We wake on the train a little after 5am today. It would be nice just to stay curled up there and chill out but we have another brilliant day to get stuck into so we get up and dressed. By the time I try to use the facilities on the train which I wish I'd used before I went to sleep the floor is...well...as Kyle put it so perfectly you need to swim to the toilet. The stentch is too much for me so I cross my legs and hobble back to our cabin - a choice I will soon regret!
We get to the station at Lao Cai, don our packs and head off for the bus. Full bladders and rucksacks are not a good combination and now I am busting! Kyle organises for him, me and one more to go to use the station facilities which I am assured are better than the train (in part because you pay to use them). WRONG! They are pit toilets - that is ok but they are flushing ones and the first toilet is blocked and overflowing. Swimming here is cleaner than on the train but it's also deeper and just wrong. I tip toe through to the cubical with a door (only one of 3 do) and after leaving the paper at the door (der!) I have to wipe bidee style....interesting! Kyle tells me I was very brave.
We jump on the bus and I sleep most of the way to Sapa. We get dropped off at the most stunning hotel and we're all awe struck. Unfortunately we were dropped in the wrong place, but our hotel is the next nicest one in town. It's about 7am and we are welcomed to the buffet breakfast and our tables are on the balcony looking out over a wide valley from a high point. The view is spectacular but it's hard not to be a little distracted by the food. This part of Vietnam has a French influence and our hotel has combined the french influence with vietnamese food for breakfast. Jumping on a change of cuisine quickly, I have a toasted ham cheese and tomato sandwich along with bacon and sausage and noodles. I follow my first course up with a crepe with banana folded inside....Super Yum!
We have until 9am to get changed in the hotel bathrooms (our rooms aren't available until 2pm). A few of us head out to find proper coffee and have a poke around town. Once we're all gathered again, we jump back on the bus and stop up the road a bit to pick up our pack lunches. Setting off again we're dropped a little way out of town where we set off on a day hike. Sadly Kyle's achillies has got really painful so he missed today in favour of seeing the doctor. We have a really good time with Tom on our hike/walk. The terraces of the rice paddies are bare having just been farmed but they are soooo tall making their way up the mountains. Tom tells us that they can take a life time to terrace one section of a hill/mountain.
We see little waterfalls, farmers on the other side of the river with their buffalos feeding on the terraces and hidden in the bushes alongside the road we're walking on is an Albino Buffalo - it's so cute in a Buffalo kind of way. We wind up the track a bit further and see some of the local women of the hill tribes. We're told that their head dress becomes larger with their increasing generation - unmarried girls have none, married women have a head dress and remove their eyebrows and hair line to the edge of the head dress using wax to stop it regrowing. Mothers have a bigger head dress and grandmothers even larger again and so on.
As we reach a small village we're in for a treat. It has one of the local schools and all the nearby tribes people are there as well as the children in their classes. One class is outside doing stretches/PE and they are so cute. The men are gathered at the building next to the school chatting and smoking a large pipe (not too unlike the super huge bong we saw at the Luang Praban airport). It's the first time we've seen a group of men anywhere yet and this group is about 40 strong so it felt quite strange. Tom takes us to another part of the village where we are allowed to go into one of the houses. It's hard to describe the set up but there are large open plan rooms downstairs where one part is the laundry/wash room, over a bit is the kitchen and dining room, another section is a bedroom with a couple of double bed sized racks separated from the kitchen/dining room by the access to the upper floor. The upper floor is the store for the corn and rice and other food - almost like a pantry in the roof space. At the back of the kitchen/dining room is a door to access what they call dormitories - 3 sectioned off areas in a corridor each with a double rack. It was a privilege to see inside their home and an image I won't forget (no where near as bad as I thought).
We left their home and continued on a way, eventually walking down one of the terraces to the river where we settle on the rocks for lunch. Tom and my team mate Greg entertain us with their leap frogging over the boulders in and around the river. Once they are on the other bank and making their way along, they look like they are disagreeing on which way to go and then it's on - they race back to us on their alternate routes and jumping wildly over the upper section of the river from boulder to boulder. Greg wins the race and we're all relieved they didn't fall in.
We head back up the valley, cross the river again and climb up a little hill to the road where the bus collects us again. We get back to Sapa and can get into our rooms now. I settle in for a sleep for a couple of hours before showering and going shopping. It was a brilliant afternoon of easy trekking, lovely sights and a nice rest.
