Laos: Vientiane

Kirra and I eventually made it down to the capital city,. Vientiane, after a long, long bus journey. We booked into a lovely hotel that was way out of our price-range, but it was late and we wanted somewhere nice. We showered (our clothes were completely covered in dust!), got dressed up nicely (make-up and everything!) and went into town to get something to eat and try to check out the night market. We missed the night market, but didn't miss the rain. It came pouring down. Typically it was the one day where we'd made an effort with our appearance... oh well! We ate and then went to a bar, where the number of old western men with young Lao girls (prostitutes?) was pretty disgusting.

Oh - I forgot to say in my last post... one of the Lao locals, La, taught me something. Before coming to Laos, I was adamant that the final 's' in 'Laos' was silent. To the point that I actually felt superior in world-knowledge when someone called it 'Laos'. Oh how wrong I was! When it comes to the country, it's pronounced 'Laozz'. You definitely pronounce the final 's'! When it comes to anything else - be it the culture, the language or the people, you say Lao. So that's some education for us Westerners. Especially the smug ones among us.

The next day, Kirra left for New Zealand, leaving me on my own again. I took the opportunity to really relax... still staying at the extortionately priced hotel (well... extortionate for me... it cost about $15 per night!). I spent the day researching lights to Myanmar and booked them. So that was that... y last 2 weeks would be in Myanmar (Burma). Now I needed a visa. So I would have to stay in Vientiane for at least 3 more days. I moved into a backpackers in town, which was a great decision.

Backpacker hostels really are the best place to meet people. The first night I hung out with a girl called Camilla, and we went to the market (not great) and got a massage. There was somewhat of a communication breakdown here, and I ended up getting the mega-painful traditional Laos Massage (which I was in no way prepared for), rather than my requested foot massage. As I also had an aromatherapy oil massage booked, I thought maybe they were giving me the oil massage first... and that it was just super painful. But no: Whilst I'd pointed to the page that was entitled 'foot massage', there was a small photo on the page of a lady having a traditional massage, so she'd assumed I mean that. Ooooch...I vowed never to get a traditional massage again...

The next day I shopped, lost some more photos on an internet cafe computer (I think...) and went out for dinner with a Canadian guy called Will and a German called Mark and an American called Monica. Will suggested I join him on a motorcycle tour around Thakhek. I was a but dubious because of Vicki's injury, but thought it sounded fun... to heck with it... I was going to do it! We all played cards into the night (well...until the 11pm curfew), and went to bed.

I got my passport back (with the visa) the next day, and planned to leave the next morning. There really wasn't that much to do in Vientiene, and having spent almost a week there, I was definitely ready to leave!

A German guy, Sylvan, decided to join me and Will on our motorcycle adventure - the more the merrier! :o)

Hefalumps

Sunday 20th May - Friday 25th May 2012

The local bus from Luang Probang to Sayaboury was... interesting. Old, rickety and hot, once the seats filled up, the tiny plastic stools came out, and were put in the aisle. And people had to sit on these for the whole bus journey, which was about 6 hours! Rather them than me, that's all I'll say.

Aside from being hair-raising, it was dusty. Very dusty. Because there was no air con or fans on the bus, there were two options: either you shut the windows and melt, or you keep them open and get a load of dust in your lungs! I opted for the latter, covering my mouth with my cardigan. I bought one of those masks that are typical here for the next bus journey!!

The bus ride was typical... we had to stop to fix a flat tyre half way through the journey.

The broken down bus...

It took about an hour, and then we were on our way again. We drove onto a ferry-raft to cross the Mekong river, which was fun!

Driving onto the ferry-platform to take us across the river.

We arrived in Sayaboury and took a tuk-tuk & ferry to the Elephant Conservation Centre (ECC) where we were greeted by a guide, made to feel welcome and shown around the centre. It was incredible. It's linked with the NGO ElefantAsia, which runs a breeding centre and medical centre on the site.

Mirai at the centre. I'm gutted I didn't think to get a pic of him riding an elephant...

The breeding centre is very important as domestic elephants are not encouraged to breed as pregnancy creates massive loss of earnings for the mahout (the elephant owner) as they are forced to stop working for at least 2 years (they generally work in the logging industry). ElefantAsia encourages breeding by offering free care throughout the gestation period and once the baby is born, and gives the mahout a tractor so that they can still work whilst the elephant is at the centre. With elephant populations on the decrease, this is such an important cause!

