The culinary delights of Vientiane.

Our stay in Vientiane revolved around two themes: good food and getting lost with a moto. I think photos should do most of the talking here.

Ray's Grille is run by Daniel from the States, and he cooks amazing food for reasonable prices. The Cobb salad, Philly cheese sandwich and his quesadillas were to die for. We ate here three or four times, and the place seemed to be popular with the expat crowd happy to talk about life in Vientiane.

Scandinavian bakery has the cure to any craving you might have to proper bread with ham and cheese. But for coffee, go for the tiny shopfronts and have it Lao style with condensed milk.

Le Bonneton salon du the still had great although slightly pricy food. This time we had the goat's cheese salad (at the back) and something with duck and mushrooms (in the front). Having French food and salads in the middle of your travels, after so many noodle dishes, makes me just plain happy!

We had delicious Indian food at the restaurant at the corner of Quai Fa Ngum and Rue Nokeokoummane - I seem not to have written down the name of the restaurant. Their Shahi Paneer was absolutely the best paneer dish that I've ever had - so delicious that we accidentally ate everything (except the bones from Boyfriend's mutton dish) before realising to take a photo!

And for the best pizza in all of SE Asia, eat at Via Via. The pizzas at Good Morning Vietnam were good too, but Via Via's pizzas were amazing. So amazing that we forgot to take photos in the restaurant altogether! But if you wish, you can imagine a true Italian style pizza with thin base and cooked in a wood-fired oven, topped with quality pepperoni and real cheese.

And then for something completely different:

The national landmark, Phra That Luang, containing a relic of Buddha.

Usually my map reading skills were awesome, but this time we ended up motoing down small country lanes. This was within a few miles from downtown Vientiane!

Until eventually we came to the right road that led us to the Buddha Park.

And then it rained. It had rained whilst we were at Buddha Park, and our hotel room had flooded. Unluckily I had made space for Boyfriend's belongings by putting all of my clothes on the floor in front of the window... so we had to stay for an extra day to get all of my clothes re-washed. So we spent a day driving the moto in the rain. Never been happier about having my waterproofs with me.

We had seen a beautiful graveyard for the national heroes from the bus window and wanted to visit it. Unfortunately it turned out not to be open to tourists, so we drove 25 km in occasional heavy rain for more or less nothing. This picture is taken by sneaking to the side and reaching over the wall.

(c) all photos by Boyfriend, click to enlarge.

Thakek and the amazing Kong Lor cave.

From Don Det we took a bus back north, this time to Thakek. We expected a long bus journey, so it was ok - especially with the front row seats. Less nice was the old woman throwing up next to Boyfriend and splashing him in vomit, and the lack of lunch/toilet breaks. We ended up eating fried balls of meat and other unidentifiable god-knows-when cooked bits of food sold by women who got on bus for a short ride to sell their wares, which was not the best for our tummies.

In Thakek we lodged at the Thakek Travel Lodge - otherwise lovely establishment, but a bit too businesslike and aware of their position as The Place to go to in Thakek. A lot of people staying where there for information about the Loop - an independent four day moto trek in stunning mountain views, but we didn't have so much time available (or any driving skills in my case). There were some moments of disappointment when they didn't have any food to offer when we arrived at 10 pm (luckily we had some potnoodles travelling with us since Sihanoukville), when the food they served was bad and when we didn't get seats in the night bus and had to spend another night at the lodge.

Thakek itself was pretty unexciting - a medium-sized Lao town by Mekong. But as soon as you were outside the town, the mountains were amazingly stunning. We spent one day doing a trip to the Kong Lor cave, a 7-km long cave formed by a river that runs underneath a mountain. And the way to explore the cave is obviously by boat!

Getting on the little rickety boat at the entrance of the cave was pretty nerving, realising that we would actually be going into a long cave full of water and there was a huge mountain on top of us, and it was pretty dark.

