Last blog of 2011

Hello from Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Sabai Dee! (hello in Lao)

We have returned to our starting country, after some adventures in Cambodia and Laos.

Due to a delay of our visas, we had to stay in Cambodia for another 3 days, which resulted in the decision to fly to Vientiane, Laos instead of going from South Laos to the North. Very unfortunate, but this is what time permits us. After 3 days of relaxing and lying around (I haven't read so many books in ages!) we left for the airport. The planes from Lao Airlines are small: there are two rows of two by two and I had the feeling the luggage was just stashed somewhere in the front. But who cares, our bags and ourselves arrived safely in a new country open for discovery.
Vientiane is peculiar: it is the capital but does not even come close to looking like one. It is not very big, but the people are friendly and the atmosphere is nice. We visited some temples, went to musea, but it turned out they were all related to military stuff. Would be nice for someone who likes weapons and stuff, but it wasn't our cup of tea.
On the 21st we had a mission: we bought Christmas hats and a cheesy sign saying 'Happy New Year' and the only thing left to do was find a nice spot for a picture and someone who was willing to be our photographer for a couple of minutes. We were able to entertain some people with our silliness (happy to!) and ourselves as well when we were putting our Christmas card together on the internet. Very carefully we proceeded, afraid to mess things up and losing our creation. When we were entering all the addresses, suddenly the screen went black. In astonishment I creamed at the guy in the internet cafe 'NO!' while Iris was sitting there, not being able to say anything. Luckily, everything was still there, otherwise all our efforts (we must have been sitting there for about2 hours already) were in vain.
One of the highlights in Vientiane was the COPE centre, which is an organization that helps people who have lost limbs. This cause is connected the what they call the secret war of Laos, referring to all the cluster bombs that have been dropped by the Americans in Laos between 1965-1975. Not many people are aware that Laos has suffered so much and still is, as the many of the bombs have not yet exploded and are sometimes found by for example children. The organization is well-organized; if you would like more information check http://www.copelaos.org/.

Funny fact about Laos: their currency is called Kip. As a non-Dutch you might wonder why this is funny, but in Dutch it means chicken. So when we ordered something for for example 40.000Kip we imagined a truck full of chickens arriving to pay for our meal.

Next destination was Vang Vieng for one day, known for its tubing, but we went kayaking and caving. We spent the night in a hostel made out bamboo which was cool. The next day we left for out final destination in Laos: Luang Prabang. It is a lovely town, and it is a World Heritage Site for all its beautiful architecture. The vibe is relaxed, we again visited some temples and the National Museum (definately go there if you ever find yourself in Luang Prabang). Furthermore, we took a day trip to a cave full of buddhas and a waterfall. The latter was great! Beautiful light blue water and we took a fresh dive into the water (cold it was, but I find myself being less of a chicken than I used to be). I followed my very first cooking course, which was a great experience. To me it mostly looked like throwing many ingredients together, but it turned out quite well anyways. So now I'm a bit more familiar with Lao cuisine!
Everywhere we go, there is some kind of market, which we of course visit to buy more stuff and presents than we can fit in our bags, but well.

Last Thursday we flew to Chiang Mai, which is a very nice city; I'm sad we are only staying here for 2 days. We took a taxi to our guesthouse: Same Same (something people tend to say here: same same, but different), took a refreshing shower and went exploring. Surprisingly, the temples here are quite different from the ones we have seen so far and they are beautiful. It is a combination of styles - sorry, can't remember which ones at he moment - and they are well-kept and well-visited. In Wat Pha Singh people were hanging money from the ceiling as an offering to buddha and there was a monk there blessing people with a which looked like a bush of sticks which he dipped into water upon which a splattered the water on the people's heads. Interesting.

Yesterday: another highlight in the whole trip: we spent the day at an elephant camp where we learned the basics of how to ride an elephant, rode the elephant, had lunch from banana leaves and the final activity was to bathe the elephants at the waterfall. It was amazing! I honestly love elephants and we were lucky to ride the biggest one :). The bathing was refreshing and later a bit less, as two of the elephants took a pee and a dump in the water. Everyone came out soaking wet, more due to the people of the camp than the elephants, and pictures were taken of everything, which we will get on a CD.

