Hello from Ha Noi, Viet Nam! (This is post 2 of 2, so proceed downwards firstly if you have not read it already!)
Much has happened since that last lofty post in Luang Prabang. We had a wonderful time in Laos and it came to an end much too quickly as before we knew it, indeed, it was time to leave. After the wonderful and enlightening elephant experience, we decided to make our way by slowboat up the Nam Ou (the river Ou) to the small valley village of Nong Khiaw. For those of you savvy in boating and acquatics, you would not be surprised to learn that boats travelling upstream (as we were) during the dry season (as we were) are often subject to impossibly low water levels and as such, a boat's only chance on continuing to move onwards is if it is pushed. We were sharing the small boat with eight other travellers and when the driver cut the motor and stepped out of the boat, we realized it was in everyone's best interest to also exit the boat and help him push. A sight to be seen, surely, as the eleven of us hiked up our pants and jumped into the river...
All delays aside, the boat ride was beautiful and though it ran a bit longer than predicted (however, not unexpectedly) we enjoyed savouring the huge limestone cliffs and hills that form Northern Laos. Nong Khiaw was a magical place, nessleted in a large valley with one dominating bridge connecting the community. Our first night there, we (not unhappily) discovered that the power only ran from 6 p.m until 10 p.m and by "ran" I mean came and went as it pleased. Unfortunately, our second day there I succombed to some rather painful food poisoining at the hands of some bad Laap (delicious Lao meat salad, even the bad stuff was delicious so how was I to know!) but within the day I was recovered and happily spending the day away from the toilet once again. Ironically, it was St. Patrick's Day which I spent close to the toilet yet I had not had a drop to drink...luck of the Irish indeed!
After three days in Nong Khiaw, we continued northwards on the Nam Ou by boat to the village of Muang Noi Neua. MNN was an even smaller community without vehicles of anykind (save the bicycle, of course) and limited electrical services as well. Our stay here was much more active than our previous location - one day we rented a small paddle boat and took in a good deal of swimming, and the other day we did a good three hour trek to some stunning caves inland. Jay has undertaken "The Lord of the Rings" reading and I am re-reading my all time favourite book "A Suitable Boy" so much of our time in these places was devoted to reading with the sun on our faces and with beer lao in our bellies.
In sports news, the Best of 7/Best of 7/Best of 7 BRISK tournament came to a thrilling and close end and while I applaud Jay's comeback efforts, I took the final game 7 to ensure my overall wins. Bravo to both parties involved.
After another three days in MNN, it was time to move onwards to Viet Nam. We decided to take a boat rather than a bus to the newly opened border five hours north from MNN but as this is not a populos route, we found ourselves alone on a longtail boat with the driver, his wife and an incredibly large catfish who joined us on a village stopby. (Happily, he survived).
Upon arrival to the town of Muang Khua - our last stop in Laos - we found a seemingly clean guesthouse to spend the night before we were to travel onwards early the next morning. Perhaps some of you have caught on at this point, but if you don't have electricity...you don't have ATMs. And if you don't have American currency, well sir, you are shit. out. of. luck. We had exchanged our American currency and of course no one was interested in anything else, so we had limited funds to get to Viet Nam. We were unsure of any unforeseen costs at the border and did not exactly know how much the whole trip to Viet Nam (boat and bus) was going to cost us. Suffice to say, our dinner was skimpy that night and we didn't even indulge in breafkast the next morning. Budgeting at it's finest!
We met a Thai man that night in town who overheard us stumbling through Lao to figure out how exactly to get to the border crossing. His English was superb, and he told us he too was going with his family (two grandchildren and a collegue) to the border the next day. He was renting a bus for himself, and as there were two extra seats, he offered us them to us. As we spoke with him and his wife, I found myself feeling oddly familiar with them. I then realized they were the bizarro Thai version of my very own grandparents, Mare and Frank!!!!! This delighted Jay and I endlessly during our time with who we came to call our "Thai family".