As soon as we were on boat - max three passengers, the driver and the guy in the front with a strong lamp - it took off much faster than I was expecting. It was scary, not seeing where we were going exactly, but the thrill of it turned quickly from fear to joy. It was amazing to sit in the boat in the dark and quiet (except for the motor), watching the endless cave walls pass by. The cave was quite tall and the space somehow reminded me of cathedrals.

We did one stop in the cave to look at stalagmites and stalactites - a larger section in the middle of two river branches had pathways and lights to show the amazingess of the cave. 

Some stages of the river were so shallow that we had to step out of the boat and wade through the water. Anyone planning to go - I warmly recommend sandals and shorts (not long trousers or trainers), and we kept thinking that trekking sandals would be better for they would not float off your feet at every given opportunity.

As we neared to the end of the cave, both of us grew disappointed - is this it already? We want to keep going on and on! Luckily for us, it was just the other side of the mountain and after a coffee break we would head back again! It also turned out that the river was a highway of deliveries - the village on the other side grew tobacco, and it was currently being harvested and shipped on the river. Apparently the over-land route to that village is lengthy and difficult - easier to use the river.

On the way back I felt much calmer, not anxious or thrilled any more. Somehow the calmness had got me, I was deep in my own thoughts and really enjoying it. After the ride back, we felt that we would happily do it again straightaway, or even return to Thakek for it. Definite highlight of our trip.

The Kong Lor cave is about two-hour drive away from Thakek, and there are incredible mountain views on the way. We chose to take a minivan there, but some others took motos and it seemed like wonderful scenery for it. Unfortunately our van driver was not exactly top of his profession, and when the motor overheated he had no idea what to do - we used all of our drinking water to the cooling system and made him stop in the next village for more water.

On our second day in Thakek we rented a moto after a whole day of wasting time. We managed to get a lovely evening ride out of it - more gorgeous mountains at the setting sun. We also spotted some water buffaloes bathing in the river.

And then finally when it came to leaving from Thakek and going to Vientiane, we didn't get seats (or rather, beds) in the nightbus and had to spend an extra night. The bus next morning was a bus from the hell - we had seats at very far back and I could not fit into mine as there was no leg space and the armwrest was a solid block. So I sat on the floor, on the armwrest, knees up resting at the seat in front... all possible conformations. Boyfriend had a tummy ache and kept wanting to run in the bushes. He also had a cold, and the bus was very hot. To top this seven-hour ride off, two kids next to us started throwing up, and in the traditional Lao way, no one was prepared for this. So there was vomit all over the floor and we had to keep all of our handluggage in our laps instead of the floor, as there obviously was so much room to do this! The rescue came in the form of an iPod and a book to take our minds off. I can tell you, every single airplane journey ever since has felt like a heaven!

Boyfriend has (c) to all photos.

Nothing is something worth doing.

After Pakse we headed to the island of Don Det in the Siphandon (4000 islands) in Southern Laos. I visited Don Det already last year, and we were really looking forward to just taking it easy. We had been so busy with all the sightseeing, that we really deserved a little holiday off our holiday!

Don Det is rather popular with the backpacker crowd, but also there are Lao villages on the island. Traditionally these people have made their living by farming and fishing, but now increasingly people build bungalows to rent and open restaurants to make more money than farming would allow. The number of new establishments compared to last year was shocking, and the building works were going on in every corner. I'm really hoping that there is a limit somewhere, and Don Det will not lose it's rustic feel.

The joke about Lao PDR standing for People Don't Rush (instead of People's Democratic Republic) still held very true here. Usually to get service you had to go and find the waiter, and usually when it was time to pay the bill, you had to remember what you had had (sometimes during the whole day if you got stuck in one place) as they weren't too particular about keeping track of it.

We ended up staying for nine days, doing nothing in particular. Swims and tubing in the river, books in the hammock, beers in the Happy Bar, films at Adams. Or, in pictures:

What would be a better way to enjoy the evening than have a cold beer and watch a beautiful sunset over Mekong?

Our bungalow had a balcony just by the Mekong. Dr Pepper reading in the hammock.

