Nilesh's Posterous

Saigon, Vietnam

28/12/2008 - I have a flight from Hanoi to Saigon today on JetStarAsia, one of the few budget airlines in Asia. Flight is about 10:30a.m. So I arranged for a taxi to come pick me up and drop me at the airport for $11 USD.. I had to leave too early to be able to find the shuttle bus that I took to come to town for $2 and I was not even sure what time it started. Taxi came in around 7:30. The driver seemed very very young.. maybe some 15 years old or something. Maybe he is very young and inexperienced, as after only 3 blocks, he hit anothe car !! He tried to close the windows and keep on driving, but the other driver got out of his car, quickly came and grabbed my driver by his neck and took his car keys from him. .to prevent him from leaving without taking care of things. I was stuck in between their fight :( Fortunately the driver phoned another taxi to come pick me and it came around 8:00.. fortunatley I had allowed some time in case things happen and things did happen.

Landed in Saigon around noon or so. Went outside to get transportation to town and talked a to few taxis, but they were pretty expensive (uh.. around $9.. but for there and according to my travel book, it was expensive). I kept on walking and found a motorcycle that was willing to take me to down for about $2. Fortunately I had the backpack, I climbed behind the dude on his moped and off we went zig zagging through traffic with my heavy backpack hanging behind.

I told him to bring to Pham Ngu Lao in district 1, the part of town where I read from Lonely planet that there were many guesthouses. Bike dropped me and as soon as I got off, a small vietnamese lady in blue uniform (badged tourist information service) came to me and proposed that she'll show me some guesthouses. Went with her to see some guesthouses in very narrow alleys and while they all were pretty cheap (US $4 or so), I did not really like them much - they were real guesthouses - the local people lived, cooked and ate downstairs and the room were upstairs. I walked about on my own for a while with the heavy backpack hurting my back. I was not used to carry this heavy weight on my back.. so my back was paying the toll. Walked for an hour or so in intermittent rain and finally found something decent that had rooms and was within my budget ($11). Booked a night with them. Showered, took a little nap and went out to orient myself. The hotel was found just in front of a huge park which featured 3 outdoor stages with free Vietnamese entertainment every night (New Year Celebrations) + also featured a huge outdoors food court with all kinds of traditional foods and drinks. So lucky me !! So I went out there and had some food and watched some nice Taiko and Chinese Dragon show at one of the stages and chilled out for bit talking to the few tourists I found amongst the mostly local crowd.

After dinner, I went about town to check out the city. Saigon is definitely much more active than Hanoi - lots more people, lots more eateries, lots more motorbikes on the street, but yet not as noisy as Hanoi (it did not have the incessant people horning at each other). As I walked around town, I found everybody's gaze was on a TV. The South East Asian Soccer Championships finals were on TV and the two finalists were Vietnam and  Thailand. No wonder it wasn't as noisy :) I also sat down at one of the make shifts tv watching stations and had a drink and watched the second half of the match with the locals.

90 minutes and it was 1:1.. thailand and vienam.. In the extra time (maybe 2-3 minutes or so), Vietnam scored and won the championships !!! Everybody was just overjoyed ! Vietnam had not won taht championships in 10 or so years and it was big time celebration ! Everybody had their red Vietnamese flag out and were parading in the streets to show their joys - roads were blocked and hundreds and hundreds motorbkes upon motorbikes carrying joyful fans raising their flags and chanting songs to celebrate their victory and show their patriotism. It was so great to watch and feel the pride of the population at winning. The manifestation and parades lasted all night night till maybe 3:00a.m - 4:00a.m. (match finsihed around 8:30p.m). I have an early morning tour tomorrow morning to go visit the Cu Chi Tunnels (the famous tunnels and cave system that allowed the vietnamese to defeat the americans when they came) and also visit the Cao Dai Temple.

Pic 1 : Joyful Crowd Celebrating vietnam's victory
Pic 2 : The whole family out on the motorbike
Pic 3 : Street Side eateries (They all have baby stools)
Pic 4 : Vietnamese Style Drop Coffee
Pic 5 : Saigon side street
Pic 6 : At a traffic light on any day, any time in saigon
Pic 7 : Motorbikes are used for everything !
Pic 8 : An eletric pole
Pic 9 : Everyday life
Pic 10 : Patriotism starts young !