We travelled with them for three hours to the Viet Nam border. After a delicious noodle soup breakfast with the family - whom initially referred to as Thai Frank (TF), Thai Mare (TM), Thai John (TJ, we assumed he was their son), Thai Rory, aged 13, (TR) and Thai Maeve, aged 8 (TM2). Eventually we learned that TF was "JP" and TM was Renu, and they were both retired Professors in Food Science from the University of Chiang Mai. Their English was so spectacular because they had done their PH.Ds in Redding, England.
As a group, we made the impulse decision to carry on from the border to Ha Noi. All of us originally planned to spend the night in the border town but we were all tight on time and an offer of $10 per person in a spacious private van was too good to pass up. The journey would take ten hours on yet another bumpy, unpaved road. We stopped for dinner along the way and felt so part of the family as we all ate and shared signature Vietnemese dishes. We spoke at great length with JP and Renu though I forgot to mention their likeness to my own grandparents. What seemed like hours of bumpy road, sore bladders and neck pillows later...we arrived bleery eyed into Ha Noi at 5 A.m in the morning, rounding our travel day up to 22 full hours. We crashed at a hotel, barely away of the chaotic city that surrounded us...
And so here we are. Ha Noi is a beautiful city and we are thourougly enjoying our return to metropolitan life. The pho is good, the fresh rolls are good, the baguettes are good...life is great. We spent a good part of the day today taking in shopping and riding around town in a Cyclo (a sort of rickshaw-bicycle deal.) Tomorrow we are going to visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum - luckily he isn't visiting Lenin for his annual brush-up in Russia - and we will be continuing to take in the city until next week. We are glad to be staying here but also don't have much of a choice because we are awaiting our Indian visas! Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem.
Phew. That took a bit out of me. I think we will go get some Pho and relax before taking in a Jazz show tonight in the Old Quarter.
Much love from Viet Nam
Maeve/Jay
Friday, March 27, 2009
the end of laos...
hello hello,
We apoligize for the lack of posts in the past couple weeks, we have been making our way north by boat through laos with vietnam in our sights. Due to travelling via a river, the towns we have been staying in, while goregous, only have power from 6-10pm and with no internet access in sight. A great feeling for us, but little info for you all back home. I can only assume you have all been on the same trek by the lack of commenting we have now seen but i understand that internet access in homes is few and far between these days...just kidding we love you all and have been filled in on the major happenings via emails that we have caught up on. With that being said, we are currently in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam and have been indulging in the city life that we have missed over the last couple weeks.
Our posts left off with us in luang prabang relaxing on the mekong and enjoying the local treats and tasty beer lao. With the news of maeve's dipoloma arriving back home, we decided to celebrate with an adventure that we would not of normally done, but we are more than glad we did. Laos was once known as "The Land of a Million Elephants" but with only 1600 left, 600 of which work in the logging camps, the name is slowy becoming a thing of the past. With the logging industry declining in Laos, there has been an influx in jobless elephants. I know, the thought of a jobless elephant is a strange one, but they explained that because elephants eat so much food in one day that if let loose they would destroy villages and towns which are inhabited by locals who are no longer used to elephants. I dangeours situation for both sides. With that being said there is a camp whose mission is to rehabilitate these elephants, thus giving them a job and a far better life than what the loggin camps were providing. We signed up with one camp for an overnight stay and off we went.
We knew the itinerary would invlove riding on the elephants aswell as playing with them and eventually giving them a bath the next morning. So with much anticipation we took an hour car ride out of the city into the countryside where the camp was located. Upon arrival we were literally whisked away right onto one of the elephants for athe first ride of our trip. There was a Mahout ( a local lao, who is practically one with the elephant) on their neck while we were on the seat on their back. Before we knew it we were trekking through the jungle on an elephant, down hills, over rocks and yes, right into the river. A little uneasy at first but we enjoyed the ride and that that was the end of them to come...we were wrong. After dismounting from our ride we talked to a couple volunteers to get a better feel of the camp and its purpose. Everyone was very freindly and informative and explained what our stay would consist of. The most surprising of all was that we would next ride the elephant without a seat, simply around the neck with the Mahout behind us. The elephants only "work" about 4 hours a day at the camp, light load compared to the 10-12 hours in the logging camps. So they are lead out every afternoon into the jungle to roam and act as a herd until the next morning.
