Laos: slow-boating

As with all things Lao, transportation is slow. really slow. So it's fitting that I decided to work my way down from Houay Xai to Luang Prabang via the popular slow-boat route, a two-day journey down the Mekong River. I made my way to the ferry dock with my new American travel buddies who I bonded with during the Gibbon Experience adventure, and it felt great to be traveling in a pack again. As seems to be customary in Laos, we sat waiting for a good hour and a half until the operator returned with our passports and we were given the green light to board for Day 1 of our slow-boat journey. Our vessel was a simple wooden long-tail boat with two-seater wooden benches lining either side of the boat, and it filled up quickly with a horde of backpackers traveling in the same direction. We set up camp and spent the lazy seven hour boat ride reading, listening to our iPods and enjoying the passing beautiful green landscape as we float downriver. We stopped for the night in Pak Beng, a small town on the riverbank which seems to run solely on tourism and the business of travelers on the slow-boat route. The electricity for the entire town shuts off at 11pm, which is less than ideal timing when washing shampoo out of one's hair in a cold shower, but otherwise not much of a bother given the country-wide midnight curfew. Yes, the entire population of Laos has a curfew. Welcome to Laos, also known as my entire early high school experience.

Day two of slow-boating was more of the same -- gazing at the passing scenery, listening to music, and playing card games. Oh, except for the dead body. We caught sight of it passing just yards away from the boat, and our faces froze in abject horror as the lifeless form floated past us and out of sight down the river. Then it was gone, and we returned to our respective time-passing activities. It was dusk and beginning to rain as we arrived in Luang Prabang, a sophisticated and photogenic city perched on the banks of the Nam Khan and Mekong Rivers. As per usual, finding a place upon arrival in a new city is often a challenging if not daunting task, but I joined forces with another girl from Los Angeles and we managed to find a room, albeit one that smelled of mold and looked like it was furnished with items found on the side of the road. Moving tomorrow night for sure.

Tomorrow ... a proper exploration of Luang Prabang (warning: includes mishap with a kayak)

Gibbon Experience: The Saga

After passing a rather quiet night in Houay Xai, it was time for Day One of The Gibbon Experience! Or, as it will later become known, The Most Challenging Three Days of Valerie's Life Thus Far.

The Gibbon Experience itself is an eco-tourism forest convservation project, which funds forest protection and community projects in the Bokeo Nature Reserve in northern Laos. Guests stay in tree houses and use a cable network of zip-lines to scour the forest in search of the illusive Black Gibbon monkey. Tree houses? Ziplines?? Monkeys??? Count me in! I arrived 7:30AM sharp at the Gibbon Experience office, alongside a handful of similar worn-looking backpackers. After leaving our bags with the office and bringing only a day pack with the essentials, we piled into a dirt-caked truck and headed off to the Bokeo Nature Reserve for the village of the Lao Theung. After a quick round of introductions in our 8-person group, we headed off into the jungle.


Day 1: Not even five minutes after leaving the village, the path turned muddy and murderously steep. Still, I naively assumed that my previous Chiang Mai trek had prepared me adequately for the three-day jungle trek. How wrong I turned out to be. The trail continued up and up (and up and up and up), and soon we were drenched in sweat and attracting mosquitos like moths to a flame. Next came the leeches, and although our guide showed us how to remove them easily (a couple flicks of the finger and you're rid of them, if you move fast) they were still a hateful nuisance. Still, after an excruiating and exhausting three hours, we arrived at our first zipline and it's an exhilarating experience unlike any I've ever had. We suited up in our harnesses and, one by one, jumped off the platform and flew through the air across the jungle treetops. The sight was breathtaking and the flight intoxicating. It was the highest high of the trek, with an unfortunate return to the lowest low as we continued our trek toward the treehouse. Once there, the feeling of accomplishment and relief at being able to sit down was enough to rid us (mostly) of the memory of that grueling hike. I suspect it's something akin to childbirth. I've never been so happy for a cup of instant coffee and a hard wooden bench in my life. I feel like I've sent myself to Fat Camp.

Day 2: More of the same, except worse because of the rain that fell the previous night. I'm talking torrential jungle downpour. It made the going very, very difficult as it took all our energy simply to keep ourselves standing upright and not slip in the mud. Multiply that by incredibly steep hills, add a healthy dose of leeches, multiply again by four hours, and you have Day 2 of the Gibbon Experience trek. And yet anytime we reached a zipline, the exhaustion just seemed to disappear as we stepped out into nothingness, flying across the lush green jungle and rivers below. It was enchanting. As like the previous day, once we reached the treehouse we sat down to relax and wait for dinner to arrive with our guide -- rice and sauteed cabbage seems to be a staple of their diet, so that's a lot of what we got. The sky began to darken around 5:30 and by 6:30pm the only light we had was from one lone candle and our flashlights. Bedtime was soon to follow.

