It really is a daunting task to sit down and write one of these mails. Trying to cram almost 3 weeks of news into a piece of writing that is interesting and keeps the right amount of conciseness (is that a word) to be relevant isn’t easy. As I look at my diary and all of the things we’ve seen and done, I know I’m going to be doing a fair old bit of typing.
My last major update was from Luang Prabang in Laos. It’s funny to see the French influence (as a result of the colonialism) in a place that is so different to France. Many people speak French (the post office is called “la poste”), the architecture is very French, people eat baguettes, and play boulle in the street. One other thing you notice in Laos is the distinct lack of the chains and logos that you get so used to – no MacDees here. Apart from cars, the only recognizable logos are Pepsi (who I presume have a deal with the govt), and Shell. And most of all, throughout Asia, you actually see children and old people everywhere. The extended family is most important, so every shop will have its own scampering kid, and grinning shrunken old granny (not hidden away in daycare or nursing homes). Everywhere you look seems like a postcard view. Almost all Lao men become monks/novices for at least a short time, so everywhere you see monks dressed in their brightly coloured orange robes (often chatting up western females). I only wish I had a better camera with which to capture it all.
Valentines day comes around whilst we’re in Laung Prabang and I tell Jo I’ll get her anything she wants. We saw in an Asian magazine the suggestion that you could buy your loved one a bag of maltesers as a present, but Jo didn’t go for this option. Jo decides to rent a motorbike for the afternoon, and convinces me to get on the back (something I’m not overly keen on). It’s better than I feared, and it’s quite fun pootling about the Laos countryside. Towards the end though, on a muddy stretch, Jo slips and we fall off. Not hurt, but Jo bruises her pride.
The next day we visit the gorgeous Kuang Si Waterfall. I’m not a waterfall fan. But this was pretty spectacular. I hike to the top & knacker myself out, while Jo relaxes in the pool at the base.
As nice and Peaceful as Laos is, it can be frustrating that nothing much is going on.
Jo: “I’m bored.”
Mark: “You should learn to appreciate the slower pace of life.”
Jo: “I have, and now I’m bored.”
We fly to Vientiane. We fly because the week before a group of bandits ambushed a convoy on the road, killing several people, and so we thought it best to go by road. How much safer we are in the Lao Air aircraft is dubious – they don’t publish a safety record & much navigation is done by sight. But anyhoo, it all worked out ok, so that’s fine. We also flew on to Hanoi afterwards, but that was more out of laziness than anything else. We felt vindicated afterwards though, when some people we met who did Vientiane-Hanoi by land said the 25 hour ride on bumpy Lao roads was horrible.
We couldn’t get into Vietnam until the date given on our visa, so we kicked our heels in Vientiane for a few days. One magazine I read said to give the place 2 days, and that includes plenty of time to recover from hangovers, so we didn’t have a whole bunch to do, but discovered some nice restaurants. Which was nice.
One excursion was to the propaganda filled Lao National History Museum (formerly Revolutionary Museum) which documents the glorious peoples struggle to become one of the poorest countries on earth. Naturally we visit some more Buddhist temples; Haw Pha Kaew (which originally housed the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, was burnt and rebuilt in the 1930s), and Pha That Luang, a giant golden stupa and most important national monument in Laos.
One day we go to Xieng Khaun Buddha Park, which is definitely worth a trip. It’s a bizarre collection of cement Buddhist/Hindu sculpture. This includes a weird giant sculpture that symbolizes heaven & hell, which you can climb to the top of. A monk guides us, and he thoughtfully allows Jo (who is wearing a skirt) to go in front of him as we climb up the steep steps.
On the Twenty First of February it is my birthday and I am now TWENTY FIVE. Wow. However, I get news from England that my Gran has died. She was ill for quite some time, but still it was hard to receive the news when I was so far home, and on the last leg of my trip. I’m not expected home for the funeral, and I don’t think I could have got home in time even if I tried. As you might imagine, I wasn’t exactly in a celebrating mood.
We get the plane to Hanoi, Vietnam and enter a whole new world. Vietnam was opened up to capitalist ventures and tourism is now pretty well established. People speak English, and there are plenty of good cheap hotels. The Vietnamese are friendly, even to Americans. It’s on the streets where the real culture shock occurs. There are lots of beggars & postcard sellers (who also sell photocopied lonely planet guides), shoe shine boys, motorbike taxi drivers, cyclo drivers (a bit like a rickshaw) and shop keepers all vying for your attention. And then there’s the traffic. The roads are filled with so many motorbikes, all beeping incessantly. Crossing the roads is an interesting experience – you just go for it, walking at a steady pace, letting the bikes weave their way around you. The noise and the intensity of it all really gets to you, and we regularly have to try and find a quiet café or something to hydrate, and get out of the noise.
List time – Interesting things being transported on ikkle motorbikes: 4 people at a time, a pane of glass, live pigs in a crate, plumbing pipes 3 times the length of the bike, a massive television set, huge bags carrying any manner of things, live chickens dangling off the handlebars.
Actually, our first experience of Hanoi was a scam. We asked our taxi at the airport to take us to a hotel, and he knows where we mean. On the drive there he’s on the mobile phone to a few people – which we don’t really think about. We get to a hotel, the hoteliers grab our bags and take them inside, meanwhile Jo is distracted by the Taxi driver demanding double the fare we agreed on, and I get a little boy beggar in my face (I never see him again). By the time we realise it isn’t the hotel we asked for, it’s a little late. In any case the hotel has decent, cheap rooms, so we’re not too fussed & stay there. Good scam they’ve got going though.
We stay in Hanoi’s Old Quarter (which is supposedly over 1000 yrs old) and explore it a lot. It is famous for it’s 36 streets that each specialize in certain things – gravestones, herbs, shoes and so on. There are a lot of lovely things being sold here, and it’s all so tempting. We try and limit ourselves, as we can’t go lugging masses on our backs & post is pretty expensive. We do however, buy some lovely “Gucci” glasses for a steal and stock up on plenty of CDs and DVDs (including a lot of very recent ones like Chicago).
We visit Hoa Lo Prison, which was affectionately known by the American prisoners of war as “the Hanoi Hilton”, and stop at the Temple of Literature. In the evening we see the water puppet show (basically punch and judy in a pool). It’s Hanoi’s most famous cultural item, and is very cool, these puppets perform on top of a pool of water, with the puppeteers working behind a screen, waist deep in water. The way the puppets come to life is amazing.
Ho Chi Minh is the theme of one day’s touring – we go to the Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, where he is kept, embalmed, for people to see. It’s closed (it being a Friday), and so we miss out on that, but I wasn’t too keen on seeing that morbid spectacle anyway. We have a look at Uncle Ho’s Stilt House and the nearby One Pillar Pagoda. It was built in 1049, and destroyed as a last spiteful act by the departing French in 1954 (it has since been rebuilt). Most museums etc have a long 2 hour lunch break, and we get to the Ho Chi Minh museum as it is about to close. Our poor guide gives us a high speed tour. He really has to work to fit it all in, and the pace, and his difficulty with English leaves him a sweaty stressed out wreck at the end. It was good value though, and give him a 2$ donation “to the museum”.
They also eat some weird stuff here. This includes; snakes wine (there is a whole village north of Hanoi that specializes in it), dragonflies, dog (it is auspicious to eat the dog at certain times of the month, and is very popular – in one part of Hanoi there is a long stretch of road devoted to dog restaurants), cats (now illegal, but this has driven up the price, meaning that many farmers sell their cats for the money and then have to catch the rats in their fields themselves), rats (see previous), tortoise, pigeon.
Halong bay is an UNESCO world heritage site, and meant to be one of the most spectacular sights in Vietnam, so we go on a 2 day tour in a small group. Our ride out there is an experience in itself, seeing the amazingly green rice paddies, the workers in their conical hats (yes they DO wear them), the waterbuffalos etc. We see the Amazing/Surprising cave, with lovely limestone formations, beautifully lit up. The most surprising thing about the cave for me was the jarring sight of rubbish bins shaped like penguins that were placed at 10 meter intervals. I mean, it’s nice they want to keep it tidy – but just how much rubbish can you accumulate in an isolated limestone cave? It boat cruise is lovely and relaxing after Hectic Hanoi (the ceaseless noise can be really Hanoying). We see lots of beautiful fishing boats, Junks and Kamikaze kids in tiny boats that career into the touring boats, and then try and sell their goods. We pass the biggest floating village that has 700 people in 90 houses, and even has a floating school. Peculiarly, many of these floating houses have TVs and dogs (maybe for a snack?)
We’re now in Hue. Hue to go – I’m almost at the end of my mail! We got the overnight train, sleeping in a cabin with 6 people. We were on the lower bunks and the poor Vietnamese in our cabin had to clamber up to the heavens to get into their bunks above us. We were worried that the “hard sleeper” train experience would be a nightmare, but it was ok. We even had a guy touting his hotel to us, and offering a free minibus service there. The hotel was in the Bible (lonely planet) so we thought it sounded ok. He wanted a name, so he could have it written on a board when we got to Hue & Jo thoughtfully said that her name was “Maggie Thatcher”. When our train rolled into Hue and we got out to the exit, there were hoards of taxi drivers trying to get our attention & a policeman was beating them back with a truncheon. Sure enough, in the crowd was a sign saying “Maggie Thatcher”. Our hotel still hasn’t asked for any id from us, so if we were to leave without paying, I wonder if a certain Iron Lady would be welcome in Hue.
Next stop: Hoi An. Can’t think of any puns now. I’ll hoi an think of one for next time.
All the best, Mark
Sunday, March 02, 2003
Jo's written some lovely mails about the last couple of weeks, so I'll post them here as well:
I have a feeling this is going to be a long one, so you might want to
save it for a rainy day...
Well the last time I wrote we were in Bangkok and had just been to Ko
Chang. Since then we caught the overnight train to Chiang Mai in
Northern Thailand. The train was really cool we had bunk beds and
around bedtime a little man came around and made up our beds with
clean sheets and a blanket. 15 hrs later we arrived in Chiang Mai -
the second largest city in Thailand. Chiang Mai was a lot smaller
than Bangkok and way cheaper which was a relief because Bangkok was
starting to get very noisy – and generally a bit ‘in ya face!’. While
in Chiang Mai we had a walk around all the main temples and got
chatting to some teenage monks. They were sitting outside their
university near the temple and asked us if we would like to join in
Monk-chat!! They got us to help us with their homework and wouldn’t
stop staring at my boobs, which was a bit embarrassing! They were
novices – all monks are novices until they are 20yrs old. Most men
spend some time as a monk at some point in their lives. A bit like
military service in other countries, Buddhist people have to do some
religious service! They are homeless and have no belongings. So they
go round doing their alms every morning where the local people give
them food. While we were in Chiang Mai we also took some time out for
a Thai massage. It was quite relaxing if only for the fact that we
were laid on a soft mattress under a fan and we had been sleeping on
mattresses like rocks for the past week or so! But the next day we
had a couple of bruises where they had overdone it! We also visited
the Night markets, which were absolutely amazing – you could come to
Thailand for the shopping alone! We also visited a local market that
was part of a big festival in Chiang Mai where they were selling
fried cockroaches, beetles and maggots – hmm nice!
