I travelled with Liz to Kampot by share minibus (four to three seats,
about 26 overall in a 15 seater) where we spent a night in an
unexciting but nice guesthouse. Oh yeh - the colour scheme in our
room was nice - fleecy deep purple bedcovers with satiny cerise pink
pillowcases and vibrant yellow towels folded on the end of the bed.
Nice. Kampot was a small town that has a regular but not too huge
tourist trade. Most tourists who pass through here are heading to
Bokor National park for either a day trip or an overnight. We were
offered this trip several times. It was a nice
place to wander and the river side road while different, was
reminiscent of Kratie. We had an Angkor beer in the one restautant
we could find across from the river and watched the blue river (not
brown like I have got used to seeing rivers) and the delicate but
stunning sunset that sank behind the blue horizon of the hills in the
National Park. This is quite a change for Cambodia where for t
he most part the landscape is unrelentingly flat and now well into
the dry season also evry arid. Brown dust is prevalent, not just
along the unsealed roads. The few fields that are irrigated and
planted with vibrant green rice or other vegetables stand out like an
oasis in the desert.
Kampot has a small busy market but we didn't really explore for long
as we wandered along relatively wide red dirt roads where simple but
nice houses lined the sides and a couple kids played with string and
rubber inner tubes and other wonderful creative toys. Back to the
river and then to our taxi which we had managed to get for $5 to Kep.
The town is only 25 km and half an hour away but there appear to be
no regular buses and the moto riders and taxi drivers have a monopoly
on the route. $5 was very good as the average on offer was $10 which
was just completely ridiculous. But it was a pleasant drive out
there. The roadside seemed like one long horizontal picture
interjected with vertical images...palm trees, poles, a house, a
bicycle with a lady cycling, a white cow some water buffalo....and
still the flat sealed road went on through the flat brown fields. We
arrived at our guesthouse and they had a room, upstairs with a
balcony. The place was about 3km before the '
town' though we never quite made it there and what we saw were a few
houses. A Norwegian man staying at our place said he had looked
around with his moto rider and there wasn't really a town, there were
not really any shops to speak of, no bank and the post office looked
as if it hadn't been used in about 20 years. Probably true. All
along the road there are burnt out homes that were part of the
colonial history of Kep where the rich used to come down to enjoy the
seaside. Apparently it was during the Khmer Rouge that the place was
destroyed, though whether the elite used it themselves, it was
symbolically destroyed or it was just looted by impoverished and
desperate locals during the famine under the Khmer Rouge in the late
70s is not completely certain. The guide book suggests that a
combination of factors is the most reasonable assumption.
Our 'Seaside Guesthouse' was literally by the sea. There was no
beach to speak of but the sea came up near the wall by the edge of
the guest house where there were about 5 thatched wooden platforms
where hammocks were strung. What a great place to chill out. We
stayed 2 nights but could easily have stayed longer! I had bought a
hammock in Phnom Penh so enjoyed getting the opportunity to use it
there! I also learnt a good way to tie it up. We went out to an
island the second day and I strung up my hammock between two palm
trees and relaxed! Very nice.
We got a taxi to Kampot and stayed in the same taxi as it became a
share taxi all the way to Sihanoukville. The drive was fine and we
ended up with only four in the car so it was really quite
comfortable! Though travelling in Cambodia is always a sticky
business! We arrived in Sihanoukville to find it heaving with
tourists - mostly Cambodians. We thought it was because it was the
weekend, but later found out that it was also 'International Women's
Day' so we were too overwhelmed with the numbers of people to try and
look for anywhere at the nice beach we wanted to stay at and instead
opted for heading up to the budget enclave at Victory Beach. It was
fine - but late that evening I got antsy and decided that if I could
get a ticket I would leave the next day to head to Thailand. I wasn't
in the mood for a beach day and would just be puttin gin time to get
to Thailand and sort out my massage and diving courses. So I got up
the next morning, arranged a ticket and left for
the boat at 11am after a short walk to the beach and a nice
breakfast with a very good mango shake - lots of good mango in it!
Liz decided that she would leave too and got a bus to Phnom Penh.
So I got the boat at 12 which took about 4 hours to get to the
border. A barrage of moto drivers and pick up drivers stand by the
pier and wait for custom. All at once just before the boat touches
the pier they all start shouting and jump on the boat and try to get
you to go with them. It was so absurd we started laughing! In the
end I got a pickup for 20 baht which I think turned out to be the
cheapest offer around. Not bad. I had met Arjon on the boat, a guy
from the crowd at Siem Reap. We joined 8 others in a nice minibus
just over the border that drove us all the way to Bangkok. Very
easy. We arrived about 10.30/11.00pm. We got a four person room to
share and headed out to KhaoSan road to get some Pad Thai (noodles).
I had missed them! It was funny and yet also very familiar to be
back in Bangkok. I did need to scroll back through a few languages
to find 'thankyou' though and it is taking a little time to readjust
to traffic driving on the left.
Friday, March 14, 2003
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
I went from Kratie by boat to Kampong Cham and then from there by share taxi to Siem Reap. It is the town at the Angkor temples and the base from where to explore them. It isn''t a cheap thing to do, as a 1 day pass costs $20 and I got a 3 day pass which was $40. However it was worth it and it would be stupid to go there and not pay the money to see one of the 7 man made wonders of the world!! I cycled around the mini tour the first day, motorbiked out to a far temple and round some of the grand tour on the second day and then hired a moto with driver for the third day and saw more of what I hadn't already seen, some about 14km away and then more in the main part. My moto driver also took me to visit the house of a friend who lived in a rural area in a wee wooden house. It was nice to see, though he wasn't there but his sister was.
The temples are really amazing. Any one of them would be very much visited anywhere else, and here there are so many you could run the risk of becoming blase about them. Angkor Wat is the main one and obviously stunning, however there are lots of smaller ones that are great- intricate stone carvings, majestic faces hewn in large rocks, ones where there is a beautiful tangle with nature and man's creations - the jungle's roots entwined with stone archways where the two have become one. A dance of destruction and support.
My firsty guesthouse was okay, but then I moved to the same guesthouse where Amir and Marte were staying. It was nice! The room was wooden (I was sharing with a German / Turkish Kurd girl Nurcan) and there was a communal area downstairs of a bamboo platform with hammocks and cushions on the ground. Very nice. There were quite a few single travellers and we had a nice time hanging out in the evenings. My last night there we sat up playing cards until 1.15am.
I am now back in Phnom Penh - this time staying at Number 10 (next door to number 9) and am sharing with an Australian girl called Liz. In the past month and a half I have had one night by myself! It is cheaper but quite funny when you think about it. I just phoned Nikki and we chatted for 38 minutes (to be exact) and she asked if I had been able to have sace to myself - I think I have had enough. I will soon be ready for some more, but that is more of the need to stop and process for a while. We shall see.
I am heading to the south tomorrow to Kampot and Kep then will head on to Sihanoukville and to Thailand via Koh Khong. About a week left here, or just under.
The temples are really amazing. Any one of them would be very much visited anywhere else, and here there are so many you could run the risk of becoming blase about them. Angkor Wat is the main one and obviously stunning, however there are lots of smaller ones that are great- intricate stone carvings, majestic faces hewn in large rocks, ones where there is a beautiful tangle with nature and man's creations - the jungle's roots entwined with stone archways where the two have become one. A dance of destruction and support.
My firsty guesthouse was okay, but then I moved to the same guesthouse where Amir and Marte were staying. It was nice! The room was wooden (I was sharing with a German / Turkish Kurd girl Nurcan) and there was a communal area downstairs of a bamboo platform with hammocks and cushions on the ground. Very nice. There were quite a few single travellers and we had a nice time hanging out in the evenings. My last night there we sat up playing cards until 1.15am.
I am now back in Phnom Penh - this time staying at Number 10 (next door to number 9) and am sharing with an Australian girl called Liz. In the past month and a half I have had one night by myself! It is cheaper but quite funny when you think about it. I just phoned Nikki and we chatted for 38 minutes (to be exact) and she asked if I had been able to have sace to myself - I think I have had enough. I will soon be ready for some more, but that is more of the need to stop and process for a while. We shall see.
I am heading to the south tomorrow to Kampot and Kep then will head on to Sihanoukville and to Thailand via Koh Khong. About a week left here, or just under.
CAMBODIA
A new country for me. For its people too it is a new country or perhaps an old one, emerging from the ravages of too many years of a too brutal war. It is a poor country and the presence of many donor agencies and fancy AID vehicles brings reminders of other poor nations where there are the contrasting reminders of poverty and investment and help and potential harm. There is the daily struggle of facing poverty in the form of beggars and vicitms of the war with their prosthetic limbs - begging or tryin gto sell you the ever present packets of 10 bad postcards, or photocopied books - many about Cambodia. It is hard to say no, and yet you can't always say yes, and then after spending $4 on a book I feel in turmoil that I am not giving to the boy who runs along by me begging. So I go and eat in the 'Friends' restaurant supporting their wider street kids programme and training young street teenagers, and I buy a book from a man with one leg, and I donate to a childrens hospital who provide free quality healthcare to young Cambodians; and I continue to feel concerned and confused and impotent and passionate. I think what if it was me trying to get some money to feed my children from these people who spend on frivolities and fancies.
Phnom Penh is a small city compared with the major cities of its neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. There are lots of motos and cyclos all keen for you to give them some business, but compared with Saigon the streets are over half empty. It's nice. Marte and I arrived and stayed at Number 9 Guest House by the lakeside. A basic room ($2 for a double with shared bathroom) but the plac3e had a nice wooden restaurant / deck/ chillout music and videa and cane armchairs and hammock area. Worth spending a couple nights longer than initially anticipated there.
Walked around a little to get the feel of the place. Visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, which would have been impressive if you could have seen more than a little bit of the silver tiled floor. Most of it was covered with red carpet for people to walk aorund on! It is hot here too - melting weather.
We also visited 'The Killing Fields' and the S21 museum. An old high school that was converted into the most notorious detention centre under Pol Pots Khmer Rouge. It is a sobering look at very recent history in this country where 2 million people were killed, many brutally, during the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge. I just finished reading a book 'First they killed my Father' by a lady who was five at the time when the Khmer Rouge took over. If I had been born in Cambodia, 2 months after the takeover, it is very unlikely that I would be alive today. Personalising the inconceivable sometimes helps bring home the shockingness of it all.
I got a boat to Kratie (north /ne up the river from PP) and sat on the roof. It was a good trip and I met a nice S.African girl called Kim. We ended up sharing a room for the next three nights. It is a small town with a central market that was very interesting to walk around and also some nice fruit shale stalls along the top of the river bank at night. However the main reason tourists visit this spot is to go and see the Freshwater Irrawaddy Dolphins. Which we did - twice.
It was great being out on the boat with the engine cut off and floating in the middle of a deep pool in the Mekhong to suddenly hear a deep breath behind you and to turn and see the back of a dolphin. These dolphins don't jump out of the water like bottle nose dolphins but you can see their backs and sometimes a tail too. They are shy, but on the second day there were some only about 10 metres out from our boat. It was great.
We hired a motorbike and I rode us up the river through small villages that live along the roadside. People are very friendly and the kids waved and called out hello and goodbye - a variation on just the hello of other parts. It is always a good way to see a bit more of an area to get a bicycle or motorbike and ride around a little. The houses are mostly bamboo on stilts. Life is very open and shared and kids and adults sits under trees, by stalls in the shade and by the road. I also had a completely chilling out day - we moved to a hotel that was only $5 for a double room and it was new and nice and had satellite TV and a big terrace on the roof that was a great place to ry clothes and sit drinking an Angkor beer and watching the sunset!
