June 19
Today was really a fun day. We were ready to head out by 8am to the Kuangsi Waterfall Park. It was about 25km outside of Luang Prabang and it took us basically an hour to get there.
Before we left, I told Matt that I couldn't do the elephant riding anymore. He asked if I was feeling sick and I said no, I just don't agree with it morally and he seemed really upset. He said he had already booked it and that he may lose out since he had already paid. I was confused as to why since he had specifically asked if it was possible to get a refund for Bart if he wasn't feeling well and they had said yes. I told Matt that I would happily pay the money but I still wasn't going to do it. He tried to convince me otherwise and I continued saying no. He said he would try to get my money back. His reaction made me feel worse and I cried again. In front of people from the group. Cara was really comforting and Courtney said she really respected my decision. I had told Melissa in the morning and she was really nice about it and said she understood and compared it to a vegetarian trying to tell a meat water why they don't eat meat. In the end, a few hours later, Matt ended up being able to get my money back for me. I was really glad that even though Matt wasn't the most understanding that the group was really great about my decision.
The area we drove through was beautiful countryside and fields. We even saw a military training base I think. A ton of soldiers were gathered in one area. I took a picture but it was too blurry to see anything. We rode in Tsung Taos (no idea if this is the way it is spelled- we took the same thing to and from hiking in Vang Vieng) which is a vehicle with 2 long benches in a covered part in the back.
We arrived at the Waterfall Park and had to pay a 20,000 kip entry fee ($2.25). We then walked up a twisting path that was very green and lined with trees and plants. Matt led us to this beautiful waterfall. It was huge and the water was a beautiful blue color. Like a cyan. We spent a while taking photos and then continued through the park. As we walked we continued passing smaller waterfalls. There were a lot of bees but we also saw this crazy green bug. It kind of looked like a leaf bug but it was maybe 7 inches long and was less of a triangular shape. Both wings parted so it could fly. I had never seen anything like it before.
Finally we came to another clearing and there was a large swimming area with a small waterfall and a rope swing. One of our divers had been saying how he can do a back flip off the waterfall and he showed us. He looked like a seasoned diver. It was really cool.
Ed busted his foot open on a sharp rock. He called me over to see if I had any medical supplies with me and I had literally just taken them out of my bag that morning. He ended up using my purell hand sanitizer to clean the cut. I can't imagine how much that had to have stung. He wasn't going to jump in the water but he really wanted to and he climbed up the tree for a photo so he ended up going in anyway. He swam out with his foot in the air haha. It was pretty funny to watch. I think he was glad he got to do the rope swing.
For the rope swing, you had to go across some small pools of water and climb up the roots of a tree to reach the large branch. Then, you walked out on the large branch and could get the rope and swing into the water. When I did it, our driver was there to help us get the rope so it was just handed to me. Otherwise, there was a stick with a hook on it hanging on the tree branch and you had to use that to get the rope.
I was a little scared to use the rope swing haha. No idea why. It was pretty high up, but by no means was it higher than paragliding or abseiling. A lot of the girls were pretty scared though so I wasn't alone. It was really fun once you actually jumped off and swung though. He counted to 3 the first time and I didn't go but I went the second time. I don't think I swung out very far. The boys could hold on for way longer than the girls could. The water was freezing. It was so nice. Like cold water and not warm or hot water. It was so refreshing. There were fish in the water that would bite your feet. It was really an unpleasant feeling and it startled me every time haha.
I knew there was no way I was going to try jumping off the smaller waterfall. The way to get there looked pretty slippery because you had to climb over many wet rocks. Also, once you got to the ledge you had to basically climb down it a bit and step on the edge of a rock and them jump from there. Zara tried to do it and had to turn around and come back.
After we had our fun in the falls, we continued walking along the path. This led us to the Bear Rescue Center. Matt had actually worked to help build some of the areas for the bears. It is the Tat Kuang Si rescue center. All of the bears here have been donated by owners or rescued from the illegal wildlife trade by the Lao Authorities. It was started by a lady from Perth, Australia when she heard about the situation of the asian bears (poaching, bile farming, illegal pet trade, etc.). Both Asiatic Black Bears and Sun Bears are protected under the Lao law. Bear bile is popular across Asia as a medicine for illnesses from headaches to heart and liver disease. Some bears are held in small cages and endure a life of suffering while bile is extracted from their gall bladders. It is potentially harmful to humans and the alternative medicines are much cheaper. The bears have a large area to play and they seem quite happy. Their food is hid around their living areas so they don't lose their ability to forage.
After this, we jumped back in the Tsung Taos and were dropped off at Jomas for lunch. I got another banana chocolate shake and a bagel sandwich with pastrami. Jomas is where the rich people eat apparently. We got our lunch to go so we could head back to the hotel and have a small break before the elephant riding and bathing.
I asked if it was possible for me to go and take photos for people but not to ride or bathe and Matt said that would be fine. Then I figured that way I could go and I wouldn't mis out on any of the group things but I still didn't have to ride them.
We then all piled into the van. All 13 of us! And headed to the elephant camp. Everyone kept making sure I was okay. It was really sweet of them. When we got there we walked down a woody path and it led out to a bunch of elephants. It was really cool to see how excited everyone was. They were pumped before we even saw the elephants but when we saw them their faces just lit up.
The first thing I noticed was all the chains. And that made me a little sad. But I also noticed none of the elephants were swaying back and forth which means they are not stressed out. They all had a lot of food in front of them as well. The platform chairs were already hooked onto the elephants. The first thing I did was go up to the man and give him the receipt for us (Matt had entrusted it to me) and he wanted to know who wasn't doing it and why. Matt had already called him. I kept it short and simple and he tried to convince me otherwise and I didn't budge. The next thing I did was ask if we could touch the elephants. When he said yes I was so happy.
Again, if I haven't already made it clear enough, I think elephants are the coolest creatures ever. I didn't know anything about them and now I am in love with them. They're so strong and so large but they can be so loving and gentle. Plus I feel like any animal that can carry around that much weight has got to get props.
I immediately approached the elephants and started stroking their trunks. They're so cute! And I may just be wanting to feel the connection and making it up in my head but I feel like when I look the elephant in the eye and the elephant looks back that its just like instant understanding or something. I just want to hug them. Ha. And give them all to Lek so they don't have to be chained up.
Most of my group members were starting to take photos with the elephants at this point but not too many of them touched them or felt comfortable getting too close from what I noticed. And my job as official photographer had begun.
All of a sudden everyone was shuffled onto a platform and loaded onto the elephants. I didn't do the elephant safari in Nepal but from what I understood it seemed like that was a platform of wood and 4 people sat on it, one on each corner. And this one was an actual bench with 2 people sitting on it and the mahout on the neck. It still looked like it was digging into the elephants skin though so I didn't live it. And when Zara and Laura came back they both said they could tell their elephant wasn't into the walk and did not want to be doing it.
After I watched everyone ride away on their elephants, things got awkward. But, being me, I just pretended it wasn't awkward. Ha... Successfully or not I don't know.
I wasn't sure where to sit so I sat down at a picnic table. There was a chess board in it and little stones and cigarette butts for checker pieces. I just sat there and started typing my blog. And the 2 or 3 people who weren't on the elephant ride were talking and laughing and kept telling me that I could go to the restaurant if I was hungry or wanted a drink... Which I wasn't. And I had both my bagel and water. Which I pulled out and started eating.
They were taking bamboo and peeling off the outside so the raw shoot was what was left. And then they were eating it. They kept peeling it and eating it. They asked if I wanted some and I decided why the heck not so I said sure! He peeled a big one for me and handed it to me. The part at the end had not been peeled and made for a good gripping place. I bit into it and they were all watching me. It was way juicier than I had anticipated and I started coughing as some juice went down the wrong pipe. They laughed and thought it was because it was too sweet. To be fair, it does taste like really sugary water. When I was chomping on it, right before I was about to swallow, one of the guys said quickly to not eat it, just suck the juice out and spit it out. Well thanks for the warning on that one sir! I think I had maybe already swallowed a bit.
Eating this bamboo took for freaking ever. First of all, there are joining parts between the bamboo smaller parts and those areas are really tough! It's hard to bit through it! It took me a while to gnaw my way through that one. I'm also not sure how good the raw bamboo is for my teeth... They felt pretty clean toward the end of it though! Very smooth. It's also super juicy and I was dribbling juice out of every crack of my mouth. The bamboo is pretty thick so you can't really get your mouth around it all and bite down at the same time without losing some juice. In the time I ate one I think they ate 4 or 5. It's not a very graceful plant to mange. Between the leaky juice, the gnawing, and the spitting out the chomped up bamboo bits, well, you can imagine ha. I was very sticky to say the least.
When I was sitting here chomping down my raw bamboo I got to watch them play checkers. Clearly one guy always wins and it was a pretty intense game of him dominating the board. I thought it was hilarious they used cigarette butts lol. One of the guys went to go get water for everyone and took the motorbike. When he came back, he basically played chicken with the elephant (who was eating food and minding its own business). The elephant dropped back and the guy laughed as he swerved the motorbike away from the elephant. Too bad the elephant didn't slap him with his trunk. Rude! That made me mad.
The guy also told me that this is a new place and they use to be on the other side of the river. I asked if they moved because this side was better for the elephants and he said no that the other side was actually better but it was too hard to get tourists across the river so they moved over here. Well sir, if we were keeping a strike list you and your mahouts would pretty much be on strike 3.
When everyone got back they all got on their own elephant (bare back) and rode the elephant down to the river. And by down to the river I mean into the river. And depending on the elephant, it may have been under the river, ha!
Zara and Laura chose to skip the bathing because they already felt bad about the elephant ride. Zara and I followed everyone on the elephants down a pretty steep hill. And when I say steep I mean like you're pretty much slanted over backward or forward going up or down. It was also muddy. So again, that was fun! Haha. Zara and I were impressed the elephants could get up and down as well.
It was a pretty ridiculous sight, staring at the asses of 10 elephants getting down this hill. Pretty silly!
Robyn was the first one, and she was riding Baby Boy I think. He just went right for it. It wasn't really like the bathing in Nepal. You never were meant to fall off the elephant. Although, Cara and Sarah got in some pushing fights with their mahouts and ended up off the elephant and in the water at least a few times. Most people stayed on the elephants neck as the elephant submerged itself under water. The mahout said the elephant may stay under water for up to 5 minutes! Their lungs must be huge. Robyn literally looked like she was riding a bull though. Baby Boy kept going up and down... Well in and out of the water. She was laughing and screaming. It was pretty funny. Zara and I stayed back and took photos. Everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves. The water looked pretty nasty though... I was glad I didn't have to swim in it.
The second we saw some of the elephants coming toward shore we both booked it back up the hill. Definitely did not want to be in the middle of a wet stampede of elephants. Not that they were stampeding but I don't really know what else to call it.
Not too much happened after that aside from heading back to the hotel. I think I would have preferred to not go at all Because I feel like I supported it by going and taking photos... At least I didn't give them my money. The only reason I went was because if that did end up being the best part of everyone's trip I didn't want to miss out on a group activity. We all do everything together all the time anyway.
When I got back we decided to meet up again at 5:30pm to head to the night market and then Jomas for dinner/food for lunch on the boat the next day. I had about an hour and a half break in between. So, naturally, I started googling eating raw bamboo. Terrible idea. Lets just say after that quick session I was pretty positive I was going to die of cyanide poisoning. Luckily, I'm still alive and that didn't happen. But, for future reference, you are not supposed to eat raw bamboo shoots because they contain large amounts of cyanite. I did find a website that was a plant survival website that did say you can suck the juice out of the raw bamboo shoots. So good! Way to be smart self. I just figured since they were all eating it it would be fine... And it was. But if they wouldn't have told me not to swallow it I could be dead now. So, another I might die now situation! Gotta love that.
Between the waterfall and the elephant camp, Melissa (my roommate) clogged the toilet in our room. She also just left it. I went in there and flushed the toilet (she always forgets to flush) and it started overflowing. I came out and told her the toilet was clogged and she continued eating her sandwich on the bed. Didn't look up, didn't say anything. So I went downstairs and told the staff my roommate had clogged the toilet. They sent someone up and the person was so angry. She was screaming about how there was too much toilet paper and at that point I just left. I didn't want to deal with something that wasn't my mess to deal with. I was so annoyed. At this point I was already annoyed with her for many other reasons and this just topped it off. First off, she refused to throw the toilet paper in the bin. Even after clogging the toilet and being screamed at and told to not flush it, she continued to flush the tp. Knowing this is quit easy when there is no tp left in the bin. She also would use a full roll of toilet paper within 2 times of going to the bathroom. I understand having travelers diarrhea and all but seriously now... Take care of your own shit (pun intended) and be considerate of other people. I think I've already written about it but I can't even tell you how many times I went to the bathroom and only realized there was no tp at the end of my pee.
I went back to the market with Cara, Ed, Bart, Saskia, Kat, and Sarah. We just walked around. I took more photos and bought a few little things. We didn't spend to much time there. We then went to Jomas and got lunch for the next day (granola... It looked amazing, and it was. Like actual clusters of granola with other stuff. It was great.) and I got another salmon bagel sandwich for dinner. I still have a really hard time here figuring out f I'm hungry or not. I rarely feel hungry. Even if I haven't eaten all day. Blahhh.
That's pretty much all the events for this day. If anything little or funny happened its been too long and I can't remember it. Fail on catching up on the blog. :o
Sunday, June 30, 2013
No money... Literally
June 28
12:07pm
Oy vey. I am so tired ha. I really should just sleep but there's so much I want/need to do. And it seems so silly to me to just do nothing when I am in Bangkok.
This morning I didn't want to get up. I set my alarm for 7am... Then snoozed til 7:45am. I finally got up since I was meeting Sankar at 10am so he could show me a laundry place. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get there so I wanted to leave by 8:30am.
I grabbed my laundry (which at this point is pretty much all the clothes I brought with me) and headed off. I stopped at the desk to ask about going to Ayutthaya but it was 2,500 baht. I decided I would go look on Khao San Road later to see if I could go for cheaper in a group. The guy at the stand was annoying. He wanted me to book and pay now and I kept saying no and that I didn't have the money and then he wanted to drive me to an ATM and I just said no and walked away. He then proceeded to chase me down the road. SIR! I DO NOT WANT TO PAY THE MONEY! I told him I was late and would be back later if I wanted to book it.
I jumped on the metro and then the sky train and got off at Siam. I wasn't entirely sure where I was going after that. It was nice that I had been in this area for a while yesterday with Laura because that definitely helped.
I studied a map for a while. Then gave up and asked someone. The map Sankar had sent me was hard for me to read because it was on such a small scale (there weren't too many surrounding buildings or roads) that I wasn't sure which way it was oriented. I asked a few motorbike drivers and a security guard and finally figured out which way to walk. Then I saw the Siam motor company building which was on the map and the road but again, I was not sure which way to turn down the road. So I just started walking. I walked all the way down a university road until I found someone to ask and of course, it was the opposite way. So I walked all the way back down the road and to the street. Crossed the really busy street and continued walking. There was a princess hotel that I passed that was also on the map. Then I saw a building that was called Saskin and that was also on the map so I turned left there (off of Soi 12). I saw Sasa House which is where Sankar is staying but there was a gate around it and I wasn't sure how to get in. I walked past it and asked a woman and she just pointed... Thanks. That was super helpful. So I walked back the way I came and then saw an entrance. The building was really nice and had a lot of international flags at the front. I figured I was in the right place since the sign for Sasa house had said international Sasa house. I made it! And with 20 minutes to spare! At least I wasn't 30 minutes late though!
It was very good I wasn't 30 minutes late because Sankar took me to the laundry place at 10am and then headed directly to class. If I would have been late I wouldn't have made it. The laundry place is a student dorm laundry area. It's so cheap! I'm so happy he showed it to me. Like I said it was almost all the clothes I have and it was only 70 baht! Definitely the cheapest of anywhere I've been previously. Maybe similar to Sihanoukville in Cambodia...