We also went on a one-day hill tribe trek from Chiang Mai. I already
had my reservations about going because this area is very over-
trekked and has become more like a human zoo. So we decided to go on
a one-day trek as opposed to the 2 and 7-day treks offered.
Nevertheless when we finally trekked through the mountain to visit
our first hill tribe, (Hmong people) I was horrified to see a little
market, houses selling coke and a guy who had given up his house &
turned it into a museum labeling everything in English, all for the
benefit of the tourists. I felt like an intruder. The Hmong people
are from china and are semi-nomadic because they move from
mountaintop to mountaintop slashing and burning the foliage staying
wherever the conditions are best for growing opium. After the Hmong
Village we bought tiny bananas from them to feed to the elephants we
were about to ride. It feels a bit like feeding a wet vacuum nozzle!
And a particularly intimidating elephant chased me. We had a bumpy
ride up and down through the forest and through a river and then had
lunch at a local eatery. After that we visited a village of White
Karen people. There are four types of Karen tribe, and the more
familiar long- necked tribe lives in a different area. The white
Karen people live in lowlands and practice crop rotation, so they do
not need to live on the top of mountains. The Karen village was a
lot less touristy, and there were piglets, chicks and puppies running
round everywhere. They build their houses on stilts and for hygiene
they keep all their animals underneath. This means that if
mosquitoes come and bite the animals in the night, they get itchy and
scratch themselves on the stilts supporting the houses and this lets
the people know that there are mozzies about! After the Karen Village
we went to an ice- cold waterfall and I was the only person to jump
in apart from the tour leader who was busy having a shower and
shampooing his hair! After the waterfall we went bamboo rafting down
the river, which was fun. We got a bit wet going through the rapids,
and our driver told me that he could see by my eyes and smile that I
have a good heart – which was nice!
After Chiang Mai we took the bus to Chiang Khong on the border of
Thailand and took a little ferry over the river/border to Laos. Laos
was already amazingly different to Thailand. Totally unspoilt and way
less developed. The only traffic tends to be pushbikes and the odd
scooter. Its a bit like an Asian version of new Zealand – with only
5 million people in Laos compared to 60m in Thailand and 78m in
Vietnam.
Laos has not had an easy time. It is basically a massive area of
hundreds of different tribes that have been unified into one country.
When the Thais and Vietnamese were not ruling or fighting over it, it
was colonized by the French. Then after they finally gained
independence in 1953, the US began bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail in
Eastern Laos as part of the Vietnam War in 1964. By the time a
ceasefire came in ’73 Laos was the most bombed country in the history
of warfare. To be here and see how gentle these people really are it
is truly saddening. In 1975 a guy called Pathet Lao took over and
created a communist state - the People’s Democratic? Republic. He
exiled the king and his family to a cave somewhere in Northern Lao
never to be seen or heard from again, and 10% of the population left
the country. They turned his palace into a museum. We visited it
yesterday and it was very spooky. Strangely though, Laotians are not
used to living in an anti-monarchist society and so they have started
giving portraits of the Thai king pride of place in their homes. (In
Thailand there are pictures of the King everywhere, down the streets,
businesses – you even have to stand in the cinema before the film
starts while they play the national anthem and images of the King).
Fearing Thailand breathing down its neck the Lao government is not
very happy about this, so even though it is communist and anti-
monarchist it has started paying tribute to a notoriously bloody
Khmer-trained 14th century king. It has erected a statue of him in
the capital Vientiane and created a national holiday, all by way of
redirecting its people’s affections! Very strange... Currently Lao
citizens do no have the right to change their government. By the
early ‘90s the economy had reached a new low with 500% depreciation
in the Kip so they decided to open up the country to tourism. Its
unbelievable, you need a brick sized wad of cash to get through the
night!
Our first journey in Laos was to take a two-day boat journey down the
Mekong River to the world heritage listed city of Luang Prabang. We
took a slow boat and chugged down past beautiful mountains and
villages. There were herds of buffalo in the water. The first day
took six hours. The toilet was right at the back of the boat and you
had to climb over people and bags and then tip toe over a plank past
the uncovered engine. The toilet was a hole in the floor in a little
cabin 2ft square and 3ft high! A bit of an awkward affair when you
have to crouch down and the door’s flapping open every time the boat
sways! At the end of the day we reached a tiny village of Pakbeng. As
the boat docked chaos ensued as herds of tiny 7yr old children rushed
onto the boat to drag off our rucksacks. Some of them had one on the
front and one on the back! We were met by a nice young lady who took
us to her family house that had guest rooms upstairs. It was probably
the most basic place I have ever stayed. But I just thought of it
like camping and I think its good to live like they do if only for
one night. In our room we had a bed made of bamboo, a corrugated iron
roof and a few scraps of lino on the floor. At 3.30am we got woken up
by cockerels and the cafe playing music at 6am to wake up the
westerners. The toilet was down a ladder into the muddy backyard
where there was a bamboo cubicle with no roof (I later discovered it
was viewable from upstairs!!). There were chickens running around
everywhere and they had lit a fire on the stove to cook breakfast.
Most bizarre. The boat left again at 8am and it was bloody freezing
because of the morning mist blocking out the sun. I don’t know how I
am going to cope with the cold when I get back to England! This
journey took about 12 hours and we stopped off on the way to service
local villages picking up rice, monks and old ladies etc. We also
stopped at a place called Pak Ou caves where the Laotians hid
thousands of Buddhist images to protect them during the Vietnam War.
We had a bit of a palava here because some American show off had been
up on the roof and the driver demanded that he paid US$100, which of
course he wouldn’t pay. So then the American asked everyone on the
boat to pay US$1 each for stopping at the caves. The driver got
commission for this and would have stopped anyway, but he was so
angry he was at bursting point and he wasn’t leaving until he had got
as much money as he could out of the situation. Then the boat driver
next door saw what was going on so he ordered that the American get
on his boat and ask all those passengers for money as well!!
Honestly..
Jo's next mail continues...
The last time I wrote we had just caught the boat to the sleepy
riverside town of Luang Prabang. We spent a very relaxing week there,
our routine mostly consisted of getting woken by noisy chickens,
having a mooch around the beautiful 15th century temples and French
colonial houses, having a massage at the red cross, eating out and
watching movies in the evenings while chilling in hammocks in a bar.
Originally the Kingdom of Laos was called ‘Lan Xang’ (Land of a
million elephants) and Luang Prabang was the capital of this kingdom
until 1545. Even after this time it was considered the main source of
monarchic power – until the king was booted out of his palace but the
current communist prime minister Pathet Lao in 1975. One day, we
visited his palace – now a museum – and it was quite eery as there
was no mention of where the king is now or what happened to him.
One evening we went to see a ballet performed by Lao ethnic minority
groups. It was very bizarre with Hmong people rolling around in the
mud doing roly-poly while playing some kind of flute. Another group
danced around while they lifted up a clay pot in their teeth that was
filled with 2 buckets of water – I couldn’t even lift the pot with my
hands! At the beginning of the ballet we were welcomed with a ‘Baci
Ceremony’. This is a ritual performed in phii (spirit) worship found
in Laos, which is now illegal, but is the dominant non-Buddhist
religion. In this ceremony the 32 guardian spirits of the body are
bound to the guest of honor by white strings tied around the wrist.
We didn’t think much of it as it was only string, but the next day a
tiny old hmong woman stopped dead in her path starring at us because
the wrist bands came from a pagan ritual. On the way home from dinner
that night we were also offered Opium on the street. (Don’t get me
wrong, its really not a dodgy place, I just thought it was strange
that we could buy it if we wanted to). Luang Prabang always seemed to
have a smokey air too, due to the Hmong people in the surrounding
hills practicing ‘slash & burn’ techniques – used to prepare the land
for opium crops. In the long term this is not good for the land
because it causes soil erosion and flash flooding.
On valentines day, Mark said I could have anything I wanted, so much
to his disappointment I decided we should hire a motorbike. I had
never ridden a motorbike with gears before and I was really pleased
that I managed to ride around the town and surrounding countryside
afternoon. (Luang Prabang is really quiet – rush hour is when the
kids come out of school on their bicycles). However we had had a
torrential downpour that morning and the place we had to return the
motorbike to was on an unsealed road and we had had a torrential
downpour that morning…. Yes, we ended up in the mud.. I was only
doing 5mph and we slipped. The only thing hurt was my pride, when
were covered in mud and got laughed at by the locals. Felt a bit
guilty too because I bent the wing mirror a bit, and the guy just got
his screw driver out and everything was fine. But its not like a big
multinational hire car company that can afford a few scratches. Laos
is still one of the poorest countries in the world with an average
annual income of US$260. 80% of the country lives of the land
working in agriculture, fishing and forestry. It really makes no
sense for Laos to be a communist economy, as it still just a lot of
tribal groups living off the land with no real need for a currency.
Most of the manufactured goods here, are imported from Thailand
untaxed and traded freely on the black market, as is foreign currency.
After Luang Prabang we flew to the capital Vientiane. On our way
through the top of Laos we discovered that an incident had occurred a
few days before on the road we were planning to travel on. Hmong
bandits came out onto the highway and shot everyone in the area and
stripped them of their belongings. They killed 10 people and at the
time we were about to go there the army were still looking for them.
So we flew. It really was 6 of one, and half a dozen of the other
because Lao Aviation doesn’t publish its safety record. Apparently
they fly by sight, so if they cant find a hole in the cloud, they go
back down and land and refuel, wait a while and then give it another
go! Needless to say there was no flashy safety demonstration before
take-off and my seatbelt kept undoing itself, but apart from that I
was fine! Unfortunately, flying meant that we were then stuck in
Vientiane for a week. We couldn’t go to Vietnam before our visa
started. Vientiane was pretty boring really, about two days really
would have been enough. We did go to Buddha park though, which was
great and made our stay in Vientiane worthwhile. Its basically a
meadow full of cement sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu figures. Some
were a bit spooky and there were lots of monks around again, winking
at me, touching my arm etc – they really are a funny bunch. One monk
took us inside this massive bowl shaped building, inside there were
different levels full of figures representing heaven or hell. There
were loads of cobwebs and it was pretty spooky, we climbed out
through a tiny hole in the top and could see over the whole park. Our
monk guide was getting a bit weird though, insisting that I climb up
before him ( I had a skirt on!). We left Vientiane and flew to Hanoi
in Vietnam with Lao Aviation. This flight was a little more shakey
than the last and I vowed to stick to land from then on! I will spare
you the details but when we got on the runway, where in normal
circumstances aeroplanes fire up the engines in reverse, this didn’t
happen and it felt like we were still doing 200 mph on the runway!
Luckily the runway was pretty long.
Hanoi was VERY different to sleepy Laos. Since the 2nd Century BC,
Vietnam was dominated by China for 10 centuries. The Chinese
influence is very apparent and Vietnam feels much more Chinese than
Asian. There are no more Buddhist monks wondering around everywhere,
lots of beautiful green rice paddies and people wearing conical
bamboo hats. The temple architecture appears to be very Chinese too -
as oppose to the Thai temples we have seen in Thailand and Laos.