A new country for me. For its people too it is a new country or perhaps an old one, emerging from the ravages of too many years of a too brutal war. It is a poor country and the presence of many donor agencies and fancy AID vehicles brings reminders of other poor nations where there are the contrasting reminders of poverty and investment and help and potential harm. There is the daily struggle of facing poverty in the form of beggars and vicitms of the war with their prosthetic limbs - begging or tryin gto sell you the ever present packets of 10 bad postcards, or photocopied books - many about Cambodia. It is hard to say no, and yet you can't always say yes, and then after spending $4 on a book I feel in turmoil that I am not giving to the boy who runs along by me begging. So I go and eat in the 'Friends' restaurant supporting their wider street kids programme and training young street teenagers, and I buy a book from a man with one leg, and I donate to a childrens hospital who provide free quality healthcare to young Cambodians; and I continue to feel concerned and confused and impotent and passionate. I think what if it was me trying to get some money to feed my children from these people who spend on frivolities and fancies.
Phnom Penh is a small city compared with the major cities of its neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. There are lots of motos and cyclos all keen for you to give them some business, but compared with Saigon the streets are over half empty. It's nice. Marte and I arrived and stayed at Number 9 Guest House by the lakeside. A basic room ($2 for a double with shared bathroom) but the plac3e had a nice wooden restaurant / deck/ chillout music and videa and cane armchairs and hammock area. Worth spending a couple nights longer than initially anticipated there.
Walked around a little to get the feel of the place. Visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, which would have been impressive if you could have seen more than a little bit of the silver tiled floor. Most of it was covered with red carpet for people to walk aorund on! It is hot here too - melting weather.
We also visited 'The Killing Fields' and the S21 museum. An old high school that was converted into the most notorious detention centre under Pol Pots Khmer Rouge. It is a sobering look at very recent history in this country where 2 million people were killed, many brutally, during the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge. I just finished reading a book 'First they killed my Father' by a lady who was five at the time when the Khmer Rouge took over. If I had been born in Cambodia, 2 months after the takeover, it is very unlikely that I would be alive today. Personalising the inconceivable sometimes helps bring home the shockingness of it all.
I got a boat to Kratie (north /ne up the river from PP) and sat on the roof. It was a good trip and I met a nice S.African girl called Kim. We ended up sharing a room for the next three nights. It is a small town with a central market that was very interesting to walk around and also some nice fruit shale stalls along the top of the river bank at night. However the main reason tourists visit this spot is to go and see the Freshwater Irrawaddy Dolphins. Which we did - twice.
It was great being out on the boat with the engine cut off and floating in the middle of a deep pool in the Mekhong to suddenly hear a deep breath behind you and to turn and see the back of a dolphin. These dolphins don't jump out of the water like bottle nose dolphins but you can see their backs and sometimes a tail too. They are shy, but on the second day there were some only about 10 metres out from our boat. It was great.
We hired a motorbike and I rode us up the river through small villages that live along the roadside. People are very friendly and the kids waved and called out hello and goodbye - a variation on just the hello of other parts. It is always a good way to see a bit more of an area to get a bicycle or motorbike and ride around a little. The houses are mostly bamboo on stilts. Life is very open and shared and kids and adults sits under trees, by stalls in the shade and by the road. I also had a completely chilling out day - we moved to a hotel that was only $5 for a double room and it was new and nice and had satellite TV and a big terrace on the roof that was a great place to ry clothes and sit drinking an Angkor beer and watching the sunset!
I had written about the Mekhong but the computer lost it all. Frustrating but I will now just mention it briefly. I had a good three day tour (yes I went on a tour cause it wa going to be easier with only a couple days to actually see things and not just be figuring out the transport). The last day was crossing the border and finishing up in Phnom Penh (Cambodia).
Fruit market with baskets of pineapple, mangoes, bananas and dragon fruit. Women gathered around under the shade of their conical straw hats, buying, selling and socialising. The river was a km wide at one point with traffic ranging from large cargo boats laden down with building materials to small wooden rowing boats. We visited a small island that grew fruit in orchards and a rice noodle factory and coconut candy factory - both of which were actually quite interesting. We boated up canals under a 'monkey bridge' (narrow bamboo pole across the river) and house boats, stilt houses, flimsy and sturdy houses. We saw people swimming in the river; washing, bathing, cleaning vegetables and meat, boating, working and relaxing - life intertwined with the flow of the river and its seasons.
Fruit market with baskets of pineapple, mangoes, bananas and dragon fruit. Women gathered around under the shade of their conical straw hats, buying, selling and socialising. The river was a km wide at one point with traffic ranging from large cargo boats laden down with building materials to small wooden rowing boats. We visited a small island that grew fruit in orchards and a rice noodle factory and coconut candy factory - both of which were actually quite interesting. We boated up canals under a 'monkey bridge' (narrow bamboo pole across the river) and house boats, stilt houses, flimsy and sturdy houses. We saw people swimming in the river; washing, bathing, cleaning vegetables and meat, boating, working and relaxing - life intertwined with the flow of the river and its seasons.
Friday, February 14, 2003
Hue - Hoi An - Nha Trang - DaLat - Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon
How to update on two weeks in all those places?
Hue has been mentioned. Hoi An was very touristy but I also really liked it. It is a small town that was undestroyed by the wars and still retains original small streets with some wooden houses and others with lovely textured old yellow painted walls and French influenced shutters and doorways. There were some local eateries by the sides of the road as well as many tourist places, a couple that were very nice places to have fruit shakes, sit in a bamboo chair on the front verandah, listen to chilled out music and read my book. We (still travelling with Marte) hired bikes two days and cycled the 4km to the beach. Very nice - moved around following the shade under a palm tree and enjoyed the breakers. We also walked across to a island / other part of the main land (we weren't quite sure which) where there were mainly eating places full of Vietnamese. A drink and a snack by a river and overlooking fields of tall crops. We then walked back through a residential area of one story houses set in gardens with the open doors that so characterise homes here. People living life inside and outside and open to the neighbours.
Hoi An is also full of shops selling and making clothes. It has come to be known for it and you see many people browsing and ordering clothes. Backpackers in t-shirts and sandals trying on their smart new suits hoping it will get them a job back home; large girls trying on their small black shorts and wamting them adjusted so they are smaller and "more sexy"; some people walking away with new wardrobes full of clothes...and then others like me who considered getting something for my brothers wedding but couldn't decide what I wanted so ordered nothing and then the night before leaving decided that I really liked the wee yellow/orange skirt and so ordered it (it was only$7). Marte and I both liked it, so we both have one!!
On to Nha Trang on the night bus, or so we thought. The bus was full as were all the other buses they triewd for us. So we were asked to stay another night for which they would pay. Their hotel was full and so we ended up back in the same room we had started in! Had a good fun night - a few drinks, met some people.... The next morning we got the bus to Nha Trang.
Nha Trang is also very touristy but in a different way. It has lots of high rise hotels along a very developed seafront where its beach stretches for a few km. Some of this has hotels on it, some restaurants and some of it just slopes down from the paved walkway to the sea. We didn't swim here but sat and watched the breakers and a group of men from a hotel put in a lot of effort to move an old boat from the sea up onto the shore. We read our books and Marte took a photo - very helpful, but I doubt if we would have been much help!! In the afternon we hired bikes with Amir (Israeli guy we had met and hung out with in Hanoi, CatBa, Hue and the first night in Hoi An) and cycled to a temple, a 24 metre white Buddha on a hill and then out to the countryside through flat lands of verdant rice fields where the stems were bending in the wind. Amongst them were white plastic bags tied on sticks that were swollen with air and dancing in the wind to scare away the white birds who rested in the fields a little further along, apparently not too perturbed!!
Our other day there we went on a boat trip to four islands. It wasn't quite how I imagined it would be when I heard that - we were full and with two other boats, snorkelling at the first one with a crap mask and not a lot to see but fun swimming and jumping off the top of the boat; volleyball on the beach; big lunch; floating bar (violent 'red wine' that is a kind of rice wine thing - served with pineapple!!) where we floated in life belts to get our free drinks; big speakers with a range from U2s "Beautiful Day" to Britney Spears (I think it was) and Ricky Martin; a ride in a round basket boat; and when you could appreciate it some lovely views!! Our loud and funny guide was called 'Funky Monkey'!! A fun day but a once off.
I had planned the whole trip not to go to DaLat but the night before we were leaving I decided to go there with Marte. A 6/7 hr bus journey up into the Central Highlands past some very beautiful scenery. Lots of vegetable fields and some fields full of flowers. Apparently DaLat grows the vegeteables that supply a lot of southern Vietnam, so we had some lovely meals full of very fresh vegetables. We hired mountain bikes one day and went to a couple waterfalls. A bit spoilt by the overtouristed-ness of it - but that was interesting too. Lots of Vietnamese tourists (apparently it is the no.1 honeymoon destination in Vietnam). Some of them dressing up in the hilltribes costumes you could hire to have their photo taken in. There were also 'cowboys' with their horses for photo opportunities and at one of the falls we saw a 'bear' and a 'monkey' sheltering from the sweltering sun in the shade!! The coast down the 13km to the falls was slightly marred by the knowldege we had to cycle all the way back up, but it ended up being a fine ride, apart from the fumes and piercing horns when a bus or truck passed. The next day we hired a motorbike and rode around the area exploring. We passed by many vegetable fields where people were working in the fields and loading vegetables onto trucks. The road turned bumpy and then smaller and we ended up almost off road really, a walking path with tyre marks on it. Huge gulleys made by running water left narrow ridges to ride along. I couldn't take Marte on the back in quite a few places!! We finally joined onto a main road again! It felt like real exploring. We passed a river and dust creating trucks passed us so we turned off into a village where we passed a wedding at a church and saw the bride in her white dress and the groom in a suit greeting all the guests before they passed along the road to a marquee for the wedding reception. The people we passed in the village were very dark and completely un-Vietnamese looking. They looked more Peruvian/Indian. We passed two lovely young girls walking arm-in-arm along the road.
I continued on to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The bus driver was more than a little manic on some of his hair-raising overtakings!! I read and listened to my music and ignored the swerves and "Oh my God's" from the Canadians in the raised back seat where they had a full view of the drama on the road! It is hot here!! Almost a little too hot. Kind of energy sapping. The first afternoon I got here I went with a cyclo rider to Cholon Market in Cholon/China town and then to a pagoda on the way back. A nice way to see a bit of the city.
People; hats; cyclos; motorbikes; traffic merging, converging, diverging, just missing each other; shops and stalls and shops on wheels; tall narrow fronted buildings one room wide stretching back from the road and up towards the sky; buildings with old shutters and dirtied walls with collections of TV ariels crowding on the roof. A market place full of people and stalls selling - fabrics, clothes, bags, stacks of china bowls, dried prawns, sugar, blocks of coconut sugar, herbal medicines, bottles with snakes in yellow liquid, noodles, shampoo, paper, snacks, Chinese blankets, chopsticks, bundles of incense sticks by the hundred, silk, and probably whatever it was you were looking for.