What I hadn't shared before now was before we left our hotel in Laos, we were informed we wouldn't be hiking up Mt Fansipan. This comes as a mix of relief and disappointment. We're the pilot for this adventure and a few of the treks to date have been under-rated (i.e. they were harder than advertised/rated by the local guides) so by now with only 1 24hr rest period we're pretty exhausted. Having said that, the acomplishment that would have come with completing such a hard trek would've been awesome. The decision was made because there had been torrential rain for a few weeks and parts of the track had been washed out. The area was foggy so there would be no view at the top and although we were fitter than at the start of the trip, many of us would have really struggled. A man was medivac'd off the mountain by helicopter the night we boarded the train to Lao Cai which reinforced the decision not to undertake the mountain for the safety.
One of the upsides though was that we got to stay in the hotel that night rather than camp on the mountain and after dinner (where the lights went out again but we did have candles this time on the table) I took full advantage of my bed.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Planes and Trains
What do we want? MORE SLEEP! When do we want it? NOW! So we did! This morning our rest stop continued. With a serious amount of trekking and cycling under our belts, we really needed the break. There was however a challenge to do at 6am...the task was purely attendance the sight I'm told was spectacular. I did get up but couldn't find my camera - I'd put it next to my pillow and my shoes below on the floor so I could get out quickly and quietly in case Cynthia wanted to sleep in....I didn't achieve either and reached the main road at 6:25 as it was all being packed up.
The sight was the procession of Monks collecting Alms from the community. It occurs at sunrise everyday. Monks have 250 rules to live by (females have more, Buddhists in general only have a handfull). Monks are not allowed to kill including for food, so the community provide food. They also can't earn money, so all they have must be donated. In return to the community they reside over weddings, births and funerals. It should be noted each of these can take a week or more.
I had breakfast today at a French style bakery then went down and packed. We headed off for some wandering through the streets. It was nice just to wander - no rushing to get somewhere, no need to do anything in particular. Some of the group had gone off to the waterfalls where at one location they got to swim with elephants. I'm saving that for when I go back. Today I just had to listen to my body and take a go slow. I picked up a nice buff to help hold the torrent of my head leaking when I hike out of my eyes. We had an ice coffee and started the wander back. I picked up some strapping tape for my ankle ready for what lies ahead - Mt Fansipan in Vietnam. I'm getting really nervous about it without knowing what to expect.
Frank, Cynthia, Kyle and I induldge in some pork/coconut buns from a street vendor and then Frank and I continue on while Cynthia and Kyle stop for some soup from another stall. It's the next set of stalls that I finally find a top for my friend Paul. Asia doesn't do european size clothing and Paul is super tall. I finally find a XXL top for him and I'm delighted I had a couple of options so got the catch phrase of the peddlers in the region "Same Same But Different" which is usually followed with "You buy from me!" which is more of a statement than question.
We get back to the hotel with about an hour to spare and so sit in the comfy couches under the cooling fans while we wait for our transport to the airport. It's sad to bid farewell to our local guides yet again. Immigration is interesting at the airport and we have our first experience of Vietnamese businessmen who don't do lining up. They were however well amused with my cat hanging out a pocket in my backpack and I was amused by their massive bong! They were taking it as carry on luggage. WOW it's lax here!
We fly out of Luang Praban not long before sunset and as it darkens outside we arrive in Hanoi. As we step outside and head to our bus, Sam who has been in the region before tells us that the constant horn honking is just their way of saying to the other drivers "I'm here, I'm here" in order to avoid accidents. Tom our guide is very funny and very knowlegable. He tells us about the Red River surrounding Hanoi and the road we are driving on is the Dyke protecting the city from the river. We look across and we are at about the 2nd-3rd level of most buildings inside the dyke. Tom tells us the itinerary for the night and the morning and tells us in 1hour and 59 minute and 59 seconds maybe we will get on the train (or in other words just under 2 hours). We all laugh and he continues our education.
We stop briefly at a restaurant for dinner where they play a traditional song on traditional instruments, then they play the theme from the Godfather which seems really surreal! Finally they play click go the shears! What the?? It was fabulous and funny at the same time. The lights go out a couple of times during dinner (keep in mind we're in a pretty flash place on the second floor in a private dining room) and this becomes a theme for every dinner we have in Vietnam.
From dinner we get back on the bus, drive to the train station and after a hike along the platforms and across tracks, we board our sleeper train that will take us from Hanoi to Lao Cai. It takes 9 hours, the train does approximately 35-45km/hr and is quite comfy. We're due to arrive around 5:30am hopefully all caught up on sleep!
