It’s been a while, so I thought maybe I should say something about our trip. Just checked, WOW, I think the last time I blogged was Dec. 2nd. I had promised some photos of my cooking class then, unfortunately hanging around HK, I never got around to it. Maybe when we visit Ram in Mumbai… In general I am still enjoying travelling and seeing new places and meeting people, fellow travellers and locals alike.

Our time in Vietnam I really enjoyed even with all the US bashing we have to hear on the tours we have joined. Phu Quoc with it’s beach front bungalows that only range from USD 20 to 80 was just amazing. Really missing the sunsets on our private beach front porch.

Laotian food was just yummie! In the North mainly, though. Luang Prabang has the best selection of yummie Laotian restaurants. The Boat Landing (they have recipes posted on their website) and another Laotian restaurant in the northern part of Luang Namtha were the best in that area.

Thailand has got to be my favorite Southeast Asian country to date. It’s hard to beat the variety, the cost and the people. A country I would definitely like to come back to. I am not a huge fan of the hot humid weather, but one forgets that very easily once on a nice sandy beach with cool ocean breezes.

Myanmar, has seen the last of me though. Unfortunately, I think we went under such circumstances that made it hard for us to enjoy the place. A lack of USD and a constant demand for clean crisp USD bills from two people who have been travelling for over 8 months was a little wearing on the nerves. We were lucky to have enough to make it out without too much sacrifice to our comfort and seeing the places we wanted to see. Though the constant reminder that we just have only so much and once used that would be it, was a bit too much to bear for three weeks. So we are glad we went to Bagan. Spent two great days biking around enjoying the peace of this amazing place, but I see very little reason to go back. Everything good about the country is better at the countries that influenced that portion of their culture, be it food, architecture, whatever… I will personally not miss the betelnut spitting and the barefoot tourism. By the last, I mean, the need to take off shoes and socks at all religious sites, even if it is a half hour hike to the top of a religious hill. This would be fine if it was kept somewhat clean, but spitting isn’t banned in these sacred sites. Sure glad for them they don’t have the hoof and mouth disease. By the way the food in general was unimpressive. One more strike against it.

Now we are in Kolkata, India. It’s amazing the pollution. I have not had the feeling of my throat constricting since Beijing. Been here only two days, both days found me waking up having slight asthmatic symptoms. Crazy busy streets, loads of people, huge English buildings all over the place, hot (not by their standards), everyone speaks English (almost), food has been good (we’ve turned vegetarian, temporarily), mishti (yogurt curd) yummie, more to follow… Took a day tour of the city today, had to do more barefoot tourism, and we have no way to wash our feet tonight because we are on a sleeper train to Gaya, to check out Bodhgaya, the place of Buddha’s enlightenment. Oh well, wet wipes will have to do.

Ciao for now!

Where we’ve been the last week.

Vientiene
Another long bus ride to Vientiene, the Capital of Laos, from Luang Prabang. This time we opted for a more comfortable bus, the price of our bus ticket included: A/C; reclining seats; bottled water; snacks; DVD video entertainment and….an armed escort. Quite shocking seeing this bare chested, bandana wearing Laotian guy boarding our bus with a rifle hung on his shoulder….just kidding only the rifle part is true. Apparently Route 13 between Vang Vieng (2 hrs. from Vientiene) and Vientiene has had a history of buses being ambushed, we assume Rambo was on board to protect us or perhaps it’s very common in Laos to have gun weilding passengers. Well no ambush during our bus ride, I believe the last Route 13 attack happened 2 years ago.
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We’re surprised how expensive everything is in Southern Laos, well relative to SE Asia, lodging, food and transportation is easily double the cost of Thailand or Vietnam. Not too many Laotian restaurants in Vientiene, too many western restaurants serving up pizza, burgers etc. mainly catering to the younger backpacker crowd. We rented a motorbike one day, checked out the notable sites in and around Vientiene then continued our journey down south. Vientiene not our type of town. Luang Prabang was much nicer, we miss the delicious Northern Lao cuisine up there.

Si Phan Don
The Four Thousand Islands of Laos, we stayed on the Island of Done Khone. Accomodations were at the Floating Hotel, our backdoor led us directly to the Mekong River. Quite nice for a couple of days, but not worth the price we paid, the staff were such lazy sacks of shits.
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We’re now in Pakse, which is only an 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the Thai border. We were contemplating visiting the nearby Wat Phu temples tomorrow, but we’ll most likely head back to civilized Thailand eventually making our way back to Bangkok. We’re tired of being priced gouged in Southern Laos. We fly to Myanmar (Burma) next week.