The medical centre is the only one of its kind in Laos. Its aim is to visit every domestic elephant in Laos at least once per year, free of charge. The vets, Lorna and Will go on missions across the country every couple of weeks to check on different elephants. It's amazing what they do. They also offer round-the-clock care to sick elephants. Whilst I was there, a very sick elephant called Thonkoun had just been brought in with suspected tetanus. He couldn't open his mouth to eat or drink, and was very weak and malnourished. Whilst I was there, I saw the amazign work that they did with him, and when I left, it was looking positive that he would pull through. This was amazing news, and I've since learned that he's just getting better and better. Up-to-date info can be found on the ECC website.

The ECC helps to fund ElefantAsia's work by implemending a tourism aspect to the centre. All of this positive work costs the NGO money, so I was happy to give them money, even though I was volunteering. I must admit - I was a bit skeptical at first: "I'm volunteering... helping them out, yet I'm paying all of this money for it??" But when I arrived, saw the centre, met the staff and actually saw what they do, I understood that they don't get enough financial hand-outs for the amazing work they do; they need to make their own money, which is where the ECC comes in. It allows people to visit the centre for 1 or 2 days, or to alternatively volunteer and stay for at least 6 days. I chose the latter, and was so glad that I did.

The ECC doesn't provide 'Elephant tourism' per-say, in the sense that they traipse around the jungle for days at a time with big wooden boxes on their backs. What we, as visitors to the centre learn, is more what it's like to be a mahout... what the daily routine consists of; how they direct them with their voice; basically just looking after the elephant. I did ride the elephants, but only to and from the jungle every day - and we were directly on their neck, really feeling the elephants. It was bizarre being on an elephant when I'm so used to horses - when a horse eats, you have a neck to hold onto... when an elephant eats and swings its head to get the leaves off the tree with its trunk, you just have to sit there and hope for the best!!

Being at the centre was a real cultural experience too. Living alongside the Lao people and eating with them every night was amazing. They spoke in Lao together, and even the western workers had learned Lao and so spoke in Lao with them. It was nice to have interpreters, and I picked up quite a bit of vocabulary just from my 6 days there.

Evening meal

   

We partied with them too. The first night we were there, they were having a 'housewarming' for a bungalow, so we all sat around the floor of the bungalow porch and drank and sang. The beer was served in glasses with ice, and you drank the beer quickly before the ice melted. Once you'd finished the glass-full, you passed the glass back and it was re-filled and passed onto the next person in the circle. Everyone shared just 2 glasses, and it meant that it was a real social thing, and everyone drank the same amount. Once the beer was finished, we moved onto LaoLao - a fermented rice 'whiskey', which is pure evil. Whilst we were drinking, one of the local workers got his drum and they all sang Lao songs together. They seem to all have beautiful voices and a real passion for singing. It was really nice that we were invited to their party - this was not a performance put on for the 'Western visitors' - it was truly a party for themselves that Kirra and I happened to attend. I felt very privileged to be there.

BP (our guide) and Kirra on the boat

   

Learning the commands for directing the elephants was amusing. We did it in their 'training ring', so had to direct them in figure-of-eights using just our voice. The following is just my phonetic version of how to say the commands:

BYE! = Go forward
SYE! = Left
HOW-ARE! = Right
TOY! = Backwards
MON-BLON! = Kneel down

Mai Bou Nam showing how it's done!

Thonkhoun (32 yr old male) and Mai Bou Nam (18 yr old female)

The way they responded was incredible, and later on I did learn some sad things about how elephants are trained initially as youngsters in order to respond this way, but unless you can come up with an real, practical alternative, the training ways won't change... people will continue to domesticate elephants for work no matter what we self-righteous westerners say or think.

Me on Mai Bou Nam

We watched them bathing everyday, and they LOVE the water! Contrary to what I thought, elephants can swim! And roll about and dunk underwater and spurt water over them. They drink approx 150 litres of water per day! Some tourist elephant centres have tourists on the elephants' backs whilst they are washed. I don't agree with this at all... I've seen how much they can enjoy it, and depriving an elephant the right to enjoy the water is cruel! Although, saying that, Thonkhoun the big male elephant (not the sick one... there were 2 elephantys called Thonkhoun at the centre - one was sick and the other was a 'tourism' elephant) just stood in the water, so his mahout, Bon, would go in with him and wash him.