The sight was the procession of Monks collecting Alms from the community. It occurs at sunrise everyday. Monks have 250 rules to live by (females have more, Buddhists in general only have a handfull). Monks are not allowed to kill including for food, so the community provide food. They also can't earn money, so all they have must be donated. In return to the community they reside over weddings, births and funerals. It should be noted each of these can take a week or more.
I had breakfast today at a French style bakery then went down and packed. We headed off for some wandering through the streets. It was nice just to wander - no rushing to get somewhere, no need to do anything in particular. Some of the group had gone off to the waterfalls where at one location they got to swim with elephants. I'm saving that for when I go back. Today I just had to listen to my body and take a go slow. I picked up a nice buff to help hold the torrent of my head leaking when I hike out of my eyes. We had an ice coffee and started the wander back. I picked up some strapping tape for my ankle ready for what lies ahead - Mt Fansipan in Vietnam. I'm getting really nervous about it without knowing what to expect.
Frank, Cynthia, Kyle and I induldge in some pork/coconut buns from a street vendor and then Frank and I continue on while Cynthia and Kyle stop for some soup from another stall. It's the next set of stalls that I finally find a top for my friend Paul. Asia doesn't do european size clothing and Paul is super tall. I finally find a XXL top for him and I'm delighted I had a couple of options so got the catch phrase of the peddlers in the region "Same Same But Different" which is usually followed with "You buy from me!" which is more of a statement than question.
We get back to the hotel with about an hour to spare and so sit in the comfy couches under the cooling fans while we wait for our transport to the airport. It's sad to bid farewell to our local guides yet again. Immigration is interesting at the airport and we have our first experience of Vietnamese businessmen who don't do lining up. They were however well amused with my cat hanging out a pocket in my backpack and I was amused by their massive bong! They were taking it as carry on luggage. WOW it's lax here!
We fly out of Luang Praban not long before sunset and as it darkens outside we arrive in Hanoi. As we step outside and head to our bus, Sam who has been in the region before tells us that the constant horn honking is just their way of saying to the other drivers "I'm here, I'm here" in order to avoid accidents. Tom our guide is very funny and very knowlegable. He tells us about the Red River surrounding Hanoi and the road we are driving on is the Dyke protecting the city from the river. We look across and we are at about the 2nd-3rd level of most buildings inside the dyke. Tom tells us the itinerary for the night and the morning and tells us in 1hour and 59 minute and 59 seconds maybe we will get on the train (or in other words just under 2 hours). We all laugh and he continues our education.
We stop briefly at a restaurant for dinner where they play a traditional song on traditional instruments, then they play the theme from the Godfather which seems really surreal! Finally they play click go the shears! What the?? It was fabulous and funny at the same time. The lights go out a couple of times during dinner (keep in mind we're in a pretty flash place on the second floor in a private dining room) and this becomes a theme for every dinner we have in Vietnam.
From dinner we get back on the bus, drive to the train station and after a hike along the platforms and across tracks, we board our sleeper train that will take us from Hanoi to Lao Cai. It takes 9 hours, the train does approximately 35-45km/hr and is quite comfy. We're due to arrive around 5:30am hopefully all caught up on sleep!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Elefunts!
We woke this morning to another well prepared meal - omlettes, tea, coffee and warmed rolls. That reminds me - at our hotel in Siem Reap (Cambodia) you could line up and have the cooks make either soup or omlettes with any ingredients you liked added in on a little portable stove.
So back to Laos. After breakfast we got ready to go. Some of the less delicate info I haven't shared about our lodgings on the top of a mountain in The Mong village of Poutao - the toilet was our first pit toilet that we needed to use. Paper was kept (i.e. not flushed by a pot of water) and was collected in a plastic bag outside. Our bathing was done using water out of a large drum/bin assigned as washing water which was really cold but it felt so good to clean up a bit.
As we head off, we look down over the Mong Village - it's so quiet and has such an incredible view. The path is not too bad (no where near as steep as coming down through the Thai Jungle which killed all of our knees) to start with but as I said many times throughout the trip - my head was leaking! The humidity even though we are going downhill has me soaked. Note to self - do more sauna/steam room time before heading back to Asia given Canberra is such a dry city.
We have a nice little break/"comfort stop" before heading to a slidey loose soil section that proves fun for some and damaging for others. Greg fell and copped a sharp stick into his hand. Kyle in his haste to get the first aid kit from the trek guide slipped also and hurt his ankle - later turned out he had damaged his achillies. After Greg is patched up, we head off again and about 5 mins in I roll my ankle. Thankfully my boots are great which stops it being too bad, but it really bloody hurts. Onwards ho and we come down to a river where there is an elephant drinking/bathing. This is one of the logging elephants and still quite wild. We're warned not to go near it as it isn't used to humans and might bolt.
