I couldn't wait for late noon of this Sunday to arrive. It had not only to do with my enthusiasm about the train ride: it was again so hot... but I guess everyone will be bored by now when the word "heat" appears...
So I took a Tuk-tuk to the station and waited for the train to depart. With open windows I enjoyed then again landscape, rice paddies, mountains and forests, the humid heat streaming in, towns and villages we were passing... I described train rides in Thailand already in one of the first posts, the tour from Bangkok to Nong Khai. This time we started at 14.50 h, so almost five hours we drove in daylight. I simply can't imagine travelling in a closed air-con carriage, with locked and insulated windows, with a temperature probably colder then moderate, as long as there are other possibilities...
We arrived in Bangkok early in the morning, it was dawning, the city wasn't fully awake yet. I hadn't slept a lot, because of course it was noisy with the windows open, but what the hell... I only hope that there are more opportunities for me in the future to ride one of these trains again...
If you would like to get a taste of it, you can find some magnificent books about train travels: Paul Theroux's "The old Patagonia Express", in which he describes his journey from his home town (Boston? Chicago? I don't remember...) down to Patagonia, most of it in trains. A very interesting account of meeting people and getting to know other countries... From the same author is " Riding the Iron Rooster", about travelling through China by train (this one I haven't read yet...). The dutch writer Cees Nooteboom describes a journey by train, in Senegal (or Gambia?), in his wonderful collection of short travel stories "Nootebooms Hotel". There are certainly more books and stories available... But the best still is to do it on his own, isn't it?
lunes, 25 de junio de 2007
domingo, 24 de junio de 2007
Sunday
There's a feeling which I almost forgot in the last three months: the tranquility of Sunday morning... I woke up early, after a very quiet night, to find that outside there was nothing going on. I got out of the guest house at around 8 o'clock and the streets were fairly deserted. It was Sunday, and in Thailand this day has some kind of meaning. I remembered Vietnams frenzy, where there was no rest at any hour, any day, and also in Laos and Cambodia Sunday was to a large extent a normal working day which started quite early...
I walked around a bit, found a restaurant that was open, where I had breakfast. After that I went back to my guest house, sat down in the courtyard and drank a few cappuccinos... it was instant stuff, but I didn't care. The atmosphere was too marvelous to worry about this minor issue... I simply sat there, reading a while, in between trying to catch the ambiance of the awakening quarter, and I have to admit that it wasn't a bad feeling at all. Very often in my life I worked on Sundays, but I always valued the fact that this day generally means some relaxation from the normal week days, less traffic, less people in the streets, a general tranquility floating over the city... after three months without real Sunday (okay, I didn't have to work, was on vacation, but you know what I want to say...) I really enjoyed this sensation again...
I walked around a bit, found a restaurant that was open, where I had breakfast. After that I went back to my guest house, sat down in the courtyard and drank a few cappuccinos... it was instant stuff, but I didn't care. The atmosphere was too marvelous to worry about this minor issue... I simply sat there, reading a while, in between trying to catch the ambiance of the awakening quarter, and I have to admit that it wasn't a bad feeling at all. Very often in my life I worked on Sundays, but I always valued the fact that this day generally means some relaxation from the normal week days, less traffic, less people in the streets, a general tranquility floating over the city... after three months without real Sunday (okay, I didn't have to work, was on vacation, but you know what I want to say...) I really enjoyed this sensation again...
Countdown
The last days...
Saturday morning I crossed the Mekong. Stepping off the boat in Thailand marked the beginning of the last days... In the border town Chiang Khong I jumped on a bus to Chiang Rai, there another one to Chiang Mai was ready to depart, I managed to get on. Back in Thailand... things seem to flow, compared to Laos or Cambodia. I enjoyed it, without meaning to depreciate these other countries...
In Chiang Mai I thought of catching the next overnight train to Bangkok, but had to find out, that almost all these trains only have air-conditioned carriages, which I hate... The only exception being the one at 14.50 h, but for this I was too late. As I wanted to enjoy the trip back to Bangkok, I decided to stay one night in Chiang Mai. This was definitely not enough to catch a glimpse of the city, which in itself is a destination, where many people spend one week or even more. But anyway, you can't see everything in your life...
I found a terrific guest house, which made me forget the forced overnight stop. It was in one of those alleyways, which are so interesting and so much more typical, if one wants to get a glimpse of urban Thailand... and - most important - these alleyways are some really quiet oasis in the big, noisy Thai cities...
Saturday morning I crossed the Mekong. Stepping off the boat in Thailand marked the beginning of the last days... In the border town Chiang Khong I jumped on a bus to Chiang Rai, there another one to Chiang Mai was ready to depart, I managed to get on. Back in Thailand... things seem to flow, compared to Laos or Cambodia. I enjoyed it, without meaning to depreciate these other countries...
In Chiang Mai I thought of catching the next overnight train to Bangkok, but had to find out, that almost all these trains only have air-conditioned carriages, which I hate... The only exception being the one at 14.50 h, but for this I was too late. As I wanted to enjoy the trip back to Bangkok, I decided to stay one night in Chiang Mai. This was definitely not enough to catch a glimpse of the city, which in itself is a destination, where many people spend one week or even more. But anyway, you can't see everything in your life...
I found a terrific guest house, which made me forget the forced overnight stop. It was in one of those alleyways, which are so interesting and so much more typical, if one wants to get a glimpse of urban Thailand... and - most important - these alleyways are some really quiet oasis in the big, noisy Thai cities...
sábado, 23 de junio de 2007
On the Mekong
Two days on a "slowboat" up the Mekong, from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai: I don't know whether this sounds exiting or boring... I guess it's a little bit of both. We departed from Luang Prabang at 8.30 in the morning, and I hardly had gotten any sleep the night before. Don't ask me why... the heat is only one aspect, but probably not the only one. So the first day wasn't really one to remember...
The boat was not very full, it's low season... a dozen locals, half a dozen tourists. We made our way upstream, slowly but steady. The river was running through mountaineous terrain, quite beautiful... as the water level was very low - it's the end of the dry season - there were many shallows, and sometimes I really wondered whether we would pass them or hit the ground. Rocks emerged on all sides, which would be underwater in september or october... As I said before, I was quite tired, so the day dragged on, but all in all it wasn't that bad.
In the evening we arrived in Pak Beng, where we spent the night. Due to the low water level it is impossible to run the river in darkness, but I'm not sure whether there's any traffic at night at all... Pak Beng is another "one-street town" and looks a bit like beamed here from somewhere else, a little bit out of place. It's really in the middle of nowhere, but along this one street one finds almost a dozen of guest houses and even more restaurants. The town owns its "importance" to the fact, that these two-day Mekong trips (in either direction) have become quite popular and apparently through a good part of the year this place is full of foreigners who spend the night there (I think nobody stays for two nights). The town has a couple of hundred inhabitants, maybe little more than one thousand, it is accessible by river and one unpaved road, and has currently no regular electricity supply: generators are humming until 10 o'clock in the evening, when they are turned off and it's incredibly silent then... yet there are two Indian restaurants and one German-Laotian... I wonder how they ended up here...
I slept fairly well that night, although the guest house was not exciting at all, but I felt rested the next morning. Another day on the river, which I enjoyed much more. We passed through narrow valleys, but in the afternoon the landscape opened, becoming wider, with hills and lowlands replacing the steep mountain slopes. One thing didn't change: it remained hot... the motion of the boat produced a nice breeze, but whenever we stopped to take people on board or to let them go off, the heat was immediately around us, making us sweat just by sitting around and doing nothing...
In the evening we finally arrived in Huay Xai, the border town, with Thailand being on the other side of the river. It was too late to cross, so I had to stay in Laos one more day. Again the guest house wasn't really great, but as it was for only one night, I didn't care too much.
Huay Xai is a little bigger and becoming slowly but steady important, as a road is being constructed to connect Thailand with China. Yet as I wondered through the streets, I didn't like it , somehow... I had seen more interesting river towns...
I haven't made up my mind whether I would make this two-day trip again. Maybe it would be different entering Laos through Huay Xai and going from there to Luang Prabang, the more common direction. I myself was on my way back, a little bit tired and worn out. I guess I shouldn't think too much about it. It was quite nice, travelling on the Mekong slowly through north-western Laos, passing villages, fishermen, herds of water buffaloes, children playing on the river banks...
how many opportunities are there in life to see all this?
The boat was not very full, it's low season... a dozen locals, half a dozen tourists. We made our way upstream, slowly but steady. The river was running through mountaineous terrain, quite beautiful... as the water level was very low - it's the end of the dry season - there were many shallows, and sometimes I really wondered whether we would pass them or hit the ground. Rocks emerged on all sides, which would be underwater in september or october... As I said before, I was quite tired, so the day dragged on, but all in all it wasn't that bad.
In the evening we arrived in Pak Beng, where we spent the night. Due to the low water level it is impossible to run the river in darkness, but I'm not sure whether there's any traffic at night at all... Pak Beng is another "one-street town" and looks a bit like beamed here from somewhere else, a little bit out of place. It's really in the middle of nowhere, but along this one street one finds almost a dozen of guest houses and even more restaurants. The town owns its "importance" to the fact, that these two-day Mekong trips (in either direction) have become quite popular and apparently through a good part of the year this place is full of foreigners who spend the night there (I think nobody stays for two nights). The town has a couple of hundred inhabitants, maybe little more than one thousand, it is accessible by river and one unpaved road, and has currently no regular electricity supply: generators are humming until 10 o'clock in the evening, when they are turned off and it's incredibly silent then... yet there are two Indian restaurants and one German-Laotian... I wonder how they ended up here...
I slept fairly well that night, although the guest house was not exciting at all, but I felt rested the next morning. Another day on the river, which I enjoyed much more. We passed through narrow valleys, but in the afternoon the landscape opened, becoming wider, with hills and lowlands replacing the steep mountain slopes. One thing didn't change: it remained hot... the motion of the boat produced a nice breeze, but whenever we stopped to take people on board or to let them go off, the heat was immediately around us, making us sweat just by sitting around and doing nothing...
In the evening we finally arrived in Huay Xai, the border town, with Thailand being on the other side of the river. It was too late to cross, so I had to stay in Laos one more day. Again the guest house wasn't really great, but as it was for only one night, I didn't care too much.
Huay Xai is a little bigger and becoming slowly but steady important, as a road is being constructed to connect Thailand with China. Yet as I wondered through the streets, I didn't like it , somehow... I had seen more interesting river towns...
I haven't made up my mind whether I would make this two-day trip again. Maybe it would be different entering Laos through Huay Xai and going from there to Luang Prabang, the more common direction. I myself was on my way back, a little bit tired and worn out. I guess I shouldn't think too much about it. It was quite nice, travelling on the Mekong slowly through north-western Laos, passing villages, fishermen, herds of water buffaloes, children playing on the river banks...
how many opportunities are there in life to see all this?
miércoles, 20 de junio de 2007
No smoking !
Two strange words for SE Asia, with the exception of a small city in Northern Laos: Luang Prabang.
A couple of weeks ago the local authorities issued a ban on smoking in all public areas. The background: Luang Prabang is a "World Heritage Site", and I must admit that this local law fits it quite well...
Situated on the bank of the Mekong, Luang Prabang is a definite must-see in SE Asia: a wonderful mixture of French colonial architecture, Buddhist pagodas and monasteries, quiet alleyways, river life, exuberant green vegetation... all surrounded by a very tranquil ambiance and a relaxing and refreshing atmosphere..
To learn more about this magnificent small city, please employ your search engine... you will find plenty of information on the internet. As I had explained in the former post, the first days I was not too active due to a state of tiredness, which still was hovering above me. It also took away some of my fantasy, indispensable to write some interesting, maybe even entertaining posts...
The next news you will hear in three or four days, when I'm definitely on my way back... tomorrow I'll go on a two-day river journey, up the Mekong: Luang Prabang - Pak Beng - Huay Xai. From there I'll cross into Thailand, starting the final lap which will lead to Bangkok... back to reality, slowly but steady...
A couple of weeks ago the local authorities issued a ban on smoking in all public areas. The background: Luang Prabang is a "World Heritage Site", and I must admit that this local law fits it quite well...
Situated on the bank of the Mekong, Luang Prabang is a definite must-see in SE Asia: a wonderful mixture of French colonial architecture, Buddhist pagodas and monasteries, quiet alleyways, river life, exuberant green vegetation... all surrounded by a very tranquil ambiance and a relaxing and refreshing atmosphere..
To learn more about this magnificent small city, please employ your search engine... you will find plenty of information on the internet. As I had explained in the former post, the first days I was not too active due to a state of tiredness, which still was hovering above me. It also took away some of my fantasy, indispensable to write some interesting, maybe even entertaining posts...
The next news you will hear in three or four days, when I'm definitely on my way back... tomorrow I'll go on a two-day river journey, up the Mekong: Luang Prabang - Pak Beng - Huay Xai. From there I'll cross into Thailand, starting the final lap which will lead to Bangkok... back to reality, slowly but steady...
Tired
Maybe some noticed it... the number of posts decreased in the last weeks. Partly because I was in some more remote places, with internet access being quite expensive or not available at all... but also because I felt an increasing fatigue...
I guess it was due to the continuously high temperatures over the last weeks or months and a lack of sleep, which accompanied me for a very long time already... maybe also due to a certain dehydration, because I tend to underestimate the necessary amount of liquids I should drink... all of which again was probably leading to a debilitation of my immune system. I had developped some kind of light diarrhea, nothing serious at all, but also contributing to my general state of tiredness. It's hard to describe: I wasn't sick and didn't feel so, but I also didn't feel very fit... I simply felt tired...
So what to do? Trying to get some sleep, to rest as much as possible, to find the necessary energy again for the last weeks... sounds easy, doesn't it? If it only would be that easy...
Still, the most important thing: trying to look at it as something normal... as long as it wouldn't go on too long...
I guess it was due to the continuously high temperatures over the last weeks or months and a lack of sleep, which accompanied me for a very long time already... maybe also due to a certain dehydration, because I tend to underestimate the necessary amount of liquids I should drink... all of which again was probably leading to a debilitation of my immune system. I had developped some kind of light diarrhea, nothing serious at all, but also contributing to my general state of tiredness. It's hard to describe: I wasn't sick and didn't feel so, but I also didn't feel very fit... I simply felt tired...
So what to do? Trying to get some sleep, to rest as much as possible, to find the necessary energy again for the last weeks... sounds easy, doesn't it? If it only would be that easy...
Still, the most important thing: trying to look at it as something normal... as long as it wouldn't go on too long...
sábado, 16 de junio de 2007
Phonsavan
As I thought to need some better photos for the story about UXO, I had decided to make another stopover in Phonsavan. The last time the end of my visa simply forced me to leave, although I only would have needed two or three days more. In Vang Vieng I had teamed up with David, an Englishman living in Singapor. Quite interesting to learn about this part of the world. I actually met a lot of people living in Singapor, and they all had different backgrounds and roots, Chinese, Malaian, Indonesian, European... and this all makes me wish to visit this city one day...
The two days in Phonsavan were little spectacular, but worth the detour. I managed to meet again some of "my English-students"... As they were on vacation, they agreed to guide us through some H'mong-villages. Tommy and Duong themselves are H'mong, so the communication with the villagers was no problem, although the main part consisted in asking permission to enter their yards to take some photos of war scrap, used as fences, flower pots, and more...
One evening we went to the English-school (it's a private school, so no vacations), they all were surprised and happy to see me again...
Although I was not completely satisfied with the scope of photos I could take, I decided to leave after two days. Several reasons, one of them that the clock was running faster and faster and the date of my return flight getting closer and closer...
The two days in Phonsavan were little spectacular, but worth the detour. I managed to meet again some of "my English-students"... As they were on vacation, they agreed to guide us through some H'mong-villages. Tommy and Duong themselves are H'mong, so the communication with the villagers was no problem, although the main part consisted in asking permission to enter their yards to take some photos of war scrap, used as fences, flower pots, and more...
One evening we went to the English-school (it's a private school, so no vacations), they all were surprised and happy to see me again...
Although I was not completely satisfied with the scope of photos I could take, I decided to leave after two days. Several reasons, one of them that the clock was running faster and faster and the date of my return flight getting closer and closer...
