I am officially more than halfway through my big adventure now. It's unbelievable how the past months have gone by fast, but also unbelievable all the amazing places I've been to and people I've met. Let's hope the next 6 months will be just as great!
I'm pretty much always 1 month behind on my blog nowadays. Just when I think I'll get it under control, I'm distracted or don't have easy Internet access for awhile and get even more behind. Because of this, I've decided to skip (for now) a post on my month spent in Vietnam. Not because it wasn't wonderful or I don't have that much to say about it, it's pretty much the opposite. My time in Vietnam includes some of my best times ever on my trip, thanks to a motorcycle tour I did for 11 days. I'd have a lot to say about it, so I'll just have to get back to it a bit later.
I've now been in China for almost 1 week, and it's been filled with ups and downs. You'd think that after 6 months of traveling I'd be somewhat more confident about coming to a new country, but honestly, China scared the crap out of me. It intimidated me for a number of reasons: 1) the language barrier 2) I'd heard from others that people could be unfriendly 3) I knew almost nothing about the country. Even now, I'd be hard pressed to name 5 cities in China 4) because of 3), I wasn't even sure why I wanted to go there. Are the Great Wall and the Terracotta warriors reasons enough to go through the hassles that awaited me? But in the end, after many weeks of going back and forth, I'd finally made my decision to come here. China, here I come!
My journey into China started painlessly enough, but I'd built up such a case of nerves beforehand that I was a complete wreck. I was in now in Sapa, in the north of Vietnam, and planned to make my way into China overland by crossing the border in nearby Lao Cai. But even before leaving Sapa, things were a bit more complicated than usual. So far, I've always booked my buses ahead of time and knew the exact departure time as well as little details such as how much the bus cost and where to catch it. Not so for my first bus in China. I basically had to make my way across the border on foot, and figure out the rest once in there, since no one in Sapa or Hanoi knew anything about my destination in China. Needless to say, this added to my stress. Plus, border crossings are always stressful to me. You never know what they are going to ask you, and I'd heard that the land crossing between Vietnam and China is a bit more challenging than flying into the country. I'd also read that they can confiscate your guidebooks for political reasons, so I made sure to pack mine far away in the bottom of my big backpack...
The bus from Sapa to Lao Cai was easy-peasy (organised by the hotel) and I met a couple also headed to China, albeit the major town of Kunming, not the same place I was going. The bus driver dropped us off at the border and we went through the Vietnam exit procedures, to then cross a bridge on foot to get to the China border. Once there, we filled in a few forms, waited a few minutes and were allowed entry to China. Our luggage went threw the x-ray machines and sure enough, the guard asked me if I had any books. I tried to play dumb and took out the books I had in my small backpack, but no, he was a smart cookie. He pointed to my big backpack and asked: "Any books in there?". I first took out a small paperback, then my East Africa Lonely Planet book, hoping he would be satisfied with that. No such luck. "More books?" he asked. I reluctantly took out my China guidebook and he quickly took it away. He explained in very basic English that he was taking the book away for political reasons, something having to do with the map showing Taiwan in a different color to mainland China (huh???). He was very apologetic and said he was just doing his job, but I was a bit devastated all the same. I even asked if I could tear out a few pages, but the answer was no. I was already having trouble dealing with the fact that China would be harder, and now I have to go about it without a guidebook???
We found the bus station a few minutes away from the border and I managed to convey to someone where I wanted to go. I was pointed to a claptrap bus and was told it would leave in 30 minutes and cost 55 yuan (about 8$). Excellent, with just a minor hiccup. I have no yuan (the currency exchange in Sapa would not change Vietnamese dong for Chinese yuan). Off to an ATM that a nice gentleman said was only 5 minutes away, "in that direction" (vaguely pointing to the right). I huffed and puffed down the street with all my bags and finally found a bank at the very edge of town. I was happy that the ATM worked its magic and spat out money at me, but disappointed that the bank would not exchange my dong for yuan. I am still a multi-millionaire (in dong) as we speak. The same guy who gave me directions to the ATM was the one to point me to the (hopefully) right bus. On board were 3 people besides me: the driver, the ticket seller and 1 Chinese girl. None of these people spoke any English, nor do I speak any mandarin. It was not a chatty bus ride :-)
5 hours later, I was dropped off in the middle of a town/village, without being sure of where I was. I had the name of a guesthouse in my little notebook, but alas, all the signs are in Chinese! I went up to the only hotel I could see, and even that was hard to do. I could see the hotel but could not find the entrance anywhere. It is unbelievably hard not to be able to understand any of the signs!!! After a few minutes of fumbling, I finally found the hotel entrance (up a set of stairs and behind another building...). The hotel looked fancy, and undoubtedly above my budget, but I was close to being past the point of caring. I was warmly greeted by the front desk and told that it was 180 yuan/night (about 25$/night). I told them thanks but no thanks, it's a bit too expensive, and they offered to bring me to their cheaper sister hotel. Pretty good service for supposedly unfriendly people!
The other hotel turned out to be a very new, clean and nice looking proper hotel. It even had an elevator, which impressed the hell out of me after spending the whole of Vietnam staying on the 4th or 5th floor of guesthouses with a gazillion stairs. And as a bonus, the room was even cheaper than they had told me (80 yuan, about 11$), and I got a fancy new hotel room all to myself for the same price I was paying for very ordinary places in Vietnam. Excellent start!
I was feeling a bit better when I was settled into my room, so I decided to go for a little walk around town and get the lay of the land. 1 hour later, I was back in my room, balling my eyes out. Seriously. I'd walked around for a bit, constantly stared at, as usual. I saw a few restaurants around the village, but honestly nothing that looked remotely appetizing or even clean. I'd tried to find out how to go about visiting the rice terraces the next day (they are all spread out over 40 km or so), without any success. Even in my nice hotel, the girls at the reception desk didn't speak any English. I was tired, hungry and overwhelmed and wanted my mommy!!! After 20 minutes of my pity party, I knew I had to go down and face the world again. I hadn't eaten or drunk a thing all day (bad planning + the inconvenience of being on a bus all day), so I at least needed a bottle of water or something.
And as it so often happens, things changed in an instant. I headed to the lobby armed with a map of the terraces I picked up during my walk, ready to play charades with the girls at the reception desk. Once in the lobby, I pounced on a Swedish couple who looked friendly and competent, and started asking all sorts of questions. Within minutes, I had a clear idea of what I was going to do the next day and how to do it. I was also invited to dinner with them and other tourists they'd met earlier in the day. We had a great time and my mood was now very upbeat.
I laughed at myself a few hours later as I was going to bed. I'd survived my first day in China, which was true to form for me. I've mentioned before how I've learned to realise that the first 24 hours in a new environment is usually hard for me. I know this about myself, but I sometimes forget...
The next day was my visit of the rice terraces, which are Yuanyang's claim to fame. I lucked out weather-wise, since it was an absolutely beautiful day, without much clouds, fog or mist. The rice terraces are worthy of being a wonder of the world in my opinion. It's an amazing sight to see, and quite hard to describe. I got a few nice pictures of them, but you'd probably find some nicer ones on the Internet. But I was extremely happy I'd decided to make this detour and change my itinerary to include Yuanyang.
Since then, I've moved from Yuanyang to Kunming (the capital of Yunnan province) and Kunming to Dali (a mountain resorty type place). During this time, little events like buying a bus ticket or getting from the bus station to a hostel, have felt like the biggest accomplishments. It's hard to convey how difficult it feels for me not to be able to communicate with most people, and not to understand what's going on around you! But you do manage, even if you feel sometimes clueless.
My first impressions of China? It really feels like a different world. Yuanyang is very rural, is inhabited by mostly ethnic minorities and feels quite poor, while Kunming is a very large city that looks somewhat like any western city. Construction is in full swing almost everywhere you go, and places look like they are booming. And the Chinese are also very different from us, in many ways. The way they stare at you so intently when you walk passed looks unfriendly, but is actually not so bad. If you smile, they usually smile and laugh back, and if you don't, they just look at you until they get bored with it. Some things in China will take getting used to: - the spitting, which is very noisy, constant and done everywhere, by both men AND women - it really is quite dirty. They don't seem to care about cleanliness all that much, and the toilets are absolutely revolting. I thought I was getting used to squat toilets after being in South East Asia for a while, but they were nothing compared to China. In most places, the toilets are just holes in the cement, separated by a short wall, if you're lucky. So as you are squatting there doing your business, someone can just walk by and see everything. And since they like to stare at Westerners, it makes for a very interesting experience...
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
AFT (Another f***ing temple)
Just kidding, of course, but that's what we started saying after an intense few days visiting the temples of Siem Reap :-)
The temples of Angkor near Siem Reap, Cambodia, were one of my "must see's" when I started planning this trip. I'd heard about this place for the 1st time in a "Making of Lara Croft" type show of all places, since part of the movie was filmed here. I then saw a documentary about Angkor and my fate was sealed! I would go there one day!
Since I was traveling to Siem Reap with Silke and Hanna, my plan was to spend the first 3 days seeing whatever they wanted to see, then take a break and go back to see more temples further afield on my own. They were only staying here 3-4 days, while I had a whole week I could give to this place (I love not having a schedule!!!).
The only way to get to the temples is to hire a tuk-tuk or motorcycle taxi, or to bike there yourself. Since there were 3 of us, it was cheaper and more practical to share the costs of a tuk-tuk. Not too mention that you'd have to pay me a lot of money to ride a bike in this chaotic traffic anyways. Our first evening in Siem Reap, after our *interesting* bus trip, we hopped in our tuk-tuk and went to view the sunset from atop a small mountain/hill temple. The 3 of us, plus a cast of THOUSANDS (mostly Japanese tourists, it seemed) watched the sun go down without much fanfare. As a side note, let me just say this: I seem to be doomed to see the most boring sunrises/sunsets at all the most interesting places. The more 'famous' the place, the crappier the sunrise/sunset. The most exciting this to happen at this sunset was me falling flat on my face yet again, just walking up the mountain...
The next day we attempted the 'small circuit', which we couldn't even finish. The temples are huge and you could spend hours at each. I took hundreds and hundreds of photos, and I've been told to keep only the 3 best of each temple. This seemed a bit harsh to me, but when you consider that I saw more than 20 temples, 60 photos of temples does seem a bit much. You'll see, you'll be saying AFT yourself after seeing the pictures. ;-)
It took 2 more days to complete the 'small circuit' and the 'grand circuit', with lots of stair climbing and Japanese tourist dodging. Of note: I yet again fell flat on my face (YES, AGAIN!!!) walking down from a temple this time. The same knee that got scraped the first day got scraped worse this time, with the added joy of a huge bruise. Anyone think I may be clumsy???
I won't really go into specifics about which temple was my favorite or what is a must see. That's left for everyone to see for themselves, cause this is definitely a place worth coming to. As I'm writing this almost a month after being in Siem Reap, I'm already wishing I could go back. I was feeling a bit 'off' when in Siem Reap, not in the best of traveling moods, so it would be good to go back again and see if I enjoy more. I'm sure I would...
Once the girls had gone, I did go back to see remote temples on my own. To do so, I had to bite the bullet and go for a new first for me: a motorcycle taxi. As you all probably know by now, I am the furthest thing from an adrenaline junkie. Just the opposite really (aka a big wuss). So it'll come as no suprise that I'd never ridden on a motorcycle, not even a scooter. The closest I came was when I was 7 or 8 and tried to drive a neighbor's moped. That ended with me dropping the moped and dragging half my body and the moped in gravel. No wonder I haven't been fond of 2-wheeled vehicules...
But when in Rome... There are about 6 billion motorcycles in South East Asia it seems, and Cambodia does have it's fair share. I couldn't bike to the temple I wanted to see (too far, too hot, too bloody dangerous, ...) and a tuk-tuk for 1 person is more expensive. So it's my cheapness that got me to hire a motorcycle taxi from my guesthouse. When I did so, I didn't expect the driver to be the owner's son, as he didn't really inspire confidence in me. He looked to be about 16 and the size of the average Canadian 11-year old, if that. That, plus the fact that the only road rules around here is that there are no rules, I wasn't really feeling great about the whole thing.
With all this in mind, I reluctantly got on the back of the motorbike and we headed off. No less than 5 times in the first 2 minutes did I almost ask the driver to stop. I was completely petrified, in actual mortal fear. Having nothing to hold on to, it felt like I would spontaneously eject from the motorbike and die a horrible death amidst the chaos of Cambodian traffic. I didn't know if grabbing on to the driver for dear life would be well received, so I tried to hold on to the seat beneath me. Besides, the driver was so tiny, I would have probably crushed him had I tried to hold on to him.
45 death-defying minutes later, I arrived safely at the temple. Never have I come so close to getting on all fours and kissing the ground. I was that happy to have stopped. As it was, my legs could barely hold me up once the adrenaline left my body. I needed a nap, or a drink, but preferably both. I got neither.
The temple was gorgeous, one of the more beautiful ones, but not big enough by half. I stretched my visit to a whole hour, and I'd been around the place twice already when my driver (aka the kid) asked me if I was ready to go. I wasn't, but didn't really have a choice.
Needless to say, since I've lived long enough to write about it :-), I survived the way back, but not without incident. The poor skinny little man/boy almost dropped the bike in front of his friends when I got on again (yes, I know, a very funny visual). He was very embarassed, so he in turn made fun of me to his other friends once we got back to the guesthouse. It's funny how easy it is sometimes to recognize that you're being laughed at, even when you don't speak the language. I said as much to the little man/boy and he at least had the decency to be embarassed. All-in-all, this hadn't been my favorite day so far, but like they say, it still beats going to work :-)
I spent the rest of my time in Cambodia visiting the capital, Phnom Penh. It's a big, sprawling place, with many tourist attractions revolving around the horrible years of war and genocide that happened in the 70's. While in Siem Reap, I'd read a book about a girl who'd survived the Khmer Rouge years, so I learned a bit about what happened and learned a lot more by visiting places like the S-21 prison as well as the Killing Fields (so called because it was the place were all but a dozen of the prisoners of S-21 were executed, plus thousands more). It's all heavy stuff, and people are still recovering from that time, so I can't really say Phnom Penh is a beautiful place in my eyes, but it is certainly very interesting. I learned a lot there.
And on a lighter note, I survived a few more motorcycle taxi rides, as well as got better at killing 3-inch long cockroaches and bedbugs in my less than stellar guesthouse. Gross.
The temples of Angkor near Siem Reap, Cambodia, were one of my "must see's" when I started planning this trip. I'd heard about this place for the 1st time in a "Making of Lara Croft" type show of all places, since part of the movie was filmed here. I then saw a documentary about Angkor and my fate was sealed! I would go there one day!
Since I was traveling to Siem Reap with Silke and Hanna, my plan was to spend the first 3 days seeing whatever they wanted to see, then take a break and go back to see more temples further afield on my own. They were only staying here 3-4 days, while I had a whole week I could give to this place (I love not having a schedule!!!).
The only way to get to the temples is to hire a tuk-tuk or motorcycle taxi, or to bike there yourself. Since there were 3 of us, it was cheaper and more practical to share the costs of a tuk-tuk. Not too mention that you'd have to pay me a lot of money to ride a bike in this chaotic traffic anyways. Our first evening in Siem Reap, after our *interesting* bus trip, we hopped in our tuk-tuk and went to view the sunset from atop a small mountain/hill temple. The 3 of us, plus a cast of THOUSANDS (mostly Japanese tourists, it seemed) watched the sun go down without much fanfare. As a side note, let me just say this: I seem to be doomed to see the most boring sunrises/sunsets at all the most interesting places. The more 'famous' the place, the crappier the sunrise/sunset. The most exciting this to happen at this sunset was me falling flat on my face yet again, just walking up the mountain...
The next day we attempted the 'small circuit', which we couldn't even finish. The temples are huge and you could spend hours at each. I took hundreds and hundreds of photos, and I've been told to keep only the 3 best of each temple. This seemed a bit harsh to me, but when you consider that I saw more than 20 temples, 60 photos of temples does seem a bit much. You'll see, you'll be saying AFT yourself after seeing the pictures. ;-)
It took 2 more days to complete the 'small circuit' and the 'grand circuit', with lots of stair climbing and Japanese tourist dodging. Of note: I yet again fell flat on my face (YES, AGAIN!!!) walking down from a temple this time. The same knee that got scraped the first day got scraped worse this time, with the added joy of a huge bruise. Anyone think I may be clumsy???
