Racism.

In this post I'm going to tackle the difficult topic of racism. The basis of this post is that I was caught unaware of what constituted as racism in the US. As my ethnicity, nationality, sex, religion or sexuality has never prevented me from doing things I want to do, I might not approach the topic with the same sensitivity that someone with these experiences might.

Travelling the world makes it obvious that people behave differently in different countries, have different customs and cultures, and also look different. This can lead to stereotyping people, which often is a source of common humour ("An Englishman, a Scot and a Irishman walk into a bar..."). Stereotypes can sometimes help you to interact with people (e.g. because of the stereotype of Brits talking about the weather you know that it's quite ok to talk about the weather to a Brit), but occasionally, they lead to negative assumptions about different groups of people. And that's where the problem lies - no one wants to be unfairly judged because of their ethnicity / nationality / gender / religion / sexuality.

Although the First Amendment grants the right to even extreme opinion and religion here in the US (e.g. Ku Klux Klan and Westboro Baptist Church), the workplace remains extremely politically correct and racist comments can lead to immediate firing. At the university, I have seen numerous posters stating that we work in a "Hate-free environment", which is a sentiment I fully agree with. But what I was surprised about was what actually is perceived as racism or even "hate"?

Friendly jokes that point out differences between people are racist. Even if you told a joke about Mexicans to a Mexican person and he found it so funny that he went on to tell it to all of his Mexican friends who also loved the joke... you would still be racist.

Acknowledging differences is racism. Being different might mean that you are not equal. Reminding someone about the fact that their family is not originally from the US might make them feel like second class citizens. (I would not want people to think I was from the US. Also, if you look far back enough, the white Americans are not originally from the US either.)

Anything hinting at a difference is racism. Asking a Chinese-origin San Francisco-born person if they had a recipe for fortune cookies is racism. (Fortune cookies were originally invented in SF anyway!)

Hence, it seems, curiosity is racism. How do you ever learn about other people's customs and culture if it's racist to imply they are somehow different? I would definitely feel that people were being ignorant and unfriendly if I came from a different background to everyone else, and no one ever asked me about my culture.

And then the obvious follow-up question: What is not racism?

Ignorance seems to be the key to not being racist. They call it "colour-blindness", pretending that there are no differences. I find this quite problematic, because cultural differences do exist, and in my opinion, acknowledging them makes it easier to communicate and work together. Why can't we be different but still equal?

Also, positive discrimination is not racism. If everything is so much about ignoring the differences that might make people unequal, why are there grants for different ethnic minorities and women? Why do success of bigger NSF grants depend on having members of minorities being funded with the money? (Why could they not offer equal schooling for everyone so they actually would have equal opportunities?)

I find all of this very confusing. I believe in equality and equal opportunities, but ignoring the differences is difficult for me. I understand that there are people who do not actively choose the role of being different (e.g. travel) and people who have been teased or even bullied about being different. But still, acknowledging that we are all different is not hateful. I hadn't considered it racist before - for me racism is about attaching a value judgement to the difference, the most common of them being "people of my group are superior to others".

But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. At the workplace I will try and avoid trouble by avoiding saying things considered racist or hateful by the American scale. Because at home, it's my constitutional right to write these blog posts with my opinions on Americans and hint that they might be different to Europeans!

Red tape.

I've got experience from all the papers you need to fill in when moving to a new country to take up a job from a couple of countries now, and I have to say that America has been worst. First of all the visa. For Australia, the visa application can be done completely online, whereas the US visa required my employer to sign papers, fedex them to me so that I could take them to the embassy in person, which was a five star experience with lots of queueing, double security checks and a two-minute interview where I got asked the same questions as online. And now that I'm here, I cannot leave America (or rather, return) without having my visa-form signed by my visa officials.

Luckily enough, I have a fully furnished place to stay for the first two months here in Davis. Finding an apartment has been stressful, and apparently almost impossible outside the usual Davis annual lease cycle from September 1st to August 31st. The apartment complexes are suitably used to international people without credit rating coming to the country, so I didn't have provide extra references or deposit, as my appointment letter was sufficient to prove that I actually hold a job and have enough money to pay my rent.

However, I needed to pay my deposit and my first rent with a cheque. My bank (see below) didn't give me any personal cheques, only temporary ones. The temporary ones are not good enough, so I had to go and buy a money order from the post office. Money orders cannot be paid on credit, and as my American debit card was blocked (see below) and my international debit cards somehow check as credit here, I was forced to bike quite far to get cash (and pay all too much for withdrawing from an international account) to buy the money order. Oh America, the promised land of paying with a card, except for rent. And oh Davis, the promised land of cycling, where everything is so near but always so far if you don't have a car.