Mario, the guy who ran one of our favourite haunts, which served only one delicious dish per day and mojitos if he happened to have ice. If not, people were welcome to buy beer from his neighbours and bring it in. I liked the relaxedness of his business - here he's in the middle of a game of petanque as well as chatting in Lao to the head of the village (if I remember right?). 

The animals weren't tied down - it was common to see a water buffalo wandering down the high street...

...or a pair of lost looking geese! (High street after the rain was more of a high mudpath.)

We spent one day at Adam's watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies and drinking quite a few lemon shakes (some with local whisky).

And one of the days we managed to be active and we hired bikes to visit Don Khone island in the south. As there are non-passable waterfalls in the area, the French had built a railroad from Don Khone to Don Det to ship deliveries up the Mekong. Nowadays only the remains of the harbours, train tracks and a couple of rusted trains remained, as well as the bridge between the two islands. Don Khone does not have as many bungalows or restaurants, but it has some pretty decent waterfalls, a beach and a spot to view the freshwater dolphins. 

Water-fall fishing on Don Khone.

With good binoculars, it might be possible to see freshwater dolphins here. I saw them last year from a boat, but it's mainly splashes of water and a couple of fins that you see. 

(c) for all photos belongs to Boyfriend.

Let's go get lost anywhere in S.E.A.

The best way to explore cities, towns and villages of SE Asia is definitely to rent a moto and drive off the beaten path. I think we rode a moto (a scooter) in 12 different places (Sihanoukville, Kampot, Kep, Chau Doc, Nha Trang, Hue, Savannakhet, Pakse, Thakek, Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Ayutthaya) and everytime we found something we would've not found otherwise.

Although us two are quite big, at least compared to Asians, the motos usually carried both of us beautifully. I don't think we ever paid much more than 8 USD per 24 hrs for the rental. Boyfriend drove really safely, and I learned to be the additional rear view mirror as well as map reader at the back. The only unfortunate moto incident that we had to deal with was me burning my leg on the hot exhaust pipe of our moto in Chau Doc, which has left me a birth-mark like splodge. Funnily enough, I didn't burn it whilst riding the moto, but whilst standing next to it and reaching for a water bottle!

Hue by moto

So the last properly written post covers most of Hue, but after writing all that we did some more exploring on a moto for two days. On a night out, we had met some European expats, who gave us few tips where to go outside the usual touristy attractions. So in addition to driving around the Citadel and getting lost to a rural temple area not marked to any maps, we knew to drive across a scaringly narrow single-file moto bridge, get a blind massage and also visit an abandoned water park.

Moto traffic in Hue was quite busy, but it was surprisingly easy to ride in it. The speed was quite slow and people happily gave way if you needed to turn.

One of the temples in the rural temple area north of Citadel. To get here we followed a narrow lane amongst the fields and suddenly there was a temple after a temple, so we kept going until we hit a bigger road.

This water park had been being built around a lake, and parts of it had already been opened for public. Unfortunately, a couple of Vietnamese people drowned, probably because most of them cannot swim, and the owners became convinced that the water park is cursed. So they stopped building it, but there still is a guy at the gate collecting entrance fees, as there are some pieces of art to see, the lake to enjoy, and a huge building that looks like dragon. We climbed up to the dragon's mouth for the views and down to the tail to realise it contained an aquarium with all the fish still in there!

Savannakhet by moto

After Hue we took a bus to Savannakhet in Laos, as our Vietnamese visa ran out. The bus journey took 10 hours and we sat with huge sacks of rice at our feet, but the roads were good enough and the seats reasonably sized. Savannakhet, the second largest city of Laos, was quite boring. I fully understand why not many travellers stop there, and I think it would be impossible to get anything much out of the place without a moto. So on our only full day in Savannakhet, we rented a moto and drove to see the temple of That Inheng 15 km out of city.

The old temple of That Inheng. 

A row of Buddhas at That Inheng.

Village life - girls coming from school.

Village life - women in traditional Lao skirts in the temple area. The broom that one of the women is carrying was typical to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos; amazingly light but sweeps the sand off wooden floors perfectly.