Mai Bou Nam bathing in the lake

As volunteers, aside from taking the elephants in and out of the jungle each day, we did stock inventories for the hospital, planted some veggies, and helped to create a 'breeding ring' and prepared the food (corn & rice) for the elephants.

   
Me doing some gardening in my amazing elephant hat

We also got to see the baby elephants who had successfully been born through the centre's breeding programme... oh, they were cute!!!

He's so cute!! Just 6 months old :o)

   

Before we left, the NGO founders had come to visit, so we were there for another party where we were fed a special noodle soup which is generally only made for special occasions such as weddings (the naes escapes me), drank beer and LaoLao, and danced traditional Lao dance into the night. The dancing is all about the hands...and girls' hands must always face in opposing directions. It was a very elegant dance (always dances with a partner), but I was pretty rubbish at it!

I was very sad to leave. I felt that I'd made friends (the vets, the guides, even the Lao people...in particular: Will, Lorna, Coralli aka Selakat, La, Noi, BP and Bon.) I'd love to return one day to see how it's progressed and grown. I feel so lucky to have had the experience, and truly adore elephants now! They're gentle, loving creatures, despite their size. They may not all be able to roam wild, but I just hope that the number of wild and domestic births starts increasing, or the Asian elephant will face extinction, and that really would be a true tragedy...
Every elephant counts!

Buses and Dirt Roads... This is Laos!

I'd run out of time on my Thai tourist visa, and Kirra was running out of time on her trip, so we travelled up from Chiang Mai to the Thai-Laos border crossing. It was a 9 - 10 hour trip, but it was in a very comfy minibus on tarmacked roads, so no problem.

At the border, we got out and headed down to customs, which was pretty standard - just stand in line and get an exit stamp in the ol' passport. Then we walked down to the Mekong River, hopped into a longboat, and proceeded to cross the water into Laos. It was hot. The hottest yet. Even our shins were dripping with sweat. The customs area was just a huddle of white 20-somethings looking confused and sweating profusely. And it wasn't even the middle of the day - it was 5pm!

We filled out the necessary forms, stood in one line and handed over our passports. Easy enough. Then we waited for about 15 minutes until a second guy held up a passport that resembled yours for you to collect. As the customs official was in an awkward place, and it wasn't really feasable to be always watching him, this idea didn't really work that effectively. To be honest, I wasn't even aware of the fact that I was meant to be watching out for my passport until about 10 minutes later. So this explained WHY there were so many confused looking western 20-somethings wandering around. One of the guys I met actually had to hand a passport back to customs because they'd given him someone else's one, who'd just happened to look a bit like him. It was certainly the most lax customs security i'd ever come across! But a great experience.

So now I was in Laos. We got in a sawng-tow (don't know how to spell it - a taxi similar to a tuc-tuc but bigger! Essentially a pick-up-truck with a roof. We went to a bus station, and got on an overnight bus to Luang Probang. 12 more hours of travelling. Ugh. It was ok though... a bit cramped, but managed a bit of sleep.

We stopped off for dinner at a strip of shop fronts. It's difficult to explain, and again I didn't take any photos, but the front of the 'reastaurant' was open to the outside. There was a kind of hostess trolly outside which had some food (there was also a menu) and where you handed over money. But behind the hostess trolly was a living room with kids watching tv. And when I asked where the toilet was, I was instructed to go in through the house to the back, where the food was being cooked in the house's kitchen. It was pretty cool to see a genuine shop / house combination, but it must be strange to actually live in that scenario. But then I realised that most shops in rural areas are like that here. You work where you live. Whether you sell BBQ'd pork, fruit shakes (which I'm not sure HOW I'll live without!), or toiletries - in most cases, you'll be able to see into the person's life whilst buying your bottle of 7-Up soda. And it's really quite fascinating. They often live in one room, all sleeping on the floor. Very limited material goods. And they're the happiest and friendliest people I've ever met. Hmmmm - interesting...

