The scenery at Vang Vieng

Didn't we swear never to have them again?

Relaxing in Vang Vieng

Chicken on a stick (ping kaai)

Me enjoying a nice cup of tea in a hammock

The next morning was Tubing time. Stopping after only one bucket seemed to have kept the hangover at bay. We had taken plenty of advice on this, so we knew what we were doing and now had a fairly good idea of what was involved. One was to work ones way down the river on inflated tractor inner tubes, stopping off at bars to have a drink and sliding down various apparatus back into the water. The course is quite long, so we had been told start early, otherwise you have no chance of seeing the end. We had also been told not to actually get a tube, because there is a massive fine if you don't get it back in time (which NOBODY does, we'd been informed), also people without tubes steal them from the piles in the bars, and much of the time they are really just a hassle. The last piece of advice related to staying out of the hospital there. We had already seen more people than you would think possible walking (most of them) around Vang Vieng with bandages, often around the head, and considering the number we had seen before we got there, we were keen to minimise the risks. So we should only enter the water by walking carefully down to it or from one of the proscribed methods of entry, like a chute or flying fox, as these are above the deep bits in the water. Most injuries it seems had been sustained diving into the water from the edge, and as it was dry season the water was not very deep in places. Forewarned is forearmed.

Bar number 1

Someone launching on fox number 1

Bar number 1 from number 2

I'm terrified at this point

Before moving on to the second bar we got chatting to a couple of Canadian girls, Cindy and Jackie, who asked if we would take their stuff in our dry bag.

Ugly inside and out

Bar number 2 takes its toll

Cindy celebrates surviving a slide

Tubing subculture

Still Tubing after dark!

Cindy in the Rock Bar back in town

Swedish Jon reminded me of Colin from Aberdeen Uni

Isn't this a Soft Cell video?

written by  The Happy Couple on March 31, 2009 from Vang Vieng, Laos
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
tagged Buckets and Tubing
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Not wanting to set our ambitions too high for the first day there, we just took a wander down to the night market to try and find some cheap food. There we bumped into the Australian guy [actually he is from New Zealand - ed (Joanne)] who had given me such terrible advice for the first Tubing flying fox, from which my voice had still not yet recovered completely and my entire chest was still covered with a fading yellow bruise. Clearly not ones to learn from my mistakes, we listened to him again when he told us of an "excellent" vegetarian buffet for only 5000 kip (less than 50p) at the end of the street. It was just awful, by far the worst food we'd eaten since Cambodia (in fact possibly China): it was extremely plain, almost completely flavourless, and not in least Lao. The bizarre thing is that the stall was quite busy and all around us were young people raving about how great it was. I just can't understand, when the Lao food is so interesting and delicious, why you would want to eat anything so bland. Then I realised that nearly all of the people raving about the food were underweight, almost to the point of malnourished, and it hit me: they were all vegetarians, and vegetarians are very easily pleased; as long as the food is vegetarian, they don't actually care what it tastes like. At least that was the only sense I could make of the situation. For all that vegetarian food can be delicious, and it's undoubtedly an ethically admirable position, food aimed specifically at vegetarians seems to be universally awful. The food was so disgusting that we left it almost untouched and went off to get food from a place that they sell meat as well as vegetables.

Wat Choumkhong

Wat Xieng Muan

Restaurant overlooking Mekong

Frolicking monks

Local specialities

Purple sticky rice with coconut and banana

Watermelon and chili granita and nam mak tour (iced cinnamon bael fruit tea)

Murals at Wat Pa Huak

View from Phou Si

Just next to the horrible vegetarian stall!

The following day I sat in the office of a tour company called Green Discovery that several people had recommended to us. They are more expensive than their competitors, but they have a major emphasis on an ethical approach and the treks and reputedly very good. They quite quickly guided me in the direction of the trek a couple people had already signed up for, which would make it cheaper for us. Without this incentive I'm not sure how I would have decided as they have quite an extensive range of options. Meanwhile Joanne collected the laundry we had dropped off the previous day. Shock, horror!! One of my shirts was not returned and in its place was some horrible t-shirt with a beer brand on it. Not that I am opposed to t-shirts like that, but after sending things home from Vientiane, my shirt was now one of the few really cool 100% cotton garments I had to wear. I had retained a t-shirt each from Laos and Vietnam which had turned out to be unwearable in hot weather, although they both (obviously falsely) claim to be 100% cotton, and as a result I was a bit low in cool tops. We went back to try and swap the t-shirt for my shirt, hoping that the t-shirt owner had realised the mistake and missed his Michelob (or whatever) shirt. The woman who did the washing claimed that it was all impossible because ours was the only washing she had done recently, but her daughter was a bit more diplomatic and suggested we should come to an arrangement “good for you and good for me” which is a bit of a catch phrase in the region, most often used by vendors when bartering. We agreed to return later to sort it out, hoping that Mr Redstripe was not yet on a bus to Thailand.