I'm meeting Sankar again on Sunday for dinner so that will be nice. I headed off to the mall (right near the skytrain) to see if I could find an Internet cafe. I went into Siam discovery and they said to go to paragon. So I got there and it's literally huge. Walked around and found an information desk and they told me the Internet cafe was downstairs. I still couldn't find it. There are a billion places and its not like there are just 2 sides and you walk down the middle. There are restaurants and shops and stores in the middle and there are way too many ways to walk. I ended up needing to ask 2 more people (information and a lady working at McDonald's) and then I found it. Sadly, it was 80 baht per hour and that is a lot so I skipped it. Ill find one somewhere else.
Then I tried to sit down and plan out the next few days. It's actually hard because I have to be back in the Siam area almost everyday this week. Tomorrow evening I need to get my laundry, then I meet Sankar Sunday, and then I get my passport Monday. I kinda planned things out and checked to make sure things were open on lonely planet on the days and then left. I figured it would be better to head back to the hotel and head out to Khao San road to make it to the post office and book a tour. I might get a massage too.
Next day
Well, yesterday turned out to be a fun one!
I didn't go to Khao San Road after all. There is a g adventures person stationed at a desk downstairs. Thank god ha. That was really nice actually. I asked her about the post office and there is one right down the road from where I am staying. She wrote a note saying take me to the post office near the train station and told me to get a cab because it was hard to explain how to get there. I didn't want to get a cab because they're so annoying to deal with. They never want to use a meter. So, I walked.
Walking down the street with a bag is my least favorite thing. You already get bothered because you're white to get into a cab or a tuk tuk. With my bag I was practically assaulted to get in a cab or on a tuk tuk or on a motorbike. AHH GO AWAY AND LET ME WALK!
So the post office was kind of far away. Not too far but I definitely had trouble finding it. I asked a bunch of people. And once I turned down the street it was on, I had no idea if I had to turn again or if it was on this road.
It was good I had the note written in Thai asking them to take me to the post office because down that street very few people spoke English. One lady actually got really freaked out and walked away from me the second English came out of my mouth. The street also smelled terrible. Like horribly rank. Like shit and piss and vomit. My nose wasn't too happy to say the least.
Finally I got to the post office and that was a little foreign too. Everything was in Thai. And the people only spoke a little English. I literally was shuffled from one desk to another. The only thing is there were 4 desks that all did the same thing and one table where you packed your box. So I was at the desk and then at another desk and then sent to pack the box (which was a struggle as well. The first box they gave me everything didn't fit into so I had to unpack it and repack it again in a larger box) and then sent back to the desk. They wouldn't let me pay with a credit card. It was about $55 to ship it by sea freight and it will take 2 months. So it will arrive after I do! I sent it to my house, so hopefully were still living there. Ha.
So after going back and forth between the same desks for a bit, the package was finally shipped. I headed back and made sure to put my headphones in, but I was still bothered by people.
I knew I needed to take out money but I wasn't sure how much so I ended up skipping the ATM and heading back to the hotel. I talked to the g adventures rep again and asked about day trip options to Ayutthaya. There was an option to go and it was with a group and it was only 850 baht (instead of alone and 2000 baht). So I booked that and told her I would come back later and pay because I didn't have enough money on me at the moment.
I went upstairs and chilled for a bit and then I decided to go get money out. I opened up my wallet and immediately started cursing in my head. My ATM card was gone. I had all my money, my ID, my credit cards. No debit card. I emptied everything out of my day pack... Not there. Went through all my bags... Not there. Searched my big bag... Not there. Well fuck.
I went back downstairs and told the g rep I had no money and what had happened. I told her I could pay in usd or that I could wait a few hours and talk to my parents and figure out what to do. She was really hesitant about me paying in USD because she had that happen before and ended up having to pay what was lost in the exchange out of pocket. She said I could pay before the 30th.
I went back upstairs and checked my bags again... Not there. Then I decided there was nothing else I could do at this point and I laid down and relaxed. I did check my account to make sure there weren't any recent transactions on it that weren't mine.
I sent mom a text and dad an email but it was like 4am their time. Jenn was on Facebook so I asked her to call dad. Finally she got ahold of him and he said crap and that he'd be at the office soon.
Then mom and dad were both on the phone with schwab and dad gave me a number to call them from Skype and it was really confusing because I was getting information about what to do from so many people and I kept telling them I had talked to schwab but they weren't reading what I was saying correctly. I cancelled my card but mom had put a hold on it just before that and o man. It was a mess.
She was going to try to get a pin for my credit card so I could take out money. So I guess I had my chill day... Too bad it wasn't too relaxing.
Also, literally every time I walked past the taxi stand at the hotel (which you have to do anytime you enter or leave the hotel) the guy came chasing after me to book a trip with him to Ayutthaya. I tell him no every time and that its too expensive. I know he understands because he keeps lowering the price when I say that but oy. It's so annoying.
The only thing I can think of that may have happened to my debit card is that I either accidentally shipped it home in the package, that I dropped it somewhere, or that its stuck in the pages of my passport but I thought I had it after I did my passport.
Fail. But what's traveling without a few disasters?
12:07pm
Oy vey. I am so tired ha. I really should just sleep but there's so much I want/need to do. And it seems so silly to me to just do nothing when I am in Bangkok.
This morning I didn't want to get up. I set my alarm for 7am... Then snoozed til 7:45am. I finally got up since I was meeting Sankar at 10am so he could show me a laundry place. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get there so I wanted to leave by 8:30am.
I grabbed my laundry (which at this point is pretty much all the clothes I brought with me) and headed off. I stopped at the desk to ask about going to Ayutthaya but it was 2,500 baht. I decided I would go look on Khao San Road later to see if I could go for cheaper in a group. The guy at the stand was annoying. He wanted me to book and pay now and I kept saying no and that I didn't have the money and then he wanted to drive me to an ATM and I just said no and walked away. He then proceeded to chase me down the road. SIR! I DO NOT WANT TO PAY THE MONEY! I told him I was late and would be back later if I wanted to book it.
I jumped on the metro and then the sky train and got off at Siam. I wasn't entirely sure where I was going after that. It was nice that I had been in this area for a while yesterday with Laura because that definitely helped.
I studied a map for a while. Then gave up and asked someone. The map Sankar had sent me was hard for me to read because it was on such a small scale (there weren't too many surrounding buildings or roads) that I wasn't sure which way it was oriented. I asked a few motorbike drivers and a security guard and finally figured out which way to walk. Then I saw the Siam motor company building which was on the map and the road but again, I was not sure which way to turn down the road. So I just started walking. I walked all the way down a university road until I found someone to ask and of course, it was the opposite way. So I walked all the way back down the road and to the street. Crossed the really busy street and continued walking. There was a princess hotel that I passed that was also on the map. Then I saw a building that was called Saskin and that was also on the map so I turned left there (off of Soi 12). I saw Sasa House which is where Sankar is staying but there was a gate around it and I wasn't sure how to get in. I walked past it and asked a woman and she just pointed... Thanks. That was super helpful. So I walked back the way I came and then saw an entrance. The building was really nice and had a lot of international flags at the front. I figured I was in the right place since the sign for Sasa house had said international Sasa house. I made it! And with 20 minutes to spare! At least I wasn't 30 minutes late though!
It was very good I wasn't 30 minutes late because Sankar took me to the laundry place at 10am and then headed directly to class. If I would have been late I wouldn't have made it. The laundry place is a student dorm laundry area. It's so cheap! I'm so happy he showed it to me. Like I said it was almost all the clothes I have and it was only 70 baht! Definitely the cheapest of anywhere I've been previously. Maybe similar to Sihanoukville in Cambodia...
I'm meeting Sankar again on Sunday for dinner so that will be nice. I headed off to the mall (right near the skytrain) to see if I could find an Internet cafe. I went into Siam discovery and they said to go to paragon. So I got there and it's literally huge. Walked around and found an information desk and they told me the Internet cafe was downstairs. I still couldn't find it. There are a billion places and its not like there are just 2 sides and you walk down the middle. There are restaurants and shops and stores in the middle and there are way too many ways to walk. I ended up needing to ask 2 more people (information and a lady working at McDonald's) and then I found it. Sadly, it was 80 baht per hour and that is a lot so I skipped it. Ill find one somewhere else.
Then I tried to sit down and plan out the next few days. It's actually hard because I have to be back in the Siam area almost everyday this week. Tomorrow evening I need to get my laundry, then I meet Sankar Sunday, and then I get my passport Monday. I kinda planned things out and checked to make sure things were open on lonely planet on the days and then left. I figured it would be better to head back to the hotel and head out to Khao San road to make it to the post office and book a tour. I might get a massage too.
Next day
Well, yesterday turned out to be a fun one!
I didn't go to Khao San Road after all. There is a g adventures person stationed at a desk downstairs. Thank god ha. That was really nice actually. I asked her about the post office and there is one right down the road from where I am staying. She wrote a note saying take me to the post office near the train station and told me to get a cab because it was hard to explain how to get there. I didn't want to get a cab because they're so annoying to deal with. They never want to use a meter. So, I walked.
Walking down the street with a bag is my least favorite thing. You already get bothered because you're white to get into a cab or a tuk tuk. With my bag I was practically assaulted to get in a cab or on a tuk tuk or on a motorbike. AHH GO AWAY AND LET ME WALK!
So the post office was kind of far away. Not too far but I definitely had trouble finding it. I asked a bunch of people. And once I turned down the street it was on, I had no idea if I had to turn again or if it was on this road.
It was good I had the note written in Thai asking them to take me to the post office because down that street very few people spoke English. One lady actually got really freaked out and walked away from me the second English came out of my mouth. The street also smelled terrible. Like horribly rank. Like shit and piss and vomit. My nose wasn't too happy to say the least.
Finally I got to the post office and that was a little foreign too. Everything was in Thai. And the people only spoke a little English. I literally was shuffled from one desk to another. The only thing is there were 4 desks that all did the same thing and one table where you packed your box. So I was at the desk and then at another desk and then sent to pack the box (which was a struggle as well. The first box they gave me everything didn't fit into so I had to unpack it and repack it again in a larger box) and then sent back to the desk. They wouldn't let me pay with a credit card. It was about $55 to ship it by sea freight and it will take 2 months. So it will arrive after I do! I sent it to my house, so hopefully were still living there. Ha.
So after going back and forth between the same desks for a bit, the package was finally shipped. I headed back and made sure to put my headphones in, but I was still bothered by people.
I knew I needed to take out money but I wasn't sure how much so I ended up skipping the ATM and heading back to the hotel. I talked to the g adventures rep again and asked about day trip options to Ayutthaya. There was an option to go and it was with a group and it was only 850 baht (instead of alone and 2000 baht). So I booked that and told her I would come back later and pay because I didn't have enough money on me at the moment.
I went upstairs and chilled for a bit and then I decided to go get money out. I opened up my wallet and immediately started cursing in my head. My ATM card was gone. I had all my money, my ID, my credit cards. No debit card. I emptied everything out of my day pack... Not there. Went through all my bags... Not there. Searched my big bag... Not there. Well fuck.
I went back downstairs and told the g rep I had no money and what had happened. I told her I could pay in usd or that I could wait a few hours and talk to my parents and figure out what to do. She was really hesitant about me paying in USD because she had that happen before and ended up having to pay what was lost in the exchange out of pocket. She said I could pay before the 30th.
I went back upstairs and checked my bags again... Not there. Then I decided there was nothing else I could do at this point and I laid down and relaxed. I did check my account to make sure there weren't any recent transactions on it that weren't mine.
I sent mom a text and dad an email but it was like 4am their time. Jenn was on Facebook so I asked her to call dad. Finally she got ahold of him and he said crap and that he'd be at the office soon.
Then mom and dad were both on the phone with schwab and dad gave me a number to call them from Skype and it was really confusing because I was getting information about what to do from so many people and I kept telling them I had talked to schwab but they weren't reading what I was saying correctly. I cancelled my card but mom had put a hold on it just before that and o man. It was a mess.
She was going to try to get a pin for my credit card so I could take out money. So I guess I had my chill day... Too bad it wasn't too relaxing.
Also, literally every time I walked past the taxi stand at the hotel (which you have to do anytime you enter or leave the hotel) the guy came chasing after me to book a trip with him to Ayutthaya. I tell him no every time and that its too expensive. I know he understands because he keeps lowering the price when I say that but oy. It's so annoying.
The only thing I can think of that may have happened to my debit card is that I either accidentally shipped it home in the package, that I dropped it somewhere, or that its stuck in the pages of my passport but I thought I had it after I did my passport.
Fail. But what's traveling without a few disasters?
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Laos-Thai Border
June 21
8:17am Laos time
Summer Solstice
I think Zara and I slept from 11:30pm all the way through 4:30am. Pretty good night! In the morning when we woke up it was definitely cooler. Even with all the windows (autocorrected to dimwits?) and doors boarded up.
I woke up at 4:25am to Laura saying, "oh, I hear a zipper!" It was Zara and then we were all awake. I don't think Laura slept very much. She said she thinks she overheated in the middle of the night as well. We laid there for maybe 10 minutes listening to the roosters and then we got up.
We gathered our stuff and walked out of the house. Matt had warned us to have torches because it would be pitch black and none of us really believed him. Well, it was pretty much pitch black haha.
We made out way down the hill and due to the rain, it became a pretty hazardous adventure. Both Laura and Zara fell on their butts at one point. We weren't even sure we were going down the correct way but then we saw other head lamps following us so we continued down. Just go down haha. So we finally came out to the point where we entered and it was good. Aside from needing to descend the baby rock and dirt mountain. It didn't seem as bad or as long in the dark haha. At the bottom Zara took a photo of me with my hand in the air with the hill and village in the back. We came, we saw, we conquered!
Back to the boat! Everyone was on time and we left. Most people are sleeping. We had fried eggs and bread for breakfast.
One thing I have noticed is that in England they apparently don't have Mosquitos. Well, "mossies" as they call them. They all spray bug spray in the room and when there is wind and in places that if I would have sprayed it with my parents I would have gotten my ass kicked. I am constantly sneezing because the smell is drifting back and up my nose.
I'm hoping I will catch up on my blog today. I don't know if I will though. That's a long time to sit and type. Not that there will be that much else to do because I think most people will probably sleep most of the day.
Next day Thai time (same as Laos time)
Well, I didn't catch up on my blog. I did however sleep for 3 or 4 hours on the boat. I felt so drowsy and not in control of my sleepiness that the thought of cyanide poisoning kicking in ran through my mind. Fortunately, I woke up.
The boat ride was pretty uneventful. We left at 5am and arrived around 4:30pm.
Although the boat ride was pretty uneventful, the docking experience was probably the most eventful thing we saw that day. We pulled up to the river side... which you pretty much couldn't see because there were already so many boats crammed into the space. Then, the family on the boat began to push boats on either side of us apart. The man pressed the gas and we literally were squeezing in between 2 other boats. But that also meant all the other boats on either side of that boat had to move over as well. It was crazy. The boat was grazing the sides of the boats on both sides. There weren't even horns this time to warn we were coming! Asia! Make up your mind! There were wooden poles on all the boats that maybe served as bumpers? But we knocked 1 completely off one of the boats next to us. It looked like a stressful job.
We finally "docked" and were able to get off. Of course, since we're on the Mekong, there a ridiculous hill/small mountain we had to climb with all our baggage. We actually got out at a part that was on grass and weeds and we had to walk over to the staircase. I was a mess haha. My water bottle had wrapped around the back of me and while walking the top came off and I bent down to pick it up again but with all my bags on it took me a bit to figure out how to stand up again. So that was fun.
We then had to load all our bags into a Tsung Tao and ride for 10 minutes maybe to the immigration point for Laos. Weight to exchange our kip and get out stamps as well as hand in our departure card. We had to pay 10,000 kip or $1 for processing.
After that we walked down a hill and got into a long motor boat to go cross the Mekong and head to the Thai border. Once we were there we filled out our arrival card and got stamps into the country. The man stamped over my UK stamp that you can barely see and even the UK thought I had been in the country illegally. I was kinda annoyed but then Matt made a comment about how it will save space in my passport which I guess is very true.
We then got in another Tsung Tao (which I don't think is still called that since we were now in Thailand) and headed to our hotel. Our bags just rested on the floor of the open back part. Not strapped in it anything.