We take a quick drink of water ourselves then climb up to a dirt road which is the latest section of road being built by the government to help the villagers with the logging. As you fly into Laos as well, you see loads of strangely bare land on the mountains. It looks like a patch stripped off the land leaving tan dirt behind and was quite concerning. We're told though that this is land the government has cleared for the mountain tribes to make rice paddies out of and that it is a good thing.
Walking along and talking to the guide, I didn't even notice the elephant in front of me. It's not like they are little or anything! We're instructed to move into single file and stay on the far left of the path so as not to startle the elephant. It swings it's trunk towards me as I go past to have a sniff (I was 2nd or 3rd to go past) and returns to eating. Guess we don't smell too good!
We finally trek through some lower ground and into the villiage where we are having lunch. If you can imagine a really dusty village of wooden buildings most on stilts (to let the air pass underneath) and one pagoda set up with two tables and chairs with table cloth, runner and cloth napkins, cutlery, plates and cold bottles of water. It was such a stark contrast and yet felt like a bit of an oasis in the desert. Lunch again was incredible. We've been thoroughly spoiled with most meals being multiple courses with amazing flavours.
Thankfully the truck from Buffalo Tours is there and we ditch our backpacks allowing us to do the last of the hike for the day without the extra weight of our day/overnight packs. Having said that, it's now really really hot and really really humid. I suddenly drop from the front of the group to the back finding it hard to get the thick air in and having my ankle bang away with fury after having had a rest at lunch. This uphill section straight out of the village is almost like a desert at first - barren gravelly hot and somewhat volcanic looking with tan colouring.
The next section was like low jungle - no cover but thick green vines and plants all around us. This is where is started to get really steamy and we were still going up. Once we reached the top it was a nice walk down (with another small barren patch) which included a river crossing needing us to take our shoes off. Any other day I'd probably even sit in the river but today the last thing I want to do is take my boot off. Greg gives me support to balance both getting the boot off and getting across the river. It ached to get the boot off, but putting it in the cold water killed.
On the other side we cleaned off our feet, pulled our socks and shoes on and set off for the last section. We walked through some rice paddies and down to the river bank where we climbed onto a long boat with deep comfy chairs. It was hard to stay awake as we floated back down the Mekong River to Luang Praban. We get out and clumb a big set of stairs. Really? Who needs more stairs at this point!! Ha ha. We were two blocks or so from our hotel and so happy to get back there. Kyle very kindly organised for some ice to be collected from the cafe on the corner to put on my ankle. Cynthia my room mate suggests we get some washing on which we do followed by some more shopping. Aside from dinner we have no commitments for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Finally we get some rest time!
So back to Laos. After breakfast we got ready to go. Some of the less delicate info I haven't shared about our lodgings on the top of a mountain in The Mong village of Poutao - the toilet was our first pit toilet that we needed to use. Paper was kept (i.e. not flushed by a pot of water) and was collected in a plastic bag outside. Our bathing was done using water out of a large drum/bin assigned as washing water which was really cold but it felt so good to clean up a bit.
As we head off, we look down over the Mong Village - it's so quiet and has such an incredible view. The path is not too bad (no where near as steep as coming down through the Thai Jungle which killed all of our knees) to start with but as I said many times throughout the trip - my head was leaking! The humidity even though we are going downhill has me soaked. Note to self - do more sauna/steam room time before heading back to Asia given Canberra is such a dry city.
We have a nice little break/"comfort stop" before heading to a slidey loose soil section that proves fun for some and damaging for others. Greg fell and copped a sharp stick into his hand. Kyle in his haste to get the first aid kit from the trek guide slipped also and hurt his ankle - later turned out he had damaged his achillies. After Greg is patched up, we head off again and about 5 mins in I roll my ankle. Thankfully my boots are great which stops it being too bad, but it really bloody hurts. Onwards ho and we come down to a river where there is an elephant drinking/bathing. This is one of the logging elephants and still quite wild. We're warned not to go near it as it isn't used to humans and might bolt.
We take a quick drink of water ourselves then climb up to a dirt road which is the latest section of road being built by the government to help the villagers with the logging. As you fly into Laos as well, you see loads of strangely bare land on the mountains. It looks like a patch stripped off the land leaving tan dirt behind and was quite concerning. We're told though that this is land the government has cleared for the mountain tribes to make rice paddies out of and that it is a good thing.
