Two weeks, two people and two countries:
Jackie flew out to join me for the last two weeks and we agreed an itinerary covering Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and west coast Malaysia. As we didn't want to waste hours looking for 2 rooms each night, Jackie booked everything via the internet and I sat back! Being organised was a weird but very appreciated feeling after 6 months of scouring maps, guides and leaflets, and walking streets, I can tell you.
I got to KL a few days before Jackie, found a guest house in Bukit Bintang area where the "family" had stayed last time. Bought clothes as I realised that I didn't have anything except my tatty t-shirts and trekking shorts and we were going to be staying mainly in hotels not hostels!
Toured areas I hadn't seen before: went up the KL Tower (as there would be no way Jackie would go up there), seriously high (285m I think), much higher than the Petronas Towers viewing level, shame the windows are heavily tinted though; also went to the Merdeka old colonial area.
Jackie had booked a hotel right in the middle of Chinatown, so moved there and went to meet her at the airport. It was really great to see a friendly face and it felt very strange having someone next to me and nattering about home stuff as well as travel plans, even if she did turn up with a suitcase with no handle.
Stayed in KL for a couple of nights, investigating Chinatown (even found the family's infamous Chinatown rainy night restaurant again!) and its temples, and the Gardens area, really beautiful large park in middle of KL where many of the old colonials had built their mansions but sodding hot and humid to walk around (and they'd drained the bloody lake).
Jackie had a "de luxe" room at the hotel (means it has a window) which also means it overlooks the Chinatown market - very picturesque, until about 2 a.m. when they dismantle the stalls and wash down the street. So, a somewhat nackered face appeared next day! I had a cubby hole ("standard" room) at the back and didn't hear a thing - I didn't laugh too much.
Then it was a bus to Singapore. What a strange place, very regimented by laws and fines for everything and high rise offices and flats everywhere but with small pockets of the old city Chinese, Indian and Arabian quarters still in the middle of it all. Got a great zoo too, not somewhere I would choose to go normally but this one is very different - has a night safari too where you can walk through the rainforest and see the nocturnal animals under special lighting. Harbour trip too, never seen so many ships, busiest harbour in the world with Rotterdam. Boy does it rain there too.
We did stay in a hostel here because prices are outrageous, in the suburbs but had a rice/noodles food hall just down the road with a bunch of local regulars and staff who were a laugh and I think thought we were odd for being there and attempting to chat and eat with them. The locals queued out of the door for the coconut flavour rice which was apparently well known.
The hostel was an experience too, a problem meant Jackie and I sharing a family room for the first couple of nights (she doesn't snore but does grind her teeth, with Sniffy and Gran in the room next door, a Chinese girl and Gran - you decide why we called her Sniffy, it was horrible and Gran got up at 6 am to incessantly run water and go to the bathroom! Then Jackie got the single room with a captain's bunk bed which creaked like mad apparently and kept her awake again - I didn't laugh, honest.
Back to Malaysia, to Melaka (ex-Malacca) - good place, big mix of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial buildings plus what was the largest Chinese trading post in SE Asia. All being done up and the riverfront renovated really good, although they have gone over the top on museums ( including for kites, youth and self-mutilation/tattooing habits all over the world!)
Now I had got used to being chatted up by bar girls over the months but I had my daily wander during Jackie's siesta and actually got chatted up by a local bloke! Called himself a "fem-boy", really scary. Jackie tried not to laugh too much.
On to Penang island, and a smart hotel with a swimming pool! Bloody luxury. Georgetown is another ex-British colonial place with a huge mix of races (and therefore temples and architecture). One huge buddhist temple complex still being expanded. Jackie bought and signed our names on a roof tile to cover this enormous statue of the chinese goddess of mercy, so we are immortalised on a rooftop in Penang!
Anyway we had a good mix of busy and lazy days, and boozy nights. I even managed to get a long-distance telling-off by Jackie's sister in a call from England for leaving her in a bar with a bunch of ex-pats while I went for a shower!
And so back to KL and the flight home, the end of an amazing 6 months, and a fun last couple of weeks (thanks Jack). Photolink is at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Malaysia_2008_Chapter_15
Cheers! Mike
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Chapter 14: A Complete Circle and a Line
So, here I am at the end of the tour of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia - well actually I am now in Kuala Lumpur but that's another story.
Crossed the border from Cambodia into Thailand by "rocket" ferry from Sihanoukville to Koh Krong, then pickup taxi to the border and minibus from there to Trang for the night. These rocket ferries are about 60 seater streamlined boats with massive internal diesel engines and shift at about 40km per hour over water, which is going some - 4 hours on the ferry to the border then the usual paperwork and handover of currency takes about an hour (unless you pay a local to jump the queue with your passport and departure card, he disappears inside behind the counter and hey presto comes back in about 10 minutes - but it is expensive).
Trang is the nearest city, so I stayed the night there, then a bus and ferry to the island of Koh Chang for some diving and beach. Mountainous island, said to be the next Phuket, particularly as only 4-5 hours from Bangkok by road. Found this fishing village right on the southern end where the dive boats go from too, and a guest house in its own little rocky cove (so good snorkelling too) and rustic bungalows - remember those? Bamboo hut with a fan and a mattress on the floor and a toilet block a few hundred yards away, but cheap (300B, or 5GBP per night for a "double"). Diving was good, mainly small fish but loads of corals and anenomes.
And so at last I go to Bangkok and the famous backpacker area around the Khao San Road - supposed to be chaotic fun, but mainstream tourism is moving in and the road is now tourist shops and bars plus a couple of clubs but no different from other tourist areas really. Experienced people I spoke with said it has died, but still I managed to lose a couple of days / nights! Did manage to go to the Royal Palace and temples, absolutely packed, plus the King's sister, who died at New Year, is still Lying in State there as part of 100 days of mourning (all civil servants, TV presenters, etc are still having to be dressed in black everyday) so queues of Thais for the daily ceremony and walkpast.
All in all Bangkok was ok, nothing special and nothing really bad (although I didn't go to the apparent 3 red light districts) and the pollution let up after the first day so lucky there.
Bus to Kanchanaburi, and the site of the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Thai-Burma Railway Line. Again very touristified, and a party town at weekends for Thais from Bangkok, but you can still get passed that and appreciate the history. There is no sign of the famous original 220 metre wooden trestle bridge (bombed and dismantled over time), it was only in service for 6 months in 1943 because the Japanese built a concrete and steel bridge next to it which superseded it by July 1943 - I didn't know that. Anyway part of this bridge is still the original, the centre sections are post-war after it was bombed in 1945 (despite POW's being tied to the pillars to try to prevent the bombing). You can walk over it, tourist noddy train over it or catch a twice daily train from Bangkok which goes up to the next town in the hills 2 hours away via the original wooden trestle bridges, viaducts and cuttings (inc Hellfire Pass, where "working 24 hours a day by firelight cast shadows on cutting walls which looked like a scene from Dante's Inferno").
There are 3 cemeteries and a very good museum, which puts it all into context both from a global war perspective and the actual reasons, engineering and above all the lives lost, for building it. About 9,000 - mainly British, Australian and Dutch (captured whilst defending Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia) plus about 40,000 asians (mainly Malays, Burmese and Indonesian - not Thai as they signed a Cooperation Pact with Japan). A common urban myth is 4 deaths for each sleeper on the line. A sad but beautiful part of Thailand.
On south to Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand coast, and a royal summer retreat. Skyscraper hotels and condominiums disappear over the horizon, miles of good beaches and loads of golf courses, but basically of no historic interest (apart from the original fishing village, where I stayed in a guest house on stilts over the sea). Then an overnight bus to Phuket for a couple of days before flying on to KL and the final leg.
Photolink at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_14
See you soon!
Mike
Crossed the border from Cambodia into Thailand by "rocket" ferry from Sihanoukville to Koh Krong, then pickup taxi to the border and minibus from there to Trang for the night. These rocket ferries are about 60 seater streamlined boats with massive internal diesel engines and shift at about 40km per hour over water, which is going some - 4 hours on the ferry to the border then the usual paperwork and handover of currency takes about an hour (unless you pay a local to jump the queue with your passport and departure card, he disappears inside behind the counter and hey presto comes back in about 10 minutes - but it is expensive).