Vang Vieng
I made a one-day stopover in Vientiane, because I wanted to buy a book or two. Here also it was mainly hot and the city made a "dead" impression. Not many people were on the streets, a few times the wind was blowing clouds of dust around. In the evening I ended up again in these two blocks which are in my opinion the most "authentic" in Vientiane's center, Chao Anou Road and the night market. After a dreary and sweaty day I liked the city again...
Early sunday morning (10\07) I took a bus to Vang Vieng. I didn't hear a lot of positive things about a part of this town, but more so concerning the landscape. Both turned out to be true. Vang Vieng lies at the bank of a river and is surrounded by magnificent limestone mountains with many caves, which are easily accessible. You can do some hiking there, climbing, rafting, and more. This turned Vang Viengs center (it's a very small town) in the course of the years into an endless row of guest houses, restaurants and the usual "travel agencies", who all offer exactly the same. It's like a light version of Bangkoks Khao San Road. Fortunately there are some guest houses on the other side of the river. In one of them I got my own little bungalow, next to a creek, and from its small veranda views over fields and some mountains. It was one of the best places I ever stayed on this journey. Butterflies everywhere, birds, lizards, one or the other mean looking spider, and besides that almost complete silence... I could have stayed there one week without problems, but as I mentioned in another post, the expiry date of this journey is getting closer...
This ambience did of course not incite to move around a lot, more so as the weather remained hot. Yet I managed to climb into a cave and to "explore" the surrounding area on bicycle. One afternoon a gorgeous rainstorm swept over the valley, I sat on the veranda and enjoyed the force of nature. There was only one flaw: it didn't really make the temperatures descend...
Early sunday morning (10\07) I took a bus to Vang Vieng. I didn't hear a lot of positive things about a part of this town, but more so concerning the landscape. Both turned out to be true. Vang Vieng lies at the bank of a river and is surrounded by magnificent limestone mountains with many caves, which are easily accessible. You can do some hiking there, climbing, rafting, and more. This turned Vang Viengs center (it's a very small town) in the course of the years into an endless row of guest houses, restaurants and the usual "travel agencies", who all offer exactly the same. It's like a light version of Bangkoks Khao San Road. Fortunately there are some guest houses on the other side of the river. In one of them I got my own little bungalow, next to a creek, and from its small veranda views over fields and some mountains. It was one of the best places I ever stayed on this journey. Butterflies everywhere, birds, lizards, one or the other mean looking spider, and besides that almost complete silence... I could have stayed there one week without problems, but as I mentioned in another post, the expiry date of this journey is getting closer...
This ambience did of course not incite to move around a lot, more so as the weather remained hot. Yet I managed to climb into a cave and to "explore" the surrounding area on bicycle. One afternoon a gorgeous rainstorm swept over the valley, I sat on the veranda and enjoyed the force of nature. There was only one flaw: it didn't really make the temperatures descend...
Air Con
I took the night bus from Pakse to Vientiane, because my time is running out slowly but steady. Again a not so nice surprise: the air condition was turned up so incredibly high, that means the temperatur so incredibly low, that everyone was freezing. It must have been something like 18 degrees inside the bus, maybe even less. Outside 33, 35... In central and northern Europe fogging of the inside of windows is a common phenomenon: cold outside, warm inside, in a car, for example. Here it was the other way around: the windows were partly fogged on the outside... I've never seen that before, and hopefully it will be the last time in my life...
I know that in hot countries cool temperatures are something desirable and often a luxury, the same as warm temperatures for northern Europeans. But I never understand the attitude of turning down the temperatures to such an extent that it makes people feel uncomfortable or even get sick. Maybe I don't have to understand it... In Spain this brainless behaviour is more normality than exeption, and I just hate it. Apparently it's a universal behaviour...
I know that in hot countries cool temperatures are something desirable and often a luxury, the same as warm temperatures for northern Europeans. But I never understand the attitude of turning down the temperatures to such an extent that it makes people feel uncomfortable or even get sick. Maybe I don't have to understand it... In Spain this brainless behaviour is more normality than exeption, and I just hate it. Apparently it's a universal behaviour...
jueves, 14 de junio de 2007
Real heat
It's at the edge between dry and rainy season, but the rains are not very frequent at the moment. That means that all still have to suffer, because it is still hot. In Cambodia it was sometimes almost unbearable around noon. In Champasak the temperature reached some 42, 43 degrees during the day, I don't even want to know it exactly, together with a very high humidity. At 9 o'clock in the morning the sun is already burning relentlessly, and some hours later there's not much one can do than to wait for the "cooler" afternoon hours to arrive. Hardly anybody can be seen on the street, the fields are deserted, everyone is looking for shadow... even at 4 o'clock in the afternoon it requires some efforts to start moving again...
The nights are also very warm, I don't manage to sleep well for quite a long time now, and I feel like it, being somehow tired almost constantly. That's not what I really was looking for when I went on this journey, but I can't change it... I must admit that I simply didn't expect it to be that hot... next time I'll know...
The nights are also very warm, I don't manage to sleep well for quite a long time now, and I feel like it, being somehow tired almost constantly. That's not what I really was looking for when I went on this journey, but I can't change it... I must admit that I simply didn't expect it to be that hot... next time I'll know...
Champasak
Back in Laos... finally...
The journey from Stung Treng was as uncomplicated as it could be. We just had to hop on a minibus which brought us to the border. On the other side another bus waited to pick us up. The border is in the middle of nowhere. A few shacks where the passport controls are carried out, and some more shacks and houses where the people, who work there, live and probably are bored, because it's really the middle of nowhere...
I then stayed two days in Champasak, a very small town in southern Laos, on the western side of the Mekong. It's described as a "lazy one-street town", and that's what it basically is... a scenic ferry crossing, and then houses lined up several kilometers along the only street. Close to Champasak is Wat Phu, some Khmer ruins, they are the reason why most people make a short stopover here. The ruins are quite nice, on a hill overlooking the region, and the view is truly fantastic. I have to add that the Champasak region has been declared a "world heritage site", and this not only because of Wat Phu.
The best thing one can do is to rent a bicycle (almost all guesthouses offer it) and take off into the countryside. There are a lot of water canals and along these canals some fairly decent dirt tracks, where one can drive on bicycles for endless kilometers, at least in the dry season. Now, after the first rainfalls, the fields were full of people working there. The rice already had been or just was being planted, and many paddies shone in this very special green which only rice plants have to offer. I went out there either early in the morning or late afternoon, because the rest of the day it was incredibly hot. Especially the afternoon sun made the fields appear in such a stunning and beautiful light that it is almost impossible to describe.
It was one of the most scenic regions I came through on this journey, one of the true highlights. Nothing spectacular, but of a quiet and intense beauty. Most people miss this, because they just visit the ruins and then leave again.
Fortunately I also ended up in a great guest house, with a terrace overlooking the Mekong. I really enjoyed being out there early in the morning, "listening" to the silence, watching a few fishermen on their tiny boats. The same in the evening... it's hard to imagine this silence, but as I explained, one has to cross the Mekong to get here, and after nightfall there is nothing which could be called "traffic"... it's human voices, birds, cidadas and nothing else...
The journey from Stung Treng was as uncomplicated as it could be. We just had to hop on a minibus which brought us to the border. On the other side another bus waited to pick us up. The border is in the middle of nowhere. A few shacks where the passport controls are carried out, and some more shacks and houses where the people, who work there, live and probably are bored, because it's really the middle of nowhere...
I then stayed two days in Champasak, a very small town in southern Laos, on the western side of the Mekong. It's described as a "lazy one-street town", and that's what it basically is... a scenic ferry crossing, and then houses lined up several kilometers along the only street. Close to Champasak is Wat Phu, some Khmer ruins, they are the reason why most people make a short stopover here. The ruins are quite nice, on a hill overlooking the region, and the view is truly fantastic. I have to add that the Champasak region has been declared a "world heritage site", and this not only because of Wat Phu.
The best thing one can do is to rent a bicycle (almost all guesthouses offer it) and take off into the countryside. There are a lot of water canals and along these canals some fairly decent dirt tracks, where one can drive on bicycles for endless kilometers, at least in the dry season. Now, after the first rainfalls, the fields were full of people working there. The rice already had been or just was being planted, and many paddies shone in this very special green which only rice plants have to offer. I went out there either early in the morning or late afternoon, because the rest of the day it was incredibly hot. Especially the afternoon sun made the fields appear in such a stunning and beautiful light that it is almost impossible to describe.
It was one of the most scenic regions I came through on this journey, one of the true highlights. Nothing spectacular, but of a quiet and intense beauty. Most people miss this, because they just visit the ruins and then leave again.
Fortunately I also ended up in a great guest house, with a terrace overlooking the Mekong. I really enjoyed being out there early in the morning, "listening" to the silence, watching a few fishermen on their tiny boats. The same in the evening... it's hard to imagine this silence, but as I explained, one has to cross the Mekong to get here, and after nightfall there is nothing which could be called "traffic"... it's human voices, birds, cidadas and nothing else...
sábado, 9 de junio de 2007
More moments
A continuation of small events...
The monks' prayer
In Chau Doc I was waiting for the boat which would take me to Cambodia. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning and I sat at a table of my guest house's restaurant. On the opposite side of the street monks arrived, men and also women, and started to dress up in their orange suits. I asked a woman of the restaurant what was going on there, and showed my surprise about female monks. She told me that this was quite normal in Vietnam, also women were allowed to spend a certain time in a monastery. Now they gathered in the private house on the other side of the street, because the family had "invited" them. Two family members were mentally ill, and the monks were supposed to pray for their reconvalescense. The family had payed a certain amount of money, you could call it donation, to the monks or their monastery.
The prayer itself lasted about 15 or 20 minutes. It was carried out more or less publicly, in the living room that opens to the street. After having finished, the monks got out of their robes again. One after the other got into a tuk-tuk or cyclo and was brought back to the monastery... Life in the house continued as normal as every day...
Giggling about the foreigner
The evening before, I was walking through the streets of Chau Doc. As I had mentioned already, a quite pleasant little city. I didn't know what I wanted to eat and made several rounds... Finally I decided to sit down at one of the small food stalls on the sidewalks. Apparently very rarely foreigners eat there, because first they stared at me, then all started getting busy to serve me. They had only one dish, it was a noodle soup with tofu and tasted absolutely delicious. While I ate, two girls, maybe 16 or 17, sat down on the next table and watched me. They couldn't get over the fact that a foreigner ate at their "reataurant", yet it was a very friendly and sympathetic curiousity... When I had finished and paid, they all were smiling and waving me good-bye... Unfortunately I would leave the next morning, the soup was really good and I would have liked to eat there again...
Death of a cow
On the way from Khompong Chom to Kratie our bus was driving quite normal. That means that he used the horn to warn the others, motorcycles or cars, or to chase dogs and cows off the road. Slowing down is not necessarily a regular behaviour. To be fair, in Cambodia is it far better than in Vietnam, where the traffic could be called "absolutely crazy".
But finally there came a moment I had long waited for. Close to a small village a cow suddenly started to run across the road (it was not one of these big European cows, but somewhat smaller). The driver tried to brake, but he had no chance, it happened too quick. The bus fully hit the cow, with a speed of maybe 60 or 70 kms/h. It gave a loud dull bang, and the cow was thrown through the air and hurled to the side of the street. The driver slowed down for a second, then he continued...
I actually don't know whether the cow was killed, but I can't imagine that she survived the impact. For the driver it was logical to "run away"... There is no such thing as an insurance in Cambodia that covers this kind of accident. The driver's employer would never pay for the damage, so he himself would be liable... A cow means quite some value in Cambodia, and it might be the equivalent of maybe 3, 4 or 5 months wages which the driver would have to pay. Clear facts, so he simply continued...
The question was how the owner of the cow would deal with it. The best he could do would be probably to sell the meat, yet the bitter end of this story was undoubtedly on his side.
The monks' prayer
In Chau Doc I was waiting for the boat which would take me to Cambodia. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning and I sat at a table of my guest house's restaurant. On the opposite side of the street monks arrived, men and also women, and started to dress up in their orange suits. I asked a woman of the restaurant what was going on there, and showed my surprise about female monks. She told me that this was quite normal in Vietnam, also women were allowed to spend a certain time in a monastery. Now they gathered in the private house on the other side of the street, because the family had "invited" them. Two family members were mentally ill, and the monks were supposed to pray for their reconvalescense. The family had payed a certain amount of money, you could call it donation, to the monks or their monastery.
The prayer itself lasted about 15 or 20 minutes. It was carried out more or less publicly, in the living room that opens to the street. After having finished, the monks got out of their robes again. One after the other got into a tuk-tuk or cyclo and was brought back to the monastery... Life in the house continued as normal as every day...
Giggling about the foreigner
The evening before, I was walking through the streets of Chau Doc. As I had mentioned already, a quite pleasant little city. I didn't know what I wanted to eat and made several rounds... Finally I decided to sit down at one of the small food stalls on the sidewalks. Apparently very rarely foreigners eat there, because first they stared at me, then all started getting busy to serve me. They had only one dish, it was a noodle soup with tofu and tasted absolutely delicious. While I ate, two girls, maybe 16 or 17, sat down on the next table and watched me. They couldn't get over the fact that a foreigner ate at their "reataurant", yet it was a very friendly and sympathetic curiousity... When I had finished and paid, they all were smiling and waving me good-bye... Unfortunately I would leave the next morning, the soup was really good and I would have liked to eat there again...
Death of a cow
On the way from Khompong Chom to Kratie our bus was driving quite normal. That means that he used the horn to warn the others, motorcycles or cars, or to chase dogs and cows off the road. Slowing down is not necessarily a regular behaviour. To be fair, in Cambodia is it far better than in Vietnam, where the traffic could be called "absolutely crazy".
But finally there came a moment I had long waited for. Close to a small village a cow suddenly started to run across the road (it was not one of these big European cows, but somewhat smaller). The driver tried to brake, but he had no chance, it happened too quick. The bus fully hit the cow, with a speed of maybe 60 or 70 kms/h. It gave a loud dull bang, and the cow was thrown through the air and hurled to the side of the street. The driver slowed down for a second, then he continued...
I actually don't know whether the cow was killed, but I can't imagine that she survived the impact. For the driver it was logical to "run away"... There is no such thing as an insurance in Cambodia that covers this kind of accident. The driver's employer would never pay for the damage, so he himself would be liable... A cow means quite some value in Cambodia, and it might be the equivalent of maybe 3, 4 or 5 months wages which the driver would have to pay. Clear facts, so he simply continued...
The question was how the owner of the cow would deal with it. The best he could do would be probably to sell the meat, yet the bitter end of this story was undoubtedly on his side.
The rush
It's not one moment, it happens all the time, whenever one's arriving by bus in any city in Vietnam or Cambodia. Dozens of tuk-tuk drivers virtually jump on the bus to get a customer. It's shouting and gesticulating without interruption, you are surrounded by a whole bunch of people who want to drive you to a guest house or hotel. Often they are sort of affiliated with one or the other place and get a commission if they manage to bring you there. You know that it's there business and their way to make money, but often it gets almost annoying, especially in Vietnam. People are very pushy there and you want to be left alone to make up your mind, but no chance... they won't leave you alone... after a few times one gets used to it, tries to understand (it's their job), tries to take it as cool as possible, yet often enough it simply remains tiring... and you dream of being back in Laos, where everything is so much quieter and calmer...
Khmer specialities
In Siem Reap are two restaurants with the following sign outside:
"We don't serve dog, cat, monkey, rat or worms"
Now you might think that this still leaves a lot open, and right, they both have a "snake menu" on their dinner card. I didn't try it, I'm honest...
I also was a coward and walked past the huge plates full of grilled insects, which you can find at every street corner: cicadas, spiders, beegles, whatever you prefer... I thought that they must be coming from some kind of "farm", but was told that most of them are simply collected in the woods where they abound...
Another speciality which I skipped are eggs. You see them in big heaps on plates at every food stall. When you take a closer look, you notice that they are not clean white as we are used to see them: they are covered with larger dark spots. The locals usually eat several of them at once. They cautiously break open the top. When you try to get a glimpse what's inside, you can see that it's not white, but somehow dark. Then they season it with salt or a spicy sauce and start spooning them out. It doesn't look very fancy and I quickly knew what it was because I had read about it before: the eggs are duck eggs, and they are almost fully bred, that means that the duck fledgling inside is almost ready to hatch out. At that stadium they are boiled, as far as I know, and in this state they are a real Khmer delicatesse.