Walking along and talking to the guide, I didn't even notice the elephant in front of me. It's not like they are little or anything! We're instructed to move into single file and stay on the far left of the path so as not to startle the elephant. It swings it's trunk towards me as I go past to have a sniff (I was 2nd or 3rd to go past) and returns to eating. Guess we don't smell too good!
We finally trek through some lower ground and into the villiage where we are having lunch. If you can imagine a really dusty village of wooden buildings most on stilts (to let the air pass underneath) and one pagoda set up with two tables and chairs with table cloth, runner and cloth napkins, cutlery, plates and cold bottles of water. It was such a stark contrast and yet felt like a bit of an oasis in the desert. Lunch again was incredible. We've been thoroughly spoiled with most meals being multiple courses with amazing flavours.
Thankfully the truck from Buffalo Tours is there and we ditch our backpacks allowing us to do the last of the hike for the day without the extra weight of our day/overnight packs. Having said that, it's now really really hot and really really humid. I suddenly drop from the front of the group to the back finding it hard to get the thick air in and having my ankle bang away with fury after having had a rest at lunch. This uphill section straight out of the village is almost like a desert at first - barren gravelly hot and somewhat volcanic looking with tan colouring.
The next section was like low jungle - no cover but thick green vines and plants all around us. This is where is started to get really steamy and we were still going up. Once we reached the top it was a nice walk down (with another small barren patch) which included a river crossing needing us to take our shoes off. Any other day I'd probably even sit in the river but today the last thing I want to do is take my boot off. Greg gives me support to balance both getting the boot off and getting across the river. It ached to get the boot off, but putting it in the cold water killed.
On the other side we cleaned off our feet, pulled our socks and shoes on and set off for the last section. We walked through some rice paddies and down to the river bank where we climbed onto a long boat with deep comfy chairs. It was hard to stay awake as we floated back down the Mekong River to Luang Praban. We get out and clumb a big set of stairs. Really? Who needs more stairs at this point!! Ha ha. We were two blocks or so from our hotel and so happy to get back there. Kyle very kindly organised for some ice to be collected from the cafe on the corner to put on my ankle. Cynthia my room mate suggests we get some washing on which we do followed by some more shopping. Aside from dinner we have no commitments for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Finally we get some rest time!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Double Whammy - Part 2! (finally updated/finished)
So before I get onto part 2, I forgot to mention that we got our washing around 8am this morning (rather than 10pm last night). It turned out we collectively gave them 50kg of washing and it was all done in one night, one washing machine and one dryer! Impressive.
So after lunch we ditched the bikes, got changed in a pit toilet and headed off on the trek to the Mong Village at the top of the mountain. We were at about 300m and got up to 1500m. It was 32degrees and about 90% humidity. Needless to say it was a slow difficult climb, but we all made it including Haans who is 71 and has had a double by-pass!
The children were very cute and very shy at first. There are rules amongst the Mong tribes that you can't marry within but by golly you don't have to stop pro-creating! There were kids everywhere. I sat with one of the teenage girls while she crafted/weaved sections of roof for a new building. The building we stayed in had two sleeping rooms with a plank bed. It was rough! Our guides made us Larb from scratch, mincing the meat themselves by chopping it repeatedly.
The Larb we had was beef based with thai corriander, mint, lemon grass, onion, spring onions and stalks and the secret ingrediant in this one...Banana Tree Flowers. On their own, they taste terrible and from the villages apparently they taste worse. However, the wild ones when cooked up in this dish are amazing. Our local guides were also our cooks and incredible at weilding a knife to cut things free hand (no board although they did have one for the meat and smaller herbs). As Lauren, Sam and I sat with them, they told us the origin of Larb and its name. The King was calling on a village and the family he was visiting was in a panic as to what to make. They killed some chicken (Larb can be done with Pork, Chicken or Beef and sometimes Tofu but that is more western) and cut up herbs, minced the meat and combined it with salt and peper and other flavours they could scrounge up and served it all to the King. The King was amazed with the flavour and asked what the dish was called. There was no answer and so he named it Larb which means Lucky Food.
It was a long night, but well worth the trek. We curled up on the wood slats and nodded off as best we could. There was a slight mix up with our bedding that being each side thought the other was bringing it. The girls scored from the locals 3 pillows, 2 blankets and some thin mattresses (kinda like doona thickness). The boys got 2 blankets and some matresses (less and thinner than the girls!).
