a hunka hunka burning love

dear all,

i have began my journey home. this morning, we hopped into the mini van of a crazy driver who apparently has friends at every other hill tribe village and stops to have tea with them along the way. the man was an elvis fan by the way. that was the finale of his very retro CD collection blarring the entire six hours on the road.

i am currently in vang vieng where the internet is three times more expensive than it is in luang prabang. oh, we’re staying in this very cool little villa near the riverside tonight. the upside: it’s a wooden cabin with woven walls. best kan? the possible downside: there is a high possibility that it will be full of nyamuk. there are mossie nettings provided. it’s a sign.

i will continue my journey southwards tomorrow towards vientiane, to nong khai and board a train from there to bangkok. i think. i’ll only know if ada ticket about five hours before the train is supposed to leave.

will write again from bangkok.

lots of love,
philters

the long way home

i had to get away from the mob and run up mount phu si in order to take this photo. it was not long before i way part of the insanity all over again.

the last two days have just been spectacular. the streets of this otherwise very quiet town were filled with water gun bearing foreigners and water bucket bearing locals. it was absolute madness. loud western music dubbed into lao language (i kid you not!) blarred out of shophouses. everyone shoots at each other with no introduction. asal nampak je orang yang kering, sure will kena splash, tak kisah la budak kecik ke, orang tua ke, monk ke, police man ke…

the geasy pot was a staple in both days’ water fights. addition would be tepung. and coloured water. i have, to this second, have absolutely no idea what was colouring the water and i am not too sure if i want to know. tapi wei, yang paling kejam sekali – out of everything – and i do mean we could run and duck for cover if this comes splashing at us – ICE WATER. ini memang cruel and unusual. time lain kan, kalau kena splash, it’s in good fun and we all memang nak kena splash because as long as we keep wet, it’s nice and fun, tapi kalau datang je truck yang penuh dengan ice water, we all lari wei. kejam kejam kejam…

the new year celebration will go on until tomorrow, but it is all the spiritual rituals now on and no more water fights. we practically dragged ourselves out of bed this morning, only to miss the statue procession. maybe we’ll be up tomorrow morning for the monk alms procession. it’s at 5.30am. maybe. mayyyyyyyy…bee…

tonight will be our third night in luang prabang and we’ve spent the past two evenings making mental notes of our continuously growing night market shopping list. tonight, we decided to do our buying before we go completely broke over unplanned expenditures. so far, i’ve still been able to be loyal to my backpacker budget that i have been very careful not to break. exchange rate kat sini is 9,500 kip to USD 1. but wei, there is this one bag that has been riding on my mind since the first night i got here and if i left this country without it, it would be screaming in my brain for the rest of my life.

it is the middle of april and i guess i will have to start making my way home sometime this week. original plan was to balik ikut northern thailand but maybe plan itu tak jadi. word around the vine is that the mekong speedboat is getting disturbing rap so we might re-route from chiang mai to bangkok instead. it will involve a bit of backtrackking through vangvieng and vientiane to get to nongkhai, but neither of us are really complaining. we love vangvieng that much.

so today and the next two days will be spent in luang prabang contemplating our way home – among other things. physically, i have to say that i personally find this place just like any other. but there is just a very special charm to this place. it has a way of forcing you to relax. this place makes you happily lazy. just really smooth vibes, you know. it calms. i mean this aussie chick a couple of nights ago and she’s been here for what, nine days? and she cannot recall what she has done in those nine days except space out and relaxing. tempat ni memang macam tu. hippy.

i will probably take in the kuang xi waterfalls tomorrow. maybe. probably. i guess. my memory cards dah habis burn so i guess i am on my way for some cold fruit shake, update my travel scrapbook, and finish my book.

happy lao new year!

i love laos. i loved it the last time i was here. it has been about 60 hours on, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and i am loving laos all over again.

yesterday, we stood for four hours in an over crowded bus from vientiane to vangvieng. the tourist bus with proper numbered seats was 60,000 kip. the local bus where anythig goes is 25,000 kip. the local hus has about 42 seats but i counted well over a hundred people on the bus. they double seats hold about four people across. the people here have this ingenious way of pulling the seat out sikit so that the person who sits dalam sits on the hard plank board and the coushion can hold an extra person on the outside. the rest of the people stand.