Halong Bay (one of the new Seven Wonders of the World), Vietnam

27/12/2008 - Yesterday I rested the entire afternoon long and I think the drugs I took also made me kind of drowsy. It was good though to have a break, as I had just been on the move since beginning of December and not really relaxed. So this morning, when i woke up, I was in pretty nice shape and mood. The medicine did their good on my body. I had bought a full day tour to Halong Bay for today. Halong Bay is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world. It consits of a bay with thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various shapes and sizes emerging from the sea + a few nice caves as well. Bus was supposed to come pick me up at 7:30a.m. Went outside and it was raining heavily and cold too. I guess it was not the best day to go visit Halong Bay (which is about 3 hours drive from Hanoi).

On the way to Halong bay, we stopped at some artisnal workshop where they make lots of clay and earth figurines, pots,pans and other stuff. It was very interesting to see them being made and the huge amounts of stuff they make by hand over there.

We finally reached Halong Bay after the shop stop. So many tourists buses were there and every tour was trying to group their people and go to the right boat. Apart from buses, there were also like hundred of mini cruising boats in the bay waiting for passengers. Our tour guide took us and brought us to our boat and seated us. We were seated 4 at a table and we could also go up the deck to chill if we wanted. We'd be in the bay on the boat for about 4 hours and wil be having lunch as well on the boat before heading back to take the bus back to Hanoi.

Rain had stopped a bit, but it was still pretty foggy. The boat cruised around Halong Bay and the guide showed us the different formations, the shape they represented and stories associated with each formations, such as the fighting cocks, the dog and the cat story. Interesting Folkore.

Here's an extract I took from Wikipedia about Halong Bay legend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halong_Bay)

Along the bay, there are many floating fish farms. They raise many kinds of fish and crustaceans on these farms.The boat stopped at one of them to buy the fish they'd be cooking for lunch for us. The fish in these farms were impressively huge.. so were the crustaceans. I am not sure if they had been genetically modified or that's the kind of fish found in that ocean. We got to walk around on the floating farm and check out their good.

As we were walking on the farms, many boat fruit sellers approached us from their boats. These boat fruit sellers were mostly women and in some cases, they had their kids too on the boat. They had so much energy to be able to row their boats on their own in the pouring rain and come to dock the fish farm to sell us fruits. I bought some delicious tangerines and guava from them (i had already forgotten i had gotten sick the day before :)).

After we got back in the boat, the boat cruised a bit more, while the chef cooked us lunch. then they served us at our table. We had a communal lunch. My table had an Indonesian couple, a single thai girl, a french grandma and her grandson. They put all the food in the center and we had little bowls and chopsticks to eat with. We had a steamed whole fish with spices, mussels, egg cake and some bananas. Lunch was not the best lunch ever but, I was hungry and it readily got digested. After lunch boat stopped at a couple of limestone caves that we got to visit. Impressive formations.

After the cave visit, we headed back to the port where we took the bus back to Hanoi. I sat next to the guide in the bus on the way back and we had some very interesting conversations about culture, life and traditions in Vietnam. For the 3 days I have been here, its pretty hard to find English Speaking local people. So that was a great 3 hour chat we had and the most weird/interesting part of the conversation was about food. So, in vietnam Dog and Cat meat is very common food. We talked about the taste and preparation of these (not that I am going to prepare it, but I was curious). She told me dog meat is rather rabitty in flavor, but she preffers cat. The vietnamese word for dog is Cho and for cat Meo.. so i'd know if I see these on the menu what not to order.

We finally reached Hanoi. I quickly showered, changed and headed out for a show I had  bought tickets - A traditional Vietnamese Water puppet show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_puppetry). It was the traditional entertainment in Vietnam. It was perfomed in flooded rice paddies with puppets, but for that show they had some sort of pool mimicking the rice paddies and had the show. It was a nice show. Show finished around 10:00p.m. Got some simple non-vietnamese dinner and went to sleep, as Taxi was coming to pick me up at 8:00a.m the next morning  to catch my flight to Saigon.

