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Been there, Dan that!

a travel blog by Dan

Well, i'm off to wing it in China for a while, there is some structure to my plans i'm just not sure what they are yet! Thats not entirely true, i'm hopeing to do a bit of teaching somwhere whilst i'm out there and i fully intend to land in a plane in Hong Kong, see i've got loads of plans!!!
it'll be reet mum...

note: the name has changed again, for the last time i promise!


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On the move again

Kunming, China

So as the Olympics begin (at bloody last) my time in China comes to an end, for now at least. Its been great fun and not as difficult as I had expected. I guess I thought the infrastructure of the place would be less developed than it is and apart from a few nasty bus journeys (suspect I have another one of those coming up tomorrow) getting around has been easy. The locals have been great too with few unfriendly folks, though I never made it to the east coast which is notorious for being a amiable. I'll experience that eventually because i'll be back in 2 months travelling up the east coast on my way to Beijing and eventually catching a train or 5 home.
I didn't experience the culture shock I had expected after arriving here but there are certain aspects of chinese life that are either pretty filthy (persistent spitting of vile green flem is THE one thing that really got too me) or just downright insane, the driving can leave a lot to be desired sometimes. Other parts of the culture where really inspiring especially the Chinese habit of socialising all the time in big groups. They're a far more socially minded and uninhibited nation than back home. The food here is great too really cheap and quick to be served, much simpler and less greasy than the British Chinese takeaway, the vege's in particular are great. Beers cheap too, though I haven't drunk for the last 2 months. I don't really know what happened I just stopped. Will most likely pick up again in Laos as there local beer (imaginatively named beer Lao) is apparently one of the best in asia!

Some of the other teachers.
Kunming has been a good choice for a base this last ten weeks I'm glad it transpired that I ended up here though I wish there hadn't been an earthquake of course which was ultimately the decider between this place and Chengdu. The weather has been nice with cool breezes and sunny days apparently the du is sweltering at this time of the year. The city is pleasent too and its not to big so you can't get terribly lost. The bus service is also pretty amazing, this seems to be the case all over China. The UK could learn a lot form putting on plenty of simple services at an affordable price. Nearly everyone seems to use the buses here if not they're on a bike or a scooter. Another notable effort the Chinese are making environmentally is the banning of free plastic bags in supermarkets. This was implemented about 2 months ago and for about a week people would go to the supermarket, forget to bring bags and get pissed off at having to pay for some. But in no time everyone started to bring there own. This sort of thing would be so easy to implement back home.

This was my favorite class.

Said my goodbyes at school this week. The students seemed genuinely disappointed that I was leaving which was nice. Sometimes I was unsure if they where really enjoying the lessons because of there confused looking non English speaking faces trying to understand my odd accent. I've really enjoyed the work shame I couldn't do more as I would have liked to stay until the end of this term, not just for the 3 month bonus I would have received. Think i'll definitely look into teaching as a career when I'm back, its going to be a completely different experience teaching English kids mind.

So tomorrow evening I have a bus to the border then i'll wave goodbye to China on Sunday after crossing the overland.

I think I agree with Eric Idle "I like Chinese, they only come up to your knees"


permalink written by  Dan on August 8, 2008 from Kunming, China
from the travel blog: Been there, Dan that!
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Welcome to Laos!

Louang Namtha, Laos


Landslide
18 hours travelling several different "buses" one landslide and two muddy feet but I made it and its lovely. Very quiet and relaxed compared to a certain neighbor. Raining at the moment looks like it has been for a while.

more soon!

permalink written by  Dan on August 10, 2008 from Louang Namtha, Laos
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Bit of a washout

Louang Namtha, Laos

All the treks were cancelled and the river was too high to raft on but Louang Namtha was still a pleasant introduction the the more relaxes Laos ways that I will be experiencing over

Busy Laos streets
the next month. Its a nice little town, incredibly small its actually the capital of the northern province of the same name. I've really got to get used to the scale of things here!


The old stupa and its replacement
Having little else to do I hired a tuk tuk to the local stupa a 20 minute, muddy and at times knee deep river ride later I strolled up the steps. The original stupa had been hit by a bomb in the Indochina war. It is claimed that it was over 400 years old but I doubt that very much due to the clearly visible steel rods protruding from it smashed and toppled centre. Its jungley looking with a tree growing from the centre and the new Golden stupa behind it makes a nice pic.

All around is green, Laos is green everywhere you look. It really is beautiful.

