It's like DisneyLand...but in Laos!

Even though we were only in Laos for six (count 'em, 6) days, we still found lots to do in the allegedly "quiet" country. There was that grill-it-yourself dinner in the sleepy capital Vientiane, Alyssa's "hot" date with a monk, temples temples and more temples in Luang Prabang....but the highlight was in a small backpacker town called Vang Vieng where we found Disney Land, Laos-style.

When we got off the bus, the first thing we noticed about town (other than the great scenery) was all the westerners...Man, this place was packed with backpackers! From the usual hippie dreadlock-baggy pant crowd to the couples with matching flip flops and backpacks, Vang Vieng had them all. The next thing we noticed was that ALL of the restaurants had bed-style seating facing large TV screens playing re-runs of Friends. Hilarious. So when you get to episode you've already seen one too many times at home, you can just stroll next door and see what season is on at the next place! But most intriguing was the heaps of inner tubes along the street saying "for rent".

And so we rented. After paying our US $3.50 for a day's inner tube rental, we piled into a 4x4 pickup converted into a taxi and headed 10 minutes upriver. Along with other backpackers our age, we threw our tubes into the river and ourselves after them. The whole point of this is to lazily float down river in the sun under the amazing limestone cliff/hill scenery. However, the fun doesn't stop there. Every 30 meters or so is a riverside bar offering the tastiest beer in SE Asia, Beer Lao. For a measly $1 you can enjoy a big bottle with complementary over-the-water swings, bungee jumping into the river and western music pumped out on loud speakers. I've never been so happy to hear Jack Johnson! And then you hop back on your inner tube and head for the next bar. Definately Disney Land worthy. It's like the lazy river, but with beer. A good combination, a might add. And the ultimate in self-indulgence.

Needless to say we happily passed our two days in Vang Vieng on the river in an inner tube. On our first afternoon it turned out the bar thing takes more time then you think and we furiously paddled the last 2km back to town covered in goosebumps - it's freezing when the sun goes down! (Editors Note: We have since been informed that it is snowing in Canada and we understand we will probably not be getting much sympathy for being cold while floating in bathing suits down in a river in Laos). Besides, we started really early the next day :)

-- em.

Cambodia

Cambodia left us somewhat shell-shocked. Or maybe just shocked, both bad and good - by everything from the legacy of the Khmer Rouge (poverty, corruption, lack of development, and several killing field sites), to astounding beauty, vitality and history of the land and people. While sometimes depressing, the overall experience was more of a positive eye-opener (plus we got to see some awesome temples).

Festival in Phnom Penh

We arrived in the capital with perfect timing - a three day boat race festival had just begun, and Cambodians take their boat racing seriously. We got to see not only tens of boats paddled by hundreds of athletes, but we got to watch the races first on TV from the comfort of a hammock-filled restaurant, and later that evening from the third floor balcony of the Foreign Correspondents' Club (yes, it is as fancy as it sounds). The highlight was that night's "celebration of illuminated boats", with huge glowing floats and a fireworks show overhead, all centred around the full moon. And check out the crowds!





Tuol Sleng Prison Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

A sobering experience. The prison ("S-21") held between 17,000 -20,000 'enemies' of the Khmer Rouge over the years 1975-1979, nearly all of whom were interrogated, tortured, and killed. Mass graves were unearthed at Choeung Ek, where a stupa has been erected in dedication to the victims and holds thousands of skulls. We didn't take any pictures of the killing fields.

Cambodian roads

On a lighter note, I was highly amused by the roads in Cambodia. They are a true example of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good: the highway from Phnom Penh to Angkor's Siem Reap (6 hours of pure straightaways, good pavement, no nausea). The bad: the unpaved dusty red farm roads just outside Phnom Penh (on our moto ride we covered our faces with sweat rags, bandit-style, and squinted the whole way; I lost a sandal on a bump; and we both arrived with dirt unibrows). The ugly: the road to the Thai border. A good samaritan in Phnom Penh had warned us against this route ("[his] bones ached for days afterwards... if you want to experience hell, take the bus to Thailand"), so we were smart and booked a taxi instead. The roads aren't like the rumours; they're worse. We passed a sign saying "Road Project Ahead" - unfortunately it was only begun this month and is slated to take 5 years. Our driver was great though, and we flew over the bumps and ruts so fast that all we felt was a constant high amplitude vibration, almost comfortable once you relaxed and let your limbs flail around. Bronco (our car), is probably not doing as well and I give his suspension a two-month life expectancy.