I visited The War Remnants Museum. A worthwhile though sad and at times nauseating and angering place. Many photos, some reconstructions. A thought provoking place. Certainly strengthens any argument against war. It is not glorious.
Also visited the Reunification Palace. Interesting and very caught in 60s architecture and decor. Had my photo taken by the tank that broke through the front gates at the 'liberation of Saigon' in 1975. We then spent the rest of the day at Saigon Water Park. Fun was had by all as we went on all the different water slides and chilled around the 'river' and in the pool where the waves machine sent out waves for 10 minutes every half an hour. It was all outdoor and made me think of Ireland - yes cause it could never work there!
I am now having a very chilled and sticky day in Saigon. No real plans other than to updat my journal, my blog, to read a little and to book my trip through the Mekhong Delta to Pnomh Penh (which I have done). Three day trip - I will leave the 17th, one day before my visa runs out. I was going to go myself and use public transport, but because my time is limited I think I could spend all the time just travelling and not see much. It would also depend on who I met, but I could be charged loads to get places without the time to get a decent deal, so while I feel a bit of a failure - I have succumbed to the ease of booking a tour!!
It has been a good month, and though slightly frustrated with the country at times it has been great and I have stayed longer than I planned!!
How to update on two weeks in all those places?
Hue has been mentioned. Hoi An was very touristy but I also really liked it. It is a small town that was undestroyed by the wars and still retains original small streets with some wooden houses and others with lovely textured old yellow painted walls and French influenced shutters and doorways. There were some local eateries by the sides of the road as well as many tourist places, a couple that were very nice places to have fruit shakes, sit in a bamboo chair on the front verandah, listen to chilled out music and read my book. We (still travelling with Marte) hired bikes two days and cycled the 4km to the beach. Very nice - moved around following the shade under a palm tree and enjoyed the breakers. We also walked across to a island / other part of the main land (we weren't quite sure which) where there were mainly eating places full of Vietnamese. A drink and a snack by a river and overlooking fields of tall crops. We then walked back through a residential area of one story houses set in gardens with the open doors that so characterise homes here. People living life inside and outside and open to the neighbours.
Hoi An is also full of shops selling and making clothes. It has come to be known for it and you see many people browsing and ordering clothes. Backpackers in t-shirts and sandals trying on their smart new suits hoping it will get them a job back home; large girls trying on their small black shorts and wamting them adjusted so they are smaller and "more sexy"; some people walking away with new wardrobes full of clothes...and then others like me who considered getting something for my brothers wedding but couldn't decide what I wanted so ordered nothing and then the night before leaving decided that I really liked the wee yellow/orange skirt and so ordered it (it was only$7). Marte and I both liked it, so we both have one!!
On to Nha Trang on the night bus, or so we thought. The bus was full as were all the other buses they triewd for us. So we were asked to stay another night for which they would pay. Their hotel was full and so we ended up back in the same room we had started in! Had a good fun night - a few drinks, met some people.... The next morning we got the bus to Nha Trang.
Nha Trang is also very touristy but in a different way. It has lots of high rise hotels along a very developed seafront where its beach stretches for a few km. Some of this has hotels on it, some restaurants and some of it just slopes down from the paved walkway to the sea. We didn't swim here but sat and watched the breakers and a group of men from a hotel put in a lot of effort to move an old boat from the sea up onto the shore. We read our books and Marte took a photo - very helpful, but I doubt if we would have been much help!! In the afternon we hired bikes with Amir (Israeli guy we had met and hung out with in Hanoi, CatBa, Hue and the first night in Hoi An) and cycled to a temple, a 24 metre white Buddha on a hill and then out to the countryside through flat lands of verdant rice fields where the stems were bending in the wind. Amongst them were white plastic bags tied on sticks that were swollen with air and dancing in the wind to scare away the white birds who rested in the fields a little further along, apparently not too perturbed!!
Our other day there we went on a boat trip to four islands. It wasn't quite how I imagined it would be when I heard that - we were full and with two other boats, snorkelling at the first one with a crap mask and not a lot to see but fun swimming and jumping off the top of the boat; volleyball on the beach; big lunch; floating bar (violent 'red wine' that is a kind of rice wine thing - served with pineapple!!) where we floated in life belts to get our free drinks; big speakers with a range from U2s "Beautiful Day" to Britney Spears (I think it was) and Ricky Martin; a ride in a round basket boat; and when you could appreciate it some lovely views!! Our loud and funny guide was called 'Funky Monkey'!! A fun day but a once off.
I had planned the whole trip not to go to DaLat but the night before we were leaving I decided to go there with Marte. A 6/7 hr bus journey up into the Central Highlands past some very beautiful scenery. Lots of vegetable fields and some fields full of flowers. Apparently DaLat grows the vegeteables that supply a lot of southern Vietnam, so we had some lovely meals full of very fresh vegetables. We hired mountain bikes one day and went to a couple waterfalls. A bit spoilt by the overtouristed-ness of it - but that was interesting too. Lots of Vietnamese tourists (apparently it is the no.1 honeymoon destination in Vietnam). Some of them dressing up in the hilltribes costumes you could hire to have their photo taken in. There were also 'cowboys' with their horses for photo opportunities and at one of the falls we saw a 'bear' and a 'monkey' sheltering from the sweltering sun in the shade!! The coast down the 13km to the falls was slightly marred by the knowldege we had to cycle all the way back up, but it ended up being a fine ride, apart from the fumes and piercing horns when a bus or truck passed. The next day we hired a motorbike and rode around the area exploring. We passed by many vegetable fields where people were working in the fields and loading vegetables onto trucks. The road turned bumpy and then smaller and we ended up almost off road really, a walking path with tyre marks on it. Huge gulleys made by running water left narrow ridges to ride along. I couldn't take Marte on the back in quite a few places!! We finally joined onto a main road again! It felt like real exploring. We passed a river and dust creating trucks passed us so we turned off into a village where we passed a wedding at a church and saw the bride in her white dress and the groom in a suit greeting all the guests before they passed along the road to a marquee for the wedding reception. The people we passed in the village were very dark and completely un-Vietnamese looking. They looked more Peruvian/Indian. We passed two lovely young girls walking arm-in-arm along the road.
I continued on to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The bus driver was more than a little manic on some of his hair-raising overtakings!! I read and listened to my music and ignored the swerves and "Oh my God's" from the Canadians in the raised back seat where they had a full view of the drama on the road! It is hot here!! Almost a little too hot. Kind of energy sapping. The first afternoon I got here I went with a cyclo rider to Cholon Market in Cholon/China town and then to a pagoda on the way back. A nice way to see a bit of the city.
People; hats; cyclos; motorbikes; traffic merging, converging, diverging, just missing each other; shops and stalls and shops on wheels; tall narrow fronted buildings one room wide stretching back from the road and up towards the sky; buildings with old shutters and dirtied walls with collections of TV ariels crowding on the roof. A market place full of people and stalls selling - fabrics, clothes, bags, stacks of china bowls, dried prawns, sugar, blocks of coconut sugar, herbal medicines, bottles with snakes in yellow liquid, noodles, shampoo, paper, snacks, Chinese blankets, chopsticks, bundles of incense sticks by the hundred, silk, and probably whatever it was you were looking for.
I visited The War Remnants Museum. A worthwhile though sad and at times nauseating and angering place. Many photos, some reconstructions. A thought provoking place. Certainly strengthens any argument against war. It is not glorious.
Also visited the Reunification Palace. Interesting and very caught in 60s architecture and decor. Had my photo taken by the tank that broke through the front gates at the 'liberation of Saigon' in 1975. We then spent the rest of the day at Saigon Water Park. Fun was had by all as we went on all the different water slides and chilled around the 'river' and in the pool where the waves machine sent out waves for 10 minutes every half an hour. It was all outdoor and made me think of Ireland - yes cause it could never work there!
I am now having a very chilled and sticky day in Saigon. No real plans other than to updat my journal, my blog, to read a little and to book my trip through the Mekhong Delta to Pnomh Penh (which I have done). Three day trip - I will leave the 17th, one day before my visa runs out. I was going to go myself and use public transport, but because my time is limited I think I could spend all the time just travelling and not see much. It would also depend on who I met, but I could be charged loads to get places without the time to get a decent deal, so while I feel a bit of a failure - I have succumbed to the ease of booking a tour!!
It has been a good month, and though slightly frustrated with the country at times it has been great and I have stayed longer than I planned!!
Saturday, February 01, 2003
Hue
Hue was a nice town on a river. There were other tourists around but not too many in some parts of the town. I spent two nights there and saw a number of old buildings and ruins. Thery were a bit expensive (that's what you get when they are UNESCO World Heritage sites!), but interesting. It was just s shame that I was on a boat trip and had to rush through the two I paid to go in and see. It would have been better to go out myself and hang out for a while, sitting by the lakes in the old tombs and reading a book in the sunshine. They really felt very peaceful and quiet!!
Last night was New Year's Eve - TET! The place was buzzing and everyone was out and about. There was a stage with people singing patriotic songs about Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam. Those are the moments when you can really sense you are in a communist country! Everyone was happy and excited. It seems to be traditional to buy a plant and there was a large flower market where lots of pots and cut plants were being sold. The trees must all be set up in the houses already. We ate dinner in a good family run restaurant where they were all really friendly, we went back for breakfast today and they were all giddy and excitable. Kind of like a feeling of Christmas day about. Everyone was dressed up and going to visit friends and family. There were fireworks by the river!
I am now being thrown off the computer because the people here are wanting to go and celebrate Tet with their family. Fair enough - but they could be a bit friendlier!!
Hue was a nice town on a river. There were other tourists around but not too many in some parts of the town. I spent two nights there and saw a number of old buildings and ruins. Thery were a bit expensive (that's what you get when they are UNESCO World Heritage sites!), but interesting. It was just s shame that I was on a boat trip and had to rush through the two I paid to go in and see. It would have been better to go out myself and hang out for a while, sitting by the lakes in the old tombs and reading a book in the sunshine. They really felt very peaceful and quiet!!
Last night was New Year's Eve - TET! The place was buzzing and everyone was out and about. There was a stage with people singing patriotic songs about Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam. Those are the moments when you can really sense you are in a communist country! Everyone was happy and excited. It seems to be traditional to buy a plant and there was a large flower market where lots of pots and cut plants were being sold. The trees must all be set up in the houses already. We ate dinner in a good family run restaurant where they were all really friendly, we went back for breakfast today and they were all giddy and excitable. Kind of like a feeling of Christmas day about. Everyone was dressed up and going to visit friends and family. There were fireworks by the river!
I am now being thrown off the computer because the people here are wanting to go and celebrate Tet with their family. Fair enough - but they could be a bit friendlier!!
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
I read a good quote that seems particularly appropriate for travelling and friendships...
"We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity...Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now. For relationships, too, must be like islands. One must accept them for what they are here and now, within our limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, continually visited and abandoned by the tides".
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
"We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity...Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now. For relationships, too, must be like islands. One must accept them for what they are here and now, within our limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, continually visited and abandoned by the tides".
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Sa Pa
A full cyclo ride to the train station with Marte, myself and our bags all piled into one. The train was full but the soft sleeper, while providing no head room to sit up in was comfortable and I slept a lot of the journey. We got a nice enough hotel and bargained hard. Before we even got in though we were accosted by women selling us stuff. They were all dressed in their traditional Hmong clothes and looked great.
