In following with my recent trend, it has been a while since my last post. When I last wrote, I was in Hanoi and soon after met a new group of travelers that I would be joining for the next 14 days or so. After a little welcome dinner, we went for drinks Vietnam style: on the street.
Something I am always up for is a bargain and this was tough to beat. We had draft beers for the next couple of hours for a mere 3,000
VND per glass (that translates into roughly 16 cents per beer, or 6 per $1). The following day we took an unnecessarily long drive south to the town of
Vinh, which was just a stopping point for our next day's journey, which was quite evident by the complete lack of anything to do there.
The following morning began a stretch of extremely rough days for me. I awoke the morning of May 12
th feeling like absolute crap. Feeling really hot, I first thought I may have a temperature, a feeling that was quickly confirmed when my roommate woke by saying it was freezing in our room. Not a good start to a very long day involving a border crossing and
endless hours of driving through rural mountain passes. With a slight headache, rising fever, and minor stomach issues, I boarded my bus for the 3 hour drive to the Vietnamese-Laos border. Now, had I not been traveling in a group, I certainly would have extended my stay in
Vinh to sleep all day (which is really the best thing to do in
Vinh anyway), but I did not have that luxury. Sleeping on and off the best I could with my head bouncing around and knocking into everyone and everything in its path, we arrived at the border and began the drawn out process of exiting Vietnam and entering Laos. To say that the process for obtaining an entry visa in Laos is less than streamlined would be a huge understatement. First, I had to wait in line at one counter with completed forms and passport, and collect a slip. Then, proceed to a second window (not located next to one another, but down a hall) where I present my slip and pay, then collect the same slip with a 'paid' stamped on it. Now, I return to the first window, present the slip (while cutting the other 20 people in line), collect my passport and additional forms. Following this, I proceeded to yet another window to hand these items to a new border agent, then head to the neighboring window to collect my passport with a visa stamp in it. By any standards, it is a disaster.
Still feeling like garbage, having no appetite at all and barely able to drink anything without feeling like I'd lose it in the bus, I re-boarded for the remaining 8 hour journey to the capitol city of Vientiane. As the ride progressed, my condition continued to deteriorate, at one point shaking somewhat violently. Thankful to have arrived alive, we checked and went to dinner, where I didn't touch my meal. Thankfully, some of my new tour mates had some high octane stuff to help and the next day I felt a bit better, at least enough to tour the city by foot. Luckily, I had 2 nights in my own room so I was able to get some decent sleep, except for when I woke up with severe stomach cramps and spent the next hour on the toilet....see, aren't you all glad I feel so comfortable around you!
In an effort to spare you further details of those and the following few days, I will simply say that my condition slowly improved. I have no clue what the cause was (hopefully not Dengue) but I'm going to blame the dog from Hanoi, it got it's revenge. Bad dog. Leaving the capitol, we boarded a bus to Vang Vieng, which started off superbly with the a/c not working, or so they said. I wasn't pleased, but seeing that it pissed off some obnoxious French woman far more than it did me, it made it ok. Below is a view from the front of the bus at one of Laos' finest bridges we had to cross. Also, a shot from lunch on the river.
Vang
Vieng is a great place, and if any of you get to Laos, it is a must stop. It has thrived because it caters to travelers and backpackers, but it is a great time and a good place to relax for a few days (much like
Pai in Thailand) and enjoy some awesome scenery. That said, the highlight of this town is its tubing. Now, I haven't done much tubing in the U.S., though I have a pretty good idea of what it is like: get tubes with a bunch of friends, float down stream at a leisurely pace while consuming large amounts of beer, which have been attached to your tube or in a cooler. Am I right? Well if I am, then this place is far better! From the moment we arrived at the 'staging area,' also known as Bar 1, it was a pure party. Music blasting, free shots being forced down your throat (literally at times), workers practicing their fire-sticks, and people flying out of the air from ridiculously high rope swings and zip lines into the murky river below. Once you finally bring yourself to leave Bar 1, there are a dozen or so more over the first 1km, each with swings, free shots, and other goodies to temp you to shore. And, when you do want to come ashore, they simply toss a rope with a bottle attached to it and pull you in. As I said, it was a great time, but no pictures.
The one interesting stop we made was a bar called Swinging Monkey, which clearly I liked. Located next to a large mud pit, which was used for tug-of-war matches, as well as a bunch of drunk tubers to play in, they offer free shots, including snake, centipede and gecko rice wine. However, when you turn the drink menu over, there is a whole other set of options, including pot brownies, mushroom shake, opium tea, etc. just to name a few. The bartender, who displayed a large multi-colored clown wig, was happy to show you any of their fine selection of products, often without asking. All of these are highly illegal in Laos, and the region, with penalties ranging from jail
sentences and high fines, up to the death penalty for
trafficking. In an effort not to incriminate myself anymore than I did in my Cambodia experience, I will say that not everyone in my group (10 of us)
abided by local laws.