I won't really go into specifics about which temple was my favorite or what is a must see. That's left for everyone to see for themselves, cause this is definitely a place worth coming to. As I'm writing this almost a month after being in Siem Reap, I'm already wishing I could go back. I was feeling a bit 'off' when in Siem Reap, not in the best of traveling moods, so it would be good to go back again and see if I enjoy more. I'm sure I would...
Once the girls had gone, I did go back to see remote temples on my own. To do so, I had to bite the bullet and go for a new first for me: a motorcycle taxi. As you all probably know by now, I am the furthest thing from an adrenaline junkie. Just the opposite really (aka a big wuss). So it'll come as no suprise that I'd never ridden on a motorcycle, not even a scooter. The closest I came was when I was 7 or 8 and tried to drive a neighbor's moped. That ended with me dropping the moped and dragging half my body and the moped in gravel. No wonder I haven't been fond of 2-wheeled vehicules...
But when in Rome... There are about 6 billion motorcycles in South East Asia it seems, and Cambodia does have it's fair share. I couldn't bike to the temple I wanted to see (too far, too hot, too bloody dangerous, ...) and a tuk-tuk for 1 person is more expensive. So it's my cheapness that got me to hire a motorcycle taxi from my guesthouse. When I did so, I didn't expect the driver to be the owner's son, as he didn't really inspire confidence in me. He looked to be about 16 and the size of the average Canadian 11-year old, if that. That, plus the fact that the only road rules around here is that there are no rules, I wasn't really feeling great about the whole thing.
With all this in mind, I reluctantly got on the back of the motorbike and we headed off. No less than 5 times in the first 2 minutes did I almost ask the driver to stop. I was completely petrified, in actual mortal fear. Having nothing to hold on to, it felt like I would spontaneously eject from the motorbike and die a horrible death amidst the chaos of Cambodian traffic. I didn't know if grabbing on to the driver for dear life would be well received, so I tried to hold on to the seat beneath me. Besides, the driver was so tiny, I would have probably crushed him had I tried to hold on to him.
45 death-defying minutes later, I arrived safely at the temple. Never have I come so close to getting on all fours and kissing the ground. I was that happy to have stopped. As it was, my legs could barely hold me up once the adrenaline left my body. I needed a nap, or a drink, but preferably both. I got neither.
The temple was gorgeous, one of the more beautiful ones, but not big enough by half. I stretched my visit to a whole hour, and I'd been around the place twice already when my driver (aka the kid) asked me if I was ready to go. I wasn't, but didn't really have a choice.
Needless to say, since I've lived long enough to write about it :-), I survived the way back, but not without incident. The poor skinny little man/boy almost dropped the bike in front of his friends when I got on again (yes, I know, a very funny visual). He was very embarassed, so he in turn made fun of me to his other friends once we got back to the guesthouse. It's funny how easy it is sometimes to recognize that you're being laughed at, even when you don't speak the language. I said as much to the little man/boy and he at least had the decency to be embarassed. All-in-all, this hadn't been my favorite day so far, but like they say, it still beats going to work :-)
I spent the rest of my time in Cambodia visiting the capital, Phnom Penh. It's a big, sprawling place, with many tourist attractions revolving around the horrible years of war and genocide that happened in the 70's. While in Siem Reap, I'd read a book about a girl who'd survived the Khmer Rouge years, so I learned a bit about what happened and learned a lot more by visiting places like the S-21 prison as well as the Killing Fields (so called because it was the place were all but a dozen of the prisoners of S-21 were executed, plus thousands more). It's all heavy stuff, and people are still recovering from that time, so I can't really say Phnom Penh is a beautiful place in my eyes, but it is certainly very interesting. I learned a lot there.
And on a lighter note, I survived a few more motorcycle taxi rides, as well as got better at killing 3-inch long cockroaches and bedbugs in my less than stellar guesthouse. Gross.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Mini-bus ride from Hell?
After 10 days or so on Don Khon, I was starting to get antsy and felt it was time to go. I now had a choice to make, either 1) slowly make my way across Cambodia, stopping at a few places here and there before going to Siem Reap, or 2) heading straight there. Both had their pros & cons:
1) shorter bus rides, seeing more of Cambodia, going at my own pace
2) finally getting to see the Temples of Ankor, which I've been looking forward to for a good while, traveling with someone and sharing the costs.
I decided on option 2, the main factor being my friend Silke was also heading there and it would be more fun to see the Temples with someone. The biggest 'con' for this option was a biggie for me, a 1.5 day mini-bus ride to get from Laos to Siem Reap. Uggh.
Let me give you a feel for transportation in this part of the world, by recalling for you the 9 part journey. Be patient, it's a long post. But trust me, the trip was even longer....
1) shorter bus rides, seeing more of Cambodia, going at my own pace
2) finally getting to see the Temples of Ankor, which I've been looking forward to for a good while, traveling with someone and sharing the costs.
I decided on option 2, the main factor being my friend Silke was also heading there and it would be more fun to see the Temples with someone. The biggest 'con' for this option was a biggie for me, a 1.5 day mini-bus ride to get from Laos to Siem Reap. Uggh.
Let me give you a feel for transportation in this part of the world, by recalling for you the 9 part journey. Be patient, it's a long post. But trust me, the trip was even longer....
- Boat from Don Know to the mainland at Ban Nakassang (about 30 minutes). A lovely journey in Papa's boat, on a gloriously sunny morning. Made the trip along with a French couple heading to Thailand and Hanna, a Dutch girl also heading to Siem Reap. This part of the journey was preceded by more laos-Laos and blessings. Not bad for 8 o'clock in the morning!
- Mini-bus to the Cambodian border (about 1.5 hours). Hanna and I met up with Silke at the mainland departure point. A lot of people were there already, all heading to different places in Cambodia (the border, Stung Treng, Kampong Cham, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh). We were none to quickly randomly dispatched into different mini-buses. Nothing so sophisticated as filling up mini-buses based on the destination, just a mad dash to fill them all up. And to paint you a better picture, the mini-buses in this part of the world are a van-type vehicule that usuallyhas seats for 11 passengers plus the driver (3 rows of 3, plus 2 in the front seat). The tour companies usually like to jam in a few extra people where they can, but that day I was to witness a new level of being jammed. But back to my story: Once comfortably seated in our 3 person row, in come more people so that we end up sitting 4 per row. Oh well, at least it's not far to the border...
- Crossing the border (1 hour or so). The mini-bus stopped by a shack on the side of the dirt road. To be fair, they seem to be working on a new road, so a few years from now it should be nice. But for now, it was bumpy going. After a painless exit from Laos, we walk 200m down the road to get to the Cambodian border. This is officially no-man's-land, since we are no longer in Laos but not yet in Cambodia. All went well on the Cambodian side as well, except that I was a bit pissed off to learn that I could have just gotten my visa here for 20$ cheaper and in 5 minutes, instead of 3 days.
- Border to Stung Treng (about 2 hours). We grabbed our luggage that had been unceremoniously dumped from the mini-van on the Cambodian side of the border, pushed it atop a new mini-van and hit the road. We are still cramped 4 to a row, but the mini-buses are getting more decrepit it seems...
- Ferry crossing at Stung Treng (around 1 hour). Get off the bus, grab you luggage, pack it into yet another mini-bus, then walk to the ferry. Cross the river by ferry, standing along side the mini-bus with the luggage as well as the mini-bus we arrived in, now quite empty. Why? Good question. I couldn't figure it out, and no one would really explain it to us. But I just kept repeating my new mantra: Just go with the flow baby.
- Stung Treng to Kratie (2 hours). Now were starting to talk about being seriously cramped. Yet another different, older mini-bus, that is already half-filled with cargo of some sort. Obviously the driver has a sideline in the shipping business or something... We are packed in, starting with the skinny people first, who are loaded into the back row. Since I've yet to be in the priviledged category of the skinny people of this world, I am quite happily sitting my fat-self in the middle row, with only 2 other people, albeit not skinny ones. For once, I am happy that my fatness gets me an advantage! But wait! Now that there are 4 skinny people jammed into the last row and 1 not-so-skinny person left to jam into the mini-bus, guess where he ends up? Of course, with the other not-so-skinny people in the middle row. That, plus the cargo piled up at our feet and the skinny ladies trying to push even more of it forward, made for a truly enjoyable ride. Oh joy!
- Kratie to Kampong Cham (3.5 hours that felt like a lifetime...). Now by this time, you may imagine that my happy-go-lucky, go-with-the-flow attitude is starting to wear thin. You'd be right. I am tired, smelly and cranky, but thankfully this is the last part of the journey for today. Deep breath. Almost there. As I stand there waiting for the next mini-bus to arrive (why do we have to change buses at each stop?), I am wondering what could be in store for us next. The horribly decrepit van pulls up and we start piling in. Hanna, Silke and 1 snag the coveted first row, since they don't always pile in a 4th person there. Too narrow because of the door. Once we're well and truly packed, we notice that a group of 5 Japanese that were traveling with us all day are still hanging around, yet to be seated in a mini-bus. The driver points them in the direction of our mini-bus and a mini-revolt ensues. There is no-effin-way that we are fitting in 5 more people, say the rest of us, already seated. No way. The driver nods, smiles, and shoves 3 people in anyways. The only place available is a little foot ledge at the back of the front seats, facing the first row where the girls and I are seated. 5 minutes of fitting the puzzle pieces together, and we are now seated with our legs intertwined with the Japanese. I am basically doing the 'lambada' with an older Japanese man. Once on the road, all 6 of us shift our legs around every hour or so, to get circulation flowing again. Can I just say: thank god for my iPod? I zone out to the music and try to meditate my way through it. Not easy. And the other amazing part? Once at our destination, I see that 2 people are climbing off the top of the mini-van! One Cambodian man and one Westerner. They spent the 3+ hour trip hanging out with the luggage up top!
- Day 2: Taxi to the bus station (5 minutes). After a restful night's sleep, sharing a room with the girls, we are rudely awoken at 6:30 AM by the tour operator who had met us at our last stop last night. He knocked on our door to tell us that the bus is leaving an hour earlier, so we need to take a taxi ($$$) with him in 30 minutes at the latest. We get ready, haul ass and get into the 'taxi', which just happens to be his car. We get to the bus station only to learn that no, the bus does not leave an hour earlier than expected. The best we could figure is that he needed more time to do the taxi service for everyone, so he got us to leave an hour earlier. The more taxi service he could do, the more money he made. Gotta love capitalism, right?
- Final leg: A real bus, from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap (around 7 hours). The least noteworthy part of the journey was the last one, where we simply took a public bus to get to Siem Reap. Comfortable bus, not overfull. What a joy! We even had some Cambodian entertainment on TV. I couldn't understand a thing, but the Cambodians seem to love it! It kind of reminded me of 'La Petite Vie' from home. Not the type of humour that is easily translated in foreign languages...
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Lazy in Laos
The remainder of my time in Laos was excellent, if uneventful. I spent 5 days in the capital Vientiane, not doing much at all. I spent 1 day doing intensive sightseeing and the other days just hanging around waiting for my Cambodian visa to come through. I also learned 2 more valuable lessons for the long term traveller: 1) Try to keep track of which day it is. That way, you can get things done a lot more efficiently if you pay attention to silly little things like business hours. I applied for my Cambodian visa on Friday afternoon, and while it usually takes 24 hours to get, that doesn't include the weekend. I finally got it Monday afternoon, which explains why I stayed so long in Vientiane. 2) Try to stay vigilant about your personal belongings. At first, I was slightly paranoid about losing my stuff, but ater a while, you get a bit complacent. Case in point: I left my wallet at the ATM. I only realised it an hour or so later (when paying for my visa application), and ran back to the ATM. Obviously, it wasn't there anymore. After 10 minutes of scrambling, emptying my daypack on the street to be sure my wallet wasn't hiding somewhere in there and generally trying to avoid full-out panic, I finally calmed down long enough to notice a note stuck to the ATM door that said: 'Janie, I've got it. Please call me at xxx xxxx'. Some nice person had found it and kept it for me! I called the guy up and met him nearby. My wallet was intact and my day was redeemed! I should add another lesson learned to the list: 3) People are generally great and very helpful. And they don't expect anything more than a thank you.
Once I had my Cambodian visa in my hand, I was ready to head south and eventually cross the border into Cambodia. I took an overnight bus to Pakse, the largest town in Southern Laos. In theory, the overnight bus is a great idea. You get to sleep away a long boring bus ride and you save money on accomodation. In practice however, for me, it is less than ideal. I can never sleep more than 20 minutes at a time on the bus and since it's nighttime and I'm overtired, I get twitchy (aka 'jimmy legs'). Plus, spending 8 hours in subzero temperatures with some random German guy sleeping on my shoulder is not as exciting as it sounds :-)
My reason for stopping in Pakse was to visit a nearby temple, Wat Phu, the most impressive ruins that Laos has to offer. It just so happens that my visit coincided with the yearly festival going on at the temple, where thousands of Laotians head to Champasak (where the Wat Phu temple is) and book out all the rooms in town. Since I couldn't stay in Champasak, Pakse it was.
The day after my arrival in Pakse, after recovering from my sleepless night, I got up early-ish and started a wild goose chase to find the 'bus' to Champasak. I got a tuk-tuk to the morning market where the bus station is reported to be. Now, at this point in my travels, I should have realised that a bus station in Laos would not quite be what you would expect back home, but for some reason, that morning my brain was a little slow to catch on. I spent 30 minutes wandering around looking for buses, any bus, before I broke down and started asking for help. After perhaps the 5th person I asked, I finally was pointed in the direction of a songthaew (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songthaew) headed in the direction of Champasak. I sat in the already full truck, the only tourist amongt villagers of all types. There were 2 older ladies with blackened teeth and blood-red gums that come from chewing betel leaves, a fashionably-dressed young mother with her baby, men with no intention of taking up less than double the space they needed,.... As we waited to cram yet even more people on the 'bus', another tourist got on next to me. It so happened to be a girl I crossed paths with the previous day in Pakse. As it happens when you're traveling, we quickly became friends and spent the day visiting the temple ruins together.
Once at Wat Phu, we couldn't quite figure out what was going on with the festival. It was supposed to be the last day, so you would expect it to be very busy, but there was more garbage lying around than people. Tents were up but no music was playing, the market was opened but no people were shopping, ... We'd spoken to people who'd been the day before and they'd said it was crazy-packed. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and I got a few good pictures in. The ride back was a surprise, as transportation usually is around South East Asia. We grabbed a songthaew to Champasak, this time a smaller one meant for 8 people. It was already full when Silke and I hopped on, so we were a bit crowded, as usual. But the driver still stopped along the way to pick up more people. At one point, a whole horde of children and 2 more adults got on, so I ended up having a child sitting on each lap. I stopped counting at 19 heads since I couldn't see further, but I know there were more people hanging out the back. It was hilarious!
After spending another day sightseeing around the region, I headed to Si Phan Don, the 4000 islands region in Southern Laos, for a little rest and relaxation. I'd planned on staying there 2 days and ended up staying 9, so you can imagine how restful and relaxed the place really was! I couldn't leave!
I stayed on Don Khon, the quieter of the tourist islands. A beautiful island amidst the Mekong river, it had a magical feel to it. I stayed in a guesthouse on stilts, with a huge balcony overlooking the Mekong. It had no electricity during the day, only a generator for a fan and light in my room from 6:30-10 PM each night. What's even more amazing is that you wouldn't even notice the lack of electricity. You know what it's like when you're at home and there's a power outage? You keep trying to turn stuff on, as if you can't remember or even adapt to the lack of electricity? Well, the opposite happens here. You forget that they don't have electricity because daily life just keeps on going, no problem. I'd been eating at local restaurants for a few days before it dawned on my to question how they make the meals without electricity (gas & wood stoves). Things are kept cold(ish) in coolers filled with ice. The locals go to the mainland each day by boat to get their supplies (including ice, food, beer, ...). The generators only work during the evening, with one exception: Sunday afternoon thai boxing. All the locals get together then and watch thai boxing on their TVs, drink lao-Lao (rice whiskey) and Beerlao, and cheer on their favorites.