We got into Luang Probang at about 4am, well ahead of schedule. Which we were grateful of. Not that we were grateful to be there so early - that sucked a bit... but we were grateful to be there... alive! Honestly - that bus driver was going so fast along tiny pot-holed dirt roads, and taking corners so fast in the dark, I found it best to just shut my eyes and hope for the best. Others said they were panicking the entire journey and didn't get a wink of sleep. But we made it. And so I came to find out that Laos bus journeys are pretty scary affairs! Having not experienced any Thai bus trips whilst there, I can't compare them - but the Malaysian ones were pretty tame - at least they were ALWAYS on tarmac roads!

We got a tuc-tuc to a guest house where some new friends, Anna and Harry, were staying. It was 5am, and no-one appeared to be up (as you'd expect) so we went for a nosey round. When we came back to the front, someone had opened the front door... the manager had been asleep in the front room incase anyone needed him. Thinking back, this is standard across SE Asia. People sleep where they work - and I don't just mean the shop / house combos I was harpouring on about. I mean the man sleeping on a bench in the reception hut in the Perhentians; the man sleeping next to his boat in Koh Phan-Gnan; the taxi man sleeping in his cab in Koh Tao... all of whome were happy to be woken up at an ungodly hour to provide service either to me or someone I was with. This truly is a service culture. If someone woke me up at 5am and asked me to take them somewhere for $1, I'd roll over and go back to sleep. For sure. But not here... they even smile and make small-talk! Crazy...

God I do like to ramble on... back on subject: we got a room in Luang Probang and first thing's first... we showered. And it was good. Then we slept. And it was good. Then we went out to explore, and it stopped being good.

The first thing we did was go to an ATM... which proceeded to swallow Kirra's card. So we went on a quest to seek out the bank which operates the machine. Not as easy as you might think! Although everyone thinks they're helping, we'd really rather that people don't tell us directions with such conviction unless they actually KNOW where we're trying to go. And that tuc-tuc drivers don't just starrt driving without having at least some inkling of where the ultimate destination is. Needless to say, it took us a few hours to finally make it to the correct bank who (hallelujah!) told us to come back the next day to collect the card. Neither of us thought they'd be fobbing us off and that they wouldn't actually be open the next day as it was a Saturday... Grrrr!

Anyway, happy with our result, we headed off to explore and to eat. Neither of us had eaten that day, and we both felt a bit queasy. But food didn't work - we couldn't eat, so we went back to the guesthouse and went to sleep. And slept until the next day. What a failure of a first day in Laos that was!! But it could only get better...

Luang Probang was a lovely city. The second biggest city in Laos... it it was still tiny - the size of a town really. It had a nice, chilled-out vibe and the best night market I've seen. We were only there for two nights; the first night we both felt too ill to go to the market, and the second one we missed it entirely. I was so gutted! We'd walked through it to get to dinner (and I was very excited by what I saw!), but had spent so long chatting at the dinner table, that by the time we walked back through, everything was either packed away or being packed away! I was absolutely distraught! Ah well... I was sure that I'd find other great night markets here in Laos... But as of yet, I'm still searching for one of the same caliber :o(

During that second day, Kirra and I went off to some waterfalls and went swimming in the pools. It was a pretty nice day-trip. And then we finalised our bus tickets for the next day... we were off to Sayaboury to volunteer at the Elephant Conservation Centre! It's part-run by the NGO ElefantAsia, and I was very, very excited...

Chiang Mai, Thailand - *Happy Feet* : )

Although I spent a good 4 days in Chiang Mai, I didn't really do that much - as seems to have become the norm since travelling with others; the pace has slowed waaaaay down. Before, I was happy to jump from place to place as I was ready - or as I got bored. But now it's just so easy to stay in one place. Your entertainment is already there - you've already got friends to talk to...

Although it's nice to have that 'security blanket', it's just too easy. No real effort is required when you're travelling with others. If you don't want to think about where you're going or what you're going to do, you don't have to. Whilst it's nice for a while, I'm not sure that I've been converted to it for extended periods of time...

But, saying that, it was nice to meet up with some MORE Wanaka people: Tessa, Clare and Emily. So now there were 5 of us... and as such, the 'action' count for Chiang Mai will be quite low:

• Had a full body scrub. I mean FULL body
• Got a tattoo.