we all sanggup stand for the four hours semata-mata nak pegi river tubing.

we all sampai vangvieng about 12noon. we all had lunch. turned to go and change into our swinsuits – and the in rained!!! it not just rained… it poured!!! we all did not know what to say to each other. we just stared at the rain. we only had one day to be in vangvieng before moving on to luang prabang. that was when we resolute: we are going river tubing in the rain.

the gods must have heard our sorry state because after we changed and made our way to the river, the rain stopped. the water was not as deras as we’d like it but it was still very cool nevertheless. i am reminded over and over again why vang vieng is a natural hippy paraside. the river (of course!). the gorgeous limestone. the beer lao. the giant high swings. the loud reggae music – what more does a humble traveller need?

today is the first day of the lao new year and we are fortunate enough to have a bus ticket to luang prabang to celebrate the event. the lao new year celebration is kinda like thailand’s songkran. just that we don’t have water cannons bigger than a plastic water blaster and bucket loads of water – good old fashion style.

the lao people go about it with gusto though. sepanjang jalan all the way to luang prabang, we have been ambushed by people with loads and loads of water who will simpah the van and toss water in through the window. our driver memang sengaja tak on the air con so we all terpaksa open the window. nampak je ada some tell tale patch of water or a bunch of laughing kids, we quickly had to slam the windows closed. it was tremendously fun. ada sekali tu when after ascending a rather slow hill, everyone on the van fell asleep, when suddenly a huge splash came right into the window and we were so basah!!!

that was not the end of it though. the van dropped us at the luang prabang bus station and we has to get a tuktuk all the way ont town. tuktuks, for those who don’t know, ain’t got no windows! it is open air with a bumbung suspended by some iron. and luang prabang is supposed to be the heartbeat of the lao new year celebration.

we all kena simbah air by the buckets, but the plastic water guns, by the hoses!!! by the time we reached town, we were dripping… and i really do mean DRIPPING wet from head to toe. nasih baik la i was wearing a dark coloured t-shirt. but you know what, that was still not the end of it.

at the heart of the town were some pretty intense water fights. there were people going about with some coloured faces and before i knew it, we were under attack by water from all direction and some people shoving their hands through our tuktuk and covering us… me… with some black colouring!!! i wiped it, smelt it, and horrifically learnt what it was… GREASE FROM THE BOTTOM OF A COOKING POT!!! ON MY FACE!!!

the lao new year is all in good fun and no one really gets angry with being covered with flowers and flour and yes, even grease. it was really, really very funny. so there i was folks. dripping wet. covering in grease. no, i don’t have a picture of it. no one dared to take out our cameras when water is flying in every unknown direction. it is a giant street party out there.

we checked into our guest house and contemplated if we should shower and change or not. we voted ‘or not.’ because the party was going on and sure enough, keluar je dari guest house kena simbah lagi.

so here i am. in the cybercafe. not so greasy anymore, but my pants are still a bit damp from the evening. the new year celebration is actually four days long. i am not too sure if it means it is a four-day long water fight (part of me actually hopes it is), but there are special ritual things and all for the next three days over here.

which means kena bangun awal to see the parades and processions and all. hah! we have actually been trying to bangun awal for the past two days but we went to bed so partied out that we woke up just in time to catch our inter-city buses. this morning was no exception. but well, tomorrow is another shot at life, ain’t it?

happy lao new year, folks!

i survived lonely planet’s south east asian nightmare bus

twenty hours and thirty two minutes later, i am in vientiane. i have not slept for more than an hour straight in the past two days so here’s a quick update to say that i have arrived safely with only minor terminal injuries.

the bus was packed with people and goose. think people sitting on plastic stools on the corridor of the bus for 20 hours. think frozen goose juice dripping for styrofoam boxes strapped to the top of the bus.

fixing our ruptured tyres at the cao treo border crossing. it was cold up the mountains but i just HAD to take this shot.

two tyres were punctured along the way.

stuck at the cau treo immigration border for three hours. it was not pretty.

will update more when i am in a less phazed state of mind.

say a prayer for my peace of mind tonight, my friends.

the lonely planet vietnam calls it “the bus ride from hell”. the lonely planet SEA on a shoestring calls the ride a “mini-nightmare.” the people on the thorn tree forum says that it’s better to run into china and cross two borders and four immigrations than to take this direct bus ride.