Pic 1 : Seabound Fruit Seller's boats
Pic 2 : Many Boats waiting for passengers to go cruise Halong Bay
Pic 3 : Nilesh on the Boat Deck on Halong Bay
Pic 4: Floating Fish Farms
Pic 5 : Having Lunch on the boat
Pic 6 : Our Lunch
Pic 7 : Boats Crusing the Bay
Pic 8 : Nilesh in the caves
Pic 9 : One of the many formations coming of the sea at Halong
Pic 10 : Pottery and Clayworks at bus stop
Pic 11 : Water Puppet Show

Hanoi, Vietnam

25/12/2008 - Flew in from Lao Airways from Luang Prabhang to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I slept for most of the flight due to the arduous bike ride all over Luang Prabhang during the day. As the flight was about to land, I chit chatted with the passenger sitting net to me and he was the first american that I met during the entire trip - Greg. Greg had been out in Asia for a while and he was flying to Hanoi to catch a flight back to the US. He had already been in Hanoi in the first part of his trip. From reading the travel books, it made it sound so scary to get transportation from the airport to the city center, due to the numerous touts and scam artists around. I asked Greg about it and he mentioned the official mini bus that takes people from Airport to the Vietnam airlines offices in Hanoi.

I changed some money and once again I was a millionaire !! The exchange rate for 1 USD was 17,000 dong, the vietnamese currency.

Together with other passengers, we boarded the mini-van and paid our $2 + $1 to drop us at our particular custom stop. From talking to passengers, Hang Bac and Hang Le, seemed to the place to stop by and then look for guesthouses, as it seems that many are concentrated around there. The minivan stopped me and I walked around trying to orient myself in the new city. Checked out a few hotels (I hardly found a any guesthouses around). The cheapest hotel i could find was $7 (Prince 49) with TV, Shower and Fan, but it was on 7th floor with no elevator and the room was very small and boxy. I checked out a few and the place I liked was Prince 79 hotel on hang Bac. I bargained to $11 from $14 and I liked the room. It was a huge room with aircon, tv and nice hote clean shower. I dropped my bags, showered and went out to look for food. First time in asia, I had some trouble finding food... all I could find were street side food that did not look to my liking at all and furthermore, it was mostly pho and pho is ot really one my favorite dishes. I walked and walked and after consulting my map, I almost went outside of the old quarter into another neighborhood. Painstakingly and hungrily, made my way back to where my hotel was and on the way found a decent looking restaurant where I ordered some Com Dien - Fried Rice. Ate two orders of that and walked back to hotel. It was still 10:30p.m or so, but everything stats to get pretty quiet in Hanoi. I think they have a curfew at 11:00p.m or something. Not a lot of people around on the roads and slight rain starting. Finally reached hotel and had a nice long good sleep.

26/12/2008 - Woke up early the next day and as in every country, went to the local market to check out the fares. As all markets in Asia, very interesting, crowded, lively and full of surprising eatables :) 

One of the biggest differences from Laos and anywhere else I went on this trip, was the insane amount of traffic on the streets.. Its non-stop and everybody's horning and horning.. constant noise, movement, danger everywhere. It took me quite a while to figure out that nobody yields to pedestrians. Pedestrians are the last class of traffic on the road :) You cannot wait for traffic to stop before crossing the road. You just got to five right into the traffic and walk your way carefully within the moving traffic to the other side. Kinded of reminded me of a very old video game - Frogger :) Anyways, for th first crossing, I took a deep breath and with a bit of hesitation here and there, I walked straight in the long 4 lane roads into traffic to cross to the other side. Its a thilling experience, but after you do it a couple of times, u get to sync your movements and steps with traffic and it becomes chid's play ;)

I walked around the area. The night before, as I had come in in the dark, I had not had a chance to see much of what was around. The area which I was, was filled with Shops. Each Road specialized in one type of Item.. some roads were only shoes. some were only bags.. some only tombstones.. very interesting. My duffel bag somehow had gotten heavier and was getting harder to carry around. So, I went to the bag street and bought a 'fake' North Face 75L red backpack. On the way back to the hotel, i stopped by a travel agency and booked an air ticket to Saigon via Jetstar asia and booked a day tour for the next day to Hailong Bay, one of the 7 seven wonders of the world.