Did I mention which side of the road they drive on? Answer: hard to tell. Cambodia is the only country I've seen so far that does not discriminate at all between vehicles with the steering wheel on the left and those with it on the right. I guess a car is a car.

Dinner with Sarah!

A highlight of Cambodia: Meeting up with Sarah (Crookshanks) again, on our totally-unplanned-but-identical route around mainland SE Asia! She also hooked us up with the goods on Angkor over beers and Indian food. It was so nice to see a fun, familiar face and compare stories and impressions.



Kids

The kids in Cambodia are the most talented (or at least most perseverant) beggars and sellers I've ever seen. A lot of the time we got depressed by the level of poverty, lack of opportunity, and desperation of these kids and their unseen families. The first words kids seem to learn in English are "Hello, one dollar?", and they constantly ask for money, pens, and water. Sometimes, however, the only thing you can do is appreciate the energy of these kids or find something to share a laugh about. After giving away bread and extra bottled water, we were cornered by a group who noticed our playtpus nozzles (hydration packs) sticking our of our bags. Since "bite the nozzle and suck out the water" didn't translate so well, we supervised while each kid drank a bit with the help of gravity. A definite hit with the kidlets.



Angkor

Angkor is so much more than the famous Angkor Wat. Check out some pictures (more on the Angkor link on the right) - we'll give you details when we're home!

Transportation in Vietnam

1. Motorbike (xe om)
Motorbikes = the best kind of transportation there is! After watching the crazy motorbike traffic of Hanoi for many days, we finally got on our own xe om's (motorbike taxi) and decided it's the most exhilarating way to get around. Even when they break down. Or you have to carry your 18 kilo backpack on you. Or a bus passing you in the opposite direction sprays a wave of water on you from a lake-like puddle. Or your driver gets separated from Em's and slightly lost. It's all in the name of the game. I love it.

A note on intersections: Most intersections don't have any lights, and if they do, they only have small red ones hidden away in the curbside foliage. It makes figuring out traffic patterns difficult, until you realize there is no pattern and everyone just zips by wherever they can. I can only assume there are no green lights because motorbikes in Vietnam don't need any encouragement to 'go'. Like I said: exhilarating.

Note: The driver has stopped for an errand and I have stolen the seat of power (but I don't actually know how to drive one yet).

2. Being a pedestrian
This is almost as fun as riding motorbikes. Many tourists hate the traffic and curse the lack of crosswalks or other such pedestrian-friendly inventions. I disagree wholeheartedly with this - from my experience the traffic is incredibly courteous to pedestrians if you just obey the one rule of "keep the pace steady and keep walking!" We now confidently cross all streets Moses-style, the streams of motorbikes parting around us.

3. Trains
Although not as luxurious as Malaysia sleeper trains, the Vietnam rail system has served us well. With four sleeper rides and one 10 hour daytrip, we are now pro's and have learned that:
1) booking your ticket through your guesthouse practically doubles the cost and we should have walked our lazy bums down to the station instead.
2) soft sleepers are only for naive tourists; the hard sleepers are just as comfortable plus you get two extra roommates in your bunk!
And 3) you will most likely wake up to these roommates sitting on the edge of your bed as if cozying up to a sleeping stranger is the most natural thing in the world.
We'd heard that the Vietnamese don't believe in privacy but it was still quite a shock to find two old guys in suits hanging out on our mattresses.