Bus ride on a new road to Huoayxay on the Mekong the next day. The road is already starting to collapse.


permalink written by  Dan on August 12, 2008 from Louang Namtha, Laos
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My first leech and other tales from the jungle

Houayxay, Laos


Across the Mekong, Thailand on the other side,
There is little to do in Houayxay town itself it serves as a border crossing to Thailand across the swollen Mekong river and you can also take river boats from there to central Laos a trip i'd be taking later in the week. The town another one street quiet place is also home to the gibbon experience a trekking and zip wiring health and safety nightmare in the Borkeo national park just north of the town. The idea is you stay in tree houses up to 150 meters off the ground, zip around in the jungle canopy for a day and if your lucky see some gibbons.


view from the dirt road
Its a 3 day trip and due to the rain a tough trek is involved, during the dry season you just get driven to the local village and make the short walk to the first tree house. However because the river block the road this time of year we had to walk about 30 kilometres to the village first.

The walk wasn't to bad though it was very muddy and despite the morning rain still hot by lunchtime. Once at the village the mud only thickened and we had no option but to trudge through up to our shins. It was good fun until the very end when after 6 hours walking we had to ascend a fair few "steps" which offered little grip for my tired feet. So I slid my way up and finally arrived at the camp to be presented with a zip wire harness

A quick mention of my fellow walkers, we had a nice group of 7 2 Dutch sister form Amsterdam with unspellable names, Luca and Christian from Milan and Andrei and Kerry from London, the latter where on the honeymoon!


Zipping
So strapped up we tolled up yet more steps and came to our first wire. ABout 100 meters long it led straight to a tree house.
Zip lining is very easy and I felt surprisingly safe and comfortable doing it despite the fact that the closest decent hospital was back in Kunming. You just let yourself go enjoy the view and then brake fore you hit the tree at the other end.

The tree house was also great. With 3 levels it had a separate toilet and shower, a stove and 3 beds, sadly it also had rats. The night was spent trying not to think about how close the rat was to me though I discovered it got within at least a foot after finding a few holes in my rucksack the next morning. We also woke early in the hope of seeing or hearing gibbons but there where none as it was raining hard.

Tired and with stiff muscles we set of for a days zipping. The lines further into the jungle where spectacular. Starting seemingly just surrounded by bamboo and trees the ground would drop away leaving incredible views down beautiful jungle valleys the wires where up to 150 meters in the air around 50 floors and some where as long as 350 meters


The tree house for the 2nd night. Trying desperately not to drop the camera!!!

By the afternoon we arrived at the second tree house. A huge tree on the edge of a deep valley with a waterfall and river running through it. Again the views where great.


A loo with a view
The final day was spent hiking back out of the jungle a longer trip then going in and it took us through some paths that where actually streams here is where I met my first leeches. They walk like slinky's and are tiny so the sneak in unnoticed. Even the bite is fairly painless. I wasn't really checking until someone else got one then rolled up my shorts and found several around my knees. One was fairly large so had been there for a while but with a spray of deet insect repellent it soon dropped off and left a little hole. The problem comes from the blood thinner they excrete so they can consume your blood quicker, it causes you to look like your bleeding lots when in fact your bleeding very little, a touch disconcerting at the time.

Exhausted we got back to Hoayxai around 5pm and had a big strength regaining BBQ the Lao like to grill there meet so the food here has been pretty good up to know.

The trip was great fun despite the lack of gibbons and if your ever in Laos I would more than recommend it, maybe do it in the dry season though.


permalink written by  Dan on August 15, 2008 from Houayxay, Laos
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Slow boat down the Mekong

Muang Pakbeng, Laos


The slow boat
Took a 2 day trip down the Mekong the day after arriving back from the trek. It takes you and seemingly all the other tourists in this corner of Laos to the fine French concession and UNESCO heritage town of Luang Prabang.
The Mekong was fast and big as the last moths rains had seen it swell greatly so I was glad to be going down stream.

6 hours of sailing was pleasant enough, we then arrived in the small village of Pakbeng seemingly made fairly well off by the hundreds of tourists who must sleep there every night. We weren't held to ransom for a room though and there was plenty of space.
Was taught how to shoot a slingshot properly by some local kids, they where disturbingly good at hitting the leaf I had placed 5 feet away and where in hysterics as my shots went off at odd angles.


Locals showing me how to use a sling. I was shit!

Packed up with baguettes the boat left again the next morning this time with a few locals stuffed in to boot the the boat sat a little worrying low and lopsided in the water. The driver did alright avoiding the rapids and strange currents which caused whirlpools though and we whizzed down the Mekong making the 9 hour journey in under 7.