(Temple fatigue has set in quite heavily). There were motorbikes
everywhere. 90% of the traffic is scooters and it never stops. You
just have to walk into the road and they all drive round you! Takes a
bit of getting used to. There are lots of very narrow tall buildings
everywhere because the government used to tax houses according to
their width on the street. So we had to go up and down 8 flights of
stairs to our hotel room. It is probably the best place we have been
so far. For once we have had communication problems, and have had to
resort to sign language and pointing at maps. The food is the best we
have had so far too, and I have finally had to get used to eating
with chopsticks. However, I should note that we have seen a few
strange additions to the menu, such as: - spicy pork ears, roast
pigeon, chickens’ feet salad, fried tortoise. Just outside of Hanoi
there are also 60 or so dog meat restaurants – apparently its
particularly auspicious to eat dog meat in the second half of the
lunar month. Although they only breed these Chinese looking dogs for
their meat. But you never see dogs roaming the streets – in Laos they
were everywhere. At the markets they also sell delicacies such as
fried dragonflies and boiled rats. Cat meat is now illegal but many
families sell their cats for the money ( poor kitty!), then they have
to go out into the rice paddies and catch the rats themselves (which
they also bring to market to sell). After working for WSPA (World
Society for the Protection of Animals) we both notice animal cruelty
much more. It is endless, I have seen ten pigs in a cage, squashed
and piled on top of each other snorting through the cage, while being
carried on the back of a moped. I saw another woman with twenty or
so live chickens tied to the handlebars of her bicycle by their feet.
Anyway moving on…
We stayed in the Old Quarter in Hanoi, which is 1000 years old. There
are 36 streets and each street sells one item. Of the more
interesting of the streets were Buddhist Statues & Alters street;
Herb Street – selling bags of dried seahorses, dried starfish,
lizards on sticks, fried caterpillars and snake wine containing dead
snakes; Ghost money street – used for burning at Buddhist ceremonies
& funerals. The shopping is amazing. Mark and I both had a new pair
of Gucci eyeglasses made for 20 GBP! And they were expensive, you can
get them for 8 pounds! They are really nice. They rip anything off
here! You can buy photocopied books, DVDs that are only just in the
cinemas, you name it they copy it!
While in Hanoi we also visited the famous Water Puppets (Punch & Judy
in a pool). They were really cool. 11 puppeteers stand in waist deep
water behind a bamboo screen and operate the puppets. The art form
is about 1000 years old and was started by rice farmers in flooded
fields. The puppets look like they are walking on water. There are
fire breathing dragons with fireworks, and a little fisherman sat on
his boat smoking an opium bong with real smoke! We also visited the
Hoa Lao Prison which was built by the French to house Vietnamese
patriots and insurgents during the colonial period. There were
guillotines and exhibits about French cruelty and repression. Then
after the Vietnamese communist resistance gained independence from
the French, it was used as an American POW camp during what they call
the ‘American War’ (not Vietnam war). The Americans used to call this
place the Hanoi Hilton and they were treated very well, given
adequate food, shelter and clothing and then returned to America
after the war despite the untold crimes committed against their
people. I think this has to do with Buddhism.
We also took a two day trip from Hanoi down to Halong Bay (another
World Heritage Site). Halong Bay is one of the natural wonders of
Vietnam and is famous for its 3000 limestone formations, caves and
grottos rising from the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Halong
Bay covers an area of 1500 sq. km and is comparable to Milford sound
in NZ but on a larger scale. We went to an Amazing Cave, so called
because it is amazing and probably the most impressive cave I have
ever seen. Not that caves are anything to get excited about. We
cruised around the bay till it got dark – our headlight was a guy
sitting on the bow with a torch. And we had a nice cabin and slept on
the boat overnight. There are lots of floating villages, and we
visited the largest, where 700 people live in 90 houses (floating
beach huts). If they are rich that is, if they are poor they live on
their fishing boats. These people had a floating school, and dogs! (I
said they probably got fatter for eating through lack of exercise –
poor doggies!). The bay was stunning and sooo peaceful, a much needed
break after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi.
When we got back to Hanoi, we visited Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.
Luckily for us it was closed – I didn’t really want to see his
embalmed corpse anyway! We saw his house and rushed around his museum
in half an hour before they shut for their standard two hour lunch
break. We hired a guide and the poor boy was sweating under the time
pressure and language problems! Then last night we caught the
overnight train to Hue. So I am a bit tired… With that in mind I
think I’ll leave it there.
Take care, Jo x
I have a feeling this is going to be a long one, so you might want to
save it for a rainy day...
Well the last time I wrote we were in Bangkok and had just been to Ko
Chang. Since then we caught the overnight train to Chiang Mai in
Northern Thailand. The train was really cool we had bunk beds and
around bedtime a little man came around and made up our beds with
clean sheets and a blanket. 15 hrs later we arrived in Chiang Mai -
the second largest city in Thailand. Chiang Mai was a lot smaller
than Bangkok and way cheaper which was a relief because Bangkok was
starting to get very noisy – and generally a bit ‘in ya face!’. While
in Chiang Mai we had a walk around all the main temples and got
chatting to some teenage monks. They were sitting outside their
university near the temple and asked us if we would like to join in
Monk-chat!! They got us to help us with their homework and wouldn’t
stop staring at my boobs, which was a bit embarrassing! They were
novices – all monks are novices until they are 20yrs old. Most men
spend some time as a monk at some point in their lives. A bit like
military service in other countries, Buddhist people have to do some
religious service! They are homeless and have no belongings. So they
go round doing their alms every morning where the local people give
them food. While we were in Chiang Mai we also took some time out for
a Thai massage. It was quite relaxing if only for the fact that we
were laid on a soft mattress under a fan and we had been sleeping on
mattresses like rocks for the past week or so! But the next day we
had a couple of bruises where they had overdone it! We also visited
the Night markets, which were absolutely amazing – you could come to
Thailand for the shopping alone! We also visited a local market that
was part of a big festival in Chiang Mai where they were selling
fried cockroaches, beetles and maggots – hmm nice!
We also went on a one-day hill tribe trek from Chiang Mai. I already
had my reservations about going because this area is very over-
trekked and has become more like a human zoo. So we decided to go on
a one-day trek as opposed to the 2 and 7-day treks offered.
Nevertheless when we finally trekked through the mountain to visit
our first hill tribe, (Hmong people) I was horrified to see a little
market, houses selling coke and a guy who had given up his house &
turned it into a museum labeling everything in English, all for the
benefit of the tourists. I felt like an intruder. The Hmong people
are from china and are semi-nomadic because they move from
mountaintop to mountaintop slashing and burning the foliage staying
wherever the conditions are best for growing opium. After the Hmong
Village we bought tiny bananas from them to feed to the elephants we
were about to ride. It feels a bit like feeding a wet vacuum nozzle!
And a particularly intimidating elephant chased me. We had a bumpy
ride up and down through the forest and through a river and then had
lunch at a local eatery. After that we visited a village of White
Karen people. There are four types of Karen tribe, and the more
familiar long- necked tribe lives in a different area. The white
Karen people live in lowlands and practice crop rotation, so they do
not need to live on the top of mountains. The Karen village was a
lot less touristy, and there were piglets, chicks and puppies running
round everywhere. They build their houses on stilts and for hygiene
they keep all their animals underneath. This means that if
mosquitoes come and bite the animals in the night, they get itchy and
scratch themselves on the stilts supporting the houses and this lets
the people know that there are mozzies about! After the Karen Village
we went to an ice- cold waterfall and I was the only person to jump
in apart from the tour leader who was busy having a shower and
shampooing his hair! After the waterfall we went bamboo rafting down
the river, which was fun. We got a bit wet going through the rapids,
and our driver told me that he could see by my eyes and smile that I
have a good heart – which was nice!
After Chiang Mai we took the bus to Chiang Khong on the border of
Thailand and took a little ferry over the river/border to Laos. Laos
was already amazingly different to Thailand. Totally unspoilt and way
less developed. The only traffic tends to be pushbikes and the odd
scooter. Its a bit like an Asian version of new Zealand – with only
5 million people in Laos compared to 60m in Thailand and 78m in
Vietnam.
Laos has not had an easy time. It is basically a massive area of
hundreds of different tribes that have been unified into one country.
When the Thais and Vietnamese were not ruling or fighting over it, it
was colonized by the French. Then after they finally gained
independence in 1953, the US began bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail in
Eastern Laos as part of the Vietnam War in 1964. By the time a
ceasefire came in ’73 Laos was the most bombed country in the history
of warfare. To be here and see how gentle these people really are it
is truly saddening. In 1975 a guy called Pathet Lao took over and
created a communist state - the People’s Democratic? Republic. He
exiled the king and his family to a cave somewhere in Northern Lao
never to be seen or heard from again, and 10% of the population left
the country. They turned his palace into a museum. We visited it
yesterday and it was very spooky. Strangely though, Laotians are not
used to living in an anti-monarchist society and so they have started
giving portraits of the Thai king pride of place in their homes. (In
Thailand there are pictures of the King everywhere, down the streets,
businesses – you even have to stand in the cinema before the film
starts while they play the national anthem and images of the King).
Fearing Thailand breathing down its neck the Lao government is not
very happy about this, so even though it is communist and anti-
monarchist it has started paying tribute to a notoriously bloody
Khmer-trained 14th century king. It has erected a statue of him in
the capital Vientiane and created a national holiday, all by way of
redirecting its people’s affections! Very strange... Currently Lao
citizens do no have the right to change their government. By the
early ‘90s the economy had reached a new low with 500% depreciation
in the Kip so they decided to open up the country to tourism. Its
unbelievable, you need a brick sized wad of cash to get through the
night!
Our first journey in Laos was to take a two-day boat journey down the
Mekong River to the world heritage listed city of Luang Prabang. We
took a slow boat and chugged down past beautiful mountains and
villages. There were herds of buffalo in the water. The first day
took six hours. The toilet was right at the back of the boat and you
had to climb over people and bags and then tip toe over a plank past
the uncovered engine. The toilet was a hole in the floor in a little
cabin 2ft square and 3ft high! A bit of an awkward affair when you
have to crouch down and the door’s flapping open every time the boat
sways! At the end of the day we reached a tiny village of Pakbeng. As
the boat docked chaos ensued as herds of tiny 7yr old children rushed
onto the boat to drag off our rucksacks. Some of them had one on the
front and one on the back! We were met by a nice young lady who took
us to her family house that had guest rooms upstairs. It was probably
the most basic place I have ever stayed. But I just thought of it
like camping and I think its good to live like they do if only for
one night. In our room we had a bed made of bamboo, a corrugated iron
roof and a few scraps of lino on the floor. At 3.30am we got woken up
by cockerels and the cafe playing music at 6am to wake up the
westerners. The toilet was down a ladder into the muddy backyard
where there was a bamboo cubicle with no roof (I later discovered it
was viewable from upstairs!!). There were chickens running around
everywhere and they had lit a fire on the stove to cook breakfast.