There is a market in SaPa from Saturday midday to Sunday midday. This happens in the market place that appears to be there all week but just gets packed out on a weekend when the nearby towns appear to empty as everyone pours in to the market. I bought a necklace, ear-rings and a piece of cotton fabric! All quite light - honest! (Yes it is myself I am trying to convince!) They are very friendly but also very persistent sellers! "Why you no buy from me?" was the high pitched attack over and over again! Having one already only brought on more recrminations of why you had bought from someone else and since you had one you must need two!
The first day Marte and I walked down to Cat Cat village. It is down all the way, which makes it up all the way back, but it was a very pleasant walk. The whole area is higher up in the hills and so as well as nice views and terraced paddy fields there were good walks. The next day we paid for a guide to take us trekking. The otherstaht were meant to go never came so it ended up just the two of us with a 15 year old Hmong girl as our guide. She was a typical teenager and we had a lot of fun with her. The sky was clear, the views were nice and the walk very pleasant and fairly easy. We went through a couple of villages and could see that the traditional costumes worn by the women and men in the market were not just for the tourists as they wore them in the fields, tending the pigs and just sitting around.
The morning we left it was raining. The 7.30 am bus arrived at 8.00 and then proceeded to drive around the town for an hour waiting until it was more than full before heading to Lao Cai where we were trying to make a 10.10 train! The time when you would have been happy with a fast driver we had a very slow one who didn't appear to be able to go above 20mph. They said we would arrive at 10.15 but it was okay because the train didn't go until 10.20. We didn't have tickets yet and resigned ourselves to not making it but got to the station, ran, didn't queue and made it on to the train which pulled off a couple minutes later at 10.25am!! Close. The train was packed and we had to be a bit mean and keep our hard seats to ourselves, but it seems some people don't pay for a seat but just for a ride to an interim station and so they were squished many to a seat. It was only men with bad vibes that asked to share however, and we were in for a 10 hour journey so we followed the Vietnamese couple opposite and refused (feeling a little rude - but not too bad as the guys sat and stared, made lewd comments and laughed, and blew smoke our way). The train gradually emptied and we had a nice time with the people opposite us who had a one year old daughter with them. I held her for a while. They had no English but were friendly. The train finally arrived back in Hanoi 10 hours later. There had been some nice scenery in the rain. It reminded me a little of Ireland where the rain can bring out some beautiful deep greens in the landscape, though the sun is great.
A full cyclo ride to the train station with Marte, myself and our bags all piled into one. The train was full but the soft sleeper, while providing no head room to sit up in was comfortable and I slept a lot of the journey. We got a nice enough hotel and bargained hard. Before we even got in though we were accosted by women selling us stuff. They were all dressed in their traditional Hmong clothes and looked great.
There is a market in SaPa from Saturday midday to Sunday midday. This happens in the market place that appears to be there all week but just gets packed out on a weekend when the nearby towns appear to empty as everyone pours in to the market. I bought a necklace, ear-rings and a piece of cotton fabric! All quite light - honest! (Yes it is myself I am trying to convince!) They are very friendly but also very persistent sellers! "Why you no buy from me?" was the high pitched attack over and over again! Having one already only brought on more recrminations of why you had bought from someone else and since you had one you must need two!
The first day Marte and I walked down to Cat Cat village. It is down all the way, which makes it up all the way back, but it was a very pleasant walk. The whole area is higher up in the hills and so as well as nice views and terraced paddy fields there were good walks. The next day we paid for a guide to take us trekking. The otherstaht were meant to go never came so it ended up just the two of us with a 15 year old Hmong girl as our guide. She was a typical teenager and we had a lot of fun with her. The sky was clear, the views were nice and the walk very pleasant and fairly easy. We went through a couple of villages and could see that the traditional costumes worn by the women and men in the market were not just for the tourists as they wore them in the fields, tending the pigs and just sitting around.
The morning we left it was raining. The 7.30 am bus arrived at 8.00 and then proceeded to drive around the town for an hour waiting until it was more than full before heading to Lao Cai where we were trying to make a 10.10 train! The time when you would have been happy with a fast driver we had a very slow one who didn't appear to be able to go above 20mph. They said we would arrive at 10.15 but it was okay because the train didn't go until 10.20. We didn't have tickets yet and resigned ourselves to not making it but got to the station, ran, didn't queue and made it on to the train which pulled off a couple minutes later at 10.25am!! Close. The train was packed and we had to be a bit mean and keep our hard seats to ourselves, but it seems some people don't pay for a seat but just for a ride to an interim station and so they were squished many to a seat. It was only men with bad vibes that asked to share however, and we were in for a 10 hour journey so we followed the Vietnamese couple opposite and refused (feeling a little rude - but not too bad as the guys sat and stared, made lewd comments and laughed, and blew smoke our way). The train gradually emptied and we had a nice time with the people opposite us who had a one year old daughter with them. I held her for a while. They had no English but were friendly. The train finally arrived back in Hanoi 10 hours later. There had been some nice scenery in the rain. It reminded me a little of Ireland where the rain can bring out some beautiful deep greens in the landscape, though the sun is great.
Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island
After busing to Halong City from Hanoi we got a boat out to Cat Ba Island passing through the hazy but very picturesque Halong Bay. The area is full of islands all of limestone and forming small steep sided islands that jutt out of the sea and are being eroded at the base by the salt water. They reminded me of the scenery in Vien Viang in Laos which is also karst limestone and looking at a small picture that I drew in my journal it looks exactly the same! The difference is that here they are surrounded by the sea and the bottom is undercut from the action of the waves. They harbour a multitude of caves and we visited a touristed but still interesting one on our way to CatBa where there were loads of interesting shaped stalactites and a main chamber about 1km long!
We passed an area where there were people living on platform boats under the shadow of the islands. It looked very nice, but we reckoned it could become a little isolated for teenagers. We arrived on CatBa and were driven over a very bumpy road that is in the process of being made to CatBa town. We were to discover that there is blasting and roads being built all over the island. The town itself was more developed than I had been anticipating though it is not that large, and there was a harbour full of boats. Many of these were houseboats where people live and there were also smaller taxi boats that rowed people around between the various boats and bays.
We hired motorbikes and rode around the island one day. I got one to ride myself and after felling slightly wobbly soon felt very confident and enjoyed the day. Because of Eric having an accident and Louis staying to help sort it out I ended up with Nicole as my passenger and we headed on with Amir and Marte on our two bikes. The others caught up later. The views from road over the bay and the paddy fields and small beaches were fantastic and the weather was great. The next day we just lay on the nearby beach which had a great walkway around to it. I finished The Lord of the Rings and was very satisfied by the tale!
There were quite a few kids selling postcards and wee plastic hacky / kicking things. We ended up making friends with a couple of them. One wee 10 year old boy in particular (Chi) was very cute and fun. There was also a girl called Hoa who was 15 who really liked hanging out and wanted to learn an English song. She asked me to teach her Jingle Bells, so Eric wrote it out for her and I ended up singing it several times each day!! Funny!
After busing to Halong City from Hanoi we got a boat out to Cat Ba Island passing through the hazy but very picturesque Halong Bay. The area is full of islands all of limestone and forming small steep sided islands that jutt out of the sea and are being eroded at the base by the salt water. They reminded me of the scenery in Vien Viang in Laos which is also karst limestone and looking at a small picture that I drew in my journal it looks exactly the same! The difference is that here they are surrounded by the sea and the bottom is undercut from the action of the waves. They harbour a multitude of caves and we visited a touristed but still interesting one on our way to CatBa where there were loads of interesting shaped stalactites and a main chamber about 1km long!
We passed an area where there were people living on platform boats under the shadow of the islands. It looked very nice, but we reckoned it could become a little isolated for teenagers. We arrived on CatBa and were driven over a very bumpy road that is in the process of being made to CatBa town. We were to discover that there is blasting and roads being built all over the island. The town itself was more developed than I had been anticipating though it is not that large, and there was a harbour full of boats. Many of these were houseboats where people live and there were also smaller taxi boats that rowed people around between the various boats and bays.
We hired motorbikes and rode around the island one day. I got one to ride myself and after felling slightly wobbly soon felt very confident and enjoyed the day. Because of Eric having an accident and Louis staying to help sort it out I ended up with Nicole as my passenger and we headed on with Amir and Marte on our two bikes. The others caught up later. The views from road over the bay and the paddy fields and small beaches were fantastic and the weather was great. The next day we just lay on the nearby beach which had a great walkway around to it. I finished The Lord of the Rings and was very satisfied by the tale!
There were quite a few kids selling postcards and wee plastic hacky / kicking things. We ended up making friends with a couple of them. One wee 10 year old boy in particular (Chi) was very cute and fun. There was also a girl called Hoa who was 15 who really liked hanging out and wanted to learn an English song. She asked me to teach her Jingle Bells, so Eric wrote it out for her and I ended up singing it several times each day!! Funny!
Hanoi
I've been here three times now. The first time I saw very little as I arrived at 6am, slept a little, sewed new lining into my bag, had some lunch and then went on the internet for about 5 hours. I decided to enquire about trips to Halong Bay and CatBa Island and ended up leaving the next morning at 7am!! When I came back from CatBa I stayed one night and then got a night train the next night up to SaPa in the north of Vietnam near the Chinese border. This time I have had 2 nights and days and have seen a little more.
Hanoi is a busy city, though staying in the Old Quarter is nice as you see a lot of life as it has been for a long time. The streets are named after the trade or craft that happened and was sold on that street and many of them still sell the same or the modern equivalent. Wandering today we found some new streets we hadn't been on before one of them particularly narrow and quaint. There are motorbikes/scooters galore and a constant cacophany of traffic and horns. Cyclo drivers hail you at every corner asking where you are going and letting yuo know they could take you there for very cheap; motorbike taxi riders compete for your attention. There are women balancing bamboo poles with a basket hanging from each end on their shoulders and selling fruit or bread or vegetables or other things that I don't recognise. There are streets where traffic seems to travel in more than two directions and pavements where there are so many motorbikes parked that pedestrians have to pass on the street, dodging the moving bikes, usually approaching leaning on the horn. All along the pavements are wee stalls selling food and drink. Each stall generally specialises in one dish - either Pho (noodle soup) with a choice of meats (or none!),or Com (rice) or Xom (a sticky rice kind of thing) or other tings that I haven't discovered yet. They have a small stall and then a stack of blue plastic stools about a foot high. Some have wee tables too but otherwise you perch around on the stools and use another one as a table in the middle of the group. These can be cheap but you never know - the Vietnamese as a rule charge tourists more and how much more varies and can be ridiculous. A consistent source of frustration for the budget traveller here. Vietnam wouldn't be so expensive to travel in if they charged normal prices as elsewhere. Oh well. There have been lovely people but at times you can meet just a few too many trying to do you in! And I have never been in a city where I have been asked more times if I wanted my shoes shined! "Very dirty shoes, very cheap, shoe shine,ok?! Ok?!!"
I went to see the famous Water Puppet show the second time I was here. It was interesting and I couldn't figure out how they moved a lot of the puppets! The sleep inducing heat in the theatre meant that the paper fans they gave were not just for a souvenir and an hour was a good length. Yesterday I went to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. It was an interesting experience, though thought provoking how different it is from what his request was! He is laid in a glass case guarded by four guards (and loads more in the building), inside a large formal and rather imposing building. You are not allowed to talk, smile, or move your hands from your side, especially not to touch your head - all out of respect. HCM is taken every year to Russia to be done up and fixed. His request was that he be creamted and that his ashes be put in three places in the north, south and centre of Vietnam under a simple shelter in each place. Kind of the opposite really! The Ho Chi Minh museum was interesting too. It was well signed in Vietnames, French and English. There was some interesting history and quotes and then some good, though slightly abstract exhibitions upstairs that were a little hard to relate to the theme but I enjoyed in an artistic ideas sense. The doctrine and dogma of communismis very appealing and sounds great, but when you see the party officials driving around in flash new cars it is exposed in reality.