Yes. I said it. I got a tattoo. It's an absolutely ridiculous one, but I love it.

Here's the background story: Kirra was getting one up her inner arm of a peacock feather, tattoo'd using bamboo.  It was fascinating to watch. It was just a piece of bamboo, with 6 needles attached to the end. It was then dabbed in ink, and pierced through the skin.

Having sat through all of Kirra's one, and with getting a good vibe from the tattooist, I just thought thought 'why not'? I'd already been thinking about what I'd get throughout the day, if I were to get one... and when push came to shove, I figured I'd never be able to walk into a tattoo parlour again and ask for such a pathetic tattoo! But it was all I wanted... memories of this trip. I absolutely love scars for the fact that they're 'souvenirs you'll never lose' (credit to the Goo Goo Dolls for those lyrics!). And this would be one that I'd choose. Just a small one, in a discreet place... done using bamboo in Thailand, whilst in my 20s. F*ck it... why not?! And I REEEAALLLLYYY wanted to know what getting a tattoo felt like! Would I regret it if I didn't get it done? I thought so. And as I've said before, this trip is all about having NO REGRETS!

So here it is... my humble tattoo that makes me smile everytime I see it. And I have absolutely no desire to get another one. I'm very happy with what I've got!

My feet in Haad Yuan, Koh Pan-Gnan, which sparked the idea.

Happy with my new happy feet, we headed over to the border and into Laos, as Kirra had to get moving (limited time), and I was tres excited about Laos...
I wasn't disappointed by it... I freakin' love this country!

Thailand's Beautiful Islands

I started writing this a long time ago, so please excuse the post date... I'm well aware that it's almost June now!! And may I therefore just say...
MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS TO ADAM AND RACH ON THE ARRIVAL OF BABY JACKSON!!! I can't wait to meet the little man :o)

So... I travelled North from the Malaysian border on a train in which I sat bolt upright and had just about enough room to stretch out my big toe. I hadn't really thought about the 'class' system when I booked the ticket, so was stuck in 3rd class. Previously, this would have consisted of just hard, wooden benches for 9 hours straight! But thankfully they have recently been upgraded to plastic cushioned ones - still sitting bolt upright though... There was also just a fan which circulated just far enough away from me that I didn't receive any of its cooling reprieve from the heat.

For the first 5 hours, I was sitting opposite an elderly Thai lady who insisted in having the window shut and the sunblind down just enought that I was unable to gaze out of the window - no breeze and no view!! She also provided great smells from the big box of fresh durian fruit that she was storing above my head... Stinky stuff!!!!... So it was hot. Really hot. And smelly. And I vowed to get an air conditioned cabin the next time...

But the whole '3rd class' experience was pretty fun - including the the people who I 'met', via smiles and my made-up sign language! The first lady I sat next to had a massive box of durian fruit directly above us. And it smelt reeeeal bad! But I got used to it, and she was only on the train for a few hours. Then there was the little boy sitting opposite me with his dad and (I think) grandma, all squeezed onto the 2 person bench. He had the most smiley eyes, and was so inquisative of everything I had, and his dad kept talking to me in Thai... so I spoke back to him in English and we had our own made-up conversations, neither of us having a clue what the other was talking about :o)

When I finally got to Surat Thani, it was late and there were no hotels in the vicinity. By the time I found somewhere to sleep it was already midnight, and I needed to book my place on the bus & ferry to get over to Koh-Phag-Ngan the next morning. All that sorted, I had a shower and went to bed for 4 hours. Sleepily I made my way to the bus stop, where I got on a taxi with 3 dutch guys, (Casper and 2 friends) and a French divemaster, Harry. We had a bit of an adventure getting to the taxi, being told to get out of one taxi, into another, out of that and into another... finally we arrived at a big bus, and squeezed in for about an hour. Then finally... we arrived at the ferry port, after being ferried from ne mode of transport to another for 5 hours. We had to wait at the ferry port for 1 1/2 hours before the ferry arrived, during which time I spied my friends, Kirra and Vicki!! 

