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Published: August 6th 2011
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Last time I wrote I think we were waiting for a bus to the Laos-Thai border, and now more or less a week later we are in southern Thailand, in Phuket. A week is a long time it seems!
So, quick recap...we spent 5 days in Luang Prabang relaxing for our anniversary. It is a really nice little town in an idyllic location. Two rivers meet at the edge of town, there are lush green hills all around and there is a very laid back feel to the place - in Laos everything is laid back, but here even more so. The weather was a little bit better than Vang Vieng, and we even managed to have a swim one day, but ultimately we were keen to carry on moving and made our way (via 8 hour bus jouney) to Phonsavan.
Phonsavan is home to the Plain of Jars - three separate sites housing hundreds of 2000+ year old stone jars in varying states of repair. It is thought that they were burial urns used for fallen warriors, although there is no tangible evidence to support the theory. They may also have been used to celebrate a victory. Who
knows? Unfortunately for us the inclement weather meant that access to 2 of the 3 sites was blocked to motor vehicles, and as they lay some 30+ km from town we decided against walking or cycling. We did walk to the first site though, which is around 12km from town, although the route we took was a bit longer thanks to the advice of a local! It is a strange experience walking among the jars. They are undoubtedly incredibly old and shrouded in a veil of mystery, yet I couldn't help but feel somewhat underwhelmed. I think the mystery is partly to blame in a way, there is no information available at the site, no sign posts, no wooden boards explaining what you are looking at. All you have are white markers on the floor that lead the way (and warn you not to stray as there may be landmines) and a collection of 300+ jars dotted over a couple of acres. It is interesting and intriguing of course, but ultimately a bit, well dull. Still, we found a cheap Indian restaurant in town so not all was lost!
From there we took an excruciatingly slow 11 hour bus
ride back to Vientiane, the capital. The highlight was a stop at a market stall in the afternoon when a couple of locals bought bags of crabs. One of which promptly escaped from its plastic bag much to my amusement. In Vientiane we visited the Buddha Park, a field 25km from town with hundreds of statues, some big, some small, all depicting or dedicated to Buddha. It sounds weird but is actually really interesting, and one of my favourite things in Laos. We then killed time for a day or two waiting to be able to cross the border to Thailand. If you cross by land you are only allowed to stay for 15 days, and our flight to Indonesia is on the 8th of August, so....
We took the night train from Vientiane (strictly speaking Nong Khai) to Bangkok where we also planned to do some Visa shopping for Myanmar. The train was great, more luxurious than the night trains in either China or Vietnam, and very smooth. We arrived in Bangkok early and found some accommodation in the vicinity of, but not on, Khao San Road. For those that don't know, this is the main backpacker road
in Bangkok, and it is loud to say the least. The road is lined with bars, clubs, street stalls, markets, dance troupes, anything and everything essentially that you could need. Apparently. I'm not so convinced, though the food stalls were good!
We visited a few sights (royal palace, Ayuthaya, China town, little arabia) and generally explored the city. It is not likely to become one of my favourites it is fair to say, but it has a certain appeal that makes you linger. In places it is as squalid and ugly as is imaginable, in others it is attractive and airy and not at all like you would imagine. The one thing I realised as well was how lucky we are in Europe to have the benefit of integrated transport systems, indeed it is something that I took for granted. The Bangkok transport network is in its infancy, with only one metro line, 2 skytrain lines (elevated metro basically) and buses and river taxis to navigate a sprawling metropolis. Initially it was immensely frustrating having to use 3 or 4 forms of transport to travel across town. But I soon realised that this is the best way to see the
city, meet locals and generally understand a bit more about the place. It was on one such bus journey that I had the following conversation with a middle aged Thai guy. Normally the questions are simple and standard, where are you from, how long are you here etc. Only this bloke had a different script.
Thai Guy: Where you from?
Me: England
TG: Ah, from Soho?
Me: Erm, no, from the north, Bradford.
TG: Have you been to Soho?
Me: Erm yes I have, have you?
TG: No, but I look on internet. Many prostitutes in Soho.
Me: Right, yes, well, I suppose so
TG: Have you sleep with prostitute?
Me: No, I’m a married man
TG: Ah, and before marry?
Me: Erm, no I had a girlfriend
TG: Ah, so you no experience with prostitutes?
Me: No, indeed not.
TG: Me, many experience with prostitutes. Many prostitutes in Thailand.
Me: Right, quite.
TG: But not so good, many prostitute have disease.
Me: Hmmm, indeed. I think this is our stop…..
Hard to follow that really, so very quickly from Bangkok we took a 15 hour bus south to Phuket where we are spending most of
our time at the beach and on Monday 8th we fly to Bali to meet some friends! Das Leben ist aber schwer.....!
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Gord83
Gordon Dunlop
Cracking photos guys...looks like you're having an amazing time! So what you're telling us is there are no prostitues in Bradford?