We visited the museum of fine art which was interesting too and there were some good pieces. I then went to the Temple of Literature where there is a statue of Confucius and some of his best pupils. The worship of him and learning seems to be the purpose of this place. On the way there I passed a guy doing long strips of Chinese calligraphy on the street. I was invited to sit down and given a small cup of green tea while I watched. I went to a couple of other small galleries on my way back towards the Old Quarter. There are lots of small galleries. Some of them have just paintings and a lovely smell of oil paint, but there is also a lot of laquer paintings. One lady explained to me how they were done and it is really interesting. A complex version of the kiddies colourful crayons and black paint pictures.
I have enjoyed getting to see a bit more of Hanoi and it is nice having a city where there is a lake at it's centre. Sitting by the Hoan Kiem lake, it appears to provide a stillness and calm amid the constant noise of traffic and horns flying around the edge of the lake. While you can't sit there without being approached by someone trying to sell you photocopied books and packets of postcards, or wanting to shine your shoes it is still nice. It is also used by amorous couples sitting and cuddling on the benches. West Lake is even bigger and is nice to look out at as long as you don't look at the water at the edge! It has boats and even swan boats for hire but we didn't see anyone out in them.
I've been here three times now. The first time I saw very little as I arrived at 6am, slept a little, sewed new lining into my bag, had some lunch and then went on the internet for about 5 hours. I decided to enquire about trips to Halong Bay and CatBa Island and ended up leaving the next morning at 7am!! When I came back from CatBa I stayed one night and then got a night train the next night up to SaPa in the north of Vietnam near the Chinese border. This time I have had 2 nights and days and have seen a little more.
Hanoi is a busy city, though staying in the Old Quarter is nice as you see a lot of life as it has been for a long time. The streets are named after the trade or craft that happened and was sold on that street and many of them still sell the same or the modern equivalent. Wandering today we found some new streets we hadn't been on before one of them particularly narrow and quaint. There are motorbikes/scooters galore and a constant cacophany of traffic and horns. Cyclo drivers hail you at every corner asking where you are going and letting yuo know they could take you there for very cheap; motorbike taxi riders compete for your attention. There are women balancing bamboo poles with a basket hanging from each end on their shoulders and selling fruit or bread or vegetables or other things that I don't recognise. There are streets where traffic seems to travel in more than two directions and pavements where there are so many motorbikes parked that pedestrians have to pass on the street, dodging the moving bikes, usually approaching leaning on the horn. All along the pavements are wee stalls selling food and drink. Each stall generally specialises in one dish - either Pho (noodle soup) with a choice of meats (or none!),or Com (rice) or Xom (a sticky rice kind of thing) or other tings that I haven't discovered yet. They have a small stall and then a stack of blue plastic stools about a foot high. Some have wee tables too but otherwise you perch around on the stools and use another one as a table in the middle of the group. These can be cheap but you never know - the Vietnamese as a rule charge tourists more and how much more varies and can be ridiculous. A consistent source of frustration for the budget traveller here. Vietnam wouldn't be so expensive to travel in if they charged normal prices as elsewhere. Oh well. There have been lovely people but at times you can meet just a few too many trying to do you in! And I have never been in a city where I have been asked more times if I wanted my shoes shined! "Very dirty shoes, very cheap, shoe shine,ok?! Ok?!!"
I went to see the famous Water Puppet show the second time I was here. It was interesting and I couldn't figure out how they moved a lot of the puppets! The sleep inducing heat in the theatre meant that the paper fans they gave were not just for a souvenir and an hour was a good length. Yesterday I went to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. It was an interesting experience, though thought provoking how different it is from what his request was! He is laid in a glass case guarded by four guards (and loads more in the building), inside a large formal and rather imposing building. You are not allowed to talk, smile, or move your hands from your side, especially not to touch your head - all out of respect. HCM is taken every year to Russia to be done up and fixed. His request was that he be creamted and that his ashes be put in three places in the north, south and centre of Vietnam under a simple shelter in each place. Kind of the opposite really! The Ho Chi Minh museum was interesting too. It was well signed in Vietnames, French and English. There was some interesting history and quotes and then some good, though slightly abstract exhibitions upstairs that were a little hard to relate to the theme but I enjoyed in an artistic ideas sense. The doctrine and dogma of communismis very appealing and sounds great, but when you see the party officials driving around in flash new cars it is exposed in reality.
We visited the museum of fine art which was interesting too and there were some good pieces. I then went to the Temple of Literature where there is a statue of Confucius and some of his best pupils. The worship of him and learning seems to be the purpose of this place. On the way there I passed a guy doing long strips of Chinese calligraphy on the street. I was invited to sit down and given a small cup of green tea while I watched. I went to a couple of other small galleries on my way back towards the Old Quarter. There are lots of small galleries. Some of them have just paintings and a lovely smell of oil paint, but there is also a lot of laquer paintings. One lady explained to me how they were done and it is really interesting. A complex version of the kiddies colourful crayons and black paint pictures.
I have enjoyed getting to see a bit more of Hanoi and it is nice having a city where there is a lake at it's centre. Sitting by the Hoan Kiem lake, it appears to provide a stillness and calm amid the constant noise of traffic and horns flying around the edge of the lake. While you can't sit there without being approached by someone trying to sell you photocopied books and packets of postcards, or wanting to shine your shoes it is still nice. It is also used by amorous couples sitting and cuddling on the benches. West Lake is even bigger and is nice to look out at as long as you don't look at the water at the edge! It has boats and even swan boats for hire but we didn't see anyone out in them.
Friday, January 24, 2003
VIETNAM
Crossed the border at Lao Bao and got met by the 'mafia bus man' as named by Marte (a girl I am travelling with at the moment). Overcharging of foreigners is part of life in Vietnam. As most travellers say though, we wouldn't mind sometimes being charged twice as much but it isn't always just that much but way more!! Anyway annoying minibus man was bargaining, then a local bus came so I went to get that but he had obviously got to the lady and she said I would have to pay $6. Completely ridiculous but nothing I could do - she was aggresively adamant. So I ended up in the minibus. Apparently I'm not the only one that has happened to!! So my crossing into Vietnam was 'fun'. I didn't want to feel too stressed though as a lot of travellers in Laos had mentioned that it was stressful in Vietnam. Mind over matter?
The scenery on the way to Dong Ha was beautiful and I enjoyed that, though the driver was a maniac! When I got there from among the swarm of motorbike taxi riders there was one who spoke good English, so I went with him and he took me around the corner to a cafe where I could buy a bus ticket to Hanoi. I ended up doing a tour of the DMZ with him for $10, as my bus left at 7.30 pm and it was only 3.00pm. We went to Doc Mieu Base, an old US army base where there was an old rusted tank. Most things have been taken away by people to sell as souvenirs. We then went on to Hien Loung Bridge on the Ben Han river which was the marker of the 17th parallel with the DMZ stretching for 5km in both directions. There is a memorial to the (N) Vietnamese soldiers who fought in the war. It was surrounded by muddy grass where water buffalo were grazing. Finally we went to the Vinh Moc tunnels where the people from the village of Vinh Moc had lived for 6 years, completely unknown to the Americans. It is an amazing venture that they achieved there.
The countryside was beautiful. The land stretched out in flat brught green rice paddies where there were people planting rice and wearing the typically Vietnamese conical hats. There were a lot of girls on bicycles all wearing hats. Many of the women also wear scarves or towels around their faces tied up behind their hat. The people were all very friendly and there were a lot of waves and hellos., not just from the kids. It was nice to ride along village roads where people were working in the fields or walking home from them with carts and animals and bundles of foliage. It was a pleasant real introduction to Vietnam - border towns excluded!
On the way back to Dong Ha the lingering light of the set sun glowed a soft yellow under gently stormy clouds. The muted light and mistiness created a soft horizon where the light bouncing off the water lying in paddy fields painted an ink tint on an image in black and white. A picture that sticks in your soul.
Binh (the motorbike man) took me to buy thread to fix my bag with and they charged me a very good price. While I was getting it he popped home and goy me four bananas. Very kind of him. I waited for the bus for a while and then shared the back seat with a Swiss couple all night to Hanoi.
Crossed the border at Lao Bao and got met by the 'mafia bus man' as named by Marte (a girl I am travelling with at the moment). Overcharging of foreigners is part of life in Vietnam. As most travellers say though, we wouldn't mind sometimes being charged twice as much but it isn't always just that much but way more!! Anyway annoying minibus man was bargaining, then a local bus came so I went to get that but he had obviously got to the lady and she said I would have to pay $6. Completely ridiculous but nothing I could do - she was aggresively adamant. So I ended up in the minibus. Apparently I'm not the only one that has happened to!! So my crossing into Vietnam was 'fun'. I didn't want to feel too stressed though as a lot of travellers in Laos had mentioned that it was stressful in Vietnam. Mind over matter?
The scenery on the way to Dong Ha was beautiful and I enjoyed that, though the driver was a maniac! When I got there from among the swarm of motorbike taxi riders there was one who spoke good English, so I went with him and he took me around the corner to a cafe where I could buy a bus ticket to Hanoi. I ended up doing a tour of the DMZ with him for $10, as my bus left at 7.30 pm and it was only 3.00pm. We went to Doc Mieu Base, an old US army base where there was an old rusted tank. Most things have been taken away by people to sell as souvenirs. We then went on to Hien Loung Bridge on the Ben Han river which was the marker of the 17th parallel with the DMZ stretching for 5km in both directions. There is a memorial to the (N) Vietnamese soldiers who fought in the war. It was surrounded by muddy grass where water buffalo were grazing. Finally we went to the Vinh Moc tunnels where the people from the village of Vinh Moc had lived for 6 years, completely unknown to the Americans. It is an amazing venture that they achieved there.
The countryside was beautiful. The land stretched out in flat brught green rice paddies where there were people planting rice and wearing the typically Vietnamese conical hats. There were a lot of girls on bicycles all wearing hats. Many of the women also wear scarves or towels around their faces tied up behind their hat. The people were all very friendly and there were a lot of waves and hellos., not just from the kids. It was nice to ride along village roads where people were working in the fields or walking home from them with carts and animals and bundles of foliage. It was a pleasant real introduction to Vietnam - border towns excluded!
On the way back to Dong Ha the lingering light of the set sun glowed a soft yellow under gently stormy clouds. The muted light and mistiness created a soft horizon where the light bouncing off the water lying in paddy fields painted an ink tint on an image in black and white. A picture that sticks in your soul.
Binh (the motorbike man) took me to buy thread to fix my bag with and they charged me a very good price. While I was getting it he popped home and goy me four bananas. Very kind of him. I waited for the bus for a while and then shared the back seat with a Swiss couple all night to Hanoi.
Sunday, January 19, 2003
Xepon and the Lao border
I travelled to the border on two buses, both of which were converted trucks that had seats in the back. I broke the journey by staying in the small town of Xepon. There were two other foreigners in town in the guesthouse where I stayed and both days I was the only foreigner travelling on the buses. It was fun but I really wished I could have talked with people. Smiles, some sign language and lots of curious looks from both sides.