I would like to say Khop Chai (thank you in Lao) for reading and I wish you a very happy 2012. I hope you will celebrate well, maybe a few hours later than we are, since we are 6 hours ahead.

My last blog will be posted when I am home sweet home again!

xx Fleur

Travels: Thailand & Cambodia

Dear reader,

My travels have finally begun, which means that the last phase of my time abroad has started. By now, in less than 4 weeks I will set foot in Europe again, for me the first step will be in Düsseldorf, Germany. But this time has not come yet. Let me tell you about my first experiences of my trip with Iris through South East Asia.

Thailand - Phuket
After a tough period of exams and assignments we needed some time to relax and feel like ourselves again. We thought: 'Phuket, it has a beach, that must do it'. And for what we came there for - to sit on the beach, enjoy the sun and read a book - it was more than okay. What I did not realize beforehand is that Phuket has its perks. This is one of the places which magnifies Thailand's focus on the sex industry. This became clear when we walked into the bars and clubs area. 'That is not a guy' is what Iris told me about a person who convincingly looked like a woman. Oh. Ladyboys is what they call them. And then there are so-called Ping Pong shows. Imagine ping pong balls plopping out of a bodypart of a woman. Got it? Not nice. You can even select a theme on the pingpong menu: frogs, fish and I don't know what else, but it certainly is something that you do not want to visualize. You did? Sorry.

We encountered a bar called the 'husband day care center' where wives could drop off their husbands - if they want to go shopping, for example - who are then entertained by the women who work there. Curious...

All of this and more I took in with amazement and in some way it was quite disturbing. I hope to put up some pictures when the facilities on the way allow me too.

We spent two days at the beach, reading a book of which I already forgot the content and drinking some juice, and having an occasional dip in the sea (which was not cold at all!). In the evening we enjoyed a nice cocktail on the go, great invention!
Something unfortunate happened during the night, when I put my bikini on the balcony out to dry and had no knowledge, yet, about the strong wind in Phuket. The bottom part was blown away, never to be recovered.

The last day in Phuket we went on an organized tour to some islands to explore a bit and to do some snorkeling. The boat was packed and the coral reefs were largely dead, but it was a nice day anyhow. The girl who joined us on the trip to get everyone to the boat back in time was hilarious. She repeated everything a few times, scared that we would not understand English, and in 'Jip and Janneke'-taal (very easy language, so that even kids could understand). A nap on the beach formed the end of this trip :).

Thailand - Bangkok

Bangkok is not as polluted and dirty as a expected, despite the long traffic jams. When we came from the airport, we took the train and then bus 556. We asked the driver whether this was the bus to Khaosan Road and he sort of said yes. Later, about 45 minutes later, it became clear that we made a loop to return to the same place where we had gotten on. Just as well, the walk would have been far and it was a nice way to have a look around. Khaosan Road is known as the backpackers street and was filled with little shops and 'food from the street' and loads of restaurants and cafes. When you sit down to eat something, every 5-10 minutes a lady comes by with all kinds of souvenirs and asks you if you want to buy something, while making a sound with a wooden frog (I think it is supposed to be an instrument).
We did some temple hopping, which was very nice, lots of gold and all kinds of decorations. On the street you have to be aware of the monks, since they are not allowed to touch women. So take a loop around them when you run into them on the street! The temples are well-hidden and that makes it extra nice: you do not expect anything and then suddenly there is a temple.

Transport is not our strongest point. When we came back from the Chatuchak market, our bus driver turned out to be quite an assertive one. He swiveled around all the cars to drive through a red traffic light and at one point - Iris was making a video at this very moment - we hit a car.

After the BOOM! the driver shouted WHY?! which was quite funny when seeing it on the video. When we were still on the bus, we were a tiny bit frightened, I must admit.