Before you start thinking "what a strange country", I can ensure you that there are still lots of other specialities which can be eaten without any major consideration. Cambodian curries are great, as are a lot of fish dishes...
A few bugs shouldn't deter you from visiting this really interesting country...
"We don't serve dog, cat, monkey, rat or worms"
Now you might think that this still leaves a lot open, and right, they both have a "snake menu" on their dinner card. I didn't try it, I'm honest...
I also was a coward and walked past the huge plates full of grilled insects, which you can find at every street corner: cicadas, spiders, beegles, whatever you prefer... I thought that they must be coming from some kind of "farm", but was told that most of them are simply collected in the woods where they abound...
Another speciality which I skipped are eggs. You see them in big heaps on plates at every food stall. When you take a closer look, you notice that they are not clean white as we are used to see them: they are covered with larger dark spots. The locals usually eat several of them at once. They cautiously break open the top. When you try to get a glimpse what's inside, you can see that it's not white, but somehow dark. Then they season it with salt or a spicy sauce and start spooning them out. It doesn't look very fancy and I quickly knew what it was because I had read about it before: the eggs are duck eggs, and they are almost fully bred, that means that the duck fledgling inside is almost ready to hatch out. At that stadium they are boiled, as far as I know, and in this state they are a real Khmer delicatesse.
Before you start thinking "what a strange country", I can ensure you that there are still lots of other specialities which can be eaten without any major consideration. Cambodian curries are great, as are a lot of fish dishes...
A few bugs shouldn't deter you from visiting this really interesting country...
viernes, 8 de junio de 2007
Stung Treng
Another outpost town, the northernmost point in Cambodia on the way to Laos. I had to spend one night here, as it is not possible to travel in one day from Kratie to Laos. There is no regular traffic, it's mostly a handful of minibuses with tourists running that tour.
Departure in Kratie 1.30 pm, I have to wait, and again it's hot, hot, hot... finally we sit in the small bus which runs to Stung Treng, I'm the only foreigner among a few locals. About three hours on almost empty roads... northern Cambodia is only sparsely populated.
Stung Treng is like Kratie, only smaller. Again, I like the atmosphere... The guesthouse is on a square across from the Mekong, it has a rooftop terrace overlooking the river. Wandering through the dusty streets some people stare at you (it's a common route between Laos and Cambodia, the only crossing actually, but there simply isn't much traffic, and foreigners don't abound here, although they are a common sight).
For a while I linger around at the ferry landing, there's just always something to see. Rivers mean life, motion, activity. Small boats depart to I don't know where, a bigger ferry for a handful of cars crosses every half hour to the other side... I could stay the whole day here... yet dark clouds are approaching, thunder telling of the imminent afternoon rain. Slowly I make my way back to the guesthouse... in vain, as the clouds are passing, raining off somewhere else. Stung Trengs streets remain dusty for at least another day...
Departure in Kratie 1.30 pm, I have to wait, and again it's hot, hot, hot... finally we sit in the small bus which runs to Stung Treng, I'm the only foreigner among a few locals. About three hours on almost empty roads... northern Cambodia is only sparsely populated.
Stung Treng is like Kratie, only smaller. Again, I like the atmosphere... The guesthouse is on a square across from the Mekong, it has a rooftop terrace overlooking the river. Wandering through the dusty streets some people stare at you (it's a common route between Laos and Cambodia, the only crossing actually, but there simply isn't much traffic, and foreigners don't abound here, although they are a common sight).
For a while I linger around at the ferry landing, there's just always something to see. Rivers mean life, motion, activity. Small boats depart to I don't know where, a bigger ferry for a handful of cars crosses every half hour to the other side... I could stay the whole day here... yet dark clouds are approaching, thunder telling of the imminent afternoon rain. Slowly I make my way back to the guesthouse... in vain, as the clouds are passing, raining off somewhere else. Stung Trengs streets remain dusty for at least another day...
Kratie
4.6.
It doesn't look very far on the map, but there was no possibility to make it in one day: the stretch Siem Reap - Kratie. As I knew that before, I took a noon-bus that was leaving Siem Reap, heading east. In the afternoon I arrived in Khompong Thom, where I spend the night. Nothing fancy this city, but its Mekong-location makes it interesting for a stopover, besides that I managed to find a guest house with a room overlooking the river... not bad, eh?
Next morning I continued to Kratie, and this is a town I really enjoyed. It's also a river port, a nice little place to wander around and to get to know Cambodia (which you don't necessarily get to know that well in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap). Travel guides call it an outpost, and that's not a bad word. It's a bit the end of the world, but a really pleasant one... a small town center, just two or three blocks around the market, besides that wide empty streets, sometimes unpaved, lots of palmtrees, dust whirled around by the wind, not a lot of traffic, a very quiet small town. From its jetty longboats depart to other places somewhere along the river... as everyone knows, I'm fascinated by anything connected to big rivers and the sea...
Kratie is one of these towns where a lot of people ask what to do there... in fact, there is a lot to do, often nothing spectacular, but enough to get a glimpse of the country you are travelling in. It reminded me a bit of Savannakhet in Laos... in Kratie there are also lots of old broken down colonial buildings which emanate a fascinating atmoshere of decay.
In its neighbourhood one can find within a very short distance interesting pagodas, Khmer ruins, terrific landscape and the habitat of the only sweetwater dolphins worldwide. I planned to rent a small motorcycle for one day, but had to discover that I was running out of cash... in Cambodia the US-$ is accepted throughout the country (exchange rate 1 $ = 4000 riel), but you run into problems when you have to exchange travellers cheques in smaller towns... it simply might not be possible... So I counted the cash dollars I had left, thought that it would be enough to bring me across the border, and decided to discover the region around Kratie on my next trip... three weeks are simply not enough for this country...
It doesn't look very far on the map, but there was no possibility to make it in one day: the stretch Siem Reap - Kratie. As I knew that before, I took a noon-bus that was leaving Siem Reap, heading east. In the afternoon I arrived in Khompong Thom, where I spend the night. Nothing fancy this city, but its Mekong-location makes it interesting for a stopover, besides that I managed to find a guest house with a room overlooking the river... not bad, eh?
Next morning I continued to Kratie, and this is a town I really enjoyed. It's also a river port, a nice little place to wander around and to get to know Cambodia (which you don't necessarily get to know that well in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap). Travel guides call it an outpost, and that's not a bad word. It's a bit the end of the world, but a really pleasant one... a small town center, just two or three blocks around the market, besides that wide empty streets, sometimes unpaved, lots of palmtrees, dust whirled around by the wind, not a lot of traffic, a very quiet small town. From its jetty longboats depart to other places somewhere along the river... as everyone knows, I'm fascinated by anything connected to big rivers and the sea...
Kratie is one of these towns where a lot of people ask what to do there... in fact, there is a lot to do, often nothing spectacular, but enough to get a glimpse of the country you are travelling in. It reminded me a bit of Savannakhet in Laos... in Kratie there are also lots of old broken down colonial buildings which emanate a fascinating atmoshere of decay.
In its neighbourhood one can find within a very short distance interesting pagodas, Khmer ruins, terrific landscape and the habitat of the only sweetwater dolphins worldwide. I planned to rent a small motorcycle for one day, but had to discover that I was running out of cash... in Cambodia the US-$ is accepted throughout the country (exchange rate 1 $ = 4000 riel), but you run into problems when you have to exchange travellers cheques in smaller towns... it simply might not be possible... So I counted the cash dollars I had left, thought that it would be enough to bring me across the border, and decided to discover the region around Kratie on my next trip... three weeks are simply not enough for this country...
domingo, 3 de junio de 2007
Landmines
If Cambodia should be described with three terms, "Angkor" is a clear choice. One of the two remaining options would definitely be "landmines".
Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, due to the Vietnam war which extended into Cambodia, internal fighting, the Khmer Rouge takeover and, after the Vietnamese invasion, the ongoing guerilla war between government forces and the Khmer Rouge. I actually learned, that in Cambodia's east the problem are less mines than UXO - you remember what this is? If not, read one of the Laos posts again... but the consequences are very similar...
Many mines have one clear purpose: they are not designed to kill, but just to rip away legs or arms. The logic behind: dead soldiers or civilians won't cause high costs, they will be buried and sooner or later forgotten. A wounded person, with one or several limbs amputated, is a constant burden to enemy or society. Physically, because he/she can't work fully or not at all and has to be taken care of, mentally, because the continuous sight of amputees is supposed to demoralize the enemy...
Over the years since the wars, some 60000 people have been injured or killed by landmines in Cambodia (the population now is about 14,5 million). Especially in the bigger cities they can't be overseen, people with one leg or none at all, with no hands or arms... some of them begging, as they have no other choice to make a living. In Siem Reap they are "concentrated", because from there to the Thai border are the main mine fields and as a consequence the most casualties...
There are many national and international organisations trying to work on that "issue", either by clearing mine fields (will take about 100 years to make the country mine-free), by assisting land mine survivors, by producing prostethics...
If one is interested in more information, I recommend the following pages to get a closer insight into Cambodia's biggest "problem":
www.angkorad.org , the website of a grassroot-NGO set up by a mine survivor, which has much more to offer than statistics...
www.cambodialandminemuseum.com ,
or go to the websites of "Mines Advisory Group" or "Handicap International".
Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, due to the Vietnam war which extended into Cambodia, internal fighting, the Khmer Rouge takeover and, after the Vietnamese invasion, the ongoing guerilla war between government forces and the Khmer Rouge. I actually learned, that in Cambodia's east the problem are less mines than UXO - you remember what this is? If not, read one of the Laos posts again... but the consequences are very similar...
Many mines have one clear purpose: they are not designed to kill, but just to rip away legs or arms. The logic behind: dead soldiers or civilians won't cause high costs, they will be buried and sooner or later forgotten. A wounded person, with one or several limbs amputated, is a constant burden to enemy or society. Physically, because he/she can't work fully or not at all and has to be taken care of, mentally, because the continuous sight of amputees is supposed to demoralize the enemy...
Over the years since the wars, some 60000 people have been injured or killed by landmines in Cambodia (the population now is about 14,5 million). Especially in the bigger cities they can't be overseen, people with one leg or none at all, with no hands or arms... some of them begging, as they have no other choice to make a living. In Siem Reap they are "concentrated", because from there to the Thai border are the main mine fields and as a consequence the most casualties...
There are many national and international organisations trying to work on that "issue", either by clearing mine fields (will take about 100 years to make the country mine-free), by assisting land mine survivors, by producing prostethics...
If one is interested in more information, I recommend the following pages to get a closer insight into Cambodia's biggest "problem":
www.angkorad.org , the website of a grassroot-NGO set up by a mine survivor, which has much more to offer than statistics...
www.cambodialandminemuseum.com ,
or go to the websites of "Mines Advisory Group" or "Handicap International".
A little detour
Siem Reap, 31.5.
I stayed longer in Siem Reap then I had planned. The visit to Angkor took three days, besides that I tried to contact a handful of people to maybe get enough material and photos to make it into a story about the landmines. But it somehow didn't work out...
Siem Reap itself is a town as touristy as one can imagine. With Angkor next to it, you don't have to ask why. It's full of restaurants, boutiques, hotels and guest houses, and whatever tourism demands. I actually was quite tired of it, things with the landmine-story dragged on without a real progress, it was incredibly hot some days, monsoon rains in the afternoon didn't bring much relief, they just flooded the city, but the temperatures didn't really go down...
On the last day I made a very small tour, that compensated for the "hardship". It wasn't difficult at all, I just had to turn left when leaving my guest house, instead of turning right towards the city center. An unpaved street was following the river that flows towards the Tonle Sap lake. It led through the quarters at the outskirts of town, and it was pure Cambodia (you can't say that about a good part of Siem Reap). Every 200 or 300 meters a small bridge was crossing the river, the paved road on the other side leads towards the lake, but I stayed mainly on the unpaved street. There were lots of houses on stilts standing right at the river, canoes everywhere, school children were greeting me, I discovered a small water mill, the river was brown and muddy and full of garbage, and most important of all there wasn't much traffic, just bicycles, some motorcycles and a few pick-ups. Eventually I crossed over to the road and left the city. Driving through wide open land, with lakes and rice paddies on both sides, I didn't care about the sun, which was already hot again (it was maybe 8.30 in the morning). I came to a small village, to the right there was a big temple, to the left the road continued, but without tarmac. It was already now in a bad state, and the rainy season hasn't started yet... I wouldn't like to see it in two or three months...
Eventually I turned around, the bicycle just wasn't made for this kind of dirt road... very slowly I drove back to Siem Reap, following again the dirt street on the other side of the river, after reaching the city. It was one of these insignificant little trips which I will keep longer in my memory than most of the other days spent in Siem Reap. A little bit I felt like having wasted some time there, but that's how it goes sometimes, and as I said before, this little tour compensated for everything that didn't work out in the last days...
I stayed longer in Siem Reap then I had planned. The visit to Angkor took three days, besides that I tried to contact a handful of people to maybe get enough material and photos to make it into a story about the landmines. But it somehow didn't work out...
Siem Reap itself is a town as touristy as one can imagine. With Angkor next to it, you don't have to ask why. It's full of restaurants, boutiques, hotels and guest houses, and whatever tourism demands. I actually was quite tired of it, things with the landmine-story dragged on without a real progress, it was incredibly hot some days, monsoon rains in the afternoon didn't bring much relief, they just flooded the city, but the temperatures didn't really go down...
On the last day I made a very small tour, that compensated for the "hardship". It wasn't difficult at all, I just had to turn left when leaving my guest house, instead of turning right towards the city center. An unpaved street was following the river that flows towards the Tonle Sap lake. It led through the quarters at the outskirts of town, and it was pure Cambodia (you can't say that about a good part of Siem Reap). Every 200 or 300 meters a small bridge was crossing the river, the paved road on the other side leads towards the lake, but I stayed mainly on the unpaved street. There were lots of houses on stilts standing right at the river, canoes everywhere, school children were greeting me, I discovered a small water mill, the river was brown and muddy and full of garbage, and most important of all there wasn't much traffic, just bicycles, some motorcycles and a few pick-ups. Eventually I crossed over to the road and left the city. Driving through wide open land, with lakes and rice paddies on both sides, I didn't care about the sun, which was already hot again (it was maybe 8.30 in the morning). I came to a small village, to the right there was a big temple, to the left the road continued, but without tarmac. It was already now in a bad state, and the rainy season hasn't started yet... I wouldn't like to see it in two or three months...
Eventually I turned around, the bicycle just wasn't made for this kind of dirt road... very slowly I drove back to Siem Reap, following again the dirt street on the other side of the river, after reaching the city. It was one of these insignificant little trips which I will keep longer in my memory than most of the other days spent in Siem Reap. A little bit I felt like having wasted some time there, but that's how it goes sometimes, and as I said before, this little tour compensated for everything that didn't work out in the last days...
Angkor
If there's one "must-see" in Cambodia, it's Angkor. It's difficult to describe in a few words...
What is called Angkor today, are the remnants of the temples of the city with the same name, the center of the old Khmer empire. Angkor covered at its height I don't know how many square kilometers and about 1 million people were living there. Most of this is gone, as houses, palaces and most other buildings were constructed of wood. Stone was reserved for the temples...
The Khmer god-kings constructed Angkor between the 9th and the 13th century. What is left today, is one of the most impressive and fascinating archaeological sites on this planet. To get more than a glimpse of the temples and take an closer look at the marvels designed and constructed so many centuries ago, one needs easily three days... to discover some more remote sites, scattered all around Siem Reap and other provinces, one could spend a week or two... and there is much more all over Cambodia...
If you would like to get an idea of what Angkor is like, take a look at www.theangkorguide.com, which is still the definite guide and can be downloaded for free. To see some photos, employ your search engine... I didn't find a website I really liked, but then I also didn't spend much time searching...
Sorry to make it that short, but Angkor is too impressive to describe in a few minutes... the best is to try everything to make it there one day...
What is called Angkor today, are the remnants of the temples of the city with the same name, the center of the old Khmer empire. Angkor covered at its height I don't know how many square kilometers and about 1 million people were living there. Most of this is gone, as houses, palaces and most other buildings were constructed of wood. Stone was reserved for the temples...