The place I was staying at was a huge factor in my staying much longer than I expected. While the accomodation was basic, with shared bathroom and cold Mekong water showers, and yes, even the occasional cockroach in my room, the ambiance more than made up for it. I met quite a few interesting people and enjoyed just chilling out. The guesthouse owner, known to everyone as 'Papa', was a bit of a lush. I'm being diplomatic really, he was more than a little bit too fond of lao-Lao . Any occasion, at any time of the day, was a good occasion for a shot of lao-Lao. I only realised this my 3rd day, when I went on a trip to the 'Big waterfall' with 2 other guys from the guesthouse, with papa leading the way. He was already looking a bit the worse for the wear when we got in the boat to go to the waterfall, but he thankfully navigated us there and back safely. Once there, we had to climb and clamber over rocks to get to see the waterfalls. Papa served us more lao-Lao to help us out with the exercice. I was exhausted by the end of it!
To better understand how special this place was, there was a French couple staying in the attached bungalows who'd been here last year and had now come back to stay a month. It was interesting and very beautiful to see, as they were now part of papa's family. Though papa and his family spoke no English or French, and the French couple spoke only a few words of Laos, they still managed to communicated quite well. The French couple spent all their time with the family, eating their meals together, going fishing, ... It was quite cool to see. One of the highlights of my stay on the island was an impromptu going away party held for Guillaume and Lina (the French couple). I say impromptu, since I was invited only 5 minutes before it was about to start :-) Papa did the rounds of the guesthouse trying to assemble the guests, even going so far as calling over David, a fellow Canadian staying at the guesthouse, as he was taking a swim in the Mekong!
The party started with a ceremony sitting on Guillaume and Lina's balcony. A man was there to give them a blessing as we all sat and listened. Then the fun really started, with the family and friends giving some sort of blessing to us tourists, by tying a piece of string around our wrists. I believe in the Boudhist faith, this helps keep our friendly spirits attached to us as we go traipsing around the world. Otherwise, they could just fly away, lost (this is my interpretation of the Budhist ceremony, so take it with a grain of salt ;-)) The tying of the string was accompanied by a blessing in Laos (who knows what they were saying?) and of course, the obligatory shot of lao-Lao. Thankfully, as a girl, my shots were often smaller and could sometimes be substituted for beer. Cause I counted 18 bracelets on my wrists the next morning. If that had all been lao-Lao, I don't know how I would have made it. Just ask David, the Canadian guy, who needed 2 days to recuperate :-)
At the ceremony, there were also a few older ladies part of papa's extended family. These women took a liking to me it seems, as they were quite impressed with my size. They started discreetly enough, by touching their bellies, pointing at mine and smiling. Since I smiled back, they grew bolder and started gently poking at me and touching me here, there and everywhere. I was already nicely warmed up from the lao-Lao by then, so I didn't object. We then started 'talking' as it were, them telling me they wanted some of my meat for their bones, and me telling them I would gladly part with some if I could. I would pretend to put some fat on them and we'd laugh and laugh. It was quite the bonding experience!
The rest of my time in Don Khon was spent in the most relaxing way. Every 2 days or so, I would rent a bike and cycle around the islands. On other days, I'd just go for a walk, or sit and do nothing more than reading my book. Lost of lazing around, chatting with the other guests, writing my journal, napping, ...
Sounds like paradise, doesn't it?
Once I had my Cambodian visa in my hand, I was ready to head south and eventually cross the border into Cambodia. I took an overnight bus to Pakse, the largest town in Southern Laos. In theory, the overnight bus is a great idea. You get to sleep away a long boring bus ride and you save money on accomodation. In practice however, for me, it is less than ideal. I can never sleep more than 20 minutes at a time on the bus and since it's nighttime and I'm overtired, I get twitchy (aka 'jimmy legs'). Plus, spending 8 hours in subzero temperatures with some random German guy sleeping on my shoulder is not as exciting as it sounds :-)
My reason for stopping in Pakse was to visit a nearby temple, Wat Phu, the most impressive ruins that Laos has to offer. It just so happens that my visit coincided with the yearly festival going on at the temple, where thousands of Laotians head to Champasak (where the Wat Phu temple is) and book out all the rooms in town. Since I couldn't stay in Champasak, Pakse it was.
The day after my arrival in Pakse, after recovering from my sleepless night, I got up early-ish and started a wild goose chase to find the 'bus' to Champasak. I got a tuk-tuk to the morning market where the bus station is reported to be. Now, at this point in my travels, I should have realised that a bus station in Laos would not quite be what you would expect back home, but for some reason, that morning my brain was a little slow to catch on. I spent 30 minutes wandering around looking for buses, any bus, before I broke down and started asking for help. After perhaps the 5th person I asked, I finally was pointed in the direction of a songthaew (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songthaew) headed in the direction of Champasak. I sat in the already full truck, the only tourist amongt villagers of all types. There were 2 older ladies with blackened teeth and blood-red gums that come from chewing betel leaves, a fashionably-dressed young mother with her baby, men with no intention of taking up less than double the space they needed,.... As we waited to cram yet even more people on the 'bus', another tourist got on next to me. It so happened to be a girl I crossed paths with the previous day in Pakse. As it happens when you're traveling, we quickly became friends and spent the day visiting the temple ruins together.
Once at Wat Phu, we couldn't quite figure out what was going on with the festival. It was supposed to be the last day, so you would expect it to be very busy, but there was more garbage lying around than people. Tents were up but no music was playing, the market was opened but no people were shopping, ... We'd spoken to people who'd been the day before and they'd said it was crazy-packed. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and I got a few good pictures in. The ride back was a surprise, as transportation usually is around South East Asia. We grabbed a songthaew to Champasak, this time a smaller one meant for 8 people. It was already full when Silke and I hopped on, so we were a bit crowded, as usual. But the driver still stopped along the way to pick up more people. At one point, a whole horde of children and 2 more adults got on, so I ended up having a child sitting on each lap. I stopped counting at 19 heads since I couldn't see further, but I know there were more people hanging out the back. It was hilarious!
After spending another day sightseeing around the region, I headed to Si Phan Don, the 4000 islands region in Southern Laos, for a little rest and relaxation. I'd planned on staying there 2 days and ended up staying 9, so you can imagine how restful and relaxed the place really was! I couldn't leave!
I stayed on Don Khon, the quieter of the tourist islands. A beautiful island amidst the Mekong river, it had a magical feel to it. I stayed in a guesthouse on stilts, with a huge balcony overlooking the Mekong. It had no electricity during the day, only a generator for a fan and light in my room from 6:30-10 PM each night. What's even more amazing is that you wouldn't even notice the lack of electricity. You know what it's like when you're at home and there's a power outage? You keep trying to turn stuff on, as if you can't remember or even adapt to the lack of electricity? Well, the opposite happens here. You forget that they don't have electricity because daily life just keeps on going, no problem. I'd been eating at local restaurants for a few days before it dawned on my to question how they make the meals without electricity (gas & wood stoves). Things are kept cold(ish) in coolers filled with ice. The locals go to the mainland each day by boat to get their supplies (including ice, food, beer, ...). The generators only work during the evening, with one exception: Sunday afternoon thai boxing. All the locals get together then and watch thai boxing on their TVs, drink lao-Lao (rice whiskey) and Beerlao, and cheer on their favorites.
The place I was staying at was a huge factor in my staying much longer than I expected. While the accomodation was basic, with shared bathroom and cold Mekong water showers, and yes, even the occasional cockroach in my room, the ambiance more than made up for it. I met quite a few interesting people and enjoyed just chilling out. The guesthouse owner, known to everyone as 'Papa', was a bit of a lush. I'm being diplomatic really, he was more than a little bit too fond of lao-Lao . Any occasion, at any time of the day, was a good occasion for a shot of lao-Lao. I only realised this my 3rd day, when I went on a trip to the 'Big waterfall' with 2 other guys from the guesthouse, with papa leading the way. He was already looking a bit the worse for the wear when we got in the boat to go to the waterfall, but he thankfully navigated us there and back safely. Once there, we had to climb and clamber over rocks to get to see the waterfalls. Papa served us more lao-Lao to help us out with the exercice. I was exhausted by the end of it!
To better understand how special this place was, there was a French couple staying in the attached bungalows who'd been here last year and had now come back to stay a month. It was interesting and very beautiful to see, as they were now part of papa's family. Though papa and his family spoke no English or French, and the French couple spoke only a few words of Laos, they still managed to communicated quite well. The French couple spent all their time with the family, eating their meals together, going fishing, ... It was quite cool to see. One of the highlights of my stay on the island was an impromptu going away party held for Guillaume and Lina (the French couple). I say impromptu, since I was invited only 5 minutes before it was about to start :-) Papa did the rounds of the guesthouse trying to assemble the guests, even going so far as calling over David, a fellow Canadian staying at the guesthouse, as he was taking a swim in the Mekong!
The party started with a ceremony sitting on Guillaume and Lina's balcony. A man was there to give them a blessing as we all sat and listened. Then the fun really started, with the family and friends giving some sort of blessing to us tourists, by tying a piece of string around our wrists. I believe in the Boudhist faith, this helps keep our friendly spirits attached to us as we go traipsing around the world. Otherwise, they could just fly away, lost (this is my interpretation of the Budhist ceremony, so take it with a grain of salt ;-)) The tying of the string was accompanied by a blessing in Laos (who knows what they were saying?) and of course, the obligatory shot of lao-Lao. Thankfully, as a girl, my shots were often smaller and could sometimes be substituted for beer. Cause I counted 18 bracelets on my wrists the next morning. If that had all been lao-Lao, I don't know how I would have made it. Just ask David, the Canadian guy, who needed 2 days to recuperate :-)
At the ceremony, there were also a few older ladies part of papa's extended family. These women took a liking to me it seems, as they were quite impressed with my size. They started discreetly enough, by touching their bellies, pointing at mine and smiling. Since I smiled back, they grew bolder and started gently poking at me and touching me here, there and everywhere. I was already nicely warmed up from the lao-Lao by then, so I didn't object. We then started 'talking' as it were, them telling me they wanted some of my meat for their bones, and me telling them I would gladly part with some if I could. I would pretend to put some fat on them and we'd laugh and laugh. It was quite the bonding experience!
The rest of my time in Don Khon was spent in the most relaxing way. Every 2 days or so, I would rent a bike and cycle around the islands. On other days, I'd just go for a walk, or sit and do nothing more than reading my book. Lost of lazing around, chatting with the other guests, writing my journal, napping, ...
Sounds like paradise, doesn't it?
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Side trip in Northern Laos
(*** I've made 2 new entries today, so make sure you've read the previous one before hitting this one! I'm trying to catch up!)
My trip to the Plain of Jars was even better than I'd imagined. I started off with a vague interest in seeing the archaeological sites (more about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars) , and ended up with a better feel for the country I was so clueless about.
Always interested in ruins of any kind, I was curious about the Plain of Jars and thought the detour would be worthwhile. And while I'm quite happy to have seen them and would recommend the side-trip to anyone visiting Laos (I know there are a few of you out there!), the Jars themselves were not the best part of the journey.
The first day was simply to be a travel day from Luang Prabang to Phonsavanh, so again, I wasn't expecting much. Our group consisted of an English couple in their 40's, 2 Swedish girls in their early 20's, another solo traveller about my age from Netherlands and myself. The 2 Swedish girls giggled the whole way, and kept to themselves, the girl from the Netherlands was very very shy and the English couple were car sick for most of the journey. Interesting. But I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, as you got a lot of glimpses into rural Laos life. Whole villages are set up along the only paved road in the region. The road was built around the mountains, so to say the ride was curvy is an understatement. The not-quite 9-hour mini-bus journey almost did me in too, so I am soooo happy I didn't take the public bus! (to give you an idea, they pass out plastic bags to everyone at the beginning of the trip on the public bus).
The villages are made out of wood sheds built on stilts on the hills along the highway. The only "playground" the kids have is the highway itself, so our driver has to honk his way along the road, to alert the kids and make sure they get out of the way. I should say it's not only for kids, but also for chickens/dogs/pigs/motorbikes/buses. I was annoyed with the constant honking at first, but once I realised this was just how it was, I relaxed. And since the driver and his wife spoke no English, we had to use hand signals to convey things like: "Stop now! I am going to puke!" (from the English couple), "Can you please stop at the next available toilet?" (Every 2 hours, from 1 of the Swedish girls) or "When are we stopping for lunch?" (again, from the Swedish girls who were somehow expecting to be catered to at every step). I have to admit it wasn't much of a success, as the driver just started stopping on the side of the road every time we had a request. Peeing by the side of the highway while hanging on to a bush to avoid rolling down the mountain, and holding on to your pants for obvious reasons, is a talent I still haven't quite mastered, but got a bit of practice during this trip. Thankfully, I wasn't the one puking my guts out every 30 minutes or so, so I was a happy camper.
We arrived in Phonsavanh in late afternoon and decided to go to dinner as a group, minus the English couple who weren't quite done feeling car sick. This group dinner was one of the moments that makes me soooo happy to be traveling on my own. Without going into all the gory details, the 2 Swedish girls were the most unpleasant travelers I've come across yet, going on and on about how awful Thai and Laos people are, how everyone is just out to get their money, how everything is so different than in Sweden (duh!) and they would just for once like to have a good breakfast like they do at home (snif, snif). All this, after only 2 weeks of their 5-month 'round the world journey! I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that they will get better as they go along, but somehow I doubt it. But moving on...
The next day was the tour of the Plain of Jars (3 different sites), the old Capital and a minority village known as "Bomb village". Our tour guide was great, giving us a lot of information about the area and how they live. The day started off a bit rough, witnessing the result of an unfortunately frequent event in Laos, a bike/motorbike accident. Just as we were starting our touring day, we passed by a dead body in the middle of the road. The accident had happened not long ago, and they'd only just thrown a sheet over the person. Our guide said that they have fatal accidents weekly, with some weeks having 2-3. And what is even more surprising to me is that the roads here are much less congested than in Thailand, so I can't imagine what the statistics are like there.
The Plain of Jars sites were quite spectacular, made even more so by the evidence of war that surrounds them. I learned a lot that day about the 'Secret War' waged on Laos by the Americans back in the 60's and 70's. And while this was all new to me, it was made even more shocking by the fact that the daily lives of the Laos are still impacted by that war, even 40 years later. There are so many unexploded artillery lying around that they can't use the land to farm without risking their lives. And without farming, they live at an astonishing poverty level, so they try to make some money by salvaging and selling scrap metal, by locating said artillery and further risking their lives. You can see evidence of this in the 'Bomb Village' we visited later in the day, where they use old bomb casings as stilts for their homes, cooking utensils, decorations, ...
It wasn't all depressing news however, as the next day we visited an orphanage and a school for victims of UXO's (unexploded ordnance). The orphanage was very modern, and children are cared for by a mom in families of 6-8. The director of the orphanage and school was very proud (and rightly so, I thought) to show us around and you could tell they cared about the children, who all looked healthy and well cared for.
After these great few days, it was somewhat of a letdown for me to arrive in Vang Vieng. This place is known as a backpacker haven, but seemed more like a backpacker hell to me. It's little more than 1 road village set up for backpackers to get drunk and/or high watching reruns of Friends and The Simpsons. Lots of fun for some, but definitely not my style. Although I will guiltily admit to having dinner in a 'Friends' cafe the 2 nights I was there. Damn that show is funny!
My trip to the Plain of Jars was even better than I'd imagined. I started off with a vague interest in seeing the archaeological sites (more about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars) , and ended up with a better feel for the country I was so clueless about.
Always interested in ruins of any kind, I was curious about the Plain of Jars and thought the detour would be worthwhile. And while I'm quite happy to have seen them and would recommend the side-trip to anyone visiting Laos (I know there are a few of you out there!), the Jars themselves were not the best part of the journey.
The first day was simply to be a travel day from Luang Prabang to Phonsavanh, so again, I wasn't expecting much. Our group consisted of an English couple in their 40's, 2 Swedish girls in their early 20's, another solo traveller about my age from Netherlands and myself. The 2 Swedish girls giggled the whole way, and kept to themselves, the girl from the Netherlands was very very shy and the English couple were car sick for most of the journey. Interesting. But I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, as you got a lot of glimpses into rural Laos life. Whole villages are set up along the only paved road in the region. The road was built around the mountains, so to say the ride was curvy is an understatement. The not-quite 9-hour mini-bus journey almost did me in too, so I am soooo happy I didn't take the public bus! (to give you an idea, they pass out plastic bags to everyone at the beginning of the trip on the public bus).