So after lunch we ditched the bikes, got changed in a pit toilet and headed off on the trek to the Mong Village at the top of the mountain. We were at about 300m and got up to 1500m. It was 32degrees and about 90% humidity. Needless to say it was a slow difficult climb, but we all made it including Haans who is 71 and has had a double by-pass!
The children were very cute and very shy at first. There are rules amongst the Mong tribes that you can't marry within but by golly you don't have to stop pro-creating! There were kids everywhere. I sat with one of the teenage girls while she crafted/weaved sections of roof for a new building. The building we stayed in had two sleeping rooms with a plank bed. It was rough! Our guides made us Larb from scratch, mincing the meat themselves by chopping it repeatedly.
The Larb we had was beef based with thai corriander, mint, lemon grass, onion, spring onions and stalks and the secret ingrediant in this one...Banana Tree Flowers. On their own, they taste terrible and from the villages apparently they taste worse. However, the wild ones when cooked up in this dish are amazing. Our local guides were also our cooks and incredible at weilding a knife to cut things free hand (no board although they did have one for the meat and smaller herbs). As Lauren, Sam and I sat with them, they told us the origin of Larb and its name. The King was calling on a village and the family he was visiting was in a panic as to what to make. They killed some chicken (Larb can be done with Pork, Chicken or Beef and sometimes Tofu but that is more western) and cut up herbs, minced the meat and combined it with salt and peper and other flavours they could scrounge up and served it all to the King. The King was amazed with the flavour and asked what the dish was called. There was no answer and so he named it Larb which means Lucky Food.
It was a long night, but well worth the trek. We curled up on the wood slats and nodded off as best we could. There was a slight mix up with our bedding that being each side thought the other was bringing it. The girls scored from the locals 3 pillows, 2 blankets and some thin mattresses (kinda like doona thickness). The boys got 2 blankets and some matresses (less and thinner than the girls!).
Monday, November 15, 2010
Double Whammy - Part 1
So far we have either been cycling or hiking in a day. Today it's time to do both. We set out from the Buffalo Tours Office with slightly better bikes than we had in Thailand - much to the relief of us all. We're stocked up with water and a few clip on Koalas (I also have my packets of koalas and kangaroos) and we head off through the streets of Luang Prabang.
There are times when I'm back home that I wonder why drivers find it so hard to avoid bikes in bike lanes. Cycling on the roads in this region puts a whole new perspective on it. Aside from being on the opposite side of the road, there are cars, trucks, vans, tuk tuks, motorbikes and scooters flying all over the place plus an army of bikes. There are no traffic lights anywhere and it's a case of picking your path and holding line and everyone seems able to get around each other.
Luang Prabang is a very touristy city for Laos but not the kind of touristy chaos you see in the likes of Bondi Beach. It's much more relaxed with a bit of both traditional and tourist culture blended into one. Each morning from 6-6:30am, the locals line the streets on their mats to offer alms to the Monks as they walk past in a quasi procession. The brightness of the orange in the Monks robes against the semi-darkness and white of the temple behind is a sight to behold. It's a very solemn occassion to observe and yet it is a daily ritual as is setting up stalls to sell their wares to the tourists.
After a short ride we arrve at a crossing of the Mekong River. I will never complain about the cleanliness of Lake Burley Griffin again. Ha ha. The water is a darkish brown with no visability. The task of the boat drivers to guide their vessels on and off the shore line is impressive. As we disembark with our bikes we have a steep hill to get up. We reapply sunscreen and set off.
My bike ride was quite short today (a blessing in disguise). I was quite upset to be told to get in the truck, but I'd thrown the chain before leaving the tour office and once on the road to the boat. It went again at the top of the hill off the boat and 3 more times shortly after. Connie had an amazing stack with gravel damage on her arm, hip and leg down one side. They poured metho on it to cleanse it enough which must have killed but she took it with oodles of grace. Connie joined Jenn and I in the truck and we met up with the group. Connie jumped back on her bike and finished the ride. We had a great lunch in one of the villages and managed to find a chiller box that had power and COLD DRINKS!! The felt like ice going down which was sore but so bubbly good.
Part 2 - Hiking to the Mong Village and our accommodation for the night to follow.
There are times when I'm back home that I wonder why drivers find it so hard to avoid bikes in bike lanes. Cycling on the roads in this region puts a whole new perspective on it. Aside from being on the opposite side of the road, there are cars, trucks, vans, tuk tuks, motorbikes and scooters flying all over the place plus an army of bikes. There are no traffic lights anywhere and it's a case of picking your path and holding line and everyone seems able to get around each other.