The Khmer god-kings constructed Angkor between the 9th and the 13th century. What is left today, is one of the most impressive and fascinating archaeological sites on this planet. To get more than a glimpse of the temples and take an closer look at the marvels designed and constructed so many centuries ago, one needs easily three days... to discover some more remote sites, scattered all around Siem Reap and other provinces, one could spend a week or two... and there is much more all over Cambodia...
If you would like to get an idea of what Angkor is like, take a look at www.theangkorguide.com, which is still the definite guide and can be downloaded for free. To see some photos, employ your search engine... I didn't find a website I really liked, but then I also didn't spend much time searching...
Sorry to make it that short, but Angkor is too impressive to describe in a few minutes... the best is to try everything to make it there one day...
miércoles, 30 de mayo de 2007
An evening at Sisowath Quay
Sisowath Quay is the street running parallel to the Tonle river through the center of Phnom Penh. Due to this fact it is one of the tourist spots in the city and full of restaurants, boutiques, internet cafes... There's a lot of life during the day, but it really gets busy in late afternoon, when it also gets cooler. A lot of locals enjoy the atmosphere along the river, it's full of foodstalls, and traffic increases as many young people drive back and forth on their small motorbikes... on the opposite side of the street restaurants start to fill up, and the number of street vendors increases dramatically. A lot of children selling postcards and books, many amputees pushing small carts loaden with books or foodstuff, trying to make a living one way or the other. Quite a few people simply beg... older women and children mainly... Cambodia is still in the process of recovering from almost 30 years of war and genocide, despite the amount of cars it's one of the poorest countries in the world...
The business with tourists seems to be quite lucrative, for everyone, and is well "controlled". As I watched the street life, sitting in a small restaurant, I noticed two women strolling around seemingly without any objective. A lot of kids were passing, maybe 5, 7, 8 years old, all with baskets full of books and postcards, trying to make "business"with the tourists. After a while you are tired and would like to be left alone, but what can you do? Anyway, I quickly found out that the two women were sort of controlling the kids... I asked one of the waiters (he spoke good english) whether my observation was correct, and he confirmed... of course he knew what was going on in the streets. It was clear that the children would sell better because tourists would feel much more sorry for them than for some middle-aged women... that's the way it goes, not only in Cambodia, but here you see children of all ages everywhere, selling whatever they have to tourists. I don't know whether these kids go to school during the day, I think most of them do. Their work is just a normal part of their life and most parents are very aware that their childrens' only chance in this life if is a decent education...
The business with tourists seems to be quite lucrative, for everyone, and is well "controlled". As I watched the street life, sitting in a small restaurant, I noticed two women strolling around seemingly without any objective. A lot of kids were passing, maybe 5, 7, 8 years old, all with baskets full of books and postcards, trying to make "business"with the tourists. After a while you are tired and would like to be left alone, but what can you do? Anyway, I quickly found out that the two women were sort of controlling the kids... I asked one of the waiters (he spoke good english) whether my observation was correct, and he confirmed... of course he knew what was going on in the streets. It was clear that the children would sell better because tourists would feel much more sorry for them than for some middle-aged women... that's the way it goes, not only in Cambodia, but here you see children of all ages everywhere, selling whatever they have to tourists. I don't know whether these kids go to school during the day, I think most of them do. Their work is just a normal part of their life and most parents are very aware that their childrens' only chance in this life if is a decent education...
martes, 22 de mayo de 2007
Moments
Journeys are full of small events and incidents, which pass by almost unnoticed and may soon be forgotten. Still I think, they are the essence of travelling... visiting monuments and museums is what everyone does, be it on an organized tour or as an independent traveller. But the countless short moments of surprises, encounters and occurrances are giving sense to a journey. Some I would not like to forget...
When I was standing on the veranda of my guesthouse in Savannakhet, a man on a bicycle pulled up on the other side of the street. I first could not see what was on the back part of his bike, but I soon understood... Within seconds he was surrounded by younger children and, how to say, children who were not so young any more. After paying I don't know how much, they got three shots with some sort of plastic gun, from a distance of less than a meter. If the gun's arrows would pass through a ring that was mounted behind his seat, they would get a price. The game was accompanied by the laughter, yelling and cheers of everyone around. After a few minutes all had done their shots. The man got on his bicycle, waved his hand and left...
In Quang Ngai I went to the main road to catch a minibus to Hoi An. When I arrived, there was already one waiting. The minibus was almost full, which meant that they definitely would press in half a dozen more. But they were not grabbing me and pulling me inside, as I expected... Looking at me, a man and a woman were discussing the affair. A tiny man of about 50 years stood next to me. "They don't want to take you, because you are to big...", he explained me in a very good English. First I thought he made a joke, but he - and the others - were serious. They left without me. I didn't have to wait long for the next one, where I got on board without discussions. Since then, in bad moments and a bad mood I call myself "fatty"...
A cloudy day in Hue... I was walking around the old citadel, the Emperor's residence. I did not enter, because admission was quite expensive, and I wanted to enjoy it with sunshine (which never happened...). On my way back, on one of the big bridges, an open lorry came in the opposite direction, two loudspeakers announcing something which must have been heard through half the city. On the cargo space there was something big and grey, the replica of an elephant, as I soon recognized. But strangely the head moved from one side to another... it was a true, living elephant... I don't know what they made publicity for, but I wonder how the poor animal felt on the back of this truck. In my imagination he must have gone mad, having to listen to the blaring loudspeakers close to his head for maybe several hours...
On the Bolaven plateau, close to Tad Lo, I was walking through the forest. Going uphill on a wide path, I suddenly heard some birds singing. It was the most beautiful (bird's) melody I have ever heard. There were eight or nine of them, brown, with a white head. I don't know whether they were fighting over food or a female, or just chasing themselves through the forest. As I approached, they were flying away a few meters, but stayed next to the path. This way it went on for several minutes, until they disappeared finally in the forest, their singing becoming lower and lower.
In Vietnam I met Lisa, a Swiss woman, who had travelled with a digital recorder. She was recording all kinds of voices and noises, and this was what I wished I would have had with me then...
Unfortunately Lisa couldn't present me what she had recorded, because the device got lost, probably stolen, a short while ago...
Saigon was terrible... noisy and rainy, an unpleasant combination. There was not much I liked to do. For some days I just was wandering around the two blocks, where my guesthouse was located. A small store was selling some sweets, drinks, and serving coffee, outside on the sidewalk... a tiny man with a hunchback apparently was the owner, and soon we sort of got to know each other, without speaking each other's language. I sat down on these very small plastic chairs, sipped my coffee and watched the streetlife, which was, in spite of the many guesthouses and tourist restaurants, pure Vietnamese...
I always was the only foreigner there and don't know what the others were expecting in all these touristy restaurants and bars. I found a small corner of Vietnam just a few meters away from my guesthouse, in the middle of this tourist area... and again I was glad that I was travelling alone...
Close to Pakse in southern Laos there's a huge fair trade store, selling Laotian products. It's a beautiful wooden building, very bright with a lot of glass, a veranda and some more areas to sit outside, take a rest, and have a drink. Inside they sell tee, coffee, marmalade, clothes, handicrafts, honey, and I have forgotten what else. The problem is that this store is 8 kms out of town... apparently hardly anyone makes his way out there. When I arrived, the 3 persons at the store were simply sleeping and then kind of surprised that a visitor showed up. I drank two bottles of Laotian palm beer, it was late noon, I was sweating, and the cold beer really tasted terrific. When I wanted to pay, they first had to look around to find enough change, although I gave them a small bill...
I don't know who put this building out there in this no man's land. It's such a pity, such a waste of energy and good intentions... We are in the low season right now, but I think that even in the best months not many people make it out there...
When I was standing on the veranda of my guesthouse in Savannakhet, a man on a bicycle pulled up on the other side of the street. I first could not see what was on the back part of his bike, but I soon understood... Within seconds he was surrounded by younger children and, how to say, children who were not so young any more. After paying I don't know how much, they got three shots with some sort of plastic gun, from a distance of less than a meter. If the gun's arrows would pass through a ring that was mounted behind his seat, they would get a price. The game was accompanied by the laughter, yelling and cheers of everyone around. After a few minutes all had done their shots. The man got on his bicycle, waved his hand and left...
In Quang Ngai I went to the main road to catch a minibus to Hoi An. When I arrived, there was already one waiting. The minibus was almost full, which meant that they definitely would press in half a dozen more. But they were not grabbing me and pulling me inside, as I expected... Looking at me, a man and a woman were discussing the affair. A tiny man of about 50 years stood next to me. "They don't want to take you, because you are to big...", he explained me in a very good English. First I thought he made a joke, but he - and the others - were serious. They left without me. I didn't have to wait long for the next one, where I got on board without discussions. Since then, in bad moments and a bad mood I call myself "fatty"...
A cloudy day in Hue... I was walking around the old citadel, the Emperor's residence. I did not enter, because admission was quite expensive, and I wanted to enjoy it with sunshine (which never happened...). On my way back, on one of the big bridges, an open lorry came in the opposite direction, two loudspeakers announcing something which must have been heard through half the city. On the cargo space there was something big and grey, the replica of an elephant, as I soon recognized. But strangely the head moved from one side to another... it was a true, living elephant... I don't know what they made publicity for, but I wonder how the poor animal felt on the back of this truck. In my imagination he must have gone mad, having to listen to the blaring loudspeakers close to his head for maybe several hours...
On the Bolaven plateau, close to Tad Lo, I was walking through the forest. Going uphill on a wide path, I suddenly heard some birds singing. It was the most beautiful (bird's) melody I have ever heard. There were eight or nine of them, brown, with a white head. I don't know whether they were fighting over food or a female, or just chasing themselves through the forest. As I approached, they were flying away a few meters, but stayed next to the path. This way it went on for several minutes, until they disappeared finally in the forest, their singing becoming lower and lower.
In Vietnam I met Lisa, a Swiss woman, who had travelled with a digital recorder. She was recording all kinds of voices and noises, and this was what I wished I would have had with me then...
Unfortunately Lisa couldn't present me what she had recorded, because the device got lost, probably stolen, a short while ago...
Saigon was terrible... noisy and rainy, an unpleasant combination. There was not much I liked to do. For some days I just was wandering around the two blocks, where my guesthouse was located. A small store was selling some sweets, drinks, and serving coffee, outside on the sidewalk... a tiny man with a hunchback apparently was the owner, and soon we sort of got to know each other, without speaking each other's language. I sat down on these very small plastic chairs, sipped my coffee and watched the streetlife, which was, in spite of the many guesthouses and tourist restaurants, pure Vietnamese...
I always was the only foreigner there and don't know what the others were expecting in all these touristy restaurants and bars. I found a small corner of Vietnam just a few meters away from my guesthouse, in the middle of this tourist area... and again I was glad that I was travelling alone...
Close to Pakse in southern Laos there's a huge fair trade store, selling Laotian products. It's a beautiful wooden building, very bright with a lot of glass, a veranda and some more areas to sit outside, take a rest, and have a drink. Inside they sell tee, coffee, marmalade, clothes, handicrafts, honey, and I have forgotten what else. The problem is that this store is 8 kms out of town... apparently hardly anyone makes his way out there. When I arrived, the 3 persons at the store were simply sleeping and then kind of surprised that a visitor showed up. I drank two bottles of Laotian palm beer, it was late noon, I was sweating, and the cold beer really tasted terrific. When I wanted to pay, they first had to look around to find enough change, although I gave them a small bill...
I don't know who put this building out there in this no man's land. It's such a pity, such a waste of energy and good intentions... We are in the low season right now, but I think that even in the best months not many people make it out there...
lunes, 21 de mayo de 2007
Phnom Penh
After an almost day-long river and bus journey I arrived in Phnom Penh. It's much hotter here then in Vietnam the last weeks, where the constant rain brought lower temperatures. Phnom Penh itself is rather pleasant, compared to Saigon. It's got some wide, tree-lined avenues and boulevards, the traffic is less intense than in Vietnam in general, and distances within the city are not really long and easily covered by bicycle.
I was and I am surprised by the amount of cars on the streets. There are very few to be seen in Vietnam, the whole world is moving around on small motorcycles. Here in Phnom Penh a car seems to be much more affordable, although the country is - generally speaking - "poorer" than Vietnam. Cambodia and Phnom Penh are full of NGOs and international organisations, though, but this cannot be that important to explain the difference... well, maybe I shouldn't spend that much time on such an issue...
Things to visit in Phnom Penh: the Royal Palace, for example, the Historical Museum, one or the other Wat (Buddhist Monastery). And Tuol Sleng, the former prison and Cambodian pendant to Auschwitz, as one could call it. A brief summary about the history of Tuol Sleng and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge you find at www.tuolsleng.com , together with lots of photos and links...
I didn't go to visit the Killing Fields. They are some 13 kms outside of Phnom Penh, I have read quite enough about the recent history of Cambodia and know what it is all about, and it's simply damned hot...
By the way, the Cambodian government sort of "privatized" the Killing Fields some years ago. It sold the rights to "exploit" (or let's say "administer") the site to a Japanese company, for an amount of money that was never made public...
(Can anyone imagine Dachau or Auschwitz in the hands of a private company? For more information on Cambodia and corruption take a look at www.transparency.org)
I still wait to get my visa for Laos processed.... the border crossing from Cambodia to Laos is the only one where you don't get the visa on arrival. And as I came to Phnom Penh friday afternoon... I said, the city is quite pleasant, but two days are nevertheless enough, now I'm four days here. It's not that I'm bored, but... I stay at a guesthouse with a terrace overlooking lake Boeung Kak. It could be great to just hang around there, reading, doing nothing, enjoying the tranquillity... if there wasn't TV and music, almost always running, at my own guesthouse and the ones next door, at a level that you can't really miss or ignore it. At least in the morning it's quiet. All others are still sleeping and I sit alone on the terrace, sipping my coffee... 6.30, just the perfect time, because one hour later it's already really hot again...
I was and I am surprised by the amount of cars on the streets. There are very few to be seen in Vietnam, the whole world is moving around on small motorcycles. Here in Phnom Penh a car seems to be much more affordable, although the country is - generally speaking - "poorer" than Vietnam. Cambodia and Phnom Penh are full of NGOs and international organisations, though, but this cannot be that important to explain the difference... well, maybe I shouldn't spend that much time on such an issue...
Things to visit in Phnom Penh: the Royal Palace, for example, the Historical Museum, one or the other Wat (Buddhist Monastery). And Tuol Sleng, the former prison and Cambodian pendant to Auschwitz, as one could call it. A brief summary about the history of Tuol Sleng and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge you find at www.tuolsleng.com , together with lots of photos and links...
I didn't go to visit the Killing Fields. They are some 13 kms outside of Phnom Penh, I have read quite enough about the recent history of Cambodia and know what it is all about, and it's simply damned hot...
By the way, the Cambodian government sort of "privatized" the Killing Fields some years ago. It sold the rights to "exploit" (or let's say "administer") the site to a Japanese company, for an amount of money that was never made public...
(Can anyone imagine Dachau or Auschwitz in the hands of a private company? For more information on Cambodia and corruption take a look at www.transparency.org)
I still wait to get my visa for Laos processed.... the border crossing from Cambodia to Laos is the only one where you don't get the visa on arrival. And as I came to Phnom Penh friday afternoon... I said, the city is quite pleasant, but two days are nevertheless enough, now I'm four days here. It's not that I'm bored, but... I stay at a guesthouse with a terrace overlooking lake Boeung Kak. It could be great to just hang around there, reading, doing nothing, enjoying the tranquillity... if there wasn't TV and music, almost always running, at my own guesthouse and the ones next door, at a level that you can't really miss or ignore it. At least in the morning it's quiet. All others are still sleeping and I sit alone on the terrace, sipping my coffee... 6.30, just the perfect time, because one hour later it's already really hot again...
domingo, 20 de mayo de 2007
The Mekong-Delta
I went on an organized 3-day-tour through the Mekong-Delta... I didn't do something similar since I started traveling in 1981. But it was a fairly interesting and cheap offer, so I didn't really hesitate...
A large time we spent on boats, going from one place to the next. We visited a rice noodle "factory" (a family business), a fish farm (also family run, there are hundreds of them one after the other), floating houses, one of the biggest floating markets, some more tourist traps where souvenirs and other junk was sold, pagodas, minority villages and some more things I've already forgotten. Still, it was fairly okay. As I pointed out, a long time we spend on boats, and this is the most interesting way to see the Mekong-Delta. Life here is determined by the water, people live at the river or right above it... floating houses are necessary due to the rising of the water level, up to 3 or 4 meters at the end of the rainy season. They feed on the river, they wash in it, they get their water from it (unfiltered in many more remote places)... and they trade on it and with its products...