Throughout this whole process we had to take our bags off and put them back on so many times. It was stupid. It takes so much energy to situate all my other bags and then get my big bag on. Oh my Buddha! I was over that. It also felt like my bag grew a baby and was heavier than normal but I couldn't figure out why. I realized I had bought water at the hotel in luang Prabang because it was so cheap. So really I had a water baby.
I think I may have forgotten to mention that in Laos they drive on the right side of the road as well. And that the village we stayed in had no cars or motorbikes. I also think Home said they believe in animism at the village we were in but like I said, he was really difficult to understand.
When we got to the hotel we had 2 hours and we went straight to the swimming pool. It was so nice to feel the grime and sweat from the past 2 days just wash off. Taking a shower was even better. Feeling clean is so nice!
A lot of the people in the village went to the river to bathe. The Mekong is pretty gross. It is full of trash and the water is very brown. I don't think it is as gross as the Ganges but it was up there. Even Home bathed in it.
I had asked Matt if there was a significance to the color orange for the monks and he said no. That is just the popular color in China. But, there is a significance to the way the robes are worn. One shoulder is Theravada Buddhism and 2 shoulders is Mahayana. The Theravada is the older one they practice in China, Nepal and India.
After swimming we met for dinner. Melissa stayed in the room. We got to ride in the back of a pick up truck to dinner. For most people that was their first time and they loved it. It's definitely fun. And would absolutely never be allowed at home.
For dinner I had a coconut milk curry with chicken and rice. It was really good. I also split spring rolls with Kat and again those were very good. We're back to fried spring rolls which I think I like better than the leafy green ones in Vietnam.
There was a guy playing guitar and singing there and Matt convinced Cara to do the same for us. She didn't want to but she was amazing. She sang and played Adele's "Make You Feel My Love". Her voice is beautiful and as we all know Adele is pretty hard to perform well.
We all stopped at the 7eleven on the way back to get some snacks and breakfast (not included at this hotel or in Chiang Mai) and exchange money.
When I got back to the Melissa was asleep. I felt bad because I didn't know she was going to sleep (it was 9:30pm) and I had to get in my bag and do a bunch of stuff. I don't think I woke her up but I'm not totally sure. She did end up waking up around 11:30pm to ask what time we were meeting in the morning. I had a really difficult time sleeping actually. I think I was awake until at least 1am. I think it's because we did nothing all day.
We have also figured out that Robyn, Courtney, Cara, and Sarah all have sort of bed bug bites. So that really sucks. I'm pretty glad it wasn't me though...
On to Chiang Mai tomorrow! I'm hoping I will be able to see Chrissy if she is still there but I don't know for sure.
8:17am Laos time
Summer Solstice
I think Zara and I slept from 11:30pm all the way through 4:30am. Pretty good night! In the morning when we woke up it was definitely cooler. Even with all the windows (autocorrected to dimwits?) and doors boarded up.
I woke up at 4:25am to Laura saying, "oh, I hear a zipper!" It was Zara and then we were all awake. I don't think Laura slept very much. She said she thinks she overheated in the middle of the night as well. We laid there for maybe 10 minutes listening to the roosters and then we got up.
We gathered our stuff and walked out of the house. Matt had warned us to have torches because it would be pitch black and none of us really believed him. Well, it was pretty much pitch black haha.
We made out way down the hill and due to the rain, it became a pretty hazardous adventure. Both Laura and Zara fell on their butts at one point. We weren't even sure we were going down the correct way but then we saw other head lamps following us so we continued down. Just go down haha. So we finally came out to the point where we entered and it was good. Aside from needing to descend the baby rock and dirt mountain. It didn't seem as bad or as long in the dark haha. At the bottom Zara took a photo of me with my hand in the air with the hill and village in the back. We came, we saw, we conquered!
Back to the boat! Everyone was on time and we left. Most people are sleeping. We had fried eggs and bread for breakfast.
One thing I have noticed is that in England they apparently don't have Mosquitos. Well, "mossies" as they call them. They all spray bug spray in the room and when there is wind and in places that if I would have sprayed it with my parents I would have gotten my ass kicked. I am constantly sneezing because the smell is drifting back and up my nose.
I'm hoping I will catch up on my blog today. I don't know if I will though. That's a long time to sit and type. Not that there will be that much else to do because I think most people will probably sleep most of the day.
Next day Thai time (same as Laos time)
Well, I didn't catch up on my blog. I did however sleep for 3 or 4 hours on the boat. I felt so drowsy and not in control of my sleepiness that the thought of cyanide poisoning kicking in ran through my mind. Fortunately, I woke up.
The boat ride was pretty uneventful. We left at 5am and arrived around 4:30pm.
Although the boat ride was pretty uneventful, the docking experience was probably the most eventful thing we saw that day. We pulled up to the river side... which you pretty much couldn't see because there were already so many boats crammed into the space. Then, the family on the boat began to push boats on either side of us apart. The man pressed the gas and we literally were squeezing in between 2 other boats. But that also meant all the other boats on either side of that boat had to move over as well. It was crazy. The boat was grazing the sides of the boats on both sides. There weren't even horns this time to warn we were coming! Asia! Make up your mind! There were wooden poles on all the boats that maybe served as bumpers? But we knocked 1 completely off one of the boats next to us. It looked like a stressful job.
We finally "docked" and were able to get off. Of course, since we're on the Mekong, there a ridiculous hill/small mountain we had to climb with all our baggage. We actually got out at a part that was on grass and weeds and we had to walk over to the staircase. I was a mess haha. My water bottle had wrapped around the back of me and while walking the top came off and I bent down to pick it up again but with all my bags on it took me a bit to figure out how to stand up again. So that was fun.
We then had to load all our bags into a Tsung Tao and ride for 10 minutes maybe to the immigration point for Laos. Weight to exchange our kip and get out stamps as well as hand in our departure card. We had to pay 10,000 kip or $1 for processing.
After that we walked down a hill and got into a long motor boat to go cross the Mekong and head to the Thai border. Once we were there we filled out our arrival card and got stamps into the country. The man stamped over my UK stamp that you can barely see and even the UK thought I had been in the country illegally. I was kinda annoyed but then Matt made a comment about how it will save space in my passport which I guess is very true.
We then got in another Tsung Tao (which I don't think is still called that since we were now in Thailand) and headed to our hotel. Our bags just rested on the floor of the open back part. Not strapped in it anything.
Throughout this whole process we had to take our bags off and put them back on so many times. It was stupid. It takes so much energy to situate all my other bags and then get my big bag on. Oh my Buddha! I was over that. It also felt like my bag grew a baby and was heavier than normal but I couldn't figure out why. I realized I had bought water at the hotel in luang Prabang because it was so cheap. So really I had a water baby.
I think I may have forgotten to mention that in Laos they drive on the right side of the road as well. And that the village we stayed in had no cars or motorbikes. I also think Home said they believe in animism at the village we were in but like I said, he was really difficult to understand.
When we got to the hotel we had 2 hours and we went straight to the swimming pool. It was so nice to feel the grime and sweat from the past 2 days just wash off. Taking a shower was even better. Feeling clean is so nice!
A lot of the people in the village went to the river to bathe. The Mekong is pretty gross. It is full of trash and the water is very brown. I don't think it is as gross as the Ganges but it was up there. Even Home bathed in it.
I had asked Matt if there was a significance to the color orange for the monks and he said no. That is just the popular color in China. But, there is a significance to the way the robes are worn. One shoulder is Theravada Buddhism and 2 shoulders is Mahayana. The Theravada is the older one they practice in China, Nepal and India.
After swimming we met for dinner. Melissa stayed in the room. We got to ride in the back of a pick up truck to dinner. For most people that was their first time and they loved it. It's definitely fun. And would absolutely never be allowed at home.
For dinner I had a coconut milk curry with chicken and rice. It was really good. I also split spring rolls with Kat and again those were very good. We're back to fried spring rolls which I think I like better than the leafy green ones in Vietnam.
There was a guy playing guitar and singing there and Matt convinced Cara to do the same for us. She didn't want to but she was amazing. She sang and played Adele's "Make You Feel My Love". Her voice is beautiful and as we all know Adele is pretty hard to perform well.
We all stopped at the 7eleven on the way back to get some snacks and breakfast (not included at this hotel or in Chiang Mai) and exchange money.
When I got back to the Melissa was asleep. I felt bad because I didn't know she was going to sleep (it was 9:30pm) and I had to get in my bag and do a bunch of stuff. I don't think I woke her up but I'm not totally sure. She did end up waking up around 11:30pm to ask what time we were meeting in the morning. I had a really difficult time sleeping actually. I think I was awake until at least 1am. I think it's because we did nothing all day.
We have also figured out that Robyn, Courtney, Cara, and Sarah all have sort of bed bug bites. So that really sucks. I'm pretty glad it wasn't me though...
On to Chiang Mai tomorrow! I'm hoping I will be able to see Chrissy if she is still there but I don't know for sure.
Up the Mekong
June 20
Still need to finish the rest of June 19 and then I will post that one as well...
7:41am Laos time
This morning we got up at 5:30am to go give alms to the monks. It is tradition to do this in Asian countries. Monks can only eat before noon and I believe they survive off of donations from people. Matt told us that all the monks from all the temples walk down the street and you buy rice and put it in their pot. You're supposed to sit with both knees on the ground so your feet face away from them. You're also not supposed to break the procession of monks (don't walk in the middle of the same temple group) and you're not supposed to get up and walk away while the monks are still walking past. He told us to leave about 5:45am. That was too late...
We got there and most of the monks had past already. There was one temple of monks that was still walking by. We quickly rushed to go buy rice. Katrina and Melissa ended up getting it first and being able to sit down and offer the monks alms but the rest of us missed it. We bought our rice and went to sit down and do the same and a lady told us it was over. Everyone around us was packing up. So that sucked. We have our rice and the bamboo containers back to the women who had sold it to us. They wanted to give it to us to take away but none of us did that except for Ed. And then Ed managed to throw most of it on the street for animals or into holes and eat some and then trashed it at the hotel. I was a little annoyed that Matt had told us the incorrect time but to be fair, this is the first time it has happened on this trip whereas in India and Nepal it pretty much happened all the time. We did at least get to see a little bit of it. The rice only cost 10,000 kip ($1.25). It just would have been nice to actually give the monks the rice.
We got back to the hotel and pretty much just grabbed our bags and left. We headed to the Mekong on a bus about 20 minutes from the hotel and then we boarded our boat.
We had to walk down the side of a big hill. Luckily, there were steps for us. Some normal ones at first but then it was steps basically on dirt/mud that were just mats woven from bamboo essentially. There were a fair amount of steps. The hill was pretty big. Then we walked down some more of the hill that was all dirt and got to the side of the river. The boats are long boats. Like really really really long boats. They sit pretty low in the water as well. There is a roof area and 3 "rooms". There's the bar area where free coffee, tea, and fruit are provided. There is an area with seats and a table. 4 seats to 1 table. And then there is a sun bathing area where the roof can come off.
To get from the land to the boat we had to walk across the tiniest plank in the world. Maybe not the tiniest, but it was really thin. Like both your feet could fit standing together with maybe a little extra room on either side. And we all had our bags with us. Many bags haha. We crossed over to one boat and took a few steps on that one just to cross to the next one which was our boat.
We have about 9 or 10 hours on the boat today. Matt told us some rules. There is actually a family that lives on here as well. I think there is a cabin for their home on the boat as well but obviously that is their private quarters. He said that we needed to make sure that we don't put our feet up higher than our head because the head is the most sacred thing and your feet are really dirty and shouldn't be above your head in Buddhist religion. He also said to make sure that you don't put your feet up across the aisle. They will not cross over your feet so if we did that they wouldn't e able to walk through. It is also raining now. Should be a good time...
6:31am the 21st Laos time
Well, yesterday was definitely an experience!
We ended up arriving to the village around 4:30pm. We had been on the boat for 9 or so hours. We passed the time by playing cards, sleeping, and talking. Ed, Saskia, Bart, Kat, and I played Koi, the Vietnamese card game. We then switched to B.S. with 2 decks and finally finished out with Texas Hold 'Em. I didn't remember how to play and I was actually pretty confused while learning. Ed had to write out all the possible combinations for me haha. We were using toothpicks and sugar packets as 1 and 10 chips. Even though I sucked, it was still pretty fun. On the last hand we went all in and I ended up winning with a pair of 5s haha.
When we got to the homestay village, we got off the boat and Home, our Laotian tour guide, took us around the village. Home is really difficult to understand. He isn't very confident in his English and he jumps around a lot of topic while he is talking and it gets confusing. What I gathered from his tour was this:
1. There are 500 people in the village, 69 families.
2. They are farmers. They have to walk a ways to get to the farmland though.
3. They are very far away from medical help. The nearest city is 45 minutes by boat up the Mekong.
There are a TON of farm animals roaming around. Chickens, pigs, dogs, roosters, ducks, turkeys. It is very busy! There are also many children. The houses are all on stilts. They have a lower level and then a higher level. I think the higher level was the sleeping area. We weren't really able to explore their house. They don't speak English so we couldn't really talk to them about things either. They are pretty impressive. None of them were really made of bamboo or straw, except for some student quarters where students from other villages live during the school year. They were mostly made of cement, brick, and scrap metal for the roofs.
We saw where we were sleeping. It was upstairs on little mattresses that were on the floor and had a sheet covering it, a pillow, and a blanket. I'm not sure who in their right mind thought we would need a blanket, but nonetheless, it was provided. When we first saw the sleep area the mosquito nets weren't up. Matt told us they put them up later and that all our bedding and mosquito nets were provided by the travel agency in Laos that we are traveling under. There is a certain standard of cleanliness the village has to achieve in order to be able to host homestays. Us staying in their village is beneficial for them as well because our money supports the projects they have going on there.
I was really bummed for 2 reasons. I left y spare battery on the boat and my camera ended up dying. I didn't get photos of the schools but that was pretty much all I missed. There was also a point when I looked up and there was a man looking out a window that was covered in wire and his face and hands were poking through it. It would have been such a great photo. But I took too long to like up the shot and tried to make it clean so there were no people in it and he left the window. I was so mad at myself for not taking the picture sooner. The man was looking out watching us. A lot of them were taking photos of us and they were all watching us as we walked around their village. This surprised a lot of people because Matt told us that in the high season they end up having a homestay group almost every day.
We then went up to see the schools. The schools are at the top of the hill. It is a pretty steep climb to get up there, although compared to our trek it was nothing haha. There was a high school and a middle school. Although I think the high school may have actually been for elementary kids because the chairs were very tiny. Also, I thought he said that the high school was about an hour away. They were working on rebuilding one of the schools as well but they weren't very far in the process. It was basically a few bamboo sticks coming up from the ground. The rooms of the school were pretty small and the walls were almost completely bare. It was summer vacation so the furniture was mostly stored in the corner or against a wall.
We then walked back down to the boat for dinner. (I need some better transition sentences for and then we did this ha).
I forgot to mention that from the river front you had to climb up a sandy beach hill and then up a rocky dirt path hill to get to the village. Also a piece of cake compared to our trek earlier but most people seemed to not enjoy it. There was literally a noticeable temperature difference between being on the top of the hill and being at the bottom of the hill. Standing up there was so ridiculously hot.
Dinner on the boat was really good. It was sticky rice, chicken curry, ginger pork (not my fav), morning glory and some green bean type things. I liked the curry a lot, probably even better than the curries I had in India. I don't think I'm a curry person though. Around 6:45pm we headed up to our houses for the night. I was sleeping with Laura and Zara.
We had a really good time laughing and joking around about things such as how slowly time was passing (at first 12 minutes felt like an hour) and how hot it was. It was like a sauna. It was boiling in there.
I talked about the elephant camp a bit and they thought it was funny I had paid to do a week of manual labor. They also said they wished I would have told them about it before the elephant riding because they wouldn't have done it and given those companies money. I had told a few people but they still wanted to do it and I also wasn't going to expect everyone else not to ride.
They told me I should be a tour guide because apparently I know everything and would be good at it. I think it would be a pretty cool job. Especially if you have the outlook Matt has.