Trang is the nearest city, so I stayed the night there, then a bus and ferry to the island of Koh Chang for some diving and beach. Mountainous island, said to be the next Phuket, particularly as only 4-5 hours from Bangkok by road. Found this fishing village right on the southern end where the dive boats go from too, and a guest house in its own little rocky cove (so good snorkelling too) and rustic bungalows - remember those? Bamboo hut with a fan and a mattress on the floor and a toilet block a few hundred yards away, but cheap (300B, or 5GBP per night for a "double"). Diving was good, mainly small fish but loads of corals and anenomes.
And so at last I go to Bangkok and the famous backpacker area around the Khao San Road - supposed to be chaotic fun, but mainstream tourism is moving in and the road is now tourist shops and bars plus a couple of clubs but no different from other tourist areas really. Experienced people I spoke with said it has died, but still I managed to lose a couple of days / nights! Did manage to go to the Royal Palace and temples, absolutely packed, plus the King's sister, who died at New Year, is still Lying in State there as part of 100 days of mourning (all civil servants, TV presenters, etc are still having to be dressed in black everyday) so queues of Thais for the daily ceremony and walkpast.
All in all Bangkok was ok, nothing special and nothing really bad (although I didn't go to the apparent 3 red light districts) and the pollution let up after the first day so lucky there.
Bus to Kanchanaburi, and the site of the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Thai-Burma Railway Line. Again very touristified, and a party town at weekends for Thais from Bangkok, but you can still get passed that and appreciate the history. There is no sign of the famous original 220 metre wooden trestle bridge (bombed and dismantled over time), it was only in service for 6 months in 1943 because the Japanese built a concrete and steel bridge next to it which superseded it by July 1943 - I didn't know that. Anyway part of this bridge is still the original, the centre sections are post-war after it was bombed in 1945 (despite POW's being tied to the pillars to try to prevent the bombing). You can walk over it, tourist noddy train over it or catch a twice daily train from Bangkok which goes up to the next town in the hills 2 hours away via the original wooden trestle bridges, viaducts and cuttings (inc Hellfire Pass, where "working 24 hours a day by firelight cast shadows on cutting walls which looked like a scene from Dante's Inferno").
There are 3 cemeteries and a very good museum, which puts it all into context both from a global war perspective and the actual reasons, engineering and above all the lives lost, for building it. About 9,000 - mainly British, Australian and Dutch (captured whilst defending Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia) plus about 40,000 asians (mainly Malays, Burmese and Indonesian - not Thai as they signed a Cooperation Pact with Japan). A common urban myth is 4 deaths for each sleeper on the line. A sad but beautiful part of Thailand.
On south to Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand coast, and a royal summer retreat. Skyscraper hotels and condominiums disappear over the horizon, miles of good beaches and loads of golf courses, but basically of no historic interest (apart from the original fishing village, where I stayed in a guest house on stilts over the sea). Then an overnight bus to Phuket for a couple of days before flying on to KL and the final leg.
Photolink at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_14
See you soon!
Mike
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Chapter 13: Cambodian Sunsets
Hi
Last posting from Cambodia as time is running out to get to Phuket by 08/04 for my flight and I want to see Bangkok and Bridge over River Kwai plus get some more diving in!
Cambodia has been a surprise, mostly pleasant but with some irritants. Last post was after Angkor and its sheer scale and history. Phnom Penh was a mixture of new-found investment (and the corruption), tourism and really good, but relaxed, nightlife.
Then to the coast in the Gulf of Siam, Kampot and Sihanoukville:
- Kampot the original trading post and sea port for Cambodia, so with plenty of French colonial influences including the Bokor hill station (a volcanic plateau just a few miles inland from the coast), built by the French in the 1920's as a retreat from the heat of the lowland plains. Complete with 5-star hotel, casinos, auberge and whole community including church. It was abandoned twice by the French as wars overran them and was made a National Park (it has its own rainforest and micro-climate, rare tigers and elephants, etc) and is an eery place to take a 4-WD drive to get to when the clouds start rolling in from the coast and up the cliffs.. It became one of the last Khmer Rouge refuges until the 1990's, when they had pitch battles between the buildings! And guess what, the government has sold the National Park to a friendly businessman, who happens to own the State Oil business, so a 2-way road is being bulldozed through the rainforest, widening the original hill climb made by the French, and in 3 years' time the old buildings will either be renovated or destroyed and a golf course created too. Doesn't tourism stink sometimes?
- Sihanoukville, a set of good beaches just along the coast from Bokor, also now a diving, fishing and the new commercial port centre for Cambodia. The diving is ok (shallow stuff and visibility only ok), fishing is good (boat caught barracuda, snapper, ray and loads of littlies, and the kiwi that runs the boat cooks it all up in his pub in the evening!). Still great value for both compared to Thailand, $25 for day's sea fishing, inc dinner and $60 for a 2-day liveaboard diving trip! But get there soon as developers are buying it all up at a fast rate and it is getting dirty too, the locals are not into cleaning up.
So, a reference for Cambodia?: - The main tourist sites of Angkor, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville and their surrounds are definitely to be seen. I have found out that the north-east area needs seeing too, but too late, they filmed Apocalypse Now river scenes there and the lakes and trekking are supposed to be great! More mountains in north too but you can't see everything. The remainder of the countryside is flat and poor, sorry but, uninteresting, much like the Mekhong plains of Laos.
- The people are really good, smiley. laughing, and very few attempts at real rip-offs, much more new to tourism (like Laos) so have not grown the thick hide of most of Thailand (unless you get right off the beaten track in Thai).
- Value for money is excellent, much cheaper than tourist Thailand but apparently catching up - the reliance on imports for oil and consumer goods is not healthy and fuel prices are high compared to our minimum wage and fuel rates. Watch out for photocopies of books on the streets, can be great value but may be old editions of travel guides inside and/or the pages may be out of sequence / missing! A bit like any SE Asia CD's / DVD's I suppose.
- The food - they rely a lot less on chilli peppers than main part of Thailand, which makes it different not necessarily better but watch out for the oddities, please add ants and ants eggs to the menu.
- Again there is the French influence which is making a big comeback (minus the boules in Laos interestingly as it was banned by Khmer Rouge), it is seen as a stylish angle to the tourism.
- Sadly there is begging, mostly genuine amputees but not all, so you have to judge for yourself. I have tried to buy everything through charities / village opportunity schemes, etc but you really don't know what is real.
- Rural women also wear colourful pyjama suits for some reason at any time of day, maybe they are made here?
So, here I am back in Thailand, actually I crossed back a couple of weeks ago but lost some days and nights resting in Bangkok, and heading back to my original location at Phuket for my flight to Kuala Lumpur so I'll talk around then.
Happy birthday to Mary please someone, and to TC please Jackie - I have sent cards honestly!
Photolink at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Cambodia_2008_Chapter_13
Cheers! Mike
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Chapter 12: Cambodia - Years Zero and 802
Hi, do you realise that on 01/03 it was exactly 1 year ago since work gave me up? And tomorrow is one year since I first started travelling.
Anyway, an eventful crossing from Laos to Cambodia by 4 minibuses, some of it over dirt roads, a boat and hours of paperwork (and handing dollars over). I've never seen anything quite so chaotic for an international border, but finally made it to a small city, Kratie, on the Mekhong river about halfway between the Laos border and the capital, Phnom Penh. Yet another one with loads of French colonial buildings, many rundown but many now government offices, but friendly and pleasant.
Talking of government, the politicians and armed forces here are apparently even worse than Thailand and Laos - openly corrupt; selling public land to developers and keeping the money; jobs for the families; swanning around in enormous 4WD Lexus landcruisers. The remainder of the population can now run their own businesses or they farm.
Slightly odd here is that there is still a Royal Family, who until very recently were still active in the politics, even managing to come through the Khmer Rouge years unscathed. It is all extremely confusing with people changing sides quite regularly it seems with support from China, Vietnam or the West.
The Khmer Rouge, whose leader was Pol Pot ("Brother No 1"), was the infamous band of rebels who overran the country in 1975 when the Americans and Vietnamese left. Extreme Maoists who declared it to be Year Zero and that everyone had to work in the fields for the common good and that educated people (and any rivals) were the enemy. So they closed all schools, temples (Buddhism was banned), hospitals, etc and de-populated any cities to agricultural work camps. The educated were imprisoned, tortured and killed in the most inhumane ways, there were prisons set up in hundreds of ex-schools around the country.