Most bizarre. The boat left again at 8am and it was bloody freezing
because of the morning mist blocking out the sun. I don’t know how I
am going to cope with the cold when I get back to England! This
journey took about 12 hours and we stopped off on the way to service
local villages picking up rice, monks and old ladies etc. We also
stopped at a place called Pak Ou caves where the Laotians hid
thousands of Buddhist images to protect them during the Vietnam War.
We had a bit of a palava here because some American show off had been
up on the roof and the driver demanded that he paid US$100, which of
course he wouldn’t pay. So then the American asked everyone on the
boat to pay US$1 each for stopping at the caves. The driver got
commission for this and would have stopped anyway, but he was so
angry he was at bursting point and he wasn’t leaving until he had got
as much money as he could out of the situation. Then the boat driver
next door saw what was going on so he ordered that the American get
on his boat and ask all those passengers for money as well!!
Honestly..
Jo's next mail continues...
The last time I wrote we had just caught the boat to the sleepy
riverside town of Luang Prabang. We spent a very relaxing week there,
our routine mostly consisted of getting woken by noisy chickens,
having a mooch around the beautiful 15th century temples and French
colonial houses, having a massage at the red cross, eating out and
watching movies in the evenings while chilling in hammocks in a bar.
Originally the Kingdom of Laos was called ‘Lan Xang’ (Land of a
million elephants) and Luang Prabang was the capital of this kingdom
until 1545. Even after this time it was considered the main source of
monarchic power – until the king was booted out of his palace but the
current communist prime minister Pathet Lao in 1975. One day, we
visited his palace – now a museum – and it was quite eery as there
was no mention of where the king is now or what happened to him.
One evening we went to see a ballet performed by Lao ethnic minority
groups. It was very bizarre with Hmong people rolling around in the
mud doing roly-poly while playing some kind of flute. Another group
danced around while they lifted up a clay pot in their teeth that was
filled with 2 buckets of water – I couldn’t even lift the pot with my
hands! At the beginning of the ballet we were welcomed with a ‘Baci
Ceremony’. This is a ritual performed in phii (spirit) worship found
in Laos, which is now illegal, but is the dominant non-Buddhist
religion. In this ceremony the 32 guardian spirits of the body are
bound to the guest of honor by white strings tied around the wrist.
We didn’t think much of it as it was only string, but the next day a
tiny old hmong woman stopped dead in her path starring at us because
the wrist bands came from a pagan ritual. On the way home from dinner
that night we were also offered Opium on the street. (Don’t get me
wrong, its really not a dodgy place, I just thought it was strange
that we could buy it if we wanted to). Luang Prabang always seemed to
have a smokey air too, due to the Hmong people in the surrounding
hills practicing ‘slash & burn’ techniques – used to prepare the land
for opium crops. In the long term this is not good for the land
because it causes soil erosion and flash flooding.
On valentines day, Mark said I could have anything I wanted, so much
to his disappointment I decided we should hire a motorbike. I had
never ridden a motorbike with gears before and I was really pleased
that I managed to ride around the town and surrounding countryside
afternoon. (Luang Prabang is really quiet – rush hour is when the
kids come out of school on their bicycles). However we had had a
torrential downpour that morning and the place we had to return the
motorbike to was on an unsealed road and we had had a torrential
downpour that morning…. Yes, we ended up in the mud.. I was only
doing 5mph and we slipped. The only thing hurt was my pride, when
were covered in mud and got laughed at by the locals. Felt a bit
guilty too because I bent the wing mirror a bit, and the guy just got
his screw driver out and everything was fine. But its not like a big
multinational hire car company that can afford a few scratches. Laos
is still one of the poorest countries in the world with an average
annual income of US$260. 80% of the country lives of the land
working in agriculture, fishing and forestry. It really makes no
sense for Laos to be a communist economy, as it still just a lot of
tribal groups living off the land with no real need for a currency.
Most of the manufactured goods here, are imported from Thailand
untaxed and traded freely on the black market, as is foreign currency.
After Luang Prabang we flew to the capital Vientiane. On our way
through the top of Laos we discovered that an incident had occurred a
few days before on the road we were planning to travel on. Hmong
bandits came out onto the highway and shot everyone in the area and
stripped them of their belongings. They killed 10 people and at the
time we were about to go there the army were still looking for them.
So we flew. It really was 6 of one, and half a dozen of the other
because Lao Aviation doesn’t publish its safety record. Apparently
they fly by sight, so if they cant find a hole in the cloud, they go
back down and land and refuel, wait a while and then give it another
go! Needless to say there was no flashy safety demonstration before
take-off and my seatbelt kept undoing itself, but apart from that I
was fine! Unfortunately, flying meant that we were then stuck in
Vientiane for a week. We couldn’t go to Vietnam before our visa
started. Vientiane was pretty boring really, about two days really
would have been enough. We did go to Buddha park though, which was
great and made our stay in Vientiane worthwhile. Its basically a
meadow full of cement sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu figures. Some
were a bit spooky and there were lots of monks around again, winking
at me, touching my arm etc – they really are a funny bunch. One monk
took us inside this massive bowl shaped building, inside there were
different levels full of figures representing heaven or hell. There
were loads of cobwebs and it was pretty spooky, we climbed out
through a tiny hole in the top and could see over the whole park. Our
monk guide was getting a bit weird though, insisting that I climb up
before him ( I had a skirt on!). We left Vientiane and flew to Hanoi
in Vietnam with Lao Aviation. This flight was a little more shakey
than the last and I vowed to stick to land from then on! I will spare
you the details but when we got on the runway, where in normal
circumstances aeroplanes fire up the engines in reverse, this didn’t
happen and it felt like we were still doing 200 mph on the runway!
Luckily the runway was pretty long.
Hanoi was VERY different to sleepy Laos. Since the 2nd Century BC,
Vietnam was dominated by China for 10 centuries. The Chinese
influence is very apparent and Vietnam feels much more Chinese than
Asian. There are no more Buddhist monks wondering around everywhere,
lots of beautiful green rice paddies and people wearing conical
bamboo hats. The temple architecture appears to be very Chinese too -
as oppose to the Thai temples we have seen in Thailand and Laos.
(Temple fatigue has set in quite heavily). There were motorbikes
everywhere. 90% of the traffic is scooters and it never stops. You
just have to walk into the road and they all drive round you! Takes a
bit of getting used to. There are lots of very narrow tall buildings
everywhere because the government used to tax houses according to
their width on the street. So we had to go up and down 8 flights of
stairs to our hotel room. It is probably the best place we have been
so far. For once we have had communication problems, and have had to
resort to sign language and pointing at maps. The food is the best we
have had so far too, and I have finally had to get used to eating
with chopsticks. However, I should note that we have seen a few
strange additions to the menu, such as: - spicy pork ears, roast
pigeon, chickens’ feet salad, fried tortoise. Just outside of Hanoi
there are also 60 or so dog meat restaurants – apparently its
particularly auspicious to eat dog meat in the second half of the
lunar month. Although they only breed these Chinese looking dogs for
their meat. But you never see dogs roaming the streets – in Laos they
were everywhere. At the markets they also sell delicacies such as
fried dragonflies and boiled rats. Cat meat is now illegal but many
families sell their cats for the money ( poor kitty!), then they have
to go out into the rice paddies and catch the rats themselves (which
they also bring to market to sell). After working for WSPA (World
Society for the Protection of Animals) we both notice animal cruelty
much more. It is endless, I have seen ten pigs in a cage, squashed
and piled on top of each other snorting through the cage, while being
carried on the back of a moped. I saw another woman with twenty or
so live chickens tied to the handlebars of her bicycle by their feet.
Anyway moving on…
We stayed in the Old Quarter in Hanoi, which is 1000 years old. There
are 36 streets and each street sells one item. Of the more
interesting of the streets were Buddhist Statues & Alters street;
Herb Street – selling bags of dried seahorses, dried starfish,
lizards on sticks, fried caterpillars and snake wine containing dead
snakes; Ghost money street – used for burning at Buddhist ceremonies
& funerals. The shopping is amazing. Mark and I both had a new pair
of Gucci eyeglasses made for 20 GBP! And they were expensive, you can
get them for 8 pounds! They are really nice. They rip anything off
here! You can buy photocopied books, DVDs that are only just in the
cinemas, you name it they copy it!
While in Hanoi we also visited the famous Water Puppets (Punch & Judy
in a pool). They were really cool. 11 puppeteers stand in waist deep
water behind a bamboo screen and operate the puppets. The art form
is about 1000 years old and was started by rice farmers in flooded
fields. The puppets look like they are walking on water. There are
fire breathing dragons with fireworks, and a little fisherman sat on
his boat smoking an opium bong with real smoke! We also visited the
Hoa Lao Prison which was built by the French to house Vietnamese
patriots and insurgents during the colonial period. There were
guillotines and exhibits about French cruelty and repression. Then
after the Vietnamese communist resistance gained independence from
the French, it was used as an American POW camp during what they call
the ‘American War’ (not Vietnam war). The Americans used to call this
place the Hanoi Hilton and they were treated very well, given
adequate food, shelter and clothing and then returned to America
after the war despite the untold crimes committed against their
people. I think this has to do with Buddhism.
We also took a two day trip from Hanoi down to Halong Bay (another
World Heritage Site). Halong Bay is one of the natural wonders of
Vietnam and is famous for its 3000 limestone formations, caves and
grottos rising from the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Halong
Bay covers an area of 1500 sq. km and is comparable to Milford sound
in NZ but on a larger scale. We went to an Amazing Cave, so called
because it is amazing and probably the most impressive cave I have
ever seen. Not that caves are anything to get excited about. We
cruised around the bay till it got dark – our headlight was a guy
sitting on the bow with a torch. And we had a nice cabin and slept on
the boat overnight. There are lots of floating villages, and we
visited the largest, where 700 people live in 90 houses (floating
beach huts). If they are rich that is, if they are poor they live on
their fishing boats. These people had a floating school, and dogs! (I
said they probably got fatter for eating through lack of exercise –
poor doggies!). The bay was stunning and sooo peaceful, a much needed
break after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi.
When we got back to Hanoi, we visited Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.
Luckily for us it was closed – I didn’t really want to see his
embalmed corpse anyway! We saw his house and rushed around his museum
in half an hour before they shut for their standard two hour lunch
break. We hired a guide and the poor boy was sweating under the time
pressure and language problems! Then last night we caught the
overnight train to Hue. So I am a bit tired… With that in mind I
think I’ll leave it there.
Take care, Jo x
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Time for a not so quick update from me!
So, the last circular that I sent out I was in Bankok, having just got back from a week on a palmy beach, lying in a hammock and eating banana pankakes. Our second stay was a lot less stressful, as we'd got more used to the place, and realised that the taxi cabs are cheaper & less hectic than those trazy tuk-tuks (a bit like a motorised rickshaw). This time we're taying a lot closer to the centre, and it's far easier to get right into the thick of it. We do some of the more touristy things stating at Wat Phra Kaew & the Grand Palace www.palaces.thai.net , an impressive sprawling complex that includes the temple of the emerald buddah, and royal palace buildings. Next up we check out Wat Po to see the famous temple of the reclining Buddah. The buddah is lying down having a nap and is absolutely massive- pretty awe inspiring.