When it came to opening my bank account, the bank was understanding and willing to hold my money for me without any extras but without monthly fee either. However they completely forgot to send me my proper debit card (to replace the temporary card given to me when I opened my account), and then when I inquired about it they blocked the card I had. It took me a week to get the debit card with my name, and a realisation that not all of my mail is reaching me when the pin code never arrived. Luckily the pin code can be re-set at the bank with an ID and a signature, something that could not be done in Europe. However, I have grown to dislike Bank of America and how their service is so sugar-coated but useless. Also, they have the slowest website in history, making internet banking much more difficult than it should be. I'm considering changing banks as soon as I find the energy for it.

So the postal system is happy to deliver a variety of letters that have previous tenants' names on them, but not mine. I've tried to rectify the situation (by adding my name to the post box with large letters), but I've already lost the trust on the postal service here. Also, to send international parcels, you need to fill in the customs forms online (including the weight of your parcel!) before going to the post.

Phone company (AT&T) wasn't too enthusiastic with the services I wanted, but agreed that I could have a pre-paid sim card that I cannot use for international calls or texts. It really makes me miss the Australian phone company (Vodafone) who gave me the best pre-paid sim card ever - it couldn't distinguish between calls within Australia and outside of it! It's never been so cheap to call home!

For obtaining my health insurance I listened to various people's advice for a couple of hours and applied online. Seems to be in order, except the confirmation will be by post (I really wish this one comes through).

So for the things I need for my new apartment. To get electricity and gas, I need to fax the company. And I need to pay a bigger deposit as I don't have the social security number yet. To obtain a social security number, I need to go and visit an office that is open only six hours a day, only during work days, and is located in Sacramento. To get to Sacramento is only 15 minutes by car, but by public transport, I hear it takes two hours to reach that office. Somehow I haven't found the motivation to do all that quite yet. And also, depending the source of information, I might or might not be eligible for one.

For getting internet connection for my new apartment, I tried to shop online, but one of the two big providers (Verizon) didn't think they could provide my location and told me to call them, and the other one (AT&T) had ok prices and options, but required either social security number or a driver's licence number to shop with them online. And obviously buying from their shops the deals are $20 more expensive per month. Awesome. I really need that social security number.

It's not that things just require me going back and forth, and without a social security number (which I might not be eligible for) some of it just seems impossible. But also everything is worded in a very difficult language. My lease was 46 pages long. It turns out that I really need to take a renter's insurance, as if someone hurts themselves in my apartment, I have to pay for their medical bills. It's one crazy country with that respect.

And then there's obviously the consideration to buy a car, and to get a Californian driver's licence, but that can wait until I have all of the above sorted.

California fashion.

I've never been especially well dressed or fashionable, but I have to say that in California it's different. The dress of choice in Davis is t-shirt and shorts, for everyone, everywhere. At university, a lot of the students, the postdocs and the professors happily walk around in things that I'd wear for the beach. I guess I'm used to seeing people dressing with a bit more formality in academic environment. In my previous labs there's always been a certain level of formality or fashionability; women who wear beautiful skirts and tops, and the men, especially faculty, who wear shirts with collars.

I just find it baffling when I see professors shuffling away in flip flops. I don't think I have seen a single collared shirt. And last week, a postdoc from the lab next door was panicking because he got an interview for a real job and he needs to buy his first suit ever.

Maybe my first university was a tad too big on the formality, but really, a postdoc who does not own a suit? How about old little me starting at a new university worried if I've got enough formal wear if I got only a black pant suit and two cocktail dresses! And how about all the students from various European universities who own at least two different suits, a dinner jacket (tuxedo) and a tail coat (white tie) for academic dinners and their thesis defense!

So shock and horror, what I wear - simple cardigans and tops and summery skirts (or jeans, the aircon is not my friend) - is considered formal! But it it so nice wear dresses and skirts in this hot weather! And as I'm not backpacking anymore, my wardrobe is bigger and I actually can choose what to wear each morning! Maybe California will change me and I'll revert into wearing just t-shirts and jeans in no time and maybe I give up wearing my pretty leather pumps for more comfortable trekking sandals... we'll see! 

And as a quick fashion side note, San Francisco seemed to be the home of hipster. I like the style in tiny doses, but when everyone dresses the same, it just loses it's edge. And surely the trend should be over by now?

Davis, my new home in America.

This blog was meant to be a travel blog, but now I've gone and settled down for a few years. So what to do? Can I keep writing to a travel blog if I'm not actively travelling? But I'm not exactly in my home country either, so does it count as travelling? I figured that I'd quite like to have a place where to write about my experiences here in USA, and all of the travelling and sightseeing I will hopefully do over weekends and vacations... so this blog going to stay alive!