The famous prison of Tuol Sleng (or S-21) in Phnom Penh with its accompanying Killing Field at Cheoung Ek, 13km away is actually only one of 343 killing sites found containing 19,433 mass graves. Estimates are 3 million people killed or starved to death in the work camps. Tuol Sleng had 14,000 prisoners in 5 years, 12 survived; Cheoung Ek has 129 mass graves (86 excavated contained 8,985 corpses); people were killed there by clubbing to death to save on bullets, with chemicals piled on top just in case they weren't dead and to stop the smell. Kids (families of the educated, just in case they too became clever) were killed by smashing their heads into a tree!
Eventually the Vietnamese took over Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge fled to the jungle mountains bordering with Thailand, where they continued to fight until 1991, taking thousands of prisoner workers with them. The world's largest minefield was laid by the freed Cambodians and Vietnamese to try to keep them there. Amazingly at this time the Western nations supported the Khmer Rouge to prevent Thailand going Vietnamese-style communist, we actually fed them and gave them ammo! Because a "fair trial basis" could not be agreed, Pol Pot died a natural death in 1998, others still await trial, if it ever gets agreed upon.
Cambodia today though is booming with foreign investment, particularly in tourism and infrastructure. Phnom Penh is really lively with the French influence coming back in a big way. Siem Reap (feeder city for Angkor) is a boomtown, building hotels and shopping complexes everywhere. So, despite all the chaos only ending 29 years ago, the locals are really looking forwards and their standards of living are rising in the towns if not for the rice farmer and fisherman - lots still live in bamboo shacks and scratch a living from pretty poor lands.
And so to Angkor from the Year 802 to 1432: firstly, what a place it is not a single temple, Angkor Wat is a single temple, vast but just one, inside Angkor. Angkor is a collection of temples, walled cities, royal palaces, reservoirs which started to be built in the halcyon days of the Angkor empire. This empire covered Thailand, Laos and the southern half of Vietnam, and Cambodia. Succeeding kings outdid each other in their building works, not just temples and walls but also enormous reservoirs and water systems to support a metropolitan area of 26 square kilometres (I think) and of up to 1 million people (many being builders and labourers, but a troop of 650 dancers, 1000 staff organising festival events and so on. They even carved the rocky bed of a spiritual spring and river 30 kms away (Kbal Spean) which fed the reservoirs.
The buildings that remain are mostly the temples as they were made of sandstone, the rest wood. The reservoirs have all but disappeared as rice fields, and so temples that would have been set as a floating island lose the impact. Unfortunately, sandstone is great for carvings but erodes and discolours to a uniform grey and succeeding empires and looters have ransacked many statues and treasures, so imagination is required as are good shoes and water. I took 3 days to get around most of it, there was more but it all becomes a blur.
I'm not sure why but Angkor didn't grab me the way Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza did. I think the others have more dramatic geography, more culture and engineering to grasp. But it is still a stunning place that I shall never forget.
Back in Phnom Penh now, came back by boat from Siem Reap down the Tonle Sap lake and river. It is the only river (and lake) in the world that flows in two directions depending on time of year. It feeds into the Mekhong at Phnom Penh during the drier seasons but when the Mekhong rises, it backs up from its delta in Vietnam and forces the water back up the Tonle Sap and refills the lake 330kms away!
Off to the seaside tomorrow (at last, the sea!) to see how developed the beach tourism is here, booming apparently with the government selling bits of beaches to private developers, and in one case to their own families! Still it has been 3 months since I left Phuket so a beach and a swim sounds good to me.
Photolink is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Cambodia_2008_Chapter_12
Cheers!
Mike
Anyway, an eventful crossing from Laos to Cambodia by 4 minibuses, some of it over dirt roads, a boat and hours of paperwork (and handing dollars over). I've never seen anything quite so chaotic for an international border, but finally made it to a small city, Kratie, on the Mekhong river about halfway between the Laos border and the capital, Phnom Penh. Yet another one with loads of French colonial buildings, many rundown but many now government offices, but friendly and pleasant.
Talking of government, the politicians and armed forces here are apparently even worse than Thailand and Laos - openly corrupt; selling public land to developers and keeping the money; jobs for the families; swanning around in enormous 4WD Lexus landcruisers. The remainder of the population can now run their own businesses or they farm.
Slightly odd here is that there is still a Royal Family, who until very recently were still active in the politics, even managing to come through the Khmer Rouge years unscathed. It is all extremely confusing with people changing sides quite regularly it seems with support from China, Vietnam or the West.
The Khmer Rouge, whose leader was Pol Pot ("Brother No 1"), was the infamous band of rebels who overran the country in 1975 when the Americans and Vietnamese left. Extreme Maoists who declared it to be Year Zero and that everyone had to work in the fields for the common good and that educated people (and any rivals) were the enemy. So they closed all schools, temples (Buddhism was banned), hospitals, etc and de-populated any cities to agricultural work camps. The educated were imprisoned, tortured and killed in the most inhumane ways, there were prisons set up in hundreds of ex-schools around the country.
The famous prison of Tuol Sleng (or S-21) in Phnom Penh with its accompanying Killing Field at Cheoung Ek, 13km away is actually only one of 343 killing sites found containing 19,433 mass graves. Estimates are 3 million people killed or starved to death in the work camps. Tuol Sleng had 14,000 prisoners in 5 years, 12 survived; Cheoung Ek has 129 mass graves (86 excavated contained 8,985 corpses); people were killed there by clubbing to death to save on bullets, with chemicals piled on top just in case they weren't dead and to stop the smell. Kids (families of the educated, just in case they too became clever) were killed by smashing their heads into a tree!
Eventually the Vietnamese took over Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge fled to the jungle mountains bordering with Thailand, where they continued to fight until 1991, taking thousands of prisoner workers with them. The world's largest minefield was laid by the freed Cambodians and Vietnamese to try to keep them there. Amazingly at this time the Western nations supported the Khmer Rouge to prevent Thailand going Vietnamese-style communist, we actually fed them and gave them ammo! Because a "fair trial basis" could not be agreed, Pol Pot died a natural death in 1998, others still await trial, if it ever gets agreed upon.
Cambodia today though is booming with foreign investment, particularly in tourism and infrastructure. Phnom Penh is really lively with the French influence coming back in a big way. Siem Reap (feeder city for Angkor) is a boomtown, building hotels and shopping complexes everywhere. So, despite all the chaos only ending 29 years ago, the locals are really looking forwards and their standards of living are rising in the towns if not for the rice farmer and fisherman - lots still live in bamboo shacks and scratch a living from pretty poor lands.
And so to Angkor from the Year 802 to 1432: firstly, what a place it is not a single temple, Angkor Wat is a single temple, vast but just one, inside Angkor. Angkor is a collection of temples, walled cities, royal palaces, reservoirs which started to be built in the halcyon days of the Angkor empire. This empire covered Thailand, Laos and the southern half of Vietnam, and Cambodia. Succeeding kings outdid each other in their building works, not just temples and walls but also enormous reservoirs and water systems to support a metropolitan area of 26 square kilometres (I think) and of up to 1 million people (many being builders and labourers, but a troop of 650 dancers, 1000 staff organising festival events and so on. They even carved the rocky bed of a spiritual spring and river 30 kms away (Kbal Spean) which fed the reservoirs.
The buildings that remain are mostly the temples as they were made of sandstone, the rest wood. The reservoirs have all but disappeared as rice fields, and so temples that would have been set as a floating island lose the impact. Unfortunately, sandstone is great for carvings but erodes and discolours to a uniform grey and succeeding empires and looters have ransacked many statues and treasures, so imagination is required as are good shoes and water. I took 3 days to get around most of it, there was more but it all becomes a blur.
I'm not sure why but Angkor didn't grab me the way Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza did. I think the others have more dramatic geography, more culture and engineering to grasp. But it is still a stunning place that I shall never forget.
Back in Phnom Penh now, came back by boat from Siem Reap down the Tonle Sap lake and river. It is the only river (and lake) in the world that flows in two directions depending on time of year. It feeds into the Mekhong at Phnom Penh during the drier seasons but when the Mekhong rises, it backs up from its delta in Vietnam and forces the water back up the Tonle Sap and refills the lake 330kms away!
Off to the seaside tomorrow (at last, the sea!) to see how developed the beach tourism is here, booming apparently with the government selling bits of beaches to private developers, and in one case to their own families! Still it has been 3 months since I left Phuket so a beach and a swim sounds good to me.
