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Published: March 13th 2009
Afternoon one and all...
Well once again I start with Apologies. It has been far far far too long for me to even begin to try and excuse the lack of content I have (or have not, depending on how you look at it) been writing. This is not to say we haven't had anything to write about, far from it. The usual has occured in which both Lyd and I have been busy beyond belief for me to sit and write in the great depths I have previously attempted. For this reason amongst many others I have decided to write a snapshot to get everone up to speed with where we currently are and what we have done over the past month (really is it that long, I'm so sorry!). This is also an update for the few who have badgered me to do so...you know who you are and I now hope that you are happy...
We begin with entering Laos from Cambodia, a relatively easy crossing, and headed for the sleepy and captivating island of Don Det. We stayed in a wonderful one bed bungalow. The bed was the size of the room and electricity was
non existant. the showers was water pumped straight out of the Mekong, so how clean we got I am unsure.... The family who we stayed with was the BongSong family. A lovely, fairly well off family who I managed to make good friends with by sitting with them in the mornings, warming ourselves over the fire which Mr Bongsong seemed to always create. It was lovely to sit with them and watch the sun rise, trying to converse with one another, but only managing the usual pigeon.
The other most memorable part of this was going out on a fishing trip with Saa, Mr Bongsong's son. We cast off in a small wooden boat, Saa and a friend of his, Lydia and I. We spent the afternoon catching fish and then settled up on the shore to stoke up a fire and start cooking what we had caught. Without warning Saa's friends started to slowly join us, all arriving at the same shore, all in their own wooden boats and all bringing along their own catches of the day, not to mention sticky rice and copious amount of 'Lao Lao'. This is a rice whisky and would quite happily melt
your face off if due care and caution isn't taken whan handing around the bottle. As soon as one bottle was finished so another would appear from another fishermans pocket. A wonderful wonderful afternoon and ended up getting back to the mainland feeling rather squiffy, only to retire to our hammocks, that were hung on our porch, and weep softly into the night. A great day with a great family. When we left a few days later we were given home made bracelets which i'm still wearing now. A lovely family and we were sorry to have to say goodbye.
Don Det to Pakse...a small township where we hired a motorbike (a twist and go pop pop machine Alex, before you start salivating and the usual that I'm unable to write in a pleasant manner for fellow readers...you know what I mean!) and set off for the Bolovian plateau, stopping off at a coffee plantation and obviously buying copious amounts of coffee beans. From here we biked on a dirt road which now as writing is coming back to me all too well...the road wasn't a road, it was a dirt track and an uneven dirt track at that.
We were doing so well, navigating the bumps, pot holes and stones when one came out of nowhere. The slow motion vision kicked in and we were thrown from the bike. Thrown possibly isn't the correct terminologiy but adding the seasoning and essence of artistic licence proves we were catapulted from the bike! The reality being we were travelling so slowly we could have practically laid the bike down. Unfortunately we suffered some small cuts and a few bruises, not to mention the huge loss of confidence in biking. Not forgetting that we had another 20 odd Km left to travel along this road. Turning back would mean another 10km... We had no choice but to push onwards, the night slowly creeping upon us. We made it with no more mishaps and got to the main road where, as if by magic, a Pharmacy was positioned...it couldn't have been put in a more convenient spot! The lady there patched up the fallen apart Mona Lisa and the faded Cerne Giant and we went on our merry way to Tat Lo.
We spent the night in Tat Lo and spent the evening chatting to two lovely Isralie people who we
then spent the next day with. Around Tat Lo are some really stunning waterfalls which we all went to explore, it was magical! the waterfalls were beautiful with crystal clear water. Here we all went swimming and were all shocked as to how cold the water actually was! it was beautiful however and swimming underneith a waterfall is such a fantastic experience.