I ran over to them, jumped on them, and scared the absolute hell out of them! Vicki looked at me like I was a mad lady, not recognising me with dark hair, and Kirra was annoyed with this crazy lady pushing the (obviously injured) Vicki! Not the 'hello' I was hoping for! Then it clicked with them who I was, and we all jumped around in the gay way that only girls can. Vicki, poor thing, had had a motorbike accident up in Chaing Mai, and had really hurt her ankle. She was hobbling around, and Kirra was having to carry both of their backpacks! It was such luck that I saw them at the ferry port, as I'm not sure how I would've found them on the island!

Me, Kirra & Vicki on the ferry

So we caught the ferry over to Koh Phan-Gnan, and went to the hotel that Vicki had booked for us. It was amazing. This whole 'splitting the bill 3 ways' thing meant that we could get a beautiful room for the same price that a really rubbish one would've cost me on my own. 2 double beds, toilet and shower with HOT water (!), and an amazing balcony space overlooking the sea, with a hammock. We even had a fridge!! It was so nice, we didn't want to leave! But we went off to buy Vicki some crutches, and to go to a party in the jungle.

A 'broken' Vicki, happy in her hammock with her guitarlele (cross between a guitar and a ukulele!)

Luxury...

Vicki and her crutches

The jungle party was fun! We drank as many 'buckets' of vodka redbull as our money would allow, met up with some other friends from Wanaka, and finally found our hotel at around 5am. 

The Jungle Party

Kirra and me... and a bucket.

Beautiful ladies!

We met up with some other Wanaka friends, including Emily!

The next day was a complete write-off for me, but that night was to be the infamous 'Full Moon Party'. Liam came over that night, and told us about where he was staying, in Haad Yuan. It was apparently so chilled out, and like paradise. We left our hotel (minus Vicki, who had decided that she should stay in instead), walked down the streets, saw all of the drunken people and decided immediately that the 'Haad Rin' beach party was not for us. Way too rowdy, messy and... well... young! So we clambered into a taxi-boat and made the 5 minute journey over to Haad Yuan. What a good idea that turned out to be!!!

Liam

It was all just way too much for us!!!

So we hopped on a boat and went over to Haad Yuan

Slightly quieter than the other beach!! And the full moon...

With UV paint on us...

Awesome paintings!

UV facepaint on my feet and others'... (mine were the smiley faces)

Sunrise :o)

We moved our stuff over to Haad Yuan, into a lovely little beach shack. We just realsxed, but then, 2 days later, we decided to go over to see the 'post Full Moon Party Carnage' on Haad Rin beach... 

It was so so different to the last time that I'd been there! The beach was practically empty - we had a pretty fun night!

On the boat over to the beach

This is the moment that Maurice (far left) tore the ligaments in his ankle... :o(

L-R: Maurice (Australia), Alex (Russia), Dave (UK), Angus (Australia)

Sunrise at Haad Rin

There's not really all that much more to say about Haad Yuan. It was an amazing place, and I met amazing people, but it really was just a party / relaxation beach. Not really much more than that to write home about! But it sucked us in for about a week! :o)

L-R: Raj, Marie-Anne, Maurice, Angus, A dutch girl whose name I've forgotten, Kirra, Vicki

L-R: Dave, Kirra, Vicki, Liam

And then it was time to leave... Some went to Bali, others to Koh Samui, Bangkok, Phuket... and me to Koh Tao to do some dives. I managed 3 dives, including a night dive, and had the massive revalation that I can practically halve my air consumption just by having a well fitting mask!!! Without the need to constantly use air to expell water out of my mask, I was so happy. And the dives were pretty awesome too - 1 night dive and 2 day dives. J'adore diving!

I then headed to Koh Samui and spent the night there, where I (thought that I'd) lost all of my photos due to a dodgy computer. I think I've got them back now... fingers crossed! Koh Samui airport is the best in the world! It's all open-air... I really wish I'd taken a photo of it!

So from Koh Samui I left the Islands of Thailand and headed way up North to Chiang Mai, where I was to meet up with Kirra again. Vicki had decided to go back to the UK as her ankle just wasn't getting any better (I don't blame her), so it was just the 2 of us for the next few weeks... Travelling with someone else definitely has its advantages - not least the cheap accommodation rates!! No more dingy shacks for me! :o) 

Bye for now...