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Published: November 9th 2006
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Tim and Tiu in the ice bar, Helsinki
Tiu is the friend who I came across to Helsinki to visit..... Well, hello everyone, and welcome to this installment of my travels!
I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in Vientiane. Where, I hear you ask, is Vientiane? Well Vientiane happens to be the capital of Laos. Laos has the notable distinction of being the most bombed country in the world thanks to that great nation the US of A. Unexploded bombs here are used for anything, from bells to decorations on bridges, to flower pots!
I've only been here a week, after sailing down the Mekong River for 2 days from the Thai border, (you can do it in 6 hours in a speed boat, but deaths occur every week when the boat hits hidden rocks, jumps up, flies through the air for a bit then lands top down before disintegrating). Whichever way you do it, you hopefully make it to the beautiful World Heritage Town of Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a lovely town situated on the banks of the Mekong, and is blessed with lots of Wats. What is a Wat? A Wat is a buddhist temple, incredibly ornate, colourful and impressive, with lots of monks garbed in orange. It makes you think that if the churches
Kirsi
Beautiful Finnish girl who I came across in Helsinki. She's naturally blonde, but dies her hair black! These Finnish..............! in Europe were far less imposing, dark, and evil looking, and more Wat-like, then far more people would go to them on a miserable Sunday morning.................
After leaving Laung Prabang I stopped on the way to Vientiane at a little town called Vang Vieng, which is notable for 2 reasons. The first is that all the bars show DVDs of either Friends (bar full of girls), The Simpsons (bar full of boys) or a 'random chick-flick movie' (bar empty, or full of Germans). The second reason is that you can spend the day cruising down the river in a rubber ring. What makes this even better is that you can break up your 'float' by stopping off at the many riverside bars, having a drink and jumping off the ubiquitous 10 metre high swing into the river! (watching out you miss the other people floating past in their rubber rings of course!) Then you can cruise a bit further down the river, beer in hand, to the next bar! Great fun! Especially when a huge bottle of beer costs 55p!
Thats the great thing about Asia, everything is so cheap. Although I am staying in a posh hotel
Dinner at Sylv's
Dinner outside Sylv's house! and coughing up 20 dollars a night for the pleasure, this is extortionate compared to the other places I've been. It is very easy in the towns to get a double bedroom with ensuite for 4 dollars! In Asia, there are very few hostels, so you have to stay at Guest houses which is a bit of a shame as I love the hostel atmosphere. Meeting people is very easy though, and not a problem at all, whether you meet them on a boat, floating down the river on a rubber ring, or simply in a bar.
Before all of this, however, and before even reaching Asia, I stopped off in Helsinki, and stayed at friend's place, which happens to be a flat above a church. Waking up on a Sunday morning to the sound of church singing is a bit eerie, but it is fun to play 'spot the virgins' as you leave the flat and pass the community centre window!
Helsinki is notable for one very interesting reason. In Helsinki it is custom for the girls to come and chat up the boys, and to buy them drinks. Boys respond by ignoring the girls, and even
Washing up
Washing up at Sylv's house! when the girl finally gets her man, in order for the man to 'exert his control' over the girl, he witholds sex from her for several months. I was reliably informed that if the girl manages to 'get some' within the first three months, then she should count herself very lucky indeed.
Given this situation, and the fact that I am a foreigner with tanned skin, suffice it to say that I enjoyed Helsinki very much and would recommend everyone to go there, at least once in their lives. Midsummer is apparently fun, when all the girls run around naked..................Maybe be in desperation?
After dragging myself away from the pleasures of Finland, I landed in Bangkok. Instead of staying tin the city, I headed straight up to a town called Mae Sot on the Burmese border. I stayed at the gorgeous teak house of Sylvia Brown. Sylv is out there working for a Karen Human rights group. The Karen people live in Burma but are being oppressed and abused by the Burmese regime. I stayed in Mae Sot for several days and learnt a bit about the attrocities that are going on in Burma. It felt strange sitting
The bathroom
thats the toilet in the middle, and the shower on the right. (you throw bowls of water over yourself, and it aint hot!) on the decking outside Sylv's house, listening to music as I read a book, to know that only a few miles away were 'temporary' refugee camps established over two decades ago to house the people fleeing Burma.
The situation in Burma is dire. The oppressive government has successfully split the tribes apart and has conquered them individually. The old colonial divide and conquer system is still very effective, to such a startling extent that the Burmese Government has managed to set up an army of Karen people to fight against themselves!
There is no quick solution to Burma, and the best that anyone and all the people working in the outlawed NGOs can do is to catalogue the atrocities being committed and try to help the people in Burma as well as the displaced as best they can. All we can hope is that the regime somehow falls as it has done in many other countries, but if and when this will happen is anyone's guess.
As for where I am going next, I fly to Hanoi this afternoon, to sail around the limestone monoliths of Halong Bay. It's straight out of a James Bond film apparently!
View over the Mekong from my bedroom
Not bad for 4 quid! Thats Laos on the other side of the Mekong. After that I fly back to Bangkok on the 14th and do Thailand properly, before heading to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and Southern Vietnam.
Well thats enought wittering on from me, so I'll leave you in peace, and wish you all a fond farewell! Write soon as its always nice to hear whats going on back home!
Til the next time.........
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