Village life - a tractor. A lot of the country roads were in pristine condition with very little traffic. As a big change to Vietnam, there weren't hordes of motos but a number of new Hiluxes on the road.

Pakse and Champasak by moto (and minivan)

I wasn't expecting the bus journey down to Pakse to be long, as it would be only 200 km on reasonably good road, but it took around six hours. For me went down as one of the most annoying bus journeys on record, just because how slow, hot and frustrating it was. Boyfriend was ok with it, maybe it was just me having a down day.

Pakse already had much more to offer. The city had more alive feel to it than the sleepy Savannakhet. The city is laid out in a confluence of two rivers, offering beautiful riverside views. We enjoyed quite a few delicious dinners at the Panorama restaurant on the roof of Pakse Hotel, and that offered 360 degree views over the city. It was especially pretty during the sunset and almost daunting with an upcoming storm. We also warmly recommended the place for both Western and Lao dishes!

Views from the Panorama restaurant.

Once again, we rented a moto also in Pakse, and this moto seemed a lot nicer than some of the previous ones. However, after 5 kms it stopped and refused to start again. Awkwardly, we got the moto back to town and had a friendly Lao man to help us - we had left the choke on! Oh well!

So we took the Friendship bridge to the west bank and the brand new and empty road all the way to Champasak (35 km) and pre-Angorian temple area of Vat Phou. The road took us through beautiful farm areas - one side we had the Mekong river and some mountains on the other. Vat Phou was definitely worth seeing. Much smaller than most other World Heritage temple areas, but prettily laid out by a mountain and with large trees. However, the highlight for me was the moto ride in the beautiful scenery.

Brand new road to Champasak and the beautiful views.

Same road, on the way back. We encountered maybe ten cars during the 35 km we drove on the road.

Row of linga-statues leading to Vat Phou. Vat Phou is situated in front of a linga-like mountain making the place especially holy. Also, a holy spring flows near the temple, and the water was directed to a linga statue at the shrine, making the temple one of a kind.

The central staircase was beautifully bordered by trees.

Vat Phou from the top. There two sanctuaries were currently under heavy renovation. The large pools also date back to the days of Khmer empire. 


The two sanctuaries from closer up. There is an elevated walkway to south (not really visible in the photo, but to the left from here), supposedly leading all the way to Angkor Wat.

As the driving distance was quite long this time, Boyfriend was rather worried about sunburn to his arms and covered up with my cardigan and a scarf. Still, the sun was so intense that backs of his hands managed to burn already on the way to Champasak, and we had to buy him gloves.

Trying to drive a moto without sunburn!

We did one day trip to the surroundings of Pakse with a group in a minivan without English-speaking guide. We visited coffee and tea farms, about half a dozen different waterfalls, and minority village where they build funeral coffins to each family member in advance as the death rate from malaria is so high. Prior to the visit to the village our driver took us to a local market and tried to explain with very broken English that we should buy presents to the village. We figured that they'd rather receive useful things so we buy soap, toothpaste, salt, etc. However, when we arrived to the village, there was twenty kids in a row with their hands sticking out. No introductions, just the kids wanting whatever we've got to give them, and the older people sitting under their stilted houses in the shade, observing. It was probably one of the most awkward situations ever, handing soap and salt to five-year-olds, and then walking around their village without anyone guiding us through. We all felt humiliated and used, and felt that the way how the tour was organised was not helpful to either the tourist or the villagers. We realised that what we wanted was sharing, not staring.

The tallest waterfalls in all of SE Asia!

The welcome committee of the minority village is approaching. 

I just realised this from the photo - they obviously make enough money to afford satellite-tv.

All photos (c) Boyfriend. As always, click to enlarge!

Collection of Stupidity

This is the entry where I'm an old hag who has no sympathy for people who do things differently to me!