I took me deet with 98% with me into the homestay. We ended up spraying the mosquito net but then after I felt like that was something we shouldn't have done. But then I couldn't remember if I was confusing double mosquito protection with double condom protection or if you actually weren't supposed to spray a mosquito net.
Our family ended up turning off the light around 7:30 or 8pm. We were in a separate room from them. The doors were also open for a while and one lady went outside to use the phone. It started lightening and quietly thundering and then a while later the rain started. I didn't hear any thunder after that though. Laura really had to pee and was trying to talk herself out of it but she got up anyway and went after a while. Zara had already fallen asleep. When she came back it freaked Zara out because she woke up and all she saw was a flash light moving toward us. She frantically started tapping me. Once she figured out it was just Laura we all had a good laugh again. Laura said the bathroom was pretty clean and that it was a little creepy because everything was really wet due to the rain. The cistern was definitely full.
The sheets were much cleaner than I thought they would be and I didn't feel the need to use my sleeping bag. I did drape my jacket over the pillow though. I did that at a lot of the hotels in India and Nepal as well and I have no idea why.
We kept wondering if the other groups were still awake and thought we kept hearing them, but it could have been the TV from another home. We also wondered if Sarah had taken sleeping pills. Laura was completely convinced everyone was still awake.
I was pretty convinced that tomorrow was going to be a cluster fuck. Matt said that we take the boat ride (we have to leave so early because the border closes at 6pm) which will be 10 or 11 hours, get in a tuk tuk, do the paperwork and then get in a boat and cross the Mekong into Thailand. I figured we would all be tired and slap happy and be ready for a shower so I was determined to get some sleep tonight.
We knew we had to get up at 4:45am and that we had to make our way down the hill in pitch black to get to the boat before it departed at 5am for the border crossing.
Still need to finish the rest of June 19 and then I will post that one as well...
7:41am Laos time
This morning we got up at 5:30am to go give alms to the monks. It is tradition to do this in Asian countries. Monks can only eat before noon and I believe they survive off of donations from people. Matt told us that all the monks from all the temples walk down the street and you buy rice and put it in their pot. You're supposed to sit with both knees on the ground so your feet face away from them. You're also not supposed to break the procession of monks (don't walk in the middle of the same temple group) and you're not supposed to get up and walk away while the monks are still walking past. He told us to leave about 5:45am. That was too late...
We got there and most of the monks had past already. There was one temple of monks that was still walking by. We quickly rushed to go buy rice. Katrina and Melissa ended up getting it first and being able to sit down and offer the monks alms but the rest of us missed it. We bought our rice and went to sit down and do the same and a lady told us it was over. Everyone around us was packing up. So that sucked. We have our rice and the bamboo containers back to the women who had sold it to us. They wanted to give it to us to take away but none of us did that except for Ed. And then Ed managed to throw most of it on the street for animals or into holes and eat some and then trashed it at the hotel. I was a little annoyed that Matt had told us the incorrect time but to be fair, this is the first time it has happened on this trip whereas in India and Nepal it pretty much happened all the time. We did at least get to see a little bit of it. The rice only cost 10,000 kip ($1.25). It just would have been nice to actually give the monks the rice.
We got back to the hotel and pretty much just grabbed our bags and left. We headed to the Mekong on a bus about 20 minutes from the hotel and then we boarded our boat.
We had to walk down the side of a big hill. Luckily, there were steps for us. Some normal ones at first but then it was steps basically on dirt/mud that were just mats woven from bamboo essentially. There were a fair amount of steps. The hill was pretty big. Then we walked down some more of the hill that was all dirt and got to the side of the river. The boats are long boats. Like really really really long boats. They sit pretty low in the water as well. There is a roof area and 3 "rooms". There's the bar area where free coffee, tea, and fruit are provided. There is an area with seats and a table. 4 seats to 1 table. And then there is a sun bathing area where the roof can come off.
To get from the land to the boat we had to walk across the tiniest plank in the world. Maybe not the tiniest, but it was really thin. Like both your feet could fit standing together with maybe a little extra room on either side. And we all had our bags with us. Many bags haha. We crossed over to one boat and took a few steps on that one just to cross to the next one which was our boat.
We have about 9 or 10 hours on the boat today. Matt told us some rules. There is actually a family that lives on here as well. I think there is a cabin for their home on the boat as well but obviously that is their private quarters. He said that we needed to make sure that we don't put our feet up higher than our head because the head is the most sacred thing and your feet are really dirty and shouldn't be above your head in Buddhist religion. He also said to make sure that you don't put your feet up across the aisle. They will not cross over your feet so if we did that they wouldn't e able to walk through. It is also raining now. Should be a good time...
6:31am the 21st Laos time
Well, yesterday was definitely an experience!
We ended up arriving to the village around 4:30pm. We had been on the boat for 9 or so hours. We passed the time by playing cards, sleeping, and talking. Ed, Saskia, Bart, Kat, and I played Koi, the Vietnamese card game. We then switched to B.S. with 2 decks and finally finished out with Texas Hold 'Em. I didn't remember how to play and I was actually pretty confused while learning. Ed had to write out all the possible combinations for me haha. We were using toothpicks and sugar packets as 1 and 10 chips. Even though I sucked, it was still pretty fun. On the last hand we went all in and I ended up winning with a pair of 5s haha.
When we got to the homestay village, we got off the boat and Home, our Laotian tour guide, took us around the village. Home is really difficult to understand. He isn't very confident in his English and he jumps around a lot of topic while he is talking and it gets confusing. What I gathered from his tour was this:
1. There are 500 people in the village, 69 families.
2. They are farmers. They have to walk a ways to get to the farmland though.
3. They are very far away from medical help. The nearest city is 45 minutes by boat up the Mekong.
There are a TON of farm animals roaming around. Chickens, pigs, dogs, roosters, ducks, turkeys. It is very busy! There are also many children. The houses are all on stilts. They have a lower level and then a higher level. I think the higher level was the sleeping area. We weren't really able to explore their house. They don't speak English so we couldn't really talk to them about things either. They are pretty impressive. None of them were really made of bamboo or straw, except for some student quarters where students from other villages live during the school year. They were mostly made of cement, brick, and scrap metal for the roofs.
We saw where we were sleeping. It was upstairs on little mattresses that were on the floor and had a sheet covering it, a pillow, and a blanket. I'm not sure who in their right mind thought we would need a blanket, but nonetheless, it was provided. When we first saw the sleep area the mosquito nets weren't up. Matt told us they put them up later and that all our bedding and mosquito nets were provided by the travel agency in Laos that we are traveling under. There is a certain standard of cleanliness the village has to achieve in order to be able to host homestays. Us staying in their village is beneficial for them as well because our money supports the projects they have going on there.
I was really bummed for 2 reasons. I left y spare battery on the boat and my camera ended up dying. I didn't get photos of the schools but that was pretty much all I missed. There was also a point when I looked up and there was a man looking out a window that was covered in wire and his face and hands were poking through it. It would have been such a great photo. But I took too long to like up the shot and tried to make it clean so there were no people in it and he left the window. I was so mad at myself for not taking the picture sooner. The man was looking out watching us. A lot of them were taking photos of us and they were all watching us as we walked around their village. This surprised a lot of people because Matt told us that in the high season they end up having a homestay group almost every day.
We then went up to see the schools. The schools are at the top of the hill. It is a pretty steep climb to get up there, although compared to our trek it was nothing haha. There was a high school and a middle school. Although I think the high school may have actually been for elementary kids because the chairs were very tiny. Also, I thought he said that the high school was about an hour away. They were working on rebuilding one of the schools as well but they weren't very far in the process. It was basically a few bamboo sticks coming up from the ground. The rooms of the school were pretty small and the walls were almost completely bare. It was summer vacation so the furniture was mostly stored in the corner or against a wall.
We then walked back down to the boat for dinner. (I need some better transition sentences for and then we did this ha).
I forgot to mention that from the river front you had to climb up a sandy beach hill and then up a rocky dirt path hill to get to the village. Also a piece of cake compared to our trek earlier but most people seemed to not enjoy it. There was literally a noticeable temperature difference between being on the top of the hill and being at the bottom of the hill. Standing up there was so ridiculously hot.
Dinner on the boat was really good. It was sticky rice, chicken curry, ginger pork (not my fav), morning glory and some green bean type things. I liked the curry a lot, probably even better than the curries I had in India. I don't think I'm a curry person though. Around 6:45pm we headed up to our houses for the night. I was sleeping with Laura and Zara.
We had a really good time laughing and joking around about things such as how slowly time was passing (at first 12 minutes felt like an hour) and how hot it was. It was like a sauna. It was boiling in there.
I talked about the elephant camp a bit and they thought it was funny I had paid to do a week of manual labor. They also said they wished I would have told them about it before the elephant riding because they wouldn't have done it and given those companies money. I had told a few people but they still wanted to do it and I also wasn't going to expect everyone else not to ride.
They told me I should be a tour guide because apparently I know everything and would be good at it. I think it would be a pretty cool job. Especially if you have the outlook Matt has.
I took me deet with 98% with me into the homestay. We ended up spraying the mosquito net but then after I felt like that was something we shouldn't have done. But then I couldn't remember if I was confusing double mosquito protection with double condom protection or if you actually weren't supposed to spray a mosquito net.
Our family ended up turning off the light around 7:30 or 8pm. We were in a separate room from them. The doors were also open for a while and one lady went outside to use the phone. It started lightening and quietly thundering and then a while later the rain started. I didn't hear any thunder after that though. Laura really had to pee and was trying to talk herself out of it but she got up anyway and went after a while. Zara had already fallen asleep. When she came back it freaked Zara out because she woke up and all she saw was a flash light moving toward us. She frantically started tapping me. Once she figured out it was just Laura we all had a good laugh again. Laura said the bathroom was pretty clean and that it was a little creepy because everything was really wet due to the rain. The cistern was definitely full.
The sheets were much cleaner than I thought they would be and I didn't feel the need to use my sleeping bag. I did drape my jacket over the pillow though. I did that at a lot of the hotels in India and Nepal as well and I have no idea why.
We kept wondering if the other groups were still awake and thought we kept hearing them, but it could have been the TV from another home. We also wondered if Sarah had taken sleeping pills. Laura was completely convinced everyone was still awake.
I was pretty convinced that tomorrow was going to be a cluster fuck. Matt said that we take the boat ride (we have to leave so early because the border closes at 6pm) which will be 10 or 11 hours, get in a tuk tuk, do the paperwork and then get in a boat and cross the Mekong into Thailand. I figured we would all be tired and slap happy and be ready for a shower so I was determined to get some sleep tonight.
We knew we had to get up at 4:45am and that we had to make our way down the hill in pitch black to get to the boat before it departed at 5am for the border crossing.
Completely in the Dark
June 17
Yesterday was a great day. Really awesome. I am glad I did the hiking trip.
We started off the morning being picked up at our hotel. We met our guide, Meng. We rode about 17km away through other villages. When we stopped, there was a river and no bridge. Then, a small motor long boats pulled up and we made our way across the river in that. The boat was so slippery that my shoe kept slipping out from under me when I tried to stand up. We then saw our first cave, the elephant cave. It's called this because the way the stone formed makes it look like an elephant. There was also a brightly colored reclining Buddha statue there as well. The locals come here to pray.
We walked to a small village and made our way through it. We then proceeded to climb over a bamboo fence and make our way through a field. It was kind of similar to how the corn field in Chiang Mai was with the moats on both sides. There was sticky rice and corn growing. Rice throws me off still. It looks like chives growing in the ground in a bunch of water. You leave it in the found for 2 or 3 months and then you pick it and the rice is the part in the ground. Rice needs a lot of water to grow and right now, the farmers are having a tough time because there isn't enough rain to grow the rice.
We had to walk through a lot of plants and shrubs and leaves. I wasn't sure where the path was and where the drop offs were. Bart and Meng had already gone ahead far enough that Melissa and I couldn't place our feet directly where they had. Melissa fell at one point and grabbed me for balance.
Then we began our first mountain climb. 250 meters up. The office had said it was an easy climb and Matt said he had made the climb in his sandals so I didn't wear my hiking shoes. Bad idea! The first climb was ridiculous. It was really difficult. Some of the rocks were larger than me, so that was fun to try to climb. Half way through I started feeling really nauseated and dizzy. There wasn't really anything anyone could do though so I kept going. Later I started to feel like I was going to hurl. Luckily I never did but I did end up telling the group I felt sick and we went a little slower. Stopping to rest made me feel worse when we started again. I don't know why I felt sick. It could have been because it was too strenuous for me, Bart thought maybe altitude sickness (although I didn't ask the elevation but I don't think we were high enough for that), dehydration, breakfast could have not settled well, there could be a million reasons. It was also really difficult because there was a lot of mud and my shoes just slid on every surface. The traction is really bad. We were of course, all sweating mass amounts. My body was like oh hey you're overheating so lets dump out every drop of liquid in your body. Cool. Thanks for that. It was a really hot day as well. It's supposed to be rainy season but it is late and hasn't come yet. While climbing we also had to duck under trees and such. I sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be like this all day, even though the terrain was really cool.
When we got to the top, I honestly wouldn't have known it was the top without Meng telling me. I guess it was kind of obvious because we started going down, but it just looked like everything else. And there wasn't a clearing or any area to walk around. Just lots of rocks and trees.
The way down was a little easier. I think they should put a warning on the tour for vertically challenged people. There were many times when Meng would be telling me where to step and even if I say down on the rock to get closer my foot was still dangling. My butt was also getting so dirty because we had to sit down on the rocks and slide fairly often. I was constantly using my shirt as a rag for my face so my clothes were pretty much drenched. (Everyone else's too so at least I want alone). There were areas where we had to climb up or down bamboo ladders and walk along planks to get across large gaps. I fell on my back 2 times. It didn't hurt too much. My bag was a good padding haha. Slipped a million times on the mud.
When we climbed down the mountain, we ended up in a clearing. It was beautiful with mountains all around us and fields as far as the eye could see. We walked through the corn and I got lost for a minute. I kept getting left behind because I would stop to take a photo. Sounds like me. So at one point I was just wandering through a ton of corn stalks and had no idea where I was going or which way to head. Obviously the corn stalks are way taller than I am as well so I couldn't try to see their heads. Then I heard them calling my name. All good! No getting lost in corn fields for me! These corn fields didn't have the most business either. Meng said people actually climb here to plant and hardest things. There is a small bamboo hut in the middle and he said sometimes people will sleep in it. I can't imagine climbing a mountain to get some corn.
We also went through a bunch of weeds and shrubs. Like it was almost hard to see the path because there was so much of it. The area is called Secret Eden. It was really pretty. I made a mental note to check for ticks and other creatures later. Luckily none were found.
This led into a clearing surrounded by many trees with a little house on stilts with open sides. It was time for a swim and lunch. We went down to the water. It looked really nice but I didn't want to swim because I didn't want to hike the rest of the day being wet. I dipped my foot in. Bart had swim trunks to change into so he went in. He said all the little fish were biting him. The middle was pretty deep. Oh, by the way, Bart is like 6'4" at least. There were so many butterflies here too. Really pretty ones. My camera is great. I got some really nice photos of them. The colors are so bright on some of them. I honestly couldn't believe how many of them there were. 2 landed on me at one point. One on my back and one crawled on to me and was checking out my toe.
Meng made us lunch. It was amazing. He barbecued zucchini, tomato, onion, and pork on a stick for us. I think it was in a ginger sauce but I'm not sure. Then we had a baguette and fried rice. This was served to each of us on a banana leaf. We had 20 minutes to rest and then we were off again. I still felt a little nauseous but it wasn't too bad.
We walked through the secret garden area again and headed for the next mountain. This one was the easy one but I wasn't too sure what that was going to actually mean. At lunch he had told us the first one was the difficult one and the easy one was next. Matt had only one the easy one on a half day trip so that made me feel better about the fact that he did it in sandals.
The second mountain was 150m up. This one had steep inclines but it wasn't too bad. The rocks were smaller and there wasn't any mud because all the rocks were pretty much shoved together. There were still some bamboo ladders and rocks climbing down that were difficult for me to descend because of my height, but it was a ton easier than the first.