In the evening we go to the MBK centre, which is basically a massive shopping centre, with some of the floors dedicated to specialist items like mobile phones. There is a cinema on the top floor there's a cinema, so we went to see "The Ring" (in English with Thai subtitles), and I really enjoyed it (although I found it quite scary). We went to the cinema again and saw "Catch Me if You Can", again in English with Thai subtitles. It's a true story, and as is the way with these films, it says in text at the end what happened to the main characters afterwards. Howvever, all this text was in Thai, so I never got to find out what happened - very frustrating!
Before we leave Bankok, there's one last thing that I have to do, and that is to buy a copy of 'Lord of the Rings', so that I'll have something to do during those long cold nights without a telly. I've wanted to read it since seeing the film, and it would be something that I wouldn't have the time or patience to do back home. The bookshops here are mostly secondhand, and charge prices that are pretty much the same as English ones, but eventually I was able to find a place and haggle with them (with Jo's help) to get them down to a price that was still massive in Thai terms, but not as bad as the price first quoted.
We then head North , on the way to Laos, and our main stop on the way is Chiang Mai, the former Capital of Thailand, and second main metropolis here. One of the main ways to get there is to take the overnight train from Bankok, which is what we do. It's a fairly weird experience - I don't think I've slept on an overnight train since I was i Canada when I was about 8. Anyway, it wasn't so bad - we were ripped off over a discusting breakfast, but that was about it. The highlight was seeing the countryside as we went pass, all manner of fields, farmers and water buffalos, and in the city, little shacks by the railway line, some without the full compliment of 4 walls, but most illuminated by the flicker of a television screen.
We arrive in Chaing Mai, and the guesthouse that we stay at instantly tries the hard sell on their 2 day trekking tour of the hill tribes. We decide against it, as we're not huge walkers, but I also have reservations about turning the Hilltribes people into a "human zoo". We decide to go on a 1 day tour instead with Piss Poo tours (its really called PSS tours, and is run by a lady named Poo). We have a lovely guide called Noi (which is a girls name, but he was the last of many boys in his familly, and his mum wanted a girl). We walk for a couple of hours into the hills in the countryside, over a rickety old bamboo bridge and eventually arrive at a Hmong tribe village. It is a village that is visited by several tour groups a day and was pretty commercialised - basically set up to cater for the tourists, with a little market, and a house turned into an exhibit, with everthing labeled in English. As such it was a little depressing.
Our next stop was at an elephant camp, and we stop to buy some bananas first. We arrive, and its an absolutely awesome sight, about a dozen elephants and their handlers milling about. I've always thought that elephants are very special, and to see them so close up was amazing. We feed them the bananas (they grip them with their trunk & then put them in their mouths - a bit like feeding a wet vacuum cleaner), and they get quite keen, advancing on us, which was pretty intimidating. We then have an hour long trek on the elephant, which was a unique experience for me, if a little uncomfortable (had a metal bar poking in my back). I was a little worried that the elephants wouldn't be treated very well, but all seemed to be ok. Our elephant handler just sat on its head, and was content to let the elephant mosey along the track, without needing to force it along.
After lunch, we visited a Karen hilltribe village, which was better than the first, the people didn't pay much attention to us, and we could admire their village, with their huts on stilts & pigs kept underneath them in our own time. After a stop at a waterfal, we had a raft down the river - it was a massive raft made of bamboo sticks tied togeter, and guided by the "captain" at the front with a bamboo pole. It was very relaxing down the flat bits & fun down the rapids.
When we get back to our hostel, we find that we can't stay there another night - they're not so friendly once they realise they've missed out on their chance to sell us a lucritive tour package. We're able to find anothe room without any bother though.
Chiang Mai, like most places in SE Asia it seems, has many fine temples and we visit a few of them. Fist, the ruined Wat Chedi Luang, which must have been spectacular in its time, but has since been damaged by earthquakes. While we're there, some young novice monks invite us to join "monk chat". This reminded me of a late night tv ad for a dating chat phone line - "Want to chat and date with monks who have similar interests to you? Come on join Monk chat oh-eight nine eight - 50 -50 -50. Monks are waiting to hear from you!" It was quite a fun experience chatting with them, and end up helping them with their English homework, although they seemed a little more interested in staring at Jo's boobs. We visit the Crystal Buddah at Wat Chiang Man and onto Wat Phra Singh, where a roomful of praying novice monks are once again distracted by Joanne. Later, we have an hour long Thai massage, but I wasn't too impressed, we're both a little bruised & sore that night.
We visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep on top of the hill, overlooking Chaing Mai a little way out of town, we have to walk up lots of steps to get there, and everywhere people are ringing bells. It's very impressive, but I am distracted by the disproportionate number of old western men here with young Thai girls (and boys). You see quite a lot of that here, and it is a little stomouch churning at times. Indeed, we've seen quite a few transvestite ladyboys as well. They seem pretty accepted here, and indeed certain parts of the culture seem to celebrate them - they had a show on called 'Simons Dream' in Chiang Mai, and in the reviews of it, the reviewers openly addmitted to fancying them. Every night, there is a night bazare, selling lots of very cool cheap things. We have to restrain ourselves as we still have some ways to go yet & can't go lugging everything around on our backs.
There's a monkey farm in Chang Mai, where the tourists can go visit "monkies" (their spelling) being trained "to work on the farm", though quite how the skill of throwing a basketball through a hoop would be applied on a farm, I don't know. The animal welfare part of me forced me to avoid the show, but we instead went to Chaing Mai zoo, which I had heard some quite good things about. It's a big rambling zoo, with enclosures seemingly randomly scattered about, without giving the visitors a map or decent signs to follow, and I found that quite charming, turning around a corner and not knowing what you'd find - so oyu'd be constantly saying things like "Stone me that's a bloody big hippo". Some of the enclosures weren't great, and I saw some evidence of repetitive behaviour disorders, but by enlarge the welfare of the animals seemed pretty good (even by western standards). I saw some Asiatic Black Bears, which featured in a campaign that we had been working on when we were in WSPA http://www.wspa-international.org/site/index.php?page=44 , telling people about their cruel treatment when they are farmed for their bile in tiny cages in China. It was a pleasant change to see them in a healthy looking condition, although, better I suppose if they were still in the wild.
Next stop Laos! Pop fact: Following the American war in Vietnam, Loas had the dubious honour of being the most bombed country in history. We get a bus to Chiang Kong, and cross over the river to Hauy Xai in Laos. We pay a small corruption tax (apparently you have to pay this if you arrive in Laos on a day of the week that ends in 'y'), and then change some money for Laotian Kip. The biggest note is worth about 30p, so we end up with a massive wad of notes. I feel like 'loadsamoney'.
We take the slow boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. We trundle down the river seeing the local people, fisherment, water buffalo, big rocks, other sunken boats, fast speed boats, fields, hills, hazy mists, forest, jungle & so on for 2 days. We stop overnight in Pak Beng, and stay in a very rustic guesthouse. The "bathroom" was a small cubicle with no roof over a hole in the ground. We'd been carrying "Rexona" body wipes around, in case we ever needed to freshen ourselves up, and here we were finally able to use them. The next day we continue down the river, and stop several times to service the local communty, loading and unloading rice, planks of wood, old ladies & monks. Stopping in these villages (most of which are still only accessible from river), seeing the houses, villagers & children made a wonderful change to the over-visited hill tribes on our one day trek. We stop at Pak Ou limestone caves http://www.laostravel.info/Cave/ , which contain a host of Buddah images, which were hidden away during the Vietnam War. When we are ready to continue on the journey, the driver of the boat demands some extra money from all the passengers for stopping there (although it is obvious he was stopping there anyway), and this sours the experience somewhat.
We arrive in Luang Prabang & have a hard time finding somewhere to stay (we get somewhere eventually). Laos is communist, but has been allowing private enterprise since 1990. It recently opened its doors to tourism to boost its ailing economy, but there is a strict limit on visas (which only last 15 days), as the infrastructure cannot cope with too many tourists. Eventually we find somewhere, and have a pleant time doing not an awful lot. This town is a world heritage site, on the basis of its well preserved french colonial charm. People tend to fall in love with it, without being entirely sure why. Its very rustic, with dirt roads, and not much traffick & chickens everywhere. We're woken every morning by the blasted things. We visit Phu Si, the pagoda on the top of the hill, where Jo frustrates the monks by thrying to find out why it is that they wear orange, and the Royal Palace Museum - the King's residence until 1975 when the new regime made him disappear.
Last night we went to the Royal theatre to see a traditional performance of dance, music and song, where they tell old stories and people are dressed up in bizzare costumes and masks. An aquired taste maybe, but it was nice to get an evening of culture. They finish with local tribal dances where they perform the amazing feat of picking up heavy jars filled with water with their teeth. Owch.
So thats my lot for now. I'm enjoying my time out here a lot more than I thought I would. We're off to Vientienne on Sunday.
All the best,
Mark
So, the last circular that I sent out I was in Bankok, having just got back from a week on a palmy beach, lying in a hammock and eating banana pankakes. Our second stay was a lot less stressful, as we'd got more used to the place, and realised that the taxi cabs are cheaper & less hectic than those trazy tuk-tuks (a bit like a motorised rickshaw). This time we're taying a lot closer to the centre, and it's far easier to get right into the thick of it. We do some of the more touristy things stating at Wat Phra Kaew & the Grand Palace www.palaces.thai.net , an impressive sprawling complex that includes the temple of the emerald buddah, and royal palace buildings. Next up we check out Wat Po to see the famous temple of the reclining Buddah. The buddah is lying down having a nap and is absolutely massive- pretty awe inspiring.
In the evening we go to the MBK centre, which is basically a massive shopping centre, with some of the floors dedicated to specialist items like mobile phones. There is a cinema on the top floor there's a cinema, so we went to see "The Ring" (in English with Thai subtitles), and I really enjoyed it (although I found it quite scary). We went to the cinema again and saw "Catch Me if You Can", again in English with Thai subtitles. It's a true story, and as is the way with these films, it says in text at the end what happened to the main characters afterwards. Howvever, all this text was in Thai, so I never got to find out what happened - very frustrating!
Before we leave Bankok, there's one last thing that I have to do, and that is to buy a copy of 'Lord of the Rings', so that I'll have something to do during those long cold nights without a telly. I've wanted to read it since seeing the film, and it would be something that I wouldn't have the time or patience to do back home. The bookshops here are mostly secondhand, and charge prices that are pretty much the same as English ones, but eventually I was able to find a place and haggle with them (with Jo's help) to get them down to a price that was still massive in Thai terms, but not as bad as the price first quoted.
We then head North , on the way to Laos, and our main stop on the way is Chiang Mai, the former Capital of Thailand, and second main metropolis here. One of the main ways to get there is to take the overnight train from Bankok, which is what we do. It's a fairly weird experience - I don't think I've slept on an overnight train since I was i Canada when I was about 8. Anyway, it wasn't so bad - we were ripped off over a discusting breakfast, but that was about it. The highlight was seeing the countryside as we went pass, all manner of fields, farmers and water buffalos, and in the city, little shacks by the railway line, some without the full compliment of 4 walls, but most illuminated by the flicker of a television screen.