The next morning we headed off back to Pakse only to be confronted with another problem in the form of a puncture on the rear tyre. We got off our ever exhausted bike to push to the next village and to find a tyre repair shop. The scenery was lovely and it was quite nice to take more of it in whilst taking time to push our bike onwards. Villagers stopped what they were doing to see the westerners and were eventually helped by the police! They pulled up behind us in a flat bed van (Very cool police vehicles if you ask me), loaded the bike in the back, and took us off to a place they knew for a new tyre. The journey was one which, after writing this, I will leave at the
back of my mind. You see the lovely, friendly nation of Laos are a very loving community. Men show their affection in a way westerners would normally be more comfortable with if in a relationship. I'm not talking kissing or whatever images you may be having at this moment. But holding hands, rubbing thighs and rubbing stomachs and heads is considered normal. They were meaning no harm by this and only meant affection of a friendly nature, but being a westerner with western ways it was a little uncomfortable. With all of this I had to keep laughing and joking with them. 1 they were police and 2 we were headed off to the tyre repair shop.
Eventually we got there, the tyre was changed and as a thanks we bought some beer for the police which was then thrust upon me to drink with them. I tried to say I was driving but they argued it was ok. I have never been in such a surreal situation. Police men, encouraging me to drink beer with them when they knew I had to drive. What could I say, I tried to mime a 'no, because I had to drive' but
they insisted. Never again will that happen, I'm not even sure it did, but Lyd confirmed it. Eventually we managed to peel ourselves away from what was turning out to be quite a party, and head onwards towards Pakse, which surprisingly, we managed to end up in one piece.
Vientiene was next on the agenda, and what a let down if i must say. For a capital city it was tiny. Beautiful, but in this case the quantity was an issue as well as quality. We arrived on an overnight bus at 6:30. By 6:30 that same evening we had pretty much covered the city. We walked it all too which proves that either Lyd and I were on speed, or Vientiene was no bigger than a 10 pence piece. So we moved on rather quickly to Vang Vieng, a very touristy place with the 'tubing' being the main attraction. Tubing being where you are given an inner tube of a tractor tyre and get taken up river by tuktuk, then cruise the rest of the way down the river, back to Vang Vieng, stopping off at the bars on route. However we shall gloss over this and will
leave you, the reader, in the knowlege I woke up with quite a headache the next morning.
The bus from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang could quite easily hold its place sitting next to the likes of 'oblivion', 'Nemesis' and the 'Tea-cups'. Winding, hairpin roads with our bus driver, suicidally overtaking another bus, on a hill, on a bend with no barriers and with drops of near certain death if he were to misjudge the manouver. Sleep as you can imagine was a little on the difficult side, so even trying to forget what the bus driver was doing by visiting the land of sheep was a physical impossibility. We did however arrive in one piece which was nice. This lead us to the small quaint town of Luang Prabang.
Beautiful, really nice streets and buildings with a fantastic night food market. And all so cheap! One stall slightly misjudging the depths of my stomach whenever I am lucky enough to see the words 'all you can eat, on one plate.' My balancing skills noted this clause and thankfully, they didn't let me down. I managed to work my way back to where we were sitting, navigating through,
around and over small Asian families and settled in my seat without even the hint of a bean-shoot touching the floor. My Karma must have been noted at this point as being unbalanced, I had had far too much of a good thing...the next morning wasn't a fun one. Or the day for that matter. Without the sloppy details...you get the picture...
Eventually we managed to get to Hue Xai which is the border crossing into Thailand. Eventually we were going to enter Thailand. Two months late, hardened from such an ordeal, and a much lighter wallet. We crossed without problems, getting the stamp with our departure date on it. On inspection a few hours later we descovered that we had only been given 15 days. This was infuriating. the reason behind the 15 day policy is because we crossed the border over land. Apparently people flying into Bangkok were still getting the full 30days. We resigned ourselves to finding out what we had to do to get an extention....this was simple, for an extra 7 days (only giving us 22 days and not the 30 we wanted) it would be the equivalant of 40 GBP each. We went
Our First House!
(last one on the right)to the immigration office in Bangkok and argued our case and it turns out that they are all a collection of the highest ranking w**kers you could possibly find in the entire universe. Smug, self satisfied little boys, safe in the knowledge that they have a small but annoying amount of power over the immortal soul who dares to bother his coffee break. We didn't get the visa extention. But anyway I have jumped the gun a little here, from Chiang Kong (Thailands side of the border) we went to Chiang Rai, a small but cute town with a HUGE food market in the evening where for the price of a pint you could be filled to the point of it pouring out of every orifice you have. A sight which Lydia has seen in myself and which, thankfully, she has accepted will occaisionally happen.
