Sleeper train in Bangkok

Sleeper Train
We got on to the sleeper train and were off the Bangkok by 5:55 pm. I ordered dinner at 6:10 and told the waiter that I wanted the food brought to my cabin at 7:15. These trains were very different than the ones in Vietnam. There were not cabin with locking doors. Each quarter was two booths facing each other. These booths turned into a large bed, while an upper bunk unfolded from the top. There were curtains that closed your quarters off from the train aisle. A nice looking girl sat across from me and I thought I was in heaven, but I soon discover she speaks no English. From what I am able to understand she has left Burma (now Myanmar) to come to Thailand, illegally. She says she's from India in order to play things safe though. My food comes and it's great, very spicy, just like I like it. The waiter is a jolly Thai man who is missing his two front teeth and has a nice round tummy. AJ says he works every day on the train and they don't pay him a salary or wage. He receives money from the commission and tips. He's also required to sleep on the train. AJ goes to scout the train and finds another tour, this one an Intrepid tour. Intrepid is the group in which I'm traveling when in India. He brings their tour leader back and we hang out. She's 25 and only tours in Thailand. We all go back to the end train carriage to the food cart and get some beers. We go to bed around 10:00 but none of us sleep well at all. It's loud and surprisingly bumpy. We arrive an hour and a half later in Bangkok at 7:30 am. We check-in to our hotel and I am on my own.

Bangkok

I am staying in the hotel booked for me tonight, but must find accommodations for the next three nights. I go out and get a map of the town. I just stepped inside an internet cafe and got myself a nice cold beer. I have been walking non-stop the streets of Bangkok for the last 3 hours and 15 minutes in the 94 degrees sunny heat. I am drenched. I've visited the standing buddah, the lucky buddah, two parks, the golden mount, and the independance monument. I tried to find the grand palace, but just got lost. I walked aimlessly for a good hour and found my way back. I typically use the sun and the time of day to navigate, but that's not as reliable since Bangkok is so close to the equator. When I was walking around I came across one ENTIRE street that was shops that sold firearms--all types. I am not sure how close I want to stay to Khaosan Road. It's a great place filled with western backpackers, but rooms are more expensive. I'll keep you posted when I figure out where the hell I'm going to stay tomorrow!

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Luang Prabang to Pakbeng to Chiang Chong and finally to Chiang Mai

Luang Prabang, Lao
Our last day in Luang Prabang and Steffen and I decided not to go to the Museum or the Phusy Mt. We went down the river and hired someone to take us across the Mekong River. We heard there were some small villages around and we wanted to explore something less touristy. When we got over to the other side we walked and walked until we got to a village. Boy was this place poor, and I mean poor. We found a 10yr old that spoke little English and we bought from his a ticket to a pagoda on top a mountain, or more like a hill. The temple was disappointing, but the kid could use the money. He had to go to school at 14:00 since he couldn't go earlier in the day because he couldn't afford to buy the books. Steffen and I met up with a 27 year old Aussie names Heather who was traveling on her own for 2 weeks. All three of us say a sign to a cave and an arrow pointing down some 'path'. We followed this path and sure enough we got to what looked like a monastery. We were approached by 3 or 4 monks and they asked us if we wanted to buy another ticket to see the cave. At this time we felt everything we did was costing us money, but not much. 5,000 kip for the boat ride, another 5,000 for the pagoda, and now another 5,000 for the cave. I mean it's only $1.75 USD in total, but it was a lot relativistically speaking. We paid for the ticket and followed 2 monks another 200 or so meters up a rocky hill. One of the monks was 13, and the other 16. The older was studying English and Computers. You see, many children train to become monks solely for family honour and to get a basic education. At the age of 20 each monk in training, coined a 'novice', can chose to become a monk or remain a novice. The cave was unbelievable hot and humid. I would never come to the conclusion that a cave (completely shut off to sunlight) would be hotter than the constant irradiated land. My theory is that since there was water in the cave this acted like a sauna and the humidity have the illusion that the cave was hotter. Also, there was no wind inside. We explored the cave and I got to use my flashlight for the first time all trip. It was very rocky and definitely was not 'set up' for tourists. We all slipped several times, the monks included. As we left the cave the monks locked a wooden door and then a metal gate, closing off the cave's only entrance. After this we walked back to the small village where Steffen ate some local Soup. I thought this was a bad idea since the water was likely from the Mekong and no bowls or utensils were washed. He has since been sick for two days, but it's inconclusive on what caused this... Afterwards I ate lunch and sat with some mid 40 year old woman who was traveling for 7 months doing volunteer work. I wasn't too found of who she spoke, like volunteer working is so much more important than other work. In my opinion it's quite the opposite. If you have a skill, a unique and valuable one, and you choose to dismiss this ability in order to pursue volunteer work, I ask why the hell would you do that? The type of volunteer work that most people do and that I'm talking about is unskilled work that can be done by any high school educated lad. It's more efficient and valuable to society and yourself if you either volunteer doing the SAME thing you are skilled or trained in, or not volunteering and working. The problem is that you cannot volunteer as an engineer, doctor, nurse, etc. because most people have loans to pay off, and why would you obtain such a hard to obtain skill, just to give it away as to sacrifice your ability for the benefit of others? Communism doesn't work...I can see this from what happened to Lao and Vietnam. Ok, enough ranting.