Clothing

The thing that I find the stupidest in other travellers and tourists is their ignorance of the environment and the country they're visiting. This is reflected in many ways, and the most obvious is what people wear. I realise that SE Asia can get very hot and the Western way of dressing into heat is very baring. However, in most of the Asian countries it is disrespectful to wear clothes that show your shoulders, knees, midriff and cleavage. Still the backpacker trail is full of people who ignorantly show all of those bits of their body, and in worst cases, these people happily wander into temples and other places of worship wearing next to nothing. It's not only the guide books that preach of the dress code, also some of the entrance tickets to sights and huge signs outside state what visitors should wear... so how stupid can you be to try to enter a temple with shoes, hat and no shirt?

And it's just not that these people wear minimalistic clothing: they wear the ugliest and dirtiest minimalistic clothing imaginable. Bright purple tanktops declaring "Fullmoon Party" combined with bright orange swimming shorts labelled "In the Tubing Vang Vieng". T-shirts promoting certain bars: "Angor What?" and "Drink triple, see double, act single" were common sights. Boys usually without a shirt, and when there was a shirt, 95% of the time it was a sleeveless tanktop promoting a beer or tubing. The worst girl I saw had a t-shirt where the sleeves and sides were completely cut off and fully showed the lingerie underneath which was sweat-marked dirty brown.

Party-people by the river in Vang Vieng. Dressing like this to go tubing - effectively swimming- is fine, but a lot of people dressed like this in the cities, busses, temple areas... (c) Boyfriend.

Personally, I wore shoulder-baring tops to the beach, but tried hard to avoid it in cities, villages, religious places, public transport and generally in places where there is a lot of interaction with local people. After a couple of trips to Asia I find it increasingly difficult to wear anything revealing, just because the locals never do.

Some boys we met confessed to have stopped wearing underwear because it was so much easier just wear swimming shorts and just dip in the river/sea/lake when feeling dirty. Also, they declared shampoo unnecessary altogether. Obviously no need for personal hygiene when travelling!

And then there were the heroes who thought it was a good idea to trek over a steep jungle-covered hill (known to have lethally poisonous snakes) in flip flops.

Behaviour

First prize in the stupidity goes to every single tourist who rubs the old carvings in thousand year-old temples just to make sure they're there. Well, I promise it is there, and rubbing the texts does not make you suddenly understand ancient languages, it will just make the text wear off and next year there won't be anything to see anymore.

Not so much stupid, but something that kept me wondering: the locals really could not handle bus journeys without throwing up. They also couldn't handle preparing for throwing up - plastic bags never prepared for kids, and the kids always threw up. And the old ladies. Sometimes even before the bus had started!

I remember having more ideas to this category, but I've forgotten them by now. Maybe should've written this blog post ages ago!

Health and safety

I understand that not everyone is as paranoid as I am about my health; I took all the possible vaccinations and antimalarials the whole trip, and carried a huge first aid kit just in case. Also, we had all of our dearest valuables (cards and passports) in money belts under our underwear just to be sure. So following instances screamed pure stupid to me:

Having a full-blown bacterial infection on your leg, and not bothering to go to see a doctor to get antibiotics until a week later.

Not believing in travel insurance.

Not believing in sunscreen, and proceeding to spend three hours in direct sunlight on the beach wearing only shorts. Wondering why he burnt.

Keeping your bank cards and passport in your handbag when going out for a drink or realistically five, and carry the bag flimsily... until a passing by moto snaps it off your hand. Also many people carried their money belts or pouches on the TOP of their clothing, showing that they have a massive wad of cash!

Getting too drunk, especially on your own. Like the guy who pissed off the locals in Thailand, got drugged for three days solid and was taken around town to take huge ugly tattoos and spend all his money.

Attitude

There seems to be a party-train that goes from beaches of Southern Thailand and the Full Moon Party on Koh Phagnan to Pai in Northern Thailand, to Vang Vieng in Laos, to Sihanoukville and Siem Reap in Cambodia and culminates in Bangkok. We met people who had only these places on their agenda, willing to do 36-hour bus journeys to reach the next destination, and it truly seemed that the main point of their trip was just to get drunk in different countries without getting to know the country at all.