More Buddhas at Pak Ou

Door to Tham Phum, the upper cave at Pak Ou

Buddha

The big collection in Tham Ting, the lower cave

Scorpion and snake wine

Tat Kuang Si

Another pool at Tat Kuang Si

Mekong Weed

O-laam

In the morning my flu-like symptoms had abated a bit, but I now had a rash spreading up my arm. Hurriedly I referred to the health section in the guide book where I discovered that a flu-like illness and a rash are symptomatic of dengue fever. Not being some sort of hypochondriac, I probably wouldn't have worried about this, but we had met several people already who had contracted dengue, and when we were in Cambodia the health services claimed to be dealing with an epidemic, although this may just have been a ploy to get more tourists to donate blood, since Khmers apparently refuse for religious reasons. As we were waiting for the bus, we saw some of the Mekong weed for sale, so bought it for the journey. It also started pouring down so Joanne bought a rain poncho. It wasn't looking very promising for the trek we had booked for the following day: me with Dengue Fever while the monsoon empties the skies on us.

This was another crazy bus journey and the weed was a real disappointment: we worked out that it was supposed to be grilled. The bus was in better condition than the one we'd taken to Luang Phabang, which we had doubted would make it up the last few hills, but this time there were large sections of road missing, apparently having fallen down the hill. But, as always in Asia, health and safety comes first, so just before the missing section of road there was a pile of rubble to prevent you from driving over the precipice, then rocks along the length of the missing section until a second pile of rubble indicated the end of the gulf. When we arrived in Luang Namtha, where our trek left from, we were transferred to a large tuktuk called a sawngthaew (which mean “two rows” after the two benches in the back, where the passengers sit), and driving towards town some people commented on the black smoke from a fire (or could it be clouds?) coming our direction. Next I think something karmic may have happened: the sawngthaew in front carrying everyone's bags knocked down a calf which had wandered into the road. Seconds later the heavens opened, and it didn't stay water for long: soon golf-ball sized hail stones were bouncing off the road and our vehicle. The driver stopped pretty quickly, as did all the other traffic around, and we sat in the back, wondering if the end had come. After a while it retuned to very heavy rain and the driver proceeded cautiously. He dropped us outside a hotel, but the rain was too heavy to work out where we were or where the hotels we wanted were, in fact my flipflops were nearly washed away when I got down from the back, so most of us just queued up to book into the hotel we were left at. The LP stated explicitly that they did not recommend any of the Chinese-owned hotels in town, as they are overpriced and poor quality, and here we were booking in to one, so I almost expected the rate to be hiked up to obscene levels considering our present predicament. In fact the hotel was very nice, and the price did not seem at all inflated. So there, Lonely Planet! Getting to our room I discovered my rash has spread over my chest and down my other arm, and I was still feeling quite ill, so I was now as convinced of my dengue as I was convinced by the apocalyptic downpour that monsoon had definitely arrived early. Given both of these, we seriously considered trying to pull of of the trek, until we discovered that it was now fully booked, which meant that the cost was now very reasonable per person. So we just crossed our fingers instead.

We got up quite early for the trek and I felt quite a bit better, and the skies looked fairly clear, so we decided not to try and get out of it, although their booking rules stated that a cold was not considered a good enough excuse.

Lunch

Poisonous snake

The trek was in the Nam Ha Nation Protected Area. Laos has loads of NPAs covering fourteen percent of the country and Provincial Protected Areas covering a further four percent, making it one of the most protected countries on the planet.

Cleared for rice

More excellent food

When it was time for our lunch stop, two villagers appeared from the jungle and helped Ponsa and the not-so-good-English-speaking guide (whose name I've forgotten) to prepare the food.

