry for the slow updates... been busy not being online!
We are now in Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon)in SW Vietnam. We have been here for a few days already and are staying until thursday(wednesday night in the states) so I can get my Visa to Thailand. I didnt think i needed a visa for thailand, but if you enter over land, you only get a 2 week visa exemption, not an actual visa, thus it is impossible to get a visa extension. If you enter by air, you get a one month visa exemption upon arrival, but we arent flying anywhere. So, today we walked back to the Thai embassy to drop off my passport and get an actual visa, good for 60 days in the country.... On to Vietnam
So far, our Vietnam journey has taken us first to Vinh(from Laos), then north to Hanoi. From Hanoi we went to Haiphong, then took a ferry to Cat Ba island. We stayed on Cat Ba for a week(mostly because we were both really sick for 3 days), then went on a 2 day, 1 night Halong Bay Tour. The tour ended with a free bus ride back to Hanoi, where we stayed for a couple days. We then caught a 24 hour train to Nha Trang, on the beach of Southern Vietnam. After about 4 days there, we hopped another train to Saigon, where we have been for 3 nights so far.
Overall, Vietnam is pretty cool. The country is really pretty, but has way more people than Laos, and their impact is rather obvious. The infrastructure outside of Hanoi and Saigon is basically awful. The roads throughout the country are all only 2 lanes, one each way. This is despite the millions of busses that drive the obvious North to South(or vice versa) route from one beach town to another. Additionally, the power problems here are pretty obvious. Cat Ba Island literally loses power every day from 7am to 8pm, relying only on generators during this time. This seemed like something that would happen in a small island off the beaten path. Even more unexpected though was that Nha Trang, a city of around 400,000 has no power at all from 8am to 6pm every other day! This has made using the internet, or the AC, or chilling out and relaxing for a day rather difficult.
Now that we are in Saigon, things are much easier. The city is really large, but the downtown is rather small, and walking around is pretty easy. We are staying in the backpacker neighborhood, home of tons of cheap hotels, tons of great street food, even more fake books(yes, fake books, the ultimate in SE Asia backpacking ridiculousness), and near basically everything you'd want to do in the city.
Our hotel is really nice, we have a normal size room, AC, with a refridgerator, TV with tons of channels(at least 6 in english including ESPN, CNBC, NatGeo, Discovery, and some australian and euro channels,)a nice bathroom, and big fairly comfy bed. The hotel also has an elevator, which is a huge plus and is really secure.
Chilling in Vietnam has been fairly uneventful, and mostly just hanging out near or on the beach, lounging in our hotel(when we have power), seeing some cool sites, and taking in Halong Bay. I have managed to find and finish a bunch of great books, and also eat tons of awesome Pho! More to coom soon!
We are now in Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon)in SW Vietnam. We have been here for a few days already and are staying until thursday(wednesday night in the states) so I can get my Visa to Thailand. I didnt think i needed a visa for thailand, but if you enter over land, you only get a 2 week visa exemption, not an actual visa, thus it is impossible to get a visa extension. If you enter by air, you get a one month visa exemption upon arrival, but we arent flying anywhere. So, today we walked back to the Thai embassy to drop off my passport and get an actual visa, good for 60 days in the country.... On to Vietnam
So far, our Vietnam journey has taken us first to Vinh(from Laos), then north to Hanoi. From Hanoi we went to Haiphong, then took a ferry to Cat Ba island. We stayed on Cat Ba for a week(mostly because we were both really sick for 3 days), then went on a 2 day, 1 night Halong Bay Tour. The tour ended with a free bus ride back to Hanoi, where we stayed for a couple days. We then caught a 24 hour train to Nha Trang, on the beach of Southern Vietnam. After about 4 days there, we hopped another train to Saigon, where we have been for 3 nights so far.
Overall, Vietnam is pretty cool. The country is really pretty, but has way more people than Laos, and their impact is rather obvious. The infrastructure outside of Hanoi and Saigon is basically awful. The roads throughout the country are all only 2 lanes, one each way. This is despite the millions of busses that drive the obvious North to South(or vice versa) route from one beach town to another. Additionally, the power problems here are pretty obvious. Cat Ba Island literally loses power every day from 7am to 8pm, relying only on generators during this time. This seemed like something that would happen in a small island off the beaten path. Even more unexpected though was that Nha Trang, a city of around 400,000 has no power at all from 8am to 6pm every other day! This has made using the internet, or the AC, or chilling out and relaxing for a day rather difficult.
Now that we are in Saigon, things are much easier. The city is really large, but the downtown is rather small, and walking around is pretty easy. We are staying in the backpacker neighborhood, home of tons of cheap hotels, tons of great street food, even more fake books(yes, fake books, the ultimate in SE Asia backpacking ridiculousness), and near basically everything you'd want to do in the city.
Our hotel is really nice, we have a normal size room, AC, with a refridgerator, TV with tons of channels(at least 6 in english including ESPN, CNBC, NatGeo, Discovery, and some australian and euro channels,)a nice bathroom, and big fairly comfy bed. The hotel also has an elevator, which is a huge plus and is really secure.
Chilling in Vietnam has been fairly uneventful, and mostly just hanging out near or on the beach, lounging in our hotel(when we have power), seeing some cool sites, and taking in Halong Bay. I have managed to find and finish a bunch of great books, and also eat tons of awesome Pho! More to coom soon!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
We Swoop on in to Nam! OK, Maybe not "swoop", but it sounds cool!
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.)
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.)
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!!!
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