Photolink is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Cambodia_2008_Chapter_12
Cheers!
Mike
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Chapter 11: At a Laos end
Following the Mekhong river down through central and southern Laos before crossing the border into Cambodia before my visa expires on 03/03. Basically very boring countryside as it is all flat river plain of dusty brown paddy fields and cattle with the craggy limestone hills marking the edge of the plain in the distance eastwards. Everyone is waiting for the next rains to start, usually in April then building into the real rainy season from June to October.
Stopped at Ta Kaek in central Laos for a 2-day trek into the hills here, which are huge limestone hills rising like cliffs from the plain with rivers cutting gorges and caves into, and under, them. Some rivers actually have cut right through and created tunnels of up tp 7 kilometres in length which emerge the far side of the range - that must have been something when the river first burst through!
Then came the overnight stay at a remote village and a lao lao party, well two actually. Lao lao is the local moonshine made from rice spirit but is surprisingly smooth rather like drinking neat good quality vodka (bars actually hide it in vodka bottles as it is illegal). Our guide said we should go to the village next door for a look see, we got to the first house where the lao lao was already flowing and got invited up onto the living platform (all stilted houses here) to join the headman, local teacher and soldier. All the kids crowded around too of course, staring at the farang (foreigners). Lao lao is served by the host and a communal glass is used, which is passed back and forth to everyone in the circle - to refuse is to offend. However after about half a dozen rounds some of our group passed the glass on to those of us still drinking, and then it was our turn too - it's a hard life.
Anyway the music started on a battered stereo driven by a generator and the dancing started as did the photo taking (the kids loved seeing themselves in the displays, some of the adults were not so keen!). The kids would mimic whatever dance steps the adults were doing, this started a sort of surreal Simon Says sort of deal (sorry very sixties / seventies ref there).
So the time came after about 4 hours of this to stagger back to our village, where we were met by that headman and more lao lao (and beer!) and a ceremony called "Baci". This offers welcome, health and safe travels to the guests, during which you touch the centrepiece with your hand full of food and drink and the headman says prayers and ties a piece of white string to your wrist as a good luck charm. Then back to the drink and more kids (large and small by this time) dancing until time was called and everyone collapsed onto a sleeping platform unconscious.
Six o'clock next morning the roosters told everyone to get up, a quick breakfast of cold fish and sticky rice, mmmm yummy, and off on a 14 kilometre hike into the hills ( am I glad I don't get hangovers, some guys were really suffering)! This was followed by an easier afternoon visiting more lagoons and rapids mainly by tractor rides, much to everyone's relief.
And so to southern Laos, to the Bolavan Plateau amd Si Pan Don ("4,000 islands").
The Bolavan rises out of the Mekhong plain, a volcanic plateau remaining from a long extinct volcanic region, and has its own micro-climate allowing tea and coffee plantations, with huge waterfalls falling of its edges. Predictably we come back to the 2nd Indo-Chinese War as it is called here, but the extension to the Vietnam War to us, the place commands views westward over the Mekhong plains and eastwards over the valleys through which the Ho Chi Minh trail ran. Bomb craters, landmine clearance and injuries still going on. Did a one day trek through the forest to the top of some of the falls, which was good.
Then to Si Pan Don, where the Mekhong river splits into hundreds of small branches making it 14km wide. In dry season thousands of islets, sand bars and rocks emerge, hence the name. Some of the islands though are permanent and have a lazy south-sea island feel to them of coconut palms, very little vehicle traffic (everything by longtail boat) and riverside beaches. The backpackers have found a couple of these and turned them into drinking / smoking havens, others have small guesthouses and river trips to see the islands, rare freshwater dolphins and massive rapids at the southern end where the river comes back into one. The French even built a railway over a couple of the islands to get around the rapids to try to make the Mekhong a trade route all the way from SW China to the sea in Vietnam, remains still there.
I managed to see the dolphins but they were too far away to photo, so you'll just have to trust me!
OK, now in Cambodia going to Angkor, city of temples, should be good!
Photolink is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Laos_2008_Chapter_11
Cheers!
Mike
Stopped at Ta Kaek in central Laos for a 2-day trek into the hills here, which are huge limestone hills rising like cliffs from the plain with rivers cutting gorges and caves into, and under, them. Some rivers actually have cut right through and created tunnels of up tp 7 kilometres in length which emerge the far side of the range - that must have been something when the river first burst through!
Then came the overnight stay at a remote village and a lao lao party, well two actually. Lao lao is the local moonshine made from rice spirit but is surprisingly smooth rather like drinking neat good quality vodka (bars actually hide it in vodka bottles as it is illegal). Our guide said we should go to the village next door for a look see, we got to the first house where the lao lao was already flowing and got invited up onto the living platform (all stilted houses here) to join the headman, local teacher and soldier. All the kids crowded around too of course, staring at the farang (foreigners). Lao lao is served by the host and a communal glass is used, which is passed back and forth to everyone in the circle - to refuse is to offend. However after about half a dozen rounds some of our group passed the glass on to those of us still drinking, and then it was our turn too - it's a hard life.
Anyway the music started on a battered stereo driven by a generator and the dancing started as did the photo taking (the kids loved seeing themselves in the displays, some of the adults were not so keen!). The kids would mimic whatever dance steps the adults were doing, this started a sort of surreal Simon Says sort of deal (sorry very sixties / seventies ref there).
So the time came after about 4 hours of this to stagger back to our village, where we were met by that headman and more lao lao (and beer!) and a ceremony called "Baci". This offers welcome, health and safe travels to the guests, during which you touch the centrepiece with your hand full of food and drink and the headman says prayers and ties a piece of white string to your wrist as a good luck charm. Then back to the drink and more kids (large and small by this time) dancing until time was called and everyone collapsed onto a sleeping platform unconscious.
Six o'clock next morning the roosters told everyone to get up, a quick breakfast of cold fish and sticky rice, mmmm yummy, and off on a 14 kilometre hike into the hills ( am I glad I don't get hangovers, some guys were really suffering)! This was followed by an easier afternoon visiting more lagoons and rapids mainly by tractor rides, much to everyone's relief.
And so to southern Laos, to the Bolavan Plateau amd Si Pan Don ("4,000 islands").
The Bolavan rises out of the Mekhong plain, a volcanic plateau remaining from a long extinct volcanic region, and has its own micro-climate allowing tea and coffee plantations, with huge waterfalls falling of its edges. Predictably we come back to the 2nd Indo-Chinese War as it is called here, but the extension to the Vietnam War to us, the place commands views westward over the Mekhong plains and eastwards over the valleys through which the Ho Chi Minh trail ran. Bomb craters, landmine clearance and injuries still going on. Did a one day trek through the forest to the top of some of the falls, which was good.
Then to Si Pan Don, where the Mekhong river splits into hundreds of small branches making it 14km wide. In dry season thousands of islets, sand bars and rocks emerge, hence the name. Some of the islands though are permanent and have a lazy south-sea island feel to them of coconut palms, very little vehicle traffic (everything by longtail boat) and riverside beaches. The backpackers have found a couple of these and turned them into drinking / smoking havens, others have small guesthouses and river trips to see the islands, rare freshwater dolphins and massive rapids at the southern end where the river comes back into one. The French even built a railway over a couple of the islands to get around the rapids to try to make the Mekhong a trade route all the way from SW China to the sea in Vietnam, remains still there.
I managed to see the dolphins but they were too far away to photo, so you'll just have to trust me!
OK, now in Cambodia going to Angkor, city of temples, should be good!
Photolink is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Laos_2008_Chapter_11
Cheers!
Mike
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Chapter 10: Surreal times 4 and Real...
Vientiane, the capital of Laos, I mentioned at end of last blog. Nothing to add except the MaeKhong river here is now so low that you can only just see it on the Thai side of the river bed.
Then I flew up to the north east mountain plateau called the Plain of Jars in a province called Xieng Huang toward the Vietnamese border. A bleak place in winter, some sun during the day but always a cold wind blowing over the plain, gives the provinial "capital", Phonsavan, a real frontier feel. Bloody freezing at night too, and no heating in the guest house! To bed fully clothed again, I really must head south.
