Costa Del Kao San

I had a great time in Vang Vieng, but after a few days there it was starting to get a bit like Spanish beach meets Bangkok traveller gheto, with a fair bit of Ballyfermot and Tel Aviv thrown in. Not all bad, but when the bar started playing "oh ah up the ra" I reckoned it was time to move on. I had intended to do another days tubing but it was chucking it down so I gave it a miss. So I hoped on the "VIP" bus up to Luang Prabang. The road trip was lovely, and although the thought of a bandit attach did cross my mind (this is the road where there has been some activity recently), its was far more likely the bus would come a cropper on all the torturous mountain hairpin bends. But the views were excellent most of the way and the trip passed really quickly.


The town itself is World Heritage listed and is full of lovely old buildings, some fine wats and nice surrounding countryside. And being at the confluence of two rivers, it gets some nice breezes to temper the heat of the day.
Mostly I've been just wandering about town, climbing the hill for nice views and visiting the odd temple.
I also spent a bit of time helping out a couple of kids at the guesthouse who were getting private tuition from a tutor there, which was really nice. The first day they really struggled to understand me, but by yesterday they had improved a lot - I guess a falang accent takes a bit of getting used to.


I met up again with Christian and the girls, and also with Mike and Emelia who I had played pool with a lot in Vang Viene.
The girls headed on the slow boat to Thailand today, so the rest of us spent the day at a really nice waterfall with a lovely swimming area. I even managed to hike to the top and peer over the torrent of water, which involved lots of carefully placed footsteps on slippery rocks. Laos safety isn't exactly first world:)

Its like your always stuck in second gear

I'm not sure how the whole thing started, but here in Vang Vieng its like some sort of Friends groundhog day. Almost all the resturants on the main street are constantly showing reruns of the fairly annoying (esp in the latter years) show and everyone seems to be watching them. Its all very strange. Especially when there are much better things to do. The scenery here is simply stunning, among the best I've seen in SE Asia, loads of limestone karsts, caves and pretty little villages. It looks a bit like what I expect Gullin to be like in China. Its a great place to zip around on motorbikes, the traffic is light so you can just cruise slowly checking out the scenery.


And then theres the fabled tubing, a bit of a Laos institution. Your taken upriver a few Ks and launch onto a fairly fast flowing river in a big rubber tube. But within seconds you arrive at the first "bar" where if your not inclined to approach, a kid swims out and helps you in. A beer Lao later and a few tricks performed on the trapeze wire (you get better with each bar) and your on to the next stop. I went with Karin and Caroline from Austria, Corrina from Switzerland and Christian, another Austrian, and we met a bunch of people on the way, expecially during the marathon volleyball session during which I sustained a badly bruised toe and a nice lump after a clash of heads. It was all tremondous fun. Finishing the trip floating down on the river under an almost full moon while being pleasantly sozzled was specially memorable, we had no idea where the end was until we heard splashing in the water and an army of kids descended on us to haul us out for tips.


I arrived here a few days ago having eventually completed all my Oz visa stuff in Vientiene. I had been there so long I recognised most people - the Ozzie girl researching the next edition of the footprints guide, the (very cute) Italian photographer doing an article on Mekong village life, the crazy Laos woman who sits at peoples table and grabs their beer when there not looking, the german guy who seemed to be doing an impersionation of the minisry of silly walks. And I'm sure people noticed the Irish guy running around with a stack of papers in a plastic compression bag going to medical clinics, hospitals, all kinds of ministerial offices, post offices, stationary shops, internet cafes and various embassies. It was an interesting 9 days or so.

Change of pace

I knew Laos would be a pretty easy going place, but after crossing the border from Vietnam it almost feels like another world. If they were any more laid back, they would be horizontal. I guess the old saying about Indochina might sum it up well - the Vietnamese plant the rice, the Khymers watch it grow and the Lao listen to it grow. It's taken a while to get used to walking around without being offered all kinds of things by everyone, especially tuk tuks.

Though now that I'm in the bustling metropolis of Vientiane, they are a little more commercial minded .. want tuk tuk? want ganja? want girl? want boy? But even here, the pace is really relaxed and it certainly doesn't feel like a capital city. Its a nice town to just wander around, with a number of nice Wats and buildings, and a pleasant riverfront area along the Mekong with more views of Thailand.
Since I've arrived in Laos, each town I've stayed has had views across to Thai towns, tempting me with the delicious food just out of reach as I dont have a multiple entry visa. Still, the Laos food is pretty good, not too dissimilar to Thai really. The other night I had a Papaya salad which was quite possibly the spiciest thing I have ever eaten.


