We are sitting in Mumbai with butterflies in our stomachs because our flight to the US tonight marks the end of the most amazing few months... few years... but at the same time we are thrilled to be heading home at last, and to finally see much missed friends and family.
What about India you ask?
India has been a wild ride but we have loved every bit of it and have tons of photos and stories. The stories are written, but the addition of photos has unto now been thwarted by slow internet speeds. Stick with us a few more days as we sort ourselves out and we'll dazzle you with the things we've seen and done... really, it's been spectacular... before we say our goodbyes.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur
After we reluctantly came down from the coolth of the Cameron Highlands, we found ourselves on the ferry to Georgetown, the main city of Penang, an island off the west coast of peninsular Maylasia. Georgetown has a reputation as a culinary and cultural center of Malaysia, and held an important role as a trading center in the past. With Bart and Sabine and notherBelgian friend, Stijn, we made merry at an open air food court where we could sample all different kinds of snacks, and attempted an historical walking tour of the town. A small place, Georgetown seemed most special to me for it's architecture, a hodge-podge of chinese temples, mosques, colonial architecture, rich old merchant mansions, dusty concrete store fronts and apartments, etc. 
We had just this short visit in Georgetown to get the flavor of the place before heading back to KL where we planned to have a quick visit around the city before catching our flight to India. Once back in the big city, we were amazed by the efficient public transportation, easily navigating the metro to criss-cross town, going first to the KL tower for it's panaramic views of the city, and then over to a museum and garden complex where we got a good overview of Malaysian history - particularly interesting in light of the great diversity within the country as well as its fast development.
Finally, we raced back to the guesthouse to pick up our bags before taking the commuter train out to the suburbs where a family friend of my parents hosted us to a great dinner, interesting discussion, warm showers, and a ride to the airport the next morning.
Finally, we raced back to the guesthouse to pick up our bags before taking the commuter train out to the suburbs where a family friend of my parents hosted us to a great dinner, interesting discussion, warm showers, and a ride to the airport the next morning. Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
From Bali, we flew to Kuala Lumpur, but only spent one night there before catching a bus for the Cameron Highlands, an elevated and cool rainforest area in the center of peninsular Malaysia. There we stayed in Tanah Rata, a little town with fantastic Indian food, cheap rooms, fun hiking trails, and, crucially, cable tv to watch the election results! It was also, I should mention, so cool as to be downright cold at night, a welcome change from the last several months of sweating we'd been doing.
Pierce and Hannah met back up with us in Tanah Rata, and we celebrated Obama's victory along with the manager, the cook, and the driver, all of whom were delighted... at our giddy excitement, if nothing else!
Bart and Sabine, our Belgian friends from Yogyakarta, met up with us as well, and despite the wet weather, we managed to squeeze in some great hikes.
There we are with a whole crew from the guesthouse, in the middle of an afternoon of hiking in the rainforest. 
That night we taught everyone how to play texas hold 'em :)
The next day we headed further up into the hills to check out a tea plantation, racing against both the rain and our afternoon bus to the coast.
Pierce and Hannah met back up with us in Tanah Rata, and we celebrated Obama's victory along with the manager, the cook, and the driver, all of whom were delighted... at our giddy excitement, if nothing else!
Bart and Sabine, our Belgian friends from Yogyakarta, met up with us as well, and despite the wet weather, we managed to squeeze in some great hikes.
There we are with a whole crew from the guesthouse, in the middle of an afternoon of hiking in the rainforest. That night we taught everyone how to play texas hold 'em :)The next day we headed further up into the hills to check out a tea plantation, racing against both the rain and our afternoon bus to the coast.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Bromo & a lot of sitting on buses which would eventually bring us to Bali
In Yogya we signed up for through-transport to the island of Bali.
The plan was that a day bus ride would bring us to our overnight stop outside of Probolingo where we would spend the night in order to do a pre-dawn climb to the peak of Mt. Bromo, a slightly-active volcano set, along with two other peaks, in the middle of a crater which is sunk in the middle of a high plateau. Dramatic, no?
After our hike and breakfast, we'd put in another day of bus-time, take the ferry to Bali, and get on one more bus for transfer to Lovina, on the Northern coast of the island. All the logistics were supposedly taken care of so it was to be an easy plan, if hard on the ass.
Bromo was absolutely amazing. The rest of the trip, less so.
