Sun 04/01/09 23:37

We got into Vietiane on about the 29th of January, but for the life of me I don’t know the exact date. I do know that I spent New Years Eve and left on New Years, we were there for about two or three nights, so that puts the date that we got into the city on or about the 29th. Vietiane is the capital city of Laos, so it’s a little more cosmopolitan than many of the other cities that we’ve been to on this trip… except for Bangkok that is.

For the most part it was a fun city, it is on the bank of the Mekong and directly across the river from Thailand. There was a lot of preparation for the upcoming New Years Eve, the town center was being set up for a live music festival, and it seemed that there were decorations everywhere. Like Bangkok, it seems that capitalism is alive and well in Vietiane. Shops are everywhere and the general speed of life is very fast, but the people seem to have taken it all in step, they move fast, but have a very mellow outlook on life. They deal with tourists with a smile or nod and are generally friendly. There are hundreds of tourists everywhere you go, so many that it seems almost unnatural. Except for a few attractions there isn’t a lot to see, and I took pictures of nearly everything that I thought was interesting. They have an arch, similar to the Arc de Triumph in Paris, but smaller. According to what I read it was built with cement that was initially planned to build a runway for the American Air Force, but was donated instead to the Laos people, so they build the Arch as a memorial for their soldiers. It was very cool.

On New Years Eve we headed down to the town square to usher in 2009, but we couldn’t find any seats… the band was already playing and it was tough finding anyplace to settle into, until we found a place on the Mekong, that had a bonfire going, and better yet, it was serving free beer. . We were there for a few hours and then the fireworks started. It really turned out to be almost perfect, about 100 people dancing to loud music around a bonfire watching fireworks. I met some new people and got an email address, and was kind of set up with a Laos girl, so I was having fun.

About 1 we headed to a disco and bar across the town. We stayed there for a few hours and in general it was a lot of fun. I have a little bit of a hard time partying at my age. I just feel out of place sometimes, and at the disco I kind of had to force myself to have fun. The Laos girl that I was introduced to was there and we hung out for a while, but nothing really happened.

The next morning we left for the border of Vietnam.

Day two in Vang Vieng. Today started okay, we got up about 8 and had breakfast, before we had to meet with out tour leader at 9. The agenda was pretty simple, we were going for a little hike to some caves and a swimming hole not far away from the city. The total distance was no more than 2 kilometers so we got there in a short time. The area was straight out of some postcard, really serene. Right now I don’t have internet access so I can’t load any images up for a little while, so you’ll just have to take my word for it how pretty it was. There were little wood bridges over clear pools of water that lead to alters, and on the side of the mountain was a series of stairs that lead up to a cave.

Later in the afternoon we decided to do some kayaking down the river here. I didn’t take any pics along the way but you have to imagine this, there are 8 of us just slowly going down the river, and we come up to a bend. You can hear loud American music, and as we make it around there are dozens of people dancing, drinking, and swimming. Some are jumping of zip lines some are jumping off ropes. There’s a girl with a beer in her hand in a bikini just dancing to the music, and some guy has two water bottles tied with rope and is swinging them like num-chucks. It was like stepping into decadence. So we’re still cruising along, most of stunned on what we are watching, and we come around another bend, this time there is twice as many people, and there’s a water slide that people are using to launch themselves into the water. The whole thing seemed wrong in some ways, but so much fun. If you’ve seen Apocalypse Now and can remember the part when they come into a camp that has all these lights on in the middle of the jungle, then a helicopter lands and out come some dancers, you’d know how strange it felt to see the people partying on the river today. So we pulled over and joined them. Since I’m older I felt a little strange being there, but it was so much fun. Now this is totally subjective and not based really on any facts, but from what I’ve been told is that during the Vietnam War, there was an American base here, which would mean that there are people here that know what it takes to satisfy the Western style of partying. As we were walking back to the hotel a couple of the girls were saying how much they didn’t like what they saw… I couldn’t help but think how great it was. :)

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for a short bus ride to Vientiane.

So I’m in Vang Vieng and the weather is beautiful. The town/village is nestled in a valley surrounded by huge jungle covered mountains. It really is beautiful. The town, like I mentioned in an earlier post is pretty much a tourist spot, with all the things that tourists would like to do here. You can rent scooters or bikes, go inner-tubing down the river or even go kayaking, all of which I’ll probably do tomorrow. Right now though, I’m sitting in an open café drinking a beer… a Beerlao to be more precise, and enjoying watching the people go by.