Guides are not immune to leech attack

Leech

Joanne taking a Lao shower

Drinking lao-lao with the vilagers

Back in our longhouse, I noticed a sign that perhaps explained why the villagers were so keen to be photographed: I thought maybe it was just that they liked to see the images on the LCD screen, but here was a sign asking visitors to laminate and post photographs to the village, care of Green Discovery.

Our masseuses (mine 2nd from right)

Cute!

Akha gift used as phone holder

Take photo!

With the new arrivals at the bus station we tried to argue that they should just use the big bus now and use the minibus later in the day, after all surely they can't have as many people who want to go to a border town after the border has closed. Apparently not, it needed to be this way, and how could we know whether they needed the big bus to stay here so it could be used later? A pushy guy I took to be Italian, found out from the incompetent, over-selling woman behind the desk that we could charter a minibus for double the price each that the bus would have been, and he confirmed that we would be refunded our ticket money. Feeling a bit bullied, we agreed because it would otherwise be even more expensive for the others he had involved in his scheme, and he'd gone to all this bother. We didn't really want to spend the night in Huay Xai, but doubling the cost was a strain on our budget. We did want to meet up with the Dutch girls in Chang Rai for Willemeijn's birthday. I asked the “Italian” I was now starting to suspect was maybe Argentinian whether he had bargained before settling on the figure, but apparently he'd just agreed to the first price she suggested and handed over the cash. When the minibus arrived and we were just about to put our luggage on, the woman from behind the counter rushed over and told us we could have the big bus leaving now (instead of several hours later when it was meant to leave) for the same price as the minibus. It didn't take long before we replied “Why would we want to do that?”. Apparently they could have spared the bug bus after all, in which case they could have fitted everyone on it. Why had they allowed the smaller bus to go, leaving behind several passengers, who were now being offered the whole bus to themselves? Presumably they could make more money this way, and if we took the big bus, they could fit some more people on who would pay the normal ticket price. We just wanted to go, and did not want to play their silly games!

It turned out quite well, apart from the extra cost, because our minibus overtook the small scheduled bus with the Dutch girls on it, and dropped us right at the border, which was just a short ferry crossing over the Mekong. It was another really hassle-free border crossing. It seems to be any crossing that involves a river is really straight-forward. Or maybe it has to be the Mekong! From Chang Khong on the Thai side of the border it was hassle-free to draw money and get the cheap “normal” bus to Chang Rai for only 70 Baht or about one pound forty, for a three hour journey. The bus was a nice change from all the VIP buses and first class we had been coerced onto so far: no freezing air-conditioning, just rotating fans over every second row, and instead of uncomfortable shaped reclining seat, which I hate, it was nice simple comfy bench seats, padded but not reclinable: a bus not a coach. The difference on this side of the border was clear very quickly. Thailand is much more developed than Laos. The houses are much bigger, more modern, and more substantial, with very few wooden ones on stilts, which is the norm in Laos. The roads are actually clear of livestock, whereas in Laos the road is always covered in dogs, pigs, chickens, cows, goats, and so on, even in towns. We met a couple of people in Laos who were scared to take tuktuks because it seemed every time they got in one the vehicle ran over a chicken. We didn't ever have such bad luck, apart from the calf getting killed by the vehicle our luggage was in in Luang Namtha. On the journey our bus was totally drenched by people throwing buckets of water all over it. We had to change sides on the bus, because the off-side wasn't as close to the pavement, so not so much water would come through the windows. Clearly Songkran (Thai New Year) was even more in full-swing than Lao Songkan.

Chiang Rai clocktower

Teepee bar owner (or manager?)