Before we climbed down we went into another cave. This cave was a lot bigger and darker. There were no lights except for our flash lights. We actually climbed through the cave as well. This was really difficult actually. The stones were very slippery and there were areas where there were large rocks again to have to climb up or down. I needed a lot of help haha. There were times when we had to go across areas of water and I could barely get from one wooden thing to another. They were really small as well. Maybe the size of the ball of my foot. I dragged my foot in the water at one point on accident. The flashlight he had given me also fell of its string. I was pretty much just a mess in there haha. At one point we turned our lights off and stood in the total darkness. It was a really strange feeling. There was absolutely no light but I kept expecting y eyes to adjust to the darkness and see things. When that didn't happen, my brain started making it seem like I was seeing things since I had already seen it and known what it looks like. The cave was really cool. Most people don't get to go through something like that. He said its a local cave too and not many tourists get to see it. They eat bats from in here. :o
We continued down. I started laughing at myself because I was going down most of it on my ass at this point because the rocks were so large. It was a good time. When I got back and took my clothes off I was so filthy. It was funny. There are huge mud stains on the butt of my pants and my shirt had been dyed pink in some areas from my sports bra because I was sweating so much. My shirt is also covered in dirt on the shoulders, probably from wiping the sweat off my face, and on the front, probably from wiping my hands. I sliced my hand on a rock at one point a well. They were really sharp!
When we got off the mountain we went through corn fields again, and a village. We saw children playing in the water, villagers working in the rice fields (they take rice from one field and plant it in another to harvest it a few months later. I don't totally understand why.
We then crossed a bridge (took a photo of the 3 of us... Me in the middle so I look even shorter than I am) and headed back to the hotel. We gave Meng about $2.50 each for a tip because at lunch he was talking about how happy he was that there was left over food so he could feed his chickens and he is pretty poor.
He actually fell a few times on the mountain as well so I didn't feel too clumsy about my falls haha.
When we got back, I was so dirty I just wanted to shower and lay around and do nothing. I let Melissa shower first and tried to upload my photos to Dropbox but the Internet was too slow. If I can manage to work it, I should be able to post photos for you to see! Fingers crossed!
I will need to do laundry at the next place solely to wash these clothes haha. It's terrible. I did laundry here for 15,000 kip and washed 3 underwear, 1 pair of socks, 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants.
The rest of the evening I just chilled out. Went to dinner with. Melissa at one point too. That was pretty much the day! I did fall asleep without brushing my teeth or taking my contacts out at like 9pm. I realized this at 10:30pm when I got up to do this. So sleepy all the time. It's good for night time.
Yesterday was a great day. Really awesome. I am glad I did the hiking trip.
We started off the morning being picked up at our hotel. We met our guide, Meng. We rode about 17km away through other villages. When we stopped, there was a river and no bridge. Then, a small motor long boats pulled up and we made our way across the river in that. The boat was so slippery that my shoe kept slipping out from under me when I tried to stand up. We then saw our first cave, the elephant cave. It's called this because the way the stone formed makes it look like an elephant. There was also a brightly colored reclining Buddha statue there as well. The locals come here to pray.
We walked to a small village and made our way through it. We then proceeded to climb over a bamboo fence and make our way through a field. It was kind of similar to how the corn field in Chiang Mai was with the moats on both sides. There was sticky rice and corn growing. Rice throws me off still. It looks like chives growing in the ground in a bunch of water. You leave it in the found for 2 or 3 months and then you pick it and the rice is the part in the ground. Rice needs a lot of water to grow and right now, the farmers are having a tough time because there isn't enough rain to grow the rice.
We had to walk through a lot of plants and shrubs and leaves. I wasn't sure where the path was and where the drop offs were. Bart and Meng had already gone ahead far enough that Melissa and I couldn't place our feet directly where they had. Melissa fell at one point and grabbed me for balance.
Then we began our first mountain climb. 250 meters up. The office had said it was an easy climb and Matt said he had made the climb in his sandals so I didn't wear my hiking shoes. Bad idea! The first climb was ridiculous. It was really difficult. Some of the rocks were larger than me, so that was fun to try to climb. Half way through I started feeling really nauseated and dizzy. There wasn't really anything anyone could do though so I kept going. Later I started to feel like I was going to hurl. Luckily I never did but I did end up telling the group I felt sick and we went a little slower. Stopping to rest made me feel worse when we started again. I don't know why I felt sick. It could have been because it was too strenuous for me, Bart thought maybe altitude sickness (although I didn't ask the elevation but I don't think we were high enough for that), dehydration, breakfast could have not settled well, there could be a million reasons. It was also really difficult because there was a lot of mud and my shoes just slid on every surface. The traction is really bad. We were of course, all sweating mass amounts. My body was like oh hey you're overheating so lets dump out every drop of liquid in your body. Cool. Thanks for that. It was a really hot day as well. It's supposed to be rainy season but it is late and hasn't come yet. While climbing we also had to duck under trees and such. I sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be like this all day, even though the terrain was really cool.
When we got to the top, I honestly wouldn't have known it was the top without Meng telling me. I guess it was kind of obvious because we started going down, but it just looked like everything else. And there wasn't a clearing or any area to walk around. Just lots of rocks and trees.
The way down was a little easier. I think they should put a warning on the tour for vertically challenged people. There were many times when Meng would be telling me where to step and even if I say down on the rock to get closer my foot was still dangling. My butt was also getting so dirty because we had to sit down on the rocks and slide fairly often. I was constantly using my shirt as a rag for my face so my clothes were pretty much drenched. (Everyone else's too so at least I want alone). There were areas where we had to climb up or down bamboo ladders and walk along planks to get across large gaps. I fell on my back 2 times. It didn't hurt too much. My bag was a good padding haha. Slipped a million times on the mud.
When we climbed down the mountain, we ended up in a clearing. It was beautiful with mountains all around us and fields as far as the eye could see. We walked through the corn and I got lost for a minute. I kept getting left behind because I would stop to take a photo. Sounds like me. So at one point I was just wandering through a ton of corn stalks and had no idea where I was going or which way to head. Obviously the corn stalks are way taller than I am as well so I couldn't try to see their heads. Then I heard them calling my name. All good! No getting lost in corn fields for me! These corn fields didn't have the most business either. Meng said people actually climb here to plant and hardest things. There is a small bamboo hut in the middle and he said sometimes people will sleep in it. I can't imagine climbing a mountain to get some corn.
We also went through a bunch of weeds and shrubs. Like it was almost hard to see the path because there was so much of it. The area is called Secret Eden. It was really pretty. I made a mental note to check for ticks and other creatures later. Luckily none were found.
This led into a clearing surrounded by many trees with a little house on stilts with open sides. It was time for a swim and lunch. We went down to the water. It looked really nice but I didn't want to swim because I didn't want to hike the rest of the day being wet. I dipped my foot in. Bart had swim trunks to change into so he went in. He said all the little fish were biting him. The middle was pretty deep. Oh, by the way, Bart is like 6'4" at least. There were so many butterflies here too. Really pretty ones. My camera is great. I got some really nice photos of them. The colors are so bright on some of them. I honestly couldn't believe how many of them there were. 2 landed on me at one point. One on my back and one crawled on to me and was checking out my toe.
Meng made us lunch. It was amazing. He barbecued zucchini, tomato, onion, and pork on a stick for us. I think it was in a ginger sauce but I'm not sure. Then we had a baguette and fried rice. This was served to each of us on a banana leaf. We had 20 minutes to rest and then we were off again. I still felt a little nauseous but it wasn't too bad.
We walked through the secret garden area again and headed for the next mountain. This one was the easy one but I wasn't too sure what that was going to actually mean. At lunch he had told us the first one was the difficult one and the easy one was next. Matt had only one the easy one on a half day trip so that made me feel better about the fact that he did it in sandals.
The second mountain was 150m up. This one had steep inclines but it wasn't too bad. The rocks were smaller and there wasn't any mud because all the rocks were pretty much shoved together. There were still some bamboo ladders and rocks climbing down that were difficult for me to descend because of my height, but it was a ton easier than the first.
Before we climbed down we went into another cave. This cave was a lot bigger and darker. There were no lights except for our flash lights. We actually climbed through the cave as well. This was really difficult actually. The stones were very slippery and there were areas where there were large rocks again to have to climb up or down. I needed a lot of help haha. There were times when we had to go across areas of water and I could barely get from one wooden thing to another. They were really small as well. Maybe the size of the ball of my foot. I dragged my foot in the water at one point on accident. The flashlight he had given me also fell of its string. I was pretty much just a mess in there haha. At one point we turned our lights off and stood in the total darkness. It was a really strange feeling. There was absolutely no light but I kept expecting y eyes to adjust to the darkness and see things. When that didn't happen, my brain started making it seem like I was seeing things since I had already seen it and known what it looks like. The cave was really cool. Most people don't get to go through something like that. He said its a local cave too and not many tourists get to see it. They eat bats from in here. :o
We continued down. I started laughing at myself because I was going down most of it on my ass at this point because the rocks were so large. It was a good time. When I got back and took my clothes off I was so filthy. It was funny. There are huge mud stains on the butt of my pants and my shirt had been dyed pink in some areas from my sports bra because I was sweating so much. My shirt is also covered in dirt on the shoulders, probably from wiping the sweat off my face, and on the front, probably from wiping my hands. I sliced my hand on a rock at one point a well. They were really sharp!
When we got off the mountain we went through corn fields again, and a village. We saw children playing in the water, villagers working in the rice fields (they take rice from one field and plant it in another to harvest it a few months later. I don't totally understand why.
We then crossed a bridge (took a photo of the 3 of us... Me in the middle so I look even shorter than I am) and headed back to the hotel. We gave Meng about $2.50 each for a tip because at lunch he was talking about how happy he was that there was left over food so he could feed his chickens and he is pretty poor.
He actually fell a few times on the mountain as well so I didn't feel too clumsy about my falls haha.
When we got back, I was so dirty I just wanted to shower and lay around and do nothing. I let Melissa shower first and tried to upload my photos to Dropbox but the Internet was too slow. If I can manage to work it, I should be able to post photos for you to see! Fingers crossed!
I will need to do laundry at the next place solely to wash these clothes haha. It's terrible. I did laundry here for 15,000 kip and washed 3 underwear, 1 pair of socks, 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants.
The rest of the evening I just chilled out. Went to dinner with. Melissa at one point too. That was pretty much the day! I did fall asleep without brushing my teeth or taking my contacts out at like 9pm. I realized this at 10:30pm when I got up to do this. So sleepy all the time. It's good for night time.
Features Corner: Cara's Poem
By Cara Withers
Asia 2013
Air that's not clean
Noise that sores high
Blue sky that shines through
Bodies that fly
Food may be simple
But flavor bursts out
Language that twists
Yet their smiles stop doubt
A number becomes a person
A person becomes a friend
A friend can shape your life
And start a story with no end
Knowledge is shared
Photos are taken
Yet an image on a screen
Makes that sight become forsaken
Eyes can close
And thoughts rush to mind
Of family and friends
That have been left behind
But the experience that's being made
Makes a wait become ok
Because your stress is cut in half
And thoughts of the future fly away
Love for the ones back home increases to no end
And an embrace that once was so simple feels like a dream that's only pretend
Traveling isn't just seeing
It's embarrassing a culture that surrounds
Meet those people try those things and apply that excitement that's created in bounds
Asia 2013
Air that's not clean
Noise that sores high
Blue sky that shines through
Bodies that fly
Food may be simple
But flavor bursts out
Language that twists
Yet their smiles stop doubt
A number becomes a person
A person becomes a friend
A friend can shape your life
And start a story with no end
Knowledge is shared
Photos are taken
Yet an image on a screen
Makes that sight become forsaken
Eyes can close
And thoughts rush to mind
Of family and friends
That have been left behind
But the experience that's being made
Makes a wait become ok
Because your stress is cut in half
And thoughts of the future fly away
Love for the ones back home increases to no end
And an embrace that once was so simple feels like a dream that's only pretend
Traveling isn't just seeing
It's embarrassing a culture that surrounds
Meet those people try those things and apply that excitement that's created in bounds
On the back of a Motor Bike
June 11
10:10pm
Today was crazy.
I have never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before. Today was another first! And, it was in Vietnam... A country full of motor bikes. It isn't as crazy as India though so I don't feel overly accomplished. Definitely feel a little accomplished though. Even rode without holding on for a fair amount of time! BAMF!!!
We each got our own driver and bike and we had a tour of Hue and all the sites on the back of the motor bike. We started off at the citadel which was nice. What I ended up learning from here probably wasn't what I was supposed to actually take away... The emperor had a lot of concubines. And he lived in the palace with them by himself. Unics were allowed to live in the palace as well though to serve the emperor. Not many people were natural born unics so a lot of men volunteered. If they volunteered it meant that their family would get land and money because they were sacrificing their life to work for the emperor. They had to castrate themselves with a knife. They also kept their nuts and put them in a bag and hung them from the ceiling. When they were old and had to retire they collected their nuts again. Not related to the nuts, we also saw the oldest bank and oldest theatre in Vietnam. They are both on the palace grounds. The inside of the theater was beautiful. Like stunning. It was made of wood.
I am now writing this June 27... Epic fail.
When we entered the palace there were flower Lilies surrounding the area under the bridge. Once you walked in, there was another area with large ponds that were full of fish. Some people (Ed) chose to feed them and the fish are the Japanese fish you always see in those gardens. They're nasty when they fight for food though. Robyn was concerned for the smaller fish further away who were maybe not getting fed as much. She kept telling Ed to throw food to them. It was cute.
Our guide took us around the grounds. He was a really great guide actually. Very knowledgable and talked a lot which is rare for our guides (other than Matt and the people in Cambodia) on this trip. He was funny too. I couldn't tell when he was joking and when he was being serious though... That seems to happen a lot with the language translation aspect.
There was one point when he was taking a group photo for us and a bunch of Asian teenagers stopped and were standing there just taking pictures of us. Oh my Buddha! 21 westerners all gathered together! Definitely a photo worthy moment! No... I did get a photo of them all gathered around trying to take pictures of us. It was pretty funny.
The guide gave us a lot of information but I had a hard time hearing everything he wa saying and it's also been so long I don't remember too much anymore. The outside of the palace was actually really cool. It was kind of mosaic like but it had cracked plates and cups and such in the design. You could see it if you got up pretty close.
After that, we got back on the motorbike. You always had to get off and on from the left side. The exhaust is on the right side (when facing the bike) and you can burn yourself if you get off on that side. We could hold onto the driver if we wanted to. If I felt like I needed to, I held on to the back part of the bike behind me on the seat. Later I was told they prefer you hold onto them because you move with them and the bike. Whether or not this is true I do not know.
We then zipped on over to see the summer home for the royal family. It was nice I guess. It was just down the street from the original palace so that seemed strange. It's not like its on the beach or anything. It was made out of all wood and there were a lot of windows. Maybe it a cooler place to be? It was filled with royal trinkets and weapons. Some of the spears and knives were pretty cool looking. You had to remove your shoes and carry them in a bag with you while you walked around. Then you returned the bag once you left from a different place than where you entered.
On the motorbikes we rode over bridges and through fields and forests. It was really cool actually. We drove through villages. There were so many animals and people on the side of the road selling animals. There were a lot of ducks that I think were still alive but had their feet tied together. We went through a green field of tall grass with graves in it.
We finally made it to the Thien Mu pagoda. It was near the river which was really pretty. We walked up and around with our guide. I did a bad job of sticking around him because I was so fascinated with everything else that I just wanted to take pictures of the cool things I was seeing. Then I was annoyed I hadn't listened.
There are tall men statues at the entrance to a lot of the doors and they all had real horse hair as their mustaches. There was also a car on display that was the car that a monk drove from Hue to Saigon on June 11, 1963 to protest the discrimination of Buddhists and violation of religious freedom. Once he got to Saigon he sat down in the lotus position and burnt himself to death. That is a hard core protest... (During the Vietnam War).