So from here we went to Chae Son National Park. A really fun and stunningly well kept national park with hot springs and forest walks. Camping under the stars, cooking on open fires and relaxing to the max. Utter Bliss!
Then scout group came...100 of them. We left shortly after.
From here
we went to Chiang Mai, another of the well travelled parts of Thailand. We had great fun here, turning up on the one weekend a flower festival was taking place....The word festival seemed to be a little too over descriptive in my eyes, yes there were some flowers, yes people seemed to be excited about it, but the main attraction I could see was the endless amount of food stalls. Fun though, and we did see a street parade with a huge dragon being paraded around by about 20 people. was so much fun and really enjoyed the evening.
From here we bundled our way to Lop Buri. A fantastic small town with the added bonus (of the traveller at least) of hundreds of monkeys. There are huge old ruins in this small township, which, for some reason, are dominated by monkeys. The streets are clogged full of the little terrors who sit about eating, scratching and tearing apart anything that isn't firmly fixed. The powerlines are their highways, allowing them to roam around the town with great authority. Visiting the ruins at feeding time is impressive, although don't allow yourself to get too close with a camera...they don't
like it! This I found out by crouching down to a monkey who was sitting and eating. I held the camera out and got a great shot of the face a monkey pulls before attacking. A well timed jump and a quick swipe of the hand prevented the monkey from doing me any damage, but still, it was a lesson quickly learned in not getting too close!
Ayutthia was the next port of call. The old Thai capital. Scattered with many temples all set around a huge river. We spent a fantastic morning being shipped around the old temples and visiting the ruins.
From Ayutthia we caught the train to Bangkok and found our way to what turned out to be a brilliant guest house (away from the Kho San Road). From here we were able to walk to a lot of places and were a short distance to the transport system, all good stuff! We had a fantastic time in Bangkok, and just so happened to be there over Valentines day. This was a sight to see! Asians have a brilliant and wonderful way of doing 'Kitch'. Pink was everywhere, and I mean everywhere. balloons, clothes, shop
fronts. All red and pink. Girls and guys alike were walking around hand in hand and most with a single red rose, the lucky ones with a bouquet. Lyd and I spent the day in the main shopping centre and were quite taken aback as to how much emphasis was given to Valentines day. It was also quite funny to see the teens all together and holding hands, doing the things that young Asian couples do.
That evening we went to a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, a fantastic restaurant which I have heard about before from friends. I wasn't quite prepared for what I was faced with. The entire place was made up with condoms, statues, light shades, ornaments, you name it and it was made of condoms. Such a surreal sight to see, but apparently a large proportion of the cost of your meal goes to charity. The whole place was set up to promote safe sex in response to the aids crisis and population control (hence the condoms). This was all set up as a fun and jolly place, trying to get the Thai people to talk about sex in a fun and unembarrassing way. This was
previously was a problem, but with the help of Cabbages and Condoms, condoms and sex talk is slowly becoming a more everyday subject. Since Cabbages and Condoms has become so popular their charity scope has widened and now donating money to many causes, the biggest of which recently has been the tsunami appeal. Anyway, enough of what it supports and onto the food.....my word. Some of the best restaurant food I have ever tasted, there were no 'meat and two veg' jokes on the menu, the food was serious and sublime. I can't stress enough the fact that people should go to this restaurant. Yes the food is a little more expensive than the street sellers, obviously, but what you get for your money is incredible, and to know that you are also helping charitable organisations is wonderful. We ordered about 4 different dishes between us. So much food, but so nice, and was a wonderful evening to spend Valentines, both of us came away with huge smiles, and well stuffed tummies!
