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Buddha Bling!
46 metres long, covered in gold leaf. Reclining Buddhas represent the final part of Buddha's transition to nirvana. The vague plan that I had for the final phase of my 12 month travel extraveganza was a meandering journey through Indochina. I was not sure how much I'd be able to squeeze in to my fairly short time here, but I've never really subscribed to the hang-around-for-weeks-with-other-backpackers-whilst-claiming-to-be-really-cultural travelling philosophy.
The journey began in Bangkok where I rendezvoused with Riikka. We had notions of heading north to Chiang Mai and then crossing into Laos, northern Vietnam, somehow getting to Cambodia, and maybe a little time on a southern Thai island at the end of the trip. I'd then get myself to Hong Kong for my flight home, and Riikka would return to Australia.
Thailand
Bangkok is vast. The first several things that struck me when I got off the airport bus were smells, strong and contractidory, changing with each step I took along the street, each hitting me like a slap in the face.
On our first day we got a cheap tuk tuk around some sights that turned out to be cheap because the driver insisted on taking us to a travel agent and a number of tailors, getting a cut each time we spent money. I
Bangkok
The infamous Khao San Road. had no intention of having a suit made, but soon I was handing over my credit card for a suit, some extra trousers, 3 shirts and 2 ties. At the travel agent we got a plan together for going north on the train and even booked a jungle trek for Chiang Mai. In the afternoon we went to the Grand Palace, which was closed, but coveniently there was a bloke there who convinced us to go on a boat trip. It sounded great, but in reality the only place it took us was to a half arsed museum that we had to pay extra to get in. On day 2, we went on an organised tour to the Damnoen Saduak floating markets, a "Tiger Temple", the death railway museum, and the bridge over the River Kwai made famous by the movie of the same name. You'll read about my opinions of the first two in the photo captions. Suffice to say, that by the end of the day I was feeling like so far we'd been thoroughly wrung through the Thai tourism machine, but had got very little out of it. Thankfully this would change further north.
We spent
Big Buddha
We were lucky to visit him on the day the Buddha has has clothes changed to signify the start of a new season. His gold robe was changed for... an identical gold robe. the best part of a week in and around Chiang Mai, a pleasent little city compared to Bangkok. It has some great temples to wander around and bustling night markets to fritter away our Baht at. We spent 3 days trekking in the nearby jungle. I beat one of our hilltribe guides at a catapult competition, and was a bit embarrased for beating him at his own game so I felt I had to put up with wearing a stupid hat that he made for me out of a big leaf.
Laos
Luang Prabang is described as "Asia's most charming town" by the Lonely Planet. It is certainly a nice place. As in Thailand, there were not as many tourists as I'd expected - we seem to be here in the low season. This is great as we're getting some really good accommodation for very cheap. Drawing the inevitable parallels with South America, Southeast Asia is certainly more expensive than Peru and Bolivia for both accommodation and food but the average standards are much higher. It is a more comforatble place to travel, but I do feel some of the authenticity has been lost in the clammer for the
Wat Pho
Southeast Asia has more fascinating temples with intricate and colourful decoration than you can shake a stick at. This is one of the better ones in Bangkok. tourist dollar. Certainly more so than in Bolivia.
Ultimately we spent less time in Laos than I'd initially thought we would. Sure, we could have gone kayaking or trekking or white water rafting, but I've done all that before in better places and I don't think these activities - wholly manufacured for the backpacker crowds - tell you very much about a place. Instead we elected to go and see the Plain of Jars, and find out a bit more about the US "Secret War" in Laos, before heading to Vietnam earlier than planned.