Here we also saw all the monks eating (it was before noon) at a long table. They aren't allowed to talk. They also were surrounded by people in gray robes. I forget exactly what they did. I don't remember if they were monks in training or if they were there to take care of the monks. There was an area with many bonsai trees growing as well. All small ones on little table stands but it was really cool. I'm fascinates by the bonsai tree. It's so unique looking.
We went to a huge arena that was made out of brick. It was all locked up so we couldn't go inside. He said it is locked because there are still snakes inside and they are dangerous. They must not come near the edge? It was used a long time ago as an elephant-tiger fighting arena. The tigers weren't given food so the elephants always won the fights. It was good entertainment back in the day apparently. I don't think I would have liked it too much...
While we were getting back on the bikes, Lois and Charley were finding out their Uni marks. It was a little awkward because we were all sitting on the bikes and watching them. They got good marks so that was great! Andy made a joke about how they were pregnant and just getting the test results. I believed him at first too because I had no idea what was going on other than seeing the 2 girls hugging and crying and looking nervous while starring at their phones before that haha.
We rode to a little shop on the side of the road that showed us how incense sticks are made. The stick is basically rolled in colored dough that is then dried and hardened. Different colors are for different things. I think purple was Christianity but I don't remember for sure. There was purple, pink, yellow, and green ones. Each color was dyed with a powder. It was cool to see. The shop had some pretty amazing paintings as well. I didn't buy any though. The workers were very adamant we buy things. It was kind of awkward.
Mars and Robyn both were a little skeptical about the motorbike thing so they followed us around in a taxi. I was a little nervous about the safety too but all the g adventure groups do this and it had been fine so I put aside my initial thought of "don't you dare get on the back of a motorbike" and just did it. I was so glad I did though. It was a really great experience. Plus, that is how most people in Vietnam get around so it was also a lesson in local transportation!
A really cool stop we made was at bunker hill. When we got here we all lined up and got to have a photo with all of us on our motorbikes together (a group photo). I didn't manage to get one on my camera so ill need to make sure I can steal one from someone else. They turned the engines on so we could honk the horns. It got pretty loud at that point. Sarah went a little horn crazy too haha. This area was forested and was on a hill overlooking the river. Aka, more beautiful landscape photos. Yey!
At the end of the tour we got to have lunch at the monastery which was actually really good. It is all vegetarian and people were a little skeptical about it but I knew the Thai vegetarian food had been good so this would probably be wonderful as well. It definitely was. I don't remember everything we had to eat now. Shoot. We definitely had the traditional Hue dish like we got at the restaurant the night before. And spring rolls. I think there was a soup. There were many dishes. They were all great.
When we got back to the hotel we had about half an hour before we had to leave for the train station. A bunch of us went out to find food for the train. We actually had the restaurant we ate at the night before come take our order for take away earlier this morning. I just got a pizza. It was a good choice for the train.
We headed to the train station for our third and final overnight train experience in Vietnam. This was supposed to be the best train of all 3 of them. The Reunification Express is supposed to be really nice.
It wasn't as nice as the first sleeper train we had, but also not as dirty as the second one we had... Thank god. The toilet didn't smell rank. It's always nice when you can use the toilet without gagging. Like really nice ha.
We had a loonng time on the train to look forward to. I think we boarded around 2:30 or 3pm. I was in a room with Mars, Saskia, and Kat. We had a good conversation. It was fun. Played cards. Talked about boys. Talked about life. Leanne came to chill with us for a while. I love Leanne. And Kat left our room and was hanging out in Andy's room. Everyone thinks they like each other. They are always around one another and seek each other out.
Everything was going really well... And then there was a lot of commotion in one of the cabins. Sarah and Charley had seen a mouse. They were freaking out. They both have legit phobias so they can't help it but it was still a little funny. The mouse was so tiny and cute. Robyn and Courtney ended up stuffing all the holes under the beds in their room. And then Sarah decided to sleep in the same bed as Charley so she would be protected. (The beds are really small so that seems kinda silly). And then Sarah ended up waking Robyn, Courtney, and Kara up in the middle of the night wanting to come back into her room. She wanted a top bunk though so the mouse couldn't get her and so Courtney had to switch beds with her. It sounded like a pretty crazy night to say the least. The mouse was in all of our rooms at one point. It really wasn't too bad.
The scenery we were passing was really beautiful as always. Vietnam is just amazing.
Ed told us that Andy had told Kat she didn't need to go back to her room and that she was sleeping there. We didn't want to be awkward and ask her about it in front of everyone so we just locked up and went to bed. Maybe half an hour later I heard Kat shouting Mars' name from the hallway. We unlocked the door for her. She thought it was silly that we thought she would sleep in Andy's cabin. She had knocked on a few doors before she found ours. Oops! We should have told her we were going to bed. We just didn't want to make it awkward if she was wanting to stay with Andy. It all worked out in the end though. Hopefully it'll be stopped at some point during the night and we will arrive later... Fingers crossed!
Random:
Since I have spent so much time with British people recently, I have noticed a lot of words that are different... Either pronunciation wise or the actual word.
Garage... They say it gaerage
Aluminum... They spell and say it aliminium.
They say pants for underwear and trousers for pants.
They call pop "fizzy drink"
A plaster is a band aid.
A torch is a flashlight.
They say keen a lot. (I'm not too keen on or I am keen on that... Like excited or down for).
Pegging it instead of booking it but maybe not the same meaning as booking it. More along the lines of a dine and dash type feeling.
For 10:30 they would say half 10.
There are so many other things. I just can't think of them off the top of my head!
In Ireland they say "a wee bit" a lot. At least Robby and Zara say it a lot. Maybe no one else.
I found out how to spell tocque (the winter hat the way Canadians refer to it). They apparently also have a game called "Iced" where you hide beers or whatever in places and if you find it you have to get down on your knees and chug the bottle or can.
10:10pm
Today was crazy.
I have never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before. Today was another first! And, it was in Vietnam... A country full of motor bikes. It isn't as crazy as India though so I don't feel overly accomplished. Definitely feel a little accomplished though. Even rode without holding on for a fair amount of time! BAMF!!!
We each got our own driver and bike and we had a tour of Hue and all the sites on the back of the motor bike. We started off at the citadel which was nice. What I ended up learning from here probably wasn't what I was supposed to actually take away... The emperor had a lot of concubines. And he lived in the palace with them by himself. Unics were allowed to live in the palace as well though to serve the emperor. Not many people were natural born unics so a lot of men volunteered. If they volunteered it meant that their family would get land and money because they were sacrificing their life to work for the emperor. They had to castrate themselves with a knife. They also kept their nuts and put them in a bag and hung them from the ceiling. When they were old and had to retire they collected their nuts again. Not related to the nuts, we also saw the oldest bank and oldest theatre in Vietnam. They are both on the palace grounds. The inside of the theater was beautiful. Like stunning. It was made of wood.
I am now writing this June 27... Epic fail.
When we entered the palace there were flower Lilies surrounding the area under the bridge. Once you walked in, there was another area with large ponds that were full of fish. Some people (Ed) chose to feed them and the fish are the Japanese fish you always see in those gardens. They're nasty when they fight for food though. Robyn was concerned for the smaller fish further away who were maybe not getting fed as much. She kept telling Ed to throw food to them. It was cute.
Our guide took us around the grounds. He was a really great guide actually. Very knowledgable and talked a lot which is rare for our guides (other than Matt and the people in Cambodia) on this trip. He was funny too. I couldn't tell when he was joking and when he was being serious though... That seems to happen a lot with the language translation aspect.
There was one point when he was taking a group photo for us and a bunch of Asian teenagers stopped and were standing there just taking pictures of us. Oh my Buddha! 21 westerners all gathered together! Definitely a photo worthy moment! No... I did get a photo of them all gathered around trying to take pictures of us. It was pretty funny.
The guide gave us a lot of information but I had a hard time hearing everything he wa saying and it's also been so long I don't remember too much anymore. The outside of the palace was actually really cool. It was kind of mosaic like but it had cracked plates and cups and such in the design. You could see it if you got up pretty close.
After that, we got back on the motorbike. You always had to get off and on from the left side. The exhaust is on the right side (when facing the bike) and you can burn yourself if you get off on that side. We could hold onto the driver if we wanted to. If I felt like I needed to, I held on to the back part of the bike behind me on the seat. Later I was told they prefer you hold onto them because you move with them and the bike. Whether or not this is true I do not know.
We then zipped on over to see the summer home for the royal family. It was nice I guess. It was just down the street from the original palace so that seemed strange. It's not like its on the beach or anything. It was made out of all wood and there were a lot of windows. Maybe it a cooler place to be? It was filled with royal trinkets and weapons. Some of the spears and knives were pretty cool looking. You had to remove your shoes and carry them in a bag with you while you walked around. Then you returned the bag once you left from a different place than where you entered.
On the motorbikes we rode over bridges and through fields and forests. It was really cool actually. We drove through villages. There were so many animals and people on the side of the road selling animals. There were a lot of ducks that I think were still alive but had their feet tied together. We went through a green field of tall grass with graves in it.
We finally made it to the Thien Mu pagoda. It was near the river which was really pretty. We walked up and around with our guide. I did a bad job of sticking around him because I was so fascinated with everything else that I just wanted to take pictures of the cool things I was seeing. Then I was annoyed I hadn't listened.
There are tall men statues at the entrance to a lot of the doors and they all had real horse hair as their mustaches. There was also a car on display that was the car that a monk drove from Hue to Saigon on June 11, 1963 to protest the discrimination of Buddhists and violation of religious freedom. Once he got to Saigon he sat down in the lotus position and burnt himself to death. That is a hard core protest... (During the Vietnam War).
Here we also saw all the monks eating (it was before noon) at a long table. They aren't allowed to talk. They also were surrounded by people in gray robes. I forget exactly what they did. I don't remember if they were monks in training or if they were there to take care of the monks. There was an area with many bonsai trees growing as well. All small ones on little table stands but it was really cool. I'm fascinates by the bonsai tree. It's so unique looking.
We went to a huge arena that was made out of brick. It was all locked up so we couldn't go inside. He said it is locked because there are still snakes inside and they are dangerous. They must not come near the edge? It was used a long time ago as an elephant-tiger fighting arena. The tigers weren't given food so the elephants always won the fights. It was good entertainment back in the day apparently. I don't think I would have liked it too much...
While we were getting back on the bikes, Lois and Charley were finding out their Uni marks. It was a little awkward because we were all sitting on the bikes and watching them. They got good marks so that was great! Andy made a joke about how they were pregnant and just getting the test results. I believed him at first too because I had no idea what was going on other than seeing the 2 girls hugging and crying and looking nervous while starring at their phones before that haha.
We rode to a little shop on the side of the road that showed us how incense sticks are made. The stick is basically rolled in colored dough that is then dried and hardened. Different colors are for different things. I think purple was Christianity but I don't remember for sure. There was purple, pink, yellow, and green ones. Each color was dyed with a powder. It was cool to see. The shop had some pretty amazing paintings as well. I didn't buy any though. The workers were very adamant we buy things. It was kind of awkward.
Mars and Robyn both were a little skeptical about the motorbike thing so they followed us around in a taxi. I was a little nervous about the safety too but all the g adventure groups do this and it had been fine so I put aside my initial thought of "don't you dare get on the back of a motorbike" and just did it. I was so glad I did though. It was a really great experience. Plus, that is how most people in Vietnam get around so it was also a lesson in local transportation!
A really cool stop we made was at bunker hill. When we got here we all lined up and got to have a photo with all of us on our motorbikes together (a group photo). I didn't manage to get one on my camera so ill need to make sure I can steal one from someone else. They turned the engines on so we could honk the horns. It got pretty loud at that point. Sarah went a little horn crazy too haha. This area was forested and was on a hill overlooking the river. Aka, more beautiful landscape photos. Yey!
At the end of the tour we got to have lunch at the monastery which was actually really good. It is all vegetarian and people were a little skeptical about it but I knew the Thai vegetarian food had been good so this would probably be wonderful as well. It definitely was. I don't remember everything we had to eat now. Shoot. We definitely had the traditional Hue dish like we got at the restaurant the night before. And spring rolls. I think there was a soup. There were many dishes. They were all great.
When we got back to the hotel we had about half an hour before we had to leave for the train station. A bunch of us went out to find food for the train. We actually had the restaurant we ate at the night before come take our order for take away earlier this morning. I just got a pizza. It was a good choice for the train.
We headed to the train station for our third and final overnight train experience in Vietnam. This was supposed to be the best train of all 3 of them. The Reunification Express is supposed to be really nice.
It wasn't as nice as the first sleeper train we had, but also not as dirty as the second one we had... Thank god. The toilet didn't smell rank. It's always nice when you can use the toilet without gagging. Like really nice ha.
We had a loonng time on the train to look forward to. I think we boarded around 2:30 or 3pm. I was in a room with Mars, Saskia, and Kat. We had a good conversation. It was fun. Played cards. Talked about boys. Talked about life. Leanne came to chill with us for a while. I love Leanne. And Kat left our room and was hanging out in Andy's room. Everyone thinks they like each other. They are always around one another and seek each other out.
Everything was going really well... And then there was a lot of commotion in one of the cabins. Sarah and Charley had seen a mouse. They were freaking out. They both have legit phobias so they can't help it but it was still a little funny. The mouse was so tiny and cute. Robyn and Courtney ended up stuffing all the holes under the beds in their room. And then Sarah decided to sleep in the same bed as Charley so she would be protected. (The beds are really small so that seems kinda silly). And then Sarah ended up waking Robyn, Courtney, and Kara up in the middle of the night wanting to come back into her room. She wanted a top bunk though so the mouse couldn't get her and so Courtney had to switch beds with her. It sounded like a pretty crazy night to say the least. The mouse was in all of our rooms at one point. It really wasn't too bad.
The scenery we were passing was really beautiful as always. Vietnam is just amazing.
Ed told us that Andy had told Kat she didn't need to go back to her room and that she was sleeping there. We didn't want to be awkward and ask her about it in front of everyone so we just locked up and went to bed. Maybe half an hour later I heard Kat shouting Mars' name from the hallway. We unlocked the door for her. She thought it was silly that we thought she would sleep in Andy's cabin. She had knocked on a few doors before she found ours. Oops! We should have told her we were going to bed. We just didn't want to make it awkward if she was wanting to stay with Andy. It all worked out in the end though. Hopefully it'll be stopped at some point during the night and we will arrive later... Fingers crossed!
Random:
Since I have spent so much time with British people recently, I have noticed a lot of words that are different... Either pronunciation wise or the actual word.
Garage... They say it gaerage
Aluminum... They spell and say it aliminium.
They say pants for underwear and trousers for pants.
They call pop "fizzy drink"
A plaster is a band aid.
A torch is a flashlight.
They say keen a lot. (I'm not too keen on or I am keen on that... Like excited or down for).
Pegging it instead of booking it but maybe not the same meaning as booking it. More along the lines of a dine and dash type feeling.
For 10:30 they would say half 10.
There are so many other things. I just can't think of them off the top of my head!
In Ireland they say "a wee bit" a lot. At least Robby and Zara say it a lot. Maybe no one else.
I found out how to spell tocque (the winter hat the way Canadians refer to it). They apparently also have a game called "Iced" where you hide beers or whatever in places and if you find it you have to get down on your knees and chug the bottle or can.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Bkk
June 24
I am writing this July 16th, so I'm sure it won't be as fresh as it would have been a few weeks ago...
I am writing this July 16th, so I'm sure it won't be as fresh as it would have been a few weeks ago...
This was our last day on tour. At this point, I was very happy to say goodbye to Melissa, but I knew I would have a difficult time saying goodbye to everyone else. Especially the 5 others (Ed, Courtney, Robyn, Sarh and Cara) who went through the whole month with me. But, we still had a long day ahead and a few people were staying past the tour end date (Sarah, Cara, Kat, Laura).
We got off the train today and it was a pretty early start, although not as early as it has been in the past. It was around 6:45am. We walked through the train station to get to the hotel and it was literally right near it and right near the metro which was really nice. We dropped our bags off in the lobby but our rooms weren't ready at that point. Matt took us back to the train station to get breakfast.