The villages are made out of wood sheds built on stilts on the hills along the highway. The only "playground" the kids have is the highway itself, so our driver has to honk his way along the road, to alert the kids and make sure they get out of the way. I should say it's not only for kids, but also for chickens/dogs/pigs/motorbikes/buses. I was annoyed with the constant honking at first, but once I realised this was just how it was, I relaxed. And since the driver and his wife spoke no English, we had to use hand signals to convey things like: "Stop now! I am going to puke!" (from the English couple), "Can you please stop at the next available toilet?" (Every 2 hours, from 1 of the Swedish girls) or "When are we stopping for lunch?" (again, from the Swedish girls who were somehow expecting to be catered to at every step). I have to admit it wasn't much of a success, as the driver just started stopping on the side of the road every time we had a request. Peeing by the side of the highway while hanging on to a bush to avoid rolling down the mountain, and holding on to your pants for obvious reasons, is a talent I still haven't quite mastered, but got a bit of practice during this trip. Thankfully, I wasn't the one puking my guts out every 30 minutes or so, so I was a happy camper.
We arrived in Phonsavanh in late afternoon and decided to go to dinner as a group, minus the English couple who weren't quite done feeling car sick. This group dinner was one of the moments that makes me soooo happy to be traveling on my own. Without going into all the gory details, the 2 Swedish girls were the most unpleasant travelers I've come across yet, going on and on about how awful Thai and Laos people are, how everyone is just out to get their money, how everything is so different than in Sweden (duh!) and they would just for once like to have a good breakfast like they do at home (snif, snif). All this, after only 2 weeks of their 5-month 'round the world journey! I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that they will get better as they go along, but somehow I doubt it. But moving on...
The next day was the tour of the Plain of Jars (3 different sites), the old Capital and a minority village known as "Bomb village". Our tour guide was great, giving us a lot of information about the area and how they live. The day started off a bit rough, witnessing the result of an unfortunately frequent event in Laos, a bike/motorbike accident. Just as we were starting our touring day, we passed by a dead body in the middle of the road. The accident had happened not long ago, and they'd only just thrown a sheet over the person. Our guide said that they have fatal accidents weekly, with some weeks having 2-3. And what is even more surprising to me is that the roads here are much less congested than in Thailand, so I can't imagine what the statistics are like there.
The Plain of Jars sites were quite spectacular, made even more so by the evidence of war that surrounds them. I learned a lot that day about the 'Secret War' waged on Laos by the Americans back in the 60's and 70's. And while this was all new to me, it was made even more shocking by the fact that the daily lives of the Laos are still impacted by that war, even 40 years later. There are so many unexploded artillery lying around that they can't use the land to farm without risking their lives. And without farming, they live at an astonishing poverty level, so they try to make some money by salvaging and selling scrap metal, by locating said artillery and further risking their lives. You can see evidence of this in the 'Bomb Village' we visited later in the day, where they use old bomb casings as stilts for their homes, cooking utensils, decorations, ...
It wasn't all depressing news however, as the next day we visited an orphanage and a school for victims of UXO's (unexploded ordnance). The orphanage was very modern, and children are cared for by a mom in families of 6-8. The director of the orphanage and school was very proud (and rightly so, I thought) to show us around and you could tell they cared about the children, who all looked healthy and well cared for.
After these great few days, it was somewhat of a letdown for me to arrive in Vang Vieng. This place is known as a backpacker haven, but seemed more like a backpacker hell to me. It's little more than 1 road village set up for backpackers to get drunk and/or high watching reruns of Friends and The Simpsons. Lots of fun for some, but definitely not my style. Although I will guiltily admit to having dinner in a 'Friends' cafe the 2 nights I was there. Damn that show is funny!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Sabadee!!!
Arggg! I can't believe I'm more than a month behind in my blog! Things are going from bad to worse on that front...
I arrived in Laos a little more than a month ago, not at all sure what to expect. Laos is one those countries like Bhutan or Albania that most people, including myself until last year, couldn't even place on the map. No disrespect meant to Bhutanese or Albanians, it's just a fact that a lot of Canadians don't now much about them. The same can be said for Laos, so imagine my surprise when I get on the small Laos Airlines flight and end up sitting in the same row as 3 other Quebecois!
It turns out that Laos is quite a popular destination for the French (and maybe spilling over to Quebecois), being an ex-French colony and all. Supposedly, many Laos still speak French, although I certainly can't vouch for that. I only heard one Laos speak French in all of my time there, and this was a quite affluent lady who had worked and lived for years in Paris. As for speaking English, it is almost as rare as French it seems. I spent my time in Laos using hand signals, very basic English and making the most of the 2 Laos words I know: Sabadee!!! (Hello) and Kawp Jai (Thank you). It makes for very interesting conversations.
My first stop in Laos was Luang Prabang, a very pretty city in the north, on the shores of the mighty Mekong river. It was back to budget living for me, after having indulged in my way-too-expensive-yet-still-shabby-and-depressing hotel room in Bangkok for so long. It was also my first foray in completely winging it, i.e. not researching and booking a room before hand. I usually like to read reviews and find a room that is supposedly clean and safe before showing up somewhere, but the reviews on Laos accommodation being limited, it was time to start winging it. I was a bit surprised however to find that rooms in Luang Prabang were not as cheap as I expected (damn you, outdated Lonely Planet!), and quite full, to boot. I ended up staying in a 9-bed dorm room in the basement of a guesthouse. For the 4 nights I ended up sleeping there, it was me and 8 Asian tourists (mostly Korean and Japanese). They were all very nice, and I even managed to follow some of the Japanese conversations. How, I don't know, but I managed!
I quickly realised that travel in Laos would be much sloooooower than my previous destinations. My first hint was when I tried to book a sawngtwe (converted pick-up truck with benches in the back) to go to a nearby waterfall one afternoon. All the trucks advertise if they go to the waterfall, but it's not as simple as flagging one down. They need to have a minimum number of people for the 1-hour trip to be worthwhile for them. After asking around for a while, I finally found one that said he had enough people, and would be leaving in 20 minutes. So I park my butt on the back of his truck and wait. And wait. And wait some more. It seems that the people who'd said they'd go with him bailed, so we were back to where we started. By this time, 1 other guy joined me in the waiting game, and we starting riding up and down the street trying to pick-up more customers. Felt vaguely like prostitution, but whatever works. Lo and behold, almost 2 hours after I started out on this quest, we are packed to the gills and ready to go! And all's well that ends well, since we got to the waterfall at the end of the afternoon, when the masses were all heading back to town. We had the place almost to ourselves, so it was great. Got a few nice pictures, that, one day when I'll have a passable Internet connection, I'll be able to upload. Until then, use your imagination ;-)
Another example of the slow pace in Laos was when I tried to book a trip to my next destination. I'd read about an archaeological site called the Plain of Jars and was curious to go there. I could go either by public bus to the city of Phonsavanh where the Plains are located, and then book a day-tour to visit the Plains themselves, or book a private mini-bus and tour from Luang Prabang. Since the public buses are supposed to be much slower than the mini-buses, and not being a fan of buses in general, I chose the 2nd option. The problem is, they logically work on the same principle as the earlier trip to the waterfall, i.e. have to have a minimum number of people for a tour to happen. And since there were 15 or so travel agencies in town offering the tour, each of them seemed to only have 1 or 2 names down for the next trip, and had no settled date. I spent half a day just going to every one of them and leaving my name, hoping for the best. I did the same thing the next day, and hit the jackpot at the 5th travel agency. I ended up leaving 2 days later than I'd hoped, but it wasn't really a hardship to be "stuck" in Luang Prabang.
Among the highlights in LP: beautiful sunset view along the Mekong, with all the slow boats traveling to and fro; the daily 'alms' ceremony, where hundreds of orange-robe clad monks walk down the street to collect their daily food from villagers and tourists alike; the view from atop Phu Si (mountain temple) and last, but not least, the bakeries ;-D Thanks to the French, bakeries are more popular in Laos than the other Asian countries I've been to. And while I've surprisingly (for me) enjoyed the food since I've been in South East Asia, it was nice to be able to eat something other than rice or noodles for a change.
And I'm happy to report that while sad to have seen my sister go, I'm comfortably back to my solo travel ways. I think I needed a little time and a change of scenery to get me back on track...
I arrived in Laos a little more than a month ago, not at all sure what to expect. Laos is one those countries like Bhutan or Albania that most people, including myself until last year, couldn't even place on the map. No disrespect meant to Bhutanese or Albanians, it's just a fact that a lot of Canadians don't now much about them. The same can be said for Laos, so imagine my surprise when I get on the small Laos Airlines flight and end up sitting in the same row as 3 other Quebecois!
It turns out that Laos is quite a popular destination for the French (and maybe spilling over to Quebecois), being an ex-French colony and all. Supposedly, many Laos still speak French, although I certainly can't vouch for that. I only heard one Laos speak French in all of my time there, and this was a quite affluent lady who had worked and lived for years in Paris. As for speaking English, it is almost as rare as French it seems. I spent my time in Laos using hand signals, very basic English and making the most of the 2 Laos words I know: Sabadee!!! (Hello) and Kawp Jai (Thank you). It makes for very interesting conversations.
My first stop in Laos was Luang Prabang, a very pretty city in the north, on the shores of the mighty Mekong river. It was back to budget living for me, after having indulged in my way-too-expensive-yet-still-shabby-and-depressing hotel room in Bangkok for so long. It was also my first foray in completely winging it, i.e. not researching and booking a room before hand. I usually like to read reviews and find a room that is supposedly clean and safe before showing up somewhere, but the reviews on Laos accommodation being limited, it was time to start winging it. I was a bit surprised however to find that rooms in Luang Prabang were not as cheap as I expected (damn you, outdated Lonely Planet!), and quite full, to boot. I ended up staying in a 9-bed dorm room in the basement of a guesthouse. For the 4 nights I ended up sleeping there, it was me and 8 Asian tourists (mostly Korean and Japanese). They were all very nice, and I even managed to follow some of the Japanese conversations. How, I don't know, but I managed!
I quickly realised that travel in Laos would be much sloooooower than my previous destinations. My first hint was when I tried to book a sawngtwe (converted pick-up truck with benches in the back) to go to a nearby waterfall one afternoon. All the trucks advertise if they go to the waterfall, but it's not as simple as flagging one down. They need to have a minimum number of people for the 1-hour trip to be worthwhile for them. After asking around for a while, I finally found one that said he had enough people, and would be leaving in 20 minutes. So I park my butt on the back of his truck and wait. And wait. And wait some more. It seems that the people who'd said they'd go with him bailed, so we were back to where we started. By this time, 1 other guy joined me in the waiting game, and we starting riding up and down the street trying to pick-up more customers. Felt vaguely like prostitution, but whatever works. Lo and behold, almost 2 hours after I started out on this quest, we are packed to the gills and ready to go! And all's well that ends well, since we got to the waterfall at the end of the afternoon, when the masses were all heading back to town. We had the place almost to ourselves, so it was great. Got a few nice pictures, that, one day when I'll have a passable Internet connection, I'll be able to upload. Until then, use your imagination ;-)
Another example of the slow pace in Laos was when I tried to book a trip to my next destination. I'd read about an archaeological site called the Plain of Jars and was curious to go there. I could go either by public bus to the city of Phonsavanh where the Plains are located, and then book a day-tour to visit the Plains themselves, or book a private mini-bus and tour from Luang Prabang. Since the public buses are supposed to be much slower than the mini-buses, and not being a fan of buses in general, I chose the 2nd option. The problem is, they logically work on the same principle as the earlier trip to the waterfall, i.e. have to have a minimum number of people for a tour to happen. And since there were 15 or so travel agencies in town offering the tour, each of them seemed to only have 1 or 2 names down for the next trip, and had no settled date. I spent half a day just going to every one of them and leaving my name, hoping for the best. I did the same thing the next day, and hit the jackpot at the 5th travel agency. I ended up leaving 2 days later than I'd hoped, but it wasn't really a hardship to be "stuck" in Luang Prabang.
Among the highlights in LP: beautiful sunset view along the Mekong, with all the slow boats traveling to and fro; the daily 'alms' ceremony, where hundreds of orange-robe clad monks walk down the street to collect their daily food from villagers and tourists alike; the view from atop Phu Si (mountain temple) and last, but not least, the bakeries ;-D Thanks to the French, bakeries are more popular in Laos than the other Asian countries I've been to. And while I've surprisingly (for me) enjoyed the food since I've been in South East Asia, it was nice to be able to eat something other than rice or noodles for a change.
And I'm happy to report that while sad to have seen my sister go, I'm comfortably back to my solo travel ways. I think I needed a little time and a change of scenery to get me back on track...
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Thailand wrap-up
Up next on our Thailand itinerary was the northern city of Chiang Mai. The trip started of with an overnight train ride from Bangkok. I'd booked 2 tickets just before Johanne arrived, but all they had left were an upper and lower bunk on the sleeper train, not 2 lower bunks like we'd prefer. Johanne of course insisted on taking the upper bunk, which I'd already had the pleasure of trying out on my train from Hat Yai to Bangkok. Actually, the upper bunk really isn't that bad, just a little "snug" and brings out a bit of claustrophobia to those inclined (me included).
So, Johanne hauls herself up there and proceeds to have a mini-meltdown, while I'm laughing so hard I'm almost crying. She seemed to be having, umm, shall we say a bit of difficulty turning around on the bunk bed, which just made it even funnier. You had to be there, but trust me, it was hilarious!
We'd booked ourselves a room at the 3 sis (short for sisters, who could resist with a name like that!) bed & breakfast and ended up upgrading to their newer rooms in the "lodge" part of the place. My budget was definitely blown on this trip, but boy was it great to have a little luxury & not have to double/triple check the room & bed for bugs everyday!
We had a few things planned while in Chiang Mai, like a cooking class and a day trip in the surrounding area. The cooking class was great fun and made us discover some excellent Thai food. Although, I have to say that after that day, I will be staying away from spicy papaya salad. The "medium" spicy version our teacher suggested we make almost had me in tears, and I wasn't convinced I was going to survive ;-) I am not going to risk that again! Johanne and I were dubbed good Thai wife material because of our strong arms and ability to pound the crap out of ingredients in the mortar & pestle (merci MWM!).
Our 1-day excursion was completely disorganized & probably way overpriced for what we ended up doing, but we still had fun. It's amazing what a stress-free life will do for your attitude :-). I think Johanne enjoyed watching me freak out while riding an elephant. I was completely petrified, more so than for anything else I've done on this trip so far. For the first 15 minutes of the ride, I was convinced that the only thing keeping me from falling off the elephant and plunging to my death (OK, so I may not be stressed but I'm still dramatic) was holding on to the back bar of the "seat". It doesn't sound scary, I know, but trust me. When the elephant is trudging up and down hills on a narrow path, it becomes very very scary. For me anyways, since Johanne was cool as a cucumber and laughing at me the whole time.
The day included other activities such as riding a bamboo raft down the river and trekking to a waterfall. "Trekking" to a "waterfall" must be taken with a grain of salt. It was a 10-minute walk (uphill, but still) to a little trickle of water over some rocks. I think the waterfall only appears during the rainy season, but for some reason, the tour guides still think it is worthwhile to go there. It was funny to see them proudly point out the waterfall, with all of us just scratching our heads wondering what we were looking at.
We also visited a few hill tribes, including the "long neck" Karen tribe, where the women wear multiple brass rings around their neck to make it longer. Although I'm curious to see the villages and see how the locals really live, it just feels wrong somehow. It feels like gawking and somewhat like being at a zoo. It goes both ways for sure, as the tribe "villages" are mostly markets aimed at getting the tourists to buy stuff. Still, I find it uncomfortable.
The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was spent walking around town and visiting temples, shopping and getting foot massages. The best of all worlds!
After booking a few flights and scrambling to find accommodation, we set off for the beaches of south Thailand. Our first stop was in Phuket, more specifically on Patong Beach. After an initial "mishap" of being switched hotels on arrival, we settled into a beachside hotel on the very busy Patong Beach. It was no busier than an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, Cuba or the Dominican Republic, but there were supposedly more quiet beaches around, so 2 days there was plenty for us. Also given the fact that Patong Beach is very popular with the sex tourist crowds, with men young and old "renting" themselves Thai girlfriends for their holidays, we felt a little out of place. Even while trying to adopt a "live and let live" attitude, it was disturbing to see a whole family of men (father, 2 sons in their late teens, early twenties, 1 young son under 5), each with their own "girlfriend". When not taking care of their respective men, the Thai girls would play with the little kid. Sets a great example, doesn't it?
