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Published: March 28th 2006
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It seems that without fail, no journey I undertake in Asia can run smoothly. The mere hint of a thought of naïve smoothness in my mind and the touching of something wooden, will eventually result in some unexpected situation occurring. Take my boat trip from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw for example. It started well, and finished great, travelling through spectacular (though hazy) scenery, little communities and kids everywhere swimming, fishing, or manically waving at us as if their lives depended on it. But of course, this false sense of security is fraught with danger as we pass through ridiculously shallow and narrow sections of rapids that would be hard to even float a rubber duck through. Our boat driver gave off the impression he knew what he was doing though, which helps, as long as he did, in fact, know what he was doing, and the narrowest of routes would miraculously present themselves between rocks as we ploughed through - upstream. Only occasionally did we have to get out of the boat in knee-deep water and help push it up against the shallow, strong current, but this is normal for a boat trip...right?
This is just a small blog
(I can hear your breathing relaxation from here), to keep you up-to-date with my ramblings back to Bangkok, before, I suspect, my disappearance from the wild and crazy blog scene for a couple of weeks as Caroline arrives!!!!!!
And why not have one more exclamation mark for good luck: !
Nong Khiaw is a small, bustling village either side of the river connected by a huge Roman-esque bridge, surrounded 360o by tall, green (or black) mountains - in many ways reminiscent of Chamonix in the Alps. I spent a day exploring the countryside and nearby villages by my now favourite type of bicycle in Asia (to those who remember) - except in the hilly landscape here (as opposed to the flat, Cambodian landscape). the fruitful friendship with my 1-geared bike was fading fast, as my calf muscles can vouch for. A large cave the villagers lived in during the Indo-China war, an American 200-pound bomb crater, the constant raining everywhere of leafy-charred embers from the fires that persist on the mountainside, a kid successfully fishing with the use of nothing but some goggles and a fork, the constant coughing and beating in of the smoke from the fires
that persist on the mountainside, and daring myself to swim across the strong-currented river, were some of the ingredients of another normal random day, before heading back to Luang Prabang on the next.
It was a bit of a crowded day as no sooner was I back in Laos' 2nd city, I was off to spend a pleasant afternoon at a waterfall. But not just any waterfall. The Kuang Si Falls which I've been harassed about by pretty much every traveller in Laos; "go to waterfall", "you must visit the waterfall", "why haven't you gone to the waterfall yet?" and so on. So I went. Damn glad I did too - with dozens of blue/green swimming holes stretching a couple of hundred metres downstream, and the main 3-tiered falls itself, Disney could not have done better. I bumped into a couple of crazy monks here too (as you do), who didn't seem to care about their bright, clean, orange robes getting wey by constantly jumping into the pools. They were obsessed with me taking photos of them with my camera too, to a point where I had to pretend the disk was full - what are these monks like,
eh?! Finally, they asked me to send the photos to them and consequently gave me the coolest postal address ever: Muonna Temple, Luang Prabang, Laos, before one of them then gave me his hotmail address (go figure..).
The journey south then continued as I got the overnight bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, situated on the northern side of the Mekong, overlooking Thailand, arriving early enough to settle into a guesthouse, hire a bike and have the main sights (mostly temples, obviously), ticked off before 'This Morning' would've finished on UK TV. Two of these being: 1)Pha That Luang - Laos' national symbol, the front cover of the Lonely Planet and basically a big, yellow monument, and 2)Patuxai, or the Arc de Triomphe, commemorating the war dead, but amusingly built by concrete donated by the US for the construction of a new airport. This left a day and a half to get a feel for the 120,000 population city, as a relatively peaceful place. Many moan there's little to do here, which in many respects is true, but a little reading overlooking the Mekong, a tasty fruitshake here, a painfall massage there, and one can easily wile away
a couple of days.
So it's "byebye" to Laos, as I travel to the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge and south into Thailand, where everything is thankfully, cheaper than Laos (as long as you don't buy anything in Khao San Road, but you would have to be stupid to do that). I was here for far too short a time - a phrase you're used to hearing from me, although you could spend 5 years here and still it would never be enough. It's been great, a complete contrast to every other S.E. Asian country - no moto drivers, no big metropolises or smog (a writer is allowed to washover the forest fires in return for painting a pleasant picture), no touts and very peaceful - though the early morning cockerals are still out in force, but you can't have everything can you? Great, unhurried people, a just as great countryside, and one of the best beers around, I know I"ll be back one day.
With no time to spare in Nong Khai at the border, I get one final night bus (my 3rd in 2 weeks, urgh), dine on a Pot Noodle and peanut butter sandwiches, and arrive today,
Nong Khiaw
View from the bridge refreshed in Bangkok, otherwise officially known as: Krungthep Mahanakhon Amonratanakosin Mahintara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Popnopparat (I'm not making this up) Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amonpiman Avatansathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukamprasit, but I doubt you'll see that on many maps...a yes, that took a while to type.
And that's the circle complete, which if you join the dots of all the places I've been too, looks more like the outline of a mountain goat's head. You might also have gathered from the photos that by the luck of the gods, my camera has started working again! I was slightly relieved to say the least. Although, it was typically after I had just bought a $10 disposable camera that I now don't really need, and is therefore where you come in. If you have any ingenious ideas as to what type of photos I can take on my newly aquired disposable over the next 4 months, please, write me a comment. Winner of the best idea gets, err...a pair of chopsticks, how does that sound? Happy thinking, if you can be bothered, and have a grand 2 weeks. All the best, Simon x
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camera idea!
We've all heard the phrase, "What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?"..........well, "What does a Tibetan monk wear under his robe?" (should one's mother be asking that?!