A Communist Hello

We left Pangalan bun with our famous Kalstar Jet towards Jakarta at 7^th of January. We arrived in rainy Jakarta (terminal 1) and switched to Air Asia Terminal 3, where we flew in the evening to Kuala Lumpur. Air Asia is just a great airline as they are very cheap, friendly and have modern aircrafts. You can easily buy the tickets online, as well as meals and even inflight purchases. We paid only 30EUR from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur and 110 EUR to Vientiane, which is incredible cheap. The only disadvantage is, that we arrived late in KL and had to leave early to Vientiane. So we booked the Tune Hotel, close to LCC (Low Cost Carrier) Terminal in KL for 6 hours. You just have a bed, shower and you pay additionally for AC, but there is not much room else (maybe 6sqm). Even the luggage is difficult to place…but at the end it worked, as we got some sleep, instead of waiting at the crowded LCC.

We arrived in sunny Vientiane and immediately liked it very much. It is very, very laid back and time is not an issue, there is no rush in Laos…Combine this laid back feeling with a French colonial architecture and put some socialist elements (like a lot of Russian flags everywhere!) to it, voila that Vientiane, the capital of Laos (as big as Great Britain, but has only 6,8M inhabitants, first socialist country in Asia).

We enjoyed the bike ride in Vientiane with excellent sunny weather and were very glad, that we left rainy Borneo...So we visited the Mekong River, numerous coffee shops and the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe, which was built in 1960.

As the town is not so big (population 300K), you can easily explore the town by bike or even by walking and enjoying the sunset at the Mekong River. The restaurants, street hawkers and coffee shops are great and eating is great in Vientiane. You can have a French breakfast in the morning, eat a spicy Laos’s lunch and have a great Hot Pot at one of the numerous street restaurants at the Mekong River.(FS)

Vientiane is a city that needed to grow on me. At first sight I was definitely not impressed.  The dry season had made the Mekong River seemed unspectacular as it winded away through the landscape and it lacked a certain flair that many other cities have. What made the city endearing to me was that I could easily access the main historical district by bike which including all the must-see sights.  When I return I plan to see the Museum of The People of Laos Military and the Museum of Security.

 One of the interesting aspects about Laos is that it is one of the few countries that has still reveals a communistic face despite its attempts to draw the tourist with French cafes and beautiful shops selling scarves, baskets  and other locally made items.  Like Beijing, it has on old market and a new market where the buildings are several stories tall and contain loads of stalls where one can bargain as much as you like.  Unfortunately, they are not as flexible with their prices as many other Asian countries. In fact their service has still this communist style where they are happy to take your money but aren’t really interested in your presences.  My favorite day there was renting a bike, tour the city, and then at night riding along the Mekong until we found a friendly Korean restaurant with an elderly gentleman who taught us how to eat their version of a hot pot. The trees where lit with colorful lights and the atmosphere was filled with a bustling aroma of foods from the different food stalls.

Meeting Andreas on our minibus on our way to Vang Vieng turn out to be a friendship that would last more than the normal couple of days.  He ended up not only staying in our Maylan Guesthouse where we would eat breakfast everyday together but would accompanied us not only to Laung prabang but further to the town of Muang Ngoi Neua.

How to Lose Your Husband!

In Vang Vieng Frank, Andreas and I set out on a bicycle loop which seemed simple when looking at the map , but half way into the trip we lost Frank. That is actually a relatively easy thing to do since he rides with the speed of the wind without ever looking back through the dust to see where we were.  He also made the mistake of not waiting at the corner of a junction where we were supposed to turn off.

  

Andreas and I made the mistake of turning off at the junction after that junction and we waited too long for him.  We then proceeded to pass one village and then finally took a break and tried to get a man to help us to figure out where we were. I stayed put while Andreas then continued to the next village to make sure we had done it wrong. As I sat there quite a while staring at the beautiful landscape, I was contemplating my stupidity; here I am in the middle of nowhere; I had no money, no water and lost my husband and am travelling with someone I barely knew. Andreas arrived back with a bottle of water which saved my life!  He also figured out that we had taken the wrong turn off and needed to return to where we were before.  We then proceeded to check out every village and cave looking for Frank.