Luang Prabang is a very touristy city for Laos but not the kind of touristy chaos you see in the likes of Bondi Beach. It's much more relaxed with a bit of both traditional and tourist culture blended into one. Each morning from 6-6:30am, the locals line the streets on their mats to offer alms to the Monks as they walk past in a quasi procession. The brightness of the orange in the Monks robes against the semi-darkness and white of the temple behind is a sight to behold. It's a very solemn occassion to observe and yet it is a daily ritual as is setting up stalls to sell their wares to the tourists.
After a short ride we arrve at a crossing of the Mekong River. I will never complain about the cleanliness of Lake Burley Griffin again. Ha ha. The water is a darkish brown with no visability. The task of the boat drivers to guide their vessels on and off the shore line is impressive. As we disembark with our bikes we have a steep hill to get up. We reapply sunscreen and set off.
My bike ride was quite short today (a blessing in disguise). I was quite upset to be told to get in the truck, but I'd thrown the chain before leaving the tour office and once on the road to the boat. It went again at the top of the hill off the boat and 3 more times shortly after. Connie had an amazing stack with gravel damage on her arm, hip and leg down one side. They poured metho on it to cleanse it enough which must have killed but she took it with oodles of grace. Connie joined Jenn and I in the truck and we met up with the group. Connie jumped back on her bike and finished the ride. We had a great lunch in one of the villages and managed to find a chiller box that had power and COLD DRINKS!! The felt like ice going down which was sore but so bubbly good.
Part 2 - Hiking to the Mong Village and our accommodation for the night to follow.
Shopping!
Earlier today we finished off Thailand and flew to Luang Prabang in Laos. We hadn't even got out of the bus before we were all in love with the city. On arrival at our gorgeous little hotel, we got all our washing out and over to the laundrette across the road. We were leaving early-ish the next day so the lady said she'd have it all done by 10pm. Yay! Clean clothes!
Next it was up to the room for a quick change, drink (my room mate Cynthia had a bottle of Vodka) and off to shop!! Bargaining here was a lot more fun and the people were just so lovely. With only an hour to shop we got a quick look around, picked where we wanted to come back to and grabbed a couple of things.
Back to the Hotel then to change again and head out for dinner. There were traditional dancers and a band on the stage on the other side of the room from us and we thought there would be another exhibition later in the evening so we got settled and ordered our drinks and watched a little from our table around the corner from the stage. They soon finished to a rousing applause from the tables in front. Unfortunately they then packed up and left so we didn't get to see them.
After dinner we piled back into the vans and were transfered back to the hotel. We had our team meeting and then headed back to the markets which closed at 10pm and it was now 9pm!! More shopping squared away and we came back to get our washing to find it wasn't ready :( Kyle one of our social tour leaders (they are with us the whole trip) said he'd collect it for us at 7am. So it was off to bed for the night, but not just any bed, finally we had soft beds and a somewhat regular flow of hot water.
Yay!
Next it was up to the room for a quick change, drink (my room mate Cynthia had a bottle of Vodka) and off to shop!! Bargaining here was a lot more fun and the people were just so lovely. With only an hour to shop we got a quick look around, picked where we wanted to come back to and grabbed a couple of things.
Back to the Hotel then to change again and head out for dinner. There were traditional dancers and a band on the stage on the other side of the room from us and we thought there would be another exhibition later in the evening so we got settled and ordered our drinks and watched a little from our table around the corner from the stage. They soon finished to a rousing applause from the tables in front. Unfortunately they then packed up and left so we didn't get to see them.
After dinner we piled back into the vans and were transfered back to the hotel. We had our team meeting and then headed back to the markets which closed at 10pm and it was now 9pm!! More shopping squared away and we came back to get our washing to find it wasn't ready :( Kyle one of our social tour leaders (they are with us the whole trip) said he'd collect it for us at 7am. So it was off to bed for the night, but not just any bed, finally we had soft beds and a somewhat regular flow of hot water.
Yay!
It's just an easy ride
Just like different countries have different interpretations of being "on time", they also have different measures of physical challenges. Of course when you have a group of 18 people, it can be like herding cats and everyone has different skill levels at different tasks.
Today's ride was on not so new bikes (we had brand new Treks in Cambodia) and it was nice and easy at first. We cruised across a damn and along fields where rice paddies were being picked (it's rice harvest season right across the region). The work involved is quite tedious and back breaking and it is amazing just how strong the farmers are regardless of age.
