Tomorrow i leave Laos and head out to Thailand having had to curtail my trip somewhat due to the fact i have to collect my passport from the Myanmar embassy in the capital Vientiane. I'm kind of a bit gutted at not being able to make it to the really far north of Laos especially as the whole effort for Myanmar could be wasted if there election goes to pot.
The last two weeks have taken some getting used to as the pace of life here is something to be seen to be believed. It wasn't helped in the beginning as my first introduction to Laos was waiting for an age at the side of the road for a connecting bus after having to pay extra (bribe) to officials in order to get into the country. Starving i make it to the beautiful island of Don Det in the middle of the Mekong where josh and i obtained a river front bungalow complete with balcony and hammock. The view was immense and lying listening to the sounds of the river, beer in hand is what Laos is all about. You soon realise that nothing happens quickly especially food as we were left waiting 1 hour for fried rice which is normally the fastest thing on the menu. We thought this might just be the nature of the island but no its the same absolutely everywhere. It might sound like the perfect place but honestly its gone too far in the opposite direction, its nice for a few days but when you have a limited time frame its frustrating. Its rare that anyone can summon the energy to get out of their hammock let alone get around to driving the bus!!
Anyways we met two dutch girls and two aussies on the bus over the border from cambodia and the next couple of days we spent riding around our island as well as the neighbouring Don Khong which has some jungle trails and a pretty cool waterfall. Following this Josh and i parted ways which was wierd as it is by far the longest time i have ever spent travelling with anybody on the whole trip. After six months of meeting new people every couple of days it was nice to have a permanent fixture rather than being bored or having to seek out somebody to talk to. Fortunately the two aussies louis and jesse were heading the same way as me and we grabbed a bus up to the Bolaven plateau which towers over the south of Laos. Some of the best coffee in the world comes from up here and it was pretty good, especially accompanying the view from our bungalow overlooking the tad lo waterfall. Theres not a great deal to do on the plateau although we did manage to do a days hike through some thick jungle in a national park that has tigers although not suprisingly we didnt see them. The buses in laos really arnt cheap at all so we resorted to hitch hiking something none of us had tried before. Little tip for laos: if you can, hitch everywhere, we never waited for longer than 10 minutes and everyone was really friendly. Also theres not much better than watching a laos sunset from the flatbed of a yute.
Having already spent two nights in the dirty, seedy hole that is paxong (we stayed in a guesthouse/brothel jokes) we grabbed what turned out to be a austin powers meets pimp my ride nightbus to Vientiane. The bus was ridiculous with neon lights, padded leather interior and double beds, although we didnt find the swimming pool. Vientiane is a city of 200,000 people and with nothing to see so we left the next day nursing sore heads and with me having to alter my plans to collect my passport one week later.
From there we went to Vang Vieng the tubing place which was really not my cup of tea at all so i left the aussies to it and headed to Luang Phabang 7 hours away. The setting is pretty incredible and considering how long it took to get there i was surprised as it appeared to be a retirement village of expats. Anyway it provided one of the best sunsets i have ever seen from the temple on the top of a hill, as well as a waterfall complete with rope swing. Kuang si waterfall is amazing as it is pretty spectacular but it also forms pools of crystal clear water which you can swim in. Save from being attacked by leeches on the way there and then being bitten by fish in the pool it was a great day out although i had to cut it short having not fancied the 10 hour night bus which would have given me no sleep at all.
So the flooded north of Thailand awaits tomorrow where i have to collect as many brand new dollars as i can (Myanmar has no atms) before flying into Yangon on the 5th. There are regular power outages in Myanmar and little or no internet in most places so this could be the last blog in a while. Also the election (first one in two decades under the military junta) is on the 7th which could spell disaster for a prolonged stay in the country if as i expect they don't accept the result. I just have to wait and see.
Hope everyone's well and look forward to seeing a couple of you at least in Oz in just over a month!!
Thursday 28 October 2010
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Shambodia
I spent a total of 9 days in cambodia and despite the glowing reports i had heard beforehand i didnt find anything of great interest with probably the least friendly money grabbing people i have ever met thrown in. Crossing the border from vietnam and going from tarmac to knee deep mud gave me an inkling into what lay ahead.