We left 2 days later for the next destination of Luang Probang, which we were told had more culture than our previous stop...hard to believe! Another 7 hours on the bus through some great country, re-confirming that Laos is a big country with very few people and larger cities. I believe 80% of the population still live in villages. That said, the city was fun and offered some fun stuff to do, including a late night bowling session. We packed 14 people in a single tuk-tuk, which is very impressive, though some were hanging on for dear life on the back as well as the roof, to get to the alley. Have you ever tried to bowl on a lane that is slanted? I can now say I have, and while it was strictly friendly competition, it is very difficult to pick up the remaining pin or two when you have no idea where the ball will curve. That said, I won without ever breaking 100! Lasting well into the night, I can honestly say that being in a bowling alley in Laos at 2:30 am was never a place I imagined being. Below are some of the views along the way.
The next day, after just 4 or so hours of sleep, I got up along with 5 others to do a trek through the mountains and up to a waterfall. Of course, it started raining as we approached the village where we were to begin, but it actually made it more enjoyable and a much better experience. Crossing through a small village, farm lands with hills all around, jungle, mud, etc. At one point we were walking through waist high grass and I asked for re-confirmation that there were no longer tigers in the area. There were not, only cobras, pythons and green snakes, none of which we would ever be able to see until they had latched on to us. It was a 3 hour hike in all and went kind of like this: walk through farm land, enter jungle, slip on mud and rocks, lose all grip on shoes, slip and recover again, break right flip-flop, fix it, slip and recover again (repeat 10 times), remove leech from ankle, break same flip-flop, fix it again, slip and fall again, arrive at waterfall.
The waterfall itself was actually quite impressive and there was a swimming hole further down the falls that had a small waterfall that you could go under and jump off of, as well as a rope swing. Here are a couple of shots, as well as the rope swing. Very poor form on the dismount, I know.
The next morning I awoke at 5:30 am or so to see the monks collecting food. I did my good deed for the day and gave them food, sticky rice and bananas. I know that I'd get pretty tired of the same stuff everyday too, but I was a bit hurt when one of the monks stopped, looked at my measly offerings, and continued on without excepting. Ouch! Also, I wonder if they actually enjoy eating food with has just been dished out to them by the hands of countless tourists and locals, most of which I'd bet did not scrub with soap before. Just a thought.
The next two days were spent on the Mekong River, cruising towards the Thai border. Our two stops at night were in small villages, the second being a border town. The ride wasn't too bad, and gave all of us a chance to rest, read, sleep and take in the scenery of western Laos, which didn't really change much over the 2 days. On the morning of May 22nd I re-entered Thailand by possibly the least secure border check point known to man. Literally, we hopped on a little boat, completely unofficial, crossed the river, handed over some forms and got stamped in. No security and really nothing official taking place there. From there, we headed for Chiang Mai, a place which I have become very familiar with, having now been there on 4 separate occasions on this trip. I spent 2 days in the city, hanging out with those I had been traveling with, and then parted ways. I headed to the Chaing Mai airport, where I boarded a plan to Koh Samui, and upon arriving, hopped a ferry to Koh Tao, where I have been for the past 3 days and will be for the next week. Much like my first visit with Alana back in March, I love this island. The beauty of it is that it is very small and is very laid back. As you can see from the shot from above, there isn't much around it! And it is hear that I'll call home for the remainder of my time in SE Asia. I could easily have headed back to the U.S. sooner, but I opted to come back here for two weeks because it is probably my favorite place in Thailand, and, frankly, because I can!
I'll likely post one more time before leaving the island, but my rough plan is to be in Seoul for four days (June 4-8) and then re-enter the U.S. in Honolulu on June 8th....can you believe it?!?! In the meantime, here are a few shots from the past few days of the island I'm calling home temporarily.
Cheers!
Sairee Beach at dusk:
This guy pulled up next to me one day on the beach. I think it says it all:
A clip from Lotus Bar at night. Fire shows happen nightly there, and this bar is the place to be, partially because its fun, partially because this little 'cove' with table is the only part of the beach that doesn't get the tide in it after midnight, and partially because it is right on the beach and open til 3 am. It is where I spent most nights, and where I watched all sunsets from, and got to know many of the locals and bartenders. 
We then moved on to Halong Bay, which is really stunning. Probably the most scenic place I've been to in Vietnam and a must see if you are in the country. As you approach from land, and even better by boat, you can see the rocks protruding from the water, and there are hundreds of them. We took an overnight cruise into the bay and fortunately had great weather. The rooms below were great too, and the view from bed and bathroom were amazing. For anyone from RH reading this, the bathroom reminded me being in the Lancer or Saxon bunks. That night we were sucked into a marathon session of kareoke, and after doing my best to get out if it, was forced into singing Born In The U.S.A. Now, I, and many of you, know how bad my voice is, but I had no problem providing some amusement for my tour mates. However, I don't think anyone had actually listened to the words of this song before choosing it. Fortunately, I had so when it came time to say lines like "kill the yellow man" I just remained silent. I didn't think having my voice screaming about killing Vietnamese echo throughout Halong Bay at 10pm was a wise move. On a side note, I scored a 100, top score on the evening. Clearly the rating system is flawed and not based on hitting any notes.