4. Boats
Boat #1: We took a tour of the Mekong Delta in a private two seater (we're DONE with organized group tours). Our driver was a woman, for once, and a very lovely person. The boat was a small wooden thing with a funny motor whose propeller was on a pole, serving as both propagation and rudder (when our hotel man had drawn us a picture of the boat beforehand with a huge oar like thing sticking out the back, I had assumed he was just a terrible artist). The tour itself was an 8 hour trip starting at sunrise, visiting a couple floating markets, many meandering canals, and a garden. The experience was relaxing, refreshing, and a good taste of the delta.


Boat #2: Tour of the Mekong Delta part 2, i.e. transfer to the border to cross into Cambodia. This was actually a combination of two boat trips, the first of which was on a large, comfortable vessel with cushions on the seats and enough room to lie down and read thriller novels (have we mentioned Lee Child's books yet? We have three.) The second was on a small, thin boat with wooden seats, a low wood ceiling (definitely caused some collisions and swearing for the taller tourists), and a precarious lilt to one side. After "2" hours (i.e. 3 and a half) we got out off rubbing our backsides and ready to leave the world of water behind for some good old buses (more on Cambodian transit later).

5. Local minibus
All I need to say is the drivers are crazy, the passengers are piled in everywhere and anywhere (one guy actually stood in the trunk, and Em was treated to a half hour ride on a plastic stool we thought was going to be our card table), but at least the roads are good. Call it negative foreshadowing for Cambodia!

6. Tourist minibus
Ah, the tourist minibus. Picture 14 westerners, average age and waistsize over 35, cramming into seats built for small-boned Asians... The guide in the front saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, we must now say goodbye to [insert last sightseeing attraction]..." (and pausing, waiting for a chorus of "goodbye!")... Stopping every hour at a local attraction, translated as tourist-packed rest stop or 'authentic handicraft' centre. But the image I will always remember is the minibus doorway filled with the bum of a New Zealand woman, her body head hanging out as she yelled "Victoria!... Hold on, we're missing my friend... Victoriaaaaa!" (Probably this is just funny to me and Em... but hellishly funny it is.)

How we spent most of our 11 hours in Saigon

The first thing that hit us about the south of Vietnam was the heat. It's unbelievably hot here - like sun-baking-find-your-45spf-sunscreen-asap-where's-the-nearest-air-con hot. And that's just 8:30am. So when we discovered that our Lonely Planet had a section on "Water Parks in Saigon" we were instantly intrigued. Unfortunately, we only had our day-packs on us which were lacking our bathing suits. Luckily Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City has plenty of sports stores carrying the latest fashions in swimwear. At least, the latest fashions from the 70s. With our new bathing suits in hand, we hopped on the first bus to the Saigon Water Park and endless hours of refreshing entertainment.




The waterpark itself was great - lots of slides, a lazy river, a wave pool. But the most hilarious thing (aside from our bathing ensembles) was the kids! Apparently the water parks mainly attract the under-12 crowd. I guess our first clue should have been the 1/2 price admission to anyone under 1.4m. While I can't say we weren't tempted to bend down just a little, dignity prevailed and we forked over the "tall" admission fee. Anyways, so not only were we the only non-Vietnamese people there, but we were also the only people not born in the 1990s! At first there were a lot of stares and giggles. Obviously we thought it was our bathing suits that were the source of hilarity, but it turns out it was just us. Once we attempted to try out our few lines of Vietnamese, we were soon big favourites! On the lazy river we were swarmed by kids all hanging onto our inner tubes and asking "Where are you from" "What is your name" "How are you" (occasionally confused with "How old are you"), and "Sing us a song!". Needless to say after a few rounds of Row Row Row Your Boat and Happy Birthday, it was clear the Alyssa-and-Emily-Travelling-Circus had once again come to town! All in all a spectacular and unexpected day in Vietnam.

PS. If you thought this was funny, guess what we did the day before in Nha Trang!

Update from Vietnam (finally!)

Ahh, Vietnam...We've been here over two weeks and simply have not been able to take the time to post, it's been that great. After spending some pampering days in Bangkok, we purchased Vietnam tourist visas and a plane ticket to Hanoi and we were onto country number 5. The first highlight of our trip was when we discovered our Bangkok visas were indeed valid and not forgeries -- or at least forged well enough to fool Vietnamese immigration officers! From then on we stayed in Hanoi for a week with trips to the Northern highlands and Halong Bay before heading south towards Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. As for our adventures in and around Hanoi...