After a fairly easy border crossing last week (just a minor bribe required, made smaller with a little good natured haggling) I arrived in the town of Savannakhet.
It's a really nice little place, with some nice colonial buildings and has the nicest of the riverside settings with a string of cool little eateries one after another where beer Lao and ice goes well with the little cook yourself seafood soups. It even had a nightclub, though it stuck to the government enforced 11:30 closing time, and a cute little dinosaur museum. But mostly it was walking around, talking to the locals and watching the kids play that passed the time. A nice intro to Laos.


Travel in Laos requires a bit more effort than the other south east Asian countries, overloaded public buses with all kinds of freight are the norm, and some of the food offered by the vendors is less then tempting - roast cricket anyone?
It actually doesn't taste as bad as it looks. Still, its a good idea to stock up on some nice rambutans for the journeys. And those little plastic seats in the aisles aren't too good on your bum after 5 hours or so. But its all part of the fun.



Next stop was Tha Khaek, nowhere near as charming in itself, but with lovely limestone karst scenery and pretty villages in the surrounding countryside. I hired a Motorbike with Andrea, an Italian guy who was on the bus down, and it was a challenge trying to find the various points of interest with a sketchy map and no English signs.


We eventually found 2 out of the 3 caves we were searching for, and they were both pretty cool, but the best fun was when we ran out of petrol and had to enlist the service of the village kids to rescue us.
Next day Andrea and I headed off to Vientiane, both nursing severe hangovers, and Andrea was non too plussed when he saw we would be on the tiny kids plastic chairs that are employed as extra seats on the local buses. Having taken our seats, we were then subjected to people clambering over us constantly which I found very amusing, but I could here Andrea cursing constantly in Italian. Lucky it was only a 6 hour trip.


Before leaving Vietnam I spent a day in the DMZ close to Dong Ha town visiting the Vinh Moc tunnels and a couple of the US fire sites from the war. It was pretty amazing to see the tunnels where people had lived for years (17 kids were born in them) often for days without seing daylight. Even the big B-52 shells didnt have much of an impact on the network of tunnels.

So still in Vientiane, will need to stay here a bit more in order to get my stuff together for the Oz visa as they are asking for medicals and police checks and all sorts of nonsense. Today all government stuff is closed, so checked out Vientiane's answer to the Arc De Triumph .
The weather has heated up a notch, but its still pretty pleasant so I cant complain too much. And theres always Beer Lao to cool off.

Turn left for Laos

Circumstances (heavy rain disrupting the train line, and limited time left on my Nam Visa) have convinced me to postpone my northern migratrion and instead I'm going to head east to Laos. So tomorrow it's off to the town of Dong Ha, which I'm intrigued to see after the review in The Book "Today, there is no conceivable reason to visit".
My last night in Hoi An was spent playing pool and trying not to drink whiskey shots with Charlie (quite an appropriate name for this locale) from Glasgow, who had been on my tour to My Son. We also had some fantastic Vietnamese food at Bale Well - theres no menu, they just keep bringing you loads of stuff which they make into something like spring rolls till you cant eat any more. Fantastic. Next day, I managed to make the afternoon bus up to Hue. It's another colonial city with much of the older parts preserved, but unlike Hoi An, where most of the buildings are occupied by functioning vendors, its more divided into the "real" town and the museum bit that you just visit. The two are seperated by the river, the Citadel and a moat. Much of the old Citadel walls remain, and although a lot of the town was flattened during the Tet offensive, Hue's designation as a world heritage site has meant the restoration of many of the buildings. It's nice to stroll around, but even better explored on a claped out bike, as this way you are pretty much pleasantly immune to the constant attention of Cyclo/Moto drivers, postcard sellers and tour vendors.

On the bus to Hue I met up with Simon and Frederic, two German guys who I had met before on the way to Dalat (we had met while observing an unfortunate Swiss guy's repeated fainting through severe diarahoe induced dehydration) and Jill from Canadia, and we hung around for much of the time in Hue, unified in our defense against the ubiquitous cyclo drivers. To escape the streets, we hired a local boat for a short trip on the somewhat inappropriately named perfume river - judging from the "crew" I'd say there pretty bored by the whole experience.