As we pass by the fields we turn off-road and so begins the adventure for the day. The riding isn't the challenge today, it's more dodging the thorns! I got a shin full before the second pit stop and stood with my cycle glove to my mouth as Jenn started plucking out the thorns. Back on the off-road we're whizzing along until we're told to dismount and walk our bike through this little bit. This little bit was about 500m of dense muddy growth. On the other side of it we get a little rest, pluck a few more thorns and once we're watered head off again.
This is where the entertainment starts. Ian hits a covered pot hole 100m down the trail and flips landing on his head - Helmets are a good thing! Once we know he is ok, we all have a bit of a giggle and marvel at his acrobatics just as Simon throws his chain. This is no ordinary throw though, it was wrapped around spokes and all over the place. It took about 20-30 mins to fix but by this stage there were 4 of them at the back with me at the edge of a thorny cane field waiting to tell them to stay right and watch the thorns. At first I was standing in the shelter/shade of the cane then I remembered snakes and I was out of there as fast as I could. When they came down I was a woman on a mission to avoid both thorns and snakes. Success!
We rejoined the group and carried onto a smaller temple and again after a quick drink we were off again this time to a much bigger temple. Unlike Cambodia, these ones were all current/in use temples and painted amazing colours with millions of amazing small shiny tiles detailing each intricately patterned section. We also paused for one minute's silence as today was Rememberance Day back home. This particular temple had 2 pagodas, one decorated with the traditional dragons/snakes and one decorated with a Burmese influence of Angels at the entrance.
Once we left we were only about 1km away from the end of our ride but we didn't know it. We turned across the front of an amazingly perfect little bungalo resort and I said to Connie "Why can't we stop at a place like this! How gorgeous is it?". There were rice fields planted up to the fence line with an unobstructed view to the mountains with a lovely blue pool and sweet little cottages. No more than 20seconds later we came over a small rise to find this is where we were stopping for lunch and to shower and change for the airport. It was simply divine and I am looking forward already to going back.
After lunch we bid the team from Thailand a fond farewell and jumped on the bus to the airport.
Thailand done!
Today's ride was on not so new bikes (we had brand new Treks in Cambodia) and it was nice and easy at first. We cruised across a damn and along fields where rice paddies were being picked (it's rice harvest season right across the region). The work involved is quite tedious and back breaking and it is amazing just how strong the farmers are regardless of age.
As we pass by the fields we turn off-road and so begins the adventure for the day. The riding isn't the challenge today, it's more dodging the thorns! I got a shin full before the second pit stop and stood with my cycle glove to my mouth as Jenn started plucking out the thorns. Back on the off-road we're whizzing along until we're told to dismount and walk our bike through this little bit. This little bit was about 500m of dense muddy growth. On the other side of it we get a little rest, pluck a few more thorns and once we're watered head off again.
This is where the entertainment starts. Ian hits a covered pot hole 100m down the trail and flips landing on his head - Helmets are a good thing! Once we know he is ok, we all have a bit of a giggle and marvel at his acrobatics just as Simon throws his chain. This is no ordinary throw though, it was wrapped around spokes and all over the place. It took about 20-30 mins to fix but by this stage there were 4 of them at the back with me at the edge of a thorny cane field waiting to tell them to stay right and watch the thorns. At first I was standing in the shelter/shade of the cane then I remembered snakes and I was out of there as fast as I could. When they came down I was a woman on a mission to avoid both thorns and snakes. Success!
We rejoined the group and carried onto a smaller temple and again after a quick drink we were off again this time to a much bigger temple. Unlike Cambodia, these ones were all current/in use temples and painted amazing colours with millions of amazing small shiny tiles detailing each intricately patterned section. We also paused for one minute's silence as today was Rememberance Day back home. This particular temple had 2 pagodas, one decorated with the traditional dragons/snakes and one decorated with a Burmese influence of Angels at the entrance.
Once we left we were only about 1km away from the end of our ride but we didn't know it. We turned across the front of an amazingly perfect little bungalo resort and I said to Connie "Why can't we stop at a place like this! How gorgeous is it?". There were rice fields planted up to the fence line with an unobstructed view to the mountains with a lovely blue pool and sweet little cottages. No more than 20seconds later we came over a small rise to find this is where we were stopping for lunch and to shower and change for the airport. It was simply divine and I am looking forward already to going back.
After lunch we bid the team from Thailand a fond farewell and jumped on the bus to the airport.
Thailand done!
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