1. Hanoi: Definitely my favourite city to date, but maybe that's just because Alyss spotted a Canon camera store that fixed my broken camera in under 10 minutes! The hustle and bustle of Hanoi is hard to describe - sometimes the entire city feels like millions of honking motorbikes, which I guess it is. But the beautiful part of Hanoi is the trees - every street is lined with trees. And the colonial buildings are a nice touch too. It's neat being in a place with such history as well - not many countries can say they've kicked out the Chinese, French, Khmer Rouge and Americans. Not only does this history make for interesting places to visit, but we've yet to find another country that offers quality baguettes and cappuccinos for breakfast!

We spent most of our days wandering the streets of the Old Quarter and beyond where we discovered such delicacies as Bun Cha Nem - grilled pork in a soup with rice noodles and spring rolls. These heroines also highly recommend local beer with your meal - delicious! (Or "ngon qua", which has made us many local friends despite our likely atrocious pronunication!)

Seriously, Bun Cha Nem is amazing: Who can say this doesn't look delicious? Mmm.....bun cha

2. The Highlands: For our first weekend in Vietnam we decided to spend it in the highlands near the border with China, a 10+ hour train ride from Hanoi. The climate is completely different from Hanoi requiring fleeces, boots and wool socks. But the really cool thing is the people - Vietnam is home to over 81 million people and while 80% of these are ethnic Vietnamese, another 1% is classified as "ethnic minorities" and included over 50 different hill tribes. In our first stop, the town of Sapa, there were mostly Black H'mong people (because of the black-blue dyes used in their clothing) and then in Bac Ha we saw Red Zao, Dzai, and Flower H'mong tribes.

Anyways, onto Sapa. As soon as you descend from the mini-van several things happen. First you realize how great the temperature is - you're not sweating buckets and your hair is barely frizzy anymore! Second, you decide terraced rice paddies are the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Third, you start to feel the pull of little hands on your clothes, hands, and hair. When you look down (yes, even I had to look down), you realize that over the past 10 seconds you have been swarmed by really cute kids wearing traditional tribal clothing trying to convince you to buy their bracelets, embroidered pillow cases, blankets, etc. Ah, the cash cow of tourism. As you disentagle yourself from the crowd and make a mad dash for the peace and quiet of your hostel, you unwittingly shout back "OK, maybe later I'll buy something". While this may seem innocent enough, apparently "maybe" translates as "yes" and Alyssa and I were hounded by many astute sellers on our next foray into town pouting that we had promised to buy from them. And their memories! Man, you talk to these kids for maybe 5 minutes and they have got your name, citizenship and relationship status memorized! And it's very difficult to turn down cute kids who know a lot about you! Look, here's a picture of Alyssa buying stuff from a whole bunch of them.

We spent the next two days hiking through the hillsides with our guide Quyet and two awesome Swiss Germans, Nadia and Heidi. We saw terraced rice patties, rivers, waterfalls, water buffalo, local Black H'mong villages and still more children with the "you buy from me!" line. Cute for the first time, not for the dozens of more times. Again, one begins to think vile thoughts of the tourism industry. We spent the night in a Dzai village with a really nice family...OK, so sure we only smiled at each other, but they seemed really nice. Quyet made us an amazing dinner of rice, stirfrys and the best fried tofu with tomatoes we've ever had! And to top it off, he pulled out a 2L water bottle of "holy water" for after-dinner drinks, which turned out to shot after shot of local moonshine, or rice wine for the uninitatiated. While I imagine only rocket fuel would taste worse, after 15 shots of the stuff I forgot I had taste buds to even complain about the taste. I'm sure you can all imagine the state your poor heriones were in, so we'll leave it at that.