There are several floating markets, of course a great attraction for tourists... together with our boat many more were closing in on the biggest market, it felt a little bit like the helicopter attack in "Apocalypse Now"... yet we came in peace and left some money there, because they also were waiting for us: selling cold drinks, fruits and sweeties... and taking us around in small rowing boats, because our motor boat was too big to navigate through the narrow spaces between the hundreds of local boats...
The most beautiful part was the tour upriver to Chau Doc, close to the Cambodian border. In the afternoon of the second day we got on a large cruise boat, large enough to take 70 or 80 people, but we were only 13... it's off-season, fortunately... it was a three-hour trip and among the most fascinating things I will ever remember. The afternoon sun threw a terrific light over the river and its banks. The sky was a threating dark, behind us, announcing some heavy monsoon rain. Large carpets of water hyacinths and the palm forests on the banks shone in shades of green of an incredible intensity. The wide river was full of life, small and large boats going in either direction, ferrys crossing, rowing boats with a handful of people fishing... and the banks full of children taking their evening bath and yelling and shouting and greeting us...
A remarkable thing were my fellow travellers. Either they knew all that already (hardly imaginable) or were going there again within a short time (probably not), I don't know... half of them were reading, the other half of them pulled out their ipods, sun glasses, and whatever is necessary to distract yourself and get away - mentally - from where you are at the moment. I again wondered about who the strange one is: is it me or is it a good part of the rest of the world? Anyway, I enjoyed this colorfull and lively atmosphere on the river and was glad that no one talked to me... Would be a great thing to come back, with much more time, and organize your own trip through this delta, with its hundreds of channels and river arms... but that's a nice dream, and at least I had the opportunity to glance for some short moments at the life on this fascinating river...
A large time we spent on boats, going from one place to the next. We visited a rice noodle "factory" (a family business), a fish farm (also family run, there are hundreds of them one after the other), floating houses, one of the biggest floating markets, some more tourist traps where souvenirs and other junk was sold, pagodas, minority villages and some more things I've already forgotten. Still, it was fairly okay. As I pointed out, a long time we spend on boats, and this is the most interesting way to see the Mekong-Delta. Life here is determined by the water, people live at the river or right above it... floating houses are necessary due to the rising of the water level, up to 3 or 4 meters at the end of the rainy season. They feed on the river, they wash in it, they get their water from it (unfiltered in many more remote places)... and they trade on it and with its products...
There are several floating markets, of course a great attraction for tourists... together with our boat many more were closing in on the biggest market, it felt a little bit like the helicopter attack in "Apocalypse Now"... yet we came in peace and left some money there, because they also were waiting for us: selling cold drinks, fruits and sweeties... and taking us around in small rowing boats, because our motor boat was too big to navigate through the narrow spaces between the hundreds of local boats...
The most beautiful part was the tour upriver to Chau Doc, close to the Cambodian border. In the afternoon of the second day we got on a large cruise boat, large enough to take 70 or 80 people, but we were only 13... it's off-season, fortunately... it was a three-hour trip and among the most fascinating things I will ever remember. The afternoon sun threw a terrific light over the river and its banks. The sky was a threating dark, behind us, announcing some heavy monsoon rain. Large carpets of water hyacinths and the palm forests on the banks shone in shades of green of an incredible intensity. The wide river was full of life, small and large boats going in either direction, ferrys crossing, rowing boats with a handful of people fishing... and the banks full of children taking their evening bath and yelling and shouting and greeting us...
A remarkable thing were my fellow travellers. Either they knew all that already (hardly imaginable) or were going there again within a short time (probably not), I don't know... half of them were reading, the other half of them pulled out their ipods, sun glasses, and whatever is necessary to distract yourself and get away - mentally - from where you are at the moment. I again wondered about who the strange one is: is it me or is it a good part of the rest of the world? Anyway, I enjoyed this colorfull and lively atmosphere on the river and was glad that no one talked to me... Would be a great thing to come back, with much more time, and organize your own trip through this delta, with its hundreds of channels and river arms... but that's a nice dream, and at least I had the opportunity to glance for some short moments at the life on this fascinating river...
lunes, 14 de mayo de 2007
nix wie weg hier...
That's German and means "let's get the f..k out of here"... some time ago I wrote about "the most terrible place in the world", but I have to correct myself: Vinh descended to rank 2. I simply didn't know Saigon then.
At least in one aspect the sun is shining for some minutes: I came to sit on a computer which has the Mozilla Firefox installed... how quick everything can be...
Tomorrow I'll be out of here, I booked a 3-day-tour through the Mekong-Delta. From there I'll cross directly into Cambodia. Most of the time, including a part of the journey to Phnom Penh, I'll spend on boats. I won't miss the road travel in Vietnam.
The rain ceased somewhat, but it is still drizzling without interruption. Well, I rather get soaked on boats in the Mekong-Delta than spending one minute more than necessary in Saigon...
Next post from Cambodia...
At least in one aspect the sun is shining for some minutes: I came to sit on a computer which has the Mozilla Firefox installed... how quick everything can be...
Tomorrow I'll be out of here, I booked a 3-day-tour through the Mekong-Delta. From there I'll cross directly into Cambodia. Most of the time, including a part of the journey to Phnom Penh, I'll spend on boats. I won't miss the road travel in Vietnam.
The rain ceased somewhat, but it is still drizzling without interruption. Well, I rather get soaked on boats in the Mekong-Delta than spending one minute more than necessary in Saigon...
Next post from Cambodia...
My umbrella
I bought it a couple of years ago in Kiel, for 1,50 Euro, in one of these so-called 1-Euro-shops... well, it was raining that day, so the market forces of a high demand probably pushed up the price... I have not been using it a lot since then (it never rains in BCN), but it has become a true companion in the last days. Saigon itself is pretty unbearable, traffic and noise and exhaust fumes of hundreds of thousands of motorcycles and cars and buses, and even more unbearable when it is raining almost without interruption. At least this justifies the one and a half Euro investment long time ago...
So it's pouring down now for almost 24 hours without interruption, and there's really not much to do at the moment. Writing posts, of course, the street where my guesthouse lies, has plenty of internet cafes. Besides that: waiting for the sun...
If someone will ask me later what I was doing those 3 days in Saigon, I won't really know what to answer...
So it's pouring down now for almost 24 hours without interruption, and there's really not much to do at the moment. Writing posts, of course, the street where my guesthouse lies, has plenty of internet cafes. Besides that: waiting for the sun...
If someone will ask me later what I was doing those 3 days in Saigon, I won't really know what to answer...
domingo, 13 de mayo de 2007
Approaching Saigon
The first notion of Saigon appeared about 50 kms away, when we approached Binh Hoa. Traffic seemed to increase with every meter and reached a state of chaos when we were passing this city. Vietnamese traffic has to be seen to believe it... the wild conglomeration of buses, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, rikschas and hand-drawn carriages seems to be something beyond reality. One wonders about the number of traffic deads - officially around 12000 per year, but probably more - and it appears to be low when you take a look at it, it must be higher, you can't stop thinking...
Driving through Binh Hoa was more stop than go, and would continue so until Saigon... I had to admit that I hadn't seen much of Vietnamese traffic so far... unimportant cities of 50000 or 300000 people. Coming closer to Saigon, the highway was jam-packed. Everyone - buses, cars, motorcycles, trucks - tried to sneak into holes in the continuous row of vehicles, honking the others out of their way. We crept towards an intersection, where the traffic had come to a complete stillstand, because half a dozen trucks which wanted to turn off into several directions, were so entirely jammed that it seemed impossible to clear the intersection...
Some kilometers after Binh Hoa it started to rain, and within minutes the rain turned into a longlasting downpour. The advantage was that most motorcycles went off the road, seeking shelter... After a while we reached the outskirts of Saigon. The rain had flooded streets and entire quarters, up to 15 cms high... fortunately it ceased suddenly. The old chaos returned to the streets...
Driving through Binh Hoa was more stop than go, and would continue so until Saigon... I had to admit that I hadn't seen much of Vietnamese traffic so far... unimportant cities of 50000 or 300000 people. Coming closer to Saigon, the highway was jam-packed. Everyone - buses, cars, motorcycles, trucks - tried to sneak into holes in the continuous row of vehicles, honking the others out of their way. We crept towards an intersection, where the traffic had come to a complete stillstand, because half a dozen trucks which wanted to turn off into several directions, were so entirely jammed that it seemed impossible to clear the intersection...
Some kilometers after Binh Hoa it started to rain, and within minutes the rain turned into a longlasting downpour. The advantage was that most motorcycles went off the road, seeking shelter... After a while we reached the outskirts of Saigon. The rain had flooded streets and entire quarters, up to 15 cms high... fortunately it ceased suddenly. The old chaos returned to the streets...
Through the Central Highlands
The last evening in Nha Trang it was pouring down for hours, something usual by now. I was not unhappy to get away the next morning. By bus I travelled to Dalat, a city in the mountains, renowned for a whole bunch of things, too many to tell here...
The bus ride was very scenic indeed, as we were climbing up slowly but steady... more slowly than steady, actually. Dalat is at almost 1500 m altitude, if I'm right... The problem was that we were approaching the clouds, which were hanging quite low. The sun disappeared, and it started raining... fortunately it stopped after a while, we passed the clouds and could enjoy the gorgeous mountains and deep valleys again.
Dalat first appeared like a Swiss model village: so incredibly nice and clean and sweet. When we got off the bus, a motorcycle taxi brought me to a guesthouse, that was recommended in a guidebook, and I landed in reality again, in downtown Dalat. Traffic noise in narrow streets, the sidewalks a little dingy, the dark clouds made everything appear even more unpleasant. When I started strolling around, the daily downpour started, fortunately I was next to a little coffee shop. The coffee was good, the music which they put on, less. Let's call it politely "rock-bottom"... I didn't expect to hear "Modern Talking" in Vietnam... I don't know whether Non-Germans ever heard of this group... if not, don't look for it, please, it's better for your state of mind...
The downpour continued, as always I had left the umbrella in the guesthouse. A certain impression came over me - wrong time, wrong place... I decided that I didn't have to see more, went out into the rain to the next travel agency (as always in Vietnam, just around the corner) and bought the ticket to Saigon, for the next morning
This next morning the sun was shining, which was becoming something rare. We left Dalat, I didn't look back, also because again the landscape was breathtaking at times, especially when we descended a very narrow mountain road for I don't know how many kilometers. This road I would like to drive with a motorbike one day... something not always pleasant in this country, but the many bends, deep canyons and high rocky walls would make up for everything unpleasant like Vietnamese traffic...
When we had left the mountains behind us, we passed through Vietnam's most important coffee growing region. As far as one could see, all over the rolling hills, every meter seemed to be occupied by coffee plantations. Later also tea plantatins appeared, the road was seamed with tea and coffee shops...
When we finally came to National Highway Nr. 1, which would bring us to Saigon, I looked back. I had made a little detour on my way south, which wouldn't have been necessary, but that's travelling... a lot of hours on the buses, but at least through a beautiful region... and anyway, with a certain probability I will never come through here again...
The bus ride was very scenic indeed, as we were climbing up slowly but steady... more slowly than steady, actually. Dalat is at almost 1500 m altitude, if I'm right... The problem was that we were approaching the clouds, which were hanging quite low. The sun disappeared, and it started raining... fortunately it stopped after a while, we passed the clouds and could enjoy the gorgeous mountains and deep valleys again.
Dalat first appeared like a Swiss model village: so incredibly nice and clean and sweet. When we got off the bus, a motorcycle taxi brought me to a guesthouse, that was recommended in a guidebook, and I landed in reality again, in downtown Dalat. Traffic noise in narrow streets, the sidewalks a little dingy, the dark clouds made everything appear even more unpleasant. When I started strolling around, the daily downpour started, fortunately I was next to a little coffee shop. The coffee was good, the music which they put on, less. Let's call it politely "rock-bottom"... I didn't expect to hear "Modern Talking" in Vietnam... I don't know whether Non-Germans ever heard of this group... if not, don't look for it, please, it's better for your state of mind...
The downpour continued, as always I had left the umbrella in the guesthouse. A certain impression came over me - wrong time, wrong place... I decided that I didn't have to see more, went out into the rain to the next travel agency (as always in Vietnam, just around the corner) and bought the ticket to Saigon, for the next morning
This next morning the sun was shining, which was becoming something rare. We left Dalat, I didn't look back, also because again the landscape was breathtaking at times, especially when we descended a very narrow mountain road for I don't know how many kilometers. This road I would like to drive with a motorbike one day... something not always pleasant in this country, but the many bends, deep canyons and high rocky walls would make up for everything unpleasant like Vietnamese traffic...
When we had left the mountains behind us, we passed through Vietnam's most important coffee growing region. As far as one could see, all over the rolling hills, every meter seemed to be occupied by coffee plantations. Later also tea plantatins appeared, the road was seamed with tea and coffee shops...
When we finally came to National Highway Nr. 1, which would bring us to Saigon, I looked back. I had made a little detour on my way south, which wouldn't have been necessary, but that's travelling... a lot of hours on the buses, but at least through a beautiful region... and anyway, with a certain probability I will never come through here again...
jueves, 10 de mayo de 2007
Vietnam in black and white
The most interesting for me in Nha Trang are the galleries of two of Vietnam's most famous photographers, Do Dien Khanh and Long Thanh. I've been to both of them and was fascinated... and wished to have more time and more b&w-films... unfortunately reality tells me something different...
If anyone would like to see some photos accompanying my blog, try it here instead:
www.ddk-gallery.com
www.longthanhart.com
If anyone would like to see some photos accompanying my blog, try it here instead:
www.ddk-gallery.com
www.longthanhart.com
Vietnamese business
Nha Trang, seaside resort, but I want to get out of the city and explore the surrounding countryside. I ask the lady who runs the guest house where I'm staying, whether she also rents motorcycles. Yes, of course, 50000 Dong per day, that's about 3 US-$. Just five minutes, she says...
within a short time a woman on a scooter (these small motorcycles, that run around 40 or 50 kms/h) comes along. "Here's your motorcycle", and she hands me the key... she's the sister of the hotel lady, or her cousin, or some other relative, or a good friend... it's her scooter, which she readily is handing over for some hours or a day, in exchange for 3 $... that's how Vietnam works: every guest house, every restaurant is also a "tourist office" or a "travel agency", they sell you bus and train tickets, book a boat tour for you, rent bicycles or simply know someone to gives you his scooter for a while. Everyone knows the whole other rest of the world, at least so it seems... Where are you going next, they ask you... oh, city XY, listen, may I recommend this hotel or that guest house, they are relatives/friends/acquaintances, you really should go there... one simply can't escape from getting asked every other minute about this service or that, a taxi or rikscha driver, the girls from the restaurants, asking you to come in, or the hotel staff, trying to sell you a ticket or a tour... sometimes it's tiring, but that's Vietnam...
Nha Trang itself is - well - not bad, but I'm also not really excited. Living in Barcelona five minutes away from the beaches, the local main attraction is not that interesting for me. Yesterday I got on a boat cruise, we went to some islands, did some snorcheling at a rocky coast with a lot of corals(very nice), visited an aquarium on one of the islands, had lunch on the boat (really good) and enjoyed the "floating bar": you had to go into the water to get the drinks... all in all it was a fun trip with some accompanying visits, really not bad...
Today I drove around on the scooter, and I just have to confirm what I wrote in an earlier post: the most fascinating of Vietnam is its countryside, the cities are mainly noisy and not too interesting, one simply should get out of them as often as possible...
The weather is still not great, often cloudy or rainy, but when the sun is out, it really is shining: although I'm well tanned already, I got pretty burned on the boat tour and on the trip with the scooter... it's middle of May, and if I'm honest, I should stay out of the sun for the rest of the year... just have no idea how to accomplish this...
within a short time a woman on a scooter (these small motorcycles, that run around 40 or 50 kms/h) comes along. "Here's your motorcycle", and she hands me the key... she's the sister of the hotel lady, or her cousin, or some other relative, or a good friend... it's her scooter, which she readily is handing over for some hours or a day, in exchange for 3 $... that's how Vietnam works: every guest house, every restaurant is also a "tourist office" or a "travel agency", they sell you bus and train tickets, book a boat tour for you, rent bicycles or simply know someone to gives you his scooter for a while. Everyone knows the whole other rest of the world, at least so it seems... Where are you going next, they ask you... oh, city XY, listen, may I recommend this hotel or that guest house, they are relatives/friends/acquaintances, you really should go there... one simply can't escape from getting asked every other minute about this service or that, a taxi or rikscha driver, the girls from the restaurants, asking you to come in, or the hotel staff, trying to sell you a ticket or a tour... sometimes it's tiring, but that's Vietnam...