After Bangkok I went home and visited as many friends as I had time for in four weeks. I also got my American visa and figured out all the paperwork... which was surprisingly easy in the end. I even had time to watch most of the European Football Championship matches with my mum and dad and have a bit of summer holiday at home. For someone who loves to travel, I love being at home ridiculously much! And then I packed up my room at home (not that there was much to pack up) and came to California.

I've been living here now for three weeks and I've settled in really well. My new hometown is Davis, which is a pretty little university town located in the middle of massive fields. Davis is supposedly the most bike-friendly town in the States, and I have to say that the quality and number of bike paths is impressive. The town itself is also small enough for cycling everywhere. According to wikipedia Davis is also the second most educated city in the States just after Arlington, Virginia (where e.g. the Pentagon is located). It seems that recycling is really fashionable here, as is locally grown and organic foods. The independent grocery store Nugget seems awesome although I haven't yet had a chance to shop there properly (as there is a Safeway just across the street from where I live). Politically, Davis is pretty liberal and people who I've met are friendly and more aware of the world outside the States than I would've expected.

Davis is just one-hour drive away from Berkeley and one-and-half hours from San Francisco. The Bay Area tends to be very cool and foggy, which I've noticed both times I've managed to get that far, but Davis is far enough to have incredibly sunny and hot weather. The daytime temperatures have been 30-40C and luckily during the night the temperature drops below 20C. I have to say that the acclimation to the heat that I still have from SE Asia is very useful here - I actually enjoy the heat and do not need to resort to taking a siesta! 

Sacramento, the capital of California is just 15 minute drive away from Davis, but I haven't managed to visit it yet. Supposedly it should offer nicer dining and shopping than Davis... however there is a lot of restaurants in Davis too. Other interesting things near Davis include Napa and Sonoma Wine Counties, many national and regional parks with redwoods, and Lake Tahoe for hiking and skiing. I'm really looking forward to exploring the area more! At the moment it has been quite busy with work, hunting for a flat and all the other things that need sorting when moving to a new country. And I need to buy a car before I really can explore!

The thing that has helped me most for settling in however, has been the people that I work with. I really enjoy their company, and luckily they've been inviting me to do fun things with them. They even found me a place to stay for the first two months. How much easier than this can it get?! Speaking of fun things, there's actually a pool-side barbecue party organised by my housemates about to start right now!

Top tips by Dr Pepper.

To wrap up this trip, here's some recommendations for SE Asia. I'm likely to have missed something exciting and/or obvious, but these are the ones that came to my mind this time as the places I enjoyed the most.

Top places by Dr Pepper:
Broken Heart Guesthouse, Koh Rong island, Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Kong Lor cave, Thakek, Laos.
Scuba diving in Koh Tao, Thailand.

Top temples to see by Dr Pepper:
Angkor archeological park, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
White Temple, Chiang Rai, Thailand.
My favourite Buddha, Old Sukhothai, Thailand.
(Bubbling under: Cao Dai temple at Tay Ninh, Grand Palace in Bangkok, Historical park in Ayutthaya)

Top places for food by Dr Pepper
Vientiane - French, Japanese, Italian, Indian... food heaven in the middle of Asia.
Hoi An (expensive and delicious) and Hue (traditional and delicious).
Penang - endless varieties of noodles, and top notch street food in Chinese, Indian and Malay styles.

Then I've got a long list of travel tips (hidden under the "read more" link) for unexperienced travellers - this is more or less my attempt to pass on what I learned during my travels. I'm not trying to say that it is a dangerous world out there, because it really isn't - SE Asia is very safe and friendly as long as you don't behave stupidly. These tips could be called sensible precautions to minimise any unnecessary hassle and to maximise the enjoyment.

Ayutthaya and Bangkok without photos.

Unfortunately I do not have any photos from Ayutthaya or Bangkok to upload... yet. This is for two hilarious reasons.

Firstly, just after we had been in Vang Vieng, an internet cafe computer screwed over my memory stick with all our holiday photos by turning all the jpgs into exes. Frustration ensued when we realised that we could not scroll through our photos but only open them one by one, so we didn't want to use the compromised memory stick for more photos. Although our computer back at home thought these files were viruses and started deleting them, Boyfriend managed to rectify the situation and all of our holiday pictures were safe again. (This is a better story when I don't mention the back-up memory sticks that were most likely safe all the time.)

