Week 16 Laos and being a multi millionaire

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Having arrived in Laos, I find that I am a multi-millionaire. The local Kip currency has lots of zeros, and its fun when you spend 100,000 without a second thought as one million Kip is about 73 pounds sterling. But anyway, back to the beginning of the week ......

Wed 30 Dec 09
It was sad to leave the Thai islands but I was looking forward to the tour through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia and celebrating New Year in Bangkok. Another early alarm to be ready for the 7.30 am pickup by private longtail from Railay to Ao Nang. The boat driver was lovely and carried my heavy suitcase through the water at both ends and even carried it up the steps at Ao Nang quay and helped me find my taxi. I did have to wade through knee deep water at both ends but managed to keep my trousers dry this time and it was only my flip flops that suffered and got waterlogged. The whole trip to Krabi airport was about and hour and I was in plenty of time to check in and then to hear the first announcement of our plane’s delay. It wasn’t too bad, and after a flight of just over an hour we were only an hour late landing in Bangkok. My flip flops had developed an alarmingly loud squeak.

My transfer was waiting and it took about an hour to get to the hotel on the banks of the river right in the centre of Bangkok. The local area is really interesting and I had a lovely afternoon wandering around the little waterways and local non-tourist shops, followed by dinner in the hotel which was pretty poor.

A general observation regarding all of the hotels I have stayed in on the Thai islands - its not enough to charge the earth for your room in this peak season, the hotel prices for food and drink are ridiculously high too. They all have this process that involves putting a compulsory 10 percent service charge on everything and then adding the “government tax” of 7 percent on top, which adds a significant chunk to the advertised prices. Some also add between 3 to 5 percent to your bill if you pay by credit card. None of the independent shops or restaurants do this and they are much cheaper, so I have been going outside of the hotels for most things.

Thurs 31
All the members of the tour arrived at various times during the day and we met up at 6pm for introductions. I am the only Brit. There is a mother and son from Australia, Wendy and Tom and 3 other women also from Oz, Mel my room-mate, Kim and Carol and finally a married couple from Ireland, Chris and Trish. Our guide is Nicki and I think we will have a great time over the next 23 days on the tour.

We walked down the road to a very nice restaurant overlooking the river. It was very popular with the locals and we were the only westerners there. As it was New Years Eve the place was packed but we managed to order a wide range of Thai dishes for dinner - admittedly they arrived at random times and our main rice portions arrived when we had finished everything else, but it didn’t matter and the food was delicious. It was really hot and humid as there had been a long and heavy rainstorm in the afternoon, but we had loads of beer to keep us from melting.

As most of the guys had only arrived that day and had jet lag and horrible time-differences, we packed it in at 10.30pm and returned t the hotel. As our room overlooked the river and half of the city, at midnight we had a great view of 8 different huge firework displays. Mel had fallen asleep and I am not sure she was that impressed when I woke her up to watch the fireworks, but hey, it was a New Year !

Fri 1 Jan 2010
In the morning we met Jo our guide for the day and set off on a longtail boat tour of Bangkok’s famous khlongs (canals). The start of the journey was navigating the main river and it was very choppy and high after all the rain the previous day You sit very low down in these boats and its a bit disconcerting when the rough water is only inches from your nose. It was interesting to see the people who live in the houses along and over the waterways and to get a glimpse of their lives. We stopped to feed the fish with “lucky bread” - which is probably the locals thinking lucky that we got some gormless tourists to pay 5 times the price for this stale loaf, but the swarming mass of giant sized catfish were fun to watch.

We were dropped at the quay and climbed ashore, which was not easy, to get to Wat Pho, the city’s oldest and largest temple which is home to the world’s largest reclining Buddha. Today was a public holiday and the tradition for the locals is to visit a temple. Being one of the main temples, it felt like all 8 million of Bangkok’s inhabitants were trying to get through the same narrow entrance as us. It was packed. However we managed to see the huge gold-plated statue (46 metres long and 15m high) and also several other interesting sets of statues and huge stupa (cross between a pyramid and a pagoda) which are burial sites for kings and royals. The crowds added to the already sweltering heat and we were soaked with sweat by the time we had fully explored this great heritage site.

We checked out of the hotel and got to the central train station early for our 8.30pm overnight train to Nong Khai on the Laos border, which was a journey of almost 14 hours. I was pleasantly surprised with both the station and the train which were far less crowded and much cleaner than I expected. Our seats converted into sleeper compartments, which were simple but comfortable, but were a bit pokey and didn’t shield you from the noise of the other passengers or from the lights that blazed all night. The guy selling beer to the male passengers seemed taken aback when Mel and I ordered ours and the carriage attendant came to watch us as we opened the bottles and seemed to find it amusing. We rebelled when he wanted to make up our beds at 9pm and won a reprieve until 10.30, feeling like children being allowed to stay up late.