The selection was pretty slim. We pretty much all decided to go with Dunkin' Donuts. I got a tiramisu donut and a strawberry tart. They were okay. Not the most nutritious breakfast...
A little before 8am, there were security guards lining up in the middle of the train station. And then, at 8am, everyone in the whole area stood up and music started playing. There was a large golden plated photograph of the King with flowers around it that was hung on the wall of the station. Everyone faced it and the music began and everyone sang. It's the Kings song I think. It's pretty crazy though. It's sort of like a flash mob thing if you don't know what is going on... Minus the dancing and people joining in at different times. Matt said that they do this everyday in public areas at both 8am and 6pm. I really wanted to film it but I never had a chance.
Matt got a call on his cell saying the rooms were ready, so we went back to the hotel to move all our bags upstairs. We had about 40 minutes and then we met downstairs and Matt walked us down to the ferry stop so we could catch a boat that would take us around the canals to see the floating villages.
The ferry stop was not really close by any means. The boat trip was okay. Definitely not my favorite thing. Getting in and out of the boat wasn't the easiest thing in the world either. The boat is really low compared to the dock. So it's a pretty large step down. Like, almost the size of me. Also, it was really noisy because of the motor they used. Annnd, the water splashed us a fair amount which normally wouldn't be a huge deal, but that water is disgusting. There was so much garbage in it and it was a weird murky color and bleh. I definitely don't want that in and or around my mouth. Ever. It was there though. So good!
The villages were interesting to look at. They weren't really floating. They were mostly just on stilts and the back of their houses were on the canal. The composition of the houses was just kind of interesting. Picturesque. When there is a village, there has to be a market! A number of long boats came directly up to our boat. Their boats were filled with little trinkets they were trying to sell to us. None of us bought anything.
Along the river they have all these signs that say "FEED THE FISH" some even said "biggest fish on the Chao Praya river!" Unfortunately, it was 20 baht to feed the fish and we had boys in our boat. Ed and Robby both bought a loaf of bread. The fish are huge catfish. And they are gross. And like any other animal, they fight for food. Which really just meant we got splashed constantly. Also, all the fish flapping over each other is actually disgusting. Bleh!!!! Didn't enjoy that.
When we got off the boat, everyone was so stoked and had loved it. I wasn't too thrilled with it. We ride boats enough that that experience wasn't new to me like it was to the British people. I was glad I did it because it was good to see, but the water grossed me out so much I would never do it again.
After the canals, we got time to go back to the hotel to shower. That was really nice since we hasn't been able to shower the previous evening because of the sleeper train. Plus, we could wash ourselves of the nasty water from the Chao Praya river.
Next up... MATT'S WHIRLWIND TOUR OF BANGKOK! This was absolutely amazing!!! He took us on the metro which was easy to find since it was directly outside our hotel. (Hua Lamphong). To get into the station there is a security guard standing by a metal detector. You walk through the metal detector with all your stuff and obviously, the beeper goes off. So then you open your bag and they shine a light in it and wave you on. Then, you have to go up to a machine to buy your ticket. Like anywhere else. You just touch the station you want and it tells you how much to pay. You put your change or bills in (it wouldn't take new 20 bahts so you had to watch that) and then it spits out a black round plastic coin. You then wait what seems like forever, especially when there is a line of people behind you, for it to spit out your change. Then, you walk toward the entry things and hold your coin up to a pad that reads it and opens the little things to let you in. Then you just read the signs to figure out which way you want to go. Things are really well marked. At Hua Lamphong, you have to wait for the security guards to check the metro after people leave it before you can get on. The metro is super clean and its really nice actually. I don't know what New York is doing with their metro. They need to raise their standards a bit.
Matt took us out to Si Lom for lunch. I guess it's a really posh area? There were a lot of tall buildings. Before we ate, he walked us down this street... I can't remember what it was called. I know I took a photo of the street name but its on my other SD card. Basically, it was a street that Matt told us to avoid at all costs at night. I guess not only is it really expensive, but its also shady. A lot of the famous Bangkok sex shows happen here as well. There was a huge sign that said SUPER PUSSY and then the Kings flag was right in front of it. I thought that was pretty funny. I'm not sure if they filmed the Hangover 2 on this street or on Khao San or both. I'll have to watch it again when I get home to see.
Matt scoped out a place for us to eat lunch. I had pretty painful menstrual cramps and eating a bunch of rice and noodles wasn't up my alley. There was something on the menu called parfait. So I ordered that thinking it would be like yogurt with fruit and granola. And then I got a plate of chips... Er, fries. The British people love that they have converted me and Robyn and Courtney over to saying chips and crisps instead of fries and chips. We aren't as fond about it.
Well, a parfait in Thailand is not what it is at home, that's for sure. It was 3 scoops of ice cream with banana and whipped cream and chocolate sauce and sprinkles. Lol... And I got French fries. Unfortunate decision. Aside from the fact that the parfait tasted amazing and everyone was jealous of it. I definitely represented America with that lunch though. Haha. I think it also made my stomach feel a bit better cramp wise. No idea why. Probably mental.
I can't remember the exact order of events, but I believe after this we followed Matt up a set of stairs and got to take the sky train. Where we took it to, I have no idea. But the sky train has the same system as the metro except there is no security guard with a metal detector and flashlight. Instead of giving you a black coin, you get a plastic paper that is credit card sized. Instead of putting it on the scanner to get through, you have to put it in a slot and it spits it back out at you. When you leave the sky train you put it in and it takes it forever (it's the same with the metro) so you don't get to keep a souvenir from the metro or sky train.
Th sky train is also really nice. Very clean. And it's cool because you're above the city for the most part so you can see it all. In certain areas you're just going in between the sky scrapers but its still pretty cool.
When we got off the sky train, Matt put us on motorbikes. We didn't get helmets I don't think. But, it was a short trip and down a very not busy road. We were dropped off at the g adventures office. We were all pretty stoked. Matt told us it is not often groups get to visit here. On the gate outside, there was a g adventure logo and we all took our photo with it. I was short enough I could stand underneath it. Everyone thought that was pretty funny. Along the inside wall up to the house, there were all the g core values (create happiness and community, embrace the bizarre, we love changing people's lives, etc.). The g office was so nice. There was a tiny pool table in the first room with a bunch of cool furniture. Then they had some desks with computers for their work. There was a kitchen and a table to eat at. Out in the back there were rooms for the g CEOs to stay in if they need to. Apparently the house used to be owned by a family of 3 who then had a servants quarter in the back of the house. In the back there was also a ping pong table. We capitalized on that and spent some time playing around the world. I think Robby was the champion. Upstairs there was a wall that had the g logo on it and we took a group photo there. Supposedly that was passed around the g community. We all had one on our own cameras as well.
When we were sitting there talking to the staff, Julie is the big boss, we were discussing our trip. They were talking about how some of us who had gone through the full month had really done 3 g trips. So then I told them how I was doing 7 consecutive trips and which ones. They asked me what my favorite g core value was and I couldn't think of any off the top of my head because it was so much pressure! I knew create was one so I said that. It's actually create happiness and community. He left the room and a bit later came back and gave me a g Tshirt! Everyone, especially Ed, was so jealous. We had all really wanted to buy a g Tshirt. The shirts are really cool. I took a photo with the shirt on and 2 thumbs up. That was also passed around the g community.
Once we left, I was a little bummed I didn't say my favorite core value was "embrace the bizarre." Because this trip has definitely been out of my box. Comfort zone. Bizarre for sure. But the more I thought about it, the more I was happy with my choice of "create happiness and community" since that has been a large part of my trip as well. Possibly even bigger than the bizarre parts. I've met so many great people and made so many new friendships and we have formed our own little families. Also weve had the chance to go out into the local communities and see what life is like and be around the locals. So really, that was the best choice in the end.
Ed told me I should wear my g shirt to the start date of my next tour and pretend I am a CEO. It's definitely funny but I didn't want to be an ass and have everyone hate me the first day. The only reason it would be funny was because they know me and knew I wasn't actually a leader. I gave them my best practice speech, a little yolo, something about how you'll probably get sick and you'll definitely wee on yourself at some point, all the basics. We had a good laugh.
After that, Matt took us to the residence of the third king of Thailand or something like that. How we got there, I don't remember. I think we just walked. I remember walking past a large intersection area that had a huge photo of the king and I think the queen as well. It was gold plated and there were many flowers around it as well. The cars were driving under it. It was so huge. It seems unnecessary but obviously it is a different culture and country and is extemely necessary.
The third kings residence was pretty cool. Unfortunately we got there after it closed so we only got to walk around the outside of the buildings. We couldn't go inside them. It was still nice though. We took a group photo outside it. This entire time, Melissa wasn't there at all. She went off on her own and I didn't see her until I walked into the room that evening and she was asleep in the other bed.
While we were at the third kings residence there were a bunch of people in red tshirts. Apparently, there are red and yellow shirts. They represent different political parties. It's been such a long time that I'm not sure I can remember exactly the correct details, but I think the red shirts looked out more for the community than the yellow shirts. And there was some complicated politics. Maybe I'll email Matt and ask him about it again. But there is a female in office right now and I think she is a red shirt and actually brought the red back on the map because before her brother was in office and he was a yellow shirt. She was really well liked by the people and even though she has never had any experience in politics she was voted into office. So that's interesting.
We then walked to see the democracy monument. Cool to see but nothing special. Although there was something being set up right on it. Possibly some type of protest? Matt said it was really strange to see the red shirts out and it doesn't happen too often so we were lucky.
He then walked us down to Khao San road and we had about an hour to shop or do whatever we wanted. I bought something I think Aimee will like. Or at least I hope she will but well see. It was the usual Khao San road experience. I say this because I think I described it from when we had been there a month earlier. Ping pong show acts being shoved in your face on a laminated piece of plastic with the famous pop sound accompanying it, lots of food stands, shopping stalls lined up and down the road, only breaking for restaurants. They even covered the other shops and you ha to go through the stalls (tents?) to access them. We ended up meeting up at Lucky Beer Bar and walking together to dinner which was the same restaurant we ate at the first night we had been in Bangkok.
Except, we didn't really walk together... At this point Matt was already drunk so he just kept on going and wasn't looking back to make everyone was following. Saskia and I really wanted YOLO bracelets and we finally found a girl selling them. So we stopped and bought them. Robby, Zara, Kat, and Laura were with us. So then we looked up and the group was gone. We went through the place we saw them go (999west) and came out on the other side of the shopping tunnel and didn't see them still. I thought I knew how to get to the restaurant so everyone followed me but then at one point it wasn't looking familiar anymore so I walked back. Its funny though because here i am known for being really good at navigating the cities and streets. LOL. At that point, we saw Ed. I had been so close to the restaurant! I only needed to make 1 turn right where I decided it didn't look familiar anymore. So close!
Eating at the restaurant we started at the first night was a really good way to end the trip. Matt gave a beautiful speech about how great we were and how much he would miss us. Ed gave a speech. I gave a toast. It was a good last dinner. I had pad Thai and it was so tasty.
7 of us really wanted to see a ping pong show. We felt like it was necessary to experience since its something Bangkok is known for and it would be a shame to go home and say you hadn't attended a ping pong show. However, going to any old ping pong show can be very dangerous. It's a way to get tourists drunk and get them to pay a bunch of money. They rack your bill up and if you don't pay for it they beat you up when you leave. But, luckily, Matt knew this guy who owned a more tame and safe ping pong show club. He was the same man who owned this little restaurant we ate at. After dinner, we got tuk tuks to take us to this club. The tuk tuk drivers also worked under this guy who owns the restaurant, which is actually a bar (and one of the top 5 bars in the world according to one magazine).
Ed, Sarah, Cara, and I got into one tuk tuk and Kat, Bart, and Saskia got into another tuk tuk. The 3 of them shared the seat and I sat on the ground of the tuk tuk. It wasn't comfortable. And we sat like that for probably 20 minutes. Not fun haha. The tuk tuk pulled into a dark alleyway and it was super shady! At that point I was so happy to be able to stand up and get out of the tuk tuk... Until I saw where we were. Then I was like uhhh is this correct? It was a bit freaky. Then they motioned at us to walk through this door. On the other side there was a man collecting tickets (we had gotten them from the other guy).
When we got in we got a free drink ticket. We paid 600 baht to see the show ($20). Matt told us to just go in and sit down and that we could just watch it through once. Apparently, the show is about an hour or hour and a half long and it just repeats all night long from 8pm-1am. So you go in and just watch it through from when you arrive. So if you get there at act 5 then you watch through to act 5 again.
WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT THINGS COMING OUT OF OR GOING INTO GIRLS HOO HAS YOU SHOULD PROBABLY SCROLL DOWN TO WHERE I PUT MORE CAPS SAYING YOU CAN NOW READ AGAIN!
It was interesting to say the least. When we first got there we walked in to the act where the girl was blowing out birthday candles with her hoo ha. There were many more after this ha. There were acts where the girls pulled different colored long ribbons out of themselves and basically did ribbon dances with them around the poles. There was also an act where a girl pulled razor blades on a string from inside her and after she took each blade and sliced a piece of paper to show how sharp they actually were. There was one where the girl shot ping pong balls into a bucket. And one with a balloon I think. Also one where 2 girls had sex on the stage... In front of everyone.. And another one where she changed water to coke. I don't even remember all of them but yea. It was crazy.
Speaking of poles, so there was a small square stage in the middle and there were 4 poles (but not as tall as they are in the US) on each corner of the stage. They don't climb the poles either like they do at home. They pretty much just use them to dance around and for the ribbon dancing acts or the more complicated... Sex acts. And by that, I mean sex. We literally watched a man and a woman have sex on the stage. It was actually really strange at first but then they contort themselves into such crazy positions that you sort of forget you're watching people have sex and become more amazed and less uncomfortable. There were a point where the girl was in a handstand and then the guy was in a handstand with her and then he like twisted all the way around. But not twisted like spun 360 degrees. It was crazy. It wasn't a fast spin. It was very controlled. And he never once came out of her. I mean, if you're having problems in the bedroom and running out of ideas, go to Bangkok and watch a ping pong show cause that shit was crazy.
Although impressive, it was really sad to watch their demeanor. I feel like in American porn or strip clubs the girls usually seem happy to be there, or at least they put on a smile and act like they are. The girls here did not seem happy. They didn't really smile or make sexy faces or anything. They looked more bored than anything else. You could see them looking to see who was out there watching them. I'm not sure if they have a choice about working here or if they are forced into it.
I thought it was actually going to be way worse than it actually was. I am not by any means saying it was okay or that i enjoyed it. it actually made me feel a bit sick. but, Matt had prepared us for a lot worse. I really had no interest in staying to watch the show again, but I was really wondering if the same girl always had sex at the end of the show with the man or if it changed. We didn't stay to find out though even though I really wanted to know.
Kat was mortified by it. Ed said kat was constantly saying oh my god. No one else really thought it was amazing. Cara and Sarah felt really sick. I don't know how Ed and Bart felt about it. I don't think even if they liked it that they would have said they did. It was an experience to say the least.
When in Bangkok...
YOU CAN CONTINUE READING FROM HERE NOW!
After the ping pong show, we went to meet Matt and the rest of the group on Khao San road again at the Lucky Beer bar. Robby, Zara, Laura, Courtney, Robyn and I all shared a beer tower. Then we called it a night, said goodbye to Matt and everyone who was leaving in the early morning, and headed back to the hotel.
It was really sad saying goodbye to people. This group has been such an amazing group of people and we were all good friends. I cried when I said bye to Matt. It's always nerve wracking to me when I realize that I am on my own and having my CEO who was always looking out for me leave me is always a little scary.
Luckily, I have a few more days where people will still be around so I won't have to conquer Bangkok on my own for a few more days still...
On the way back, Bart was really angry no one wanted to go out. Him and Saskia were going to go but most people were heading back and they didn't really want to be alone with drunk Matt because he gets a little creepy sometimes. Bart was really angry though because he wanted to party with everyone on our last evening together. It was hard to do this though since a lot of people had to get up early. Ed had an early morning flight and had to leave the hotel at 5am. Kat and I had to be at Flight of the Gibbons so we needed to get up around 7am. So, none of us wanted to do any of that on a hangover.