Pakbeng, Lao
We took a 10 hour boat ride to Pakbeng up the Mekong River. This boat was covered and had a TV on it (though none of us even bothered to turn it on). There was a v-10 or v-12 engine running the boat, with no cover or insulating. You can imagine how damn loud it was. We were starving by the time we got off the boat. We got off the boat and took a 15 minute walk to our hotel: up a sand hill, down a wet march, across an unpaved field, and finally up 25 stairs, all carrying our luggage. We discover that all rooms have TVs, but none of them work. You ask why? It's becuase the amount of electricity is too expensive. The city only has electricity from 6-10am and 6-10pm. Cold showers too. The next morning we leave early and are on the boat heading up the Mekong River by 6:30.

Chiang Khong, Thailand
Another 10 hours on the boat, well actually maybe 11 hours. This time we got breakfast made for us from the hotel, we carried it on the boat and ate it later. We also had the family on the boat cook us lunch for 20,000 kip. The family (man, woman, and daughter) lived on the boat as well as make Lao -> Thailand and Thailand -> Lao border crossing trips. We check out at the Lao immigration and exchange Lao money, since it's not worth anything outside of the country. We take a longboat across the river to Thailand and get another Visa on arrival. Welcome to Chaing Khong, Thailand. This is a sleepy town, but still much more lively than Lao. There are 7/11s and 'real' places again. We checked in our hotel and then went out to a nice dinner, where there was a man playing guitar and singing western songs. AJ, our group leader played and sang some songs, one being 'Tears in Heaven', after he'd had a little help with some alcohol. Kim, the Dutch girl that left our tour at Hanoi, was traveling to Lao and had been spending the night in Chiang Khong as well. She met us for dinner and we had a ball. It was hard to say goodbye to her again.

Chiang Mai, Thailand
After a 4-5 hour van trip (in a very nice van) we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand a little before noon. We only have until 5:00 at which point we need to leave to catch a sleeper train to Bangkok. But this was ample time to get a thorough feeling of the town. Steffen, The Finnish Couple, and myself walked around the old city for 3 or so hours. I was looking in all the book stores for a lonely planet for India and Ireland. I ended up buying the book 'Lila' by Robert Pirsig. I am super stoked to read it, but may just wait until I get home since it's not what I would call 'easy reading'. I have finished up reading Sophacles, The Theban Plays and must say it was much better than when we were forced to read it in grade school. I have been considering staying in Chiang Mai for the next 3 nights and take a bus or train to Bangkok a day before my flight to India. Steffen and the Finnish Couple are staying in Chiang Mai and thus leaving the tour here. I think 4 days in Bangkok may be too much, but I think I'll do it anyways. I think I want some down time and Chiang Mai is all about trekking, and hiking, and extreme activities, etc. I may pay a little more and stay in a nice hotel for 1 or 2 nights and enjoy the pool in the humid 90+ degree F weather. I am off to catch my sleeper train with AJ and the Aussie Couple...and then there were 4. We arrive in Bangkok tomorrow around 6:00 am and we will be staying in the same hotel in which with we had stared the tour.