Sat 2
Getting through the border in the morning was not difficult but did involve plenty of queuing and standing around. There was a system, but nobody was sure what it was and it kept changing and you had to join a different queue for each stage of the process. In the middle, you drive by bus over the Friendship Bridge between the two countries and the flags of Thailand stop at the centre and change to those of Laos. They pack you on these transfer buses like sardines and one guy tried to fight me for my place and ripped off my fingernail in the process - I don’t think he will be able to walk without limping for at least a week after having had his foot stamped on by a hot, disgruntled, tired, overweight English woman. Anyhow we eventually got to our Vientiane hotel at lunchtime where I changed my money and became a multi-millionaire.

Vientiane is the current capital of the country and is a lovely peaceful city with a great deal of French influence. It is full of wide tree-lined boulevards and lots of coffee shops selling delicious pastries and wonderful bread, which was very welcome after the horrible sweet dry bread I have been given for the past 6 weeks.

We explored during our free afternoon and then had a group dinner where I tried the famous local speciality of Laab, which is like a dry-fried mince with lots of mint, coriander and chili served with the wonderful sticky rice that is a real feature of Laos and is made by steaming the special variety of rice for hours. You should really eat meals that come with sticky rice with your fingers, but I whimped out and used a fork as there are loads of rules about what you should and should not do and I didn’t want to offend anyone with licking my fingers, using the wrong hand or the worst crime possible of double-dipping.

Our hotel is nice, centrally located within walking distance of all the important things and the staff are really friendly, but the view from our bedroom window is of a brick wall about 6 inches from the glass. Didn’t matter as we spend hardly any time there.

Sun 3

A really busy day starting with a visit to the huge Morning Market, which is a bit of a misnomer as its open all day until 5pm, consisting of an indoor shopping centre and a massive two level outdoor market selling everything you could imagine. I resisted and didn’t buy anything, although the huge range of twintub washing machines did look tempting..

We had a quick bit to eat then met Nicki at the Cope Centre which is a charity that helps victims of the UXO (unexploded ordinance) and had a tour to learn more about their work. Laos is one of the countries that was bombed constantly during the Vietnam war, mainly with cluster bombs that contain hundreds of smaller bombies. Sadly the number of people being killed or maimed by the millions of left-over live bombies is obscenely high and the Cope charity help with the survivors, particularly with specially adapted wheelchairs and replacement limbs. It was moving and interesting.

We did a city tour with a very enthusiastic guide in the afternoon and stopped at the Wat Sisakhet and Ho Prakeo temples, the giant gold stupa Phra That Luang and visited the huge archway that is in the centre of the city, based on the French Arc de Triomphe. I was particularly taken with the Wat Sisakhet where there was a quadrangle with a cloister-like open-sided area on each side that was full of thousands of Buddha statues. We chatted briefly with a couple of the monks there too, which was interesting.

In the evening we went to a very chic rooftop restaurant where we had a super group dinner. Again we all tried the local dishes and the joy of eating with a group is that we could try lots of things. Also I am very happy to say that all of the restaurants here serve very nice wines and several of my fellow travellers also love wine, so we share bottles and costs.

Mon 4
The ladies in the group got up early and were at the silk weaving shop by 8am where we had a tour of the process and met some of the weavers. The intricate designs take a long time to weave and it was fascinating watching the skilled hands changing the colours of silk thread dozens of times for each row.

Mid-morning we went to the airport to catch our one hour flight North to Luang Prabang. The aircraft looked scary as it was very dumpy and looked heavy but had the thinnest, spindly propeller you ever saw. We were not sure it would actually fly and were quite relieved when we got airborne. The flight took us over a series of mountains and miles of thick jungle terrain.

In the afternoon we all clambered aboard a long wooden boat for a 2 hour trip up the Mekong river to the Pak Ou Caves. The boat had several different types of seating, starting with reclining wooden deckchairs at the front, then wide padded bench seats, then small wooden chairs and lastly a couple of plastic chairs. As we had the whole boat between 8 guests, Nicki and our local guide, we were able to move about and use only the first and second class seating. It was lovely seeing the different boats on the river and seeing the huge variety of crops the villagers were growing on the thin steep strip of fertile soil on the banks. This area is covered from May to August when the river floods and rises by at least 20 feet.

The Pak Ou Caves have two levels - the first has a Buddhist shrine and hundreds of statues. I have no idea what the second level looks like as I was not stupid enough to go up, but those that did came back sweaty, tired and grumpy muttering about steep steps, dark caves with nothing in them and aching legs. We had some beers on the way home which only took an hour and we were with the flow of the river and we watched a lovely sunset.