Secondly, Boyfriend forgot his camera in a toilet of Bangkok airport. We didn't realise this until we had boarded our plane and the doors were about to close. Luckily I managed to get hold of a very friendly member of the ground crew who promised to check the mentioned toilets herself and let us know if the camera was found. And lo and behold, just after the take-off we received a message via cockpit and the cabin crew that our camera was indeed found and we could pick it up from our destination airport a few days later. I would like to thank Lufthansa once again for their amazingly good service, as the camera arrived safely four days after us free of charge!

As me and Boyfriend have been in slightly different countries since our return, I ended up not having copies of the photos from the final four days of our trip. I hope the situation will rectified soon, but until then...

Ayutthaya - the largest city in the world back in the year 1700

Ayutthaya wasn't just yet another World Heritage Site under our belt, but an amazingly interesting city to explore. It used to be the capital of the Siamese Ayutthaya kingdom from 1350 to 1767, and it had over a million people in its heyday. The city is located on a holy island in the confluence of three rivers, and only Siamese people were allowed to live on the island. Crossing the river, there were colonies of immigrants from other countries - Chinese, Portugese, Indian. What remains of the great city of the powerful kingdom to date is the ruins of numerous Buddhist temples, side by side with an active Thai city.

Trying to describe the ruins and the temples of Ayutthaya in words is quite impossible. There was a lot of them. Not quite as much as in Angkor temple area, but still a lot. The loyal readers of this blog probably can already guess how we explored the surprisingly large area - by moto of course. For two days we looked at Siamese temples, Chinese temples, rows of small Buddhas, huge sitting Buddhas, Buddhas buried in a holy bodhi tree, stupas in the Ceylon style, stupas in the Siamese style, stupas in the roundabout, temples in the Khmer style (to honor the victory over the Khmer), temples in the Burmese style (to mark the victory by the Burmese and fall of Ayutthaya)... and elephants!

Now, month and a half later, I find it difficult to remember which of the temples I liked the most without seeing the photos. They all were beautiful in their own ways. However, what I remember the best from Ayutthaya is the elephants. Some kilometres to north of the city is an ancient elephant kraal - or an elephant trap - that was used to catch wild elephant for work and war purposes. Now at the kraal there is an elephant village with over 90 elephants, and an NGO trying their best to conserve the species as the numbers in the wild are rapidly declining. Additionally, there is also a tourist trap called the Elephant Village in Ayutthaya, which we didn't visit, but we ran into their elephants wandering around the nearby Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon temple area without a leash.

Bangkok - back to the beginning.

After two days in Ayutthaya we had two days in Bangkok before flying home. It was weird coming back to the beginning, and I think Boyfriend felt it stronger. As he hadn't travelled in SE Asia before, his first contact had been Bangkok four months earlier and now he saw it with more travelling experience. First time around Bangkok felt like the city of squalor, and the backpacker area of Khaosan Road area worn and dirty. Returning back after four months, it felt amazingly clean and civilized. The reverse culture shock hit us - were there really places with so many cars, advertisements and busy people?

To honour the way we started our trip in Bangkok - drinking beer in the bars of Khaosan Road - we repeated the experience. This time we felt more relaxed about the place, laughed about how obvious it was who had just arrived to Asia and who was already going home. Eventually we lapsed into reminiscing about the whole trip, and started ranking the best and worst things we'd experienced. The best island, the best meal(s), the stupidest person, the worst weather, the best bus journey, the best hotel room, and so on. We were obviously getting ready to go home.

Also, it was a time to do the stuff that we still wanted to do before going home. Boyfriend had been complaining that he hadn't had any food that was truly spicy during the whole four months - so I promptly ordered a spicy papaya salad for dinner, and that goal was fulfilled too. We spent two days shopping for souvenirs, presents and our own wardrobes, and decided to miss out on the Royal Palace as I had seen it already and Boyfriend is planning to return to Bangkok soon.

And all too soon it was time to go home. What an amazing trip it was!

In the Tubing, Vang Vieng.

There is no typo in the title - the numerous Vang Vieng t-shirts, tanktops and shorts says exactly that. As described earlier (last year as well in the post about stupidity), Vang Vieng is the backpacker party capital of Laos. It is a smallish village in absolutely stunning scenery - by the Nam Song river with steep craggy hills on the other side. There is plenty of activities available from kayaking to mountain climbing, but most of the travellers seem to opt for partying and floating down the river with huge inner tubes.