The bus ride to get here was fun, out of maybe a total of 200 miles… and that’s a stretch, it took us eight hours. There were places that there wasn’t any road at all, and there were places that the road curved so much that there weren’t any straight parts for hours at a time. Some of the people got car sick it was so bad. I thought a couple of times that I started to get sick too. The bus stopped occasionally to pick up people along the way, at one point an older woman got on with a live chicken. I couldn’t have been happier to see that. It’s like one of those things that you hear about and wonder what it would be like to live it. The chicken’s legs were tied together, and the body was covered in a plastic bag. At first I thought that it was dead, but when she lifted it up the chicken moved its head and made some noises. I’ve got video of a portion of the ride, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the chicken in it.

I was sitting next to a Brit on the bus that freelances as a writer for magazines, web sites, and newspapers about traveling. It really is remarkable to hear that someone has been traveling for about a year, and is going to all the places that I want to see eventually. After he goes to Vietnam, he’s heading to Australia, New Zealand, and then eventually to South America where he’ll travel up to the states for a bit. That’s exactly what I want to do. This is his second really huge trip. He doesn’t have any plans for Africa yet, so maybe after the summer when I meet another person like that, I can at least feel somewhat equal. So far it seems every one I meet has traveled more than me… I guess one of these days I’ll be a “world traveler” and be able to rub elbows with the best of ‘em. J

It’s the 27th now of December, and we’re still in Luang Prabang. The weather yesterday was pretty much all rainy, so rainy that we didn’t get to do very much. Not that that is too bad, I find that every few days just stopping to relax is a good thing. It actually got us prepared for today which was full of planned visits to nearby tourist stops.

Our first stop was a whiskey making/brewing village. I don’t know though, when we got there it was more of a souvenir place than anything else. The village itself was supposed to be the one that supplies the area with whiskey, but there was only two people making it while we were there. The village was packed with small shops selling lots of trinkets, and some whiskey. One of the things about the whiskey that is all over Laos is that it usually has some sort of animal suspended in the bottle. Sometimes it’s a gecko and sometimes it’s a scorpion, but most of the time its a snake. It’s really kind of bizarre to see a small King Cobra with it’s hood spread looking at you from inside the bottle of whiskey. I don’t know why you would like to drink something that has a snake soaking in it, but hey, it’s what they do.

After that we went to a weaving village. There were more people actually doing what the village was supposedly known for, weaving, but still lots of shops selling items to the tourists. It’s not a bad thing that they are selling though. I bought some stationary but nothing more.

  

  

Then we went to one of the better places, a park with a very large, and very beautiful waterfall. Mind you, it was still overcast, but not raining, so we didn’t get the full beauty of the waterfall with sunlight hitting it. There were more than just one falls, in fact there were many, some very large, and others that were small. Some came from large ponds, and some from streams. It was very picturesque and I hope the pictures that I’ve taken give it justice.

Tomorrow we head out early in the morning for about a six-hour bus ride to the next city. From what I’ve heard this next village has even more tourists than this one.  Just a side note, I broke my camera a few nights ago. I guess I must have bumped into something because I broke the display. The camera still works, but I can’t tell what I’m aiming at when I take a photo, so although I’m trying to compensate by taking more photos, I’m having some problems actually getting decent compositions.

One kind of funny thing, as I’m sitting here, the tv across the room is showing people make bungi sticks and other traps for American soldiers during the Vietnam War… the hotel clerk saw me watching and said, “American our friends.” with a big smile.

Sat 27/12/08 08:08

I’m in Luang Prabang, Laos outside my hotel waiting to get online. The weather is kind rainy… drizzly may be a better word for it, but at least it’s kind of warm. I went out with some of the people on the tour last night to properly celebrate Christmas. Well, we’ve been celebrating for the last 2 or 3 days, but last night we “drank” to Christmas. This town is probably not what I would imagine if I were thinking about Laos. It’s very pretty, and very tourist oriented. The restaurants and shops are kind of what you expect to see if you were in some small tourist town in America, lots of upscale shops, Western style restaurants that serve pizza, spaghetti, and other western foods. I think there’s good reason for it though, just a guess, but I’d say that there are more tourists than locals walking the streets.  The club we went to last night definitely caters to westerners. It wasn’t packed but it was full of people dancing and having fun. The town closes at 11:30… at least that’s what we’d be told so at 11 I started to get a little nervous about getting back to the hotel in time, but everyone was having such a good time that we stayed later, about to 12:15, hopped into a tuc-tuc and got to the hotel. When we showed up the front gate was closed and bolted, the front door was locked and we did what every drunk foreigner would do, we jumped the fence and pushed open the door. :) No worries.