We left Patong Beach and headed 10 km south for another beautiful stretch of sand called Karon Beach. We stayed at a nice resort a bit further away from the beach, but it was quite worth it for the extra luxury it afforded us. My days of "lifestyles of the rich and famous" were quickly running out... The beach was nicer, less busy and a few more waves in the crystal clear water. We did nothing more than spend the day at the beach sleeping (Jo), reading (Janie) and swimming (both). Paradise! After 3 more days of this, it was time to move on & get moving! We took a cheap mini-bus to Krabi, a few hundred km away. Here is were we planned a few excursions, like going to Ko Phi-Phi, made famous in the movie "The Beach". We stayed in Krabi town and made 2 days trips from there: the first was to Ko Phi-Phi and surrounding islands for some sun & snorkeling. Johanne and I both being slightly scared of fish, I was really impressed how well we took to snorkeling. After initial "panicky" moments, we both settled into it quite well. I saw one of the fish from Finding Nemo, so I was happy :-)
The next day trip was a snorkeling/kayaking trip around Hong Island, another beautiful spot in the area. I was really nervous about the kayaking aspect of the trip, since my previous experience with it many years back did not go well (fell in the sea, couldn't get back on & had lifeguards sent after me. Quite unnecessarily I might add. Very embarrassing). We started the day off with snorkeling, which wasn't half as nice as the previous day, since the water was choppy and unclear. The kayak tour involved kayaking around Hong Island. Johanne and I were paired off and pushed into the sea with no instructions whatsoever. Whatever, we're both smart girls, so we could figure it out. After only a few minutes, it was very obvious that something wasn't quite right, since we kept veering to the right. After a few more minutes of experimenting, I determined that it was Johanne's fault ;-) She was obviously paddling way harder on one side than the other. The woman doesn't know her own strength! 10 minutes into it, Johanne already had a burst blister, we were both exhausted and I had no clue how we'd make it around the whole damn island! But at one point you just get over it and keep moving. An hour or so later and we were done. I was again impressed at how we both mostly kept our cool and didn't yell at each other (too much). We may make a good "Amazing Race" team after all!
And after our short stay in Krabi, it was sadly time to head back to Bangkok and say goodbye to Johanne. I was already feeling bummed, even before leaving Krabi, but I was fairly miserable by the time we got to Bangkok. We spent our last day shopping at the weekend market buying last-minute souvenirs, enjoying one last movie at the amazing Siam Paragon cinemas, and a nice meal in a proper restaurant.
I won't dwell on it too much, but saying goodbye the next morning was no fun at all. For the first 3 months of my trip, I always had this nice little break with Johanne to look forward to whenever I got homesick. Now that the trip is over, it's going to be a long while before I see Johanne again, or any of my family & friends from home (next up: traveling with Melissa through Africa!!!) Plus, even if I enjoy traveling on my own, it was nice to have a compatible traveling partner for a while.
The next 4 days were spent feeling low and holing up in my way-too-expensive-yet-still-shabby-and-depressing hotel room in Bangkok. I watched at least 10 movies on cable, I do not exaggerate. But since my visa expired on Feb 7th, I had to get my ass in gear and start moving again. By the time I got around to making travel plans again, the worst of my blues had passed and I was ready to move on. Next stop: Laos!
So, Johanne hauls herself up there and proceeds to have a mini-meltdown, while I'm laughing so hard I'm almost crying. She seemed to be having, umm, shall we say a bit of difficulty turning around on the bunk bed, which just made it even funnier. You had to be there, but trust me, it was hilarious!
We'd booked ourselves a room at the 3 sis (short for sisters, who could resist with a name like that!) bed & breakfast and ended up upgrading to their newer rooms in the "lodge" part of the place. My budget was definitely blown on this trip, but boy was it great to have a little luxury & not have to double/triple check the room & bed for bugs everyday!
We had a few things planned while in Chiang Mai, like a cooking class and a day trip in the surrounding area. The cooking class was great fun and made us discover some excellent Thai food. Although, I have to say that after that day, I will be staying away from spicy papaya salad. The "medium" spicy version our teacher suggested we make almost had me in tears, and I wasn't convinced I was going to survive ;-) I am not going to risk that again! Johanne and I were dubbed good Thai wife material because of our strong arms and ability to pound the crap out of ingredients in the mortar & pestle (merci MWM!).
Our 1-day excursion was completely disorganized & probably way overpriced for what we ended up doing, but we still had fun. It's amazing what a stress-free life will do for your attitude :-). I think Johanne enjoyed watching me freak out while riding an elephant. I was completely petrified, more so than for anything else I've done on this trip so far. For the first 15 minutes of the ride, I was convinced that the only thing keeping me from falling off the elephant and plunging to my death (OK, so I may not be stressed but I'm still dramatic) was holding on to the back bar of the "seat". It doesn't sound scary, I know, but trust me. When the elephant is trudging up and down hills on a narrow path, it becomes very very scary. For me anyways, since Johanne was cool as a cucumber and laughing at me the whole time.
The day included other activities such as riding a bamboo raft down the river and trekking to a waterfall. "Trekking" to a "waterfall" must be taken with a grain of salt. It was a 10-minute walk (uphill, but still) to a little trickle of water over some rocks. I think the waterfall only appears during the rainy season, but for some reason, the tour guides still think it is worthwhile to go there. It was funny to see them proudly point out the waterfall, with all of us just scratching our heads wondering what we were looking at.
We also visited a few hill tribes, including the "long neck" Karen tribe, where the women wear multiple brass rings around their neck to make it longer. Although I'm curious to see the villages and see how the locals really live, it just feels wrong somehow. It feels like gawking and somewhat like being at a zoo. It goes both ways for sure, as the tribe "villages" are mostly markets aimed at getting the tourists to buy stuff. Still, I find it uncomfortable.
The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was spent walking around town and visiting temples, shopping and getting foot massages. The best of all worlds!
After booking a few flights and scrambling to find accommodation, we set off for the beaches of south Thailand. Our first stop was in Phuket, more specifically on Patong Beach. After an initial "mishap" of being switched hotels on arrival, we settled into a beachside hotel on the very busy Patong Beach. It was no busier than an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, Cuba or the Dominican Republic, but there were supposedly more quiet beaches around, so 2 days there was plenty for us. Also given the fact that Patong Beach is very popular with the sex tourist crowds, with men young and old "renting" themselves Thai girlfriends for their holidays, we felt a little out of place. Even while trying to adopt a "live and let live" attitude, it was disturbing to see a whole family of men (father, 2 sons in their late teens, early twenties, 1 young son under 5), each with their own "girlfriend". When not taking care of their respective men, the Thai girls would play with the little kid. Sets a great example, doesn't it?
We left Patong Beach and headed 10 km south for another beautiful stretch of sand called Karon Beach. We stayed at a nice resort a bit further away from the beach, but it was quite worth it for the extra luxury it afforded us. My days of "lifestyles of the rich and famous" were quickly running out... The beach was nicer, less busy and a few more waves in the crystal clear water. We did nothing more than spend the day at the beach sleeping (Jo), reading (Janie) and swimming (both). Paradise! After 3 more days of this, it was time to move on & get moving! We took a cheap mini-bus to Krabi, a few hundred km away. Here is were we planned a few excursions, like going to Ko Phi-Phi, made famous in the movie "The Beach". We stayed in Krabi town and made 2 days trips from there: the first was to Ko Phi-Phi and surrounding islands for some sun & snorkeling. Johanne and I both being slightly scared of fish, I was really impressed how well we took to snorkeling. After initial "panicky" moments, we both settled into it quite well. I saw one of the fish from Finding Nemo, so I was happy :-)
The next day trip was a snorkeling/kayaking trip around Hong Island, another beautiful spot in the area. I was really nervous about the kayaking aspect of the trip, since my previous experience with it many years back did not go well (fell in the sea, couldn't get back on & had lifeguards sent after me. Quite unnecessarily I might add. Very embarrassing). We started the day off with snorkeling, which wasn't half as nice as the previous day, since the water was choppy and unclear. The kayak tour involved kayaking around Hong Island. Johanne and I were paired off and pushed into the sea with no instructions whatsoever. Whatever, we're both smart girls, so we could figure it out. After only a few minutes, it was very obvious that something wasn't quite right, since we kept veering to the right. After a few more minutes of experimenting, I determined that it was Johanne's fault ;-) She was obviously paddling way harder on one side than the other. The woman doesn't know her own strength! 10 minutes into it, Johanne already had a burst blister, we were both exhausted and I had no clue how we'd make it around the whole damn island! But at one point you just get over it and keep moving. An hour or so later and we were done. I was again impressed at how we both mostly kept our cool and didn't yell at each other (too much). We may make a good "Amazing Race" team after all!
And after our short stay in Krabi, it was sadly time to head back to Bangkok and say goodbye to Johanne. I was already feeling bummed, even before leaving Krabi, but I was fairly miserable by the time we got to Bangkok. We spent our last day shopping at the weekend market buying last-minute souvenirs, enjoying one last movie at the amazing Siam Paragon cinemas, and a nice meal in a proper restaurant.
I won't dwell on it too much, but saying goodbye the next morning was no fun at all. For the first 3 months of my trip, I always had this nice little break with Johanne to look forward to whenever I got homesick. Now that the trip is over, it's going to be a long while before I see Johanne again, or any of my family & friends from home (next up: traveling with Melissa through Africa!!!) Plus, even if I enjoy traveling on my own, it was nice to have a compatible traveling partner for a while.
The next 4 days were spent feeling low and holing up in my way-too-expensive-yet-still-shabby-and-depressing hotel room in Bangkok. I watched at least 10 movies on cable, I do not exaggerate. But since my visa expired on Feb 7th, I had to get my ass in gear and start moving again. By the time I got around to making travel plans again, the worst of my blues had passed and I was ready to move on. Next stop: Laos!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
I'm back!!!
So, now that my "vacation" with Johanne is over (snif, snif), I should be back to a regular schedule of blogging. I'll hopefully be caught up by the end of the week, if my access to OK Internet connections continues.
I can sum up our vacation in 1 word: Fantastic! But of course, it wouldn't be a very interesting blog if I left it at that, so yes, I will go into a bit more detail...
Johanne's & my reunion was held at close to 2AM on January 7th. It was so great to see her, after more than 2 1/2 months away! She looked great, especially considering she'd had such long flights. And it made me laugh to see her arrive with 2 Canadian backpackers in tow, having corraled them into a little group earlier on during one of their layovers. Leave it to Johanne! Still the social butterfly my sister!
The next day started bright and early. We had 4 days planned inBangkok, and a whole list of places to go/things to do. And admittidely, I was eager to impress Johanne with my new found travelling skills and my stamina. However, my pride would take a little beating that day, as things didn't really go as planned...
First of all, I wasn't in the best shape that day, having managed to catch a cold somewhere between Malaysia and Thailand. I'd just been joking with a fellow traveller the week before that ever since I hit Asia, everytime I hear someone caugh or sneeze, I automatically think: Oh!oh! Bird flu alert! Kind of ironic that I'm the one now getting the cold, sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose, all the symptoms you'd expect from a good old fashion winter cold in Quebec! And of course, having just travelled half-way across the world, Johanne was in perfect health, with no signs of jet lag at all! So much for showing off to my sister :-)
The next blow to my pride came later that same day just after we'd left the Royal Palace. Before getting into that, I need to give you a bit of background: One of the things the Lonely Planet guide books are good for are describing the potential scams you may run into while travelling. One thing they tell you clearly, frequently and in BOLD flashing letters, is never to believe anyone who tells you that the attraction or place you want to go to is closed. This is almost always a scam to get you someplace else of their choosing, where you'll be encouraged to spend your money and for which the driver will get a commission. So back to my story: There we are on the corner of a main road, just outside the gate of the Royal Palace. Our next destination was Wat Po (aka Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and were just checking the map to see which way to go, when a nice gentleman offers up his help. He says he work for tourist information and he keeps saying: "just information, free free, no money". So I end up showing him our map and asking for directions to Wat Po, which he quickly gives us. He goes on to say that we should switch the order of our sightseeing, since Wat Po is closed this afternoon until 3:30 (it was around 12:30) because of a special ceremony for the King's sister, who'd just passed away the week before. I had heard about the Princess, so it all seemed logical to me (duh!). He also told us that we could take a tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) to go see the Giant Buddha and maybe stop off at a tourist information office to help plan the rest of our trip. He is so helpful that he even points out which tuk-tuks we can trust, telling us to take only the one's with drivers wearing an official looking shirt, with a collar and badge. How nice of him! And before we knew it, he had stopped a "good" tuk-tuk and even negociated a good price for us. It would cost us only 20 baht (about 65 cents) for our own chartered tuk-tuk that would bring us to 3 different places and wait for us while we visited. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is, but still, it didn't ring any alarm bells for me yet.
After our perfectly nice stop at the Giant Buddha, we then stopped at the tourist information office, which ended up being just another travel agency. We were being pressure-sold a package for the rest of our trip, everything from flights, hotels and taxi transfers to/from the airport. We declined and I left feeling stressed about booking our time down south. By the sound of it, we would be lucky to find a flight at all. Now at this point, I still had no clue that I had fallen prey to a textbook example of a tuk-tuk scam, but the lightbulb finally came on when the driver suddenly stopped by the side of the road shortly after we'd left the tourist information/travel agent, and proposed to bring us to another one. We said "no", he said "OK. I bring you to a tailor where you can look to get clothes. You only need to look, no need to buy". Since I'd already been there, done that, just the day before (scammed by yet another tuk-tuk), I was not interested. After a bit of "chatting" with the driver, we ended up getting off then and there, without paying. Since we had no clue where we were, we started looking for a taxi and were lucky enough to get one before it started to rain. All's well that ends well.
Overall, our luck wasn't great that week, with little misshaps like trying to go to the museum on the one day a week it was closed, or showing up at the Teak Palace only to be turned away by the guards at the entrance because the Prince & Princess of Monaco were there visiting. But the misshaps didn't amount to much, considering I was having a great time traveling with my big sister.
One of the better moments of the week was an "Amazing" one. When we finally ended up at Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Johanne and I were both quick to realise that we'd seen this before on the "Amazing Race", as part of a "Fast forward" in season 1. Of course, Johanne even remembered who won the challenge (team Guido). She's a freak ;-) We did our own reproduction of the challenge (dropping coins into a bowl. not Olympic-event material).
All in all, our time in Bangkok was well filled with sightseeing and catching up. I'd say 4 days in Bangkok is enough for anyone who isn't completely enthralled with big cities. It's big, takes forever to get anywhere, but you can do so cheaply. It's also hot, humid & very smogy. It has nice attractions and the best cinema I've been to yet (Siam Paragon, a must-see!).
I can sum up our vacation in 1 word: Fantastic! But of course, it wouldn't be a very interesting blog if I left it at that, so yes, I will go into a bit more detail...
Johanne's & my reunion was held at close to 2AM on January 7th. It was so great to see her, after more than 2 1/2 months away! She looked great, especially considering she'd had such long flights. And it made me laugh to see her arrive with 2 Canadian backpackers in tow, having corraled them into a little group earlier on during one of their layovers. Leave it to Johanne! Still the social butterfly my sister!
The next day started bright and early. We had 4 days planned inBangkok, and a whole list of places to go/things to do. And admittidely, I was eager to impress Johanne with my new found travelling skills and my stamina. However, my pride would take a little beating that day, as things didn't really go as planned...
First of all, I wasn't in the best shape that day, having managed to catch a cold somewhere between Malaysia and Thailand. I'd just been joking with a fellow traveller the week before that ever since I hit Asia, everytime I hear someone caugh or sneeze, I automatically think: Oh!oh! Bird flu alert! Kind of ironic that I'm the one now getting the cold, sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose, all the symptoms you'd expect from a good old fashion winter cold in Quebec! And of course, having just travelled half-way across the world, Johanne was in perfect health, with no signs of jet lag at all! So much for showing off to my sister :-)
The next blow to my pride came later that same day just after we'd left the Royal Palace. Before getting into that, I need to give you a bit of background: One of the things the Lonely Planet guide books are good for are describing the potential scams you may run into while travelling. One thing they tell you clearly, frequently and in BOLD flashing letters, is never to believe anyone who tells you that the attraction or place you want to go to is closed. This is almost always a scam to get you someplace else of their choosing, where you'll be encouraged to spend your money and for which the driver will get a commission. So back to my story: There we are on the corner of a main road, just outside the gate of the Royal Palace. Our next destination was Wat Po (aka Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and were just checking the map to see which way to go, when a nice gentleman offers up his help. He says he work for tourist information and he keeps saying: "just information, free free, no money". So I end up showing him our map and asking for directions to Wat Po, which he quickly gives us. He goes on to say that we should switch the order of our sightseeing, since Wat Po is closed this afternoon until 3:30 (it was around 12:30) because of a special ceremony for the King's sister, who'd just passed away the week before. I had heard about the Princess, so it all seemed logical to me (duh!). He also told us that we could take a tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) to go see the Giant Buddha and maybe stop off at a tourist information office to help plan the rest of our trip. He is so helpful that he even points out which tuk-tuks we can trust, telling us to take only the one's with drivers wearing an official looking shirt, with a collar and badge. How nice of him! And before we knew it, he had stopped a "good" tuk-tuk and even negociated a good price for us. It would cost us only 20 baht (about 65 cents) for our own chartered tuk-tuk that would bring us to 3 different places and wait for us while we visited. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is, but still, it didn't ring any alarm bells for me yet.
