Whatever way you spell it, saying it means hello in Laos. Everybody says hello here whatever you're doing and wherever you're going. Whether it's because they're actually being friendly or just trying to get you to buy something, it's another greeting that's become part of our vocabulary (though I think the enthusiastic Bula! of Fiji still takes the cake at this point). We've just arrived today into Hanoi, Vietnam after 5 nights in Luang Prabang, Laos.
Before reaching Laos, we spent about 4 nights in Chiang Mai and liked it much better than stinky Bangkok. There's plenty to do in the area and it's much easier to get around the city as the traffic is lighter. There could be some correlation between Bangkok's 7.5 million people and Chiang Mai's 170 thousand and the traffic difference. Either way, while it was actually pretty easy to walk around the center of Chiang Mai where all of the attractions are we ended up taking tuk tuks everywhere because they were a blast. The fact that Laura got slammed with a nasty cold made it even more inviting to take a ride wherever we went.
Partly because we wanted to check out the town and partly because of the sickness, we took it pretty easy in Chiang Mai and opted to explore the city for a day, take a day trip (instead of a multi-day trek), and take a Thai cooking class.
The day trip was... interesting. The "tours" they offer in SE Asia so far have been more transportation than tour. While this Chiang Mai trip offered some commentary about what we were doing, it wasn't much and any questions from the group were given pretty short answers. The first hill tribe we visited used to make all of their money and trade from opium sales, which has been outlawed in recent years. This, as you might imagine, put a pretty huge dent in their disposable income, so the place was pretty poor. The second tribe we visited had plenty of rice fields in the area and definitely looked healthier and happier. It was a little bit of a tourist trap, but still interesting to see.
Our elephant riding experience was more like elephant sitting since we couldn't have gone farther than a kilometer round trip. Our five legged elephant that we named -- after long and hard deliberation -- The Donger was a hungry fellow that worked up quite the appetite during our stroll. Entrepreneurs that they are, the elephant camp set up stations where riders could buy elephant feed (bananas and sugar cane) and give their rides a treat. Anyone that's been to Sea World knows the financial brilliance of having the people visiting pay extra to feed the animals they paid to see in the first place. The problem with that is that the elephants know what's coming and simply stick their trunks backwards to the parasites (that's us) attached to their backs. Even sadder is that when we ran out of tasty treats (which was easy given his appetite and our willingness to throw goodies his way), The Donger just wanted more. The begging elephant then got several stiff whacks on the head by the Mahout's wooden and iron stick. I have no idea if that really hurts such a gigantic animal, but it couldn't have tickled.
We finally ended up taking a short ride down some river or another (I don't think we were ever told which one) on bamboo rafts. As we found out on our short ride, it's basically like floating down the Truckee River in intertubes or boats. There were lots of people out having fun, stopping to swim and have lunch, and splashing each other. The rafts are basically just a bunch of bamboo pieces tied together and requires front and back steering. I somehow was chosen to steer the back portion of the raft causing thunder to strike and ominous music to begin playing. Once I got the knack of matching our professional bamboo driver, it wasn't that hard aside from a couple of incredibly sharp turns that sent us careening towards boulders in fast water. Having passed the first with little problem, I suppose it was hubris that lead to my relaxation which in turn led to me trying to push off of the second boulder too high which in turn moved only me and not the boat. Elementary physics applies here. Thankfully, our tour guide recommended that all cameras be left in the tour van or we would have seen another camera scream in pain and sizzle. After trying in vain to right myself using my steering pole, I realized that there was no avoiding the river's chilly embrace. Laura said I went from an "Ah crap..." to an "Oh well..." look on my face before I tumbled in for an unscheduled swim. I'm sure the picture would have been terrific, but no camera, so sad!
The following day, we participated in our cooking class, which lasted from the morning until early afternoon. It began with a trip to the local produce market where one of the teachers explained the various fruits and vegetables to us, showed us the ingredients used to make curry paste, and then let us wander a bit. From there, it was back to the classroom where we each learned to make what amounted to a 6 course meal (plus making different flavors of curry paste). While neither of us is entirely sure how much we'll keep in our brains, we had a lot of fun doing it since we were eating all day and were with some fun people.
The next day we sold some books (it's been much more difficult finding people to exchange with than we thought) and bought some used ones (The Painted Man, All the Pretty Horses, and the first Harry Potter because I never read it) and then headed to the airport where we got on another little airplane and ended up in Luang Prabang, Laos. [By the way, any book suggestions you guys have would be very welcome. While we both like bookstores generally, we don't really want to spend too much time in them on the trip so knowing what to look for would be great. You can see what we're reading in the list on the right side of the blog.]
LP is a pretty sleepy town, probably largely because of the 11:30pm curfew, but it's also undeniably charming. It's so easy to walk everywhere and explore every nook and cranny of the place, which is a trait not particularly advisable in other locations we've been. The cost to stay here was probably double what we had expected (both in lodging and food, but still cheap overall compared to home), but we can't really blame one of the poorest countries in the world for trying to make some money from a place that's obviously popular. We just hope that they don't overshoot themselves so that no one wants to visit anymore.
Most of the guesthouses use the French colonial style structure and have pretty small rooms and quirky bathrooms where the shower is in the same space as the toilet. The room we stayed almost requires you to sit on the toilet to wash. It's strange, but I guess not unusual around the world as Laura informed me.