P.S. sorry for the typos and poor grammar. I am trying to get in as much as possible in such a short time. I've been writing for maybe 40 minutes while at the same time, updating my facebook, uploading and backing up my photos. So please understand why my writing mimics that of a 14 year old boy's.

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A Long Day in Luang Prabang

A 78km Bike Ride
Steffen and I woke up at 4:40 and were out of the hotel by 5:00 sharp. We got into town around 5:25 and it was cold. We waited for the monks to come on their 'route', in which they walk by the 'hundreds' and the locals and tourists give them food. I did not give them any food because I think one should work for a their living. We walked down the morning market afterwords, where they had streets and streets of foods and live animals, some pretty freakish ones too. We went back to the hotel for a brief nap and we decided to go on a bike trip. We rented bikes for 20,000 kip (about $2.3 USD) for the day, which was more than the typical $1 USD. We were on the road by 10:45. We were going to the Kuang Si Falls, which our map states about 39 km away (~25 miles). The bikes were shitty since they only had one gear and the curly-type handlebars which are hard to handle. The journey was through the mountain, but we only had to stay on one road the entire time. The roads were SO HILLY it was the toughest workout I have had in a long time. We finally arrived a little over 2 hours later. The waterfall was wonderful and huge. There were some smaller falls that we were able to swim in, in which we did and the water was very cold. We Walked through a bear rescue sanctuary and enjoyed some refreshments.

On our way back my bike started to crap out on me. The axle where the pedals rotated was becoming more and more sloppy. It was getting so bad that I wasn't able to pedal uphill anymore without the pedal working properly. I would have to run along with the bike uphill, which was much more exhausting than one would imagine. I kept this up and after about 19km the bike chain came off the sprocket. Since there was only one gear there was no derailleur which meant the gear had so extra slack. I would need some tools in order to fix this already crappy bike. Steffen and I discussed our options and not 5 minutes later a pair of motorbikes came to our rescue. There were 3 boys and 1 girl, all from Denmark. I had told them that I needed some tools and that all motorbikes should have a built in kit (good thing I know this because they had no idea). I was able to relocate the rear sprocket and fit the chain back in place. This was amazing since those tools they give you for motorbikes are completely lame. I manage to go another 3 or 4 km before the same thing happens. I consider leaving that damn bike there and just jogging alongside Steffen, but that would be 15+ km (~10 miles) and that is just too much. Luckily I am able to flag down a tuk-tuk driver that is taking 4 people back from the waterfalls. You see EVERYBODY takes a van or hired tuk-tuk to and from the waterfalls. Maybe a couple people a week try to bike it, we were the couple this week. The driver loads my bike on top and talked me into town while Steffen rides back using his functioning bike. I discover the 4 people in the tuk-tuk are from London and 2 of the guys are traveling for a year while the other 2 (one guy and one girl) are traveling for only 2 weeks. The 2 guys had just spend 7 weeks in India and they were telling me about it and I got some good pointers. We also discussed how although we all 'enjoyed' Vietnam, that we were MORE than happy to be out of that disgusting place those dirty communists claim to be a 'country'. I get dropped off in the middle of town with my broken bike and the other claim I don't have to pay because they already paid the driver for a trip to and from the waterfall. However I tip the driver 8,000 kip. We stares at me insulted. He says I want more and in my mind I'm thinking of course you do. He says I need to pay him at least 10,000 and I say nope, don't have it, thanks for the ride. Even though I had more money I wont pay him more than that, I mean he only had to stop for 2 minutes and take me to the same place he took them. I then had to walk 25 minutes back to the bike place, drop off the bike and walk across the street to my hotel. I discovered that Steffen arrived only 3 minutes before me, since walking through town game him ample time to catch up. Also I was able to talk my way out of giving the biker rental guy a $20 USD deposit for each bike, which was a damn good thing.