We arrive in Chaing Mai, and the guesthouse that we stay at instantly tries the hard sell on their 2 day trekking tour of the hill tribes. We decide against it, as we're not huge walkers, but I also have reservations about turning the Hilltribes people into a "human zoo". We decide to go on a 1 day tour instead with Piss Poo tours (its really called PSS tours, and is run by a lady named Poo). We have a lovely guide called Noi (which is a girls name, but he was the last of many boys in his familly, and his mum wanted a girl). We walk for a couple of hours into the hills in the countryside, over a rickety old bamboo bridge and eventually arrive at a Hmong tribe village. It is a village that is visited by several tour groups a day and was pretty commercialised - basically set up to cater for the tourists, with a little market, and a house turned into an exhibit, with everthing labeled in English. As such it was a little depressing.
Our next stop was at an elephant camp, and we stop to buy some bananas first. We arrive, and its an absolutely awesome sight, about a dozen elephants and their handlers milling about. I've always thought that elephants are very special, and to see them so close up was amazing. We feed them the bananas (they grip them with their trunk & then put them in their mouths - a bit like feeding a wet vacuum cleaner), and they get quite keen, advancing on us, which was pretty intimidating. We then have an hour long trek on the elephant, which was a unique experience for me, if a little uncomfortable (had a metal bar poking in my back). I was a little worried that the elephants wouldn't be treated very well, but all seemed to be ok. Our elephant handler just sat on its head, and was content to let the elephant mosey along the track, without needing to force it along.
After lunch, we visited a Karen hilltribe village, which was better than the first, the people didn't pay much attention to us, and we could admire their village, with their huts on stilts & pigs kept underneath them in our own time. After a stop at a waterfal, we had a raft down the river - it was a massive raft made of bamboo sticks tied togeter, and guided by the "captain" at the front with a bamboo pole. It was very relaxing down the flat bits & fun down the rapids.
When we get back to our hostel, we find that we can't stay there another night - they're not so friendly once they realise they've missed out on their chance to sell us a lucritive tour package. We're able to find anothe room without any bother though.
Chiang Mai, like most places in SE Asia it seems, has many fine temples and we visit a few of them. Fist, the ruined Wat Chedi Luang, which must have been spectacular in its time, but has since been damaged by earthquakes. While we're there, some young novice monks invite us to join "monk chat". This reminded me of a late night tv ad for a dating chat phone line - "Want to chat and date with monks who have similar interests to you? Come on join Monk chat oh-eight nine eight - 50 -50 -50. Monks are waiting to hear from you!" It was quite a fun experience chatting with them, and end up helping them with their English homework, although they seemed a little more interested in staring at Jo's boobs. We visit the Crystal Buddah at Wat Chiang Man and onto Wat Phra Singh, where a roomful of praying novice monks are once again distracted by Joanne. Later, we have an hour long Thai massage, but I wasn't too impressed, we're both a little bruised & sore that night.
We visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep on top of the hill, overlooking Chaing Mai a little way out of town, we have to walk up lots of steps to get there, and everywhere people are ringing bells. It's very impressive, but I am distracted by the disproportionate number of old western men here with young Thai girls (and boys). You see quite a lot of that here, and it is a little stomouch churning at times. Indeed, we've seen quite a few transvestite ladyboys as well. They seem pretty accepted here, and indeed certain parts of the culture seem to celebrate them - they had a show on called 'Simons Dream' in Chiang Mai, and in the reviews of it, the reviewers openly addmitted to fancying them. Every night, there is a night bazare, selling lots of very cool cheap things. We have to restrain ourselves as we still have some ways to go yet & can't go lugging everything around on our backs.
There's a monkey farm in Chang Mai, where the tourists can go visit "monkies" (their spelling) being trained "to work on the farm", though quite how the skill of throwing a basketball through a hoop would be applied on a farm, I don't know. The animal welfare part of me forced me to avoid the show, but we instead went to Chaing Mai zoo, which I had heard some quite good things about. It's a big rambling zoo, with enclosures seemingly randomly scattered about, without giving the visitors a map or decent signs to follow, and I found that quite charming, turning around a corner and not knowing what you'd find - so oyu'd be constantly saying things like "Stone me that's a bloody big hippo". Some of the enclosures weren't great, and I saw some evidence of repetitive behaviour disorders, but by enlarge the welfare of the animals seemed pretty good (even by western standards). I saw some Asiatic Black Bears, which featured in a campaign that we had been working on when we were in WSPA http://www.wspa-international.org/site/index.php?page=44 , telling people about their cruel treatment when they are farmed for their bile in tiny cages in China. It was a pleasant change to see them in a healthy looking condition, although, better I suppose if they were still in the wild.
Next stop Laos! Pop fact: Following the American war in Vietnam, Loas had the dubious honour of being the most bombed country in history. We get a bus to Chiang Kong, and cross over the river to Hauy Xai in Laos. We pay a small corruption tax (apparently you have to pay this if you arrive in Laos on a day of the week that ends in 'y'), and then change some money for Laotian Kip. The biggest note is worth about 30p, so we end up with a massive wad of notes. I feel like 'loadsamoney'.
We take the slow boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. We trundle down the river seeing the local people, fisherment, water buffalo, big rocks, other sunken boats, fast speed boats, fields, hills, hazy mists, forest, jungle & so on for 2 days. We stop overnight in Pak Beng, and stay in a very rustic guesthouse. The "bathroom" was a small cubicle with no roof over a hole in the ground. We'd been carrying "Rexona" body wipes around, in case we ever needed to freshen ourselves up, and here we were finally able to use them. The next day we continue down the river, and stop several times to service the local communty, loading and unloading rice, planks of wood, old ladies & monks. Stopping in these villages (most of which are still only accessible from river), seeing the houses, villagers & children made a wonderful change to the over-visited hill tribes on our one day trek. We stop at Pak Ou limestone caves http://www.laostravel.info/Cave/ , which contain a host of Buddah images, which were hidden away during the Vietnam War. When we are ready to continue on the journey, the driver of the boat demands some extra money from all the passengers for stopping there (although it is obvious he was stopping there anyway), and this sours the experience somewhat.
We arrive in Luang Prabang & have a hard time finding somewhere to stay (we get somewhere eventually). Laos is communist, but has been allowing private enterprise since 1990. It recently opened its doors to tourism to boost its ailing economy, but there is a strict limit on visas (which only last 15 days), as the infrastructure cannot cope with too many tourists. Eventually we find somewhere, and have a pleant time doing not an awful lot. This town is a world heritage site, on the basis of its well preserved french colonial charm. People tend to fall in love with it, without being entirely sure why. Its very rustic, with dirt roads, and not much traffick & chickens everywhere. We're woken every morning by the blasted things. We visit Phu Si, the pagoda on the top of the hill, where Jo frustrates the monks by thrying to find out why it is that they wear orange, and the Royal Palace Museum - the King's residence until 1975 when the new regime made him disappear.
Last night we went to the Royal theatre to see a traditional performance of dance, music and song, where they tell old stories and people are dressed up in bizzare costumes and masks. An aquired taste maybe, but it was nice to get an evening of culture. They finish with local tribal dances where they perform the amazing feat of picking up heavy jars filled with water with their teeth. Owch.
So thats my lot for now. I'm enjoying my time out here a lot more than I thought I would. We're off to Vientienne on Sunday.
All the best,
Mark
Saturday, February 01, 2003
So.. when last I wrote, it was a frenzied scribble from Cairns airport. How did I get there? Where am I know? All these questions and more can now be answered as we relax and reflect...
After leaving Sydney, Jo and I went on a bit of a whirlwind tour of some of the bits of Australia that we hadn't yet had the cance to explore. Our first stop was Canberra, where we stayed with the very kind Julie Lovell. Julie was just starting a brand new job looking after a senator, and I'm sure the last thing she was expecting was to see an old friend from her days back at the radio station in Exeter. The journey down there by Greyhound bus was pretty uneventful, but we were able to see some wild knagaroos bouncing around as the sun when down. Bill Bryson described Canberra as not really being a city at all, but rather an extremely large park with a city hidden in it. It's not really a city best suited for walking around in, and we learnt this the hard way. We tried to walk the "Parliamentary Triangle"; from the grass on top of the roof on the new parliament house down to the old parliament house and the Aboriginal tent embassy. At this point we realise that we are mega sunburnt, and call in at the airconditioned national gallery www.nga.gov.au before we call it a day. In the evening Julie drives us around "Embassy Town", to have a look at the interesting embassy buildings, and as we cruise by the American Embassy, a security van starts following us.
Our next stop is Melbourne, which is similar to Sydney, but with lesss Opera Houses and more trams. It seems like a nice place, a little European, with one tram that does a circular route of the city for free - nice. We look at the interesting Immigration museum www.immigration.museum.vic.gov.au and mooch around the massive botanical gardens. We also check out the old Melbourne Gaol, site of many a hanging, including the infamous Ned Kelly (of whom's life a film is currently bing made). In a mood for an Indian meal, we stop at 'Gaylords' indian restaurant, which I mention now for no particular reason. As a daytrip, we went up the Great Ocean road, but for me it was more of a 'scary coach drivers erratic driving road'. Not as catchy i suppose. Some nice rocks at the end of it though.
Our final destination in Australia was Cairns, where we stayed with Jo's dad's friend Neil & his family, and it was very nice too. Our first visit was a Hartley's Crocodile Adventures www.crocodileadventures.com where we saw an amazing Crocodile attack show, and were attacked by some over friendly Lorikeet parrots in the aviary. The next 2 days we made 2 boat trips snorkling out on the Barrier Reef. We took a big boat out to the reef and saw some of the most amazing fish and coral, including beautiful Parrotfish that you can actually hear biting at the reef. Once again, I get a bit sunburnt - this time on the backs of my legs. But it wasn't too bad. For the 3rd time on our trip we meet up for a drink with Tom Scruby - who is in Cairns with his parents.
And then we say farewell to Australia as we take a plane to Bankok. I catch up on a series of disappointing films on the flight ('Barbershop', XXX , 'The Tuxedo' , ' My Big Fat Greek Wedding'). We arrive in Bankok fairly late, and I don't really know what my expectations were for the place, but I was pretty suprised. Its a pretty well developed place, the touts etc aren't too in your face and its pretty easy to get around so far. Its a place of exteremes, though. Skyscrapers and stunning temples sit next to run down shacks with corrigated iron rooves.
Our first hotel is a little out from the centre, so we venture in on the first day to sourt out our visas, taking the skyrail (a bit like the underground, but up overtheground), and then a boat for 5 baht (67 baht to the pound). We eat at Gullivers, which i think is appropriate; as English people starting out on our voyage in a place far away amongst the little people.