Luang Prabang is Lovely, booked myself into a smart hotel last night and I'll probably blow the budget for 3 or 4 days and make the most. More when i've explored.


dock at Luang prabang

permalink written by  Dan on August 17, 2008 from Muang Pakbeng, Laos
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A not particularly well deserved rest!

Luang Prabang, Laos


French style buildings
Its difficult to imagine I'm still in Laos, though LP is a small and quiet place it sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to the rest of Lao I've seen so far.
The reason for this is its French influence from the colonialisation (not sure if that's a real word!) in the 1940's and this combined with the towns long political and religious history (many seriously ancient temples and watts) creates a unique architectural and cultural mix.

Its really touristy but in a tasteful way with pleasant cafe's lining the streets but this has caused the town to be fairly expensive when it comes to eating and sleeping. There's still some bargains to be had though. the Barbecues and baguette stands do a roaring business with us scrimping travellers.


Local waterfall is blue in the dry season... its not the dry season!
I've far from scrimped this week though, after a weeks travel and trekking I decided to sack off trying to be frugal for a few days and lived it up a bit with a big comfy bed, lovely clean bathroom and TV for the princely sum of $11 a night. That's about twice my budget so i'll have to spend a few nights on the street to compensate.


One of many watts and extremely blue sky!
Done very little other than chill out these last four days, went to some local waterfalls which where really nice despite the bad weather, infact the extra water made them all the more impressive. There where a couple of pools in which you could swim and blue shelled freshwater crabs kept scuttling out from under the bushes. Roaming the streets has been another enjoyable pastime in the nicer spells of weather, the local monks strolling around with the brolly's useful for the scorching sun as well as the rain. Also been enjoying the Laos coffee, its pretty strong stuff, not quite an espresso but half way there at least, this is more than compensated for by the large mugs its served in.

Really hot today. I have a bus this evening heading east. I'm not really sure what i'm doing taking a 17 hour bus to the Vietnamese border, apparently there's some amazing scenery that not many tourists see because its a bitch of a bumpy road... sounds like a sleepless night ahead.


permalink written by  Dan on August 21, 2008 from Luang Prabang, Laos
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The bus trip from hell... except i'm in Laos!

Sam Neua, Laos

I should have known when the chap at the bus station giggled and raised his eyebrows as I collected my ticket,
"You do know its 15 hours?"
"Yeah" I scoffed, thinking back to all those hellish chinese sleeper trips.

I'll start with my buying of the ticket from the friendly agent. He was a lovely chap and so is worthy of a mention, he too questioned why I wanted to travel to Sam Neua, "to see the Pathet Lao caves and stuff" i said.
He sort of gave me a fair enough face.
The only reason I mention this fella is because as I sat down to pay for my ticket and give my details I noticed what it said on his bright red shirt.
"Fuck off, wankers"
After enquireing as to his understanding of the phrase, discovering he had none and the resulting shy way he tryed to fold himself in half to hide it after i'd given him a general gist, I had a soft spot for the chap. Next day when I picked up the ticket and got the free tuk tuk to the bus station he proudly showed me his clean blue sloganless shirt.

I got to the bus station in plenty of time for the 5:30pm departure. Except the bus didn't depart at 5:30, "dont worry" said the sniggering but friendly station master. "I'll tell you when it arrives."
He didn't because his shift was over before it did, at 9pm his replacement guided me to the bus as it trundled in to the station. I could see from the warm glow out the windows it was pretty busy, only when I clambered in over the grain sacks and small children did I realise it was completely full. Even all the extra plastic seats they put down the aisle where taken. Somehow though they reorganised things. The surpisingly well spoken conducter said. "Dont worry sir, we'll sort you out a seat" Sure enough after a bit of jigging around everyone was still sat down looking quite comfortable and there was a spare seat for me. I made my way over and tripped over something. A young man bent down and sheepishly picked up the item, a poorley dsiguised automatic rifle wrapped in his jumper. Pleased I hadn't killed or at least mamed any other passengers I plonked myself down in the chair and was met by curios grins from all around.

We set off at the usual dawdling Laos bus pace picking up yet more stragglers and miraculously finding them all places to sit. I began to doze off, my head lollong around with knowhere to rest.

After what seemed like hours we stopped for dinner, many of the other folks on the bus had been travelling all day.

I looked at my watch, 10:30pm

We where soon off again and the lights where switched off so we could sleep. At the same time the driver switched on the radio and turned it up. It never go turned down till we arrived (no joke)

A sleepless night folowed, I remember hearing the strange whinings of Laos pop and leaning back to back with the chap next to me as we tried to get comfortable, it didn't really work.