Then I did a stupid thing. i thought that when in Rome, do like the romans.. or rather.. when in Vietnam, do like the Vietnamese.. So I stopped by a street pho place and sat down on their very mini tiny chairs and ordered a Pho Ga - Rice Vermicelli soup with Chicken. As I was eating the soup, I felt that something was going wrong in my stomach. Indeed it was. When I got back to the hotel, I was pretty sick.. had diarreah, fever and felt very sick and weak. I think my body just was not used to these germs yet ! I stayed in the hotel for a while and it was getting worse. Ventured out to find a pharmacy and that was hard too, as there was none nearby and I tried to stop around people and ask and nobody spoke English. Fotunately in Laos, the dutch girl I had met (marjolin) had given me a lonley planet vietnamese phrase book. I used that and finally managed to find a pharmacy and I was glad the pharmacist spoke Engish. Bought many pills and went back to the hotel and splept most afternoon and night long. I guess its the custom to at least fall one time sick during a trip and that was my one time :)

Pic 1 : Fruit Seller at Hanoi Morning Market
Pic 2 : Hanoi Morning Market
Pic 3 : Eels for sale at the market
Pic 4 : Shoe Store Display
Pic 5 : Bridge to go to Temple
Pic 6 : Hanoi Street
Pic 7 : Hanoi Traffic (Cyclos, Bikes, Cars Combined)
Pic 8 : Hanoi Street Scene
Pic 9 : Temple Doors and Incense

Morning Market, Luang Prabhang, Laos (part 6)

25/12/2008 -- Today is Christmas ! Sure doesn't feel like it at all around here. Its my last day in Laos. I have a flight around 2:00p.m to go to Hanoi, Vietnam. I have about half a day of sightseeing. Decided to wake up early to go catch another glimpse of the monk alm giving ceremony and after that catch the morning market, which is mostly for locals.

Any country that I go to, I believe that visiting the local markets is where you truly get to see and experience the 'real' country. This morning market was no different. It was for the local people by the local people. It was more a farmer's, hunter's and producer's market.

You could find lots of fresh vegetables, fresh fish fished early morning in the Mekong River on the next street, all sort of game animals the local people hunted (squirrels, birds, frogs, possums etc..), farmed meat and all sorts of produce and food. Lots of the meat on sale, I had no idea what they were. Many animals even I don't know what they are, but as the local guide was telling me the day before in the tuk tuk to kayaking, lao people eat mostly anything. The country is poor and I beleive if I was in same situation, I'd also have eaten anything from which I'd get my proteins.

After strolling around, I sat down at one of the food stalls at the market itself and had a nice grilled chicken for breakfast. Anyways, won't be too long in this post. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Pic 1 : Flowers, Squirrels, Starfruits anyone?
Pic 2 : Vegetable Seller
Pic 3 : Chicken Seller
Pic 4 : Game animal.. not sure what animal this is
Pic 5 : Smoked Dried something
Pic 6 : Grilled Sticky Rice Seller
Pic 7 : Grilling Fish and Chicken
Pic 8 : General Store
Pic 9 : Breakfast

Sunset on Mount Phousy and Wat Phousy, Luang Prabhang, Laos (part 5)

24/12/2008 - After the elephant ride and kayaking back to Luang Prabhang, the tuk tuk dropped me at my hotel around 4:45p.m. It was perfect time to get a quick shower and go to see the Sunset on top of Mount Phousy. They have a wat on top of the mountain and also supposed to have beautiful sunsets reflected on the Mekong River.

Along the way down, they had numerous buddhas and a cave with a buddha footprint. They had buddhas for every day of the week and many other Buddha statues depicting various teachings of Buddha.