Day 3: And still more of the same. And yet, different. I felt stronger, and the steep hills seemed less daunting and more manageable. We awoke at 5am to make the trek down, and our first zipline took us across a large valley with hills of green trees, blanketed in a thick gray mist as far as the eye could see. The downward trek was difficult, and yet our moods improved with each step we took. We created a Hiking Playlist (see below) that would serve as the soundtrack to our endeavor, which lightened our mood substantially. Overall, it was an intense yet extremely rewarding experience, and I'm glad I lived to tell you all about it :) Oh yeah, and we saw one Gibbon monkey. from very far away.


Hike From Hell: the playlist
1. Guns 'N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
2. Queen - Another One Bites The Dust
3. Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
4. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
5. Europe - The Final Countdown
6. Britney Spears - Stronger
7. Queen - We Are the Champions

Bye Bye Chiang Mai, hello Houay Xai

Day 4 in Chiang Mai: spent most of it in bed, sick from a combination of bad food and an allergy to exhaust fumes and heat (not a made-up ailment, I swear). Recovered by evening in time to spend my last night in Chiang Mai perusing the Night Market and taking full advantage of the night life.

One all-night goodbye party later and I found myself (miraculously) on the bus heading out of Chiang Mai at 6AM, bound for the Thailand-Laos border crossing at Chiang Khong. I slept most of the way, woken only by the screeching brakes of the bus from time to time as it swerved to avoid hitting a wayward dog or cow.

Crossing from Chiang Khong into the Lao town of Houay Xai was uneventful, which is probably how border crossings should be. A cursory glance at my passport and travel visa, and the border patrolman shooed me on with a wave of his hand and I walked up the hill to the first (and truthfully only) main road to find lodging. Houay Xai serves primarily as a major border-entry point, with just the one dusty road lined with guest houses and travel agencies as its main attraction. Translation: nothing to see here, folks.

I found ... adequate ... accomodations for the night, and picked up some Australian friends to share a beer with over dinner.

Lessons learned for this portion of the journey:
- Do not take 8 hours bus trips while hungover
- Australians are hilarious, sometimes difficult to understand
- Houay Xai is pretty boring

Chiang Mai: part II

trek
intr.v: trekked, trek·king, treks

1. to travel or migrate, esp. slowly or with difficulty.
2. a journey or trip, esp. one involving difficulty or hardship.
3. drenched in sweat, blood-sucking leaches, mosquitos the size of pterodactyls, and complete and total muscle exhaustion.


Days two and three in Chiang Mai took me and my adopted Irish family into the hills of northern Thailand for an adventure-filled trek of hiking, elephant rides and bamboo rafting! We piled into a rickety truck bed with our overnight packs (bringing with us the essentials: dry clothes, bug spray and toilet paper) and braved the bumpy hour-plus ride into the Chiang Mai National Park. Our first stop was the waterfall and hot springs, where we took photos and a refreshing dip in the lagoon.

As I was beginning to think what a breeze this trekking thing would be, we began what soon turned into a treacherous, grueling uphill battle with the steep terrain and relentless weather conditions. As we climbed higher and higher into the jungle, our legs began to burn and everyone struggled to keep their erratic breathing in check. Just when I thought my legs would give out, the trail evened out and began a sharp descent, sending us scrambling down muddy embankments and rocky outcrops. A few drops from the sky gave us a five-second heads up before we were caught in a monsoon-like rainstorm, drenching us to the bone and sending leeches down to worm into our shoes and through our clothes. A mentally and physically exhausting four hours later, we trudged into a remote village deep in the jungle, tired but thankful to have made it. We passed the evening around the campfire, gazing at the star-studded black night sky and finally fell asleep in a one-room wood cabin underneath our mosquito nets.

Day two thankfully involved no more hiking, but an elephant encounter and a ride down the river on a bamboo raft. The bamboo raft was just that -- a collection of bamboo stalks tied together with reeds. The weight of nine bodies pushed the rickety bamboo raft under the surface of the water, and we floated off down the river with the lush green jungle foliage looming above us on either side. At times we glided lazily along enjoying the sun and scenery, other times we sped up with the rushing current, barely avoiding large rocks and torrents of churning water. Quite fun. Eventually we made our way down the river and back to the hostel, and I've never been so thankful for a lukewarm shower.

I think I like this trekking thing after all.

Chiang Mai: part I

Since I left you last, I successfully survived a fun-filled (although relatively sleepless) overnight train ride from Bangkok to the cultural mecca of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, having adopted a new Irish family and an affinity for Lipton tea with milk and sugar along the way. Arriving in Chiang Mai with nowhere to stay, I decided to tag along with the Irish boys in the search for a place to sleep. We stepped off the train and were immediately besieged by eager taxi and tuk tuk drivers, hungry for our business. Eventually, after walking in circles for longer than I cared to with a backpack the size of a large child, we found ourselves at the lovely family-run Libra Guest House, located in the city center on Moon Muang Road Soi 9. After a quick check-in and storage of our bags, we set off to explore the city.

I immediately fell in love with the relaxed hipster vibe and the beautiful green scenery of Chiang Mai, a welcome departure from the gray concrete and flashing neon lights of Bangkok. In order to get a more complete tour of the city (and to stay cool while doing so), we decided to rent a motor bike and brave the Chiang Mai traffic. Zipping around the city, we passed swanky coffee shops and beautiful gleaming Wats (temples) before making our way out of the city and up the winding road to Doi Suthep Temple, which overlooks all of Chiang Mai. The temple's gleaming gold spires and Buddha statues were matched in beauty only by the breathtaking view of the entire city below.

We finished the evening with a trip to the lovely Night Market, a can't-miss collection of stalls and vendors offering everything from clothing to Thai silks and delicious street food, and you're likely get a good price on just about everything if you know how to haggle.

Next on the Chiang Mai agenda ... trekking!

Things I Learned on a Train in Thailand

Following: an itemized list of lessons I learned on an overnight train to Chiang Mai:

1. If lost, look around helplessly. When this fails to work, listen for someone speaking english and make them your new best friend

2. Making friends with Irish men is easy, will provide hours of entertainment

3. Remember to charge your f***ing iPod before the journey

4. Peeing in a moving Thai train is tricky. really tricky.

5. Never order the "continental breakfast" unless you enjoy soggy white bread-and-tomato sandwiches. If erroneously ordered, pass over to new Irish friend and he will gladly relieve you of your burden

6. Be careful when drinking tea or you may end up with second-degree chest burns and a stained t-shirt

7. Thai conductors are very friendly; find solo-traveling American women particularly funny


... and this is just a taste. still trying to figure out the picture uploading situation, bear with me. next post: the Chiang Mai experience (in one word: awesome).

Three Nights in Bangkok

Sa wat dee kaa, Everyone!

Hello from Bangkok! I've been neglectful in writing, there's been quite a lot going on. The days already seem to be running together, with all of the activities, sights, smells, tastes and sounds mixing into one exciting, if not overwhelming, experience. And getting used to the heat has been a considerable challenge :) I am staying in a wonderful little guest house called Shanti Lodge, located just next door to Khao San Road (the backpacker mecca) in Thewet on the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river.

Thus far in my Bangkok experience I have navigated (mostly successfully, sometimes not) the local bus system which took me to Siam Square and MBK on my first full day in BKK to purchase a mobile phone, probably the most confusing task since high school algebra. The public transportation system here is an event in itself, as the buses often require flagging down and a running head start to hop on. Talk about treacherous.

Day two brought me to the weekend Chatuchak Market, a gargantuan sprawling market with vendors selling every ware imagineable -- beautiful silks, cheap American-style clothing of all kinds, teak-wood carvings and ornaments, chickens, fruits of every shape and variety, and food vendors selling heaps of steaming aromatic thai cuisine (some delicious, some seemingly inedible). Tasted my first mango with sticky rice, discovered heaven.

Day three I hopped on one of the popular water taxis which ferry passengers both ways north and south on the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river, taking it down to visit the grounds of the Grand Palace, the former royal residence which is nothing less than spectacular. The palace grounds also house the beautiful Wat Phra Kaew, also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, a visual wonder of highly stylized ornamentation (translation: lots of gold and sparkle). Next door I visited Wat Pho, the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok dating back to the 16th century. Wat Pho houses a stunning giant gold reclining Buddha statue, which illustrates the passing of Buddha into final nirvana.

Today is my last day in Bangkok, and tonight I will be catching the overnight train to Chiang Mai in northern thailand for respite from the frenetic big-city energy that is Bangkok.


Stay tuned...

Bon Voyage

Well folks, for those of you who are just now tuning in, I have decided to put my life in Los Angeles on hold while I pull up anchor and set sail around the world for three months. Well, not so much "around the world" as "in a backwards circle." And not so much "sail" as "travel by any means necessary" But that's just semantics. My little whirlwind adventure will take me through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bali, Australia, New Zealand, and finally Tahiti on my way back to sunny Los Angeles. Many thanks to those who have gotten me to this jumping off point.

And now, with bags packed and tickets in hand ...

let the great experiment begin!