So having arrived at a decent hour, i think it was near 6 in the evening, and having found a roof for the night, I set about exploring the town. Very authentic, the town, going about its business, unromantically and unapolagetically so, it being what i felt was a town booming of scrap metal wealth, the silver lining, i guess, in America's bombing campaign that made Xieng Khouang Province the most densely bombed place in the world. More bombs were dropped here than the total tonnage for the second World War in Europe, it is said.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Destination Laos: Part 11 Phonsavanh
So having arrived at a decent hour, i think it was near 6 in the evening, and having found a roof for the night, I set about exploring the town. Very authentic, the town, going about its business, unromantically and unapolagetically so, it being what i felt was a town booming of scrap metal wealth, the silver lining, i guess, in America's bombing campaign that made Xieng Khouang Province the most densely bombed place in the world. More bombs were dropped here than the total tonnage for the second World War in Europe, it is said.
Destination Lao: Part 10 Off to the front
Left: A cold and dusty road in Phonsavanh. The photo above was spent shells being given new life as a brazier of sorts outside the place i was staying in Phonsavanh, the Phoukham Guesthouse. Party because i was lazy and it was right across the road from the old bus station where our mini-van stopped.
The place was all right - cheap at 4USD for a big room with a double bed, attached bathroom and hot water that lasts for a total of 10 seconds. Exciting lobby to check out with all the spent shells in a glass cabinet, TV, posters highlighting the dangers of UXO (unexploded ordnance, a major killer in rural areas as farmers attempt to extract scrap metal from them), and a cyber cafe. They also do organise tours to the 3 Plain of Jar sites, for 19 dollars.
Friday, 25 January 2008
Tuk tuk?
2. Motos, tuk tuks and the like
While incessant offers of motos, tuk tuks, Skylabs and more from the same family can be irritating (especially in Phnom Penh Cambodia, I've found), i've come to really like these quientessentially Southeast Asian forms of transport. They're cheap, fun (zipping in and out of traffic) and exciting - part of the thrill comes from the crazy traffic, and skipping over gravel and skirting potholes huge enough to pass as craters once out of town.
3. The airplane taxiing down the runway, just before picking up speed for takeoff.
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
On a random note
1. Diesel fumes - Brings with it always the promise of adventures ahead, of a road trip to somewhere i have never been before. Reminds me of those cold mornings at the bus station, having to wake up early in the dawn to catch a tuk tuk/pick up to the bus station, and then huddling around in the dusty old bus depot, trying to spot the bus (not an easy task if you don't read the local language, and buses labelled Luang Prabang, for instance, may end up in Udomxai) and breathing in liberal amounts of diesel fumes as bus drivers warm their engines up. Especially love the Lao buses which look like a blast from the past, very retro and hippie looking with flowers hung over the license plates too.
Above: Cold morning at the Luang Nam Tha bus depot
Mornings as such are almost always spent trying to warm myself as much as possible (standing near the engines), with noodle soup and hot coffee being the preferred breakfast (which you can slurp down in a hurry), followed by a hunt for the toilet (toilet mafias, having a monopoly situation at bus stops few kilometres from town, charge exorbitant prices for these necessary visits before long bus rides). Then its off we go when they finish loading the cargo onto the bus - which from what i've seen thus far, could include motorcycles, live chickens, rice, bed frames, amongst other less interesting (and definitely more companiable) items.
A typical day at the bus depot thus involves an early morning crawl outof bed to get there early enough to get a ticket, finding the bus, getting on and putting some personal items on the seat to "reserve" it, which normally, for us backpackers, involve socks, mittens and old shirts (which we wouldn't mind losing), getting off to wolf down a quick breakfast at one of the stalls around the bus depot, looking for the toilet, and then getting on again, this time strapping our packs to the overhead racks as best we can to keep it from falling off and hitting some poor soul sitting under it.
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Destination Laos: Part 9 Kayaking the Nam Song
We dropped by Tham Xang (Elephant Cave), located beside a Lao Loum village reached after a short weave through the paddy fields, now yellow in the dry season with water buffaloes grazing idly nearby, and Tham Nam (the waterlogged cave - Im guessing it means River Cave literally?) later before making it by pickup to the start of our journey down the Nam Song. Tham Xang was so-so, a vaguely elephant looking stalactite, a reclining Buddha, a Buddha footprint made in stone and some nagas (mythical serpents guarding over the Buddha). The name is supposedly because an elephant once lived in the cave.
The nearby village was far more interesting, with chickens, dogs, the odd turkey (an USAID legacy, ive read) and pig wandering around looking for food scraps. Life goes on as normal, it seems, in the village, and there really weren't too many tourists around the area. Lazy, idyllic, as if time never passes, and even if it did were of no consequence, something i really love about small towns and villages.