This place has about 60 sites of over 600 jars where some civilisation about 2-4,000 years ago (they can't agree) rolled huge lumps of sandstone from a quarry 15km away, then carved them into enormous stone jars on vantage points on the plain. There is also a nearby cave with 3 carved vents in the roof, which was used as the cremation site. Three theories:
But, roll forward in time to 1965-73 and the Vietnam War, well actually the Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia War. Laos particularly was dragged into the conflict as they allowed the North Vietnamese to create the Ho Chi Minh supply trail right down the mountain ranges the length of the country, and so into the back door of South Vietnam and Cambodia.
Now, both sides agreed under the Geneva Convention that no combat would be fought in Laos - both sides secretly ignored that, the Viets carried on using it as a supply line, so the Americans thought they would close it down. But they couldn't do that publicly due to the Convention, so they created a CIA project to secretly carry out this "alternative theatre" (couldn't name Laos). They put volunteers in from the USAF pilots (the scouts became known as Ravens) and Army trainers, removed their uniforms and dog tags, and built an entire secret city (Long Cheng) in the mountains, which could only be approached by air. Then they recruited a tribe, called the Hmong, who did not like the pro-communist Laos government, 50,000 of them, and armed / trained them and set them as the army to face the Communists. The USAF then scouted by air, and bombed the trail and any communist army troops / bases to bits. Millions of tons of bombs, much of which onto the Plain of Jars area - the Hmong then followed up with land battles there (40,000 killed from both sides). About 30% of the bombs and shells failed to explode, add in the landmines by the armies and you have a place which is still lethal today.
So, there I was in amongst the jars one minute in pre-historic times, then being guided along a signed UXO (unexploded ordnance) / mine-cleared path to the next jars site, passing trenches, tank traps, foxholes, bomb craters by the hundreds and above all live ammunition still coming to the surface! (see pics) Add in the sounds of controlled (hopefully) explosions by the UXO Lao (Lao government agency) and Mines Advisory Group (a British charity) teams and there we have surreal days spent on the plain and in the villages.
You can actualy pick up pieces of metal and equipment as you go. Went to a shot-down T28 fighter crash site where you can just pick up pieces of the plane! Very small pieces as the locals have taken everything for scrap, which sells at 3,000 kip (about 20p) per kilo.
This brings me to the third part of the surreal days: scrap metal at 20p per kilo is worth risking your life for here, and there is a cottage industry (illegal but noone does anything) here where kids and adults scour the bomb craters and battle sites for scrap or UXO's. Now UXO's need defusing, and people are getting killed trying it on a weekly basis - a single bomb can weigh 60 kilos and more! There is a picture in the MAG office in town of 3 guys, 2 dead and 1 blinded when trying to defuse a SAM missile they found in undergrowth! MAG are still clearing farmland to enable it to be used again and therefore get people earning from farming instead of scrap metal hunting. We came across 2 kids digging outside of the cleared areas, so the we wandered over (our guide didn't seem to mind going off the path, so we followed his footsteps) to see what they had collected - pieces of shell casings, live bullets, bits of equipment. Then he said we could go over the fields back to the path, and there we saw live artillery and mortar shells just lying there being walked over by the local cattle (and us)! Took pics and walked on rather quickly.
Part 4: what the locals haven't sold, they use. So, there are cluster bomb casings (which were made to split in half on impact to release hundreds of bomblets) being used as flower pots for onions, etc or as stilts for the villagers' pig pen or rice store, bellows made from mortar shell casings used by the village blacksmith, the farm tools being mnade by the smithy from pieces of iron, aluminium cut up for cutlery. And then the "piece de resistance": a 200lb defused whole bomb had been rigged up as an air pressure tank for the local garage to blow up tyres.
But still we kept coming back to the jars, sitting there for thousands of years, now bullet marked in places as they were used as shields, but still like Stonehenge, a place of real history. Against a war that never was admitted to be happening.
Also went for a trip to a Hmong village in the mountains around the plain. Most aren't open to tourists, you need a permit to visit. The majority of Hmong joined with the Americans for the money and free guns / uniforms, but some villages opted out and stayed on their farms and many got blown up there. All told the reckoning is that 1 million Laos people lost their lives out of a population of 3 million at that time.
Back in Vientiane now, on to central Laos tomorrow to try to get to see some limestone gorges, waterfalls and cave systems.
And on a lighter note, some of Murphy's Laws on Combat Operations (thanks to Craters Bar):
Cheers!
Mike
Then I flew up to the north east mountain plateau called the Plain of Jars in a province called Xieng Huang toward the Vietnamese border. A bleak place in winter, some sun during the day but always a cold wind blowing over the plain, gives the provinial "capital", Phonsavan, a real frontier feel. Bloody freezing at night too, and no heating in the guest house! To bed fully clothed again, I really must head south.
This place has about 60 sites of over 600 jars where some civilisation about 2-4,000 years ago (they can't agree) rolled huge lumps of sandstone from a quarry 15km away, then carved them into enormous stone jars on vantage points on the plain. There is also a nearby cave with 3 carved vents in the roof, which was used as the cremation site. Three theories:
- They are funeral tombs (they had close fitting stone lids before the Chinese armies raided them in 12th century, I think) as ashes and a skeleton were found.
- They are offerings jars seated on top of tombs, as ashes and belongings have been found under them.
- Folklore says that they are giants' lao-lao (rice spirit) jars from when a legendary king celebrated victories in battle, and the cave was the distillery! My favourite.
But, roll forward in time to 1965-73 and the Vietnam War, well actually the Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia War. Laos particularly was dragged into the conflict as they allowed the North Vietnamese to create the Ho Chi Minh supply trail right down the mountain ranges the length of the country, and so into the back door of South Vietnam and Cambodia.
Now, both sides agreed under the Geneva Convention that no combat would be fought in Laos - both sides secretly ignored that, the Viets carried on using it as a supply line, so the Americans thought they would close it down. But they couldn't do that publicly due to the Convention, so they created a CIA project to secretly carry out this "alternative theatre" (couldn't name Laos). They put volunteers in from the USAF pilots (the scouts became known as Ravens) and Army trainers, removed their uniforms and dog tags, and built an entire secret city (Long Cheng) in the mountains, which could only be approached by air. Then they recruited a tribe, called the Hmong, who did not like the pro-communist Laos government, 50,000 of them, and armed / trained them and set them as the army to face the Communists. The USAF then scouted by air, and bombed the trail and any communist army troops / bases to bits. Millions of tons of bombs, much of which onto the Plain of Jars area - the Hmong then followed up with land battles there (40,000 killed from both sides). About 30% of the bombs and shells failed to explode, add in the landmines by the armies and you have a place which is still lethal today.
So, there I was in amongst the jars one minute in pre-historic times, then being guided along a signed UXO (unexploded ordnance) / mine-cleared path to the next jars site, passing trenches, tank traps, foxholes, bomb craters by the hundreds and above all live ammunition still coming to the surface! (see pics) Add in the sounds of controlled (hopefully) explosions by the UXO Lao (Lao government agency) and Mines Advisory Group (a British charity) teams and there we have surreal days spent on the plain and in the villages.
You can actualy pick up pieces of metal and equipment as you go. Went to a shot-down T28 fighter crash site where you can just pick up pieces of the plane! Very small pieces as the locals have taken everything for scrap, which sells at 3,000 kip (about 20p) per kilo.
This brings me to the third part of the surreal days: scrap metal at 20p per kilo is worth risking your life for here, and there is a cottage industry (illegal but noone does anything) here where kids and adults scour the bomb craters and battle sites for scrap or UXO's. Now UXO's need defusing, and people are getting killed trying it on a weekly basis - a single bomb can weigh 60 kilos and more! There is a picture in the MAG office in town of 3 guys, 2 dead and 1 blinded when trying to defuse a SAM missile they found in undergrowth! MAG are still clearing farmland to enable it to be used again and therefore get people earning from farming instead of scrap metal hunting. We came across 2 kids digging outside of the cleared areas, so the we wandered over (our guide didn't seem to mind going off the path, so we followed his footsteps) to see what they had collected - pieces of shell casings, live bullets, bits of equipment. Then he said we could go over the fields back to the path, and there we saw live artillery and mortar shells just lying there being walked over by the local cattle (and us)! Took pics and walked on rather quickly.