that’s right, at USD15 a seat, i will be on the 22-hour bus ride from the capital of vietnam to the capital of laos, vientiane. 22 hours is what the girl who sold me the ticket tells me. travellers who have gone on the same route tells me the hours are closer to 30. the difference between a bus and a plane ticket is a good USD100 which is about RM350. so you see the predicament i am in.

seriously though, if this blog is not updated again by the midnight of monday, 16th april 2007, please file a missing person report at the following numbers:

wisma putra in putrajaya: 03-8887 4000 / 03-8887 4570

malaysian embassy in laos: 856 – 21 – 414205 / 06

malaysian embassy in vietnam: 84-4-734 38 36 / 84-4-734 38 49

i will probably be crossing at the cau treo border between the two countries. oh, and please be gentle in breaking the news to my mom.

now that we have that out of the way, i have to tell you about my visit to the ethnology museum yesterday! it was absolutely awesome and really one of the museums i’ve enjoyed most on this trip. the museum is about the people of vietnam, but not set at the time of the war. it is about the people struggling through the dark ages after the war. how the revolution has affected them. a period of depression among the vietnamese. and what they did during the time. i learnt that there were some years where food and groceries were rationed among families. how food were distributed by food stamps. how the people work to gain extra income. some even started rearing chickens and pigs in the bathrooms of their apartments to gain extra income. how owning a bicycle at the time was a supreme luxury. how salt was precious. how teachers were paid so little, they also doubled as bakers and tailors to get a bit more money. how the media was suppressed. i learnt about the struggle and controversy of writers and poets and film makers. there were also exhibits of the tribal ethnic houses – how some of them are made from bricks compressed from the earth, how some of them had giant bamboo roofs.

the ethno museum is a little out of hanoi town itself but absolutely worth going to. i planned to spend just a couple of hours there but it stretched to about almost four hours. and even then i swear i could spend so much more time there learning about their ethnic wedding rituals and funeral rites and mystical coming-of-age customs.

we took so long at the ethno museum that we had to rush to the temple of literature because we were afraid it would close and we’d have to come back the next day. okay i need to acknowledge that the temple of literature is an important place in vietnam history. important scholars, first university, important steleas yada yada… but i guess after the ethno museum, my expectation of places soar so high, i thought it was just so-so alright.

this morning, i was at the ho chi minh mosoleum. despite his final wished to be cremated, ho chi minh’s body was embalmed and everyday, thousands of people line up to see him. i really do mean thousands of people. i lined up for an hour just to see him for 30 seconds. he was very strictly guarded. no cameras allowed in. in fact, no bags of any kind allowed in at all. ho chi minh’s body was nicely preserved tho.

just for the heck of it, i visited the malaysian embassy in hanoi just now. just to they know about my missing camera. i must admit that i did expect a little more warmth in hospitality though, after being immersed in the glum of vietnam for over two weeks. but it is another office there for them and i guess it is strange for a traveller from back home to stroll in and expect a bit of malaysia in hanoi.

after being here for over two weeks, i do miss the malaysian smiles. from personal observations, people here just don’t smile as often as we do. we have this thing about just smiling for the heck of it. and you know, i miss that. people here seem to smile with an underlying reason. usually, with expectation for you to buy something or take a motor ride. maybe that’s just me, man.

this is probably my last post from hanoi. here are what i shall miss most about this city: eating pho bo on a low stool by the streets. the crazy bicyclists (especially those loaded with a hundred rolls of toilet paper). men in berets. women in conical hats. water puppets. that corner between luong ngoc quyen and ta hien with beer cheaper than water, they might as well be giving it away for free. the cool wind that comes mysteriously from every direction. good morning vietnam t-shirts which identify tourists because locals don’t wear them. and though i won’t miss crossing the crazy traffic, i will miss being a spectator to it.

well.

like i said, say a prayer for me tonight. hold me in your thoughts. remember me in your dreams. don’t be perverted – i just get so poetic everytime i am about to cross a border.

i have less than two hours before i get on that nightmare bus and i’m trying to figure out how to psych myself up for it. i’m not tired out enough to doze off on the bus yet (damn that sweet vietnamese drip coffee i had with lunch!!!).