After our perfectly nice stop at the Giant Buddha, we then stopped at the tourist information office, which ended up being just another travel agency. We were being pressure-sold a package for the rest of our trip, everything from flights, hotels and taxi transfers to/from the airport. We declined and I left feeling stressed about booking our time down south. By the sound of it, we would be lucky to find a flight at all. Now at this point, I still had no clue that I had fallen prey to a textbook example of a tuk-tuk scam, but the lightbulb finally came on when the driver suddenly stopped by the side of the road shortly after we'd left the tourist information/travel agent, and proposed to bring us to another one. We said "no", he said "OK. I bring you to a tailor where you can look to get clothes. You only need to look, no need to buy". Since I'd already been there, done that, just the day before (scammed by yet another tuk-tuk), I was not interested. After a bit of "chatting" with the driver, we ended up getting off then and there, without paying. Since we had no clue where we were, we started looking for a taxi and were lucky enough to get one before it started to rain. All's well that ends well.
Overall, our luck wasn't great that week, with little misshaps like trying to go to the museum on the one day a week it was closed, or showing up at the Teak Palace only to be turned away by the guards at the entrance because the Prince & Princess of Monaco were there visiting. But the misshaps didn't amount to much, considering I was having a great time traveling with my big sister.
One of the better moments of the week was an "Amazing" one. When we finally ended up at Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Johanne and I were both quick to realise that we'd seen this before on the "Amazing Race", as part of a "Fast forward" in season 1. Of course, Johanne even remembered who won the challenge (team Guido). She's a freak ;-) We did our own reproduction of the challenge (dropping coins into a bowl. not Olympic-event material).
All in all, our time in Bangkok was well filled with sightseeing and catching up. I'd say 4 days in Bangkok is enough for anyone who isn't completely enthralled with big cities. It's big, takes forever to get anywhere, but you can do so cheaply. It's also hot, humid & very smogy. It has nice attractions and the best cinema I've been to yet (Siam Paragon, a must-see!).
Friday, February 8, 2008
Welcome to Thailand!
My time in Thailand did not exactly start off the best way. I'd booked a cheap mini-bus from my guesthouse in Penang to get me to Hat Yai, Thailand. Even if Hat Yai is NOT renowned as being a great place to stay, I'd decided on 1 or 2 nights there as a pit stop before taking the train to Bangkok.
I spent the 4+ hour drive litterally sitting on the edge of my seat, watching our driver trying to stay awake. He would blink at least 100 times/minute, and would even close his eyes for a few milliseconds too many. And he eventually did fall asleep, while I wasn't paying attention, and drifted a little onto the side of the highway. Luckily there was no harm done, and the adrenaline kept him (and me) awake for the rest of the journey.
Once in Hat Yai, I was kind of shocked to see that all the signs were in some unreadable script that I now know as being Thai. A little naive of me, but I thought english would be much more prevalent than it was, and it was unsettling to realise I couldn't even read street signs! At least in Malaysia, they use the same alphabet as we do, so even if I didn't know the meaning of the words, I could recognise them easily enough. Not so in Thailand!
As for Hat Yai itself, I don't have many positive things to say about it, so I'll be brief. I had done my research and knew enough about Thailand to stay away from the south-eastern provinces, where fighting and terrorist attacks still go on each day. My research wasn't that thourough though, since I didn't know that Hat Yai was also considered somewhat dangerous, with recent bombings targetting shopping malls and the train station. I found this out once already in Hat Yai, and I freely admit that it spooked me. Let's just say I didn't spend much time there, and booked my train ticket out of there for the next day.
I took the overnight train from Hat Yai to Bangkok, and had a lovely time. It was my first time on a sleeper train, but I was relatively comfortable on the top bunk, if a little claustrophobic, but I managed to sleep well. I met a Malay couple going to visit family, and they gave me plenty of tips and things to see while in Thailand. I think they were worried about me travelling on my own, so they tried to "take care" of me while on their watch. They were very nice and helpful.
I arrived in Bangkok at around noon on Friday. Johanne was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, so I had a good 2 days to kill without doing any of the obvious touristy stuff, since I would be doing it with Johanne in a few days. I just walked around the backpacker ghetto known as Khao san road, and people-watched for a while. A very interesting bunch of tourists, lots of hippy types too. And I was suprised by the number of Canadians in Bangkok. It's obviously quite a popular destination.
And as further proof of how small the world really is: as I was sitting there having dinner on Friday night in a little restaurant next to my guesthouse, I noticed a girl I thought I recognized heading for the reception desk. I quickly paid my bill and went to check, and yes, it really was someone I knew. I had met this Swiss girl in my dorm room at my very first hostel in New Zealand, on the 2nd day of my trip! And here she was again in the same guesthouse in Bangkok! Very small world indeed!
I spent the weekend wandering around, getting the lay of the land. Regula, the Swiss girl, having been in Bangkok before, showed me around the River boat and SkyTrain transport systems, so I would (hopefully) be a pro by the time Johanne arrived. I enjoyed myself a bit, but I have to admit I was mostly just really looking forward to seeing Johanne on Sunday night. It was a loooong weekend for me....
So, my first post about Thailand is a bit of a downer, but I promise it gets better after this! I was just off to a slow start, and really excited about seeing Johanne and starting my own little "mini-vacation" from travelling solo. More on that in the next post (and on Johanne's blog - johannel.blogspot.com)
And for those interested (yes, I mean you Dad!), I added a link to my travel map that I keep up to date in TripAdvisor. The link is at the bottom-right of the page, in the Links section. I usually add the cities that I've been to a few times a month, but I will also try to add the places I am planning on going to, so you can get an idea of my itinerary.
And lastly, don't be shy about posting a comment or just saying hi! I'm now back to travelling on my own, and would love some company, even if just "virtual"!!!
I spent the 4+ hour drive litterally sitting on the edge of my seat, watching our driver trying to stay awake. He would blink at least 100 times/minute, and would even close his eyes for a few milliseconds too many. And he eventually did fall asleep, while I wasn't paying attention, and drifted a little onto the side of the highway. Luckily there was no harm done, and the adrenaline kept him (and me) awake for the rest of the journey.
Once in Hat Yai, I was kind of shocked to see that all the signs were in some unreadable script that I now know as being Thai. A little naive of me, but I thought english would be much more prevalent than it was, and it was unsettling to realise I couldn't even read street signs! At least in Malaysia, they use the same alphabet as we do, so even if I didn't know the meaning of the words, I could recognise them easily enough. Not so in Thailand!
As for Hat Yai itself, I don't have many positive things to say about it, so I'll be brief. I had done my research and knew enough about Thailand to stay away from the south-eastern provinces, where fighting and terrorist attacks still go on each day. My research wasn't that thourough though, since I didn't know that Hat Yai was also considered somewhat dangerous, with recent bombings targetting shopping malls and the train station. I found this out once already in Hat Yai, and I freely admit that it spooked me. Let's just say I didn't spend much time there, and booked my train ticket out of there for the next day.
I took the overnight train from Hat Yai to Bangkok, and had a lovely time. It was my first time on a sleeper train, but I was relatively comfortable on the top bunk, if a little claustrophobic, but I managed to sleep well. I met a Malay couple going to visit family, and they gave me plenty of tips and things to see while in Thailand. I think they were worried about me travelling on my own, so they tried to "take care" of me while on their watch. They were very nice and helpful.
I arrived in Bangkok at around noon on Friday. Johanne was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, so I had a good 2 days to kill without doing any of the obvious touristy stuff, since I would be doing it with Johanne in a few days. I just walked around the backpacker ghetto known as Khao san road, and people-watched for a while. A very interesting bunch of tourists, lots of hippy types too. And I was suprised by the number of Canadians in Bangkok. It's obviously quite a popular destination.
And as further proof of how small the world really is: as I was sitting there having dinner on Friday night in a little restaurant next to my guesthouse, I noticed a girl I thought I recognized heading for the reception desk. I quickly paid my bill and went to check, and yes, it really was someone I knew. I had met this Swiss girl in my dorm room at my very first hostel in New Zealand, on the 2nd day of my trip! And here she was again in the same guesthouse in Bangkok! Very small world indeed!
I spent the weekend wandering around, getting the lay of the land. Regula, the Swiss girl, having been in Bangkok before, showed me around the River boat and SkyTrain transport systems, so I would (hopefully) be a pro by the time Johanne arrived. I enjoyed myself a bit, but I have to admit I was mostly just really looking forward to seeing Johanne on Sunday night. It was a loooong weekend for me....
So, my first post about Thailand is a bit of a downer, but I promise it gets better after this! I was just off to a slow start, and really excited about seeing Johanne and starting my own little "mini-vacation" from travelling solo. More on that in the next post (and on Johanne's blog - johannel.blogspot.com)
And for those interested (yes, I mean you Dad!), I added a link to my travel map that I keep up to date in TripAdvisor. The link is at the bottom-right of the page, in the Links section. I usually add the cities that I've been to a few times a month, but I will also try to add the places I am planning on going to, so you can get an idea of my itinerary.
And lastly, don't be shy about posting a comment or just saying hi! I'm now back to travelling on my own, and would love some company, even if just "virtual"!!!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Malaysia whirlwind - Part 2
Hey all! I'm still backtracking, trying to catch up on my blog entries. Not bad, after this one, I'll only be about 2 1/2 weeks behind... In the meantime, I'm having a great time with my sister in Thailand. I'm sure I'll have more free time to update the blog when she leaves, so for now, bear with me!
My only plan for the first few weeks in January were to somehow make my way through Malaysia & into Thailand, in time to meet with my sister Johanne on the 13th. Without any previous planning or researching, I realised while in KL that it is very easy to find the best spots, since people seem to travel in almost set itineraries. As I quickly discovered and was recommended by most people I met, my next obvious destination was the Cameron Highlands, up in the mountains near the middle of Malaysia. It would be a nice break from the heat and pollution of KL, as well as being on my way to Thailand.
I took another VIP bus, this one not as luxurious as the previous, but still better than our own "Voyageur" type buses at home. I got to Tanah Rata, my destination, late in the afternoon, so my only activity on my first day was to watch a movie in the common room and luxuriate in my 3$/night dorm. I took pictures of the room for you all, it looks like barracks made out of tole. Still, for that price, I got a bed, blankets & no bugs, so I am not complaining.
Being in the mountains, it was much colder than it had been for me for the past month and a half. I actually took out my hoodie from the bottom of my backpack and made good use of the blankets they supplied.
The next day, I booked a sightseeing tour to visit the surrounding area. I had a great time, seeing the most beautiful landscape, with terraced farms and tea plantations. I don't recall ever seeing such beautiful shades of green! The tour also brought us to the highest point in peninsular Malaysia (which means excluding Borneo and the islands), on a mini-trek through a mossy forest and to visit a local tribe of orang Asli (meaning original people) who still live in very basic conditions in traditional Malay homes.
It was a full, fun day. I loved the mini-trek through the mossy forest, and felt like a jungle explorer when the guide brought us through trails that barely looked wide enough for a monkey, let alone me! I'm not sure about visiting tribes or local people in their homes though. It felt very odd to me, and somewhat like an intrusion into their lives. The kids put on a show for the tourists, but it feels "off" to me. I'm not sure I'd do that again...
Of the 8 people on the tour that day, every single one of them was planning on going to Pulau Penang the very next day (see what I mean about set itineraries?). That's where I was off to next, along with a couple from the tour. The others decided to take an earlier bus, but now being very lazy in the mornings, as well as not being in any rush to get to Pulau Penang, I decided to sleep in a little, in as much as you can sleep in in a barrack with 11 other people...
Pulau Penang is an island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. Georgetown, the most popular destination on the island, is a colonial town built in the early shipping days. It has a worn-out English feel. I spent 2 days sightseeing, one of which I spent with a fellow traveller from the Netherlands. We did all the touristy stuff, such as visiting the museum, the fort and going up on the lookout hill. It was good, and definitely gave me a bit of the feel of smaller Malaysian towns. The roads are packed with motorcycles, buses, tuktuks and cars and there are no sidewalks to speak of. Crossing the street remained a challenge for me, and I mostly managed by taking my cue from other people. I am getting quite good at directions, even managing to direct my taxi driver to my hostel on my very first moments in Penang. And although I'm still not the most adventurous eater there is, I've managed quite well. I've had good (and very cheap) meals at food stalls on the street, and has no regrets!
That's all for my time in Malaysia. I only spent 9 days here, but I think it was a great way to continue on my journey in Asia. It felt more foreign than Singapore, with different sights, sounds and smells, but at least I could read street signs and menus, as they are written in our own alphabet. Next stop: Thailand!
My only plan for the first few weeks in January were to somehow make my way through Malaysia & into Thailand, in time to meet with my sister Johanne on the 13th. Without any previous planning or researching, I realised while in KL that it is very easy to find the best spots, since people seem to travel in almost set itineraries. As I quickly discovered and was recommended by most people I met, my next obvious destination was the Cameron Highlands, up in the mountains near the middle of Malaysia. It would be a nice break from the heat and pollution of KL, as well as being on my way to Thailand.
I took another VIP bus, this one not as luxurious as the previous, but still better than our own "Voyageur" type buses at home. I got to Tanah Rata, my destination, late in the afternoon, so my only activity on my first day was to watch a movie in the common room and luxuriate in my 3$/night dorm. I took pictures of the room for you all, it looks like barracks made out of tole. Still, for that price, I got a bed, blankets & no bugs, so I am not complaining.
Being in the mountains, it was much colder than it had been for me for the past month and a half. I actually took out my hoodie from the bottom of my backpack and made good use of the blankets they supplied.
The next day, I booked a sightseeing tour to visit the surrounding area. I had a great time, seeing the most beautiful landscape, with terraced farms and tea plantations. I don't recall ever seeing such beautiful shades of green! The tour also brought us to the highest point in peninsular Malaysia (which means excluding Borneo and the islands), on a mini-trek through a mossy forest and to visit a local tribe of orang Asli (meaning original people) who still live in very basic conditions in traditional Malay homes.
It was a full, fun day. I loved the mini-trek through the mossy forest, and felt like a jungle explorer when the guide brought us through trails that barely looked wide enough for a monkey, let alone me! I'm not sure about visiting tribes or local people in their homes though. It felt very odd to me, and somewhat like an intrusion into their lives. The kids put on a show for the tourists, but it feels "off" to me. I'm not sure I'd do that again...
Of the 8 people on the tour that day, every single one of them was planning on going to Pulau Penang the very next day (see what I mean about set itineraries?). That's where I was off to next, along with a couple from the tour. The others decided to take an earlier bus, but now being very lazy in the mornings, as well as not being in any rush to get to Pulau Penang, I decided to sleep in a little, in as much as you can sleep in in a barrack with 11 other people...
Pulau Penang is an island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. Georgetown, the most popular destination on the island, is a colonial town built in the early shipping days. It has a worn-out English feel. I spent 2 days sightseeing, one of which I spent with a fellow traveller from the Netherlands. We did all the touristy stuff, such as visiting the museum, the fort and going up on the lookout hill. It was good, and definitely gave me a bit of the feel of smaller Malaysian towns. The roads are packed with motorcycles, buses, tuktuks and cars and there are no sidewalks to speak of. Crossing the street remained a challenge for me, and I mostly managed by taking my cue from other people. I am getting quite good at directions, even managing to direct my taxi driver to my hostel on my very first moments in Penang. And although I'm still not the most adventurous eater there is, I've managed quite well. I've had good (and very cheap) meals at food stalls on the street, and has no regrets!