The following day was not quite as fun. It was time to tackle the Thai Immigration. To cut a fairly long story slightly shorter, when we entered
Thailand through Laos we were only given a 15 day holiday Visa, not the 30 days we were expecting. Apparently the day the riots kicked off in Bangkok airport was also the day they changed the over land Visa regulations. If I could express myself without being rude I would do so here, as it is however I'm going to have to leave the page blank for you to guess what we uttered. So anyway, we headed to the immigration office and waited for over an hour before going up to the desk to talk to the officers. It turns out that to get an extention of only 7 days was going to cost us 40gbp each. 7 days at 40 quid.....again, fill the obsenities here... We were quite livid, not only the fact that the immigration officers said no, but it was how they said no. Rude, abrupt and with obvious pleasure of denying yet more foreigners into their country. We went away with tails between our legs, we still had 3 days left so we made the most of them. Visiting the Palace, Wat Po and trying to march around the city as best we could.
From
Bangkok we got a flight to Malaysia (at least they didn't mind us being in their country) with a list of things to do. Top of the list was visit Singapore. We spent one night in Malaysia, got the train in the morning and headed down to Singapore. We arrived and set up camp in a hostel and headed out towards the famous harbour where we spent the rest of the day and evening. Its a really funny place, very western, very brash and very over the top. Its really odd to be in Malaysia one minute, a relatively poor and struggling country, and then to be surrounded by so much money. The transition is startling. Never-the-less we had good fun, going into Raffles for a drink and throwing peanut shells on the floor. Walking around the many many skyscrapers that famously dominate the Singaporian skyline and poking our heads into the vast and ridiculously brash and expensive hotels that seem to be dotted around everywhere. I found Singapore quite hard to deal with, the countries it neighbours are so far behind in their economic state that it seems vastly unfair that, for whatever reason, Singapore holds the crown. I
understand the physical why and that shipping was hugely important in bringing in the source of the money, and with Mr Raffles taking Singapore from the Dutch reign, turning it British and transforming the port into a vast and important shipping channel making the country rich. I guess that after visiting the other Asian countries and then Singapore proves what sort of a difference westernisation can actually make. Whether it's a good thing or not is for the individual to decide...
So from Singapore and back to Malaysia, to spend one more night with the guys in 'La Village' and then to head out to the beach resort of Port Dickson. We stayed with a lovely and caring lady who seemed to mother us whilst we were there. A funny thing happened on the first night in that I was awoken by a series of banging noises coming from the room next to ours. Needing the loo anyway I decided to get up and see what was going on, walked to the bathroom area to be greeted by an American man who was stark naked, obviously thinking noone else would be up. He quickly shied away and put on
Train
Train some underwear and asked what time it was. I said to him in my sleepy state "I have no idea what time it is, but if you were the guy making the banging noise, could you please try to make less noise in the future". Perfectly within my rights I think, his reply came in an absurdly aggressive manner "Why don't you talk to the lady who owns this place that its my door that's not working properly". To which my reply of "don't have a go at me mate, you just woke me up!" which caused the response of "I don't have to take your shit!". Laughing at him for his response I walked past him and went to the loo and then back to bed. I was greeted in the morning by the lady who ran the hostel who asked if the American had said anything to me last night. I told her what happened when she said that he had come to her in the morning and told her that we were the people making the noise! She said she told him that she doubted this very much and asked him to leave as apparently he was
being a nuisance anyway. What an idiot! Made me laugh though.
So a few days at Port Dickson soaking up the sun, relaxing and of course, juggling! When the few days were over we headed back to Kuala Lumpur and the next day caught our first flight to Australia!
Phew!
Well I hope that this keeps you all content for a while, i still have about 20 odd days of Australia to write up but i was being badgered by many people about writing the next bit of the blog. Please be patient as writing these takes up quite some time, I'm doing my best to keep on top of it but as each day ticks lovingly by so another day adds onto the blog. Its like a viscious circle, but being in the fantastic places that Lydia and myself are in at the moment, how anything can be viscious is beyond me. But like i said, please be patient and blogs will flow.
Love to everyone.
Gx
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Fizz Lewis
non-member comment
Long Blogs
Your last blog must have taken you three weeks to write! I am contacting you on behalf of the Campaign for Shorter Blogs. No wonder you are leaving it a long time. Why don't you make handwritten notes on the day every day - just enough to remind you and write it up fully when you get home. Then just send the odd story from your travels back home for your family/mates to read. That way it won't be such a huge chore for you. just an idea Graham - I'm sure everyone appreciates the trouble you are going to. love Fizzxx