Finally, the most annoying stupid person we met was an older Canadian guy who kept complaining about the unfairness of Vietnam. Well, I also think that there are many things that are just not fair in that country, like most of them living in ramshackle houses with tiny income. But to him, the unfairness was that he had to pay a dollar for a coke when the locals paid maybe half the price. This was the reason why he was fed up with Vietnam and why he would never travel there again. And he went on and on about it. He declared all Vietnamese were lazy bastards who just leech of hardworking people like him... I bet he's never done a full day on a rice field and got just about enough money for it to buy a coke!

Hello from Laos!

Once again a month goes by and I haven't got around updating the blog at all. I blame Boyfriend for all this - as he's here with me I'm already sharing the experiences with the most important person to me and I don't feel the need to write about everything.

However, I've been planning the posts I've not (yet) written. Here's the rough outlines, which I intend to fill up with photos when we return home next week!

Let's go get lost anywhere in S.E.A.
will describe how the best way to explore is to rent a moto and drive off the beaten path, like we did in Hue, Savannakhet and Pakse. 

Nothing is something worth doing
will summarize the amazingness of reading books in a hammock and taking it easy in Don Det, in 4000 Islands.

Still unnamed post or three
will be about the cathedral-like Kong Lor cave near Thakek, the bus journey from hell, how well we ate in Vientiane, tubing in the stunning views of Vang Vieng... as well as Ayutthaya and Bangkok that we are still yet to experience. 

Collection of Stupidity
will be a collection of interesting behaviour by both farangs and Asians. 

Top tips by Dr Pepper
will have to be written after we get home, but will include what are the key items for successful travels, and maybe a listing of favourite haunts.

How to deal with difficult situations in SE Asia.

If you're in a sticky situation in SE Asia, never lose your temper or start shouting. Also, if you know that you need something from the other party (e.g. non-cheaty price, your ticket, a visa), best way forward is giving them an acceptable way out. For instance, you know you've paid for a service but they try to ask for the price again (because they know that the Western tourist usual can afford this), state kindly that you have paid already - maybe they could check their papers again or call a colleague to find out.

What happened to us was that stuff started going missing from our room here in Huế at Sports2 Hotel. First our camera cable disappeared and we checked our belongings, carefully noting that everything else were in their proper places. When we went down for breakfast we asked the reception if we had left the cable by the computers the previous day, but they had not seen it. So we went back to our room, which had been cleaned by the housekeeping whilst we were at breakfast. Boyfriend then wanted to cut his fingernails - just to find out that our Swiss army knife had been taken from his zipped up rucksack pocket.

After checking the whole room again, I went down to reception to inform them of our problem and to ask if they could ask from the housekeeping if the knife was accidentally taken with our dirty towels (see! a respectable way out!) Soon we get a phone call informing us that the camera cable was found from the first floor balcony hanging on a potted plant - maybe we accidentally forgot it there? Perhaps, we said, knowing that we had never been on the first floor.

After a couple more inquiries and hours of waiting and not losing our calm in front of the hotel staff, the knife had not showed up. So we packed our belongings and checked out. There was no way of staying in a hotel where we could not trust anything to stay in our room. Obviously we did not say this aloud, and we did not point a blaming finger even at this stage. After getting our passports back from reception (this is what you do in all hotels in Vietnam) we informed the reception that unfortunately we would have to go to the police station to obtain a police report for our travel insurance claim - it was after all an expensive knife (half our combined weekly travel budget) - but hopefully this would not cause any problems to them (oh I can be so polite - however, this nevertheless caused the first signs of genuine interest in the receptionist with our minor plight). We left our contact details with the receptionist in case the housekeeping would find the knife.

And funny that, an hour later we got a phone call informing us that the knife is waiting for us in the reception. It had been found "behind the bed" (where we knew for sure it had not been). We thanked and smiled, obviously we were the foolish ones here not finding the knife from there. So in the end it was us who possibly lost our faces not being able to locate a knife in a room, but none of the staff at the hotel were shamed in front of us. So keeping our calm, being polite and offering a way out (finding the knife "from our room" after our departure) got us our knife back. What a day it has been though!