Protected: the road to indochina

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

i have spent 18 hours in a bus. eighteen. fucking. hours. but that’s just the icing on my last 48 hours.

rainy morning in vangvieng. word on the street that monsoon season is just starting in these parts of southeast asia. i tell people that it is due in about three months more in malaysia. promote negara sendiri wei…!

our story begins on a nice and stormy morning in vangvieng. vangvieng, as i was saying, comprised mostly of two roads, both were under heavy development, resulting in red dugout earth everywhere.

so you can imagine walking on the roads of vangvieng. there wasn’t exactly a walkway, because it was filled with hills after hills of pebbles or more red earth.

my. jeans. are. ruined!

an extra row of seats in the bus from vangvieng to ventiane. i am so grateful that we got to the bus early!

we got on a bus to veintiane at 10am because we wanted to save a measly 5000kip for a 9am bus. the bus was penuh giler dengan manusia. mostly other travellers. how full was the bus? there was a row of plastic chairs in the corridor of the bus to create an extra row of seats. that full.

vientiane was a large city. i agree with the longly planet on this one. it is a hard city to love. lots of cars. not so high rise but dirty buildings. yelling tuktuk drivers.

oh my god, the tuktuk drivers. we walked right past one and ignored this guy who was offering us a ride, and then he clapped his hands behind us and started screaming for us to ride with him. i yelled back some not so polite things in malay. i had an incredibly bad morning so far. it shut that guy up, but just then, another tuktuk driver drove right up to us with an exorbitant offer to go to friendship bridge. 80,000kip he says. 50,000kip or nothing, david said. the driver relented. we hop on the tuktuk and midway, it started to rain.

in a tuktuk at ventiane. it rained. our poor tuktuk driver got completely drenched. kesian giler wei… dah la we all tawar kow-kow for the ride… we did tip him in the end tho…

rain poured into the tuktuk in every direction. depan. belakang. tepi. the driver unravelled these sheets of plastics which only minimised the rain gushing into the tuktuk. he himself got terribly drenched. i felt bad when we arrived at a bridge, so we gave him the remained of whatever kip we had left as a tip.

crossing friendship bridge which borders laos and thailand. friendship bridge is the second bridge ever built across the mekong river. the first one links laos to china.

we crossed the border on a 10B shuttle over friendship bridge, linking thailand and laos, the second to have ever been build over the mekong river, the first linking laos to china. it was still raining.

arriving in nongkhai. sa wa dee kaa…!

we arrive in nongkhai. took a tuktuk over to udonthani. bought an 8pm bus to chiangmai. it was somewhere around 6pm at the time. we went for lunch.

i think it is universal to say that the best place to eat is where there are lots of locals eating. in the case of yesterday evening, the place where plenty of locals were eating also had owners who smiled a lot, but did not speak english. at. all. we ordered food by pointing to what other people were eating.

we had about one hour to spare after that. kawan kita ni nak pegi jalan2 tengok the town. aku pulak not so sure because town ni bukan nya besar, tapi kalau nak tengok semua tempat yang ada pada papan tanda pelancungan yang ada kat sini, memang tak sempat. dia nak pegi jugak. dia pun pegi lah suba menawar harga dengan pembawa tuktuk. dia tunjuk tempat this and that and pembawa tuktuk pun bagi lah harga. masalahnya bukan saja pada masa, tapi juga dengan cara dia menawar harge dengan orang warganegara sini. saya mendapat impression yang dia fikir semua orang nak mengambil kesempatan because dia orang kulit putih.

night falls on udonthani. i am at the back of a tuktuk.

anyway to cut a long story short, kami mendapat tuktuk dari luar because orang kat station bas tak nak bawak kami. aku rasa mereka pun rasa terhina sikit dengan cara orang asing ni. udonthani adalah pekan yang kecil. banyak kenderaan. banyak lampu. tapi masih pekan yang kecil yang menjadi medan transit bagi pelancung2 yang nak ke bangkok atau chiangmai.

our bus was supposed to reach chiangmai at 7am. it reached here a little after 2pm. it rained like crazy in the night. the bus leaked. can you believe it? it fucking leaked. i had water dripping all over me. all. night. long. the rain was so heavy, the roads flooded. the bus tried to go through the flood but could not, so had to turn back and stop at one of the terminals along the way and wait it out. as a result of the bus trying to brave the flood anyway, all over backpacks which the disallowed us to bring onto the bus and was stowed on the cargo compartment was drenched. my poor lonely planet guide is all tattered. my clothes all wet. my paper lantern that i bought from luangprabang rosak.