Bangkok to Cambodia

The trip was long, but mostly enjoyable. And of course we were cheated with the visa. I was warned about it, but fell for it anyway, since it all seemed so logical. We stopped at a restaurant just before the border and some official guy gave us a form to fill out for the visa. Ok. 1200 baht. Ok… Whatever, I thought, which I should not have done, since it turned out that it is only 800 baht at the border itself. Oh well, I comfort myself with the thought that maybe his kids will get some nice Christmas presents now. We arrived near Siem Reap, Cambodia, where we were dropped off at some random place where tuktuks (bike taxis) were already waiting for us. Creating work for others, since we were told we would be dropped off at the bus station where our hostel would pick us up. In any case, we took a tuktuk to our hostel: the Tom&Jerry hostel. Mentioning this name led to some funny reactions : ). It was very nice and clean and the staff is friendly and very helpful. All this for only $3 a night! However, there was only a cold shower, which is fine, except for one specific moment during our stay (read on).

Cambodia – Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Battambang

Cambodia is famous for its temples. To explore these to fullest (and what our schedule permits) we bought a 3-day pass to visit the temples, starting with a day tour with a tuktuk, together with to Spanish guys who escaped Spain and were living in New Zealand. We started with Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom, followed by the Bayon (which was my favourite) and the Bapuon and a few others. The temples are amazing and also here, they just pop up out of nowhere, within large stretches of woods, a lake and open land. Afterwards we went to the floating village, which turned out to be quite far away and a large part of the road was very hobblybobbly. At this point, our driver could still sort of keep up with the other tuktuk. When we arrived, we decided to buy a ticket for the boat even though it was already getting late. And it was worth it! Very impressive to see people living above the water in simple houses, with animals and 'garden' organized in a compact way. People pass by in boats and some children are walking around without clothes. Despite the isolated location, people still appear to be very much free. Children were calling out and waving and we smiled and waved back. When we arrived in the village, we got onto a smaller boat on which one of the village women was peddling, her son (no clothes) standing at the back, also peddling. So cool. As many as 680 families live there! I am still impressed by it. The sun set while we were there so we had to go back in the dark. Having no light on the boat made it difficult, but luckily another boat - with a big light - was helping us out. It was dark. And we had to go back by tuktuk. With, what now become painfully clear, our slow and scared driver. On the hobbly road he was so slow that is light did not get enough power. We basically drove by the light of other drivers. When we approached the big road, we thought, and hoped, that we, may be, would go a bit faster. But no, this was not the case. Imagine someone in the Netherlands driving 50km/h on the high way: dangerous. And that is what we were. At some point, a truck was overtaking us, so we went to the side, approaching another truck which was standing at the side of the road with car trouble. Branches of wood were put in front of it, probably to warn others. Our driver did not seem to see those and we ran into the first one. It almost got stuck in the wheels but nothing serious happened. After this, we drove even slower (it must have been around 20km/h) and we reached a low when a biker overtook us. 1,5 hours later, in twice as much time as the guys, we reached the hostel. Frozen to the bone, we had to take a freezing cold shower to get all the dirt off. I can sort of imagine now that it is cold in the Netherlands.
The next day we 'went Dutch' by cycling a longer route among the temples. Best one was the one on a hill, which was totally hidden and came as a surprise when we reached it. Yesterday, we took a tuktuk - this time a fast one - to temples further away. At the end of the day, I must admit, we were a bit temple tired and relaxed.

Today we arrived in Battambang, a little old French colonialist village and took the bamboo train. It sounds bigger than it was: two 'wheels' were put on the rails and a bamboo platform was put on it with a small motor. There was only one track so when someone came from the other side, one of the trains needed to be taken of the track so that the other one could pass. We went to a small station where kids approached us, speaking quite good English and we had a drink at a family's stand. It felt like a visit and it was really nice :).

I think I have told enough for now. For those of you who reached the end: congratulations!
As I said, I hope to put up some pictures when the facilities allow it.

xxx