I think tomorrow I will hike up the mountain and see the museum.

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Crazy Night in Vang Vieng, and Rough Morning After...

Full Moon Party In Vang Vieng
After tubing we went out to eat at a local restaurant. I am beginning to miss the American way of dining. Well I shouldn't say American, I should say "not Indochina way of dining". There we are, all 7 of us, sitting down and waiting for our orders to be taken. The waitress comes by and takes our drinks. This takes 10 minutes since there is some confusion on what diet coke it. You see, here Coca cola labels their diet sodas, "Coke Lite". She mixes up orders and gets confused with bottles and cans. Next she takes Shelly's order then disappears. We have to wait 5 minutes for her to come back and take Michael's. Then she leaves again. When she returns A.J. talks to her and explains that she should take all of our orders together. AJ was born in norther Thailand, Chang Mai, and the dialect is similar to Laos. This is a huge help to us. She takes Kati's and Anth's order, but then leaves again. Another 10 minutes and we have to call to her. Then she takes Steffen's order and finally mine. I order fried pork with sticky rice and a side of BBQ vegetables. It was very tasty, though for the price of 30,000 kip the plate was not too big. My total meal was 46,000 kip, which was much more than the others, but still only around 5 dollars.

After dinner we head down to the bars. There were at least 15 bars all lit up with lights. The juxtapositions of decorative lights and blaring music with the poverty stricken locals and their shacks without the luxury of indoor plumbing was incredible and quite surreal. We went to a bar called The Smile Bar and it was packed with westerners dancing and drinking--It was the Full Moon Party. The dancing was actual dancing, not what you seen in all the damn American clubs, which resembles some type of pathetic in-tempo humping. I came up with the brilliant idea of splitting a bucket between AJ, Steffen, and myself. The bucket was Lao rice whiskey, some sodas, red bull, and lime. It was only 30,000 kip and around 35-50 oz. I was to buy the first one, then Steffen the second, and AJ the third, that is, if we were still conscience for a third bucket. The bucket came and I complained that there was not enough whiskey in it. Mind you, I complained before even tasting the drink, I just wanted as much alcohol as possible. They poured a good 4 or 5 more shots into the bucket. We drank it down and when Steffen got the second both he and AJ requested I go to 'swindle' them into providing more alcohol. It worked with great success. The third bucket was up to AJ and this time I really worked the bartender over. The bucket was likely 1/3 whiskey. It was too strong to drink so we ended up drinking about a liter and a half of beers. At this time we were somehow able to drink the rest of the bucket...BIG MISTAKE. We met an Australian named Angus (like the beef), but he just went by Gus. We chatted it up for a while then I met Dale from Dayton. He was the first black person that I saw in the last month, and he was from Ohio. We were moving onwards to the bar next door when we met a friend of AJ's, or at least I think he was his friend. He was very funny and incredibly gay. I asked him which of us three (Steffen, AJ, and myself) he found most attractive jokingly. He then gave me a very dirty response...'nough said! At the next bar two of the bartenders were white and from Canada and maybe one was from the US? The Canadian's name was Scott and we talked how unlike the popular song suggests, Scotty does know. We talked and they agreed to give us some free shots. If I were in the states I would have paid AT LEAST 50 dollars for all the drinks had, but I paid no more than $4 USD. They are very happy to give their alcohol away here, and we are all very happy to accept it. Steffen and I make sure AJ gets back safely and then we go out again to check out the local disco. We wander and run into some locals playing a game of boccie ball. They were very good, but they used metal balls and I wasn't sure how they were able to tell them apart for scoring purposes? We discover that the local clubs are closed and we are tired anyways. We get back to our bungalow a little after 2, which is quite the night since we started out for dinner at 7:15. I get back and lay in bed but feel pretty sick and there was no way I was going to get to bed. I drink a lot of water quickly in hopes of upsetting my stomach, and surprisingly it worked. I was able to 'eliminate the toxins' as one would day from the middle ages. I wasn't up to prime, but I felt good enough to get to sleep.