Nha Trang itself is - well - not bad, but I'm also not really excited. Living in Barcelona five minutes away from the beaches, the local main attraction is not that interesting for me. Yesterday I got on a boat cruise, we went to some islands, did some snorcheling at a rocky coast with a lot of corals(very nice), visited an aquarium on one of the islands, had lunch on the boat (really good) and enjoyed the "floating bar": you had to go into the water to get the drinks... all in all it was a fun trip with some accompanying visits, really not bad...
Today I drove around on the scooter, and I just have to confirm what I wrote in an earlier post: the most fascinating of Vietnam is its countryside, the cities are mainly noisy and not too interesting, one simply should get out of them as often as possible...
The weather is still not great, often cloudy or rainy, but when the sun is out, it really is shining: although I'm well tanned already, I got pretty burned on the boat tour and on the trip with the scooter... it's middle of May, and if I'm honest, I should stay out of the sun for the rest of the year... just have no idea how to accomplish this...
domingo, 6 de mayo de 2007
Hue
Not much news... I'm in Hue, the old Imperial City, but I hardly can do anything, because first it was grey and cloudy and now it's raining for more than a day...
Fortunately I again found a nice guesthouse in a small alleyway. It's only a few meters from the main street, but these alleyways are a world apart. I like to sit on the veranda in the first floor, overlooking the neighbourhood: groups of men chatting the day away, four young girls playing football, women strolling around with their babies, another kid playing with a bunch of little cats, street vendors passing through, and a steady coming and going of people on bicycles and scooters... it's as interesting, or even more, than running around from one pagoda to the next, from one royal tomb to another... when it's raining too hard, the alleyway is virtually empty, but the heavy drumming of the rain on tin roofs, trees and the asphalt creates its own atmosphere and nothing else can be heard...
Still it gets boring after a while, after too many hours of reading and watching, and then I'm glad about the fact, that in Vietnam even rooms in cheap guesthouses are equipped with a TV and that European football is available around the clock... this evening it'll be Arsenal vs. Chelsea... outside it's dark and wet and I'll lay on my bed with a bottle of beer and hope that Arsenal is going to win... welcome to Vietnam...
Fortunately I again found a nice guesthouse in a small alleyway. It's only a few meters from the main street, but these alleyways are a world apart. I like to sit on the veranda in the first floor, overlooking the neighbourhood: groups of men chatting the day away, four young girls playing football, women strolling around with their babies, another kid playing with a bunch of little cats, street vendors passing through, and a steady coming and going of people on bicycles and scooters... it's as interesting, or even more, than running around from one pagoda to the next, from one royal tomb to another... when it's raining too hard, the alleyway is virtually empty, but the heavy drumming of the rain on tin roofs, trees and the asphalt creates its own atmosphere and nothing else can be heard...
Still it gets boring after a while, after too many hours of reading and watching, and then I'm glad about the fact, that in Vietnam even rooms in cheap guesthouses are equipped with a TV and that European football is available around the clock... this evening it'll be Arsenal vs. Chelsea... outside it's dark and wet and I'll lay on my bed with a bottle of beer and hope that Arsenal is going to win... welcome to Vietnam...
viernes, 4 de mayo de 2007
La Niña
My Spanish speaking readers will jump on this one... I guess they might be disappointed, as I'm going to talk about the weather...
La Niña is a meteorological phenomenon, something similar to the better known El Niño. La Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, as compared to El Niño, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. This phenomenon appears with a certain regularity, every four to eight years, and it might last for up to two years. Its consequences are widespread, but especially for Indochina and here Vietnam it means higher precipitation and temperatures. It can be noticed already, because the monsoon season hasn't really started yet, but it's raining almost every day. Concerning the temperatures: you can't change the shirts as fast as they are wet from sweat... fortunately rain and sometimes the wind from distant storms bring down the temperature a bit.
But before publishing this post, I might as well write a few words about Las Niñas...
Vietnamese girls must be the prettiest and most natural in the whole universe... no need for more words... if you don't believe it, come and see (and admire) yourselves...
La Niña is a meteorological phenomenon, something similar to the better known El Niño. La Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, as compared to El Niño, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. This phenomenon appears with a certain regularity, every four to eight years, and it might last for up to two years. Its consequences are widespread, but especially for Indochina and here Vietnam it means higher precipitation and temperatures. It can be noticed already, because the monsoon season hasn't really started yet, but it's raining almost every day. Concerning the temperatures: you can't change the shirts as fast as they are wet from sweat... fortunately rain and sometimes the wind from distant storms bring down the temperature a bit.
But before publishing this post, I might as well write a few words about Las Niñas...
Vietnamese girls must be the prettiest and most natural in the whole universe... no need for more words... if you don't believe it, come and see (and admire) yourselves...
jueves, 3 de mayo de 2007
Back and forth
From Vinh I had taken the train to Quang Ngai, farther south. Close to this city is a place that will always be remembered together with the Vietnam War: My Lai.
During the war American soldiers committed a massacre in this village, killing 504 people, women, children, older men, almost all of them farmers. On the internet I had come across the "My Lai Peace Park", a Vietnamese-American project, and thought about trying to write an article about that. To say it in few words, this did not work out, too long to explain, why...
In any case, I managed to visit the My Lai Memorial and - although it sounds strange to mention this in the same moment - was able to make a motorcycle trip through beautiful country outside of Quang Ngai. The city itself was a bit better than Vinh, but not much... at least it didn't rain that heavily. Yet I got away as fast as possible, taking a bus north to Hoi An.
Hoi An has a long history as a trading port, it contains Vietnamese, Chinese and European influences... and was declared by UNESCO a "world heritage site". Needless to mention, Hoi An is full of touists, yet I like the atmosphere... its narrow streets, small houses, the countless boats on the river that have become a synonyme of Vietnam. I pay a bit more for my hotel than I should afford, 10 US-$... but Hoi An is fairly expensive, and I enjoy breakfast on a veranda right above the river.
Incidentally I arrived on a perfect date: in the middle of each lunar month - that means at full moon - Hoi An celebrates a Historical Night, with music, theater and more. From noon an the streets in the center were even closed for motorcycles and scooters, only bycicles were allowed to pass... a perfect measure, which resulted in a very delightful atmosphere... and made me forget the dreary experiences of the last days...
During the war American soldiers committed a massacre in this village, killing 504 people, women, children, older men, almost all of them farmers. On the internet I had come across the "My Lai Peace Park", a Vietnamese-American project, and thought about trying to write an article about that. To say it in few words, this did not work out, too long to explain, why...
In any case, I managed to visit the My Lai Memorial and - although it sounds strange to mention this in the same moment - was able to make a motorcycle trip through beautiful country outside of Quang Ngai. The city itself was a bit better than Vinh, but not much... at least it didn't rain that heavily. Yet I got away as fast as possible, taking a bus north to Hoi An.
Hoi An has a long history as a trading port, it contains Vietnamese, Chinese and European influences... and was declared by UNESCO a "world heritage site". Needless to mention, Hoi An is full of touists, yet I like the atmosphere... its narrow streets, small houses, the countless boats on the river that have become a synonyme of Vietnam. I pay a bit more for my hotel than I should afford, 10 US-$... but Hoi An is fairly expensive, and I enjoy breakfast on a veranda right above the river.
Incidentally I arrived on a perfect date: in the middle of each lunar month - that means at full moon - Hoi An celebrates a Historical Night, with music, theater and more. From noon an the streets in the center were even closed for motorcycles and scooters, only bycicles were allowed to pass... a perfect measure, which resulted in a very delightful atmosphere... and made me forget the dreary experiences of the last days...
Vietnam
I haven't spend more than five days in Vietnam and really not seen a lot, yet I'm sure about one point: it's the most beautiful country in the world. Leave behind many of its cities and the crazy traffic... beyond that Vietnam means breathtaking landscape, almost unreal colors, pure and good-natured energy of its people... I can't explain it any better...
I actually don't really know where to continue. I arrived more or less in the middle of this long-stretched country, and there's simply way too much to see and to experience for three or four weeks. I have to concentrate either on the south and its beaches, the Mekong delta with the lush green of the rice paddies and palm trees... or the mountainous north, Halong Bay and Hanoi with the old "French" quarter...
The statement above might seem a bit strange after my experiences in the first days, in the first cities... well, I don't mind having hit some bad moments first: after that you can even better enjoy the vast rest of a country that's overwhelming in every aspect...
I actually don't really know where to continue. I arrived more or less in the middle of this long-stretched country, and there's simply way too much to see and to experience for three or four weeks. I have to concentrate either on the south and its beaches, the Mekong delta with the lush green of the rice paddies and palm trees... or the mountainous north, Halong Bay and Hanoi with the old "French" quarter...
The statement above might seem a bit strange after my experiences in the first days, in the first cities... well, I don't mind having hit some bad moments first: after that you can even better enjoy the vast rest of a country that's overwhelming in every aspect...
miércoles, 2 de mayo de 2007
The most terrible place in the world
In Vinh I left the hotel very early in the morning, to look around a bit. It was Sunday morning seven o'clock and I thought, I could enjoy some kind of silence.This illusion lasted only a few seconds, until I had reached the street... it seemed that the whole city was on its way to somewhere, the traffic and the corresponding noise were incredible. The most important part of Vietnamese scooters, motorcycles and cars is the horn. Without a loud or even louder horn you are nothing and practically lost... I always thought that traffic in Barcelona was terrible, but I think I might "enjoy" it when I'm back...
Anyway, I walked around for an hour or two, drank a coffee, ate Pho, the traditional vietnamese soup, and decided to get out of this city as soon as possible. Vinh had absolutely nothing to it which might make it worth staying one day. The grey weather made everything even worse... I met the French women and they had the same idea... When we walked to the train station, the counters were closed and would be open again at 14.00... sounded somehow familiar. So we went back to the hotel, checked out, and slowly but steady made our way back to the train station. We should have hurried up a bit... the whole morning it was cloudy, drizzling now and then, but after walking a few minutes, a downpoor started, which was heavier than everything I can remember... in spite of raingear and umbrellas we arrived soaked at the station.The rainfall continued for the rest of the afternoon, the temperature went down, and yet I was lucky: I probably got the last ticket for the route I was asking for, south to Quang Ngai... the French women took an earlier afternoon train. I had booked a sleeper, which was due to leave at 18.30... until then the hours seemed to drag endlessly. Finally the train arrived... it's hard to describe how happy I was to finally sit down in my compartment and leave Vinh...
Anyway, I walked around for an hour or two, drank a coffee, ate Pho, the traditional vietnamese soup, and decided to get out of this city as soon as possible. Vinh had absolutely nothing to it which might make it worth staying one day. The grey weather made everything even worse... I met the French women and they had the same idea... When we walked to the train station, the counters were closed and would be open again at 14.00... sounded somehow familiar. So we went back to the hotel, checked out, and slowly but steady made our way back to the train station. We should have hurried up a bit... the whole morning it was cloudy, drizzling now and then, but after walking a few minutes, a downpoor started, which was heavier than everything I can remember... in spite of raingear and umbrellas we arrived soaked at the station.The rainfall continued for the rest of the afternoon, the temperature went down, and yet I was lucky: I probably got the last ticket for the route I was asking for, south to Quang Ngai... the French women took an earlier afternoon train. I had booked a sleeper, which was due to leave at 18.30... until then the hours seemed to drag endlessly. Finally the train arrived... it's hard to describe how happy I was to finally sit down in my compartment and leave Vinh...
Welcome to Vietnam
Several times I had seen a direct bus to Vinh in northern Vietnam passing the main street in Phonsavan early in the morning. As I waited for it Saturday morning, I waited in vain, no direct bus today. So I took a local bus to Nong Het, from there a pick-up to the border. On the bus I met two french women, not bad, I wouldn't be travelling alone. One of "my English students" was also there, visiting his parents close to Nong Het. He enjoyed the opportunity to talk english... while we talked,I admired the landscape, the road passed through beautiful mountain scenery, it was a magnificent trip.
When we got to the border, at about 11.30, it was closed, until 14.00 pm. So we waited... When it opened again, we went through some kind of bureaucracy which reminded me of East German bureaucracy long time ago... For the first time in many years my luggage was searched, but probably more out of sheer curiousity. One of the guards marvelled at my razor blades... they look like the ones David Beckham makes publicity for, but of course only look like them, because I don't earn as well as Beckham, I can't afford this expensive stuff, anyway, the guard marvelled at them and asked me to give him one... no problem, as I had enough with me, and then the search was completed...
On the Vietnamese side there was no bus or pick-up, only a crowd of small motorcycles, the only transport available to the next town 25 kms away. We climbed on the benches, not too easy with our backpacks, and the race was on... I remembered an article in the "Vientiane Times" some weeks ago, about the accident and mortality rate of Vietnamese motorcycle drivers, and didn't feel very comfortable. After about a kilometer my driver stopped at a house, a woman ran out and handed him a helmet. I was happy that at least one of us two would have good chances to survive an accident... The road wasn't paved, it was full of tight bends and curves, there were lots of dogs and chicken which we almost ran over... fortunately it was too high up to raise water buffaloes...
I wish I had made this route on a bus, I could have enjoyed better the marvellous landscape. After some kilometers the dirt road turned into road with good tarmac, we also reached the two bikes with the french women, who went at a slower pace... so we continued at a more pleasant speed the descent through this terrific mountain region...
When we arrived at the town, they dropped us in front of the only hotel, where a discussion started about the price and quality of the place (actually it was very good), because they wanted us to stay, while I more thought of how to continue. We managed to catch the last bus to Vinh, which took another six hours, again through beautiful country. We slowly descended from the altitude, then followed a river through a narrow valley for several hours. The mountains gave way to banana plantations and rice paddies, and slowly but steady the traffic accumulated. What I saw (and heard) made me want to go back to peaceful Laos immediately... but I think I had mentioned a pattern of Vietnamese traffic just a few minutes ago, so now definitely it all seemed to fit together... Anyway, at about 22.00 we arrived in Vinh, a little bit tired. After four weeks Laos I was overwhelmed by the traffic... we more or less took the first hotel we found, also to escape the crowds of people who wanted to drive us to other places, and I didn't even go out to get something to eat...
Welcome to Vietnam...
When we got to the border, at about 11.30, it was closed, until 14.00 pm. So we waited... When it opened again, we went through some kind of bureaucracy which reminded me of East German bureaucracy long time ago... For the first time in many years my luggage was searched, but probably more out of sheer curiousity. One of the guards marvelled at my razor blades... they look like the ones David Beckham makes publicity for, but of course only look like them, because I don't earn as well as Beckham, I can't afford this expensive stuff, anyway, the guard marvelled at them and asked me to give him one... no problem, as I had enough with me, and then the search was completed...
On the Vietnamese side there was no bus or pick-up, only a crowd of small motorcycles, the only transport available to the next town 25 kms away. We climbed on the benches, not too easy with our backpacks, and the race was on... I remembered an article in the "Vientiane Times" some weeks ago, about the accident and mortality rate of Vietnamese motorcycle drivers, and didn't feel very comfortable. After about a kilometer my driver stopped at a house, a woman ran out and handed him a helmet. I was happy that at least one of us two would have good chances to survive an accident... The road wasn't paved, it was full of tight bends and curves, there were lots of dogs and chicken which we almost ran over... fortunately it was too high up to raise water buffaloes...
I wish I had made this route on a bus, I could have enjoyed better the marvellous landscape. After some kilometers the dirt road turned into road with good tarmac, we also reached the two bikes with the french women, who went at a slower pace... so we continued at a more pleasant speed the descent through this terrific mountain region...
