Laos photos

Okay as of writing this I’m in an internet cafe in Luang Prabang, Laos. I’ve been here for a few days now, before which I was on a 2-day slowboat from Huay Xai, the Laos/Thailand border town.

I couldn’t recommend the slowboat anymore if I tried. It’s a must-do for anyone going to Laos, backpacker or retired. Over the years the slowboat has become a very popular option for those traveling from Thailand to Laos. Several years ago it existed purely for moving cargo and Laoations up the Mekong, but after a few backpackers hopped on board and word spread, the boats are easily filling up with over 100 people a day. Before I got on the slowboat though, I had to get some money of course:

Yes, I’m in a Lao millionaire… or in AUD, a man with $125.

The slowboat itself is only $30usd, but there are several ways to do it. Many go to a travel agent / book through their guest house, a package that includes accommodation the night before, transport, some meals and the slow boat, but others like yours truly decided just to do everything separately. I ended up saving $3 or so but it was worth it.

On the boat we all took our seats, and then the backpackers grouped in the back room of the boat near everyone’s luggage, and we began to drink with a couple Lao people on the boat in order to pass the time. It’s pretty surreal sitting there with a group of people you’ve only just met, a Lao man and his son, and 150 backpacks/suitcases, drinking Beer Lao as we sailed up the Mekong with incredible views the entire time.

But that wasn’t enough… we jumped over the bags and found a nice little area at the back that you could probably call a balcony, where we managed to squeeze in 12 people and we sat there drinking/talking for the day. It was such a nice day, almost too hot at times but for the most part just right, and the views just made it that much better.

As night came in, so too did we into Pakbeng, a small village where those on slowboats stop over for the night. It’s pretty funny when you arrive, as there’s a huge steep hill made of rocks and it’s the only way to get up into the town, so you just see a whole group of flashpackers and older people standing there confused, almost as if they’re waiting for someone to offer to carry them up.

After we got up the hill, the English people from the bus-ride to Chiang Khong and I found a guesthouse where it was only $5 a night for a room (with 3 beds!), and then the rest of our group from the boat joined us for dinner. Our group now had the name ‘The Buckateers’ and there were probably about 12-15 of us from Canada, Holland, England, Wales, Australia, France and Dubai. We then went to the town’s sole bar, Hive Bar, which was suprisingly nice for a town that sees 100 fresh faces a day.

The next day we woke and rushed down to the boat for the second half of our journey. It was a little colder than the previous day, so we spent less time drinking and more time relaxing on the back and playing cards. We even had Captian Williams come out to say hi before we set sail.

Slowly the sun became to set as we reached Luang Prabang, Laos’ world-heritage listed city. In the next post I’ll post some photos from the past few days in Luang Prabang.

Thailand photos – new ones from Chiang Rai and the Lantern Festival

My last couple days in Thailand were spent going from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong (Thailand/Laos border town), seeing the White Temple in Chiang Rai on the way and spending the night in Chiang Khong during the annual lantern festival.

The ride through the countryside to Chiang Khong was pretty nice, especially as I missed out on the scenery during the overnight bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.

On the way we stopped at a petrol station for gas, during which our driver had to go to the hospital to pick up his kid, so he left us there waiting for him. After a few minutes we all realised that our bags were still on the bus, so we were a little fearful that he wouldn’t come back. After an hour he finally arrived back with his wife and kid, and we were off to Chiang Khong. We were near the famous White Temple in Chiang Rai so he offered to stop for us so we could see it. It was incredibly beautiful, whilst as the same time pretty disturbing.

Later that day we arrived at the hotel in Chiang Khong. Please appreciate that the room below was costing me $5 a night- yes I have 3 beds.

After spending a few minutes in my 3 beds, three people from England I’d met on the bus and I went down to the beach to see the lantern festival. It takes place once a year in Thailand and it was amazing to be there for it in a city that cared for it so dearly. For several days, lanterns are lit and set off into the night, where they can be seen for miles.

The next day we left Thailand at the border and crossed over the river into Laos, where we were taking our 2-day slowboat into Luang Prabang. More on that in the next post.

Crossing over into Laos

Just crossed the Mekong from Thailand into Laos, and waiting to catch the 2-day slowboat into Luang Prabang with a few English people I met on the way to the Thai border-town.

Last night was the Lantern festival where Thai people let off thousands upon thousands of lanterns into the night… it was quite amazing, and I have some great photos that I’ll post in a couple days when I get to a real town, and I’m not using the computer of an angry Laos man waiting for me to come to the dock with him.

Speak to you all soon!

Thailand Photos – couple new ones

Well I’m leaving Chiang Mai today after spending the past few nights here. I started off really bored, then adjusted and started to really like it, but today I’m just over it and have decided its time to start heading further North towards Laos.

Since I left you last time I’ve met a bunch of people, some good, some bad. I actually met a couple Israeli girls here the other day too, but it wasn’t hearing them speak Hebrew that made me notice (I wouldn’t have realised if I heard them talk anyway), but rather a unique and ancient system I call ‘Ah Shoresh, tov’, where I just notice they’re wearing Source/Shoresh sandals from Israel – the best sandles ever made that as you all know I wear daily because let’s just face it; pulling. them. off. – say the ‘ah shoresh’ line, they see mine, feel at home, find comfort in my familar presence and we’re best friends for 20 minutes until one of them gets sick and has to go to the hospital. I’m sure that doesn’t happen all the time but I’m not one to take into account variance and sample-size.