Day 3 saw us again trapped on a tourist bandwagon to Bac Ha, a small village 3 hours away famous for its large market on Sundays. Not only did we splurge on a few handicrafts (like my new beautiful blanket!), but we saw a market like something from another century. Live animals, tobacco, fruits and vegetables, shoes, crafts, clothing all being sold by Flower H'mongs with beautiful coloured clothing -- imagine Medieval Europe in Vietnam...and then add in a lot of mud.

So then we were carted around for more sightseeing, to an "authentic" Flower H'mong village (don't get me started!) and the Chinese border with Vietnam. Finally we were dropped off at the train station in Lao Cai where Alyssa and I made friends at a local restaurant by playing cribbage and giving our cameras to little kids. We also watched Vietnam win the Agribank Cup which is a very big deal (if you happened to be in Vietnam, that is). Then we were back to Hanoi via night train for a day of laundry (and de-mudding) before heading north to Halong Bay.


3. Halong Bay: About 4 hours north of Hanoi near the coast of China, the strangest thing happens. Huge limestone mountains jut out of the South China Sea -- its really amazing. Unfortunately, many other people think so too and so Alyss and I were once again following the well-travelled tourist trail. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts, our feisty heroines had to split up for the first time in over 2 months with Alyss signing up for a 3-day tour and me taking a 2-day tour (since I wanted to be back in Hanoi for a World Wildlife Fund conference). Both tours involved mini-bus rides to Halong City and boat tours through Halong Bay. While I can't say the typhoon off the coast of Vietnam improved the weather (there were a lot of grey skies and rain), the scenary was still amazing. As for my tour, it sucked huge without Alyss - the other 10 people were totally lame and severly decreased my opinion of foreign tourists. There seemed to be no end to their complaints - from the lack of milk for their tea to the noise and dirt in Hanoi. Needless to say I didn't hang out with them very much and instead wrote a lot of postcards. (Yes, there was even one to Alyss!). But apparently Alyss's tour was better but I'll leave her to tell you about that. But really, Halong Bay is very pretty, see?

-em.

Buying Pears

I've decided buying an asian pear in Vietnam is always an adventure. The first step is finding one. On daily travels around any city you pass countless fresh markets and cornerside fruit sellers who make their presence all to well known. However, the moment you make a premeditated decision that you feel like a pear, the fruit stands have somehow moved to the other side of town and you're left wandering aimlessely through streets filled with motorbike repair shops or displays of expensive silk handbags.

Step 2 is bargaining. After four days in Hanoi I felt like I'd become a clever buyer who'd made my way out of the land of tourist prices, having paid 6000 Vietnamese dong on day one (45 cents), and then slowly working my way down through 4000, 2 for 6000, and finally 2000 (what locals pay, according to one cafe dude). However, there is always variability due to factors such as location, time of day, and the seller's mood. High traffic areas are pricier. Early morning is cheaper than afternoon. And my favourite cornerside fruit lady who routinely accepted my 2000 dong, turned on me one afternoon and demanded 3000. When I put on a confused face and tried, "But this morning you sold for 2000...", all I got was a scowl and, "No! Pear in morning was smaller!" Em even ran into trouble in real Hnoi, outside tourist quarters. After much haggling and an agreed 2000 pricetag, Em handed the guy a 5000 bill... and got only 2000 back. Holding her shortchange and the pear, Em tried to get correct change but was denied. To respect the laws of fair bargaining, she said no thanks, put the already wrapped pear back in the pile, and walked away. It's the principle of things.

Step 3 is eating the pear. The rule "only cooked, peeled or washed" has to be applied to all street food and since we don't carry around a peeler, I just sacrifice some bottled water for a scrubdown (exfoliating bath gloves can also come in handy). Monday, however, I must have failed to reach the scrub level required (from now on, "rinsed" is an evil, evil word). I woke up at 2am to stomach cramps and nausea and spent the next 8 hours emptying ALL contents of my stomach via both ends. Then it was a day of bedrest and water for me, with some bread and a (peeled) orange when I got braver. It was only a 24 hour thing; one pear can't do that much harm. Then again, maybe it's time to invest in a peeler.

P.S. We actually have some photos of my day of fun, starting with me washing the actual pear in question (there was a cute kid in the background - good stealth photo op).