After that it was by pick up, with our kayaks riding on top, to Tham Nam. Throuh the way, I was thinking, hell, we could have been filming an advertisement for kayaks/pickups, the scenery was just great, the wind on our faces, and especially the part when the pickup rolled out of the treeline onto the bank of the Nam Song, bumping over the pebbled shores and fording a tributary on the way. Hearing the rush of the water, the tinkling over the stones, worn smooth on the shallow river bed, smelling the scent of trees and traces of woodfire where the villagers were preparing lunch. What an ad that would make.
Tham Nam, where we visited and spent most of our time waiting (for the tubes to go in), was a once in a lifetime experience for me. By that, I mean, just that once would be enough - I doubt ill ever try it again. It had all the elements of a B grade horror movie - as mentioned in a previous post it was wet - not just damp, but filled with water that you have to take a tube in, following a rope which went missing in parts, into a narrow crevice. Claustrophobes also need not bother with this - The tunnel was at times so narrow that you had to bend backwards to avoid incapitation.
So what do we have now? Wet and claustrophobic. That leaves the darkness and the cold for me to moan about. It was pitch black. End of story - so really, how were we supposed to be enjoying something we couldn't see while at the same time feeling hopelessly lost (a perpetual feeling when it comes to caves), claustrophobic (imagine having a rock ceiling inches from your head 24/7 and water, water and more water under you, icy cold to the touch and making weird noises when it sloshes around the sides of the cave) and cold.
A reading off a Magellan by a half frozen Irishman revealed the water outside the cave (in bright sunshine) to be arond 15 Celsius. And to add to that our guide's joke (at least i hope it was) of crocodiles and snakes in the cave weren't exactly helping matters. But we survived, after losing orientation completely in one of the numerous chambers with mind boggling permutations of exits. Made it out into bright sunshine and I cant be more thankful. My insurance doesn't quite cover exploring caves Indiana Jones-style, i think...
Lunch stop of kebabs and fried rice, then the kayaks were unloaded once we hit the start off our 10 km river trip. Paddling down the Nam Song, all the while looking at that gorgeous scenery of tiny villages, trees, and mountains passing by, and fighting the odd rapids was fun. Yea. Really love the karst mountains that Vang Vieng is famous for. China may have nicer mountains, as some may say, but where else in the world do you get to kayak/tube down a flowing river, with crystal clear water no less, right beside those magnificent karst landforms? The evening scene was even more colourful and lively as the locals depend on the river for a variety of activities like fishing, bathing, washing and cooking.
We made a few stops along the way, mainly toilet stops, got a few fruit shakes (a tad more expensive, but excellent service and location - again, where else in the world do you find cocktails/shakes/ice cold beer right by the river for weary tubers/kayakers who are hauled up on bamboo poles. Throw in music and rope swings too.) before getting on our way. This time round, determined to get back to Vang Vieng town before it got too dark and we end up in Vientiane.
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Life's a beach
New update (its an oxymoron isnt it?) to my Philippines plan:
Flying out from Cebu to HCMC or BKK.
Right now i think the tix for both is roughly the same price at around 2,000+ pesos (40 USD). Can't decide on which one yet. From BKK to Singapore is definitely cheaper airfare wise, but HCMC is a more interesting destination methinks - thinking of checking out Chu Chi, the delta region, Phu Quoc... But on the other hand BKK is a more relaxing (HCMC is often decribed as a phantasmagoria of motorcycles), and i might want to go up to Ayutthaya, Sukothai before flying home...
Friday, 18 January 2008
Come Back Alive
Funny, really, after my near death experiences (i exaggerate) in supposedly "safer" places ie got lost caving (wet, dark, cold, claustrophobic - all the ingredients for a nightmare) in Vang Vieng, getting dead drunk (and lost too for the record) at 4am in Siem Reap, getting severe food poisoning in Pulau Pangkor to the point of dehydration, the Luang Nam Tha experience as i have come to call it (see below post)... Which i hope would be enough to last me for a lifetime. More than enough tales to tell the grandchildren. (assuming i survive till then of course)
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Mabuhay
Flying one-way into Manila, which should cost around 200 Singapore dollars, then staying around in the Manila region for a few days, planning to drop by Corregidor to soak up some Pacific War history (Doug McArthur said I shall return here) and also the nearby Taal volcano.
Then its northwards bound up Luzon (long bus journeys again - kind of ambivalent to these. On the one hand i love riding the local bus, just people watching and thinking, hey whats his/her story, etc, but on the other hand, when these rides manifest into mega 18 hour rides, its never too friendly on the backside/bladder. What i dislike most (im still hoping to, one day, see the joy of it) is being dropped off at an out of sorts bus stop, some 20 km from town in the dead of the night, leaving you to somehow procure a means of transportation into town, and then having to find a room, after the influx of backpackers have all checked in in the afternoon. Stressful. And that's if you manage to find a guesthouse first in the dark, more often than not local transport into town drop you at some suburban residential area with no street lights.)