Crossing the border turned out to be much more simple than expected and the earlier problems with the bikes for the time being seemed to have resolved themselves. Our first port of call was Kampot, described in lonely planet as a charming river town with excellent backdrop of the local mountains and amazing pepper. Maybe they should rewrite this as what the two of us found was anything but charming and the scenery left alot to be desired. I have never before entered a guesthouse or anywhere else for that matter where every resident is over 55 and single male. Lets be honest its well documented why they are here. As i saw it written on one guide "Cambodia has two attractions Angkor Wat and Lawlessness." Basically if you have the means to back it up you can do anything you want and no-one cares in the slightest. After 5 weeks of warm smiles from very welcoming people in vietnam, cambodia was a bit of a shock. As soon as we stopped we were surrounded by people begging, but begging forcefully demanding money. This led to us beating a hasty retreat and meant we were sorely tempted not to rest anywhere as our second stop yielded the same result.
I understand that cambodia is a developing country and all the rest of it but Laos and vietnam seem to manage where cambodia doesnt. We took off the next morning chased out by the rats in the room and headed to the capital. The main road from Kampot to the capital Pnomh Penh was an experience i dont really ever want to repeat. 160km of single track road covered in loose gravel, and clouds of dust flung up by the trucks that come hurtling by. It could well have been the least pleasant day ever spent on a bike ever. After reaching Pnomh Penh 10 hours later it was just a relief as the worst of it was over and the ruts and potholes hadnt completely destroyed the bikes.
The capital was pretty much empty due to a festival, and the wide immaculately paved boulevards were empty. Literally no atmosphere whatsoever, as every building is either a ministry, department, institute or some other arm of the government. All these buildings are huge and beautifully designed but i just cant understand why they didnt spend it on something more useful.
There are three main tourist attractions in Cambodia, two of which are in Pnomh Penh and these are where we spent our time visiting. These are both unfortunately also two genocide museums relating to Pol Pot and his mental Khmer Rouge regime. His ideas of turning cambodia into an agrarian utopia turned foul and ended up in the slaughter of 2 million citizens at various death camps(cambodia at the time only had a population of 8 million). The first museum was the biggest prison in cambodia which was essentially a converted high school. There wasnt a great deal to see but walls of portrait photos of faces of men, women and children was pretty harrowing as only 7 people ever survived being sent there. The next stop was the Killing fields where the murders and burials took place. The field is dominated by a pillar containing all the bones and clothers of over 8000 people dug up from the surrounding pits. Its not great to see and pretty depressing especially as it was only 40 years ago and most of the old people all lived through it.
Two days was plenty in Pnomh Penh as there is nothing else to do and anything other than the three or four main streets were pretty gross. This meant that our final journey with the bikes was about to begin, the 330km ride to Siem Reap and Angkor wat. I was pretty excited about seeing the temples as everyone i have spoken to said it was amazing and it would be a great finish for this part of the trip on the bikes. The road to Siem Reap turned out to be pretty good although for large parts Josh was limping along at 40kph as his bike seemed to fill up with water everytime it rained. Siem Reap is a pretty nice place to hang out although is built solely for the hoards of tourists. Unfortunately we found out motorbikes are banned from the temples so that first evening i sold mine to some guys outside the hotel for $60. I just wanted a quick sale. A congratulatory drink followed although i think both of us were pretty gutted about losing our independence and the fact that the most amazing month had come to a close.
Its the wet season now in cambodia and the next few days disappeared in torrential rain storms with the water in the streets coming up to our knees as the river burst its banks. We managed a day trip on push bikes to angkor and i will say it is pretty cool but theres just so many temples. We did maybe 15 temples in a 10 hour day and for me that was plenty as they really are that much different from each other, plus the exceedingly pushy people selling tat are so so irritating it just ruins the experience.
By now i was pretty fed up with cambodia and was looking forward to leaving. We had to take the bus to Kratie which is over the other side of the country in order to connect to a bus the next morning that would take us onto Laos. I had forgotten how much hassle public transport here involves and it wasnt helped by the fact that we paid for a VIP bus but ended up being dumped off at the local bus station. We then had to change after being assured that we wouldnt have to, and then when to top it all off that bus didnt show we had to grab the crappiest minibus you have ever seen. The 6 hour journey turned into a nightmare 10 and we only just had time to grab a boat out to see the river dolphins before it got dark. There are only 70 irawaddy dolphins left in the mekong and it is reconned that they will be extinct in the next couple of years. It was pretty nice watching them in the mekong which is currently at full flood and the sunset over the surrounding jungle was immense. This brought the end to what i can only describe as a really disappointing stay in cambodia and am now in Laos. Its still really wet here, bring on november and the dry season!!!