We stayed at the Grand View Guesthouse and it really had grand views. Also, it was a top quality room with hot water, TV with a couple of movie channels, a strong fan, great bed and as a cherry on the top, a massive balcony facing the river and the mountains. All this for nine euros per night. Here's some views from the balcony:

Last year I met some wonderful people in Vang Vieng, but this time we felt all too old for the place. May is already off-season for Laos, although the rainy season is only about to start, so there were not that many people about. Usually that's a good thing, but in Vang Vieng it seemed to mean that only the people most desperate to keep partying remained. Many of the restaurants and bars stood empty, and the ones that were popular were crowded with all too festive (drunk) revellers.

Vang Vieng during the day. The yellow Beer Lao advertisements are about the only ones you see in communist Laos. They're rather ugly, but very handy in the countryside as even the tiniest road-side restaurants have one.

Tubing is truly a fun activity, but the trouble on the river are the numerous bars offering free drinks. So most of the people go "tubing" just to get drunk cheaply in the middle of the day and party in the sunshine. The bars employ backpackers as party hosts and hostesses, whose main duty is to get people to buy more drinks by playing drinking games and having a laugh with them. A proper Vang Vieng riverside bar is not complete without a table for beer ping pong and someone offering to body paint rude words on you.

Furthermore, some of the bars have ziplines, slides or jumping platforms into the river. However, many of these are not safe during the dry season when the water is low, or when jumping to the wrong direction. Intoxicated people tend to think that if it is possible to jump into the water, it must be safe. To make the situation even worse, some of the bars have "happy menus" offering weed, magic mushrooms and opium... as if the free shots of local whiskey wouldn't already be lethal enough. According to a local restaurant keeper, 22 backpackers died in Vang Vieng in 2011, and about ten had died in 2012 by mid-May. Not a very happy statistic.

Anyhow, we spent two lovely days tubing. First time we had a couple of free shots and managed to get only halfway through before the sun started setting and took a tuk-tuk home. In the tuk-tuk we met a guy who had lost his camera on the river... at the exactly same spot where his friend lost his camera two days earlier. Apparently there is a spot in the river that is very dangerous to cameras! Acknowledging this risk, we took ours with us on our second tubing trip, so here's some photos:

Tubing trip starts from here. Tube rental costs about six euros for a day, and includes a tuk-tuk ride 4 km upstream from Vang Vieng. You also have to pay deposit that you will get back if you return the tube by 6 pm (8 pm) the same day. The tube rental shop is apparently run by the surrounding villages in co-operation - each local village gets a turn to run it making sure the money from tourists spreads evenly in the area.

Some of the riverside bars at the tubing drop-off point. Still very quiet, as it's only noon. Notice the high jumping platform.

Dr Pepper tubing in the stunning views, and more riverside bars with slides and zip-lines on the right. The river water was rather brown and murky (unlike last time) due to the first rains of the season just a week earlier. The rain water drains all the dust and dirt from surrounding areas into the river.

I think Boyfriend was a bit disappointed with Vang Vieng and the lack of more mature backpackers. We had met so many nice people to hang out with in Laos that Vang Vieng with its under-20 party crowd felt a bit lonely and distant to us. On our last full day in Vang Vieng we woke up annoyed around 5 am to our upstairs neighbours being drunk, loud and annoying on their balcony for hours. We considered leaving from Vang Vieng straightaway, but an early morning walk in rainy and quiet Vang Vieng changed our mind about it. The town was much lovelier without the drunk and misbehaving backpackers, and the rainy morning offered exactly this to us. 

Later in the day we rented a moto and explored the area around Vang Vieng, and it's a shame we didn't do it earlier as there is plenty of real Laos to see.The small roads go through villages and fields, and for people interested in climbing in caves, there are many of those. The most tourists seem to head to the Blue Lagoon when doing a trip in the surroundings, but I didn't find it so special -maybe it's more for people with a tendency to jump into water whenever possible. Also the cave above it felt too dangerous to go in after the first twenty metres. However we enjoyed seeing the village life everywhere around us; women weaving, men fishing, people on the fields, children returning from the school, people coming home from the market. Also we met a delightful restaurant owner who happily shared his story of life as well as his insights into local politics. All in all, the late afternoon we spent motoing around made us much feel much happier about Vang Vieng as a destination.

So the following day we left from Vang Vieng and Laos, and we were quite sad to go. We could've easily spent more time in the country, but our flights back home were looming in already four days! From Vang Vieng we took a minivan to Vientiane (what a suitable place to have a lunch in!), then the Laos's only operating train from Vientiane over the Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai in Thailand, and from there a hyper-airconditioned sleeper train to Ayutthaya. None of the ticketing people seemed to think that we could buy a ticket to Ayutthaya instead of Bangkok, but getting there was easily sorted by informing the conductors that we'd like to get off in Ayutthaya instead of Bangkok.

(c) to all photos by Boyfriend.

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.