It is a dirt road almost the whole way from Savannakhet to the border and while there is a road being built the whole way it is bvery much a work in progress. The open windows and seeping floot of the 'bus' meant that I was completely covered in dust. I actually looked brown, but so did my black trousers and my camera bag! I met some great people though, especially the next morning as I waited for the bus ar 7am as told. It finally came at 9.30, but I was rescued from sitting at the side of the road by a couple of ladies who got me to go with them and their kids to one of their shops and sat me down on a plastic chair. Oh to talk some Lao!
The trip was great though and I made it safely and smoothly across the border into Vietnam, though I was sad to leave Laos.
I travelled to the border on two buses, both of which were converted trucks that had seats in the back. I broke the journey by staying in the small town of Xepon. There were two other foreigners in town in the guesthouse where I stayed and both days I was the only foreigner travelling on the buses. It was fun but I really wished I could have talked with people. Smiles, some sign language and lots of curious looks from both sides.
It is a dirt road almost the whole way from Savannakhet to the border and while there is a road being built the whole way it is bvery much a work in progress. The open windows and seeping floot of the 'bus' meant that I was completely covered in dust. I actually looked brown, but so did my black trousers and my camera bag! I met some great people though, especially the next morning as I waited for the bus ar 7am as told. It finally came at 9.30, but I was rescued from sitting at the side of the road by a couple of ladies who got me to go with them and their kids to one of their shops and sat me down on a plastic chair. Oh to talk some Lao!
The trip was great though and I made it safely and smoothly across the border into Vietnam, though I was sad to leave Laos.
To Savannakhet
We were woken up early by a loud drunk obnoxious American who was having a fight with a tuktuk driver he hadn't given enough money to (who had just brought him back at 4am from a dodgy part of town!). We saw the sun come up and didn't need to worry about missing our alarm clock.
Got to the bus station at 9 as a bus was pulling out for Savannakhet so we were piled on to it. Sat near the back. Lots of leg room and stuff piled in the middle of the aisles that were good leaning / sitting tools! The old ladies liked my insect repellent and after one asked for some they all wanted some. Some great old wrinkly faces. Good trip down interrupted briefly by an overturned lorry with a cargo of turtles. It was righted soon after we got there.
After agreeing with the Rough Guides use of the word 'dingy' for the room we took in the Mekhong Hotel we decided to upgrade to a nice room. Split between two, $7 isn't much more than $4 and it was like a completely different place! Worth the change! We felt like maybe we had somehow missed the centre of the town, but I think that maybe it just didn't exist. It's a very spread out town and has some old French shuttered influences on some buildings. There appeared not to be too many people around, ever. We did find the market and that was good, but it might have taken a few more days to suss out the place. On the other hand, maybe that was it sussed?
We were woken up early by a loud drunk obnoxious American who was having a fight with a tuktuk driver he hadn't given enough money to (who had just brought him back at 4am from a dodgy part of town!). We saw the sun come up and didn't need to worry about missing our alarm clock.
Got to the bus station at 9 as a bus was pulling out for Savannakhet so we were piled on to it. Sat near the back. Lots of leg room and stuff piled in the middle of the aisles that were good leaning / sitting tools! The old ladies liked my insect repellent and after one asked for some they all wanted some. Some great old wrinkly faces. Good trip down interrupted briefly by an overturned lorry with a cargo of turtles. It was righted soon after we got there.
After agreeing with the Rough Guides use of the word 'dingy' for the room we took in the Mekhong Hotel we decided to upgrade to a nice room. Split between two, $7 isn't much more than $4 and it was like a completely different place! Worth the change! We felt like maybe we had somehow missed the centre of the town, but I think that maybe it just didn't exist. It's a very spread out town and has some old French shuttered influences on some buildings. There appeared not to be too many people around, ever. We did find the market and that was good, but it might have taken a few more days to suss out the place. On the other hand, maybe that was it sussed?
Vientiane
Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th January
I left Monday with Aimee on the 12.30 bus to Vientiane, sadly tearing myself away from VV. We went out for dinner to Nazims again - Indian on LP, VV and Vientiane!! All Nazims but it really was good. We then had an early night!
I got up with Aimee the next morning as she had to go to 3 banks in the end trying to get dollars on her mastercard, back to the guesthouse for her ticket to show up. She had a piece of paper that said she needed to see Mr Toe and that was her receipt!! But it worked and I assume she made it all okay. I moved to another guesthouse,PP where the nice but a bit over friendly guy asked me to have dinner with him. I half truthfully said I was to meet friends. We had said we would meet but had made no arrangements and didn't end up meeting. Oh well.
I went out for breakfast and met an English guy Mike who I ended up hanging our with for the next couple days. We went and sussed out whether we could get a boat to Savannakhet but it is the dry season and the river is too low. Also I think buses appear to have taken over this route more. We decided to suss out buses but ended up at the wrong bus station so wandered around the market for a while. One guy told us to go and buy tickets as the bus might be full but at the bus station they told us just to show up. Our day consisted of sussing out methods of transport!
We went back to War Sisaket where I chatted with a couple friendly Lao's, one of them a monk. They both spoke pretty good English. We then went with a couple other people and had a beer Lao while watching the sun setting over the Mekhong and joined the throng taking pictures of the (strategically placed?) boats in the orange sunlight. I had dinner with Mike, good barbecued Lao fish with rice and fresh vegetables. We then went and visited a couple Lao friends he had made when he was in Vientiane 6 weeks before. It was nice to hang out in a Lao home for a while.
Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th January
I left Monday with Aimee on the 12.30 bus to Vientiane, sadly tearing myself away from VV. We went out for dinner to Nazims again - Indian on LP, VV and Vientiane!! All Nazims but it really was good. We then had an early night!
I got up with Aimee the next morning as she had to go to 3 banks in the end trying to get dollars on her mastercard, back to the guesthouse for her ticket to show up. She had a piece of paper that said she needed to see Mr Toe and that was her receipt!! But it worked and I assume she made it all okay. I moved to another guesthouse,PP where the nice but a bit over friendly guy asked me to have dinner with him. I half truthfully said I was to meet friends. We had said we would meet but had made no arrangements and didn't end up meeting. Oh well.
I went out for breakfast and met an English guy Mike who I ended up hanging our with for the next couple days. We went and sussed out whether we could get a boat to Savannakhet but it is the dry season and the river is too low. Also I think buses appear to have taken over this route more. We decided to suss out buses but ended up at the wrong bus station so wandered around the market for a while. One guy told us to go and buy tickets as the bus might be full but at the bus station they told us just to show up. Our day consisted of sussing out methods of transport!
We went back to War Sisaket where I chatted with a couple friendly Lao's, one of them a monk. They both spoke pretty good English. We then went with a couple other people and had a beer Lao while watching the sun setting over the Mekhong and joined the throng taking pictures of the (strategically placed?) boats in the orange sunlight. I had dinner with Mike, good barbecued Lao fish with rice and fresh vegetables. We then went and visited a couple Lao friends he had made when he was in Vientiane 6 weeks before. It was nice to hang out in a Lao home for a while.
Vien Viang (or other such spellings!)
A road that would have been beautiful, or rather was beautiful but could have been enjoyed better if it hadn't been so nausea inducing, wound it's way to Vien Viang. We saw a stunning sunrise over hills that were draped with shrouds of wispy mist that hugged the valleys as we wound above them. Coming towards Vien Viang the landscape changed to beautiful and unusual 'lumpy' hills. That was what described them best to me but I think the more correct description for the formations is karst limestone! Very striking with hills jutting upwards steeply and almost suddenly from the flat land of the river valley.
I ended up in a boring guest house for the first two nights but then moved down to a place by the river (where I was headed the first day!!) It was really nice to sit out in the garden late at night and early in the morning listening to the sound of the river bubbling its way down past the bamboo bridge. "Some places are special because they are undiscovered and isolated. Other places still manage to retain something a little special, even when lots of people have 'found' ot. There aren't many around this morning which probably helps, but I think there is still a special vibe here".
I met up with a few 'boat people' from my two days down the Mekhong. That was fun. Some of us went tubing together - a tuktuk 4km up the river and then float back down on a tube. Because the river is low at the moment that took us about 2 hours. Unfortunately the sun decided to go behind cloud just as we got on the river so it ended up a bit cold, but fun and very beautiful anyway! I also met up with Lars, a friend I met in bangkok who was travelling through Laos the opposite direction to me. We hired a motorbike one day and headed up out the road towards Luang Prabang (though not nearly that far!). The scenery was beautiful and we passed through small villages with friendly kids waving; past people planting rice in paddy fields; a small boy washing clothes while his sister stood and held the wet clean clothes; tall, angular, forested hills; a school football match with proper strips and an alternative game with the little boys happening behind the goals; fathers carrying their babies; children with heavy packs on and a Yao village where the village of kids came out to smile, laugh, say hello and follow us.
The big news I got while I was here was that my brother Mark has just got engaged in the US and is getting married in Texas om June. He did apologise for screwing up my travel plans! The US was meant to be the following summer! Ah well - I wouldn't miss it for anything!
The rest of my time in VV was mostly chilling out by the river. Aimee needed some company as she tanned before heading home to England in a couple days! So I sat and looked white as she got visibly browner! There were also some great hammocks in the trees by the river - books, chat, beer Lao..... I stayed four days instead of the planned one. It put an end to the plans to go south but I had a good time and rushing it would have been a pity. There's always next time!
A road that would have been beautiful, or rather was beautiful but could have been enjoyed better if it hadn't been so nausea inducing, wound it's way to Vien Viang. We saw a stunning sunrise over hills that were draped with shrouds of wispy mist that hugged the valleys as we wound above them. Coming towards Vien Viang the landscape changed to beautiful and unusual 'lumpy' hills. That was what described them best to me but I think the more correct description for the formations is karst limestone! Very striking with hills jutting upwards steeply and almost suddenly from the flat land of the river valley.
I ended up in a boring guest house for the first two nights but then moved down to a place by the river (where I was headed the first day!!) It was really nice to sit out in the garden late at night and early in the morning listening to the sound of the river bubbling its way down past the bamboo bridge. "Some places are special because they are undiscovered and isolated. Other places still manage to retain something a little special, even when lots of people have 'found' ot. There aren't many around this morning which probably helps, but I think there is still a special vibe here".
I met up with a few 'boat people' from my two days down the Mekhong. That was fun. Some of us went tubing together - a tuktuk 4km up the river and then float back down on a tube. Because the river is low at the moment that took us about 2 hours. Unfortunately the sun decided to go behind cloud just as we got on the river so it ended up a bit cold, but fun and very beautiful anyway! I also met up with Lars, a friend I met in bangkok who was travelling through Laos the opposite direction to me. We hired a motorbike one day and headed up out the road towards Luang Prabang (though not nearly that far!). The scenery was beautiful and we passed through small villages with friendly kids waving; past people planting rice in paddy fields; a small boy washing clothes while his sister stood and held the wet clean clothes; tall, angular, forested hills; a school football match with proper strips and an alternative game with the little boys happening behind the goals; fathers carrying their babies; children with heavy packs on and a Yao village where the village of kids came out to smile, laugh, say hello and follow us.