Crossing the border turned out to be much more simple than expected and the earlier problems with the bikes for the time being seemed to have resolved themselves. Our first port of call was Kampot, described in lonely planet as a charming river town with excellent backdrop of the local mountains and amazing pepper. Maybe they should rewrite this as what the two of us found was anything but charming and the scenery left alot to be desired. I have never before entered a guesthouse or anywhere else for that matter where every resident is over 55 and single male. Lets be honest its well documented why they are here. As i saw it written on one guide "Cambodia has two attractions Angkor Wat and Lawlessness." Basically if you have the means to back it up you can do anything you want and no-one cares in the slightest. After 5 weeks of warm smiles from very welcoming people in vietnam, cambodia was a bit of a shock. As soon as we stopped we were surrounded by people begging, but begging forcefully demanding money. This led to us beating a hasty retreat and meant we were sorely tempted not to rest anywhere as our second stop yielded the same result.
I understand that cambodia is a developing country and all the rest of it but Laos and vietnam seem to manage where cambodia doesnt. We took off the next morning chased out by the rats in the room and headed to the capital. The main road from Kampot to the capital Pnomh Penh was an experience i dont really ever want to repeat. 160km of single track road covered in loose gravel, and clouds of dust flung up by the trucks that come hurtling by. It could well have been the least pleasant day ever spent on a bike ever. After reaching Pnomh Penh 10 hours later it was just a relief as the worst of it was over and the ruts and potholes hadnt completely destroyed the bikes.
The capital was pretty much empty due to a festival, and the wide immaculately paved boulevards were empty. Literally no atmosphere whatsoever, as every building is either a ministry, department, institute or some other arm of the government. All these buildings are huge and beautifully designed but i just cant understand why they didnt spend it on something more useful.
There are three main tourist attractions in Cambodia, two of which are in Pnomh Penh and these are where we spent our time visiting. These are both unfortunately also two genocide museums relating to Pol Pot and his mental Khmer Rouge regime. His ideas of turning cambodia into an agrarian utopia turned foul and ended up in the slaughter of 2 million citizens at various death camps(cambodia at the time only had a population of 8 million). The first museum was the biggest prison in cambodia which was essentially a converted high school. There wasnt a great deal to see but walls of portrait photos of faces of men, women and children was pretty harrowing as only 7 people ever survived being sent there. The next stop was the Killing fields where the murders and burials took place. The field is dominated by a pillar containing all the bones and clothers of over 8000 people dug up from the surrounding pits. Its not great to see and pretty depressing especially as it was only 40 years ago and most of the old people all lived through it.
Two days was plenty in Pnomh Penh as there is nothing else to do and anything other than the three or four main streets were pretty gross. This meant that our final journey with the bikes was about to begin, the 330km ride to Siem Reap and Angkor wat. I was pretty excited about seeing the temples as everyone i have spoken to said it was amazing and it would be a great finish for this part of the trip on the bikes. The road to Siem Reap turned out to be pretty good although for large parts Josh was limping along at 40kph as his bike seemed to fill up with water everytime it rained. Siem Reap is a pretty nice place to hang out although is built solely for the hoards of tourists. Unfortunately we found out motorbikes are banned from the temples so that first evening i sold mine to some guys outside the hotel for $60. I just wanted a quick sale. A congratulatory drink followed although i think both of us were pretty gutted about losing our independence and the fact that the most amazing month had come to a close.
Its the wet season now in cambodia and the next few days disappeared in torrential rain storms with the water in the streets coming up to our knees as the river burst its banks. We managed a day trip on push bikes to angkor and i will say it is pretty cool but theres just so many temples. We did maybe 15 temples in a 10 hour day and for me that was plenty as they really are that much different from each other, plus the exceedingly pushy people selling tat are so so irritating it just ruins the experience.
By now i was pretty fed up with cambodia and was looking forward to leaving. We had to take the bus to Kratie which is over the other side of the country in order to connect to a bus the next morning that would take us onto Laos. I had forgotten how much hassle public transport here involves and it wasnt helped by the fact that we paid for a VIP bus but ended up being dumped off at the local bus station. We then had to change after being assured that we wouldnt have to, and then when to top it all off that bus didnt show we had to grab the crappiest minibus you have ever seen. The 6 hour journey turned into a nightmare 10 and we only just had time to grab a boat out to see the river dolphins before it got dark. There are only 70 irawaddy dolphins left in the mekong and it is reconned that they will be extinct in the next couple of years. It was pretty nice watching them in the mekong which is currently at full flood and the sunset over the surrounding jungle was immense. This brought the end to what i can only describe as a really disappointing stay in cambodia and am now in Laos. Its still really wet here, bring on november and the dry season!!!
Friday 8 October 2010
Keeping the fat lady at bay
A hell of alot has happened since last i wrote in dalat. We have navigated our way through Ho Chi Minh city accross the ferries and waterways of the mekong delta and over the border to Cambodia. All this in two utterly exhausting weeks, but ones that will live with me forever.