It was the march back into the jungle that we would be bare-necked if you would. Now while it was far more comfortable than riding in the seat, it was far more exhilarating feeling the power of these beasts right between your legs. They really are incredible animals. The trek took about 45 mins at which point we dismounted and made our way to our rooms to freshen up before dinner. Our room was amazing and we have pictures to do it justice, which you will all have to wait to see. All the meals were included, and dinner was a traditional lao dinner, fried seaweed to start with curried vegetables and ginger beef with rice, and of course a couple of delicious beer laos.
After a little time by the bon fire that night we were anxious to get to bed for the morning bath that awaited us. An bath to an elephant is much like a cup of coffee to most people, they just feel sluggish without one we were told. Many times at the logging camps they were denied their baths and given drugs to increse the work load, so getting to be apart of a morning ritual was very exciting. We walked to where they were placed the night before, and hopped up ontop to ride them down into the river. There we were, all 8 elephants marching right into the river for a nice big scrub down. The Mahouts get them into the middle of the river to where there heads are exposed and we start scrubbing. All over from head to tail. We were still planted on the neck so we mainly did the head, while the mahout was standing and climbing all over the place to ensure a good scrub. The command of "map" was then given and the elephants submerged in the water to give a rinse everyso often, taking us down with them. It felt much like a rollercoaster at points, and boy can they get dirty during the nights, our clothes still have mud on them. After the bath they all head out of the river to a quite steep path, not much to hold onto on the head so you just hold those big ears and hope for the best. It truly was one of the most memorable times on this trip thus far, one we both will never forget.
After a shower and some breakfast we said goodbye to our new grey friends and headed "home", with many a picture and movie in hand, again you'll all just have to wait.
After a night in our guesthouse we made plans to get a move on north via boat which is where the above post takes off.
Lots of love
jay/maeve
We apoligize for the lack of posts in the past couple weeks, we have been making our way north by boat through laos with vietnam in our sights. Due to travelling via a river, the towns we have been staying in, while goregous, only have power from 6-10pm and with no internet access in sight. A great feeling for us, but little info for you all back home. I can only assume you have all been on the same trek by the lack of commenting we have now seen but i understand that internet access in homes is few and far between these days...just kidding we love you all and have been filled in on the major happenings via emails that we have caught up on. With that being said, we are currently in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam and have been indulging in the city life that we have missed over the last couple weeks.
Our posts left off with us in luang prabang relaxing on the mekong and enjoying the local treats and tasty beer lao. With the news of maeve's dipoloma arriving back home, we decided to celebrate with an adventure that we would not of normally done, but we are more than glad we did. Laos was once known as "The Land of a Million Elephants" but with only 1600 left, 600 of which work in the logging camps, the name is slowy becoming a thing of the past. With the logging industry declining in Laos, there has been an influx in jobless elephants. I know, the thought of a jobless elephant is a strange one, but they explained that because elephants eat so much food in one day that if let loose they would destroy villages and towns which are inhabited by locals who are no longer used to elephants. I dangeours situation for both sides. With that being said there is a camp whose mission is to rehabilitate these elephants, thus giving them a job and a far better life than what the loggin camps were providing. We signed up with one camp for an overnight stay and off we went.