The big news I got while I was here was that my brother Mark has just got engaged in the US and is getting married in Texas om June. He did apologise for screwing up my travel plans! The US was meant to be the following summer! Ah well - I wouldn't miss it for anything!
The rest of my time in VV was mostly chilling out by the river. Aimee needed some company as she tanned before heading home to England in a couple days! So I sat and looked white as she got visibly browner! There were also some great hammocks in the trees by the river - books, chat, beer Lao..... I stayed four days instead of the planned one. It put an end to the plans to go south but I had a good time and rushing it would have been a pity. There's always next time!
Thursday, January 09, 2003
Luang Prabang
The weather only really cleared up on my last afternoon in LP, but the second day was at least mostly dry. On the first day after we arrived the main focus was shopping. Not me, though I did indulge, but for Tina who I was with. She's Australian and is going back to set up a shop and so was buying fabrics to create some beautiful clothes. It was fun helping someone else spend money on beautiful fabrics.
Luang Prabang is a small town full of Wats and wee novice monks running (or walking really) around in their orange robes. It looks great seeing them all around. I met a young novice aged 14 who spoke very good English. He is a WestLife fan!! I was very amused. He wanted to know if I liked them too since I was from Ireland. Should I feel proud to be Irish or not?
The day before yesterday I hired a bike and cycled all around LP. It was great just getting out a little along a dirt road and past schools and houses and people about their everyday lives. I managed to get round quite a bit. It was even fun just cycling around the main few streets in the town and watching what was going on. Very chilled.
I visited a couple of the Wats, some beautiful architecture. The Royal Palace museum also had some interesting things, especially a large mosaic on the wall that was made with inlaid Japanese glass. I also visited a photographic exhibition by a French man of people in some remote villages in Northern Laos. It was exhibited in a lovely wooden traditional style house. The wat on top of the hill (That Phou Si - Holy Hill) had a great view over the town and I sat and watched from there for a while. It gave me good bearings for the bike ride around the area.
I found a great spot which was in L'Etranger bookshop and teahouse. Upstairs from the secondhand bookshop and mini library was a wee teahouse with wooden floor and matresses and cushions on the floor. I spent a few hours here reading The Lord of the Rings! Very pleasant it was too. I went out with Jayde who I shared a room with and Tim and Rebecca (also in our guesthouse) a couple of evenings and we had fun celebrating Rebecca's birthday!
On my last day in LP I went across the river in the afternoon to visit a temple on the other side. Just across the river was a real village. Quite different from the main town. I was pleasantly accosted by a couple novice monks who became my guides and took me to the first temple (the only one I knew) and then on to another one and then even further on to some caves that I had no idea existed. One of them had the key and we went inside. The humidity fogged up my camera lense and the air was stuffy. It was fun to be in a cave just after reading about the fellowship passing through Moria!! This cave however had headless or other forms of broke Buddhas.
O enjoyed the time in LP and could have stayed a few days longer. I should probably have got a 30 day visa, but even then you can run out of time when there are great places to stay and not move from!
The weather only really cleared up on my last afternoon in LP, but the second day was at least mostly dry. On the first day after we arrived the main focus was shopping. Not me, though I did indulge, but for Tina who I was with. She's Australian and is going back to set up a shop and so was buying fabrics to create some beautiful clothes. It was fun helping someone else spend money on beautiful fabrics.
Luang Prabang is a small town full of Wats and wee novice monks running (or walking really) around in their orange robes. It looks great seeing them all around. I met a young novice aged 14 who spoke very good English. He is a WestLife fan!! I was very amused. He wanted to know if I liked them too since I was from Ireland. Should I feel proud to be Irish or not?
The day before yesterday I hired a bike and cycled all around LP. It was great just getting out a little along a dirt road and past schools and houses and people about their everyday lives. I managed to get round quite a bit. It was even fun just cycling around the main few streets in the town and watching what was going on. Very chilled.
I visited a couple of the Wats, some beautiful architecture. The Royal Palace museum also had some interesting things, especially a large mosaic on the wall that was made with inlaid Japanese glass. I also visited a photographic exhibition by a French man of people in some remote villages in Northern Laos. It was exhibited in a lovely wooden traditional style house. The wat on top of the hill (That Phou Si - Holy Hill) had a great view over the town and I sat and watched from there for a while. It gave me good bearings for the bike ride around the area.
I found a great spot which was in L'Etranger bookshop and teahouse. Upstairs from the secondhand bookshop and mini library was a wee teahouse with wooden floor and matresses and cushions on the floor. I spent a few hours here reading The Lord of the Rings! Very pleasant it was too. I went out with Jayde who I shared a room with and Tim and Rebecca (also in our guesthouse) a couple of evenings and we had fun celebrating Rebecca's birthday!
On my last day in LP I went across the river in the afternoon to visit a temple on the other side. Just across the river was a real village. Quite different from the main town. I was pleasantly accosted by a couple novice monks who became my guides and took me to the first temple (the only one I knew) and then on to another one and then even further on to some caves that I had no idea existed. One of them had the key and we went inside. The humidity fogged up my camera lense and the air was stuffy. It was fun to be in a cave just after reading about the fellowship passing through Moria!! This cave however had headless or other forms of broke Buddhas.
O enjoyed the time in LP and could have stayed a few days longer. I should probably have got a 30 day visa, but even then you can run out of time when there are great places to stay and not move from!
Monday, January 06, 2003
Into LAOS
We left at 8.30 to cross the border into Laos. I knew there would be other tourists but I hadn't expected quite as many. They ended up having to take two boats as there were too many for one boat and all the backpackers were having visions of another newspaper heading about an overcrowded boat sinking on the Mekhong or some such thing. It was a two day journey on the slow boat with a night in the village of Pakbeng. I have met some good people, especially Tina from Australia who I met on the bus out of Chiang Mai. We are now also sharing a room with Jayde (also Aus) who we met on the boat. Tina has been buying loads of fabrics for setting up shop in Australia, so I have had a lot of fun going around with her and helping her spend some money. I got a beautiful piece of fabric too.
A couple extracts from my journal as we made our way down the river:
'I've been chasing an elusive rainbow down the Mekhong. I finally snapped a photo but am not convinced that I got it clearly. The river is brown and flat with whirlpools and waves after passing traffic. Especially after passing close by one of the speedboats that roar deafeningly by and seem to provide their passengers with crash helmets! The banks of the river have been brown and muddy but now have developed into more sandy mudbanks and rocky outcrops of fantastic formations that make me wish I had remembered / learnt more of my physical geography. Above this the low hills remain verdant and green; however the bright banana trees are missing along this stretch and there are some tall white topped grasses in amongst the trees. Occasional villages dot the otherwise apparent wilderness alongside the Mekhong. Banana trees dot a shadowed valley like green flowers embroidered on a little girls green smock dress. There is plenty of time to just sit and observe the sunlight causing leaves to glow. The contrast of greens, the layers on the sand banks and the vertical shadows and patterns of the rocks that look like layers stuck together sideways. The houses in the village we just passed were all raised, on stilts. They looked like they were bamboo or wood and the roofs were thatched with what looked like it could have been dried banana leaves'.
'We have just passed some people along the sandy banks - the children waved. Some with both hands to make sure we saw them. A boat with four wee boys evenly spaced out briefly had a mad rowing spurt to catch us but gave up very quickly!'
'A soft warm orange sunrise glowing through the low lying cloud that creates soft fuzzy edges over the top of the low hills across the Mekhong river from our guesthouse'.
Luang Phabang
'First impressions of Luang Phabang have been formed in the rain and the dark. However even still it seems like a nice little place. I had somehow not expected it to be as small as it is...maps without scales can be misleading! But I like it'.
'I am sitting by the steps of one of the Wats, that leads all the way down to the Mekhong. Boats are passing on the wide river that laps aginst the bank just below me. It is dusk and I soon won't be able to see to write on this page. There is a breeze that carries whispers through the trees, audible above the diminishing drone of a boats engine, up the river. I am alone here - now that the boat with young boy and older sister has left after an awkward manouvering to come and collect a bicycle. It feels very peaceful - a pause, a moment, a now. The sky is still cloudy and though it's dry and there are a few brighter patches, it still fells like the possibility of rain is in the air. It is getting too dark to re-read what I have just written. Time to stop writing and just be'.
We left at 8.30 to cross the border into Laos. I knew there would be other tourists but I hadn't expected quite as many. They ended up having to take two boats as there were too many for one boat and all the backpackers were having visions of another newspaper heading about an overcrowded boat sinking on the Mekhong or some such thing. It was a two day journey on the slow boat with a night in the village of Pakbeng. I have met some good people, especially Tina from Australia who I met on the bus out of Chiang Mai. We are now also sharing a room with Jayde (also Aus) who we met on the boat. Tina has been buying loads of fabrics for setting up shop in Australia, so I have had a lot of fun going around with her and helping her spend some money. I got a beautiful piece of fabric too.
A couple extracts from my journal as we made our way down the river:
'I've been chasing an elusive rainbow down the Mekhong. I finally snapped a photo but am not convinced that I got it clearly. The river is brown and flat with whirlpools and waves after passing traffic. Especially after passing close by one of the speedboats that roar deafeningly by and seem to provide their passengers with crash helmets! The banks of the river have been brown and muddy but now have developed into more sandy mudbanks and rocky outcrops of fantastic formations that make me wish I had remembered / learnt more of my physical geography. Above this the low hills remain verdant and green; however the bright banana trees are missing along this stretch and there are some tall white topped grasses in amongst the trees. Occasional villages dot the otherwise apparent wilderness alongside the Mekhong. Banana trees dot a shadowed valley like green flowers embroidered on a little girls green smock dress. There is plenty of time to just sit and observe the sunlight causing leaves to glow. The contrast of greens, the layers on the sand banks and the vertical shadows and patterns of the rocks that look like layers stuck together sideways. The houses in the village we just passed were all raised, on stilts. They looked like they were bamboo or wood and the roofs were thatched with what looked like it could have been dried banana leaves'.
'We have just passed some people along the sandy banks - the children waved. Some with both hands to make sure we saw them. A boat with four wee boys evenly spaced out briefly had a mad rowing spurt to catch us but gave up very quickly!'
'A soft warm orange sunrise glowing through the low lying cloud that creates soft fuzzy edges over the top of the low hills across the Mekhong river from our guesthouse'.
Luang Phabang
'First impressions of Luang Phabang have been formed in the rain and the dark. However even still it seems like a nice little place. I had somehow not expected it to be as small as it is...maps without scales can be misleading! But I like it'.
'I am sitting by the steps of one of the Wats, that leads all the way down to the Mekhong. Boats are passing on the wide river that laps aginst the bank just below me. It is dusk and I soon won't be able to see to write on this page. There is a breeze that carries whispers through the trees, audible above the diminishing drone of a boats engine, up the river. I am alone here - now that the boat with young boy and older sister has left after an awkward manouvering to come and collect a bicycle. It feels very peaceful - a pause, a moment, a now. The sky is still cloudy and though it's dry and there are a few brighter patches, it still fells like the possibility of rain is in the air. It is getting too dark to re-read what I have just written. Time to stop writing and just be'.
Friday, January 03, 2003
Looking across the Mekhong River to Laos
I left Chiang Mai today and had to say goodbye to mum and dad - until who knows when, so that was a little sad. However we have had a great (unexpected) few months together so that has been good.