Dalat was a bit of a let down and sucked to be honest, there was really nothing to do at all and three days were more than enough. I was pretty glad to see the back of it as we returned to the coast and the fishing village of Mui ne. This place is the up and coming beach resort in vietnam but to be fair it was nothing to write home about. We found an ok place on the beach went out for some beers in an overly priced bar and generally complained about there being too many other foreigners. To be honest we have become travelling snobs, as with a motorbike it actually seems like and adventure rather than a holiday. Mui ne was good for two nights as we managed to get a look at the famous sand dunes which were cool almost like a few square miles of the sahara. On leaving Mui ne time was of the essence as Josh only had one more week left on his visa, which meant we had to do Ho Chi Minh, the delta and Phu Quoc island in this time.
I was dreading riding to Ho Chi Minh due to one of the quirks of my bike being i cant get it in to neutral so it stalls all the time. A city of 7 million people and hundreds of traffic lights was going to be fun. To be fair i only stalled 3 times on getting into the centre and it really wasnt as bad as i thought or that may be because i am now used to vietnamese traffic and the way the roads work here. I had been to Ho Chi Minh before and wasnt fussed about any of the sights, but took a walk anyway and went to the Museum of American War Crimes. Catchy title and a nice biased look at everything that went on. The photo gallery was amazing but the rest take it or leave it, pretty much the same as most museums you see. We had planned to go out to Cu Chi tunnels but as time wears on you long for a day of doing nothing which is pretty much what we did. Read a book in the park, practiced english with some students and drank some coffee to avoid the heavy afternoon rain.
Two nights was plenty especially as we had annoyed the hotel owner by insisting our bikes did not live on the street. We were both really excited about the next few days as neither of us had ever ventured into a region like the delta before. First day 90km to Ben tre. Easy we thought have a lie in, breakfast and head out around 10am. At 10am the heaviest rainshower ever starts so we are delayed by an hour, then the road gets a bit rough and my bike dies and we head to a mechanic. After Hoi an my bike had been great and joshs had been the problem as his chain amongst other things were causing him to take regular stops. Today was my turn and what a day. In total we completed 70km in 7 hours, arrived in the dark and i had spent nearly 10 quid in mechanics which comparative for vietnam is a truck load. I hate riding in the dark here and this sucked big time as we didnt even make it to Ben tre. I was seriously considering binning the whole thing as it had been an awful day.
Fortunately there is always the next day and it was joshs turn again although the problems were not too extensive and we did see a few of the islands in the delta as well as taking in the lush jungle and coconut plantations. There are no sign posts in the delta and we had to guess our way which ended in a 60km dead end road. It was soon to get dark so we had to ride 160km flat out along narrow roads, over tiny bridges barely wide enough to walk over and avoid the other hazards that litter the roads. Up to this point i hadnt really considered how dangerous the bike riding would be but we saw a proper accident for the first time which also resulted in my first dead body. In vietnam every year 70,000 people are killed on the roads which is over 200 a day. This is a crazy stat and seeing that really messed me up for the rest of the day. Fortunately the run into Can Tho went over a really amazing suspension bridge at sunset which was stunning and helped me put the days events behind me. Like with dog i am willing to try most things and here we had a buffet dinner of snake, frog and wait for it rat. Rat honest to god is amazing it doesnt taste like chicken its 10 times better!!
A really early morning start got us from Can Tho to Rach Gia intime for us to unwittingly ride into the biggest festival of the year. The place was boiling hot and absolutely crazy with people everywhere, which meant it took at least an hour to navigate through the small town to the ferry terminal. We wanted to take our bikes with us and had an infuriating few hours being told we could then couldnt take our bikes. Eventually for a ridiculous price we made it to the paradise island of Phu Quoc. I was totaly ready to unwind but joshs bike messed up straight after the ferry and this time the mechanics couldnt help. It seemed to right itself the next day but died again while pottering around the island. We were both gutted as it really looked like this was it. We got somebody to come and buy our bikes the next day as i didnt really want to ride on on my own as it wouldnt be as good. But miracles do happen and before the guy arrived josh went crazy at his bike and somehow it started working again. So relieved!! I havent really considered what i will do post bike and i dont really want to either until it is really necessary.
Fortunately we were back in business enjoyed a nice day on the beach and then headed back to the mainland and the cambodian border. We had done alot of research on crossing the border and had heard something differnt from everyone, from putting money in the passport to just sneaking accross. We decided on the honest option and had no problems whatsoever. So far the only issue has been the complete and utter state that cambodia is in. I will write about that in the next one but safe to say im looking forward to leaving and ive only been here a day!