21st Birthday party in the Teepee Bar

At least we got to sleep in late because, unlike Laos, Thailand does not have really loud cockerels absolutely everywhere throughout every city, just dying to start your hangover early for you. Another difference from Laos is that spirit houses are much more common in Thailand. Outside almost every building, whether someone's home, a commercial building, or an official building, there is something that usually looks a little bit like a bird table. Outside houses it's usually about the size of a large bird table, except that the little house on legs often looks more like a small temple, but sometimes it looks like a miniature copy of the house itself. The little building is usually surrounded by a patio, and on that or inside you will see little models of people dancing, sometimes elephants or other animals, and usually incense, some food, and glasses of clear liquid, rice spirit I believe. Outside commercial or official buildings these structures can be many times larger and the whole scene on the table can be much more grand. These are spirit houses and part of Thai religious belief unconnected to Buddhism. According to the Lonely Planet, the idea of a spirit house is to make a very attractive and comfortable dwelling for spirits near, but outside your house. This way, the spirits will prefer to stay there than in your own home (or business etc), where they would cause lots of trouble and bad things would happen. The incense, food, and drinks are regularly replaced (every day I think, before 11am apparently), to keep the spirits pleased with their surroundings. If you make renovations to your home, it is necessary to make improvements to the spirit house as well, otherwise they'll want to move in and take advantage of your new bathroom or whatever.

Willemijn argues her case

Determined to carry on the bit of effort I had made with Lao, I soon had my Thai phrase book out and was trying to relearn everything. Thai is very similar to Lao, and culturally Lao is really just a subset of Thai. The food is very similar, the demeanor is very similar, although Thais maybe seem a bit friendlier, probably because they are more used to tourists. The dialect of Thai they speak in the north is apparently indistinguishable from Vientiane Lao, but more generally Thai has only five tones where Lao has six, so it's easier to speak. Ponsa had told me that the languages are similar enough that they can all understand Thai, but he didn't think it works the other way around as Thais are not exposed to as much Lao. The one major problem with learning Thai properly would be the fact the written language is not phonetic: the language is apparently peppered with words lifted directly from Sanskrit and although the have changed pronunciation massively in Thai, they are still spelled using the original Sanskrit spelling, simply transliterated into Thai characters. It sounds worse than English!

Before we ventured out, I decided to take the precaution of putting my camera inside a plastic bag to protect it from water, since there had been quite a few people throwing water the day before. We hoped we could find some nice authentic Thai food to help clear our 21st birthday headaches but, after wandering around the city for a couple of hours, we had not come across a single Thai restaurant. All we could find were places boasting of their extensive (and also expensive) western menus. Eventually we ended up back at the same Dutch place we had started at the day before, because their menu said they had a real Thai chef and there were plenty of not too expensive Thai dishes on the menu. The food was actually quite good although not really very spicy. On our way back to the hotel a gigantic cloud of dragon flies started passing overhead. I'm not sure how closely I could estimate their numbers, but it must have been something like tens of millions. The cloud was thick enough that they disappeared vertically into little black dots, pretty close together, and it took about ten minutes for the main clump of the cloud to pass over. So impressive was this cloud that I wanted to take a photo, which was when I reached into the plastic bag and felt grit as well as my camera. I had used the plastic bag I had hastily put my muddy flipflops into when leaving Luang Namtha, to “protect” my camera. It was broken. The lens cover that had been a bit sticky since beer was spilled on it was now refusing to open at all! I'd broken my camera trying to protect it from Songkran.

We had arranged to meet up with the girls at the Dutch restaurant for Willemeijn's proper birthday, so we bought her a water pistol and a little cake. It was her birthday so she chose pizza, which was way out of our budget range, but it was her birthday so what the hell, we decided. My pizza was actually very nice seafood tom yum flavour, which is normally a soup, but worked very well on a pizza. We were relieved to find out that Willemeijn was feeling a bit worse for wear after the previous night, so she was laying off the alcohol. However after a couple of Coca Colas she decided to get stuck into the drinking again. This time we were joined by a French guy called Lambert, who seeemed to be trying to hit on the girls. He had cycled across much of Laos on a very poor looking bike, not at all suitable for long distance travel. This time we stayed out until about 5.30am. I was shocked how much the Sangsom now costs. This is a (maybe the) Thai spirit, not sure whether it's supposed to be a brandy or a whisky, but when I was last in Thailand it costs less for a half-bottle (300ml) of Sangsom than it did for one beer. I remember my guide book at the time said something about beer not really being part of Thai culture and the government trying to discourage western influence by taxation. In fact our Rough Guide from just last year says that beer and Sangsom cost about the same, but the typical price we found was that it now costs three times as much for a small bottle of Sangsom as it does for a beer. This is much more in line with the UK, but a huge price change in one year. What has happened to Thailand since I was last here? The food is no longer spicy and the spirits cost more than the beer!

written by  The Happy Couple on April 10, 2009 from Chiang Rai, Thailand
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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