We knew the itinerary would invlove riding on the elephants aswell as playing with them and eventually giving them a bath the next morning. So with much anticipation we took an hour car ride out of the city into the countryside where the camp was located. Upon arrival we were literally whisked away right onto one of the elephants for athe first ride of our trip. There was a Mahout ( a local lao, who is practically one with the elephant) on their neck while we were on the seat on their back. Before we knew it we were trekking through the jungle on an elephant, down hills, over rocks and yes, right into the river. A little uneasy at first but we enjoyed the ride and that that was the end of them to come...we were wrong. After dismounting from our ride we talked to a couple volunteers to get a better feel of the camp and its purpose. Everyone was very freindly and informative and explained what our stay would consist of. The most surprising of all was that we would next ride the elephant without a seat, simply around the neck with the Mahout behind us. The elephants only "work" about 4 hours a day at the camp, light load compared to the 10-12 hours in the logging camps. So they are lead out every afternoon into the jungle to roam and act as a herd until the next morning.
It was the march back into the jungle that we would be bare-necked if you would. Now while it was far more comfortable than riding in the seat, it was far more exhilarating feeling the power of these beasts right between your legs. They really are incredible animals. The trek took about 45 mins at which point we dismounted and made our way to our rooms to freshen up before dinner. Our room was amazing and we have pictures to do it justice, which you will all have to wait to see. All the meals were included, and dinner was a traditional lao dinner, fried seaweed to start with curried vegetables and ginger beef with rice, and of course a couple of delicious beer laos.
After a little time by the bon fire that night we were anxious to get to bed for the morning bath that awaited us. An bath to an elephant is much like a cup of coffee to most people, they just feel sluggish without one we were told. Many times at the logging camps they were denied their baths and given drugs to increse the work load, so getting to be apart of a morning ritual was very exciting. We walked to where they were placed the night before, and hopped up ontop to ride them down into the river. There we were, all 8 elephants marching right into the river for a nice big scrub down. The Mahouts get them into the middle of the river to where there heads are exposed and we start scrubbing. All over from head to tail. We were still planted on the neck so we mainly did the head, while the mahout was standing and climbing all over the place to ensure a good scrub. The command of "map" was then given and the elephants submerged in the water to give a rinse everyso often, taking us down with them. It felt much like a rollercoaster at points, and boy can they get dirty during the nights, our clothes still have mud on them. After the bath they all head out of the river to a quite steep path, not much to hold onto on the head so you just hold those big ears and hope for the best. It truly was one of the most memorable times on this trip thus far, one we both will never forget.
After a shower and some breakfast we said goodbye to our new grey friends and headed "home", with many a picture and movie in hand, again you'll all just have to wait.
After a night in our guesthouse we made plans to get a move on north via boat which is where the above post takes off.
Lots of love
jay/maeve
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Head over heals for the Mekong River
Sabai-Dee!
So much to update, so little time (that is, I wish to spend so little time in this internet cafe so I can go back out and enjoy Luang Prabang...)
I will make it sweet and short! Jay and I left the comforts of Bangkok to go to Chiang Mai, which is a most beautiful city that we thoroughly enjoy for the two nights we stayed there. We took in many of the temples in the city, the Northern Thai cuisine (mmm fish cakes!), a Muay Thai match - note to self: a reasonably priced muay thai match will consist of prepubescent boys and soccer moms, er i mean muay thai dads - and the beauty of the hills.
We decided to make our way to Mae Sai, the northern most town in Thailand which sits on the Mae Nam Sai river, the dividing border between Thailand and Myanmar (aka Burma). The bus ride from Chiang Mai was about "four hours" - another note to self: hereafter quoted bus times will be altered on the assumption of straight roads, though the roads are never straight, see below - and after a good six hour bus ride we arrived in the small border town.
We found a beautiful guesthouse, which literally sat atop the river and looked over to Myanmar (a short swim away!). The farang (foreigner) to Thai ratio was ideal, that is there were very few farang and plenty of Thais and Jay and I spent three blissful days there...never once eating a bad meal. The owner of our guesthouse was a paternal figurehead and had several siblings, children, distant cousins, etc. running about and for that brief time they acted like our own large and insane families (chatting, feeding us, singing, feeding us, feeding us...). When it was time to leave Mae Sai, a most beautiful town nestled in a mountainous valley with its beautiful river, we were quite saddened. We hope to return there one day.