Inside the Tham Phu Kham Cave with the blue lagoon, I met Loic, a 26 year old Belgian guy living in Paris.  He was accompanied by two Korean students and a Spanish couple named Gonzalo and Gemmam. I immediate like Loic. His sense of humor mixed with his caring sensitivity for those of us in the cave without a light showing a very friendly-caring spirit. When he asked if Andreas was my husband I laughed and commented that I lost my husband and was still looking for him.  He shook his head and said that isn’t normal to lose your husband. I signed and explained, well for me it is!

 Frank and I met him later at our favorite Korean restaurant and then again in Laung prabang.  He even followed us to Muang Ngoi Neua and Frank talked him into doing the two day trek even though he should be heading to Bangkok. How funny it is to lose your husband while making two new friends at the same time!

Our last day in Vang Vieng, Frank and I decided to do a half day kayaking.  We shared the tour with the Spanish couple from the cave.  They were light hearted and in good spirits and ready to conquer the river. As pairs we had double kayaks. Our tour guide began to sing songs and gave us tips while talking on his mobile phone.  He could see that Frank and I had experience but seemed to forget our Spanish friends Gonzalo and Gemmam managed to flip even though the river was fairly shallow losing their things in the water.  As we tried to recover their things we laughed realizing we only went for one and half hours and not three hours! 

 American’s Gift to the People of Laos

Luang Prabang is one of the main attractions in Laos.  The city where the former Royal Palace was built in 1904. The king resided there until 1959 and now it is a museum. It is a Unesco site which keeps this place from exploding and most of its architecture is dating around 1877 to 1930’s. One of the hardest things to deal with is the fact that my country bombed the heck out of Laos from 1964 to 1973 making it the country that was the most bombed countries in the world. At the same time our president Mr. Johnson gave their king an amusing gift for which I personally ashamed of its lack of taste. The gift is pieces of rock from the moon. A strange gift to give as we bomb the shit out of their country! Our first hotel was just on the outside of the town and was a bit strange. Here I felt like I was in a communistic hotel and after two nights they wanted to up the price so we decided to check out. The breakfast was so bad that I ended up vomiting in our new guest house but boy did I feel better.  Frank had our third argument of the trip since he was over sensitive about me asking him a question as he was downloading something in the blog and I was just trying to get my mind off of feeling sick. I decided to go for a walk and get fresh air but once again I forgot money so I had to return to our room. I think we are doing quite well three fights in three months isn’t too bad! 

During these days here I hung out with Cary and Miguel who we met on the bus. Cary is a gardener from Canada and it was refreshing to talk to someone who grew up in North America.  Miguel was from Holland and was now on a lifestyle travel that had taken him half way across the world and the last time we saw him, he was heading off the New Zealand to try his luck there.

We slowly began to wind down here and had taken bikes to see the sights and finally went to see the Pak Ou caves where you can see thousands of Buddhas hidden there and a village where they make whisky.  The packaging is quite unique since it includes a cobra snake or a scorpion.  The whisky itself doesn’t have much taste but the tourists love it. Here once again, I lost Frank but met a nice Korean arborist and his son.  The next day we headed up north with Andreas, Loic and a new friend Melina.

A Monk’s Walk to the Caves

After checking in at our various guesthouses, Loic and I decided to check out the village of Muang Ngoi Neua which basically consisted of guest houses and restaurants and two boats of tourist trying to check out an authentic Lao’s village.  The villagers themselves were used to this bizarre desires of the tourists and basically would ignored you unless they could sell you something. We finally ended up at the Buddhist temple where one very old monk lives with seven students.  The students range from seven to twenty years old and as we arrived four of them were huddles close to the small burning fire. We were looking for the way to the cave and the view point to see the sunset.  They pointed the way and we waited for Frank and Andreas to join us.  Meanwhile we found out that one of the novices could speak English and since his name was Loi he was excited to meet Loic.  I told him that I would like to go see the other cave and he said he escort us there in exchange for an English lesson. Agreeing on what time with a monk was not easy.  He spoke with his Master who gave the okay for 8:00 am.  He had a heavy schedule which started at 4:30 am in the morning and he said that at 7:00 am is when they go down the main street and receive food from the locals and then bless the village.  So we bid him goodbye and went off to check out the cave but the light was already receding so we decided to do it another day. I rose early the next day mush to the dismay of Frank who wanted to sleep in. I went to the main street and sure enough through the mist I could see the monks coming while the villages offered them food that they had prepared.