When we arrived at the town, they dropped us in front of the only hotel, where a discussion started about the price and quality of the place (actually it was very good), because they wanted us to stay, while I more thought of how to continue. We managed to catch the last bus to Vinh, which took another six hours, again through beautiful country. We slowly descended from the altitude, then followed a river through a narrow valley for several hours. The mountains gave way to banana plantations and rice paddies, and slowly but steady the traffic accumulated. What I saw (and heard) made me want to go back to peaceful Laos immediately... but I think I had mentioned a pattern of Vietnamese traffic just a few minutes ago, so now definitely it all seemed to fit together... Anyway, at about 22.00 we arrived in Vinh, a little bit tired. After four weeks Laos I was overwhelmed by the traffic... we more or less took the first hotel we found, also to escape the crowds of people who wanted to drive us to other places, and I didn't even go out to get something to eat...
Welcome to Vietnam...
jueves, 26 de abril de 2007
Phonsavan
I wrote in a former post that Phonsavan had nothing special to it. That's true to a certain extent, yet if one wants to get to know a little bit about this country, one should stay in these smaller cities and villages for a while, as they simply represent the typical Laos. I'm here now for almost a week, and I don't think that I lost time...
A couple of days ago a boy stopped next to me and asked me in English where I would be going. We talked for a while, he (like many others) looked for contacts and possibilities to practice English. The next evening I found myself standing in front of about 40 boys and girls teaching English... It was a private school, and they all enjoyed the possibility to talk to someone different than their teacher. Two days later I went there again, this time staying also for the second level course... I had a lot of fun, it was not precisely a "normal" English lesson, we talked about a dozen different things. In Vientiane someone had suggested to stay there and teach English, as my level would be high enough to do so. I declined, as I have some different plans for the future... After the experience in Phonsavan I have to admit that I almost started thinking about it again...
The encounter with the students also provided for another touch with Laotian reality. Despite the - in parts - shiney Vientiane, the ubiquitous mobile phones, the big 4-wheel-drives, Laos belongs to the category of the so-called "Least Devellopped Countries". The major part of the population lives in the countryside and their existence is called "subsistence living".
Some of the students come from villages close to Phonsavan and their origin was clearly visible, the clothes displayed their economic status. The monthly fee for attending this private school is 45000 Kip, that's 4,50 US-dollars, and they said that they hardly manage to pay this amount... they recognize clearly the importance of speaking English, even more in a country like Laos, but they are never sure whether this month could be the last one to go to this school, as very simply there wouldn't be any money left to pay the fee...
A couple of days ago a boy stopped next to me and asked me in English where I would be going. We talked for a while, he (like many others) looked for contacts and possibilities to practice English. The next evening I found myself standing in front of about 40 boys and girls teaching English... It was a private school, and they all enjoyed the possibility to talk to someone different than their teacher. Two days later I went there again, this time staying also for the second level course... I had a lot of fun, it was not precisely a "normal" English lesson, we talked about a dozen different things. In Vientiane someone had suggested to stay there and teach English, as my level would be high enough to do so. I declined, as I have some different plans for the future... After the experience in Phonsavan I have to admit that I almost started thinking about it again...
The encounter with the students also provided for another touch with Laotian reality. Despite the - in parts - shiney Vientiane, the ubiquitous mobile phones, the big 4-wheel-drives, Laos belongs to the category of the so-called "Least Devellopped Countries". The major part of the population lives in the countryside and their existence is called "subsistence living".
Some of the students come from villages close to Phonsavan and their origin was clearly visible, the clothes displayed their economic status. The monthly fee for attending this private school is 45000 Kip, that's 4,50 US-dollars, and they said that they hardly manage to pay this amount... they recognize clearly the importance of speaking English, even more in a country like Laos, but they are never sure whether this month could be the last one to go to this school, as very simply there wouldn't be any money left to pay the fee...
miércoles, 25 de abril de 2007
UXO
Again, if you are interested about more information (there's plenty of it) just type "UXO" and "Laos" in your search engine...
UXO stands for Unexploded Ordnances and describes a mainly unknown history: in the beginning of the 60s Laos was drawn into the Vietnam war. Between 1964 and 1973 the USA dropped an amount of bombs over this country which was bigger than what was dropped on Germany + Japan (together) in the Second World War. Many of these bombs were cluster bombs, and between 20 and 30 % of these bomblets (and also of the big bombs) did not explode. So the whole country is virtually littered with these unexploded big and small bombs ("bombies"). Every year several hundred people are killed, mostly children, who want to play with these neat-looking balls, or farmers, who dig up the ground and hit one of these bombs (more than 12000 since the end of the war)...
Phonsavan is the capital of Xieng Khouang province, the most heavily bombed region. There are a lot of bomb clearing activities carried out, and I managed to get access to one site. A team of deminers had found seven bombies and were going to blow them up... I will also have the possibility to go with a bomb clearing team from an other organisation, but they will resume their activities only in May... no problem, as I plan to come back to Laos for another two weeks...
As I said, there's a lot of information on the internet. I also will write an article about this issue, so if anyone is interested, I can pass on the text once it's finished (that means probably July, after my return). I also can highly recommend the documentary "Bombies", which was filmed and published in 2001. Maybe it's possible to download it from internet...
To give one last figure: with the present speed it will take around 100 years to "clean up" the whole country...
UXO stands for Unexploded Ordnances and describes a mainly unknown history: in the beginning of the 60s Laos was drawn into the Vietnam war. Between 1964 and 1973 the USA dropped an amount of bombs over this country which was bigger than what was dropped on Germany + Japan (together) in the Second World War. Many of these bombs were cluster bombs, and between 20 and 30 % of these bomblets (and also of the big bombs) did not explode. So the whole country is virtually littered with these unexploded big and small bombs ("bombies"). Every year several hundred people are killed, mostly children, who want to play with these neat-looking balls, or farmers, who dig up the ground and hit one of these bombs (more than 12000 since the end of the war)...
Phonsavan is the capital of Xieng Khouang province, the most heavily bombed region. There are a lot of bomb clearing activities carried out, and I managed to get access to one site. A team of deminers had found seven bombies and were going to blow them up... I will also have the possibility to go with a bomb clearing team from an other organisation, but they will resume their activities only in May... no problem, as I plan to come back to Laos for another two weeks...
As I said, there's a lot of information on the internet. I also will write an article about this issue, so if anyone is interested, I can pass on the text once it's finished (that means probably July, after my return). I also can highly recommend the documentary "Bombies", which was filmed and published in 2001. Maybe it's possible to download it from internet...
To give one last figure: with the present speed it will take around 100 years to "clean up" the whole country...
Northern Laos
After a night trip by bus I arrived in Phonsavan, my last station before crossing into Vietnam. Phonsavan is nothing special, but only a few kilometers away is the Plain of Jars. If you need more information about this site than I can give in a few minutes, just look it up in internet. Basically, through the whole region there are several sites containing up to several hundred stone jars, the biggest of them around 2 meters high. Their origin and purpose is unknown, there are some scientific theories as well some legends from Hmong hill tribes...
Yesterday I went on a tour there with a handfull of people. Unfortunately is started to rain quite heavily around late noon, so our visit to one of the sites was a little spoilt. Yet it was impressing...
In the morning we were touring around in the other direction, including a visit to some villages and a small waterfall, which included a one-hour hike through beautiful mountain terrain... This is northern Laos, a mountainous, rugged country, not to compare with the flat south. It's also cooler here, the first days it was only around 33, 34 degrees, quite pleasant compared to the heat in Vientiane... to be honest, the locals say that it would be much hotter than usual... but now, after one night and one day of heavy rainfalls, it's really cooler...
Yesterday I went on a tour there with a handfull of people. Unfortunately is started to rain quite heavily around late noon, so our visit to one of the sites was a little spoilt. Yet it was impressing...
In the morning we were touring around in the other direction, including a visit to some villages and a small waterfall, which included a one-hour hike through beautiful mountain terrain... This is northern Laos, a mountainous, rugged country, not to compare with the flat south. It's also cooler here, the first days it was only around 33, 34 degrees, quite pleasant compared to the heat in Vientiane... to be honest, the locals say that it would be much hotter than usual... but now, after one night and one day of heavy rainfalls, it's really cooler...
sábado, 21 de abril de 2007
Dry season
Back in Vientiane, and it's hot. It actually rained several times, in the south and when I arrived here in the capital, but it's still hot and dusty. Besides that, not much news. The last week in Laos I'm going to spend in the north, it's cooler there, and it will be quite different from the flat south...
I got two rolls of film devellopped. and the result is quite disappointing. First, and that was clear, with this camera there are no wonders to be achieved. Second, because during develloppment they more or less messed up the films, they are full of dust grains and fuzz. I have the results on CD and I might mount them on some internet page if I find a computer where to do it (internet cafes are a little too expensive for that, as it would take me a long time, first the selection, then...). In the worst case I would do it back home, treat the pictures with Photoshop and get them on a website afterwords... then at least it would be a decent selection...
I got two rolls of film devellopped. and the result is quite disappointing. First, and that was clear, with this camera there are no wonders to be achieved. Second, because during develloppment they more or less messed up the films, they are full of dust grains and fuzz. I have the results on CD and I might mount them on some internet page if I find a computer where to do it (internet cafes are a little too expensive for that, as it would take me a long time, first the selection, then...). In the worst case I would do it back home, treat the pictures with Photoshop and get them on a website afterwords... then at least it would be a decent selection...
viernes, 20 de abril de 2007
The special bus
From the "4000 Islands" I had returned to Pakse, a small town in southern Laos. To get back to Vientiane, I chose to take a night bus. Without really knowing what it meant, I booked a "sleeper"... supposedly with beds, and I was curious what this would mean...
When I came to the terminal, I could see the bus already: indeed, it was equipped with beds, fantastic... Then we could enter the bus, and I began to get a strange feeling. I wondered about the stack of alarm-red plastic bags close to the door, but maybe they didn't mean anything. In the bus there were not many choices of what to do: everyone had to lie down immediately. There were upper and lower bunks, but not only one at either side... it was 'window' and 'aisle'. Mine was 'window' and 'upstairs'... the width of the bunks on either side was about 40 or at the most 50 cms, per person. I felt somehow glad about not being to tall and not being equipped with too many kilograms. I was even more happy when the guy who joined me had about the same size...
It seemed that many people took this bus the first time: most of them were looking around with a mixture of confusion, disbelief and - in the end - resignation. We jumped into our beds. The ones on the upper beds could enjoy the loudspeakers, being about 30 or 40 cms above their heads, and the Thai karaoke music that came blaring out of them... fortunately only for about one and a half hours. A stewardess was walking through the bus, handing bottles of water to everyone, but apparently no one opened them... one problem was the simple fact that what gets in, must come out, and this would have meant some trouble, especially for the ones with 'window beds'... the other problem was, that drinking while lying down would have been somehow "uncomfortable", let's call it that way...
So we were swinging through the night... the main roads in Laos are fairly good, fortunately... The entire trip back to Vientiane took about 9 hours, and I was glad when it was over. It wasn't altogether bad or terrible, but spending the whole time lying down, with practically no space to move, isn't too comfortable. And this is saying someone with the body size you all know... anyone larger or heavier must feel tortured after some hours on those buses. I don't know if some of the readers of this post will end up in Laos in the future... be warned! Don't say later that you didn't know...
When I came to the terminal, I could see the bus already: indeed, it was equipped with beds, fantastic... Then we could enter the bus, and I began to get a strange feeling. I wondered about the stack of alarm-red plastic bags close to the door, but maybe they didn't mean anything. In the bus there were not many choices of what to do: everyone had to lie down immediately. There were upper and lower bunks, but not only one at either side... it was 'window' and 'aisle'. Mine was 'window' and 'upstairs'... the width of the bunks on either side was about 40 or at the most 50 cms, per person. I felt somehow glad about not being to tall and not being equipped with too many kilograms. I was even more happy when the guy who joined me had about the same size...
It seemed that many people took this bus the first time: most of them were looking around with a mixture of confusion, disbelief and - in the end - resignation. We jumped into our beds. The ones on the upper beds could enjoy the loudspeakers, being about 30 or 40 cms above their heads, and the Thai karaoke music that came blaring out of them... fortunately only for about one and a half hours. A stewardess was walking through the bus, handing bottles of water to everyone, but apparently no one opened them... one problem was the simple fact that what gets in, must come out, and this would have meant some trouble, especially for the ones with 'window beds'... the other problem was, that drinking while lying down would have been somehow "uncomfortable", let's call it that way...
So we were swinging through the night... the main roads in Laos are fairly good, fortunately... The entire trip back to Vientiane took about 9 hours, and I was glad when it was over. It wasn't altogether bad or terrible, but spending the whole time lying down, with practically no space to move, isn't too comfortable. And this is saying someone with the body size you all know... anyone larger or heavier must feel tortured after some hours on those buses. I don't know if some of the readers of this post will end up in Laos in the future... be warned! Don't say later that you didn't know...
"Sabaidee"
I wrote in the post about Si Phan Don, that people on Don Khone were greeting me all the time. This wasn't actually something unusual. Wherever you are in Laos, there's always someone smiling at you and greeting you. "Sabaidee" means hello, welcome, and it could be this country's second name. It's simply marvellous, unlike any other country I've been to so far...
It's almost impossible being in a bad mood here. The country's slow pace, the absence of traffic, noise, aggression of any kind, and above all the Laotians themselves... If someone needs a time-out or to recover from whatever, doctor Micha recommends you one month Laos: it's the perfect cure from any kind of hardship or stress...
It's almost impossible being in a bad mood here. The country's slow pace, the absence of traffic, noise, aggression of any kind, and above all the Laotians themselves... If someone needs a time-out or to recover from whatever, doctor Micha recommends you one month Laos: it's the perfect cure from any kind of hardship or stress...
jueves, 19 de abril de 2007
Si Phan Don
In southern Laos, close to the border to Cambodia, you can find a unique landscape during some time of the year. When the water level falls back in the dry season, thousands of small islands rise from the river, giving the area the name Si Phan Don, "Four Thousand Islands". The biggest island is Don Khone, a peaceful and quiet place, two smaller ones are Don Det and Don Kon.
As Don Det is, at least in the high season, getting overrun by tourists, I decided to spend Pi Mai Lao, the Buddhist New Year celebrations in Laos, on Don Khone. It was more than what I expected: not only quiet, but practically "dead". I felt sort of lonesome...
As I had set over to Don Khone around noon, I had plenty of time for the rest of the day. I rented a bicycle and cycled around the island, a 32 km-trip on a quite good road with almost no traffic. It was nice, too hot, of course, but interesting. I was passing all kinds of villages, smaller forests, dry land, and even some rice paddies, where people were harvesting right now (dry season!) thanks to irrigation systems. As everywhere in Laos, nearly everyone was greeting me... there really don't seem to be too many tourists here...
In the evening I had to take a decision. Other three days were waiting ahead of my, before the festivities would be over. So I thought it would be the best to go where at least a few people would be. The problem was very easy: I've been to very remote places in Latin America, but there I could talk to the locals, as I spoke their language... I just didn't want to shut up for the next three days.
Next morning I waited at the ferry landing, where the longboats would cross the river. Suddenly a German girl showed up, she was sort of lost here and wanted to go to Don Det. Just perfect... One of the locals brought us in his longboat directly to the landing point on Don Det. It was much easier and only slightly more expensive then the regular crossing, taking then a bus to the next ferry point some 20 kms south, then taking another boat... and it was definitely much more spectacular: the whole ride took one and a half hours, we were passing through hundreds of small and smallest islets, sometimes only rocks, sometimes overgrown by bushes... this trip alone made it already worth coming down here...
About Don Det there's not much to say: it's a backpackers hangout, in a few years it will probably be a light version of Bangkok's Khao San Road. There are plenty of small bungalows to rent, most with a veranda overlooking the Mekong, equipped with a hammock to laze the hottest hours away. The rest of the time one can swim in the Mekong, hang around with other folks or walk about the island... it's a very small place, it took me only one hour to walk all around.
South of Don Det is Don Kon, one can get there by ferry or just walking over an old railway bridge between the two islands, built by the French in colonial days... Don Kon is supposedly quieter and has some nice waterfalls... but as it was really hot these days, and as I have seen plenty of waterfalls in my life, I committed myself to staying on Don Det. Besides, also here it was quiet, not too many people, most spend the New Year festivities probably in bigger cities...
I had ended up in a guesthouse with only five straw-thatched bungalows, overlooking the Mekong towards sunset... but as every afternoon clouds turned up, we had to live without sunset...