Day one involved 10 hours in a mini-van, but we had some room to stretch out a bit, and the day passed surprisingly quickly. We arrived late at our hostel where we grabbed a bite to eat before crashing in preparation for our 4am wake up. The next day we met up with 3 Dutch companions and set out at 4:30 am in the freezing dark. Ben and I had strong flashlights with us (thanks Mr. Blair!), but that was it, and there were no other lights as we headed down into the crater. That was the easy part though, because we could follow the road down. Once we got to the crater, we were told that there were some white stones which we could follow for an easy 20 minute stroll to the base of Bromo where we would find a staircase leading us to the rim of the volcano. Well, let's just say that we never found those white stones, but we did end up on a fantastic hike winding through an ancient lava field and straight up to the highest part of Bromo's rim, racing the sunrise the whole time. Check it out:
After a shower and breakfast, we got back on the bus which took us from the heights of the plateau back down to Probolingo where we sat around for awhile before another van, much more crowded this time, picked us up around 11. Less than an hour in, a young Dutch guy and a young Indonesian guy who worked for the tour company almost came to blows because the Dutch guy didn't think he should have to share his seat; this was his first trip in Asia.We had a very tense 10 minutes which included a small civil-war between the 6 Dutch in the car who disagreed on who was at fault, and a very worried driver finally getting the Indonesian kid to take off before things got worse. Ben and I just tried to keep our heads down. Eventually we took off again, but had to take detours because of political rallies filling some of the towns on the way to the coast. FINALLY we made it around 7, only to find out that in fact it was "too late" and our bus on the otherside of the ferry, in Bali, was no longer available to us. The tour company eventually bought us each a ferry ticket, and wished us good luck.
On arrival in Bali, we searched for a bus to Lovina but the public buses had stopped running. Conveniently, a private van was waiting where the public buses *should* be for any travellers stragling in late... Luckily there were 7 of us to negotiate a somewhat decent price to charter the van, and we set off for a final 2 hour ride which would finally bring us to Lovina. The van dropped us off here:
Our first horrified response was that we couldn't afford the place, but the owner found us some decent $8 rooms around the back and we settled in for a few days of luxury.
The plan was that a day bus ride would bring us to our overnight stop outside of Probolingo where we would spend the night in order to do a pre-dawn climb to the peak of Mt. Bromo, a slightly-active volcano set, along with two other peaks, in the middle of a crater which is sunk in the middle of a high plateau. Dramatic, no?
After our hike and breakfast, we'd put in another day of bus-time, take the ferry to Bali, and get on one more bus for transfer to Lovina, on the Northern coast of the island. All the logistics were supposedly taken care of so it was to be an easy plan, if hard on the ass.Bromo was absolutely amazing. The rest of the trip, less so.
Day one involved 10 hours in a mini-van, but we had some room to stretch out a bit, and the day passed surprisingly quickly. We arrived late at our hostel where we grabbed a bite to eat before crashing in preparation for our 4am wake up. The next day we met up with 3 Dutch companions and set out at 4:30 am in the freezing dark. Ben and I had strong flashlights with us (thanks Mr. Blair!), but that was it, and there were no other lights as we headed down into the crater. That was the easy part though, because we could follow the road down. Once we got to the crater, we were told that there were some white stones which we could follow for an easy 20 minute stroll to the base of Bromo where we would find a staircase leading us to the rim of the volcano. Well, let's just say that we never found those white stones, but we did end up on a fantastic hike winding through an ancient lava field and straight up to the highest part of Bromo's rim, racing the sunrise the whole time. Check it out:
After a shower and breakfast, we got back on the bus which took us from the heights of the plateau back down to Probolingo where we sat around for awhile before another van, much more crowded this time, picked us up around 11. Less than an hour in, a young Dutch guy and a young Indonesian guy who worked for the tour company almost came to blows because the Dutch guy didn't think he should have to share his seat; this was his first trip in Asia.We had a very tense 10 minutes which included a small civil-war between the 6 Dutch in the car who disagreed on who was at fault, and a very worried driver finally getting the Indonesian kid to take off before things got worse. Ben and I just tried to keep our heads down. Eventually we took off again, but had to take detours because of political rallies filling some of the towns on the way to the coast. FINALLY we made it around 7, only to find out that in fact it was "too late" and our bus on the otherside of the ferry, in Bali, was no longer available to us. The tour company eventually bought us each a ferry ticket, and wished us good luck.On arrival in Bali, we searched for a bus to Lovina but the public buses had stopped running. Conveniently, a private van was waiting where the public buses *should* be for any travellers stragling in late... Luckily there were 7 of us to negotiate a somewhat decent price to charter the van, and we set off for a final 2 hour ride which would finally bring us to Lovina. The van dropped us off here:
Our first horrified response was that we couldn't afford the place, but the owner found us some decent $8 rooms around the back and we settled in for a few days of luxury.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Yogyakarta & Borobadur: Indonesia wins the place-name game
From Jakarta we took an overnight train ride in which I got more sleep than Ben, and that's just because I lay down on the floor, and that's still not saying much. Once in Yogya (pronounced jogja), it took us awhile to find a cheap room, after which we promptly went back to sleep for a few more hours before preparing to explore the town, famous as a "culture center" of Java. Our exploration plans were foiled, however, by a rainy afternoon and evening which pinned us in our corner of the city. We had good company, though, in the form of Bart and Sabine, a Belgian couple who we met up with again in Malaysia a few weeks later.