Im having flashbacks of Luang Nam Tha here, arrived near last light at around 5, after a long ride from Luang Prabang, and guess where the bus station is most conveniently located? some 10 plus km out of town, with no tuk tuk vultures and not a single foreign face in sight to share worries/sawngthaew/complains with. It was a crowded pick up to "town", picking up rice sacks, bags of lard, and people on the way, making it absolutely certain i would be in "town" after last light. And in Luang Nam Tha, a frontier town close to the Chinese, Thai, and Burmese borders, and the Golden Triangle, there were not so surprisingly, no street lights.
Some 5 passengers and numerous rice sacks later i was dropped unceremoniously on some side street where all the shops have shut for the day and only a few dodgy looking Chinese guesthouses remained open, one even with "solar powered" hot water system, no doubt a literal , but correct nonetheless translation for the afternoon sun's warming effects on their otherwise icy cold water. Too tired/pissed to see the humour back then, but on hindsight it was rather amusing.
Asking around for the main drag served no purpose, although the locals were really helpful and willing to oblige, as all the streets in Luang Nam Tha are unnamed and it was kind of pointless asking for this big thanon (street in Lao) that i kept pointing to on the map. Finally (thank God) there was this Lao man, donning an England jersey and warming himself by his fire who mimed sleeping and eating, and sent me on my way. His shortcut cut through a very ominous feeling neighbourhood, where the children stared silently at me from the roadside, their faces half hidden in the darkness, and cats in the reeds (that seem to have a vendetta against me) mewed eerily, strangely and hair raisingly reminiscent of babies cries. It then wound through a construction site, where men off shift stood clustered in groups, whispering among themselves, all the while looking at this stupid boy with his backpack out alone in the night.
I ran. Once of their sights, I broke into a brisk jog, determined to get out of this area ASAP, it just didnt feel right - my hairs were standing on its ends and my mind screaming danger, adrenaline coursing through my blood. At the risk of being over dramatic, i soon saw a light in the distance, a building, that soon i made out to be a restaurant. You can imagine the relief. Once closer i caught a glimpse of the signboard - the Panda restaurant. Popped in and got some directions from a fellow backpacker - i must have looked really dishevelled and in shit state then. Checking my bearings i soon found myself in front of the Luang Nam Tha provincial police station - major, major sigh of relief, and seeing the only lit street in possibly a 50km radius. A crazy night out it had been.
Musing over my (well deserved) dinner of laap, sticky rice and Beerlao at the Manychan Guesthouse, i thought i was really lucky today, but also it was because of the Lao people's kindness and helpfulness that i found my way unmolested.
Back to the Philippines. Long term travel has that effect on you i guess - I often suffer from spells of nostalgia, dreaminess and wanderlust, especially recurrant during a boring class/lecture. In Northern Luzon i plan to trek the Cordillera Mountains, and am thinking of finding a forward operating base in maybe Baguio or somewhere nearby. Then im thinking of fitting in also the coffin caves and exploring some other nearby places. Then its all the way back to Manila, where i hope to catch a flight to Puerto Princesa, which should, from what i've heard, cost around 30 USD one way. Thats the first part of the plan - im trying at the moment to put together a feasible and not-too-silly island hopping plan that i hope, will take me to some of the best beaches in the region and laidback Pacific islands where i can find my own paradise.
Monday, 14 January 2008
2008 travels - Destination: the Philippines
It seems i have made up my mind - island hopping plus trekking in the northern Luzon region in the Philippines it is. What clinched it for me was that the Philippines still is a largely off the beaten track affair, with few tourists from mainland Southeast Asia's banana pancake trail that winds through Thailand, Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam. With the added bonus of the May-June period being "off-peak" in the Philippines, which equates to fewer tourists and lower prices.
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Freedom is
Gets me through those long days of work and more work... Anyone with any suggestions? =)
Don't Tell Mum
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Destination Laos: Part 8 Muang Vang Vieng
Destination Laos: Part 7 Tubing!
Friday, 4 January 2008
Destination Laos: Part 6 Moon over the Mekong
Bought my tickets to Vang Vieng tomorrow - I had heard that it would be near impossible to find transport on the Lao National Day, but luckily managed to get a seat on a bus headed up to Vang Vieng. Or the legendary Vang Vieng, shall i say, the alliteration I have heard many times before, oft described as backpackers haven, and muttered much in the watering holes and guest houses of Southeast Asia's other backpackers ghettos. It turned out i would be headed north with some friends i've met at the Patuxai, by sheer coincidence we stayed at the same guesthouse too.