Anyway, I met a guy from England just starting his travels. I actually didn’t even ask if he’d just arrived, but the money belt hanging out over his pants was a subtle giveaway that only a trained-eye like mine can catch. We got dinner and went a roof-top bar reggae bar called THC – surprisingly, they have a very strict policy on drugs there – and were surprised to find us and 2 others the only people there, even though it was almost 10pm. The others joined us, and as people slowly arrived we’d ammased to a long table of several different nationalities.

Then came the drunk 55-year-old woman from LA with her older and classic iritated, sits-in-the-corner-chair-whilst-his-wife-shops-for-new-shoes, husband. I can imagine her one day reading this and being like ‘oh how he sweet, he thought I was only 55′. So she comes in, tries to get the party started unsuccesfully, and then determines her only option is to have her husband by a round of Tequila shots. We have the shots and after giving me a lesson on living life ‘outside the square’ (personally I like the square, its cool in summer and surprisingly warm in winter), decided to leave because we just weren’t fun enough. So a few of us left and were having McDonalds (yeah, there’s a mcdonalds in this northern city), one thing lead to another and I was being lectured by a couple of them on how Israel is an awful country and the ‘Jew People’ (give the young German girl a break) are ruining the innocent Palestinians life. Throw in a ‘suicide bombing is the Palestinians’ only way of getting the message across and as such is justifiable, and a comparison of Israel to Germany (circa. 1939), and we have angry Bryce. I left and just tried to forget about it for the meantime.

I was planning on leaving the following day but met 2 nice girls, one from Canada and the other from California.

We went out for dinner and then to a bar around the corner, where we were joined by 2 ‘we’re not gay but like to hold hands and kiss a little’ Spanish guys, their friend from Amsterdam, and a random 60-year-old hippie straight off the plane from Italy, who was very proud of his 1-year-sobriety and tried his very hardest to warn us off the dangers of alcohol. Our Chinese friends at the bar (they said they were Thai but I had a Thai guy check the photos and agreed otherwise) were very generous and kept buying us Thai Whisky/Sprite drinks, even though they remained unconsumed. When I can get the photos off the girls I’ll post them straight away, but until then you can just imagine. Some $1.50 kebabs later and we were at a nearby club, before going back to get some sleep.

The next day we went to the silk factory where I lashed out and had a self-portrait done:

Hand-woven, only $30… not the chepeast but a consequence of a fast-growing economy.

Later that day it actually started rainly quite heavily, which put a stop to the lanterns people have been setting off the annual lantern festival. Fortunately someone alterted the guests at our hostel:

Ok, long pot again but hopefully some people got this far. I’m done with Chiang Mai and the pretentious ‘Kanpukum”s (Thank You) every one seems to do here. Will post again in a few days.

Thailand Photos – A few new ones at the bottom.

Well I’ve left Bangkok and am currently in Bangkok after an interesting bus ride.

My last day in Bangkok was a lot of fun. I ended up spending the entire day with the receptionists from the hostel, working behind the counter with them (but really just playing games on their computer and them showing me videos on youtube). As backpackers came in and were greeting by me asking if they’d like to check in, they got quite a fright, as too did those backpackers I’d spent the past couple days with. However, Noojibz, Wijitra and Namo were very helpful in showing me the ropes and after no time, I was the youngest and in my opinion, greatest receptionist to ever grace NapPark Hostel (Voted no.2 hostel in Thailand and South East Asia). You can check my wall on facebook for some photos we were taking on Namo’s computer.

After my shift ended, I left to go to Chiang Mai. As I was mucking around with the staff, I was too late to get a ticket for the VIP bus, and wanting to go to Chiang Mai as soon as possible, had to get on the only bus with free seats, the public bus. I should quickly say that due to the flooding in Thailand, my only option was to take this bus or fly, as the trains haven’t been running properly. Anyway, It was pretty cheap, 550 THB ($18), and took about 12 hours instead of the predicted 15. However, what made this bus ride so interesting, was that I was the only Westerner in the entire Mohit Bus Station when I got there. Among the 1000s of Thais, there was stupid Australian Bryce. As many of you know, I’m quite used to being the only Westerner in a room full of Asian people after my frequent ‘balling’ visits to Crown’s Teak Room, but that was nothing compared to this. I love our close neighbors though and had a good time talking to the Chinese family next to me at the bus station as I waited for the bus.

Once I got on and they were checking seats, it was pretty funny when they got to me and he presumably asking in Thai for my ticket, saw I wasn’t Thai, and started laughing with me and my seat-buddy. The bus ride was alright though, and at 11pm I awoke from my TylenolPM-daze and stumbled into the bus-stop to get my complementary soup. It was delicious and well worth waking up for. As soon as I got back on, I passed out and later woke at 6AM as drove into Chiang Mai. I then got a tuktuk into town…

Got dropped off in town, spent 2 hours looking for the hostel I’d planned to stay at until I finally found it, wait for it, 100 meters from where I was originally dropped off. Emma, it’s probably best we don’t travel together just for your sake After waiting around for a while, I saw an old friend from Sydney who I knew was staying there, and went out for lunch with him before he leaves for Cambodia in a few hours.

Okay another long post about nothing. I do hope they’re at least semi-interesting to read and at least it makes me feel like I’m keeping in contact with you all. Hope you’re all enjoying a Bryce-free Australia!

PS. I love 50 cents/hour internet cafes.