When I got back to the room, Melissa was already asleep, which I was expecting to be the case because she was suppose to share a cab with Ed to the airport in the morning. I was kinda pissed off when I got back though because the room had garbage all over it. Empty water bottles, wrappers from food, it's like the girl doesn't know how to use a garbage can. She still wasn't putting her toilet paper in the bin. Then, I went to go to bed and her dirty towel was sprawled all over my bed! So annoyed. I was so happy she was leaving in 4 hours.
Well, at 5:10am, there was a knock on the door and I was confused. I wasn't sure if it was a knock or what was going on. But it kept happening so I got up and opened the door. Ed was standing there wondering if Melissa was still in the room. I told him she wasn't here and his jaw just dropped. He couldn't believe it. He actually came in the room to make sure I was telling the truth. Melissa had left for the airport without Ed. Since Ed was planning on splitting a cab, he didn't have enough money. He awkwardly asked for 100 baht and I couldn't not give it to him (and really it's only $3) so I got some for him. I gave him a hug and he left. I was so angry at Melissa already and then she just flat out was rude as hell as left without Ed. I wasnt necessarily angry i gave ed money but i was mad i had to do it because she was blatantly rude toward other people again. I messaged her on Facebook and was actually really nice but told her that she kinda screwed Ed over by leaving without him. I even wished her safe travels and told her good luck on her move to London and to have fun with her travels around Europe. I wasn't really expecting a response back but she did answer and it was rude. She just messaged back that she couldn't wait forever and that it would have benefited her to share a cab as well. Then she said they hadn't agreed on a time. This really made me angry because they had and she had talked about sharing a cab with him for the past 3 days AND Ed came upstairs looking for her an she didn't even try to find him before she left. But I just left it. She has actually defriended me on Facebook now and removed herself from our indochina Facebook group. Which really is fine with me because she really is one of the rudest people I have ever met. Good riddance, Melissa!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Halong Bay
June 12
Unfortunately, our overnight train arrived on the dot at 4:15am. (I am writing this on June 23, so I don't know how well I will be able to remember everything. Sorry I'm so behind. It's just 3 posts and the rest are written. Unfortunately, it is 3 posts in the middle of the trip... And I'm not having an easy time catching up and keeping up!) We then met our guide and loaded onto a bus to make the 4 hour trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay.
Halong Bay is supposed to be stunningly beautiful. It is a series of around 1,969 limestone islands. You just hear everyone rave about it and talk about how beautiful it is. I was so excited to go.
When we arrived at the hotel around 9am we had to wait for our rooms because they were not yet ready. As always, we paid for the breakfast buffet and spent our time eating and surfing the Internet.
When our rooms were ready, Kat and I were rooming together, we went up. The rooms were really nice actually and there was an amazing view overlooking the beach front and you could see some islands rising from the water. Kat and I had a really good chat. It's really nice when you can sit down with someone and just talk about things. It's kinda like I'm back at home with my good friends chillin.
After a good hour or two break, we met the group downstairs at 11:30am to head to our boat trip. Even though we were on the beach we had to drive for about 20 minutes to get to the actual pier we were departing from. When we arrived there there were magnificent boats lining the dock. We boarded one named Halong Dream.
The islands really are pretty amazing. It's breath taking actually when you first see it. I couldn't stop taking pictures. It's so cool. And there are all these different islands closer and further away. The sky is painted in layers. It kind of looks like you are having double vision or having trouble focusing your eyes because there are so many and you can't tell which ones are which and they are all separate but run together. That is probably a horrible description but I really have no idea how else to describe it. They are a mixture of dark and light stone but there are green plants growing on them as well. You can see parts toward the bottom of the stone/near the water where the stone has been weathered away more. It's like it has been squeezed in around the bottom.
Within the first 10 minutes of being on the boat we were served lunch. It was amazon food. We had fresh crab cakes served in a crab shell, fresh shrimp (fully intact), fresh calamari (not as fried as it is at home), fresh fish (I don't remember what kind now but Kat did a pretty spectacular job of deboning that bad boy), some rice, and some spring rolls. We were also served a plate of fries to share which surprised me. The food was all really fresh and tasted amazing.
We stopped the boat and released the anchor in one area. We were all able to get off and kayak around the islands which I was pumped about. All the kayaks were 2 person kayaks and Robyn and Courtney were already going together which meant I would have to go with someone who hasn't kayaked before. I didn't care too much. I teamed up with Kat and for not kayaking she was actually pretty good at it! I took the back so I could steer us. We got in and out of the kayak from a floating dock and 2 men held the kayak steady so we didn't flip it.
We got to kayak around the islands and inside caves. The caves weren't closed, but there were small areas where the rocks had opened up so you could kayak through into a smaller bay like area. It was gorgeous. It was so cool to have these huge islands towering over you. It was a really different view point being on the water in a kayak than being on the water in a boat. I think I actually preferred the kayak experience. It just seemed much more real when you could get up close to them and from the boat it was like a dream floating through this really picturesque land.
There are some people who live out there on floating boats. Or at least I think they live there. There were a lot of dogs. None of the dogs swam that we saw. They just sat there and barked at us. Each house was really colorful and had at least one boat. Many locals were fishing. There was a lady bathing herself. She was literally naked on the back of her boat with her dog. She was in a rather unfortunate place to be naked though. Since most of the group didn't know how to kayak, we had some bumper boat issues. Anndd this was one of the times. We had to squeeze between this ladies boat and some rocks from a nearby island. There was a kayak jam with 4 of our kayaks and this lady was just bathing right there. She didn't seem to care but Andy was all about it. He was yelling out to people to take her photo and that she was naked. I really hope she doesn't understand English. It was comical to say the least.
We also each had a chance to kayak through a little tiny opening in one of the islands. This island is pictured on the back of the 200,000 dong. I don't know if it has a name or not. The hole looks pretty manageable but as you get closer you realize how small it actually is. It's so small that its hard to kayak while you're inside it. Kat and I did a pretty good job going through it though compared to some of the other pairs we saw go through. We only hit the side with our paddles a few times. Many people got stuck in there.
After kayaking (lots of racing, splash fights... mostly between Ed and Kat, laughing, etc.) we boarded the boat again and we saw the kissing rocks... a rock formation that is a famous representation for Halong Bay. It is 2 rocks with a small space between them and it is kind of triangular shaped as a whole.
We also went to the Dong Thien Cung caves. These caves are supposed to be the most beautiful (but I'm not sure if its in Vietnam or Halong Bay). I also think it translates to something about the Heaven Cave. The cave is pretty big. There is a lot of it to walk through. We had to climb a lot if stairs to get to the cave entrance and then there were stairs within the cave as well as to leave the cave. The cave is all lit up with different colored lights and that displays the rock formations rather well. There is also an area where there is an opening to the outside. The way the light enters the hole is amazing. It's pretty much how you picture heaven with the streams of white light coming in. A lot of people said that they thought the colored lights took away from the caves natural beauty and made it seem touristy. (I didn't really agree with this until after we were in the cave while trekking in Vang Vieng).
After the caves, and a lot of pictures (Ed had a butterfly land on his finger when posing for a photo), we headed back to the junk boat. We spent the time on the way back on the top of the boat sun bathing, taking photos, and soaking in the stunning views. Seriously, so amazing.
We got back to the hotel and Kat and I had another nice chat. A big group of us met for drinks to see the sunset at 6pm. We wanted to find a rooftop bar and Al had looked up a place that wasn't too far away according to google maps. We set off (Ed, Kara, Sarah, Lois, Charley, Al, Leanne, Kat, Saskia, Mars, and I) to find it.
We didn't make it too far... We knew it was at a 4 star hotel so we went to the closest, nicest looking hotel near us. They didn't have a rooftop bar. And the bar we were looking for was a 10 minute drive down the road. So, we changed plans and went to sit on the beach and drink a cocktail. Drinks seemed tense. Leanne noticed it too. But of course, Mars was there ordering ribs for a predinner snack. She was starving and put the order in right away but didn't end up ever getting them. My cocktail was strange. It was yogurt like and had little jello squares in it. It was pretty good though.
We were meeting for dinner as a group and we wandered off to find Matt. He was sipping a beer on the side of the road in a restaurant. He told us all the prices had gone up a lot and the pizza place may be our cheapest option. We walked up the street to see if we could agree on a place and just ended up settling on the pizza. I sat by Courtney, Robyn, and Ed and Ed was trying to bet Courtney in Laotian kip but Courtney didn't know the exchange rate so it was pretty funny. Ed offered 1 million kip which is around 125,000$ and Courtney refused... To be fair though, in Vietnam that would only be $50.
After dinner I went back to the hotel with Courtney and Robyn and we just chilled in the room. They're really sweet girls and its fun to talk to them. It's nice to have them around as well since we are literally surrounded by British people. I think it will be nice to get a few new people although I am sad to see certain people leave. The group dynamics aren't as great as they were for the Cambodia trip.
Overall, Halong Bay is beautiful. The streets of the town are really touristy though. Prices are a bit higher too which isn't my favorite.
Unfortunately, our overnight train arrived on the dot at 4:15am. (I am writing this on June 23, so I don't know how well I will be able to remember everything. Sorry I'm so behind. It's just 3 posts and the rest are written. Unfortunately, it is 3 posts in the middle of the trip... And I'm not having an easy time catching up and keeping up!) We then met our guide and loaded onto a bus to make the 4 hour trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay.
Halong Bay is supposed to be stunningly beautiful. It is a series of around 1,969 limestone islands. You just hear everyone rave about it and talk about how beautiful it is. I was so excited to go.
When we arrived at the hotel around 9am we had to wait for our rooms because they were not yet ready. As always, we paid for the breakfast buffet and spent our time eating and surfing the Internet.
When our rooms were ready, Kat and I were rooming together, we went up. The rooms were really nice actually and there was an amazing view overlooking the beach front and you could see some islands rising from the water. Kat and I had a really good chat. It's really nice when you can sit down with someone and just talk about things. It's kinda like I'm back at home with my good friends chillin.
After a good hour or two break, we met the group downstairs at 11:30am to head to our boat trip. Even though we were on the beach we had to drive for about 20 minutes to get to the actual pier we were departing from. When we arrived there there were magnificent boats lining the dock. We boarded one named Halong Dream.
The islands really are pretty amazing. It's breath taking actually when you first see it. I couldn't stop taking pictures. It's so cool. And there are all these different islands closer and further away. The sky is painted in layers. It kind of looks like you are having double vision or having trouble focusing your eyes because there are so many and you can't tell which ones are which and they are all separate but run together. That is probably a horrible description but I really have no idea how else to describe it. They are a mixture of dark and light stone but there are green plants growing on them as well. You can see parts toward the bottom of the stone/near the water where the stone has been weathered away more. It's like it has been squeezed in around the bottom.
Within the first 10 minutes of being on the boat we were served lunch. It was amazon food. We had fresh crab cakes served in a crab shell, fresh shrimp (fully intact), fresh calamari (not as fried as it is at home), fresh fish (I don't remember what kind now but Kat did a pretty spectacular job of deboning that bad boy), some rice, and some spring rolls. We were also served a plate of fries to share which surprised me. The food was all really fresh and tasted amazing.
We stopped the boat and released the anchor in one area. We were all able to get off and kayak around the islands which I was pumped about. All the kayaks were 2 person kayaks and Robyn and Courtney were already going together which meant I would have to go with someone who hasn't kayaked before. I didn't care too much. I teamed up with Kat and for not kayaking she was actually pretty good at it! I took the back so I could steer us. We got in and out of the kayak from a floating dock and 2 men held the kayak steady so we didn't flip it.
We got to kayak around the islands and inside caves. The caves weren't closed, but there were small areas where the rocks had opened up so you could kayak through into a smaller bay like area. It was gorgeous. It was so cool to have these huge islands towering over you. It was a really different view point being on the water in a kayak than being on the water in a boat. I think I actually preferred the kayak experience. It just seemed much more real when you could get up close to them and from the boat it was like a dream floating through this really picturesque land.
There are some people who live out there on floating boats. Or at least I think they live there. There were a lot of dogs. None of the dogs swam that we saw. They just sat there and barked at us. Each house was really colorful and had at least one boat. Many locals were fishing. There was a lady bathing herself. She was literally naked on the back of her boat with her dog. She was in a rather unfortunate place to be naked though. Since most of the group didn't know how to kayak, we had some bumper boat issues. Anndd this was one of the times. We had to squeeze between this ladies boat and some rocks from a nearby island. There was a kayak jam with 4 of our kayaks and this lady was just bathing right there. She didn't seem to care but Andy was all about it. He was yelling out to people to take her photo and that she was naked. I really hope she doesn't understand English. It was comical to say the least.
We also each had a chance to kayak through a little tiny opening in one of the islands. This island is pictured on the back of the 200,000 dong. I don't know if it has a name or not. The hole looks pretty manageable but as you get closer you realize how small it actually is. It's so small that its hard to kayak while you're inside it. Kat and I did a pretty good job going through it though compared to some of the other pairs we saw go through. We only hit the side with our paddles a few times. Many people got stuck in there.
After kayaking (lots of racing, splash fights... mostly between Ed and Kat, laughing, etc.) we boarded the boat again and we saw the kissing rocks... a rock formation that is a famous representation for Halong Bay. It is 2 rocks with a small space between them and it is kind of triangular shaped as a whole.
We also went to the Dong Thien Cung caves. These caves are supposed to be the most beautiful (but I'm not sure if its in Vietnam or Halong Bay). I also think it translates to something about the Heaven Cave. The cave is pretty big. There is a lot of it to walk through. We had to climb a lot if stairs to get to the cave entrance and then there were stairs within the cave as well as to leave the cave. The cave is all lit up with different colored lights and that displays the rock formations rather well. There is also an area where there is an opening to the outside. The way the light enters the hole is amazing. It's pretty much how you picture heaven with the streams of white light coming in. A lot of people said that they thought the colored lights took away from the caves natural beauty and made it seem touristy. (I didn't really agree with this until after we were in the cave while trekking in Vang Vieng).
After the caves, and a lot of pictures (Ed had a butterfly land on his finger when posing for a photo), we headed back to the junk boat. We spent the time on the way back on the top of the boat sun bathing, taking photos, and soaking in the stunning views. Seriously, so amazing.
We got back to the hotel and Kat and I had another nice chat. A big group of us met for drinks to see the sunset at 6pm. We wanted to find a rooftop bar and Al had looked up a place that wasn't too far away according to google maps. We set off (Ed, Kara, Sarah, Lois, Charley, Al, Leanne, Kat, Saskia, Mars, and I) to find it.
We didn't make it too far... We knew it was at a 4 star hotel so we went to the closest, nicest looking hotel near us. They didn't have a rooftop bar. And the bar we were looking for was a 10 minute drive down the road. So, we changed plans and went to sit on the beach and drink a cocktail. Drinks seemed tense. Leanne noticed it too. But of course, Mars was there ordering ribs for a predinner snack. She was starving and put the order in right away but didn't end up ever getting them. My cocktail was strange. It was yogurt like and had little jello squares in it. It was pretty good though.
We were meeting for dinner as a group and we wandered off to find Matt. He was sipping a beer on the side of the road in a restaurant. He told us all the prices had gone up a lot and the pizza place may be our cheapest option. We walked up the street to see if we could agree on a place and just ended up settling on the pizza. I sat by Courtney, Robyn, and Ed and Ed was trying to bet Courtney in Laotian kip but Courtney didn't know the exchange rate so it was pretty funny. Ed offered 1 million kip which is around 125,000$ and Courtney refused... To be fair though, in Vietnam that would only be $50.
After dinner I went back to the hotel with Courtney and Robyn and we just chilled in the room. They're really sweet girls and its fun to talk to them. It's nice to have them around as well since we are literally surrounded by British people. I think it will be nice to get a few new people although I am sad to see certain people leave. The group dynamics aren't as great as they were for the Cambodia trip.
Overall, Halong Bay is beautiful. The streets of the town are really touristy though. Prices are a bit higher too which isn't my favorite.
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