That's all for my time in Malaysia. I only spent 9 days here, but I think it was a great way to continue on my journey in Asia. It felt more foreign than Singapore, with different sights, sounds and smells, but at least I could read street signs and menus, as they are written in our own alphabet. Next stop: Thailand!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Malaysia whirlwind - Part 1
Hi all,
Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated the blog, but I've been boycotting it for the last week. You see, I spent at least 1.5 hours last week writing the most spectacular post ever (of course!), and just as I was finishing the spellcheck, I lost everything. Don't know how it happened and could not retrieve it no matter how I tried. I was too pissed off to start over again right then, so I gave myself a little break. But for those interested in more up-to-date travel news, you can check out my sister Johanne's blog at johannel.blogspot.com. We are now travelling together through Thailand (yay!) and she is much better/faster at updating her blog. In the meantime, I will backtrack and post over the next few days details about my time in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy.
After spending New Year's Eve in Singapore, I was off to Kuala Lumpur (KL, as known by the locals). I took a bus from Singapore bright and early on New Year's Day. It was a luxury VIP double-decker coach, complete with assigned seats, massage chairs & my own personal video player. The bus even has an attendant, who serves water, coffee and sandwiches. And all this for less than 15$ CDN!
I arrived in KL a little anxious and very much overwhelmed, as I was still feeling some culture shock since my arrival in Singapore. Adapting to Asia was taking a few days, not as fast as I'd hoped, so my arrival in KL, the largest city in Malaysia, was not without trepidation.
The bus dropped my off at a bus depot, which was pretty much just a big parking lot somewhere in the city. Luckily, I had traded my remaining Singapore dollars for Malaysian Ringgits with a girl at my hostel, cause there were no ATM's to be found on site. My first challenge was to get to the hostel. OK, fairly easily done since there were a dozen or so taxis (or teksi, in Malaysian) drivers looking for a willing sucker, oops sorry, I mean customer. This driver comes to me, I show him where I want to go, he grabs the paper (my reservation confirmation) out of my hands and heads to a group of drivers to ask them directions. There was a lot of eye rolling from the other drivers, cause my guy was just not getting it. This is not reassuring, since as it turns out, my hostel was on a main road in the most touristy area of KL. But lo and behold, after maybe 5 minutes, the light seems to go on over this guy's head! Now all that was left to do was to decide on a price, since of course, he and all of the other drivers refused to use the taxi meter. Not being in the best frame of mind, I accepted the first price quoted to me. I didn't even try to negotiate (doh!) but as it turned out, I didn't get fleeced to badly. Only by about 10 RM, which is 3# CDN.
The rest of the day was spent walking around, trying to get accustomed to the sights and sounds of KL. This city is just as Singapore, but way dirtier and stinkier. But the prices! I was completely amazed by how cheap everything is. A few examples: a 1.5L bottle of water costs 1 RM = 0.30$ CDN, A KFC trio (cause KFC is EVERYWHERE in Malaysia) is 8.60 RM i.e. less than 2.70$ CDN. And KL has lots of western shops and restaurants, with the obligatory Starbucks popping up on every street corner.
The next day I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to meet with 2 girls from my hostel to get free tickets to the Petronas Towers. After a 30-minute jog (one of the girls was a very fast walker), I was in line for the daily ticket giveaway. 1400 tickets are dispensed every day for a tour of the SkyBridge that links both towers, and we were told to show up at 7:30AM at the latest or risk missing out. This may have been an exaggeration, but regardless, we were there early so no worries. We got our tickets and were given a 10-minute window to view the SkyBridge. Now, for anyone planning on visiting Kuala Lumpur one day, please skip the SkyBridge and head out to the KL Tower instead. The tickets are more expensive (as in, not free), but you get a much better view of the city, and you actually get to see the Petronas Towers, which are quite beautiful in my opinion.
Now my favorite part of my time in KL was actually about 15 km outside the city. On the list of "must see's" in my Lonely Planet (aka Traveller's Bible), was the Batu caves. So like a good little tourist, I set off to see what it was all about. Part of the adventure was finding the bus that went there, cause even though the direction in my Lonely Planet were quite precise, I still couldn't find the darn bus. After a bit of scrambling and asking 5 different people to get 5 variations on the answer, I spotted a group of tourists (i.e. western looking people) just standing around waiting and looking uncertain. When in doubt, assemble like sheep with other tourists and hope for the best! It usually ends up we are all going to the same place, and this time was no exception. The bus arrived a few minutes later and I was on my way.
Now my arrival at the Batu caves was one of those moments that gave me chills. I didn't know what to except, not really having any idea of what the caves were about, but I was quite amazed when I got there. The sight of the huge gold statue next to the 272 steps leading to the caves was very impressive. Plus, TV junkie that I am, I instantly recognized the place from one of my favorite shows ever, The Amazing Race! I absolutely love it when that happens!
I walked up the steps and enjoyed the great view in the caves. Monkeys were amusing themselves trying to steal food from tourists and getting the last sips of beer in cans thrown in the rubbish bins. Plus, I got to learn about the disturbing Thaipusam, a huge Hindu festival that happens here every Jan/Feb. 1 million devotees make the trek from the city to the caves, many taking part in gruesome and masochistic acts. Piercing their cheeks with steel rods, placing hooks down their backs and hanging thing on them, all to show their devotion.
As per my new pattern it seems, by the 2nd day in KL I was feeling much better and getting into the groove of things. I met a lot of nice people at the hostel, and I find that generally speaking, my fellow travellers through Asia are more sociable than those in NZ or Australia. I haven't spent a day fully on my own since I started my tour in OZ more than 1 month ago. So all in all, a good start to my time in Malaysia!
Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated the blog, but I've been boycotting it for the last week. You see, I spent at least 1.5 hours last week writing the most spectacular post ever (of course!), and just as I was finishing the spellcheck, I lost everything. Don't know how it happened and could not retrieve it no matter how I tried. I was too pissed off to start over again right then, so I gave myself a little break. But for those interested in more up-to-date travel news, you can check out my sister Johanne's blog at johannel.blogspot.com. We are now travelling together through Thailand (yay!) and she is much better/faster at updating her blog. In the meantime, I will backtrack and post over the next few days details about my time in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy.
After spending New Year's Eve in Singapore, I was off to Kuala Lumpur (KL, as known by the locals). I took a bus from Singapore bright and early on New Year's Day. It was a luxury VIP double-decker coach, complete with assigned seats, massage chairs & my own personal video player. The bus even has an attendant, who serves water, coffee and sandwiches. And all this for less than 15$ CDN!
I arrived in KL a little anxious and very much overwhelmed, as I was still feeling some culture shock since my arrival in Singapore. Adapting to Asia was taking a few days, not as fast as I'd hoped, so my arrival in KL, the largest city in Malaysia, was not without trepidation.
The bus dropped my off at a bus depot, which was pretty much just a big parking lot somewhere in the city. Luckily, I had traded my remaining Singapore dollars for Malaysian Ringgits with a girl at my hostel, cause there were no ATM's to be found on site. My first challenge was to get to the hostel. OK, fairly easily done since there were a dozen or so taxis (or teksi, in Malaysian) drivers looking for a willing sucker, oops sorry, I mean customer. This driver comes to me, I show him where I want to go, he grabs the paper (my reservation confirmation) out of my hands and heads to a group of drivers to ask them directions. There was a lot of eye rolling from the other drivers, cause my guy was just not getting it. This is not reassuring, since as it turns out, my hostel was on a main road in the most touristy area of KL. But lo and behold, after maybe 5 minutes, the light seems to go on over this guy's head! Now all that was left to do was to decide on a price, since of course, he and all of the other drivers refused to use the taxi meter. Not being in the best frame of mind, I accepted the first price quoted to me. I didn't even try to negotiate (doh!) but as it turned out, I didn't get fleeced to badly. Only by about 10 RM, which is 3# CDN.
The rest of the day was spent walking around, trying to get accustomed to the sights and sounds of KL. This city is just as Singapore, but way dirtier and stinkier. But the prices! I was completely amazed by how cheap everything is. A few examples: a 1.5L bottle of water costs 1 RM = 0.30$ CDN, A KFC trio (cause KFC is EVERYWHERE in Malaysia) is 8.60 RM i.e. less than 2.70$ CDN. And KL has lots of western shops and restaurants, with the obligatory Starbucks popping up on every street corner.
The next day I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to meet with 2 girls from my hostel to get free tickets to the Petronas Towers. After a 30-minute jog (one of the girls was a very fast walker), I was in line for the daily ticket giveaway. 1400 tickets are dispensed every day for a tour of the SkyBridge that links both towers, and we were told to show up at 7:30AM at the latest or risk missing out. This may have been an exaggeration, but regardless, we were there early so no worries. We got our tickets and were given a 10-minute window to view the SkyBridge. Now, for anyone planning on visiting Kuala Lumpur one day, please skip the SkyBridge and head out to the KL Tower instead. The tickets are more expensive (as in, not free), but you get a much better view of the city, and you actually get to see the Petronas Towers, which are quite beautiful in my opinion.
Now my favorite part of my time in KL was actually about 15 km outside the city. On the list of "must see's" in my Lonely Planet (aka Traveller's Bible), was the Batu caves. So like a good little tourist, I set off to see what it was all about. Part of the adventure was finding the bus that went there, cause even though the direction in my Lonely Planet were quite precise, I still couldn't find the darn bus. After a bit of scrambling and asking 5 different people to get 5 variations on the answer, I spotted a group of tourists (i.e. western looking people) just standing around waiting and looking uncertain. When in doubt, assemble like sheep with other tourists and hope for the best! It usually ends up we are all going to the same place, and this time was no exception. The bus arrived a few minutes later and I was on my way.
Now my arrival at the Batu caves was one of those moments that gave me chills. I didn't know what to except, not really having any idea of what the caves were about, but I was quite amazed when I got there. The sight of the huge gold statue next to the 272 steps leading to the caves was very impressive. Plus, TV junkie that I am, I instantly recognized the place from one of my favorite shows ever, The Amazing Race! I absolutely love it when that happens!
I walked up the steps and enjoyed the great view in the caves. Monkeys were amusing themselves trying to steal food from tourists and getting the last sips of beer in cans thrown in the rubbish bins. Plus, I got to learn about the disturbing Thaipusam, a huge Hindu festival that happens here every Jan/Feb. 1 million devotees make the trek from the city to the caves, many taking part in gruesome and masochistic acts. Piercing their cheeks with steel rods, placing hooks down their backs and hanging thing on them, all to show their devotion.
As per my new pattern it seems, by the 2nd day in KL I was feeling much better and getting into the groove of things. I met a lot of nice people at the hostel, and I find that generally speaking, my fellow travellers through Asia are more sociable than those in NZ or Australia. I haven't spent a day fully on my own since I started my tour in OZ more than 1 month ago. So all in all, a good start to my time in Malaysia!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Asia first impressions
There's something I feel I should admit to everyone. You see, the thing is, if someone had told me last year that I would be ringing in 2008 in Asia, as part of a 1 year round-the-world trip, I would have said they were absolutely, certifiably nuts. Crazy, no doubt about it. I've never had a burning desire to visit Asia. The opposite actually if I want to be truthful. I even remember discussing travelling to Asia with someone and saying it sounded like my worst nightmare. Way too crowded and too many people for someone not 100% comfortable in crowds. Plus being a picky eater, Asian food is not my favorite. Yet here I am, 1 year later and I'm travelling on my own through South East Asia. Crazy!
Then why am I here, you may ask yourself? Basically this trip has been my opportunity to push myself a little bit (or a lot), to get out there and live life a whole lot differently than my usual 9 to 5 (or in my case 7 to 5) job + watching TV. I want to see exotic places than I might not feel up to seeing when I'm retired, if ever.
All that being said, I was a bit anxious and worried about starting the Asian part of my trip. Hoping that I would adapt well and enjoy this part of my itinerary, since it does represent a huge chunk of my time, in theory. I arrived in Singapore, dubbed "Asia for Dummies" in the Lonely Planet, a bit nervous, exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed.
I definitely felt odd and out of place during my first few hours of walking around. Being a visible minority and not understanding the language being spoken around you is quite the change for me. Then I realised that Singapore is basically just another big city with 1 very clear passion: shopping. The malls are absolutely everywhere, and were very crowded while I was there. I can't say if this is because of an After-Xmas shopping blitz, but whatever the reason, they were packed. Some Singaporean call shopping their hobby or favorite sport, while most tourists seem very happy to spend all their time shopping.
Since shopping ISN'T one of my passions, it seemed to me like there wasn't much to do. I visited/shopped in Little India, visited/shopped on Orchard St., went to the Night Safari (basically a night zoo), visited a museum, and made an aborted attempt at visiting Sentosa Island, Singapore's version of an amusement park/beach resort. I was just so exhausted and hot, I ended up going to the movies instead (yay!!!).
Still, I ended up being happy about my time in Singapore. It gave me a chance to adapt slowly to being a visible minority, and being stared at for some other reason than just my weight. I got the chance to rest a bit as well, taking it easy and recuperate from my time in hot & sweaty Australia.
That's it for now. More on my time in Malaysia later, I've got to go catch a bus!
Then why am I here, you may ask yourself? Basically this trip has been my opportunity to push myself a little bit (or a lot), to get out there and live life a whole lot differently than my usual 9 to 5 (or in my case 7 to 5) job + watching TV. I want to see exotic places than I might not feel up to seeing when I'm retired, if ever.
All that being said, I was a bit anxious and worried about starting the Asian part of my trip. Hoping that I would adapt well and enjoy this part of my itinerary, since it does represent a huge chunk of my time, in theory. I arrived in Singapore, dubbed "Asia for Dummies" in the Lonely Planet, a bit nervous, exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed.
I definitely felt odd and out of place during my first few hours of walking around. Being a visible minority and not understanding the language being spoken around you is quite the change for me. Then I realised that Singapore is basically just another big city with 1 very clear passion: shopping. The malls are absolutely everywhere, and were very crowded while I was there. I can't say if this is because of an After-Xmas shopping blitz, but whatever the reason, they were packed. Some Singaporean call shopping their hobby or favorite sport, while most tourists seem very happy to spend all their time shopping.
Since shopping ISN'T one of my passions, it seemed to me like there wasn't much to do. I visited/shopped in Little India, visited/shopped on Orchard St., went to the Night Safari (basically a night zoo), visited a museum, and made an aborted attempt at visiting Sentosa Island, Singapore's version of an amusement park/beach resort. I was just so exhausted and hot, I ended up going to the movies instead (yay!!!).
Still, I ended up being happy about my time in Singapore. It gave me a chance to adapt slowly to being a visible minority, and being stared at for some other reason than just my weight. I got the chance to rest a bit as well, taking it easy and recuperate from my time in hot & sweaty Australia.
That's it for now. More on my time in Malaysia later, I've got to go catch a bus!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Australia wrap-up
The second part of my Outback tour was touted as being the most boring tour in all of Australia by our tour guide. He said this because there just isn't that much to see or do between Alice Springs and Darwin, just a whole lot of red sand, bushes and a few rocks. But luckily for us, he was a really good tour guide who made an effort to keep it interesting, even if there was a lot of driving involved.
The best stop of the tour was at Devil's Marbles, basically a bunch of huge rocks sitting in the Outback as if they had been placed there by some unknown giants. We scrambled around the rocks, taking amazing pictures at all the best photo ops. It's at one of these photo ops that I had my latest mishap that of course, I'd love to share with you.
Carl, our tour guide, proposed that we take a group photo on top of a big rock. He then looked at me and amended that, hum, maybe we'd be better off taking the photo in front of the rock, not on top of it. You see, the thing was that you actually had to leap onto the rock from a lower rock a few feet away. Imagine, to think he actually doubted my ability to get on the rock! The cheek of him! So of course, I say no, no, I can do it. Or at least try to do it. And of course, what was bound to happen happened. I didn't quite make it far enough, went "splat" onto the rock, lost my shoe somehow (???) and was flat on the rock desperately trying not to fall off like my shoe did. I basically had to scrape myself up onto my knee and then scramble safely onto the rock. I survived, but managed to scrape my knee pretty good. But someone was kind enough to retrieve my shoe from down between 2 rocks, so all was well. Hopefully the pictures will be worth it...
The third and final part of my tour was a 3-day sprint around Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, way up top near Darwin. I say near Darwin, but really, nothing in Australia is really near anything else, so again, there was a lot of driving involved. This is also where I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Here are some highlights:
So as I'm writing this, I have now made my way to my first stop in Asia: Singapore! Free Internet at the hostel (cool!) and still hot & humid weather (oh well).