The bus well and truely stuck at dawn
Suddenly we stopped with a loud clunk, it was 5:30am and still dark outside. Everyone peered through the windows, the driver gunned the engine, sighed then gunned it again. He said something and everyone began to pile off. It appeared we where stuck, I headed to the door and saw the mud outside. I had a bright idea, i'd put my spanking new flip flops in my day pack for just such an occurance, so I scurried back to my seat and changed shoes I got to the door and hopped out into what looked like a dry bit.
It wasn't, it was just very deep. I took a step and my flip flop ripped. I took anther towards safety and the other one got sucked off too. In a moment of ill thought out action I delved in after the sandals with my arms elbow deep in landslide. Pretty much everyone else on the bus nearly died laughing as i grumpily slopped around getting everything dirty, wet and cold. I soon gave up and trudged to the dry patch in front of the bus. The sun began to rise, it started to rain.

I've just realised how rediculously long this annecdote is getting! I'll hurry up...

Next we were all directed to grab onto a large metal cord and try and pull the bus from the mud whilst the driver gunned the engine some more. Thats right, I was standing about 10 feet in front of the 5 ton bus whilst he tryed to make it jump out of its hole as fast as possible. I felt really safe.
Thankfully it didnt work.

Shovels where used, no joy. I found one flip flop with it though the oter had dissapeared.

About an hour and a half in our rescue vehicle arrived, an old fuel lorry it chugged up the hill in front of the bus, got to the crest, stalled and broke down. Half an hours tinkering then a jump/rolling start in reverse nearly saw one chap lose his arm as he tried to put a chock under the wheel to stop it falling into a ditch.


The rediculous rescue vehicle
Then they got out the jump leads and within 5 minutes had it going. Next came a 25 point turn and another close call with the ditch as the driver forget he was still in reverse when trying to move forward. Finally it was hooked onto the bus and it was hoiked free.

We all piled back on, it stopped raining.

The last 9 hours went dissapointingly unneventfully and about 2 hous in half the bus departed and I got a couple of seats to myself and some much needed kip.

Arriving in Sam Neua at 4:30pm it had been exactly 24 hours since I left for the bus station the previous day.
Strangely though I didn't feel that upset or pissed off, just tired. The chatty comaradarie of the previous day had kept all our spirits up. Even the flip flop fiasco was pretty funny in heindsite.

Pleased to be off the bus I jumped on to another one to the stunning village of Vien Xai, found a lovely if a slightly insect infected bungalow got some dinner and was in bed for 7.


permalink written by  Dan on August 21, 2008 from Sam Neua, Laos
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Vieng Xai, 'The Hidden City' and 'The Secret War'

Vieng Xai, Laos

I've learned a lot of stuff i really didnt know sice I've been in Laos, not just that you shouldn't jump into knee deep mud and expect to keep your flip flops.


Cave entrance, bottom right
Vieng Xai is the birthplace and former capital of the Pathet Lao, the communist faction that replaced the royalty in 1975. This was after a 9 year long war, which they where supported in by the likes of Vietnam, Cuba and Angola against the Royal Laos forces whom where entirely funded and armed by the USA.
The bombing started in 1964 and stopped in 73 after a cease fire was called. The war was known as the secret war as the CIA kept it under raps whilst they where taking all the flak for there failed and costly attempts in Vietnam. I was unawhere that Laos was ever really involved in a war after the French eventually left post WW2, so the revelation that it is the the most bombed country per capita on the planet and that more bombs have been dropped on it than where dropped in the entirity of WW2 came as something of a shock. More stats later kids!

Vieng Xai was special because of its geography. Beautiful jungle valleys and tall karst mountains with hundreds of natural caves where a great place for the comunist leadership to hide out. They built there underground city in 70 plus different caves which would support a collection of 20,000 people. Most of whom where fighters but local villagers and the leaders familys lived there too. They went about there daily lives at night (farming etc) whilst a rediculous amount of unnefective bombing went on throughout the day.


Entrance to the emergency room
7 of the caves are open to tourists, most of them the former leaders (and eventual presidents and prime ministers) caves. They all had bedrooms, studys and meeting halls and also included emergency rooms with air filters in case of chemical bombs (these where never used on this area of Laos).
2 of the other caves where different, one was used for artillery and a barracks, the other was huge and had a theatre built inside.
I toured 5 of them with a similarly interested American chap. Our guide was great and there was tons of info. He made the mistake of mentioning a cuban delegations visit and that they had sent over some doctors and opened up a hospital in a massive man made cave about 10 km away, he'd once taken some journalists there! We bugged him to let us go and see an untouristed (thats not a word but you get what I mean) cave and he relented after we agreed to pay the petrol.
Next morning he picked us up and we drove off to the cave. Declaring that he'd last come in the dry season and making lots of "oh!" sounds he took us towards the entrance whilst beating away the jungle that had regrown since his last visit.