Anyway, I did what I described earlier: lying in the hammock, reading, swimming in the Mekong, or just sitting on the veranda of our guest house's "restaurant"... and as the other folks who occupied the bungalows, were from Switzerland, Austria and Germany, there was definitely no language problems...
As Don Det is, at least in the high season, getting overrun by tourists, I decided to spend Pi Mai Lao, the Buddhist New Year celebrations in Laos, on Don Khone. It was more than what I expected: not only quiet, but practically "dead". I felt sort of lonesome...
As I had set over to Don Khone around noon, I had plenty of time for the rest of the day. I rented a bicycle and cycled around the island, a 32 km-trip on a quite good road with almost no traffic. It was nice, too hot, of course, but interesting. I was passing all kinds of villages, smaller forests, dry land, and even some rice paddies, where people were harvesting right now (dry season!) thanks to irrigation systems. As everywhere in Laos, nearly everyone was greeting me... there really don't seem to be too many tourists here...
In the evening I had to take a decision. Other three days were waiting ahead of my, before the festivities would be over. So I thought it would be the best to go where at least a few people would be. The problem was very easy: I've been to very remote places in Latin America, but there I could talk to the locals, as I spoke their language... I just didn't want to shut up for the next three days.
Next morning I waited at the ferry landing, where the longboats would cross the river. Suddenly a German girl showed up, she was sort of lost here and wanted to go to Don Det. Just perfect... One of the locals brought us in his longboat directly to the landing point on Don Det. It was much easier and only slightly more expensive then the regular crossing, taking then a bus to the next ferry point some 20 kms south, then taking another boat... and it was definitely much more spectacular: the whole ride took one and a half hours, we were passing through hundreds of small and smallest islets, sometimes only rocks, sometimes overgrown by bushes... this trip alone made it already worth coming down here...
About Don Det there's not much to say: it's a backpackers hangout, in a few years it will probably be a light version of Bangkok's Khao San Road. There are plenty of small bungalows to rent, most with a veranda overlooking the Mekong, equipped with a hammock to laze the hottest hours away. The rest of the time one can swim in the Mekong, hang around with other folks or walk about the island... it's a very small place, it took me only one hour to walk all around.
South of Don Det is Don Kon, one can get there by ferry or just walking over an old railway bridge between the two islands, built by the French in colonial days... Don Kon is supposedly quieter and has some nice waterfalls... but as it was really hot these days, and as I have seen plenty of waterfalls in my life, I committed myself to staying on Don Det. Besides, also here it was quiet, not too many people, most spend the New Year festivities probably in bigger cities...
I had ended up in a guesthouse with only five straw-thatched bungalows, overlooking the Mekong towards sunset... but as every afternoon clouds turned up, we had to live without sunset...
Anyway, I did what I described earlier: lying in the hammock, reading, swimming in the Mekong, or just sitting on the veranda of our guest house's "restaurant"... and as the other folks who occupied the bungalows, were from Switzerland, Austria and Germany, there was definitely no language problems...
miércoles, 11 de abril de 2007
New Year
The Buddhist New Year is approaching. It's called 'Songkran' in Thai, I forgot the term in Lao. I opt for being as far away from any bigger city as possible. In Laos it's probably fairly calm, but...
It's celebrated by - among other things - throwing water at anything that moves, either in plastic bags, with buckets, or - kid's favourite - by shooting with water pistols. This goes on for three days in a row, in major cities and especially in Thailand it can last for up to one week. The official holidays in Laos are the 14., 15. and 16 of April.
Of course it's something more than just trying to get the rest of the world as wet as possible... families unite, spend some days together, there are parties everywhere, it's three days of fun, the water is just one aspect of many... yet sort of annoying if this goes on for several days and one can't walk 50 meters away from the guest house without being soaked immediately...
That's why I chose a very remote place to stay at during the following days. I'll spend the time on the so-called 4000 Islands. The name derives from the landscape formed by the Mekong south of Pakse. The river broadens, fans out and creates something like a network of channels with a lot of small islands in between, which is even more apparent in the dry season. It's quite touristy there, of course, but one doesn't have to stay on the few well-known and busy islands. There are other options... I think that I'm heading to Don Khong, which is the biggest of these islands, but apparently one which still offers some solitude and is not that crowded... supposedly we're in the low season, but it doesn't really look like it...
It's celebrated by - among other things - throwing water at anything that moves, either in plastic bags, with buckets, or - kid's favourite - by shooting with water pistols. This goes on for three days in a row, in major cities and especially in Thailand it can last for up to one week. The official holidays in Laos are the 14., 15. and 16 of April.
Of course it's something more than just trying to get the rest of the world as wet as possible... families unite, spend some days together, there are parties everywhere, it's three days of fun, the water is just one aspect of many... yet sort of annoying if this goes on for several days and one can't walk 50 meters away from the guest house without being soaked immediately...
That's why I chose a very remote place to stay at during the following days. I'll spend the time on the so-called 4000 Islands. The name derives from the landscape formed by the Mekong south of Pakse. The river broadens, fans out and creates something like a network of channels with a lot of small islands in between, which is even more apparent in the dry season. It's quite touristy there, of course, but one doesn't have to stay on the few well-known and busy islands. There are other options... I think that I'm heading to Don Khong, which is the biggest of these islands, but apparently one which still offers some solitude and is not that crowded... supposedly we're in the low season, but it doesn't really look like it...
Global football
When I travelled by bus from Savannakhet to Pakse, a nice girl was sitting next to my. She spoke quite good english although she never had been out of Laos. She was about 19 or 20 and was going to visit her cousin in Salavanh for the upcoming Buddhist New Year. It was the first time that she travelled to southern Laos and she was enchanted when she saw the forested hills rising from the plains (the area around Savannakhet and north to Vientiane is almost completely flat). She asked me where I was from and nodded her head when I said that I was Geman. As I mentioned that I lived in Spain she hesitated, not knowing first where this country exactly could be. When I told her the city I'm living in, she smiled, because she had heard about the FC Barcelona...
That was not the first time actually... quite a lot of people know Europe through the different football clubs. When I was looking around in the bus, I discovered a bag with the logo of the FC Barcelona... and in the guest house in Savannakhet I saw one morning that the owner watched an english football match on the TV...
That was not the first time actually... quite a lot of people know Europe through the different football clubs. When I was looking around in the bus, I discovered a bag with the logo of the FC Barcelona... and in the guest house in Savannakhet I saw one morning that the owner watched an english football match on the TV...
Laos map
I found it almost difficult to discover a decent map of Laos on the internet. Here's my best bet:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/laos_rel_2003.jpg (relief map) and
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/laos_pol_2003.jpg (political map).
Both are supposedly CIA-maps...
My trip so far: some days in Vientiane. Then down south to the Bolaven Plateau (Savannakhet, Pakse, then it's close to Salavan). From there I went back to Savannaketh, where I spend two days. Right now I'm in Pakse, tomorrow I'll head south to the 4000 Islands (Muang Khong on the map). This will mean that for some days I'll be cut off from internet, but I think I have been quite busy so far, or what do you think? Be honest...!
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/laos_rel_2003.jpg (relief map) and
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/laos_pol_2003.jpg (political map).
Both are supposedly CIA-maps...
My trip so far: some days in Vientiane. Then down south to the Bolaven Plateau (Savannakhet, Pakse, then it's close to Salavan). From there I went back to Savannaketh, where I spend two days. Right now I'm in Pakse, tomorrow I'll head south to the 4000 Islands (Muang Khong on the map). This will mean that for some days I'll be cut off from internet, but I think I have been quite busy so far, or what do you think? Be honest...!
martes, 10 de abril de 2007
Savannakhet
Ever been to a place which smelled somehow like "outpost", "frontier"? Savannakhet is one of these towns... it's only lacking the tough-looking men in heavy boots, who you know from the movies, but otherwise you definitely don't feel like being in Laos' second largest city.
Savannakhet has a long history, it was an important trading town during the french colonial period, but that was long ago. There are still plenty of old buildings in the colonial style, but many of them decayed, fallen down, with an almost ghostly atmosphere hovering around them. Many streets are not paved, dust is blown through the air, trees and bushes are abundant, during the monsoon season the lush green must be ressembling a jungle in the city.
The mainstreet has a lively traffic, is full of stores with the newest mobile phones, there are food kitchens and small restaurants everywhere. Off the two or three larger streets it's like being in the countryside, at the "frontier"...
Along the Mekong also plenty of food stalls, it's a great place to sit in the afternoon and watch the sunset. I found a terrific guesthouse, spacey, very relaxing atmosphere, where you meet people and exchange the latest news about the places others have been to.
I'm not even two weeks on the road, but already think of skipping some towns and regions in Vietnam and Cambodia, to spend another two weeks in Laos before I have to fly back. This country is too unique, too singular... there's maybe not that much to "see" and to "do" what most people expect when they are travelling, but this is exactly what makes Laos different from the rest of Indochina... don't do things, just be here and "feel" the country...
It's hard to describe... you should give it a try yourselves...
Savannakhet has a long history, it was an important trading town during the french colonial period, but that was long ago. There are still plenty of old buildings in the colonial style, but many of them decayed, fallen down, with an almost ghostly atmosphere hovering around them. Many streets are not paved, dust is blown through the air, trees and bushes are abundant, during the monsoon season the lush green must be ressembling a jungle in the city.
The mainstreet has a lively traffic, is full of stores with the newest mobile phones, there are food kitchens and small restaurants everywhere. Off the two or three larger streets it's like being in the countryside, at the "frontier"...
Along the Mekong also plenty of food stalls, it's a great place to sit in the afternoon and watch the sunset. I found a terrific guesthouse, spacey, very relaxing atmosphere, where you meet people and exchange the latest news about the places others have been to.
I'm not even two weeks on the road, but already think of skipping some towns and regions in Vietnam and Cambodia, to spend another two weeks in Laos before I have to fly back. This country is too unique, too singular... there's maybe not that much to "see" and to "do" what most people expect when they are travelling, but this is exactly what makes Laos different from the rest of Indochina... don't do things, just be here and "feel" the country...
It's hard to describe... you should give it a try yourselves...
Elephant ride
I couldn't resist... in Tad Lo they're offering a trip through the surroundings on one of the elephants they have there. Not a big deal, one and a half hours, 5 dollars. We went through the forest, crossed the river twice, came through villages... it was some fun, definitely. Interesting how the animal managed to make its way along steep narrow paths or across the river with its stoney ground.
But all in all I just can say that I rode on an elephant. It was ok, but I wouldn't do it again... I'll keep on hiking to "explore" new paths... faster (yes!) and more demanding. I'll tell tou about later about the next hike which is already planned...
But all in all I just can say that I rode on an elephant. It was ok, but I wouldn't do it again... I'll keep on hiking to "explore" new paths... faster (yes!) and more demanding. I'll tell tou about later about the next hike which is already planned...
lunes, 9 de abril de 2007
Coffee
If the word "coffee" is mentioned, hardly anyone thinks of Laos. Yet this country grows its own coffee, although you can't compare it with countries like Brazil or Colombia. Most plantations are on the Bolaven Plateau, which offers due to the altitude the most favourable conditions. The coffee is quite good, in Vientiane one can find a decent number of coffee shops or cafes which serve it either the italian way or filtered... I liked both ways of preparation...
Unfortunately Laos has a lot in common with most coffee-producing countries. The best quality is exported or almost exclusively being served in the expensive hotels and restaurants, while the rest of the population has to be content with instant coffee. So asking for a coffee in food stalls or cheaper restaurants, even more when you're not in Vientiane, you're likely to face an experience that is not really overwhelming... to be polite...
A person like me who can stand many hours without eating, but suffers real hardship if he don't get a coffee in the morning, has a hard time in a good part of the country...
Unfortunately Laos has a lot in common with most coffee-producing countries. The best quality is exported or almost exclusively being served in the expensive hotels and restaurants, while the rest of the population has to be content with instant coffee. So asking for a coffee in food stalls or cheaper restaurants, even more when you're not in Vientiane, you're likely to face an experience that is not really overwhelming... to be polite...
A person like me who can stand many hours without eating, but suffers real hardship if he don't get a coffee in the morning, has a hard time in a good part of the country...
The Bolaven Plateau
I spent some days in an almost unreal tranquility. Well, maybe not unreal, but the silence was extraordinary. The Bolaven Plateau is an elevated plain in southern Laos, a little bit out of the way for most travellers. From Pakse it's a two and a half hour bus ride to get to Tad Lo, a tiny village in a beautiful setting, even in the dry season. Three waterfalls within 20 minutes walking distance, countryside (though dry at this time of the year) and some more smaller villages. A couple of lodges and guest houses, centered close to one waterfall. A nice terrain for walking, bathing in the ponds (dry season!), reading or just watching time go by...
That maybe doesn't sound overwhelming, but what attracts people to come here is the silence. The number of cars passing through the village is practically irrelevant (Tad Lo is about 2 kms from the main road), scooters (small motorcycles) are a common means of transport, but as most roads are not paved, they simply have to go slow...
It's dark at 7 pm, and then anything that would mean some kind of noise, ceases. With the exception of the cicadas, which for a while maintain their extraordinary chirping ( they are very small for the noise they produce). So in the evenings I sat either at the tables of the guest house, talking with fellow travellers, or on the "veranda" of the cabin I had rented (30000 Kip\ 3 US-dollars) to read and relax...
It would have been perfect if there weren't dogs... during the day they laze in the shadow (the Bolaven plateau is at night a bit colder due to it's altitude, but it is still hot during the day), they try to get something to eat and besides that nothing else... which means that they're awake at night. They are actually very friendly and not very big - every well-nourished European cat would wage a fight with them - but at night only one of them needs to hear some strange noise, a chicken coughing, a cicada turning around in it's well-earned sleep, and then the hell is being raised... one starts barking, the others join almost immediately, it extends from one hut to the next, from one village to the next, at least so it seemed... after a while they seem to notice that there's nothing going on, the barking dies down slowly...
Yet in spite of the dogs the Bolaven Plateau is well worth a visit. Quite a few people hire a scooter in Pakse (between 7 and 10 dollars per day) and cruise around for several days... a nice option, because you are simply more independent, and distances are not that vast...
That maybe doesn't sound overwhelming, but what attracts people to come here is the silence. The number of cars passing through the village is practically irrelevant (Tad Lo is about 2 kms from the main road), scooters (small motorcycles) are a common means of transport, but as most roads are not paved, they simply have to go slow...
It's dark at 7 pm, and then anything that would mean some kind of noise, ceases. With the exception of the cicadas, which for a while maintain their extraordinary chirping ( they are very small for the noise they produce). So in the evenings I sat either at the tables of the guest house, talking with fellow travellers, or on the "veranda" of the cabin I had rented (30000 Kip\ 3 US-dollars) to read and relax...
It would have been perfect if there weren't dogs... during the day they laze in the shadow (the Bolaven plateau is at night a bit colder due to it's altitude, but it is still hot during the day), they try to get something to eat and besides that nothing else... which means that they're awake at night. They are actually very friendly and not very big - every well-nourished European cat would wage a fight with them - but at night only one of them needs to hear some strange noise, a chicken coughing, a cicada turning around in it's well-earned sleep, and then the hell is being raised... one starts barking, the others join almost immediately, it extends from one hut to the next, from one village to the next, at least so it seemed... after a while they seem to notice that there's nothing going on, the barking dies down slowly...
Yet in spite of the dogs the Bolaven Plateau is well worth a visit. Quite a few people hire a scooter in Pakse (between 7 and 10 dollars per day) and cruise around for several days... a nice option, because you are simply more independent, and distances are not that vast...
martes, 3 de abril de 2007
Heading south
Tonight I'm heading south, taking an overnight bus to Pakse. From there I'll continue right away to the Bolaven plateau, somewhere between Saravan, Sekong and Paksong. I've been writing quite a lot in the last days... this will cease now, because in this region internet access will be very scarce. Some people call south-eastern Laos "the wild east", because it simply is less devellopped, less touristy... maybe more interesting, though...
Vientiane is really nice to relax for some days and to enjoy the atmosphere of this laid-back "capital city". But I don't need to mention that Laos consists of much more...
One last note: Laos is pronounced "Lao", and this was the original name. The "s" was added by the French is not pronounced...
Vientiane is really nice to relax for some days and to enjoy the atmosphere of this laid-back "capital city". But I don't need to mention that Laos consists of much more...
One last note: Laos is pronounced "Lao", and this was the original name. The "s" was added by the French is not pronounced...
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