We had a great guide for the Plain of Jars, the son of the man who opened it up to tourism in the early 90s, and the key player in researching the history of th0e jars. As fascinating as the jars are, I was equally interested in the Secret War. Amazingly the people don't seem to be bitter that the US bombed their country for nearly 10 years, creating a legacy of UXO (unexploded ordenance) that regularly kills people to this day. Our guide told us a story of when he was a child and found an unexploded cluster bomd on a school trip
Floating Markets
What should have been a fascinating insight into day-to-day Thai culture was an altogether depressing experience. Money for a tour to take us there, more money for a boat trip around the floating market, and for this we get paddled around, battling through the narrow canal packed with other tourist boats, and taken from one souvenir stall to the next. Some Thais have become experts at extracting Baht from us tourists, but I dont expect to pay for them to do this! in the woods. He picked it up and threw it at a group of girls! Thankfully it didnt go off. Bombs of every size are literally found everywhere all the time, and the people seem to accept them - have to accept them I suppose - as part of life. Bomb parts are used everywhere, as plant pots, or fence posts, or melted down and made into spoons. At the end of the tour, the guide took us to a cluster bomb he'd found the week before in a field. It was still there - waiting for someone to come and blow it up with a controlled explosion. It's estimated it could take 100 years to clear Laos of UXO at the current rate of progress. The US dropped more bombs on Laos between 1964 and 1973 than were dropped by all side in the whole of WW2, and they never even admitted that they were doing it! It just blows my mind.
Vietnam
Hanoi is bonkers, simple as that. Nearby Halong Bay, though, was certainly one of the highlights of my trip. It is known as "the bay of a thousand islands", but in fact there are more
Tiger Temple
It was amazing to get this close to a fully grown Indochinese Tiger. Even thought this was in a Buddhist temple setting where they were supposedly rehibilitating the tigers for release into the wild, I couldnt help but feel cynical... are they sedated? is it another tourist cash cow? I dont know, maybe I was just paranoid after the floating markets - but I'm suspicious. than 3000 islands here, of every shape and size. It is so beautiful. The sea seems to be very salty here, you can lie on your back and float. It is also perfectly smooth due to the protection offered by the islands. We did a lot of kayaking, heading through bat-infested caves into hidden lagoons. For much of the time it was drizzling with rain, but that just added to the atmosphere of the place. As with every less developed place that I've been to on my trip, the people here have less envronmental conciousness. Parts of Halong Bay had a distressing amount of rubbish floating around, but generally it was lovely.
From Hanoi we took a sleeper train south to Hue. It was my first sleeper train and it was great. The English couple sharing a cabin with us were a mobile comedy of errors and the constant moaning of the girl kept me giggling to myself all the next day. In Hue we hired a couple of motorcycles with drivers and were taken on an excellent, if helmetless, ride around some local sights. I'm really coming around to the idea that motorcycles (or mopeds as we'd call
Elephant
We found this lovely baby nelly after crossing the famous death railway bridge over the River Kwai. It was chained to the spot and obviously restless. The kids seemed to take care of it, but it purpose in life was to stand there so they could sell us overpriced bananas to feed it. After the markets and the tigers, this was not a good day for my appreciation of Thai tourism. them) are the perfect form of transport. Amazing fuel efficiency, great agility, and just think of how much space would be gained on London streets if everyone swapped their cars for mopeds. No one bothers to wear a helmet here, but then people don't seem to be in a rush, so accidents are rare.
This morning was spent getting sunburnt on the nice beach at Hoi An. Tomorrow some more cultural stuff. I'm really enjoying Vietnam - it's certainly my favourite country on this leg of the trip. There's something I need to get to the bottom of though: I don't understand how the government works - the realities of what is supposedly a thriving communist country. It's interesting to see the iconic hammer and sickle everywhere, but what does it mean in reality? On the surface capitalism seems to operate at every level.
I'll endevour to research this (read google it) and have the answers ready for my next, and final, blog entry. What a dramatic cliffhanger!
BFN.
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Tim
non-member comment
Great account again mate, and a lot of contrasting things to see from the looks of it. True to the authentic traveller with the LP tucket under his arm. Having said that, we all know that that Tiger is just a big fluffy toy...