On my bus ride up to Chiang Khong we passed a small lake that was completely surrounded by a row of trees. They looked like they had come to gather and drink from the lake and spend time together. (As well as the living trees in Lord of the Rings), they reminded me of a small artificial pond I saw one morning at 7am in Zagreb that was completely surrounded by pigeons. They were in a circle and doing what looked like their morning ablutions, washing and preening and getting ready for the day. Then suddenly to some unheard command they all flew off to the other end of the square and another group flew in for their turn. The trees however looked well rooted in the lake and weren't about to fly off anywhere.
After arriving I came out of my room which overlooks the Mekhong and could look straight across to Laos which was bathed in the soft afternoon sun. Outside the restaurant upstairs there was a boy standing with an ice cube melting on his head. Down the road as we (Tina, Aus) wandered we passed a lady who was eating dried fish on a stick with whiskey. She called out to us, "whiskey?!". An unwise combination perhaps.
Yesterday I got a lovely purple sarong from Sarawak that I was given for Christmas made into a skirt. I went to a centre mum knew in Chiang Mai and found a lady with her sewing machine who could have it done for me by 5pm. She seemed like a real lovely 'lady' and somewhat out of place at the top of some dusty stairs with four others and their sewing machines. I would have liked to get to know her. She spoke good English. When I got back to collect my skirt she was called from upstairs and came down with a basket with a plant growing in it. "Look, a fish" and sure enough there was a little fish floating around in the bowl. I'd like to know her story.
I left Chiang Mai today and had to say goodbye to mum and dad - until who knows when, so that was a little sad. However we have had a great (unexpected) few months together so that has been good.
On my bus ride up to Chiang Khong we passed a small lake that was completely surrounded by a row of trees. They looked like they had come to gather and drink from the lake and spend time together. (As well as the living trees in Lord of the Rings), they reminded me of a small artificial pond I saw one morning at 7am in Zagreb that was completely surrounded by pigeons. They were in a circle and doing what looked like their morning ablutions, washing and preening and getting ready for the day. Then suddenly to some unheard command they all flew off to the other end of the square and another group flew in for their turn. The trees however looked well rooted in the lake and weren't about to fly off anywhere.
After arriving I came out of my room which overlooks the Mekhong and could look straight across to Laos which was bathed in the soft afternoon sun. Outside the restaurant upstairs there was a boy standing with an ice cube melting on his head. Down the road as we (Tina, Aus) wandered we passed a lady who was eating dried fish on a stick with whiskey. She called out to us, "whiskey?!". An unwise combination perhaps.
Yesterday I got a lovely purple sarong from Sarawak that I was given for Christmas made into a skirt. I went to a centre mum knew in Chiang Mai and found a lady with her sewing machine who could have it done for me by 5pm. She seemed like a real lovely 'lady' and somewhat out of place at the top of some dusty stairs with four others and their sewing machines. I would have liked to get to know her. She spoke good English. When I got back to collect my skirt she was called from upstairs and came down with a basket with a plant growing in it. "Look, a fish" and sure enough there was a little fish floating around in the bowl. I'd like to know her story.
Thursday, January 02, 2003
Koh Samui
Palm trees, blue seas, white sands, friendly Thais and lots of tourists. It was lovely to spend a few days on Koh Samui. It really is a beautiful place, though there were a lot of tourists where we stayed on Chaweng, the busiest (most beautiful) beach. It was particularly nice at night or especially early in the morning when there were very few people on it. Even at it's busiest there was always space though. We had a couple days lying on the beach (trying to bring out a few more freckles so they mix to pretend I'm a little bit brown). I did brave it enough to buy a bikini and actually wear it! My belly is many moons away from being freckled even and of course the brownest people on the beach decided to lie down near us that day!
I met up with Devon who I had met in Bangkok and we decided to go to the Christmas Eve beach party. We headed down about 11pm as we both were quite tired and some others were heading later but we wanted to leave earlier. So - we stayed until dawn and I got back to the room just before 7am as my auntie was waking up! Rocky beach was a beautiful place to have a party and it was all decorated with ultrviolet tubes in coloured lanterns in rows (blue, pink, yellow) and there was a tall Christmas tree made of little bags of red and green coloured water in plastic bags hanging in rows. The music got you in the belly and I had some nice chats, especially with a German girl. It was to be expected but there were rather a lot of drunk guys overusing the line "So where are you from?". It can be said in so many ways! We had a lot of fun though.
We went out in a Tri-yak one day for an hour and rowed across to a little island just off shore. Another day dad and I went out on a jetski (bike?). Our jetski broke down after 5 minutes but we got a new one and had a blast. Another day we hired a jeep and drove around the island. The best bit that day was when we went to the waterfall and swam there. A lovely cool pool and a natural power shower with little places to sit on the water smoothed rocks. Also that day we went to the Spa on Lamai beach where I got mum and dad and Priscilla's Christmas presents - a massage. Well mum and Priscilla went for facials. We then had dinner there as they do some lovely veggie food. We also did a snorkelling day trip one day and went to Koh Tao in a speed boat. The first spot was dirty and had a lot of dead coral but the second spot was lovely.Christmas day we met the Gills for breakfast (9 of us) and went to a restaurant with a fantastic view. We got back at midday and I slept all of Christmas afternoon having been up all the previous night. A little different from our usual Christmas Eve - carols in Holywood - when I'm in Belfast!
It was a restful week. NIce to have some time to just lie around and read and rest and eat and then do the same all over again. We did walk up and down the shops a little too. Fortunately I really can't fit more in my bag.
Bangkok
We got the night train to Bangkok from Surat Thani and spent the day there. I left my bag for two months in a left luggage place and a lot lighter set off for a couple Wats and Jim Thompsons House (a recommended place to visit - not a mate). We then got a night train to Chiang Mai. Having finished my book (Memoirs of a Geisha) I slept a lot more this trip.
Chiang Mai
The Juniper Tree is a lovely place to stay. Priscilla and I assumed we would be sharing a room but actually each have our own wooden room/building. They are all little individual buildings in the traditional Thai style raised up on stilts. It i slovely. I could imagine living somewhere like that for a while very easily. There is a pool too but it has been overcast and wet. Very unusual everyone is saying, but it still means I haven't actually been in the pool,
New Years Eve was great. Dad and I went and saw The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers. I really enjoyed the movie and also had the cultural experience of having to stand for a video bit about the king while they played the National Anthem (at least I presume that is what it must have been). We later wandered the night bazaar and ended up down by the river in a good position right on the bank. There were fantastic fireworks and we were not disappointed. For about the first five minutes of the new year there were about four fireworks displays going on simulataneously. It was hard to know where to look. The display where we were sitting must have gone on for at least 15 minutes. There were also large hot air ballons / paper lanterns being sent up into the night sky. Some from near us, but in the distance there were a line of about 100. They look very beautiful as they float up into the darkness. About five or ten metres into the air they seem to ignite some fireworks and leave a trail of twinkling stars behind them as they rise up. There were also candles being floated down the river. I went to see where they were putting them in and a lady gave me one to put in. I was happy as I had wanted to see where I could buy one to put in. Everyone was in good form and the atmosphere was very festive.
I leave tomorrow to go to Laos. I am looking forward to it but have to say goodbye to my parents who I won't see for probably at least two years, so that is a bit sad. Email is great though and we will still be able to all keep in touch which is great!
Palm trees, blue seas, white sands, friendly Thais and lots of tourists. It was lovely to spend a few days on Koh Samui. It really is a beautiful place, though there were a lot of tourists where we stayed on Chaweng, the busiest (most beautiful) beach. It was particularly nice at night or especially early in the morning when there were very few people on it. Even at it's busiest there was always space though. We had a couple days lying on the beach (trying to bring out a few more freckles so they mix to pretend I'm a little bit brown). I did brave it enough to buy a bikini and actually wear it! My belly is many moons away from being freckled even and of course the brownest people on the beach decided to lie down near us that day!
I met up with Devon who I had met in Bangkok and we decided to go to the Christmas Eve beach party. We headed down about 11pm as we both were quite tired and some others were heading later but we wanted to leave earlier. So - we stayed until dawn and I got back to the room just before 7am as my auntie was waking up! Rocky beach was a beautiful place to have a party and it was all decorated with ultrviolet tubes in coloured lanterns in rows (blue, pink, yellow) and there was a tall Christmas tree made of little bags of red and green coloured water in plastic bags hanging in rows. The music got you in the belly and I had some nice chats, especially with a German girl. It was to be expected but there were rather a lot of drunk guys overusing the line "So where are you from?". It can be said in so many ways! We had a lot of fun though.
We went out in a Tri-yak one day for an hour and rowed across to a little island just off shore. Another day dad and I went out on a jetski (bike?). Our jetski broke down after 5 minutes but we got a new one and had a blast. Another day we hired a jeep and drove around the island. The best bit that day was when we went to the waterfall and swam there. A lovely cool pool and a natural power shower with little places to sit on the water smoothed rocks. Also that day we went to the Spa on Lamai beach where I got mum and dad and Priscilla's Christmas presents - a massage. Well mum and Priscilla went for facials. We then had dinner there as they do some lovely veggie food. We also did a snorkelling day trip one day and went to Koh Tao in a speed boat. The first spot was dirty and had a lot of dead coral but the second spot was lovely.Christmas day we met the Gills for breakfast (9 of us) and went to a restaurant with a fantastic view. We got back at midday and I slept all of Christmas afternoon having been up all the previous night. A little different from our usual Christmas Eve - carols in Holywood - when I'm in Belfast!
It was a restful week. NIce to have some time to just lie around and read and rest and eat and then do the same all over again. We did walk up and down the shops a little too. Fortunately I really can't fit more in my bag.
Bangkok
We got the night train to Bangkok from Surat Thani and spent the day there. I left my bag for two months in a left luggage place and a lot lighter set off for a couple Wats and Jim Thompsons House (a recommended place to visit - not a mate). We then got a night train to Chiang Mai. Having finished my book (Memoirs of a Geisha) I slept a lot more this trip.
Chiang Mai
The Juniper Tree is a lovely place to stay. Priscilla and I assumed we would be sharing a room but actually each have our own wooden room/building. They are all little individual buildings in the traditional Thai style raised up on stilts. It i slovely. I could imagine living somewhere like that for a while very easily. There is a pool too but it has been overcast and wet. Very unusual everyone is saying, but it still means I haven't actually been in the pool,
New Years Eve was great. Dad and I went and saw The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers. I really enjoyed the movie and also had the cultural experience of having to stand for a video bit about the king while they played the National Anthem (at least I presume that is what it must have been). We later wandered the night bazaar and ended up down by the river in a good position right on the bank. There were fantastic fireworks and we were not disappointed. For about the first five minutes of the new year there were about four fireworks displays going on simulataneously. It was hard to know where to look. The display where we were sitting must have gone on for at least 15 minutes. There were also large hot air ballons / paper lanterns being sent up into the night sky. Some from near us, but in the distance there were a line of about 100. They look very beautiful as they float up into the darkness. About five or ten metres into the air they seem to ignite some fireworks and leave a trail of twinkling stars behind them as they rise up. There were also candles being floated down the river. I went to see where they were putting them in and a lady gave me one to put in. I was happy as I had wanted to see where I could buy one to put in. Everyone was in good form and the atmosphere was very festive.
I leave tomorrow to go to Laos. I am looking forward to it but have to say goodbye to my parents who I won't see for probably at least two years, so that is a bit sad. Email is great though and we will still be able to all keep in touch which is great!
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