Onwards and upwards, as they say, and we ventured out to Chiang Rai (not to be confused with Chiang Mai), where we then moved on to Chiang Khrong, the border town for Thailand and Laos (hereafter Lao!). Of course, both bus journeys were approximated at a certain arrival time, and of course, both were off by about an hour...
We spent the night in a guesthouse where the main attraction was the view of the Mighty Meklong River, a most beautiful dominating body of water which runs through much of Southeast Asia. It was love at first sight...
The next day we made our way to the border and crossed into Lao hassle free, to the town of Huay Xai. At our guesthouse there, we met an interesting fellow who was seventeen and seemed to think he was the Lao Eminem. His name was "Loko", and his knowledge of oldskool hiphop was rather impressive and truth be told the kid has some talent when it came to freestylin. We told him to come to Toronto one day and visit us, he seemed pleased at the prospect...
Most people take the slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang but the prospect of two ten hour days shoved on a boat full of whiney farang did not appeal to us, so we opted for the "eight hour" bus ride to Luang Prabang. Twelve hours of gorgeous Lao countryside and lots of vomit bags later (not ours, thanks to Gravol. It seems a good fraction of our Lao bus mates had been drinking rather heartily the night before and the winding roads seemed to be little consolation for their hangover...), we arrived delirious and excited in Luang Prabang.
Here we have enjoyed Beerlao next to stunning scenes of the Mekong river, dabbled in Lao green tea in the french colonial tea rooms, perused the Lao goods in the night market and absorbed the incredibly easy going way of life here...in one of the most beautiful towns on the planet. A sort of mix of the 18th century french countryside but distinctly Asian all the same...
We are hoping all is well at home. It is time to escape the confines of this internet cafe and enjoy another day in this sleepy town of Luang Prabang.
Much love from Lao...
Maeve/Jay
So much to update, so little time (that is, I wish to spend so little time in this internet cafe so I can go back out and enjoy Luang Prabang...)
I will make it sweet and short! Jay and I left the comforts of Bangkok to go to Chiang Mai, which is a most beautiful city that we thoroughly enjoy for the two nights we stayed there. We took in many of the temples in the city, the Northern Thai cuisine (mmm fish cakes!), a Muay Thai match - note to self: a reasonably priced muay thai match will consist of prepubescent boys and soccer moms, er i mean muay thai dads - and the beauty of the hills.
We decided to make our way to Mae Sai, the northern most town in Thailand which sits on the Mae Nam Sai river, the dividing border between Thailand and Myanmar (aka Burma). The bus ride from Chiang Mai was about "four hours" - another note to self: hereafter quoted bus times will be altered on the assumption of straight roads, though the roads are never straight, see below - and after a good six hour bus ride we arrived in the small border town.
We found a beautiful guesthouse, which literally sat atop the river and looked over to Myanmar (a short swim away!). The farang (foreigner) to Thai ratio was ideal, that is there were very few farang and plenty of Thais and Jay and I spent three blissful days there...never once eating a bad meal. The owner of our guesthouse was a paternal figurehead and had several siblings, children, distant cousins, etc. running about and for that brief time they acted like our own large and insane families (chatting, feeding us, singing, feeding us, feeding us...). When it was time to leave Mae Sai, a most beautiful town nestled in a mountainous valley with its beautiful river, we were quite saddened. We hope to return there one day.
Onwards and upwards, as they say, and we ventured out to Chiang Rai (not to be confused with Chiang Mai), where we then moved on to Chiang Khrong, the border town for Thailand and Laos (hereafter Lao!). Of course, both bus journeys were approximated at a certain arrival time, and of course, both were off by about an hour...
We spent the night in a guesthouse where the main attraction was the view of the Mighty Meklong River, a most beautiful dominating body of water which runs through much of Southeast Asia. It was love at first sight...