It’s the 27th now of December, and we’re still in Luang Prabang. The weather yesterday was pretty much all rainy, so rainy that we didn’t get to do very much. Not that that is too bad, I find that every few days just stopping to relax is a good thing. It actually got us prepared for today which was full of planned visits to nearby tourist stops.

Thu 25/12/08 22:09

This entry is being posted after Christmas, written as I was on the river.

Pakbeng was the small river town that we spent the night last night. I don’t know for sure but I think that this town’s sole existence is for a halfway point along the river. From what our guide told me was that nobody navigates the Mekong during the night because of the dangers of hidden rocks and other various objects. It makes Pakbeng the place to stop for the night. It’s a small town that seems to have embraced its role as a small tourist spot. There are as many hotels and restaurants as there are houses or stores on its one street. Don’t miss understand me, there is no way that this town is tourist”y”  it is real in every sense of the word. The people are busy working at making a living and except for the shopkeepers they barely seem to notice the tourists. Our hotel was excellent, there was a large open area/deck that overlooks the Mekong where we spent the night drinking and talking… not exactly true, we spent most of the night at a restaurant across the street from our hotel, but when it got close to 10:30 we went back to the hotel to chat, listen to Christmas music and hang. The reason we left then was that the city doesn’t have electricity from a grid, they have to run generators, so at 10:30 at night the town shuts off the lights. It’s something that seems so foreign to most people in developed countries, but the people here seem to take it in stride. To be honest it didn’t bother any of us at all… in fact it was kind of quaint.

The temperature here is kind of chilly, probably in the 50s or so right now. It really cools down when the sun is down, or like now, when it’s blocked by clouds. The clouds are really more like fog than anything, and the way it is hugging the hills that line the river is something kind of surreal. It’s 9:30 in the morning and everyone on the boat is bundled up in all the extra clothes that they brought. Coming from a place where a jacket isn’t needed, it really wasn’t something that I thought to bring with me. I did bring a hooded sweatshirt so I’m not completely cold…

Yesterday we stopped at one of the villages that are scattered around the bank of the river. I have to say that it was one of the best things and one of the worst things I’ve seen in a while. As we pulled up to a sandy area on the bank I could see small kids all lined up watching us. Now if you’ve ever seen any of the old Vietnam war movies you probably are familiar with the type of buildings they live in, I think they’re called hootches. I don’t know though maybe that’s slang. They’re made out of bamboo and sit on stilts. The village consisted of about 30 or 40 of these “hootches” which were scattered around so no front door was facing another. The people were poor… dirt poor. Chickens, dogs, and other animals walked among us as we made our way through the village. The young children rarely had a set of clothing, some had underwear, some only a shirt. The best way to describe the situation was if you’ve ever seen the infomercial that has the tagline, “for about the cup of a coffee, you can help feed a child for a month” you would know what this village was like. It really was almost sad that we were spectators in their lives though, I don’t know about everyone in the group, but a few of us were talking later about how it felt like we were exploiting them. We didn’t do anything purposefully bad, but just the fact that we were walking around, some of us taking pictures, seemed like we were wrong to be there. Almost like their misery was something for our benefit. I guess just like a zoo raises awareness of the animals of the world, showing us the real misery of some people in the world raised our understanding of how lucky we actually are. I don’t know if “misery” is the right word, it seems like I’m suggesting that they were sad, and I don’t really mean to say that, they were poor, but maybe their life is harder, and in some ways, better than the average westerner that makes the rounds through their village.

This village is not the only example of lack of wealth that we’ve seen since we crossed over to Laos. It’s sad in some regards, but in the last two days that we’ve been here there hasn’t been any examples of people that have enough to live comfortably… and I’m not talking about cable television or café lattes in the morning, I’m talking about living.