Reunification Express

Having had more than my fill of buses for a bit, I've arrived in Hoi An by the sweetly named Reunification Express train from Nha Trang. It was all very pleasant and comfortable, and although the scenery was pretty I slept much of the 9 hours. Probably cause I had ended up out too late once again in Nha Trang. While awake, I made my best attempts to commuicate with the Vietnamese family sharing my cabin, their english being only marginally better than what i could manage to utter using the back of the guidebook's phrases. From what I could make out, the conversation was mostly about if I was married or not, and if their daughter was pretty...
I actually had to backtrack a wee bit as the train arrived in Danang, so it was a motorbike taxi back the 30k or so, during which the driver spent most of the time trying to sell me a multi day tour. As consolation for not taking it, I allowed him to take me to his chosen hotel, which is actually really nice with a pool and lovely rooms.


Nha Trang hadnt been a bad spot, it's the main beach resort in Vietnam but it's not quite (yet anyway) the costa del sol, and in fact theres far more locals on the beach than westerners. Crossing the road here was also a bit more relaxed then Saigon, but still good fun. It's also Vietnam's main diving spot, and I spent a couple of days exploring the underwater scenery, which included one really spectacular swin through cave complete with scores of lovely fish. The dives were notable for the absence of any really big fish, the consequence of pretty heavy fishing by the locals, which still continues despite the areas status as a protected marine park.
Nha Trang also had a fair share of lively bars which keep going till dawn. Though the moto drivers are particularly funny with the prices they try to charge drunken tourists at this time of night/morning. Even the little old baguette ladies quadruple their daytime prices.


Before Nha Trang I visited the hill station of Dalat. It's a funny sort of place, with over the top kitsch statues and the like at every turn, and seems to attract far more Vietnamese than foreigners. Still the town and the area around is a nice enough place to spend a couple of days, not least because of the cool weather. I employed one of the local "easy riders" to show me around, and it was good enough fun, though a bit overpriced compared to others I've used - the curse of getting a really good write up in The Book.
I ended up renting my own motorbike to see some of the other sites.
One of the more weird attractions was a Gaudi like guesthouse called crazy house locally, which would make a cool spot to stay when it's properly open.


The old town of Hoi An is a really pretty spot, the one Asian town that really has retained it's colonial buildings, which are mostly beautifully resored. An amazing number are tailors, it seems that this is The spot in Asia to get your new suits. The much touted temples of My Son were a bit of a let down, but then again I guess after Angkor I'm a bit spoiled.


The river and beach area made for nice cruising on a rented bike.
Hoi An also boasts a number of nice little local bars, where you can drink the local draught beer for the pricely sum of 10p. Shame that I was almost the only one in there - I could see that everyone was milling into the bigger place next door - where you could get crappy draught fosters for 12 times the price. Oh but wait, that place is in The Book.

Good night Saigon

It's my last day in Saigon, and the rains have finally come. Unfortunately I decided to leave in my laundry this morning, so theres a good chance I'll be heading to Dalat in the morning with a bag full of damp clothes. Oops.
Saigon's been a lot of fun actually, nicer than expected. Last night was a late one (6am) spent in the Go2 bar with Dillon, a Californian who worked as assistant editor on the Pirates movies and is taking time off after the mad schedule, and John, from Meath, who was taking time out recovering from the repeated traumatic experiences of Irish girls.

The couple of days before, I decided to take a more in depth look at trhe Mekong delta, as I'd pretty much breezed through it before. The main draw is the floating market near Can Tho, which was pretty impressive, and although there were a fair amount of tourists, at least the market itself seemed pretty genuine, with loads of colorful fruit and veg, and nothing in the way of tourist tat other than a few kids selling coke and such.

But for me the best bit of the trip was the afternoon spent cruising through the narrow canals near My Tho on a mixture of power and rowing boats. We did also have to indulge in some touristy gimmicks like posing with pythons and trips to various factories involved in the different elements of rice production, which were reasonably interesting, but the local people, markets and waterways were far more evocative.




A visit to Vietnam wouldn't be complete without playing as a Vier Cong in one of the tunnel systems. The nearest to Saigon is Cu Chi, where you get to run through reconstructed and slightly larger western size versions of the originals (the old ones are mostly falling in there, and too small anyway). It still felt really hot, humid and claustrophobic (and I'm not really claustrophobic) but I managed to get to the other end intact, less a few kilos of sweat.


In Cambodia I had passed up on the chance to vaporise a cow with a bazooka, but I did take the more bovine friendly chance here to pop off a few rounds on an ak47, which packed a bit of a punch. A .22 it sure ain't. Our guide definitely added to the experience, having worked as a translator for the US 101 airborne he had a lot of inciteful commentary, and was actually a bit of a philosopher on many subjects, so the day passed really quickly.
SO thats it for Saigon - I'm off to the cool mountain air of Delat next, a bit of a respite from the never changing mid 30s and high humidity.