So at 8:00 am Loic and I went to the monastery to fetch Loi and he was accompanied by two other novices as well.  We then proceeded to introduce our selves and give a brief history on where we came from and what we do for a living and what we studied etc.  At one point Loi explained about the offering ritual every morning. They receive mostly rice but Loi told us that he was allowed to eat other things as well but never ever a snake!  He also told us other sins which included, lying stealing and killing but he mention twice that he must never touch a woman. I can’t think of a worse sin for a teenage boy that would incorporate the touching of a woman. He giggled and the said sweetly that if I was to have a problem in the cave he would not be able to help me. He was so sorry! I laughed and said that is why Loic is here! He will save me!  We finally approached the cave where we saw a woman washing clothes and beautiful fishes of all sizes swimming in the pools below the rocks.  Loi also informed me it would be a sin to kill these fishes.  I smiled and said it is a good thing I am not hungry.  He looked puzzled but I was not surprised.

Photo by Loic 

 We entered mouth of the cave which was further up. I followed them in and found the cave very warm and humid which surprised me. We ended shortly at a drop off and a muddy bank which folded underneath us into nothingness. We decided it would be too dangerous to go any further and headed back. We then ran into Johnny from Canada who was leading a group in and asked if we had made it to the swimming hole to which we replied no.  We then had to reenter the cave and follow the true cave pathfinder.  The two novices were afraid and said they would wait. I took off my shoes to get better traction since it was muddy slippery and slimy.  We went deeper and deeper in.   At many points you could see drop offs that disappeared and I keep thinking if I fall down there I am dead meat.  None of us had a rope and where would we get one anyway?  We finally reached it.  The river was below which meant you needed to rock climb down a half stone half muddy bank to get into the river which would eventually lead you further into the cave.  Loi watched Johnny and Loic disappear over the side and enter into the river.  The rest of us remained above since we did not have swimming clothes.  Loi bid me farewell since he knew his time was up and he had school work to do. I told him I would try to give him a lesson or two in the next couple of days.  Loic returned excited and told me what a wonderful feeling it was to go upstream until the river disappeared under the cave wall.

We then proceeded to the next small village, ate lunch and headed back to see the other cave and viewpoint that we missed the night before.  It was a full day for me and returned to find Frank had planned a two day trek up the mountain.  It should be easy he said.  I shook my head and said you are starting at 400m to 1000m is not a piece of cake.  It means I would have to go straight up. No way besides I desire two days of rest.  Early in the morning we took a boat and headed up north against the cold wind. We arrived at a very simple village and I sat with the boat man as the others started their trek. I then jumped back in the boat as several of the locals piled in.  We then stopped at the next village, and the ladies scrambled up the hill in a flash.  I soon was following the boatman up the hill as he smiled at me and said,” This is a good place to buy some scarves.”

 I realized that I didn’t have any options looking down the lane at twenty woman waiting for me to buy some scarves which essentially was paying for my lift up and back down the river. I ended up buying four scarves but boy was I under a lot of pressure.  Which one should I buy? So I started to look at the individuals to decide who needed the money the most and I finally felt like I had done my share and hoped Frank would not be unhappy with the decision I had made.

Meanwhile I taught Loi English, met some local girls, had dinner with two Korean students, and said farewell to Fiona and Miguel.  But the best part is I joined Johnny again for a cave tour and finally swam in the river. It was wonderful and on the way to the next village I ran into Frank, Andreas, Melina and Loic once again.  Boy did they look exhausted!