Part 4: what the locals haven't sold, they use. So, there are cluster bomb casings (which were made to split in half on impact to release hundreds of bomblets) being used as flower pots for onions, etc or as stilts for the villagers' pig pen or rice store, bellows made from mortar shell casings used by the village blacksmith, the farm tools being mnade by the smithy from pieces of iron, aluminium cut up for cutlery. And then the "piece de resistance": a 200lb defused whole bomb had been rigged up as an air pressure tank for the local garage to blow up tyres.
But still we kept coming back to the jars, sitting there for thousands of years, now bullet marked in places as they were used as shields, but still like Stonehenge, a place of real history. Against a war that never was admitted to be happening.
Also went for a trip to a Hmong village in the mountains around the plain. Most aren't open to tourists, you need a permit to visit. The majority of Hmong joined with the Americans for the money and free guns / uniforms, but some villages opted out and stayed on their farms and many got blown up there. All told the reckoning is that 1 million Laos people lost their lives out of a population of 3 million at that time.
Back in Vientiane now, on to central Laos tomorrow to try to get to see some limestone gorges, waterfalls and cave systems.
And on a lighter note, some of Murphy's Laws on Combat Operations (thanks to Craters Bar):
- Incoming fire has right of way
- Try to look unimportant, they may be low on ammunition
- The enemy diversion you're ignoring will be the main attack
- If your attack is going well, its an ambush
- When you have secured an area, don't forget to tell the enemy
- Never draw fire, it irritates those around you
- Never share a trench with anyone braver than yourself
- Everything being equal, the side with the simplest uniform wins
- The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire, is incoming friendly fire
- Each side is convinced that they are about to lose, they are both right
- Always remember, your weapon was made by the lowest bidder!
Cheers!
Mike
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Chapter 9: Laos, lousy weather
Crossed into Laos by longtail boat across the MaeKhong to Huay Xai and after much confusion and paperwork and money by bus into the mountains near the Chinese border at Luang Nam Tha.
The idea was to base there and do some trekking which is just taking off here in conjunction with various country's agencies all designed to aid the hill-tribes and to preserve the forests from extensive logging (mainly by the Chinese). However the weather deteriorated and we got rain and cold winds, all from the Chinese weather system which dumped tons of snow on them! So I left, without even a picture.
You can't go much further north from there, so I shall be heading pretty much south-east following the MaeKhong river right down Laos and then down Cambodia for the next 2 months or so. The weather has been either dull, cold but dry with others sunny once the cloud is burnt off. I need to get south!
Anyway, Laos:
So the mix is one group doing the architecture, temples and art / handicrafts, the others wanting bars, music and clubs - weird in what is still a communist country with hammer and sickle flags flying everywhere. But money talks. Laos is apparently like Thailand 15 years ago, still relatively small hotspots of tourism but those are developing very fast. The volume and rampant capitalism has taken me by surprise, I have to admit, and prices in the hotspots are at least double of elsewhere but the number of hotspots will always be limited by geography and there are no beaches so the party people are starting to move on to Cambodia and Vietnam as the weight of mass tourism takes over apparently.
Luang Prabang, the original royal capital of the kingdom - a world heritage site and quite beautiful, on a headland by the MaeKhong. The historic part is quiet and beautifully laid out with temples, palace, and colonial houses (many now boutique hotels and restaurants (auberges even), the south end is the cheap end for the travellers with bars, markets, guesthouses and food stalls galore - good fun.
Vang Vieng, the party town, was just a crossing point over the Nam Soi river, but set in amongst limestone cliffs, cave systems and forests - really pretty, when the sun shone. A ghost town during the day as people sleep it off / laze in the bars watching loops of reruns of "Friends" (true! trust me) or are caving, kayaking or tubing on the river (with a stop at every bar on the way!), comes alive at night. Went kayaking, but tubing on your own didn't sound the same somehow.
Now in Vientiane, capital city and another mix of French and Lao plus new communist monuments. Big number of Europeans working in aid agencies, charities and teaching. Quite a good mix of bars and restaurants down by the river. Yet to explore more but I only have 3 more weeks here and still in the north, something will have to be dropped off the wish list.
Enough! Photolink is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Laos_2008_Chapter_9
Cheers! Mike
The idea was to base there and do some trekking which is just taking off here in conjunction with various country's agencies all designed to aid the hill-tribes and to preserve the forests from extensive logging (mainly by the Chinese). However the weather deteriorated and we got rain and cold winds, all from the Chinese weather system which dumped tons of snow on them! So I left, without even a picture.
You can't go much further north from there, so I shall be heading pretty much south-east following the MaeKhong river right down Laos and then down Cambodia for the next 2 months or so. The weather has been either dull, cold but dry with others sunny once the cloud is burnt off. I need to get south!
Anyway, Laos:
- the French colonial influence remains not only in old colonial-style buildings but also oddities like baguettes, petanque (French bowls), bakeries and cafes. This is mixed with old Lao architecture and buddhist temples, and now with tourist hotels and demands. The people are really friendly and laid-back, and everything is written up in western (French or English) as well as Lao script.
- Lao food is good, a little less spicy than Thai but pretty similar, and having French bread sandwiches is a treat. Beer Lao is really good (they even do a dark beer of 6.5%!) and lao-lao the local rice spirit is eye-watering.
- Everything is even cheaper than Thailand outside of the tourist hotspots. Beer 0.55GBP for 640ml bottle, a double room with own bathroom is about 3GBP (but up to 11GBP in Luang Prabang and Vientiane for same - see below), a meal costs me about 2GBP. Spending 11GBP per day for everything including buses on average!
- Geography is 75% mountain and river gorges with only real towns along MaeKhong river. Lots of exploring to be done, I hope.
- Apart from subsistence farming for the majority, there is a lot of weaving in silk and cotton, and then there is tourism.
- Transport is funny, buses are old Chinese things and they operate a "we are never full" policy for people or produce. I sat on sacks of potatoes for 6 hours the other day, the entire floor of the bus was covered in them before anyone could get on! The main roads are ok, but if it not a trade route along the MaeKhong or across to China or Vietnam then it is unpaved and bone-shaking, and slow (4 hours to do 70 miles).
- Currency: 17,000+ KIP to 1GBP, so maths is required here. But nothing costs less than 1,000 to a foreigner so forget all the zeroes, but you do end up with wads of notes, and i'm now a millionaire!
The government is trying to keep it under control with all pubs closing by 11.00, licensed clubs at 12.30 or so but the party town of Vang Vieng has an island in the middle of the river where the party carries on without alcohol (supposedly; although "Happy" Fruit Shakes and Pizzas are on the menu which contain both alcohol and your choice of drug - opium, marijuana, mushrooms, etc)! A couple of interesting evening of people watching.
So the mix is one group doing the architecture, temples and art / handicrafts, the others wanting bars, music and clubs - weird in what is still a communist country with hammer and sickle flags flying everywhere. But money talks. Laos is apparently like Thailand 15 years ago, still relatively small hotspots of tourism but those are developing very fast. The volume and rampant capitalism has taken me by surprise, I have to admit, and prices in the hotspots are at least double of elsewhere but the number of hotspots will always be limited by geography and there are no beaches so the party people are starting to move on to Cambodia and Vietnam as the weight of mass tourism takes over apparently.
Luang Prabang, the original royal capital of the kingdom - a world heritage site and quite beautiful, on a headland by the MaeKhong. The historic part is quiet and beautifully laid out with temples, palace, and colonial houses (many now boutique hotels and restaurants (auberges even), the south end is the cheap end for the travellers with bars, markets, guesthouses and food stalls galore - good fun.
Vang Vieng, the party town, was just a crossing point over the Nam Soi river, but set in amongst limestone cliffs, cave systems and forests - really pretty, when the sun shone. A ghost town during the day as people sleep it off / laze in the bars watching loops of reruns of "Friends" (true! trust me) or are caving, kayaking or tubing on the river (with a stop at every bar on the way!), comes alive at night. Went kayaking, but tubing on your own didn't sound the same somehow.
Now in Vientiane, capital city and another mix of French and Lao plus new communist monuments. Big number of Europeans working in aid agencies, charities and teaching. Quite a good mix of bars and restaurants down by the river. Yet to explore more but I only have 3 more weeks here and still in the north, something will have to be dropped off the wish list.
Enough! Photolink is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Laos_2008_Chapter_9
Cheers! Mike
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Chapter 8: The Last Post....