'Nam

After a longer than expected stay in Phnom Penh, I've finally made it to Vietnam.
Apart from ubiquitous comical conical hats, theres not such a huge change from Cambodia - a little more chaotic traffic (in Saigon at least), slightly more persistent peddlers of goods (and bikes) and a slightly sillier currency (16000 Dong instead of 4000 real to the us dollar). In general, the people are probably a tad less friendly than the Cambodians, but having said that, many are really nice and helpful.


I'm staying in the backpacker ghetto of Pham Ngu Lao, though even here it's still easy to access real Vietnam, with tons of cheap authentic Vietnamese food stalls around a street or 2 away - a bit reminiscent of Kao San Rd in Bangkok.
Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City to give it it's correct commie name) is a bit of a mad place, pretty chaotic (mental traffic), but charming enough in it's own way. So far I've been sampling the food, the local beers and one or 2 museums - the war remnants one was pretty cool - it used to be called the museum of Chinese and American war crimes - which didn't endear it to well to all the tourists:) I've also been playing a lot of pool, as every bar seems to have a table. I've even become a bit of a shark at 9 ball.


To take a break from the city I also visited the beach of Mui Ne - a really lovely laid back place to spend a couple of days, with nice almost empty beaches, palm trees and cute restaurants. It also boasts fairly impressive sand dunes where the local kids pretty much force you to slide down on their homemade sleds for small tips. And its a good place to cruise around on a rented motorbike without taking your life in your hands, with some nice fishing villages to stop off in.

Exiting Cambodia I decided to plump for the fast boat along the Mekong, which made a nice way to enter Vietnam - with almost no border delays or hassles. Instead of going straight to HCMC, I stayed in the town of Chau Doc, a nice little place with good views from the little Sam mountain outside of town, and some great little food stalls, even if the street lamps attracted insects in unimaginable numbers outside of a swarm of locusts. Ordering food was a bit of a challenge as the vendors hadn't a word of English, but its amazing what some sign language and animal sounds can convey.

The onward bus trip through the Mekong delta towards HCMC was memorable for the number of bridges crossed en route spanning the various tributaries of the great river, and for the repeated pucking of several of the passengers, despite the road not being all that winding at all. I think my flip flops are still sticky from the results of their expulsions, I might have to relent to one of the ever present shoe shine kids calls.

Later,
Sean.

Heart or darkness

No I'm not in deepest Africa with Pat or anything, rather a fairly notorious nightclub in Phnom Pehn. The Book is particularly wary of the place but it turned out to be a pretty good laugh - and I was there with a bunch of Cambodians so I was safe enough. I'm liking the Cambodian capital - it's a bit more hectic than the rest of the country, and the sellers and beggars are more persistent (and the moto drivers more rip-off-ish) but I imagine it's pretty mellow compared with Saigon, my next destination. And some of the architecture is lovely - the royal palace and a couple of the wats are visually stunning, and the riverfront area is more Paris than SE Asia.


It also helps that I've met a couple of locals including Pich who are really nice and helpful in showing me around. She even took me to some Khmer dancing, which is vaguely reminiscent of Irish ballroom dancing - lots of silly moves that I don't know and don't look too cool, and lots of camp hand flapping, but a good laugh nonetheless.


As well as showing me around, she was able to keep me safe from the hordes to beer girls/taxi girls that frequent the bars here. Most of them are fairly impoverished girls trying to earn a semi decent living to help out their families. Wages in Cambodia are ridiculously low with many people earning $100 a month or (a lot) less.

We also dined at the Foreign Correspondence Club, the height of poshness in Phnom Pehn. To be honest though, the food was only OK, though nicely presented, and the setting was suitable grand and colonial.


Less fun but a must do was the Tuol Sleng (s21) museum where Pol Pot's regime tortured some 20,000 of their own people before sending them to the Killing Fields - which seems pretty peaceful now and not as harrowing as the prison.


Well, apart from the 80,000 skulls on display. And the clothes and bones peeping out from the odd spot. But walking around the cells of S21 and looking at the documented photos of the doomed victims was certainly enough to drive me to drink, and the bars along the riverfront for the evening.

En route from Battambang, I stopped off in the town of Kompong Chhnang, a pretty place with beautiful countryside.

Its a fair sized town - about 40,000, but I was pretty much the only tourist in the place, apart from a couple of Americans travelling with their dad and his new Cambodian wife.