I woke up the next day, barely. I was very hungover and I had less than 10 minutes to get washed up, pack my suitcase and my day bag. I took some Advil because I knew what was coming...A 7 hour van ride through the mountains. This was such a brutal experience. Even the other, that were feeling fine, almost puked. I was able to make it through the bus ride without loosing any fluids (A+ for me). I cannot even begin to explain how bad this ride was. There must have been no stretch of road that had more than 500ft of straight pavement. Not to mention the van was painfully uncomfortable just to sit in.

Luang Prabang
We arrived in Luang Prabang around 14:00 and it was hot. We took a 25 minute walk into the city and scoped out the 'placed to go'. I then had a riverside lunch with Anth and Kati, the Finnish couple. It was very nice being along the Mekong River. I ate a salad, which had eggs, cucumber, mint, and it tasted very American. I only hope the lettuce was clean enough to eat? I know that when I am in India I won't be able to eat like I do here. My large salad and ice milk with sweet milk cost me about $2.50 USD. Tomorrow I am planning on waking up very early and getting into town around 5:30 to see the Monks beg for food. There are hundreds and hundreds of them that come. This is the same area that has a morning market, as well as a night market. There is a mountain I am going to climb called Phusy Mountain (pronounced Pu-say), and across the street is a Museum. The day after tomorrow I may do a day tour. They have kayaking, hillside trekking, elephant riding, biking, waterfalls, elephant bathing, etc. I think I'll go for the biking, kayaking, and waterfall trip. It's about $40 USD, which is kinda pricey, but it's a nice way to spend the day since we do have 3 nights in this city.

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Hanoi to Lao

Hanoi
I spend my second day in Hanoi first by going to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, but it was not open on Sunday. We did however get into the Ho Chi Minh museum, but it was mainly communist propaganda. Afterward we went to the 3 story market, which was insane. You can buy anything and everything you can imagine. Outside the indoor market there were streets packed with food, cloth, and electronic vendors. On the way back to our hotel Kim, Lyn, Carrie, and I picked up our laundry, which only cost 15,000 Dong per kilo, about $.35/lb of dry laundry. This was the first time I did my laundry (no washings before 20 days, not bad huh?). We dropped our stuff off and went to KFC for some lunch. Then onwards to the water puppet show, something Hanoi, Vietnam is known for. It was interesting, but I got bored. I had no idea what the hell the story line was. On the way back to our hotel, after the show, Haereshem and I got some Bao. That night we went out to eat and I got a side of kimchi. It was the best I've ever had, very flavorful and very spicy. After dinner we said our goodbyes for those that are not going to Lao. Some of us went to a night club but it was something else. I mean, 5 security guards in uniform greeted us inside the front doors and checked our bags. When the doors of the club opened we were almost deafened. It was SO loud. We found out that drinks were around 70,000 Dong, which totally a rip off, so we left. We noticed 4 more security guards scattered outside and around the front door, scoping the area. There were also several Mercedes, and other nice cars parked along the road. Mind you, this is a country where someone is rich if they own a 1985 ford. This place was definitely mob run.

Getting into Lao
The next morning, we were on the road at 5:30, which meant we had to wake up and pack our bags much earlier than that. I got in the van, now 6 of us, the Finnish couple, the Aussie couple, my German roommate Steffen, and myself. They are all 26 to 29 years old. I went to sleep for about 1.5 hours, at which point I could no longer sleep. The hotel had packed our breakfast for us, since breakfast was included in our stay, but we left to early to eat it. They packed us 4 slices of break, jam, butter, orange soda, and 2 bananas. The others told me that the break was moldy so I only had the bananas. Before we got to the Vietnam/Lao border the roads got VERY curvy and bumpy. We were riding along the edge and scaling several mountains. There were signs ALL OVER the place warning us of loose rocks, rock slides, weak bridges, uneven pavement, etc. These roads went on for hours and hours. We must have averaged 15km/hr. We checked out of Vietnam fine and now we were in no man's land. We had to drive to the Lao border, which was only half a km or so away. We had to pay a 2 dollar bribe and my visa was $35 USD. This fee was dependent on our nationality. We all were happy to be out of the ugly, rude, dirty Vietnam and into Lao. Lao was very different than Cambodia and Vietnam. Even though Lao is more poor than Cambodia, it isn't too apparent. True they live in wooden houses I could construct within a week, but there isn't the extreme poverty we saw in Cambodia. This is because Cambodia is missing an entire generation of people from the Killings in the 1970s.