The next day we made our way to the border and crossed into Lao hassle free, to the town of Huay Xai. At our guesthouse there, we met an interesting fellow who was seventeen and seemed to think he was the Lao Eminem. His name was "Loko", and his knowledge of oldskool hiphop was rather impressive and truth be told the kid has some talent when it came to freestylin. We told him to come to Toronto one day and visit us, he seemed pleased at the prospect...
Most people take the slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang but the prospect of two ten hour days shoved on a boat full of whiney farang did not appeal to us, so we opted for the "eight hour" bus ride to Luang Prabang. Twelve hours of gorgeous Lao countryside and lots of vomit bags later (not ours, thanks to Gravol. It seems a good fraction of our Lao bus mates had been drinking rather heartily the night before and the winding roads seemed to be little consolation for their hangover...), we arrived delirious and excited in Luang Prabang.
Here we have enjoyed Beerlao next to stunning scenes of the Mekong river, dabbled in Lao green tea in the french colonial tea rooms, perused the Lao goods in the night market and absorbed the incredibly easy going way of life here...in one of the most beautiful towns on the planet. A sort of mix of the 18th century french countryside but distinctly Asian all the same...
We are hoping all is well at home. It is time to escape the confines of this internet cafe and enjoy another day in this sleepy town of Luang Prabang.
Much love from Lao...
Maeve/Jay
Monday, March 2, 2009
back to reality (well, sort of reality) in chiang mai
Hi everyone!
Just a quick update on what we've been upto since our guests left us two mornings ago. Had a wonderful time with Ammaji (Donna) and Ugg (Karl - inside joke for him there) and were sad to see them go.
Jay and I experienced our last little bits of Bangkok on Sunday - visiting the wonderful JJ weekend market (the largest open air market in the world!). Yesterday, we visited my old teaching town of Samutsongkhram, where we were warmly met by teachers and students alike...though they knocked down my old house to build condos, which was quite strange...
Last night, we were whisked off by Doug and Thom to Zense, the newest hotspot in Bangkok with a stunning panoramic view of the city. It was the perfect two days to end off our time in Bangkok, such a wonderful and vibrant city! Time to leave behind three weeks of beautiful accomodations, expensive dinners (neither of which we ever were able to pay for!) and excellent company. Back to slumdogging it, but we are anxious to get back into our own routine and see as much as possible in the next three months!
Today, we are flying to Chiang Mai (in Nothern Thailand) to enjoy a few days in the hills and jungle until we go overland into Laos. Looking forward to Laos a great deal, we have heard wonderful things about it and of course, no country has disapointed thus far.
Hope everything is well at home - I heard it is warming up? Good to know hehe.
More to come.
Lots of love,
Maeve/Jay
Just a quick update on what we've been upto since our guests left us two mornings ago. Had a wonderful time with Ammaji (Donna) and Ugg (Karl - inside joke for him there) and were sad to see them go.
Jay and I experienced our last little bits of Bangkok on Sunday - visiting the wonderful JJ weekend market (the largest open air market in the world!). Yesterday, we visited my old teaching town of Samutsongkhram, where we were warmly met by teachers and students alike...though they knocked down my old house to build condos, which was quite strange...
Last night, we were whisked off by Doug and Thom to Zense, the newest hotspot in Bangkok with a stunning panoramic view of the city. It was the perfect two days to end off our time in Bangkok, such a wonderful and vibrant city! Time to leave behind three weeks of beautiful accomodations, expensive dinners (neither of which we ever were able to pay for!) and excellent company. Back to slumdogging it, but we are anxious to get back into our own routine and see as much as possible in the next three months!
Today, we are flying to Chiang Mai (in Nothern Thailand) to enjoy a few days in the hills and jungle until we go overland into Laos. Looking forward to Laos a great deal, we have heard wonderful things about it and of course, no country has disapointed thus far.
Hope everything is well at home - I heard it is warming up? Good to know hehe.
More to come.
Lots of love,
Maeve/Jay
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