....well from Thailand anyway for the time being. Off to Laos tomorrow, crossing at Chiang Khong by ferry to Huay Xai then head north east to Luang Nam Ta where there is a National Park that does trekking trips (weather permitting).
So, this post really covers my travels back to the north of Thailand with various stops along the Mae Khong (shortened to Mekong in English) river which forms the border for much of the way and up into the mountains of the Golden Triangle.
Mae Khong river is impressive even now in dry season, imagine it 13 metres higher in October! Still deep enough for 500 tonne Chinese barges to come all the way down from China.
The Golden Triangle, well the Thai side is now just a tourist label. No opium grown in Thailand any more, well not publicly, but chatting to a Chinese guesthouse owner, many of the older generation locals are still hooked so they get it from somewhere. The Thai government persuaded them to grow tea and coffee instead, and they draw Thai tourists for the products, so seems to be working. I found a coffee shop advertising brownies too, but all I got was a sugar rush (yuk). Great place though on balcony overlooking the plantations, but played smooth lounge jazz mmmmm Nice.
Mae Salong was founded in the mountains by the remnants of the Chinese anti-Maoist army, the Kuomintang. They originally took refuge in Burma in 1949, but they chucked them out in 1961 to keep in with China. Thailand have accepted them as full Thai nationals now, but you hear Mandarin spoken and Chinese lanterns and food everywhere. Everything is written 3 times: Thai, Chinese and English!
Anyway, enough for this post as I probably bored you silly with yesterday's effort (Chapter 7, no photos). It has stopped raining so I'm going out to play.
Photolink: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_8
Cheers! Mike
So, this post really covers my travels back to the north of Thailand with various stops along the Mae Khong (shortened to Mekong in English) river which forms the border for much of the way and up into the mountains of the Golden Triangle.
Mae Khong river is impressive even now in dry season, imagine it 13 metres higher in October! Still deep enough for 500 tonne Chinese barges to come all the way down from China.
The Golden Triangle, well the Thai side is now just a tourist label. No opium grown in Thailand any more, well not publicly, but chatting to a Chinese guesthouse owner, many of the older generation locals are still hooked so they get it from somewhere. The Thai government persuaded them to grow tea and coffee instead, and they draw Thai tourists for the products, so seems to be working. I found a coffee shop advertising brownies too, but all I got was a sugar rush (yuk). Great place though on balcony overlooking the plantations, but played smooth lounge jazz mmmmm Nice.
Mae Salong was founded in the mountains by the remnants of the Chinese anti-Maoist army, the Kuomintang. They originally took refuge in Burma in 1949, but they chucked them out in 1961 to keep in with China. Thailand have accepted them as full Thai nationals now, but you hear Mandarin spoken and Chinese lanterns and food everywhere. Everything is written 3 times: Thai, Chinese and English!
Anyway, enough for this post as I probably bored you silly with yesterday's effort (Chapter 7, no photos). It has stopped raining so I'm going out to play.
Photolink: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_8
Cheers! Mike
Friday, February 1, 2008
Chapter 7: Rain Stopped Play...
Yes, bloody rain in the middle of the dry season. Chinese bloke in Mae Salong (in the northern mountains) told me that it was only the second time in his memory. Might be linked with the weather system that is dumping snow all over southern China, causing mayhem there. And it is like English rain, murky, grey, cool and a consistent drizzle not your tropical downpour, 1 hour and done.
So, today's post is a dump of stuff until play resumes. No photos, just stuff.
So, today's post is a dump of stuff until play resumes. No photos, just stuff.
- Bloody computers! Trying to be a good boy and do online banking to pay the bills each month and this internet cafe system sends a bloody virus with my transmission, so Barclays blocked me out. This happened in December but I didn't know until a few days ago because they don't tell you online, just in the post - brilliant! So, beware online banking is a one-way street. PS Thanks to Jackie who is trying to sort this out for me.
- Thought I'd have a couple of days resting in Chiang Rai, a city in N. Thailand with many ex-pats, so it caters for westerners, ie it has bars. Over-rested until about 2 am, and had 3 days here. Singha beer and whisky chasers (found Johnnie Walker Red Label here (1.50GBP a shot), the best blended scotch in my opinion - not as good as malt, but hey).
- Not complaining, but: just to let you know that traveling alone is not all a bed of roses. It is nackering - planning every day, sitting in buses / trucks for up to 6 hours, finding somewhere to kip, then dumping the gear and going to see what you came to see. Then night, sometimes there are only so many night markets and noodle shops you want to see. Off the tourist trail, there a no bars as such (so I sit in the noodle shops at a plastic table on a plastic chair on the pavement, drink beer and watch the locals - most ignore you, some stare at the "farang", but I have had some weird conversations with locals more drunk than me who want to try out their English skills), and no English language bookshops. Guesthouses don't have safes either, so you either take the risk of leaving documents, camera, phone, books and money behind, so I lug it around all night, even to the loo! Thailand is very safe outside of the big cities but....And then get up next day and get on the bus (or pickup truck), hoping you are on the right one as very few have anything written in English or even any type of western script, so you trust some guy in the bus station - and everyone is milling around, shouting stuff - quite exciting really.
- Books, probably the heaviest part of all my gear - travel guides and reading. But running out of something to read at night really causes me a problem, just wish they would invent lighter ones. And don't say CD's because then I have to have a laptop, battery charger and adaptor and hope there is somewhere to plug it in, AND you can't get the bloody things here anyway! Does Lonely Planet do electronic versions?
- New Year: the Thais invent them or adopt them I think. Celebrated "International New Year" on Jan 1, then they will celebrate Chinese / Vietnamese New Year (07/02 this year), and then have their own one! Mid-April time, they have a festival, called Songhkran, which is a mass water fight from what I can tell - should be symbolic water blessings but sort of get carried away. Might try and change my flight to stick around for that.
- Thai politics! Wow, what chaos, each party claiming the other rigged or bought votes. And a full-time central control board specifically set up to investigate the claims! Then they issue red and yellow cards - brilliant, one red card and the politician is sent-off and they re-run that constituency's election! If three party people get done they ban the whole party. The General Election was in December but the re-runs are still going on and the new Prime Minister only got sworn in this week - a coalition of 5 parties, that's really going to work isn't it? Its Thaksin's (the guy who bought Man City with allegedly embezzled millions) party too who won the most seats - they reckon that he is running the show from his place in Hong Kong as he is on criminal charges here.
- Ex-pats: what a mixture of nationalities and types. Seem to fall into 4 categories though: the-happily-married-to-local ones - usually running bars (although I was told of one who didn't know his wife was an illegal Burmese migrant until he tried to register the birth of his new baby!); the old bloke seen trailing around behind a local lady looking decidedly lost and sad, and still not understanding what she is happily saying to her friends; the loners, effectively retired, drifting around the bars in their chosen home city (usually somewhere easy to get new visas by a day run to Burma); and the retired couples/ singles who have bought a house and come here every European winter, they seem the happiest.
- Buddhism: the wheel of life, as I understand it you go round and round with your various , assumed to be sinful, lives until you either drop into your own personal hell, or reach Nirvana and cease to exist at all which apparently is a good thing as then you have no earthly woes. By the way, it is Year 2551 here, marked from when Buddha was enlightened in the 6th century BC in India. So that's why there is a strong entwining between Hinduism and Buddhism, he was an Indian prince, so I believe. Strangely the year clicks over on "International New Year" not Thai New Year, how does that work??
- Drinking: the Thais really love it. They eat out a lot, and have this thing where the host brings a bottle of whisky to the restaurant, the restaurant puts a trolley at the side of the table and supplies a bucket of ice and the mixers (usually soda water) and serves out the whisky all night. Once finished the party buys another bottle or flask from the place and off they go again. The empties stay on the trolley so that there are no arguments at the end! The tourist bars now do this "Buy a Bucket" thing (but you have to buy the bottle of whisky from them of course), a big thing at beach parties - sit around your bucket and share with your mates, very civilised. The type (Thai or imported) and size of bottle is a big status thing to the Thais, Johnnie Walker Black Label seems the top, not my favourite though in case anyone was asking?
- Fermented chicken tendons, whole pickled swallows and frog curry, plus roasted chestnuts are the latest seen (but not tried yet). I'm told spiders are eaten in Cambodia! We shall see. By the way, chillis still get me. And I have no idea what is in the various steaming pots on the stalls, but some of it tastes pretty good! I can nearly order food now, many places have no English menu (or any menu!), and can count pretty well too so I can pay the bus fares and bills OK. They cook everything with a base of spices, and then give you jars of chilli, chilli vinegar, sugar and fish sauce so you can add hot, sour, sweet and salt to your own taste.