Pic 1 : Sunset on Mount Phousy
Pic 2 : Sunset on Mount Phousy
Pic 3 : Saturday Buddha
Pic 4 : Tuesday Buddha
Pic 5 :  Reclining Buddha
Pic 6 : Buddhas on Mount Phousy
Pic 7 : Buddha Teaching

Elephants, Waterfall Dip and Kayaking again, Luang Prabhang (part 4)

12/24/2008 - After watching and participating in the Alms giving ceremony, I went back to the guesthouse to have some coffee and wait for a tuk tuk to come and pick me up for the tour I booked for today. The tour was a day tour that included elephant riding, waterfall swimming and kayaking back to town. Tuk Tuk came and picked us up. Each of the people were signed up for different events, but we'd all kayak back together in the end. A couple was signed up for Mountain Biking and another for hiking for the first half of the day and me and a chinese guy (Bob) were signed up for the same Elephant riding and waterfall in the morning. The next half of the day would be kayaking. Picked up the kayaks in a small village warehouse and off we went the rocky roads to the elephant park, while dropping the others on the way to do their activities.

Me and Bob were on the same events. So we both geared up and kayaked for some 30 minutes to the Elephant park. Elephant park was very nice. We had a 1 hour or so elephant ride through the jungle, passing on rivers, waterfalls etc... It was a good experience and interesting to see the Mahut talking to the elephant in its ear and guiding it what to do and where to go. One thing we noticed throughout the trail, was giant elephant shit from place to place.. I guess with an animal that size, it ought to be big :)

After the ride, we went elephant feeding. They were selling a bunch of bananas for 5000Kips (50 us cents or so), that we could buy and feed the elephants. Feeding them was a thrilling experience. loved it. It was amazing to see how dexterious their trunk is, such that they could just hail it and catch these tiny little bananas from my hand. They like to play around. Got some nice pictures and some good elephant time.

After feeding the elephants, we went to the take a swim in the lake/pool by the Tad Se Waterfalls. The natural pool is shallow, crystal clear water and a bit cold.. but with the high noon sun, it was just perfect. Took a nice long dip  in the crystal clear water. was so relaxing and soothing. Swam to the waterfalls and got a nice high pressure water massage. When we finished swimming, the guides had lunch boxes for us. No fried rice this time as in all my other trips. This time it was a cold sandwich and bananas. We chilled out a bit there after lunch and went back to the Kayaks to kayak down to the city.

As we were kayaking down, we encountered a Mahut (Elephant driver) Training class going on in the river. We stopped our kayaks by the riverside to watch the students learn the different maneavures in handling elephants and play around in the water with the elephants. The elephants were pumping water at each other. It was fun to watch. I had seen brochures about that mahut training class at the travel agency the night before. The Mahut training course is mainly geared for tourists. Its a 2 day overnight course where they teach you the basics of how to ride and talk to the elephants. I think it costs around $150 usd, including accomodation and food and class. 

We then kayaked back downstream for about 2 hours back to Luang Prabhang. We did not have too many white water strong rapids. Very mild current downstream. So, had to paddle pretty hard at times to even move, in the scorching hot sun. We finally reached our ending point though around 4:00p.m and the tuk tuk took us back to town. Just in time for me to shower up, clean up and go and see the sunset from the top of Mount Phousy !

Pic 1 : Feeding the Elephants
Pic 2 : Riding the Elephant
Pic 3 : Tad Se Waterfalls
Pic 4 : Nilesh under the falls
Pic 5 : Single Kayaking down to Luang Prabhang
Pic 6 :  Mahut Training Encounter while kayaking
Pic 7 : Mahut sitting proudly on his elephant
Pic 8 : Nilesh standing with Elephants

Buddhist Alm Giving Ritual, Luang Prabhang (part 3)

24/12/2008 - Luang Prabhang is considered a holy city in Laos. Within the city, there are maybe some 30 wats (buddhist temples) and Luang Prabhang is not even big. According to ritual and tradtion, the monks living in the wats are not supposed to work and are supposed to live on the alms of other people. Every morning, there is a ritual in Luang Prabhang, where the monks leave from their wats and go around the streets of Luang Prabhang to collect alms.

They usually start walking down the streets at sunrise. So, I got up around 5:30a.m today to be able to go and be sure not to miss the alm giving ceremony. I showered and managed to walk down the street to Santi Villa, where usually they start their procession. On my way there, many street vendors were trying to sell me alms to give to the monks.