I wish you all a Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2008 will bring you all the best!
The best stop of the tour was at Devil's Marbles, basically a bunch of huge rocks sitting in the Outback as if they had been placed there by some unknown giants. We scrambled around the rocks, taking amazing pictures at all the best photo ops. It's at one of these photo ops that I had my latest mishap that of course, I'd love to share with you.
Carl, our tour guide, proposed that we take a group photo on top of a big rock. He then looked at me and amended that, hum, maybe we'd be better off taking the photo in front of the rock, not on top of it. You see, the thing was that you actually had to leap onto the rock from a lower rock a few feet away. Imagine, to think he actually doubted my ability to get on the rock! The cheek of him! So of course, I say no, no, I can do it. Or at least try to do it. And of course, what was bound to happen happened. I didn't quite make it far enough, went "splat" onto the rock, lost my shoe somehow (???) and was flat on the rock desperately trying not to fall off like my shoe did. I basically had to scrape myself up onto my knee and then scramble safely onto the rock. I survived, but managed to scrape my knee pretty good. But someone was kind enough to retrieve my shoe from down between 2 rocks, so all was well. Hopefully the pictures will be worth it...
The third and final part of my tour was a 3-day sprint around Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, way up top near Darwin. I say near Darwin, but really, nothing in Australia is really near anything else, so again, there was a lot of driving involved. This is also where I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Here are some highlights:
- Dragged my ass on an what should have been an easy 3.5 km walk to get to a swimming hole, wearing my fly net the whole time and still getting freaked out by the amount of flies around my face.
- Cooled down in the swimming hole for a while, then dragged my a** back from the swimming hole, this time twisting my ankle, falling and scraping the other knee that had so far been intact.
- Went on a guided night walk through the forest on Xmas Eve, looking for snakes, spiders and crocodiles. Found 2 out of 3 (no snakes) but as an added bonus had my first experience with leeches!
- Had a huge traditional Xmas lunch on our tour, with ham, turkey, chicken, salads, ... all the while fighting off the biting ants and coping with heat.
- Went to another swimming hole after Xmas lunch to cool down again, only to be nibbled on 3 times by biting fish! On my disgusting wounded knee that still won't heal in all this heat and humidity! Arggg!
- Finished off Xmas day by going out to dinner in Darwin with the gang from our tour. Somehow, we didn't get the memo that most restaurants would be closed on Christmas Day. Who knew! ;-) Ended up having an excellent (not) Chinese/Italian take-away meal with the gang.
So as I'm writing this, I have now made my way to my first stop in Asia: Singapore! Free Internet at the hostel (cool!) and still hot & humid weather (oh well).
I wish you all a Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2008 will bring you all the best!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
An update from the middle of nowhere!
I had a great week on my tour from Adelaide to Alice Springs. This is exactly what I wanted to see of Australia, and I have not been disappointed. It's vast, empty, harsh, hot and so very different from anyplace I've ever seen. From the news I get from home about the snow piling up non-stop in Montreal, I really can't think of anyplace more different than where I am now! By the way, I hope you are all surviving winter so far. I feel for ya! :-)
The first part of my tour covered the trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs, the aforementioned "middle of nowhere". For 6 days, we drove anywhere from 3 to 7 hours a day through the desert, stopping at interesting places along the way for walks or for taking pictures. The highlights for me were Uluru (amazing!) and Kata Tjuta (even prettier than Uluru).
It was also quite the experience for me, with firsts like camping under the stars and sharing duties with 24 strangers for 6 days straight. The group was actually really good, and I met some really nice people. The camping was OK, although I can't say that I'm a fan of feeling dirty all the time (red sand & dust from the desert that covers you from head to toe) nor of sleeping without a pillow. And the showers, well, I'll just leave that to your imagination. Let's just say I am becoming an expert at scanning for bugs like centipedes and cockroaches while rinsing the shampoo from my hair. And I now know to look under the bed for dead mice before going to sleep in an underground cave. Loads of fun! :-)
I promised my sister Julie that I wouldn't complain of the heat, since she is freezing her butt off in Quebec and is not loving the early start to winter you've been getting this year. So this is not a complaint, I swear, it is simply a statement of fact: The Outback is HOT! On the few days where the sun was shinning full blast, you felt like you were baking in the sun. To give you an idea of how hot and dry it gets, when I washed my hands at one of our rest stops, I left the toilet without drying my hands (no towels or dryer) and within 5-10 seconds, my hands were bone dry! I was so amazed, I wet them again just to count how long it took to dry them, and didn't make it to 10 seconds. A bit geeky of me, but I thought it was so cool! And we were quite lucky with the weather, since it wasn't that sunny all the time. We had a few days of clouds, and some rain, and without them, I don't know how I would have managed not to get heat or sunstroke. It's also why most days on the trip start out really early (like as early as 3:45 AM!), so that you can get activities done early in the day before it gets to hot. The hottest parts of the day were spent sitting on a very old, uncomfortable but luckily air-conditioned bus.
I am now in Alice Springs until tomorrow, when the 2nd part of my tour starts. I will probably not be in contact until the day after Christmas, so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!! Enjoy this time with your respective families, and stay safe!
As for me, I will probably be missing home a bit next week, but I still appreciate every minute of this trip I'm doing. No regrets or complaints from me!
Merry Christmas!!!
The first part of my tour covered the trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs, the aforementioned "middle of nowhere". For 6 days, we drove anywhere from 3 to 7 hours a day through the desert, stopping at interesting places along the way for walks or for taking pictures. The highlights for me were Uluru (amazing!) and Kata Tjuta (even prettier than Uluru).
It was also quite the experience for me, with firsts like camping under the stars and sharing duties with 24 strangers for 6 days straight. The group was actually really good, and I met some really nice people. The camping was OK, although I can't say that I'm a fan of feeling dirty all the time (red sand & dust from the desert that covers you from head to toe) nor of sleeping without a pillow. And the showers, well, I'll just leave that to your imagination. Let's just say I am becoming an expert at scanning for bugs like centipedes and cockroaches while rinsing the shampoo from my hair. And I now know to look under the bed for dead mice before going to sleep in an underground cave. Loads of fun! :-)
I promised my sister Julie that I wouldn't complain of the heat, since she is freezing her butt off in Quebec and is not loving the early start to winter you've been getting this year. So this is not a complaint, I swear, it is simply a statement of fact: The Outback is HOT! On the few days where the sun was shinning full blast, you felt like you were baking in the sun. To give you an idea of how hot and dry it gets, when I washed my hands at one of our rest stops, I left the toilet without drying my hands (no towels or dryer) and within 5-10 seconds, my hands were bone dry! I was so amazed, I wet them again just to count how long it took to dry them, and didn't make it to 10 seconds. A bit geeky of me, but I thought it was so cool! And we were quite lucky with the weather, since it wasn't that sunny all the time. We had a few days of clouds, and some rain, and without them, I don't know how I would have managed not to get heat or sunstroke. It's also why most days on the trip start out really early (like as early as 3:45 AM!), so that you can get activities done early in the day before it gets to hot. The hottest parts of the day were spent sitting on a very old, uncomfortable but luckily air-conditioned bus.
I am now in Alice Springs until tomorrow, when the 2nd part of my tour starts. I will probably not be in contact until the day after Christmas, so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!! Enjoy this time with your respective families, and stay safe!
As for me, I will probably be missing home a bit next week, but I still appreciate every minute of this trip I'm doing. No regrets or complaints from me!
Merry Christmas!!!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Road trip!
My last week started off on a bit of a low, having arrived in Melbourne to find that the hostel I managed to book myself into the day before was a bit scuzzy and sooo not my style. Added to that was me worrying about my plans (i.e. didn't have any yet) for the rest of my time in Australia. This planning as I go along will get some getting used to, but hopefully I'll be an expert at it by the time my trip ends.
I ended up spending my time in Melbourne going to the movies twice ("Death at a funeral" - very funny English movie, "Into the Wild" - liked it a lot) and spending hours on the Internet getting some stuff settled. So don't ask me what I thought of Melbourne, I can't really form an opinion based on what I did or saw... Just don't stay at the Nomads Industry hostel if you come here, although to be fair I've heard that most hostels in Melbourne are of the same quality.
So, once I made some plans, I was ready to move on. I spent a couple of days in Phillip Island, south of Melbourne. This is where the world-famous (at least now it is!) Penguin Parade happens every night. Those of you who've read my previous post about penguins realise that this would be a draw to me, having the chance to some again. This time, the "penguin parade" was a very touristy attraction, with hundreds of people paying good money to sit in a stand on the beach waiting for the penguins to return from the sea at nightfall. It looked more like a "tourist parade" at one point... But when the sun sets, hundreds upon hundreds of penguins make there way from the sea to their little nests on the beach. It really was an amazing site, these cute little 30-cm penguins waddling up from the ocean!
Phillip Island is also where I was introduced to the joys of summer in Australia. No, I'm not talking about the beautiful beaches, although there were plenty, nor the hot weather or blue ocean. No, I'm talking about the bloody Australian flies. You see, there is this well kept secret about Australia that I learned only once I got here. I was warned about the snakes, spiders, killer jellyfish, crocodiles, ... before my arrival, but no one ever mentioned anything about the flies. What's so bad about flies, you ask? Let me tell you, these are not your typical Quebec black flies that buzz in your ear once in a while and move on. These are disgusting, sticky little black flies that Will. Not. Leave. You. Alone. They fly around your face, trying to get into any orifice they can. These charming flies particularly enjoy the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, and nothing will deter them in their quest to drive you absolutely crazy. The only thing that keeps them somewhat away from your face is doing the Aussie wave, also known as the Aussie salute. A constant "whoosh-whooshing" movement in front of your face.
So there I was on Phillip Island, ready for a nice day at the beach. I had packed myself a little picnic lunch, a good book and had big plans for snoozing the afternoon away. I got to the beach, sat down and lasted 30 minutes before I realised I couldn't take it anymore. My hands were cramping up from waving all the time, I couldn't get a bite of my lunch without having 10 flies hovering around my mouth and when I tried to lay down and ignore them, they just had a field day trying to get to my brain through my ears (or so it felt like to me). I gave up and headed to the shops were at least the number of flies would be a bit more manageable, but not before I managed to make a complete fool of myself by having a meltdown right on the main street. As I was waving my hand frantically in front of my face, one fly got to my eye, even behind my sunglasses. I freaked and threw off the sunglasses, which also sent my hat and hairband flying. I was not a happy camper. Then I noticed I had attracted a bit of an audience, so I started laughing. Better that than going absolutely nuts, which is what I felt like doing. The flies have not gotten any better since then, but I think I've adapted now. The Aussie wave is now an automatic thing when I'm outside, so much so I think I may be waving in my sleep...
Next up after Phillip Island was a 3-day road trip from Melbourne to Adelaide, via the Great Ocean Road. I was very excited to drive in Australia, to see if driving on the left-hand side would come back to me quickly (I'd done it before when I worked in the UK for 6 months). It did, and it sure felt good to be behind the wheel of a car, that much I can say! Driving on the left didn't prove to be to much of a challenge, and shifting gears with my left hand is actually more natural to me than the right. What did prove to be a challenge was using the "flicker" to signal a turn instead of using the windshield wipers all the time (the windshield wipers are on the left of the steering wheel, where my "flicker" would be at home). I think I started getting the hang of it on my 3rd day. The drive on the Great Ocean Road is absolutely beautiful. I took so many pictures, it'll take me hours to upload them. Very much worth the while!
I had to upgrade my living arrangements for those few days on the road, since I was travelling during "schoolies" week. "Schoolies" is the Australian version of Spring break for the recent high school graduates. They head "en masse" to the beach, taking up every budget accommodation possible. So I had to upgrade to motels, or else sleep in the car. Not a difficult decision to make! Especially since next up for me is a 2-week tour of the Outback, including 6 nights of camping under the stars!
I hope all of you are enjoying Xmas time at home. I have to admit it is just not the same being so far away and being in a warm climate for Christmastime. Hearing "Jingle Bells" on the radio whilst sweating in 30C weather is just too bizarre for me...
I ended up spending my time in Melbourne going to the movies twice ("Death at a funeral" - very funny English movie, "Into the Wild" - liked it a lot) and spending hours on the Internet getting some stuff settled. So don't ask me what I thought of Melbourne, I can't really form an opinion based on what I did or saw... Just don't stay at the Nomads Industry hostel if you come here, although to be fair I've heard that most hostels in Melbourne are of the same quality.
So, once I made some plans, I was ready to move on. I spent a couple of days in Phillip Island, south of Melbourne. This is where the world-famous (at least now it is!) Penguin Parade happens every night. Those of you who've read my previous post about penguins realise that this would be a draw to me, having the chance to some again. This time, the "penguin parade" was a very touristy attraction, with hundreds of people paying good money to sit in a stand on the beach waiting for the penguins to return from the sea at nightfall. It looked more like a "tourist parade" at one point... But when the sun sets, hundreds upon hundreds of penguins make there way from the sea to their little nests on the beach. It really was an amazing site, these cute little 30-cm penguins waddling up from the ocean!
Phillip Island is also where I was introduced to the joys of summer in Australia. No, I'm not talking about the beautiful beaches, although there were plenty, nor the hot weather or blue ocean. No, I'm talking about the bloody Australian flies. You see, there is this well kept secret about Australia that I learned only once I got here. I was warned about the snakes, spiders, killer jellyfish, crocodiles, ... before my arrival, but no one ever mentioned anything about the flies. What's so bad about flies, you ask? Let me tell you, these are not your typical Quebec black flies that buzz in your ear once in a while and move on. These are disgusting, sticky little black flies that Will. Not. Leave. You. Alone. They fly around your face, trying to get into any orifice they can. These charming flies particularly enjoy the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, and nothing will deter them in their quest to drive you absolutely crazy. The only thing that keeps them somewhat away from your face is doing the Aussie wave, also known as the Aussie salute. A constant "whoosh-whooshing" movement in front of your face.
So there I was on Phillip Island, ready for a nice day at the beach. I had packed myself a little picnic lunch, a good book and had big plans for snoozing the afternoon away. I got to the beach, sat down and lasted 30 minutes before I realised I couldn't take it anymore. My hands were cramping up from waving all the time, I couldn't get a bite of my lunch without having 10 flies hovering around my mouth and when I tried to lay down and ignore them, they just had a field day trying to get to my brain through my ears (or so it felt like to me). I gave up and headed to the shops were at least the number of flies would be a bit more manageable, but not before I managed to make a complete fool of myself by having a meltdown right on the main street. As I was waving my hand frantically in front of my face, one fly got to my eye, even behind my sunglasses. I freaked and threw off the sunglasses, which also sent my hat and hairband flying. I was not a happy camper. Then I noticed I had attracted a bit of an audience, so I started laughing. Better that than going absolutely nuts, which is what I felt like doing. The flies have not gotten any better since then, but I think I've adapted now. The Aussie wave is now an automatic thing when I'm outside, so much so I think I may be waving in my sleep...
Next up after Phillip Island was a 3-day road trip from Melbourne to Adelaide, via the Great Ocean Road. I was very excited to drive in Australia, to see if driving on the left-hand side would come back to me quickly (I'd done it before when I worked in the UK for 6 months). It did, and it sure felt good to be behind the wheel of a car, that much I can say! Driving on the left didn't prove to be to much of a challenge, and shifting gears with my left hand is actually more natural to me than the right. What did prove to be a challenge was using the "flicker" to signal a turn instead of using the windshield wipers all the time (the windshield wipers are on the left of the steering wheel, where my "flicker" would be at home). I think I started getting the hang of it on my 3rd day. The drive on the Great Ocean Road is absolutely beautiful. I took so many pictures, it'll take me hours to upload them. Very much worth the while!
I had to upgrade my living arrangements for those few days on the road, since I was travelling during "schoolies" week. "Schoolies" is the Australian version of Spring break for the recent high school graduates. They head "en masse" to the beach, taking up every budget accommodation possible. So I had to upgrade to motels, or else sleep in the car. Not a difficult decision to make! Especially since next up for me is a 2-week tour of the Outback, including 6 nights of camping under the stars!
I hope all of you are enjoying Xmas time at home. I have to admit it is just not the same being so far away and being in a warm climate for Christmastime. Hearing "Jingle Bells" on the radio whilst sweating in 30C weather is just too bizarre for me...
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