- The language: tricky stuff as it has 5 tones for words, each carries a completely different meaning! So, "mai" means "new", "burn", "wood", "not" and "not??" depending on how it is said. So, "New wood doesn't burn does it?" is "Mai mai mai mai mai?" (nicked that from Lonely Planet). And "Khao" is rice, hill, white and understand, which makes for interesting thoughts on what the hell the Thais think I'm trying to say. "Khai" is egg and "Kai" is chicken too.
- More drinking: I forgot to tell you in earlier posts about the hardships of trekking. Most nights we stay in hill tribe villages and they bring in stuff to try to sell to you, mostly handwoven hats and bags and silver / leather jewellery, not for me I have to say. Can't see me with a handwoven hippy sling bag, although I see many tourists do. But the other thing they bring for the local guides, who are all mates, is "happy water". I saw all these plastic water bottles being taken into the guides, and they cut off the neck of an empty one and were using it as a communal shot glass for water from these bottles. So, I walk over and ask and find out it is the local moonshine (usually rice or corn spirit). So, I say look I'll buy a slab of beer to share from the village store or head man, can I join you? Became quite a regular thing. Good stuff, very happy, until I see the guides next day! I leave them to their drinking games after a while, and they carry on into the wee hours, while I get some kip - it softens the bamboo sleeping platform I found.
Enough I hear you say! Aiming to get a photo post out soon too, last one in Thailand.
Cheers!
Mike
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Chapter 6: Ayutthaya, Crickets and Bats
Just re-read last posting and realised I didn't explain "Ticks": two aspects, Ticks as in yes this province really is something special; and as in the insect, I managed to collect a few on the trek - nasty little bloodsuckers which need salt and/or good fingernails to unhook them.
Anyway, Ayutthaya - the capital city that took over from Sukhothai, and lasted for 400+ years before being sacked and burned by the Burmese, who then withdrew after 3 years taking all the treasures and having melted all the gold from the statues. Bangkok then became capital and slowly formed Thailand, with more wars and European colonialism along the way.
And so back to nature withh a trek into Khao Yai National Park eastwards from Ayutthaya into what is North-East Thailand, known as Isan as it is mainly populated by a mix of Lao and Chinese ethnic groups and has a distinct cuisine and culture. I have now eaten fried preying mantis, bamboo worms, silkworms and crickets but drew the line at one menu item: fried appendix! (didn't say from what and I wasn't going to ask).
Went looking for wild elephants, bears, tigers (very rare) and found bats, bugs and birds. But what birds, giant hornbills - really prehistoric with 1.5 metre wingspans. They actually sound like helicopters as the wind goes through their wings.
The bats were incredible too, 2 million of them from a single cave at dusk. I took some video, but the Google web albums tool only deals with standard photos, so I'll try to put them in Facebook (maybe!!). A python at night was an interesting thing to trip over too.
Now travelled up through the North East to Nong Khai on the banks of the MaeKhong river and the border with Laos, but that's for the next post.
Photolink is: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_6
Cheers!
Mike
Anyway, Ayutthaya - the capital city that took over from Sukhothai, and lasted for 400+ years before being sacked and burned by the Burmese, who then withdrew after 3 years taking all the treasures and having melted all the gold from the statues. Bangkok then became capital and slowly formed Thailand, with more wars and European colonialism along the way.
And so back to nature withh a trek into Khao Yai National Park eastwards from Ayutthaya into what is North-East Thailand, known as Isan as it is mainly populated by a mix of Lao and Chinese ethnic groups and has a distinct cuisine and culture. I have now eaten fried preying mantis, bamboo worms, silkworms and crickets but drew the line at one menu item: fried appendix! (didn't say from what and I wasn't going to ask).
Went looking for wild elephants, bears, tigers (very rare) and found bats, bugs and birds. But what birds, giant hornbills - really prehistoric with 1.5 metre wingspans. They actually sound like helicopters as the wind goes through their wings.
The bats were incredible too, 2 million of them from a single cave at dusk. I took some video, but the Google web albums tool only deals with standard photos, so I'll try to put them in Facebook (maybe!!). A python at night was an interesting thing to trip over too.
Now travelled up through the North East to Nong Khai on the banks of the MaeKhong river and the border with Laos, but that's for the next post.
Photolink is: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_6
Cheers!
Mike
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Chapter 5: Tak Ticks and Kingdoms
Survived the last mountain trek for a while, not sure it lives up to the "Most Beautiful in Thailand" boast but 2,000 Thai tourists went to one campsite there over their New Year holiday, so who am I to argue?
More contact with the Karen refugees on the way down to Um Phang in the open pickup truck / bus and more camps, tucked away in these beautiful mountain valleys - apparently the Karen prefer it there as they are mountain tribes anyway.
The highest waterfall in Thailand was stunning, and bloody cold to swim in, but the trek went well, so it was back to Um Phang and over a final range of mountains into the central plains, the farming centre: rice, sugar cane, tobacco and veg for hundreds of miles, all the way to the coast south of Bangkok. Most of the rivers from the mountain ranges which make up North and East Thailand all flow into these plains. Its hot and dry.
But this is where the history is: kingdoms, cities rising and falling to invading Burmese and Khmer kings, and finally Siam (then Thailand being created in 18th century, I think). Here because of the trade routes (caravans from India, Burma to China), freshwater, agricultural richness and access to the sea, via the huge rivers, south of where Bangkok now stands.
Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai from the 13th century. Sukhothai was first capital of Siam. You have to bring your imagination with you as the buildings now look sad and crumbling. But when they were built they were covered in limestone stucco / plaster and ornately carved. The sacking of the cities, looting and erosion have done the rest - now World Heritage sites. Also only the temples and palaces remain, all other buildings plus all roofs would have been made of teak and so have disappeared.
Other thoughts:
More contact with the Karen refugees on the way down to Um Phang in the open pickup truck / bus and more camps, tucked away in these beautiful mountain valleys - apparently the Karen prefer it there as they are mountain tribes anyway.
The highest waterfall in Thailand was stunning, and bloody cold to swim in, but the trek went well, so it was back to Um Phang and over a final range of mountains into the central plains, the farming centre: rice, sugar cane, tobacco and veg for hundreds of miles, all the way to the coast south of Bangkok. Most of the rivers from the mountain ranges which make up North and East Thailand all flow into these plains. Its hot and dry.
But this is where the history is: kingdoms, cities rising and falling to invading Burmese and Khmer kings, and finally Siam (then Thailand being created in 18th century, I think). Here because of the trade routes (caravans from India, Burma to China), freshwater, agricultural richness and access to the sea, via the huge rivers, south of where Bangkok now stands.
Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai from the 13th century. Sukhothai was first capital of Siam. You have to bring your imagination with you as the buildings now look sad and crumbling. But when they were built they were covered in limestone stucco / plaster and ornately carved. The sacking of the cities, looting and erosion have done the rest - now World Heritage sites. Also only the temples and palaces remain, all other buildings plus all roofs would have been made of teak and so have disappeared.
Other thoughts:
- Burmese refugees: some in these camps since 1984. 150,000 in camps plus over 2 million "migrants" who do not even have a refugee status as they didn't flee active fighting. So these guys get no education, health benefits, etc, and it is these that all the charities are trying to support. Very sad.
- Hill tribes: government is putting in dirt roads, basic school and even solar panels to many villages. Will it destroy their cultures for the shorter term benefits, and are tourists a good or a bad thing? Discuss.
- Markets: they eat anything! Bags of live bullfrogs, water beetles, crickets, intestines. But trying to bring in law to protect the local markets, which are huge and go on day and night, by agreeing with the supermarket chains (Tesco the biggest with 7-11) how big they can build and how near a town centre based on its population! Good one.
- Buddhism: not pretending to understand but I am going to read more on it. All about protecting nature and leading a good life to achieve that. No superbeing about to cast you into hell, you do it yourself! Neat.
Off south to Ayutthaya, another kingdom that took over from Sukhothai for 400 years then Bangkok took them over. A train ride of 6 hours on a slow train - you can open the windows and take photos and watch it all slowly pass.
Photolink: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_5
Cheers! Mike
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