The alms consist of sticky rice, fruits and something made of coconuts. The monks are supposed to eat only from the alms they receive. I bought some fruits and as everybody else was doing, I sat down by the side of the road to wait for the monks to come and give my offering. The crowd waiting to give alms was very mixed - many local people just sitting down in front of their porch with their offerings wearing a band across their body, and tourists that their hotels had brought and were explaining the rituals and etiquette and the backpackers like myself on our own, looking and learning from what the other people were doing and doing the same.

The monks started walking around 6:30a.m. Each procession starting from their own wats. The elder monks were in front, followed by the younger ones. There were little kids in the end of the lines - novice monks. Everybody was dressed in their saffron robes, were barefoot and each had their ceremonial alm receiving basket.  They passed by and it felt very good to be giving them the fruits I bought. As I had bought only one portion from the vendor, I did not have too much to give to too many monks :(

Beautiful ceremony and ritual.. serene.. selfless and feels good !

Pak Ou Caves, where old Buddhas Retire - Luang Prabhang, Laos (part 2)

23/12/2008 - Today, I had booked a Pak Ou Caves tour for 1/2 day by slow boat. Pak Ou Caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pak_Ou_Caves) is famous in that all old Buddhas (buddha statues that become too old or break) go there to retire. It is a very sacred cave for Lao people.

Woke up early and had a quick Lao Coffee and French Croissant for breakfast and went to wait at the Slow Boat terminal where all boats leave to Pax Ou caves. There were numerous boats leaving and they divided us in group of 6 per boats. We boarded our boat and off we went for the 2 hour ride along the Mekong River to the Pax Ou Caves.

Before reaching Pax Ou Caves, the boat stopped in a Lao village where they make Lao-Lao (lao whisky) and we got to your around the village for 1/2 an hour or so. They had some interesting drinks - made by soaking up snakes, scopions, chameleons - on sale. Each of these had labels for what they were prescribed for. Some for better joints, some for better manhood, some for headache.. I guess each type of snake, insects have different effects on the body.

We finally reached the Pax Ou Caves. It consists of two caves - Tham Ting and Tham Theung. We had to climb a harsh set of steps in the burning sun to reach the upper cave. All along the way, little kids were selling caged birds. The idea was you buy them and set them them free and you get good luck.

Reached the upper caves and fortunately I had a headlight in my backpack, otherwise, they do rent/sell them in front of the caves. Went in to explore the cave and it was marvelous and very spiritual. Lots and lots of Buddhas all over the place, big and small, in all positions. Some were in very bad shape, eaten by moths or heads or limbs broken off, while some were in decent shape. Everything was in the dark cave and we could only see by flashlight. Enjoyed the serenity and spirituality of the place a lot.

Pic 1 : Snake Infused Drinks in Lao Village
Pic 2 : Scorpion Infused Drinks in Lao Village
Pic 3 : In the Slowboat
Pic 4 : Me inside the caves
Pic 5 : Buddhas
Pic 6 : Buddhas
Pic 7 : Little Girl Selling Caged Bird
Pic 8 : Slow Boats Waiting in front of the Caves
Pic 9 : Many Buddhas
Pic 10 : Happy Buddha and Little Buddha
Pic 11 : Reclining Buddha

Luang Prabhang, Laos (Part 1)

22/12/2008 - Today, I had booked a mini bus to Luang Prabhang(LP) for 115,000 Kips. Had I taken a regular bus, it'd be 110,000. I decided to take the mini bus and save 1/2 hour or so for an additional 5000 Kips. The van crowd was very nice -we had a good group - an Australian dude and his Dutch girlfriend, 2 Japanese girls and a Taiwanese girls studying all at the same university in Singapore and two local Lao people. We had a nice language and culture discussion during the trip. We each taught each other words from our languages and cultural differences. We reached Luang Prabhang around 3:00p.m I think, after stopping mid way for lunch. Took a shared Tuk Tuk to centre of town as usual, for 10,000 kips.