Even so, our location was terrific and had a bevvy of bars and restaurants in our area. We took the day we arrived and the next day after to let Laura start feeling better and then headed out to Kuang Si waterfall park, which was quite awesome. We just grabbed one of the four wheel tuk tuks in town, driven by an awesome guy named Pet (as far as we could understand) and he drove us the 30km or so out to the park. We got a great view of the countryside and villages along the way.
Kuang Si ranks as one of our favorite places visited so far for sheer beauty. The greenery was lush and the waterfalls were plentiful and heading all directions from the larger feeder waterfall. After climbing to the top of the park (once again, nearly straight uphill and ridiculous), we wandered back down to take a swim in one of the many pools made at the base of each little waterfall. One of the pools even had a Tarzan swing for park guests to flop into the water. Mr. Underwear, King of the Swing (as Laura named him after watching him in his blue BVD's for a half hour)lead the charge and climbed the tree to hand the rope swing to others waiting to crash land in the freezing pool. He also was by far the most agile and managed to perform some pretty awesome flips and twists. Laura and I, having not had any light with which to put on contacts (there was a city wide brown out to repair some old power lines in the area apparently), were both wearing glasses so we just took turns swimming and watched.
The following day we spent more time exploring the city including a walk (straight uphill of course) to the hill in the middle of town to get a view and ended up chatting with a young novice monk for a little while before wandering down the other side to see Buddha's footprint. We also took some time to wander around the banks of the Mekong and the Nam Khan (Khaaaaaaaan!) and saw plenty of people playing in the water. Having raised a heavy sweat from strolling around town, we stopped to read and drink a lot of Beerlao.
Yesterday was spent taking another "tour" which offered no commentary at all, just a slow boat ride up the Mekong to Pak Ou caves, which are a place of worship where many pilgrims go to place smaller Buddha statues in the caves. There are certainly a lot of little statues there. While interesting from a cultural standpoint, it reminded me of walking into some one's house that has collected way too many unicorns figurines, turtle statues, or salt and pepper shakers. With little to no explanation of the caves, it was pretty bizarre. Along the way, we took a stop at Whiskey village, a village aptly named for it's production of Lao Lao Whiskey. As one of the other passengers remarked, it was a bit like a shopping mall with a huge number of tourist textile and little junk things being sold at nearly every house. The difference being that malls have a little variety whereas every house was selling the exact same thing. It'd be a little like walking into a mall that had 50 Gap stores and that's it. The people at the village also seemed pretty angry that we weren't buying anything, which was the first negative vibe we really got in Laos.
Last night my stomach started cramping something fierce so we took it pretty easy today. Laura's sore throat also made a curtain call to make things great for both of us. It probably wasn't as adventurous a time as some might look for, but we loved Luang Prabang. It's a great little town filled with smiling people (though it apparently has more to do with their style of karmic Buddhism than rampant happiness) despite the country's level of poverty. The town itself seems to be flourishing though the surrounding areas obviously aren't seeing the same kinds of money.
For those wondering about the "same same, but different" thing, we've heard it about a million times in Thailand and Laos. It basically means, "these two things are a lot alike, but not identical". So a driver will tell you that one market is same same as another. Or when Laura and I somehow managed to both wear white t-shirts, brown shorts (skirt for Laura), black shoes, and had our matching luggage our hosts in Chiang Mai offered "same same, but different" with more hilarity than was perhaps necessary. We did look pretty damn stupid.
Finally, while we're on the subject of looking stupid, we've been trying to decide whether to let my "beard" grow out on this trip to see what horrifying shape it might take. You'll notice on the right side of this blog is a poll in orange. Please vote and tell me what I should do. The picture below was taken after about a week of not shaving.
We'll be in Vietnam for the next two weeks. Tomorrow we'll be exploring Hanoi and then taking off to Sapa where we'll trek up to spend a night or two with a hill tribe. That's all for now!
Love to all,
Dan & Laura
3 comments:
Hi Dan and Laura,
I wanted to let you know we are still out here and loving the blogs about your trip.
You got to ride the Donger. Man, that has been a goal of mine for years. You lucky guys. I’m gonna try the Donger diet, when it time to stop eating I’m just going to whack myself in the head with a wood and metal club. We’ll see how many whacks it will take to lose ten pounds. For me I figure about fifty whacks to a pound…slow learner.
Oh Oh , it sounds like you guys are starting to dress alike. That’s not supposed to happen for another forty years for youguys. Soundas like you had a nice time there. Dan, grow the beard arhhhh!!! Best blog yet. Keep em coming. Steve
A few things:
1) There must be some genetic predisposition towards poor bamboo raft driving because when I was in northern Thailand doing the same thing, I managed to get my bamboo pole stuck between a couple of rocks trying to steer and was catapulted off the raft into the water. It was like a really fast backward pole vault.
2) Couldn't you have thought some other way besides hard and long on the elephants name ... you know, like focused and awhile, or intently for hours, or deeply and ... no, no, not deeply.
3) As for the beard, I want to have a write-in ballot. I want the answer to be "Yes, he looks like he's homeless".
Party on Wayne. Party on Garth.
Mike
I am going to just keep posting how jealous I am and keep showing Charlie your blog, "come on honey we can do this too"
love you both!
t
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