Our first trip in Thailand is to the beautiful island of Ko Chang. Its a 6 hour minibus journey away from Bankok, and then an hour in a rickety old boat. Once arriving at the island, we take a scary trip in a songthow (sp?) which is a pickup truck with 2 benches in the back. On one steep stretch of road, my bag falls off the top, almost hitting the motorcyclist behin us. We then have to get out, so he can start the truck up again on the steep hill! Our destination is the backpacker's heaven: lonely beach http://www.ko-chang.info/sites/bevi_ht_e.htm. The first night its all full up, and we have to stay in a tent, which after a few bottles of Chang beer isn't so bad. The next day we get our own little beach hut and pretty much settle into our daily routine: breakfast (scrambled eggs or banana pankakes), lie on the beach & have a swim, retiring to the hammock in the shade when it gets hotter, and then watching the beautiful beach sunset before having a BBQ meal and ending off the day with a drink in the bar on the beach. And that's pretty much it for 5 days.
Hippy warning: I read 'The Art of Happiness' by HH Dali Lama & Howard C Cutler when I was chilling out on the hammock. Just how much of a lapse into hippyness I don't know. Will update you if there are if any further syptoms develop. There's still an aversion to braiding and dreadlocks which is a promising sign.
We're back to Bankok today, organising what we're going to do next. So it's all very exciting. Both in good health etc.
Keep on sending me mails, sorry if I'm taking a bit longer to reply to them!
Now a funny link: http://www.roganjosh.co.uk/b3tan2/lordoftorch2.gif Caption: Wordsworth was becoming increasingly concerned over Jamie's obsession with the torch.
Cheerio, Mark
And Jo writes...
Hi guys just thought I would write and let you know my latest travel
news…
We left our lovely flat in Sydney after a drunken party with some
friends
we made in Sydney, and had to get up mega early to clear the flat up
and move out by 11am. Then Mel came and picked us up and took us to
the Blue Mountains for the weekend. To see picture click here
http://www.marktyler.co.uk/images/Aus%2002/Blue%20Mountains%20-
%20Three%20Sisters.jpg
It was absolutely gorgeous. Just two hours from Sydney – a massive
wilderness area that looked to me like a green version of the Grand
Canyon. They call it the Blue Mountains because the valley is filled
with
eucalyptus trees that emit eucalyptus oil and create a bluish mist. It
covers over a million hectares of land, and convicts in Sydney used to
think that china was on the other side of them. Just to give you an
idea
of how wild this place is, they found a species of tree here that has
existed for 65 million years due to the lack of contact with man and
subsequent lack of change in its environment. There have been a lot of
bush fires in the BM recently and we visited a hotel/heritage building
where the fire had come within a foot of its walls, and firefighters
had
had their backs to the hotel wall shooting water at the flames trying
to
protect it. They use massive water-carrying helicopters such as
‘Elvis’
that can suck up a tank of water the size of a house in 50 seconds!
Unfortunately the suction is so strong; it can also suck up fish,
bricks and
divers!
After the Blue Mountains and sad good-byes with Mel we took the bus
down to Canberra. We traveled for three hours past nothing but dry
fields – although I did see 8 wild kangaroos! We stayed with mark’s
Australian friend (Julie Lovell) who he knew from university. She was
very hospitable and made our time in Canberra much more enjoyable
than it would otherwise have been… You have no doubt heard that less
than a week after we left the place a massive bush fire destroyed
nearly
400 houses… Well, there is no kind way of putting this, but it has to
be
the dullest city I have ever been to! It is quite bizarre because the
whole
city was planned from scratch after they couldn’t agree on whether to
have the capital in Sydney or Melbourne. But even the Prime Minister
wont live there and choses to commute to and from Sydney as
required!! Apart from staying with Julie, the only other noteworthy
part
of my time in Canberra was my visit to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy
situated in a dodgy looking caravan on the lawn opposite the old
parliament house. Canberra has an Embassy Town, but there is still a
lot of tension between Australians and Aborigines and the Aborigines
want their own sovereignty so they have been sat outside the Parliament
house ‘making a mess’ on Canberra’s parliamentary lawn and squeaky
clean image for the last 30 years.
After Canberra we spent another non-scenic 9 hours on a bus down to
Melbourne. Melbourne was completely different to Sydney. I think
living
in Sydney had spoiled us both, but it was still an interesting place to
spend a few days. It felt much more European than Sydney did with a
lot older buildings and tram system, but also a bit like an ozzie
version
of San Francisco, if that makes sense? Being on a whirlwind tour of
oz,
we decided to do the Great Ocean Road in a day, which was a bit much.
Australia is a massive place and nowhere is just down the road, so this
meant 15 hours on a bus. But we did get to see Bell’s Beach where they
filmed ‘Point Break’; the town of Torquay – home of Quiksilver and
Ripcurl; and of course the 12 apostles.
(Click here to see picture
http://www.qantasvacations.com/images/Apostles.jpg)
While we were in Melbourne we also went to the immigration museum
which painted a rather rosy picture of Australian history, but we did
learn about the ‘White Australia Policy’ which aimed to keep
immigration
into Australia restricted to whites only for about 50 years. The museum
didn’t really mention much about the ‘Stolen Generation’ of aboriginal
children who were taken away from their parents to be raised by the
white community in an attempt to try and teach them to live in the
white
world. In contrast, we visited the old Melbourne gaol, which painted a
very seedy picture of Melbourne’s olden days. Although there were a
few mass murderers, a lot of the crimes were committed by people
struggling to survive in desperate times. I had my picture taken
wearing
Ned Kelly’s armor and we learnt in great detail about how the prisoners
were hung; had to cotton & steel face masks to conceal their identity
and stop them talking to other prisoners; had to wear leather mits to
prevent ‘self abuse’. So yeah, that was Melbourne.
After Melbourne we flew to cairns. Our four-hour flight only cost us 60
pounds!!! Bargain!! We stayed with my dad’s friend and his family who
were lovely. We had three manic days. I really wish we had had longer
now, but it was down to when we could get an international flight from
oz. We hired a car and bombed around cairns for the first day. Cairns
city is pretty dull and not that attractive, but luckily we weren’t
staying in
the town. We drove along beautiful coastline where the rainforest came
right down to the beach. We visited a crocodile farm and saw a 4m croc
do a death roll and watched the crocs jumping out of the water to be
fed. Cairns is really hot and sticky being so tropical – I could hear
the
buzz of the insects over the car engine! We spent the next two days
snorkeling on the barrier reef, as this was the main reason we had
come to cairns. The first day we went out to the outer reef (about 30
miles out to sea). Mark and I had a noodle (float thing) so we were
able
to swim around together. We saw giant clams 1m across, some big fish
about 4ft long, we could hear parrot fish biting off bits of coral and
pooing out sand!, and massive coral that were as big as trees and
looked like an underground forest. The next dive wasn’t so good and
we got bitten by sea lice and saw little jellyfish swimming by us, so I
decided I had had enough for one day. Then when we got home we
realised we had both been burnt to buggery by the cruel Australian
sun!!
Despite applying suncream every 30 mins, I had forgotten to do my bum
and mark the back s of his legs! Ouch.. So the next day we covered up
loads and stayed out of the sun. We went snorkelling again but this
time
wore ‘stinger suits’ used to protect you from blue bottle jellyfish
that can
kill you. When we asked the previous day about stinger suits, they said
oh don’t worry we don’t get them out here – I haven’t seen one for a t
least four months!!! So that was cairns…
Then we flew 9 hours to Bangkok; it took us 4.5 hours to get out of
Australia!! Mark was a bit nervous about landing in Bangkok and I was
beginning to feel absolutely awful for dragging him here, but I was
glad
for both of us that when we arrived it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I
thought it would be. It has been a bit of a culture shock, but wow!
Its
soooooo cool here!! We spent one day in Bangkok and went to a travel
agency, we left our passports with them and they sorted out all our
visas for us. We also booked a trip down to Ko Chang – a little island
down near Cambodia. The trip cost us 3 pounds each way! We took a
little air conditioned minibus 6 hours and then got a little fishing
boat
over to the island – all included in the price!! On the way over the
boat
was listing dangerously to the right so everyone had to move to the
other side. Then when we got on the island we jumped on the back of
a ‘sawngtheaw’ (pickup truck with seats in the back). The driver
managed to squeeze 12 of us in the back, and four standing on the back
with all our rucksacks on top. While going up a steep hill marks bag
flew
off and nearly hit a motorcyclist and we couldn’t get up the hill so we
all
had to get off and walk!! But it was all part of the fun. The first
night
there was nowhere left for us to stay so we had to sleep in a tent in
all
our clothes, but we had met some nice people so we just stayed up late
talking to them.
Click here to see a really cool picture of where we were staying on the
first night!!!
http://home.wanadoo.nl/deva.deep/images/Ko_Chang/Other_Places/s16
-20011216-1206%20Ko%20Chang%20to%20Tree%20house%
2008cr.JPG
After that we managed to get our own bamboo hut on the beach. We
stayed in Ko Chang for just over a week and extended our stay we liked
it so much! We soon fell into a routine of getting up late, eating a
big
breakie, going for a swim and chilling out in the hammocks for the rest
of the afternoon till the sunset and we knew it was time for a
delicious
BBQ dinner and then bed. It was like we didn’t need watches! We got
woken up by the cockerels in the morning, and then waited for the sun
to go down.!! The beach was amazing, white sand lined with coconut
trees and crystal waters. (la da dee la do dow!). So now we are back in
Bangkok for a day or so before heading north to an elephant
conservation centre and then to Chiang Mai.
After leaving Sydney, Jo and I went on a bit of a whirlwind tour of some of the bits of Australia that we hadn't yet had the cance to explore. Our first stop was Canberra, where we stayed with the very kind Julie Lovell. Julie was just starting a brand new job looking after a senator, and I'm sure the last thing she was expecting was to see an old friend from her days back at the radio station in Exeter. The journey down there by Greyhound bus was pretty uneventful, but we were able to see some wild knagaroos bouncing around as the sun when down. Bill Bryson described Canberra as not really being a city at all, but rather an extremely large park with a city hidden in it. It's not really a city best suited for walking around in, and we learnt this the hard way. We tried to walk the "Parliamentary Triangle"; from the grass on top of the roof on the new parliament house down to the old parliament house and the Aboriginal tent embassy. At this point we realise that we are mega sunburnt, and call in at the airconditioned national gallery www.nga.gov.au before we call it a day. In the evening Julie drives us around "Embassy Town", to have a look at the interesting embassy buildings, and as we cruise by the American Embassy, a security van starts following us.
Our next stop is Melbourne, which is similar to Sydney, but with lesss Opera Houses and more trams. It seems like a nice place, a little European, with one tram that does a circular route of the city for free - nice. We look at the interesting Immigration museum www.immigration.museum.vic.gov.au and mooch around the massive botanical gardens. We also check out the old Melbourne Gaol, site of many a hanging, including the infamous Ned Kelly (of whom's life a film is currently bing made). In a mood for an Indian meal, we stop at 'Gaylords' indian restaurant, which I mention now for no particular reason. As a daytrip, we went up the Great Ocean road, but for me it was more of a 'scary coach drivers erratic driving road'. Not as catchy i suppose. Some nice rocks at the end of it though.