Dalat was a bit of a let down and sucked to be honest, there was really nothing to do at all and three days were more than enough. I was pretty glad to see the back of it as we returned to the coast and the fishing village of Mui ne. This place is the up and coming beach resort in vietnam but to be fair it was nothing to write home about. We found an ok place on the beach went out for some beers in an overly priced bar and generally complained about there being too many other foreigners. To be honest we have become travelling snobs, as with a motorbike it actually seems like and adventure rather than a holiday. Mui ne was good for two nights as we managed to get a look at the famous sand dunes which were cool almost like a few square miles of the sahara. On leaving Mui ne time was of the essence as Josh only had one more week left on his visa, which meant we had to do Ho Chi Minh, the delta and Phu Quoc island in this time.
I was dreading riding to Ho Chi Minh due to one of the quirks of my bike being i cant get it in to neutral so it stalls all the time. A city of 7 million people and hundreds of traffic lights was going to be fun. To be fair i only stalled 3 times on getting into the centre and it really wasnt as bad as i thought or that may be because i am now used to vietnamese traffic and the way the roads work here. I had been to Ho Chi Minh before and wasnt fussed about any of the sights, but took a walk anyway and went to the Museum of American War Crimes. Catchy title and a nice biased look at everything that went on. The photo gallery was amazing but the rest take it or leave it, pretty much the same as most museums you see. We had planned to go out to Cu Chi tunnels but as time wears on you long for a day of doing nothing which is pretty much what we did. Read a book in the park, practiced english with some students and drank some coffee to avoid the heavy afternoon rain.
Two nights was plenty especially as we had annoyed the hotel owner by insisting our bikes did not live on the street. We were both really excited about the next few days as neither of us had ever ventured into a region like the delta before. First day 90km to Ben tre. Easy we thought have a lie in, breakfast and head out around 10am. At 10am the heaviest rainshower ever starts so we are delayed by an hour, then the road gets a bit rough and my bike dies and we head to a mechanic. After Hoi an my bike had been great and joshs had been the problem as his chain amongst other things were causing him to take regular stops. Today was my turn and what a day. In total we completed 70km in 7 hours, arrived in the dark and i had spent nearly 10 quid in mechanics which comparative for vietnam is a truck load. I hate riding in the dark here and this sucked big time as we didnt even make it to Ben tre. I was seriously considering binning the whole thing as it had been an awful day.
Fortunately there is always the next day and it was joshs turn again although the problems were not too extensive and we did see a few of the islands in the delta as well as taking in the lush jungle and coconut plantations. There are no sign posts in the delta and we had to guess our way which ended in a 60km dead end road. It was soon to get dark so we had to ride 160km flat out along narrow roads, over tiny bridges barely wide enough to walk over and avoid the other hazards that litter the roads. Up to this point i hadnt really considered how dangerous the bike riding would be but we saw a proper accident for the first time which also resulted in my first dead body. In vietnam every year 70,000 people are killed on the roads which is over 200 a day. This is a crazy stat and seeing that really messed me up for the rest of the day. Fortunately the run into Can Tho went over a really amazing suspension bridge at sunset which was stunning and helped me put the days events behind me. Like with dog i am willing to try most things and here we had a buffet dinner of snake, frog and wait for it rat. Rat honest to god is amazing it doesnt taste like chicken its 10 times better!!
A really early morning start got us from Can Tho to Rach Gia intime for us to unwittingly ride into the biggest festival of the year. The place was boiling hot and absolutely crazy with people everywhere, which meant it took at least an hour to navigate through the small town to the ferry terminal. We wanted to take our bikes with us and had an infuriating few hours being told we could then couldnt take our bikes. Eventually for a ridiculous price we made it to the paradise island of Phu Quoc. I was totaly ready to unwind but joshs bike messed up straight after the ferry and this time the mechanics couldnt help. It seemed to right itself the next day but died again while pottering around the island. We were both gutted as it really looked like this was it. We got somebody to come and buy our bikes the next day as i didnt really want to ride on on my own as it wouldnt be as good. But miracles do happen and before the guy arrived josh went crazy at his bike and somehow it started working again. So relieved!! I havent really considered what i will do post bike and i dont really want to either until it is really necessary.
Fortunately we were back in business enjoyed a nice day on the beach and then headed back to the mainland and the cambodian border. We had done alot of research on crossing the border and had heard something differnt from everyone, from putting money in the passport to just sneaking accross. We decided on the honest option and had no problems whatsoever. So far the only issue has been the complete and utter state that cambodia is in. I will write about that in the next one but safe to say im looking forward to leaving and ive only been here a day!
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