Pak Xan
We arrived in Pak Xan around 8:30 at night, after having left Hanoi at 5:30 in the morning (talking about a long day of traveling). This city is tiny, which our hotel was the only hotel in the city. There is only one street (highway 13) that we will be taking during our stay in Lao. I went for a run in the early morning around 6:30 and then we had some breakfast. The hotel had a caged bear which we fed and pet. We had another 4 hour or so bus ride to get to the capital city of Vientiane.

Vientiane
This city was very quiet. It's the sleepiest capital city in the world is seems. We walked around and visited some pagodas. Steffen and I went into a shopping mall and could not believe what we saw. There were bootleg bags, watches, and clothing all over. Food kiosks selling all types of unusual foods and beers (at least unusual to me). We walked into one warehouse-like room where they had at least 20 kiosks of high-tech phones. MUCH more high tech than back in the states. Outside the mall there was a market. We say some locals melting down scrap metal and making jewelery. We wandered into another market where all they sold was electronic stuff. From cameras, to cell phones, to video games. You name it. They had more merchandise than all the products in a given Costco, UNBELIEVABLE. They had the same quantity of clothing and bags and shoes upstairs. Likewise with gold and silver jewelery. There were more people in the mall and these markets than in the entire city. On the way out I bought myself a black t-shirt of the Lao alphabet for about $1.50. On the way back to our hotel I met a couple from the US. Steffen and I got to talking with them and we decided to get a beer riverside. Mind you, the Mekong River was pretty dried up where we went to get the drink. We talked for a couple hours and had drank a little shy of one and a half liters of beer (which is quite a lot of beer in the hot sun). They are married and have been traveling for about a year. They have been all around south east Asia and eastern Europe. We talked about the cultural differences and how we all hated the Vietnamese people.

Vang Vieng

After another 3+ hour bus ride we arrived at a nice backpacker's city called Vang Vieng. We checked into our Bungalows and all went tubing down the Nam Song river. It is crazy, like a spring break of South East Asia. There had to have been 8 bars, that all had water slides and zip lines that through your out at least 15 feet above the water. We had to sign a waver with our tour guide and with the tubing company becuase many people have died using the zip lines. The bars were filled with western backpackers and free shots for all that stopped at their bars. People would through lines at your on your inner tube and we would grab on and they would drag us to their bar. They all served Beelao, a pretty nice lager, but we got a 'special' menu at one of the bars. They had Magic Mushroom Shakes, Weed Shakes, and, Weed Brownies for 50,000 kip. They also had Opium Tea for 250,000 kip. There are about 8,500 kip to $1 USD. The tubing trip took some time and I got off a little earlier and walked with my tube for about 3 km to see the town. Much of the town is filled with only locals. I get stares from the children like Jesus or something. They also say hi, or hello, in their broken English. It's very cute. When I within half a km to our hotel I saw the touristy area. There were Internet cafes everywhere, and ATMs, and book exchanges. There were tour booths, food stalls, and more white people than I've seen in the last 3 weeks. All the bars here have reruns of Friends playing on them, I'm not sure why, but they are just known for it. Tonight is a full moon and there is a huge Full Moon party that we're going to attend. Tomorrow we head for Luang Prabang, where we will be staying 3 nights. It will be nice to be somewhere for that long. We've stayed in 14 hotels in the last 3 weeks and it's becoming a pain in the ass to unpack and repack the same stuff over and over again.

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