There were some lovely small villages around, and also a pretty large community of Vietnamese boast dwellers, not to well liked by the locals by all accounts. All very pretty to see though. And a nice pause before hitting the capital.

Badabing

I'm in the sleepy provincial town of Battambang. Much of the reason I came was the modes of transport involved in getting here, away and around. From Siem Reap you can get here by road in a few hours, but it's much more fun to take the very scenic boat trip which passes through numerous cute villages (some if which are basically a collection of floating pontoons) and small narrow waterways with tons of birdlife.



Seated on the roof, watching the world go by (slowly), the hot sun was just tempered enough by the breezes, though one girl sporting an "everyone loves an Irish girl" T-shirt didn't look in too great a shape by the end of the 9 1/2 hours. A tad longer than the 3-8 estimate mentioned in The Book.


I had been hoping to catch one of the worlds slowest trains out of here towards Phnom Penh, but unfortunately it's only running now once a week and I've just missed it, so will have to settle for a bus on the newly tarmacked road. How dull.

I did get a chance to go on the Norry train, a weird contraption made up of wheels from old army tanks, a petrol engine and some bamboo (giving it it's western moniker of bamboo train). It was a great laugh, especially when meeting one coming the other way, when whoever is deemed to be the lighter load has to disassemble their "train" and remove it - they can be back on the track again in a couple of minutes. Impressive. Especially when the other train is actually the real train...


The countryside around Battambang was very rural and pretty - workers in the rice paddies framed by wats, making for picturesque touring on the back of a moto. The drivers, like most Cambodians, are exceptionally nice and friendly and it's cute the way the kids run after you shouting hello/goodbye, tourism here is still pretty sparse. There were also some more grisly reminders of the recent past, with the "killing caves" complete with a collection of human skulls and bones.

Before leaving Siem Reap, I spent some time sampling the nightlife and ended up out till dawn playing pool (with a prowess I didn't realise I had) with some Canadians, Americans and a bunch of Dubs. A great night out, especially when we hit the seedier bars later and got chatting to some of the long term residents.

Having "mastered" the cuisine of Thailand, I gave the Khmer cooking a try also. It was a good laugh getting the ingredients in the market, the dishes themselves were pretty involved - I'm not sure how well I could recreate my fish Amok and spring noodles if I had to. Still, they certainly tasted pretty good at the time.

Angkor

Having moved countries, I've had to switch to Angkor the local brew, which isnt bad.
Coincedentally, it's also the name for a fairly famous group of temples close to Siem Reap, and the main reason people come to Cambodia.



For the last 3 days I've been whizzing round on the back of a Moto from one to the other, and though there are too many to mention, Angkor Wat itself for the sheer scale, Banteay Srei for the intricate details and Ta Phrom for the enclosing jungle (and getting to see where Angelina Jolie stood) were all pretty amazing. The banter with the local kids, in equal parts endearing and annoying, was as much a part of the experience as the high speed chases and the temples.


Hello. Where u from?
Ireland.
Capital Dublin. Conas ata tu.
Very good.
I have T-shirts.
It's ok, I don't want one.
If you don't want one, maybe you want two?!
Cute.
U want bracelet?
Have already.
U buy one for your girlfriend?
I don't have one.
You don't have? I can get u one.

And they probably can too.

The other thing Cambodia is associated with is Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killing spree in the 70's and 80's. I've just finished reading this book from a survivor, and although I couldnt put it down, at times I wish I had as it's pretty harrowing. Most people here I talk to lost parents or siblings to the war, so it's still pretty fresh. But the people here are very spirited and they are very definitely looking to the future.



Crossing the Thai border the first thing I noticed was the number of expectant Moto drivers looking for fares - they were everywhere. The border town could almost have passed for an Indian crossing, with the dust, noise, dodgy money changers, cows chomping on the litter and a few hindu statues in sight. Many of the houses were pretty basic thatched affairs, build on stilts to cope with the worst of the flodding during the wet season. The road to Siem Reap lived up to The Book's label as boulevard of broken backsides, with a fair portion of the journey spent in mid air. Still I was a bit dissapointed to be on a reasonably comfortable (by 3rd world standards) bus instead of the pick up truck i was expecting.



Siem Reap has some fairly trendy parts to it though, with bar street a fairly obvious target for a session tonight, now that I've moved from the burbs to downtown. Foods pretty good so far - being kind of less tasty thai/chinese ish, but unlike in Thailand I've actually resorted to the odd western dish here for dinner.
Speaking of which, I feel the urgent need for a nice cheese baguette and coffee - Vive La France.