Did not have a good map of LP, walked around quite a bit aimlessly and finally found a couple of tourists which I asked for advice on accomodation and they gave me a low-down on Luang Prabhang and where to find accommodation. I followed their advice and found a nice room for 90,000 kips (about $10USD) with air con, satellite TV and free coffee and bananas int the morning. Set my things down in the room, showered and went out to explore the city. Very close to where I was staying, there was a night market, where local people sell tshirts, artisanal stuff and local products. Browsed about the market and it was already getting dark.

A little girl came to me trying to sell me keychains and stuff. Told her I did not need any, then she asked me if I could buy her a pad thai at the street stand nearby. So, we went to the pad thai merchant and both of us had the most delicious pad thai ever. The girl was only about 10 years old and in school and sold keychains and stuff in the evenings to be able to buy school supplies etc.. 

The same road where the night market was, was filled with many travel agents and internet cafes (100 kips per minute). I went into a travel agency and tried to find out day tours that they had. After browsing a few options and checking which tours already had people (if people are already signed up, you pay cheaper), I picked a half day tour to go see the Pak Hou caves, a cave where Old Buddhas retire. In fact, as the statues of buddha get old or break, they are are put in this one cave. That cave is about  1 1/2 to 2 hours by slow boat and the boats stop on the way to a lao-lao (lao whisky) making village for us to check.

 I was pretty tired by then and called it a night and went back to the guesthouse to sleep.

Pic 1 : Lunch (where the minivan stopped half way to LP)
Pic 2 : Many minivans stopped for lunch and passengers stretching
Pic 3 : Luang Prabhang Night market
Pic 4 : Umbrellas at Luang Prabhang Night Market
Pic 5 : Wholesale Orange Sellers by the riverside
Pic 6 : One of the many street side restaurants in Luang Prabhang
Pic 7 : Street Snack Seller

Vang Vieng, Laos

20/12/2008 - 22/12/2008 : Took the early bus from Vientiane to go to Vang Vieng. Bus ride is about 3 hours. We were supposed to get an air-conditioned bus, but I think what they meant by it, is natural air-conditioning, by opening up the windows. Anyways, ride to Vang Vieng was good. I sat down next to some German Geneticicist working in Australia and we shared travel stories and in less than no time, we were already in Vang Vieng.

Reached Vang Vieng around noon and I met an Israeli guy - Benni, who was in the same bus as me who wanted to go and look for guesthouses together. We took a shared tuk tuk for 5000 Kips/person to drop us in the center of town even though it was walking distance. We checked out about 4 guesthouses and they were so very cheap - in the $4 - $7 range per room with own private bathroom and air-con/fan. Benni picked one and I picked another one. I picked the NguenPhanith Guesthouse and paid 40,000 kips per night for it (about $5 USD). I had a nice clean double bed room with fan, private hot shower bathroom and commode.

The guesthouse had a restaurant downstairs with bed style lounges, where one could lounge, eat and watch 'friends' all day long. Yes, 'friends'. A lot of restaurants/lounges in Vang Vieng play non-stop 'Friends' episodes over episodes on TV all day long. The settings of these restaurants are lounge like.. no chairs.. just cushions with low tables.. such that one could basically lie down full length at each table. Its exactly how the lonely planet guidebook mentionned it - 'VanVieng is just lazy bums watching infinite re-runs of friends drinking 'happy' shakes'.. yes Happy Shakes. So I came down to have lunch and immediately someone came and asked me if I wanted 'special' shakes or 'special' pizza. What it is is just shakes or pizzas, with magic halucinogen mushrooms or marijuana. Had some Lao lunch (non-magic), Watched a couple of episodes of friends and then met up Benni for some sightseeing.

We rented bicyles. These were expensive in Vang Vieng - 20,000 kips vs 10,000 in Vientiane and also had to return them by 7:00p.m, whereas in Vientianne, it was for 24 hours. We biked around the little town that was Vang Vieng. Checked out a few sites and went by the river to watch sunset and watch the returning 'Tubers'.. Vang Vieng is famous for river tubing. They have quite a few riverside bars with bamboo platforms and cushions, where one can lie down, watch the river, have some drinks and enjoy the day. I was looking at their menu and they had magic drinks for about 60,000 kips. Lao Beer is 10,000.