Ciao folks

Quite the journey from Luang Nam Tha to Luang Prabang. First we took a mini-van to the town of Ouedem Xai, approx. 150 km SE from Nam Tha. We had to endure 3 1/2 hours of: winding and bumpy roads (infrastructure is quite terrible in Laos); and two local Lao guys throwing up behind us. (Too bad they were’nt Native Americans, otherwise their names would be - Two Guys Puiking). Luckily the driver had plenty of plastic bags around. Yvonne, myself and the Lao friend sitting between Two Guys Puiking were fortunate not to throw up as well, pretty horrifying hearing and smelling these guys. The driver had to pull over several times to let these poor guys breathe some fresh air.
We were dropped off at the Ouedem Xai bus station, left Two Guys Puiking and bought our next mini-van ride to Luang Prabang. Scheduled departure time - not until all the seats to L.P. are sold- sigh! 2 1/2 hours later off to Luang Prabang, 250 km south of Ouedem Xai.
The ride started off nice - not too many rough roads ahead, a very cautious driver (didn’t speed or take the turns like an Indy 500 driver), a civilized eh hem, quiet group of people: local Laotians, one European chick and this short Mainland Chinese guy, the ideal situation to nap on the road. Well halfway through our journey, Mainland China guy decides to make several cellphone calls at an ear shattering volume. We drive through a small town and see another Chinese guy with cargo waiting along the road. We would have another passenger join us - Mainland China guy’s buddy. Based on the volume of Mainland China’s guy phone conversation to his friend, I knew our quiet mini-van ride would be fucked once his buddy stepped aboard. And of course, luck would have us with these two guys talking as if they were deaf and not caring if everyone preferred they keep their voices down. Finally after an exhausting 11 hour day, we arrived in Luang Prabang.
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We’re having a great time in Luang Prabang. It’s a wonderful city situated along the Mekong River. It’s great wandering around this quiet town, lots of Wats (Buddhist temples) to explore and it’s worth visiting the former Royal Palace. We’re enjoying the slow pace of Luang Prabang and watching Lao life move as if it were in slow motion.
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Sadly Laos has to be the poorest country we’ve visited so far, especially in the North near Luang Nam Tha where a large number of minority hilltribe people live. We’ve passed through many decrepid villages where life looks pretty bleak. Lots of pregnant women with plenty of kids in tow - children everywhere!
I read some alarming statistics about the Ahka people (which is one of the Lao minority groups) - avg. life expectancy 48 yrs old! 0 % womens literacy rate, 25% infant mortality rate!…..One of our treks was guided through an Ahka hillside village, upon arrival we were stuck in an awkward situation, we were suddenly swarmed by all the women and children of the village to buy their small trinkets. What to do in this situation? We felt if we bought a trinket from one person it would open up a whole can of worms and create utter chao. So we decided not to buy anything. Does buying a trinket really help these people? The only comforting thought was that a portion of our trekking fee goes directly to the village. A new school was recently completed as a result of the proceeds, so the money is being distributed. A very heartwretching visit. A part of me wished I didn’t visit the village, the other part of me is thankful for the eye opening experience.
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Is it me? I constantly get approached to buy pot. Here in Laos it’s opium. Thanks but no thanks! By the way, getting caught with drugs in SE Asia could get you the death penalty.

Major sore butt!! 1 whole day (riding a tuk-tuk, bus, pickup trucks and boat) to cross the Thai/Laos border.
2 longs days on boat to Luang Nam Tha. Day one of our boat journey - Basically sitting 8 hours on the floor of our longtailed motor boat, the sides of the boat leaked so we couldn’t lean our backs against anything. We shared the boat with a nice retired Dutch couple.
Despite the discomfort, a beautiful journey up the Lam Tha River. Lush jungle hillside along the river banks. Our boat passing through village after village, as we watched: the locals fish; wash clothes; women bathe (while still in their sarongs). Finally after 8 long hours we arrived at the captain’s small village where his brother’s family put us up for the night. We were fed an excellent meal of sticky rice and stir-fried veggies with eggs. We shared several bottles of Lao Beer with the captain’s family and a few curious villagers, the few glasses of beer knocked me out for the night.
Day two of our boat journey - After breakfast we were escorted to a different boat and introduced to a new captain and crew. We had been sold off to another boat to finish the journey to Luang Nam Tha! Thankfully our new boat was a larger and longer longtailed boat. No leaks on the side of the boat, so we all could easily rest our backs against the boat. The new captain and crew loaded some additional cargo on our boat, 3 live pigs, and a few local Laotian passengers hopped on our boat as well, one who’s luggage consisted of his bag and a dead chicken! Shit! Did not want to think about the Bird flu, we made it a point to keep our distance from dead chicken man. After another long journey we arrived in Luang Nam Tha, thanked the captain and crew with bottles of Lao Beer and rewarded ourselves with a hot shower, Lao beer and delicious Northern Lao cuisine (which is seasoned with a lot of dill and ginger, very tasty). So far, from what I’ve seen life in Laos moves at……an…….extremely……slow……pace……..
We’re off trekking tomorrow, spend a couple more days out here then make our way down to Luang Prabang.

Sorry folks haven’t written in a while. All is well, we’ve been traveling through Northrn Thailand and we’re currently in the Laos border town of Huay Xai. (Excuse me but I;m a little buzzed from drinkging the so-called excellent Lao Beer - overrated! I prefer a good Polish or Czedh beer anayday.)..Anyway NOrthern Thailand - most excellent..fabulous hillside scenery and again ghe Thais were very freintdly and accomodating. If was quite a journey getting to Loas today - we took one tuk-tuk, 3 pickup tryuck taxis and 1 bus to get out here (my ass really hurts), but well worthe thae long journey and wev’e reawarded outselves with several bottles of Lao beer. Tomorrow we’re off to Luang Nam Tha which is known for it’s eco-tourisms of trekking and mourntain biking. Until next time. Ciao