Our final destination in Australia was Cairns, where we stayed with Jo's dad's friend Neil & his family, and it was very nice too. Our first visit was a Hartley's Crocodile Adventures www.crocodileadventures.com where we saw an amazing Crocodile attack show, and were attacked by some over friendly Lorikeet parrots in the aviary. The next 2 days we made 2 boat trips snorkling out on the Barrier Reef. We took a big boat out to the reef and saw some of the most amazing fish and coral, including beautiful Parrotfish that you can actually hear biting at the reef. Once again, I get a bit sunburnt - this time on the backs of my legs. But it wasn't too bad. For the 3rd time on our trip we meet up for a drink with Tom Scruby - who is in Cairns with his parents.
And then we say farewell to Australia as we take a plane to Bankok. I catch up on a series of disappointing films on the flight ('Barbershop', XXX , 'The Tuxedo' , ' My Big Fat Greek Wedding'). We arrive in Bankok fairly late, and I don't really know what my expectations were for the place, but I was pretty suprised. Its a pretty well developed place, the touts etc aren't too in your face and its pretty easy to get around so far. Its a place of exteremes, though. Skyscrapers and stunning temples sit next to run down shacks with corrigated iron rooves.
Our first hotel is a little out from the centre, so we venture in on the first day to sourt out our visas, taking the skyrail (a bit like the underground, but up overtheground), and then a boat for 5 baht (67 baht to the pound). We eat at Gullivers, which i think is appropriate; as English people starting out on our voyage in a place far away amongst the little people.
Our first trip in Thailand is to the beautiful island of Ko Chang. Its a 6 hour minibus journey away from Bankok, and then an hour in a rickety old boat. Once arriving at the island, we take a scary trip in a songthow (sp?) which is a pickup truck with 2 benches in the back. On one steep stretch of road, my bag falls off the top, almost hitting the motorcyclist behin us. We then have to get out, so he can start the truck up again on the steep hill! Our destination is the backpacker's heaven: lonely beach http://www.ko-chang.info/sites/bevi_ht_e.htm. The first night its all full up, and we have to stay in a tent, which after a few bottles of Chang beer isn't so bad. The next day we get our own little beach hut and pretty much settle into our daily routine: breakfast (scrambled eggs or banana pankakes), lie on the beach & have a swim, retiring to the hammock in the shade when it gets hotter, and then watching the beautiful beach sunset before having a BBQ meal and ending off the day with a drink in the bar on the beach. And that's pretty much it for 5 days.
Hippy warning: I read 'The Art of Happiness' by HH Dali Lama & Howard C Cutler when I was chilling out on the hammock. Just how much of a lapse into hippyness I don't know. Will update you if there are if any further syptoms develop. There's still an aversion to braiding and dreadlocks which is a promising sign.
We're back to Bankok today, organising what we're going to do next. So it's all very exciting. Both in good health etc.
Keep on sending me mails, sorry if I'm taking a bit longer to reply to them!
Now a funny link: http://www.roganjosh.co.uk/b3tan2/lordoftorch2.gif Caption: Wordsworth was becoming increasingly concerned over Jamie's obsession with the torch.
Cheerio, Mark
And Jo writes...
Hi guys just thought I would write and let you know my latest travel
news…
We left our lovely flat in Sydney after a drunken party with some
friends
we made in Sydney, and had to get up mega early to clear the flat up
and move out by 11am. Then Mel came and picked us up and took us to
the Blue Mountains for the weekend. To see picture click here
http://www.marktyler.co.uk/images/Aus%2002/Blue%20Mountains%20-
%20Three%20Sisters.jpg
It was absolutely gorgeous. Just two hours from Sydney – a massive
wilderness area that looked to me like a green version of the Grand
Canyon. They call it the Blue Mountains because the valley is filled
with
eucalyptus trees that emit eucalyptus oil and create a bluish mist. It
covers over a million hectares of land, and convicts in Sydney used to
think that china was on the other side of them. Just to give you an
idea
of how wild this place is, they found a species of tree here that has
existed for 65 million years due to the lack of contact with man and
subsequent lack of change in its environment. There have been a lot of
bush fires in the BM recently and we visited a hotel/heritage building
where the fire had come within a foot of its walls, and firefighters
had
had their backs to the hotel wall shooting water at the flames trying
to
protect it. They use massive water-carrying helicopters such as
‘Elvis’
that can suck up a tank of water the size of a house in 50 seconds!
Unfortunately the suction is so strong; it can also suck up fish,
bricks and
divers!
After the Blue Mountains and sad good-byes with Mel we took the bus
down to Canberra. We traveled for three hours past nothing but dry
fields – although I did see 8 wild kangaroos! We stayed with mark’s
Australian friend (Julie Lovell) who he knew from university. She was
very hospitable and made our time in Canberra much more enjoyable
than it would otherwise have been… You have no doubt heard that less
than a week after we left the place a massive bush fire destroyed
nearly
400 houses… Well, there is no kind way of putting this, but it has to
be
the dullest city I have ever been to! It is quite bizarre because the
whole
city was planned from scratch after they couldn’t agree on whether to
have the capital in Sydney or Melbourne. But even the Prime Minister
wont live there and choses to commute to and from Sydney as
required!! Apart from staying with Julie, the only other noteworthy
part
of my time in Canberra was my visit to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy
situated in a dodgy looking caravan on the lawn opposite the old
parliament house. Canberra has an Embassy Town, but there is still a
lot of tension between Australians and Aborigines and the Aborigines
want their own sovereignty so they have been sat outside the Parliament
house ‘making a mess’ on Canberra’s parliamentary lawn and squeaky
clean image for the last 30 years.
After Canberra we spent another non-scenic 9 hours on a bus down to
Melbourne. Melbourne was completely different to Sydney. I think
living
in Sydney had spoiled us both, but it was still an interesting place to
spend a few days. It felt much more European than Sydney did with a
lot older buildings and tram system, but also a bit like an ozzie
version
of San Francisco, if that makes sense? Being on a whirlwind tour of
oz,
we decided to do the Great Ocean Road in a day, which was a bit much.
Australia is a massive place and nowhere is just down the road, so this
meant 15 hours on a bus. But we did get to see Bell’s Beach where they
filmed ‘Point Break’; the town of Torquay – home of Quiksilver and
Ripcurl; and of course the 12 apostles.
(Click here to see picture
http://www.qantasvacations.com/images/Apostles.jpg)
While we were in Melbourne we also went to the immigration museum
which painted a rather rosy picture of Australian history, but we did
learn about the ‘White Australia Policy’ which aimed to keep
immigration
into Australia restricted to whites only for about 50 years. The museum
didn’t really mention much about the ‘Stolen Generation’ of aboriginal
children who were taken away from their parents to be raised by the
white community in an attempt to try and teach them to live in the
white
world. In contrast, we visited the old Melbourne gaol, which painted a
very seedy picture of Melbourne’s olden days. Although there were a
few mass murderers, a lot of the crimes were committed by people
struggling to survive in desperate times. I had my picture taken
wearing
Ned Kelly’s armor and we learnt in great detail about how the prisoners
were hung; had to cotton & steel face masks to conceal their identity
and stop them talking to other prisoners; had to wear leather mits to
prevent ‘self abuse’. So yeah, that was Melbourne.
After Melbourne we flew to cairns. Our four-hour flight only cost us 60
pounds!!! Bargain!! We stayed with my dad’s friend and his family who
were lovely. We had three manic days. I really wish we had had longer
now, but it was down to when we could get an international flight from
oz. We hired a car and bombed around cairns for the first day. Cairns
city is pretty dull and not that attractive, but luckily we weren’t
staying in
the town. We drove along beautiful coastline where the rainforest came
right down to the beach. We visited a crocodile farm and saw a 4m croc
do a death roll and watched the crocs jumping out of the water to be
fed. Cairns is really hot and sticky being so tropical – I could hear
the
buzz of the insects over the car engine! We spent the next two days
snorkeling on the barrier reef, as this was the main reason we had
come to cairns. The first day we went out to the outer reef (about 30
miles out to sea). Mark and I had a noodle (float thing) so we were
able
to swim around together. We saw giant clams 1m across, some big fish
about 4ft long, we could hear parrot fish biting off bits of coral and
pooing out sand!, and massive coral that were as big as trees and
looked like an underground forest. The next dive wasn’t so good and
we got bitten by sea lice and saw little jellyfish swimming by us, so I
decided I had had enough for one day. Then when we got home we
realised we had both been burnt to buggery by the cruel Australian
sun!!
Despite applying suncream every 30 mins, I had forgotten to do my bum
and mark the back s of his legs! Ouch.. So the next day we covered up
loads and stayed out of the sun. We went snorkelling again but this
time
wore ‘stinger suits’ used to protect you from blue bottle jellyfish
that can
kill you. When we asked the previous day about stinger suits, they said
oh don’t worry we don’t get them out here – I haven’t seen one for a t
least four months!!! So that was cairns…
Then we flew 9 hours to Bangkok; it took us 4.5 hours to get out of
Australia!! Mark was a bit nervous about landing in Bangkok and I was
beginning to feel absolutely awful for dragging him here, but I was
glad
for both of us that when we arrived it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I
thought it would be. It has been a bit of a culture shock, but wow!
Its
soooooo cool here!! We spent one day in Bangkok and went to a travel
agency, we left our passports with them and they sorted out all our
visas for us. We also booked a trip down to Ko Chang – a little island
down near Cambodia. The trip cost us 3 pounds each way! We took a
little air conditioned minibus 6 hours and then got a little fishing
boat
over to the island – all included in the price!! On the way over the
boat
was listing dangerously to the right so everyone had to move to the
other side. Then when we got on the island we jumped on the back of
a ‘sawngtheaw’ (pickup truck with seats in the back). The driver
managed to squeeze 12 of us in the back, and four standing on the back
with all our rucksacks on top. While going up a steep hill marks bag
flew
off and nearly hit a motorcyclist and we couldn’t get up the hill so we
all
had to get off and walk!! But it was all part of the fun. The first
night
there was nowhere left for us to stay so we had to sleep in a tent in
all
our clothes, but we had met some nice people so we just stayed up late
talking to them.
Click here to see a really cool picture of where we were staying on the
first night!!!
http://home.wanadoo.nl/deva.deep/images/Ko_Chang/Other_Places/s16
-20011216-1206%20Ko%20Chang%20to%20Tree%20house%
2008cr.JPG
After that we managed to get our own bamboo hut on the beach. We
stayed in Ko Chang for just over a week and extended our stay we liked
it so much! We soon fell into a routine of getting up late, eating a
big
breakie, going for a swim and chilling out in the hammocks for the rest
of the afternoon till the sunset and we knew it was time for a
delicious
BBQ dinner and then bed. It was like we didn’t need watches! We got
woken up by the cockerels in the morning, and then waited for the sun
to go down.!! The beach was amazing, white sand lined with coconut
trees and crystal waters. (la da dee la do dow!). So now we are back in
Bangkok for a day or so before heading north to an elephant
conservation centre and then to Chiang Mai.
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