While having some drinks, met up with a local Lao guy who was also vacationing there. He told us of some the cool things to do and things to check at night. Went back to the guesthouse for dinner and later at night came by the riverside. All the bars by the riverside had a bonfire, loud music, cheap drinks and people dancing, partying around the fire. It was nice, but they all close at midnight.

Booked a whole day tour for the next day to do some caving for for the first half of the day and then tubing for the next half. Tuk Tuk came to pick me up and we went off to the Caving place. Our tour group was a varied nice group of people, a couple from Australia, an english dude, a thai lady, a french guy and his philipina wife and two tour guides. The first cave we checked was the Elephant cave where  there were some naturally formed elephant structures. After that, we walked through a Lao traditional village to go to our next cave.

The village was interesting. Lots of free roaming animals - pigs, chickens, cows, calfs, dogs, ducks and roosters. Lots of kids also playing around and people busying themselves at day to day activities such as weaving, farming, napping. We passed through this village to go the next Cave, where we would be tubing it out. We each got a rubber tube (from the inside of truck wheels) and we sat down in it and were to follow the guide into the water cave, each of us armed with a head lamp. There was a guide rope we can use to pull ourselves in the cave and follow the group. For as long as there was the rope, we pulled ourselves in the low caves and admired the various stalactite and stalagmite formations, the different cave insects and other darkness goodies.As we paddles through the caves, it was funny how the water temperature changed from very cold to warm and back and forth. We had a good 30-45 minutes cave visit and then finally got out.

Lunch was provided as part of the trip. The guides grilled some chicken and pineapple kebabs for us and we ate that with fried rice and bananas.

After lunch and chill out in the sun to dry out, we proceeded to our next event - Tubing in the Nam Song River.. Basically what the tubing consists of, is just sitting down in an inner tube and just let it go downstream by paddling with the hands or just letting the current take you down. Along the entire river, there are many bars. So the whole tubing thing is just a big drunk and chilling out festival. From our starting point, its about 4 km downstream. We had the guide come with us in a Kayak in case we needed some help etc.. + he kept our drybags for us. We started the tubing and stopped a few of the bars along the way. Each of the bars have got huge trapeze like structures where one could do some trapeze before jumping into the river. Another bar had a giant water slide, where you'd slide down and land in the middle of the river. I did not do any of these after my water incident the day before. After about half way tubing (2 or so hours), I got bored and was wishing  it would end.. as there was not much current and we had to paddle with our hands.. we did not need to paddle as well.. if we just wanted to chill in the sun and letting the river take us wherever. At some points along the river route, there were rocks and the river was shallow, where the rocks would give the bottoms a very good massage.

We finally reached the ending point for the tubing and we disembarked. Before going back to the hotel, I stopped along the way in a travel agency and bought a bus ticket to go to Luang Prabhan the next morning for 105,000 kips and also bought a plane ticket to go from Luang Prabhan to Hanoi on Lao Airlines for $115, after spending 3 days in Luang Prabhan.

After that, after a good hot shower, had a nice Lao dinner that night and watched maybe some 4 episodes of Friends before going to to the riverside bars to have a chill time. Tomorrow morning, got to catch the early bus to Luang Prabhan. I had a marvelous time in Vang Vieng and good experiences. The one difference here though is the crowd - most of the people were in the 18 - 23 year old age range. It seemed more a like a college spring break town than anything else. Felt kind of OLD but had lots of fun though !!

Pic 1 : Tubing down the Nam Song River
Pic 2 : Many Riverside bars have bamboo louges by the river
Pic 3 : Naturally Formed Elephant Structure in the Elephant Cave
Pic 4 : Me and the group getting reading to tube into the Cave
Pic 5 : Lao Village Home
Pic 6 : Free Roaming Pig enjoying the cool mud
Pic 7 : Streets of Vang Vieng in the morning
Pic 8 : One of the many restaurants/lounge bars having friends re-run
Pic 9 : Smile Bar at night (one of the few riverside bars)
Pic 10 : My $5 room
Pic 11 : Adorable Lao Kids Greeting us as we walk through the village