i forgot to mentioned that we travelled from udonthani to chiangmai with a lao monk. cool, eh? he’s from the north but has been studying at a monestry in vientiane for years now and now wants to pursue buddhism in chiangmai now.

good morning, chiangmai. good to see you again.

i am in chiangmai tonight. i’ve got three more days and two more nights left to my trip. i fear that i might not have time to go to maehonson and pai – eight hours away via bus – to see the hill tribes. there is an event starting here tomorrow though, some sort of festival at wat chendi luang, so i guess i’ll go and see that that’s about. i’m also thinking of going to go climb a mountain a coupla hours from here – thailand’s highest peak – but i can’t remember the name of the mountain. 2,000 over meters je… something like halfway up the kinabalu – boleh buat day trip=)

with love from khaosan road… vangvieng

i arrived in vangvieng this afternoon at around 2.30pm. david was on the six hour bus with me along with two british dudes who were in the same guest house as we were in luangprabang. ido has gone up north, to luangnamtha, i think.

the bus ride was bumpy nak mampus. it is hardly possible to get any sleeping or reading done on the bus at all. the road is something like the tapah-camerons road, twisted in all the wrong directions, and our bus driver was vicious.

but the view was gorgeous. ranges after ranges of mountains. laos has a lot of that, i realise. somewhere between luangprabang and vangvieng, the bus climbed a hill, ascending to a mist shrouded highland. i tell you, if not for the crazy roads (and what i am beging to think of a perpetual overcast weather forecast), the view would’ve been perfect!

arriving in vangvieng in he early afternoon meant we could just sempat sign up for a tubing expedition – something north bound travellers we met in laungprabang said we must not miss. i forgot what river we went through – i definately got it in my guide book. the route was just supposed to be four kilometers but after three hours on the river we all tak sampai lagi. of course, there were a number of ‘distractions’ along the way. riverside cafes blasting 80s music. beerlao. platforms eracted from kayu and bamboo that you’d climb and then swing into the river by.

there was one that had this rope swing about three storeys high. you swing, and then you let go, and you splash into the river. it was the freakiest thing i’ve ever done. got lots of air and just plunged into the cold water. very cool. i’m just disappointed i did not bring my camera with me because they already stated – rightfully so – that i’d get completely soaked from the tubing activity.

=)

vangvieng is a very small town. its just two road really, that crosses at a T-junction. the bus station is an abandoned airstrip. and that’s about it. the main road is called khao san. from my point of view, its almost completely run by foreigners. there are several kampung-style homes in clusters around the river. i guess the locals thrive on tourism, almost solely.

i will make my way to vangtiean tomorrow on my way back to thailand. not sure if i got the spelling of he laosan capital correctly. i keep on getting to words vangvieng and vangtiean (sp?) mixed up all day. hoping to get back to chiangmai by tomorrow or the day after.

luang prabang in pictures

anyone’s mind needs servicing? a cool towel offered on one of the bus trips.

fishing the mekong. i see this all over luangprabang. this is one of those things i wished i had a better picture of. *sigh!*

the local lao plum… er… maybe its just mine, tapi masam er…

the river and areas around. there are many on-the-spot boats all along the mekong offering to take you to these places.

luangprabang town. the trees with red flowers are all over the town. i love it.

we wanted to go see the wat of peacefulness up the hill…

… but it was close(d)…

… so the guys took a break at the temple compound instead.

‘laap’ – local lao dish. basically minced chicken marinated with herbs and then fried. served with rice and a side of raw cucumbers. mmm… laap…

the hosts who ran the guesthouse i was staying at were preparing crickets for dinner. no, i did not stay long enough to see them charred.

lisa. daughter of the lady who runs the joint in luangprabang. she’s three years and eight months and already has a travel agency named after her.

david and ido at a vegan stall at the luangprabang night bazaar. david was dared to eat a cili padi raw.

ido bargaining for chopsticks at the luangprabang night bazaar.

Protected: every traveller has a story to tell

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password: