Travel to Live. Live to Travel

$2 t-shirts, hill-tribe silver, hand-made shoes, bag made of antique Tibetan fabric...and more

For months Hugh and I have been extremely careful about what we buy during our travels. We’d either have to carry it around with us for months, or ship it back to America/Australia (which is costly.) However, since we are winding down on our travels and since it’s just so easy and fun to shop in Luang Prabang we’ve gone a bit crazy.

Unlike other night markets, the one here is insanely chilled out. No one yells at you, “hey lady, you buy!” or our personal favorite, “Hey you, buy something?!” I love that. <Insert your best industrialist tycoon voice here> “Oh why thank you, dear. I was just thinking I wanted to buy something today since this money is getting quite heavy *chortle* I’ll take two of those–what are they? Ah yes, elephant shaped incense holders.”

We just get to wander through stalls and pick over things–yesterday a man entertained us with a gun made out of bamboo. He made no attempts to sell to us, just seemed to have fun showing us his sling shots and flint and tinder kits and crossbows. After his demonstration, we headed off and he smiled and said goodbye and that was all. Trust me, this kind of sedate shopping just doesn’t happen anywhere else. Needless to say, we’ve been very, very naughty. I’m not quite sure how we’ll fit this all in our bags, but we’ve only been here 2 days and we have a week to go. I wonder how long it takes before I snap and buy one of those awesome Indiana Jones-like gas lamps? =P

Reading along the list of ailments and cures...

Hugh and I were wandering around the more “locals” area of Luang Prabang when we came across a little cart with bags of dried bark, berries, and grasses neatly arranged on top. Small baskets had dried leaves and one contained rounded stones, a worn book on top read “Lao Traditional Medicine.” We stopped for a moment, and an old man grinned at us with a toothless smile.

He opened the book and pointed to an ailment, then gesticulated to his cart, “heart disease” said the book as he gestured to his heart. We shook our head “no” and smiled. He then pointed to the next ailment in the chart which was for headache, then grabbed his head and made moaning noises. This is where the story gets hilarious.

Next was an herbal tea that was good for spasms. So the man demonstrated what spasms where by shaking his hands violently and making a sound that I can only type as “ablabababaaba” with his tongue. Hugh and I burst out laughing. Encouraged, the man pointed at the next ailment: gonorrhea.

He then proceeded to make the international children’s symbol for sex, inserting a finger into his fist. He then pointed at Hugh who protested quite loudly that he didn’t need a cure for it. The man grinned and pointed to the next venereal disease, which brought upon more laughter.

The next moments were spent having a “conversation” by pointing at various words on a well-worn paper he kept with him. He asked where we were from, if we were married, etc. Just a hilarious old man eager to talk with people, I guess, and yet one of the many experiences that’s making me never want to leave Laos.

We’re currently stuck over what to do with our remaining time (and money). There’s so many things we can do in Luang Prabang: cooking classes, trekking, weaving classes, elephant trekking, elephant trainer courses, etc. Luckily, we can stay here for as long as we like, and actually it’s more cost effective if we do (since we have to go to Thailand next). Here’s a sample of our daily costs…

Breakfast (eggs, sausages, coffee, toast etc.) = $6 US

Lunch (sandwich from a food cart, or maybe some noodles) = $2

Dinner (two Lao dishes and sticky rice, or maybe a pizza and salad, beer and drinks) = $10

Guesthouse accomodation (hot water, attatched bathroom, fan, good location, decent bed) = $8

Total cost = $26 for TWO people ($13 a person)

And we’re also living very, very comfortably. We’re not includng the one-hour massages for $4, or the silver jewelry for $3. If we were willing to forgo hot water and our own bathroom, and if we ate like a locals every meal, our costs drop to under $10 a day. Quite frankly though, the prices could be 4x higher and I’d still love it here. It’s not about the costs at all, really, though that does allow us to stay here longer. What we love is the atmosphere and the people.

There’s none of that hustle-and-bustle that you see in Thailand or Vietnam, very few of the jaded faces, none of the obvious hatred to tourists you see in those countries (and is pretty deserved, honestly). I think they’ve learned the lessons of Vietnam, which sadly was one of the most unpleasant places we went to. Prostitution is illegal here, and foreigners cannot have sexual relations with Lao people unless they’re married. This also makes the atmosphere much nicer for me, since no one immediately assumes that since I’m with a white guy, I’m a prostitute. It also means there’s fewer nasty old sex-tourist men, and since all establishments must close by 11:30pm and there’s a 12am curfew, it also means Laos isn’t party central so you get fewer obnoxious jerks on their gap year.

There’s so many commendable fair trade shops and treks, lots of eco-tourism, and programs to ensure tourists behave themselves around the Lao people. It’s a wonderful effort and I’m really hoping the next time I can make it out here nothing much has changed except to clean up the countryside and raise more people out of poverty, because I’m positive we’ll come back, but next time we’ll bring friends.

So, here Hugh and I were sitting in a net cafe, when four young novice monks entered the shop. They were dressed in the usual saffron-colored robes and shaved heads and eyebrows. You see these monks commonly around South-East Asia, but Hugh and I are always amazed to see them doing “normal things” like buying DVDs or playing on the Internet. I know they’re not Amish and there’s no law against them using technology, it’s just interesting juxtaposition I guess.

Just moments ago, the two novices sitting next to us were smiling at us and giggling over something written in English. Hugh tried to extend a helping hand, but they just smiled at him. When they finally got up to leave, they walked over to us and asked Hugh where he was from and all that in perfect English. They were especially excited to hear Hugh was from Melbourne, since there’s apparently a Buddhist temple there and one of the monks friends had been there. Funny conversation.

A small collection of jars and a pretty tree

One of my initial reasons to come to Laos was to visit the Plain of Jars. We love mysterious ruins/monuments and the journey to find them. Going to the Jars wasn’t really much of an adventure, per se, but the Jars themselves were creepy and ethereal.

Bricks warning about UXOs. Always stay between the white side of the bricks... or you could be in that bomb crater in the distance of this photo

There’s various legends and myths around the jars, but the one with the most proof is that they used to be coffins. Anyways, all I can say for sure is that it was weird and surreal trekking into a forests, through rice fields, and up a mountain and suddenly seeing all these ancient stone jars littered around the area. It was also weird passing by so many bomb craters.

I didn’t know this before leaving, but Laos is one of the most heavily bombed countries on earth. Even today they have UXOs (unexploded ordanances) which kill/maim people every year. All around the Plain site were little stone markers warning you not to stray from the area of risk getting killed. Crazy.

This jar was particularly big...

Since we enjoyed our last caving experience, we decided to go kayaking and caving today… and our inexperience mixed with the relative difficulty of it and a guide more interested in asking questions about English proved to be a little trickier and nerve-wracking than before. This time we were taken to the biggest cave in Vang Vieng, which might have been awesome…except for the fact we had to climb in and out of the cave with a CANDLE. A candle! What the hell?! Not like, ooh look at me and my awesome candle-stick and candle-holder…I mean, a birthday candle (photos later.)

Well, we’re not dead…but Laos has never scored high on the whole health and safety standards thing. I mean, the fact that I have to plug my computer into a bamboo pole should say something. Everytime I type I get electrocuted. =P

Anyways, we’re off tomorrow for Phonsavan and the mysterious Plain of Jars… so long Vang Vieng, it’s been awesome.

Far left hammock? We were there.

We just spent all day lying in a hammock on a bamboo thatched hut over the river. We periodically drank delicious pineapple and banana drinks. We watched cows walk across the river. We watched kids swim. We picked pretty rocks out of the river. I fell asleep in a big blue hammock while the wind blew over my hair and the sun kissed my face. Hugh, however, did not get tan (it’s the pasty-gene).

I don’t want to leave. But then again, we don’t have to…

Until our visa runs out, at least. =P But then again, we can always get an extension…

We decided today to go on a trekking/caving tour with Green Discovery, a eco-tourism company. The trip was described as an easy trek and caving, but we were more than pleased to find out that it was alot more adventurous than it sounded.

The trek was easy enough, but the caving was…well, caving. We were given these janky head-lamps that were nothing more than flightlight heads attatched to giant batteries. The caves themselves had no footpaths, no electricity, none of that stuff you normally see in caves. Instead we had to clamber over rocks, slip down muddy paths, and very carefully make sure we didn’t fall into any gaping holes. It was scary as hell and a lot of fun. One of the caves we went to had a river in it so we lay in tubes and pulled ourselves along with a rope. I got scared when my headlamp started dying, luckily our guide Vath saved me before I got eaten by the darkness.

Our guide Vath, me, and Hugh wearing dodgy "waterproof headlamps" after river caving

One of the highlights was when Hugh spotted a pomelo (kinda like a giant orange/grapefuit) on the ground. Our guide was all, “You wanna eat it?” and grabbed one, then hacked it open with a machete. We sat around having a conversation, and offered the caretaker of the caves some of the fruit. He passed and explained that he could eat them whenever he wanted, just pick them up and grinned with a toothless smile. It was a great way to have a break after just climbing hand over hand out of a slimey cave.

I love this country.

Drifting down the river

We went tubing down the Nam Son river today, but unlike any other tubing I’ve done anywhere else, in Laos they’ve sent up bars along the river bank so every 50 meters you float down, someone throws you a rope, pulls you in, you drink (a few) $1-$2 beers and then continue your float. Needless to say, most people end this 2km trip pretty wasted.

Despite the fun I had, I really wished I had brought along more friends with me. It’s the sort of thing that would be really awesome with a buncha friends (being sloshed is completely optional.)

Much harder to take a photo while in a tube than you think ;p

We took the trip from Vientiane to Vang Vieng on a local bus. Being sore from constant scamming in Thailand and Vietnam, we were stunned to actually meet helpful people who weren’t trying to secretly sneak us onto a crowded mini-bus, but were just kindly pointing which one to go to. The local bus proved to be much nicer than “VIP” buses. Yeah, sure the VIP ones are airconditioned, but you don’t really need it. Opening a window is much cooler (Laos isn’t humid at the moment.) Furthermore, A/C means nothing when there’s 25 extra people on board.

We passed lots of small rural Laotian villages and what struck me was that nearly every home, hut, or shanty had a satellite. I saw homes that looked like speaking above a whisper would send the entire thing crashing into a river, homes with probably no running water, yet they all had satellite televisions.

We arrived in Vang Vieng in one piece, but half expecting cracked out zombie stoners to be roaming the streets. Instead, the town is incredibly chilled out. The locals are extremely friendly and walking around town has been a pleasure. One of the best/worst things about Vang Vieng are all the TV bars. They’ve got TVs playing movies or TV shows and these big lounging platforms so you can lie on pillows and just zone out on TV (or something else.) We spent hours watching the Family Guy and just eating pizza. Now we’re in a bar (Hugh’s in a hammock) eating cheesy fries and watching the new Indiana Jones…

This has definitely been pretty awesome.

Perhaps we spoke too soon, but after a few days in Vientiane I’m not as enthralled anymore. Having some tuktuk driver offer you drugs on a dark road is a little unnerving.

Anyways, we leave today for Vang Vieng to do some “adventure” (or soft-adventure) travel.

7:00AM – Whoohoo! We’re awake, lets buy food for the bus trip and go…!

9:00AM – Yay, the bus is leaving!

9:15AM – Hmm…. looks like we’re picking up people along the way….

10:30AM – Are we out of Savannakhet yet?

11:00AM – WTF they’re loading planks of wood on the roof?

12:00PM – Pitstop for lunch and more passengers… that lady’s selling eggs on a stick. How do you get eggs on a stick with the shell still on them?

12:05PM – Hey that lady’s got chicken butt….or bat butt… hmm, tiny wings…

12:30PM – Bathroom break. In the bushes. Pass.

1:00PM – Please stop loading people on the bus. The aisles are full already.

1:30PM – Oh god, I think that lady is throwing up…

1:35PM – Damnit, they’re passing the bag of vomit up the aisle.

2:00PM – Zzzzzz….

2:30PM – Are we there yet?

2:35PM – Cool, someone’s getting off. Time to stretch!

2:40PM – WTF 5 people are getting on?

3:30PM – Old man is yelling about stuff and everyone’s laughing at him… crazy old dudes.

4:00PM – Whoo hoo, 70km from Vientiene!

5:30PM – 20km from Vientiene? What the….

6:50PM – Thank god we’ve arrived!

Of course, it wouldn’t be another hour until we got to the hotel and finally got to eat dinner (we had passed on the egg-sticks and the bat/chicken sticks so just ate chocolate and baguettes the entire time.) Despite all of this, I still like this country a lot.

You’d think that after hours of being on a bus, crammed to the brim with bags of rice, luggage, and god knows what that I’d be sore and angry, but yet, I think I’m in love.

On the bus to Vietnam, we met three other foreigners and we shared battle scars from our travels in Vietnam. We wearily admitted to each other that we were tired of travel and Vietnam helped that happen. Yet when we pulled into Savannakhet and walked around town, I believe we were all rejuvenated and our mutual love for travel was renewed. Everywhere we went people smiled and waved and said hello (or bonjour or sabaidee). Dinner was delicious and the waitress was far too thankful for her 4000 kip tip (approximately 40 cents). We went home, took cold showers (no hot water), and slept under a fan (no a/c) listening to goats bleating…and it was a great.

Well, we’ve been in Vietnam since the 22nd of October. To be honest, it hasn’t been easy on us. It’s been a mix of reasons, and while I won’t solely blame our troubles on this, the fact we are an interracial couple (with me being Asian) has proven to be difficult here. However, that’s not why we’re leaving… the floods in northern Vietnam (and the promise of more rain) mean that we just don’t have the stamina to deal with wading through knee-deep water.

So, we’re off to Laos now. We will be arriving in Savannakhet in about 10 hours. I’m really excited about Laos because I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, though we might not have internet access for weeks… Off we go!

I just found out that my Japanese “grandma” died. She was a woman from my English conversation class who was terribly sweet, always joking “I think Himene has many boyfriends!” with cheeky grins, always making cakes and other delicious treats.

I knew she was sick, but Japanese people never talk about these things. Before I left they told me that she had cancer, but she was going to be okay. But I could always tell they were lying. Japanese people don’t like to talk about terminal illness or death.

I never got to say goodbye to her. She was too sick to come to my farewell party. People just told me she was too busy. It makes me so mad. I wish I had known. :/

We’ve had to unfortunately cut our trip to Vietnam short by about two weeks. We’ll be traveling to Laos tomorrow, so before I quite possibly have no internet connection for a month I thought I’d upload some photos. If you wanna see more, check out http://www.flickr.com/himene/

Tiny frog (it's real)

Freshly macheted coconut

Hugh caught in the rain (black and white version)

Hoi An by night

Tranquil Cua Dai beach (aka China Beach)

Beach bums

Shop selling Hoi An's famous silk lamps at night

Never in my four years traveling and living aboad have I ached so badly to be in America. I watched the election from the television and yearn so badly to be there in Chicago screaming and cheering. Yet when it was announced that Barack Obama was announced as president, I found that instead of screaming and cheering I was bursting into tears. One of the reasons I left America was because I had so much bitterness about growing up where I did. I have always loved politics and wanted to change the world, but I was told so many times in my young adult life that, “No one would ever vote an Asian girl for anything,” and I can’t help but feel that it’s changed now, America has changed, my home state has changed and now I think maybe I can go back and live in America, maybe I can run for public office one day as well.

Being in Vietnam too has been interesting. So many people have come to me and said, “I hope you win, I hope Obama wins,” and that sort of thing.

Hugh is also very excited as he will one day become an American citizen and this fills with some hope, perhaps even some pride. I think we can both go back to America and feel comfortable with it.

Also, I think McCain’s concession speech was beautiful. I can only hope his supporters listen to him…

It’s raining up a storm in Hue, and I’m afraid that Hanoi is under a meter of water. What a mess… I guess being holed up in a hotel room gives me an excuse to watch election coverage nonstop.

Cui Da beach

We have spent the past few days in Hoi An, a very quaint small city in central Vietnam. It’s definitely been the most fun we’ve had in Vietnam. For one, Hoi An is renown in Vietnam for its tailors. Apparently there are over 500 tailor shops to choose from. We tried one shop, and were unhappy and were pretty ready to leave Vietnam without getting anything made. However, while waiting for a shuttle we wandered into A Dong Silk, which we heard good reviews about but also that it was 2x the price of other tailors.

Needless to say, Hugh and I left with some awesome custom-designed jackets. It was so fun hopping around the store with the ladies and picking out all the fabric and finding the perfect lining, etc. I’m thankful we found the place on the last day or we would have left with soooo much more stuff than necessary.

Hoi An at night, it's gorgeous

We also took a trip yesterday to Cua Dai beach, which might be better known as a strip of the infamous China Beach. It was surprisingly beautiful and relaxing. Much better than Nha Trang, though I’m not sure the party people would agree with me. Even the touts on the beach were friendlier and nicer.

We are now in Hue, after a very tiring and taxing day on a bus ride full of suspense. I’m glad to be in a hotel with staff that’s genuinely kind and friendly. It’s been a bit rough lately. One thing I’ve learned on this trip is that service and staff mean much, much more than actual room quality.

As always, pictures say it better so I’ll keep this brief and flood the entry with photos.

This morning we woke up at 4:30am to take in the sunrise (and lack of tourists) at My Son, an ancient holy site of the Champa Kingdom. While it’s nothing compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, it was a beautiful site with shrouds of mist drifing off the mountains. While they’ve cleaned up some of the buildings, many of the buildings are overgrown with plants and trees. If you didn’t know better, you’d just walk by one of these millennia-old ruins and just think it was an odd hill. Time (and American bombing during the Vietnamese war, as well as looting over the ages) has pretty much worn the place down to the nub.

Stone in the grass

I love exploring ruins… I always wonder how much of our modern civilization will be left to the ages. Not much, I’d imagine, since glass and steel don’t seem to be able to last a few hundred years, let alone a thousand. Oh well, pictures say it better…

Apparently the Cham built a building first, then carved into it later

View of the main cleared out buildings

Small pond? No, bomb crater

Temple nearly completely covered with plants

This is a linga. Yes, it's phallic.

And this is the Yoni. It goes with the Linga. It's pretty obvious what it represents...