We only had a short time to get changed before meeting for another group dinner but the town had a power cut and our room did not have any water as it used an electric pump so we had to be inventive with wet wipes and deodorant while using head torches and candles. The power came back on just as we walked to the meal, but not for long and went out again just after we ordered. The kitchen ran on gas, so we still had the most wonderful meal delivered which was the speciality of whole fish flavoured with lemon grass and cooked on banana leaves. Its served with a whole range of nuts, vegetables and herbs which you roll up in lettuce leaves with the fish and dip in a spicy sauce (a bit like the process of eating crispy duck at the Chinese) and it was delicious. The starters had included various weird mixtures of spicy vegetables that you ate with sticky rice and the pudding was lots of different exotic fruits, most of which were new tastes for all of us. It was fun being in true candle light and boy was it dark when those lights first went out.

Tues 5
Another full day with half of the group leaving early for a 3 hour treck and the rest of us leaving at more leisurely time for the hours drive to meet them at the Kuang Sii Falls. These were one of the most beautiful natural sights I have seen in my life, with three layers consisting the main waterfall and the large turquoise pool, the middle layers of multiple small falls and tiers of pools all carved by the water into the limestone rock and all with the same pale blue and turquoise, slightly opaque-looking water. The water was actually very clear and cold, but the limestone caused the cloudy look. The final level was a large pool that you could swim in and there was a rope swing if you didn’t want to pick your way over the sharp rocks to get into the water. The guys that had trekked were very grateful to be in the cold water. It was stunningly beautiful and very peaceful among the trees and was like being in the Lost World.

Coming back to reality we walked further down the hill and visited the Bear Sanctuary that is part sponsored by Intrepid, the company we are touring with. We were given a brief talk about the work they are doing in Laos and other countries and we saw quite a few of the bears feeding. The staff hide their food in various natural and man-made spots and the bears have to do things like dig through wood piles to find the goodies. we saw some of the younger bears too. There were a few local food stalls at the Sanctuary and it was very sweet that one of the ladies was using an old bear-transport cage as a lockable playpen for her young child. I love inventive recycling.

In the evening we went to the nightly market that is held along the main street, where they close the road to traffic from about 4.30pm. Its a very attractive market filled with colourful silks, local handicrafts and street food, but it is a bit repetitive with many of the stalls selling the same range of goods. I got some replacement cotton trousers at the bargain price of two pairs for 3 pounds but they may well shrink during their first wash - at that price it wont be a disaster. We found that with some hard bargaining you could get the goods for just over half of the original asking price.

We chose a restaurant from the wide range on the main street and had another lovely dinner. The food in Laos has been brilliant with the choice of Laos, Thai and Western dishes, all very fresh and well cooked. The coffee shops all serve wonderful pastries and cakes and the breakfasts at the hotel have been the best I have had in Asia. There are also very cheap massage places too, but we have not had much time to indulge.

Wed 6 (morning)
I know its adding an extra half day to this blog edition, but its special. We awoke before dawn and walked 5 minutes down the road to be ready for the alms-giving to the monks from all the Buddhist temples in the area. The locals line the streets with various foods and other tokens such as flowers in readiness for the procession of monks who start to walk the street and receive the alms immediately after the dawn temple bells have rung. By the way, there is a temple immediately next door to our hotel and the huge main temple bell is under our bedroom window.

The monks are all dressed in their traditional orange robes and carry a large pot with a lid that they remove when accepting the alms. We noticed some people slipping notes into the monks pots, so I guess they were friends or relatives. The monks are all ages, including some very young boys, and walk slowly and silently down the line of villagers in their bare feet. Its a very spiritual and lovely thing to watch. Its a shame that some tourists use flash photography and blind the monks and some even get in the way of the procession. We must have seen several hundred monks pass us and it lasted about 45 minutes, from the first monks who passed while it was barely light, to the last who passed by about 7am. Its a wonderful experience but we probably wont do it tomorrow which is a special day in the temple calendar and it starts at 4am with bells and drums all morning - another early wake up call then !

As we were up, I caught up on this blog and then went for a lovely morning around town. I really LOVE this country and will definitely be back again in the future. I hope it doesn’t change too much with the increasing number of tourists and that it keeps its serene nature and lovely gentle people. Its a joy to be here while its still so peaceful ad uncommercialised.

I will cover the rest of today in the next edition. My Croc flip flops have kept the outrageously loud squeak they developed in Railay and are driving me mad, but I cant find similar comfortable replacements. Did I mention I am a multi-millionaire ?

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