Entrance to the "Laos Cuban Frindship hospital" (cave)
We got to the door and entered the first corridor. Most of the useful stuff (sinks etc) had been ripped out by the locals but you could still make out the wards and there where medicine bottles strewn on the floor. We tiptoed through using our torches, it was huge, spanning under 3 different peaks. The best bit was at the end where the tiled operating theatres could still be made out.
It felt like we where the first people there since it had been closed in 75, we probably wheren't that far off.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying thr scenery and swimming in the local pond. It was lovely and warm.
Next day I took another long bus journey to Phonsavan and more war relics.

nb: my pics are a bit crap, dark caves dont come out too well :(

permalink written by  Dan on August 23, 2008 from Vieng Xai, Laos
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The Plain of Jars and more UXO than you can shake a stick at!

Phonsavan, Laos

Just one day here on the toursit trail theres not much else to see than the one attraction but its certainly worth the visit.


The biggest jar (at the back) about 7 feet tall
The plain of jars is around 1000 unexplained, hand carved stone jars spread across 54 different fields. The jars vary in size form regular jar size to about 1 or 2 tons. They are anything between 1500 and 3000 years old and nobody really knows what they where for. Some say they are burial urns others day they where for brewing Lao Lao whisky in after a chieftan won a big battle. They are truely remarkable because they are just sort of stuck there in the middle of the field for little apparant reason (stone henge style)
I strolled through the field with a small gorup and also visited and whisky distillery, a little different from the Scottish ones with large barrle sof fementing rice and yeast producing a fierce drink.
The aformentioned secret war was also battled heavily here and the whole province is absolutely covered in UXO (Unexploded ordanance) grenades, mines, and bombs of all sorts of different shapes and sizes are everywhere, Including the plains. On your trip through you have to stay within the marked area as the other parts have yet to be cleared. Theres also a Pathet Lao trench system running through the site and a blown up and subsequently stripped of useful metal russian tank.
More importantly whole areas of villages farmland are unuseable because of bomb craters and UXO in desperation these same villagers have resorted to selling scrap metal instead of farming, the same scrap metal is often UXO and this had caused a large number of deaths and injuries.
The numbers regarding amount of bombs in Lao are frightening. See picture, I hope you can read it, All the bombing in the south was on the roads into/out of vietnam, i'm in the middle of the northern red blob.

Info from the MAG office

Approximately 30% of the tonage of bombs dropped (by the way the US was guilty of dropping a large amount of extra bombs on Laos on its way back from Vietnam just to empty out the planes before landing!) is unexploded and MAG who are clearing Laos along with UXO Laos (the government organisation) have cleared 0.16% of the 30% guestimation since 1994. UXO Laos are thought to have managed the same since 2000 so its going to take about another 500 years at the going rate.

Heres a website with more info and a really good map of the bomb sites www.maginternational.org/laopdrbombingdata


permalink written by  Dan on August 26, 2008 from Phonsavan, Laos
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Fun and games in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng, Laos

Vang Vieng is a weird place. A small little village on a big river surrounded by huge Karst mountains covered in green jungle. Its been over run by backpackers over the last few years and is now famous for tubing. Tubing is when you get an inner tire, get driven 3 km's up river start floating down and stop at the bars and huge monkey ropes on the way. Its becoming pretty popular and the less desirable Brits abroad types are coming up from Thailand to do it.
When I first arrived yesterday everyone was just finishing and I felt rather old as they all rowdily marched passed, pissed to there eyeballs.
But what the hell else is there to do, well Kayaking and caving is one option, so I booked my self on a tour which included all 3 for the ridiculously cheap price of $12 including a bbq lunch!
Despite my grumpy old man reservations I had great fun we took the kayaks 20km's up stream and took them over a few rapids then stopped at a great cave where you jump in a tube and hall yourself in on a rope. A little claustrophobic when we got off the tubes and continued through a small crack on foot, it was pretty chilly.
Next we had a great lunch and jumped back on the Kayaks down the river stopping at a couple of Riverside bars which had zip wires and huge acrobat style swings into the river, probably about 30 feet up. I stacked it with a splash and failed to hold on!
Then a bit more kayaking and we arrived back in town just before dusk.
Was much more fun than I expected, I really should lighten up!

Sad to say Laos is nearly over. Bus to the capital Vientiane tomorrow, hope to be in Bangkok by monday for more visa fun!


permalink written by  Dan on August 28, 2008 from Vang Vieng, Laos
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