Due to a very tight schedule in Indonesia -- we were racing through Java in order to squeeze in a taste of Malaysia before our flight to India -- we didn't end up seeing much of the town itself, but we were lucky in that the rain let up enough for us to spend a day at Borobadur, the real reason we'd come to Yogya. Borobadur is up there with the buildings of Angkor in terms of historical importance and archaelogical tradition.
It is the biggest stupa in the world, like a mammoth stone wedding cake with Buddhas on top and intricate carvings of stories and people and places and customs ringing each of the layers. 
The building was amazing -- we were worried that Angkor would have left us jaded, but we loved climbing around the building and were drawn in by one detailed carving after another.
For more shots of Borobadur (and the rest of our Indonesia leg, if you're too antsy to wait for the blog to catch up), go here.
Due to a very tight schedule in Indonesia -- we were racing through Java in order to squeeze in a taste of Malaysia before our flight to India -- we didn't end up seeing much of the town itself, but we were lucky in that the rain let up enough for us to spend a day at Borobadur, the real reason we'd come to Yogya. Borobadur is up there with the buildings of Angkor in terms of historical importance and archaelogical tradition.
It is the biggest stupa in the world, like a mammoth stone wedding cake with Buddhas on top and intricate carvings of stories and people and places and customs ringing each of the layers. 
The building was amazing -- we were worried that Angkor would have left us jaded, but we loved climbing around the building and were drawn in by one detailed carving after another.
For more shots of Borobadur (and the rest of our Indonesia leg, if you're too antsy to wait for the blog to catch up), go here.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Entering Indonesia, or We Survive Jakarta
We touched down in Jakarta, Indonesia around midnight, and didn't make it out of the airport til at least 1am. This was of some concern to us as a few ex-pats contributing to online travel forums had some safety tips including 1) do not walk around after dark and 2) only take bluebird or silverbird taxis... or else your taxi driver just may possibly violently rob you. We were slightly on edge when we walked out of the airport.
The first guy who approached us had a Bluebird Taxi Group badge. Lovely, we thought. We followed him as far as the unmarked, un-metered sedan he wanted us to toss our bags into before realizing that everyone out there had a bluebird or silverbird taxi badge, and they were all fake. I turned tail, and Ben had a hairy moment with about 10 guys shouting at him that we'd made a "verbal agreement" (we hadn't) before he too made it back to the relative safety of the airport portico. Eventually finding a real taxi, we went to the single street of budget hostels, aware that it was a shabby part of town but hoping we could find a room without too much difficulty -- afterall, it was the low season. Hah.
The first guy who approached us had a Bluebird Taxi Group badge. Lovely, we thought. We followed him as far as the unmarked, un-metered sedan he wanted us to toss our bags into before realizing that everyone out there had a bluebird or silverbird taxi badge, and they were all fake. I turned tail, and Ben had a hairy moment with about 10 guys shouting at him that we'd made a "verbal agreement" (we hadn't) before he too made it back to the relative safety of the airport portico. Eventually finding a real taxi, we went to the single street of budget hostels, aware that it was a shabby part of town but hoping we could find a room without too much difficulty -- afterall, it was the low season. Hah.
After asking at at least 6 different places who turned us away, and Ben almost walking into some sort of gang related altercation swirling down the street, we found a wonderful desk clerk who started calling other hotels for us. At this point we were afraid we'd be paying a fortune for whatever place he found us, but eventually the Setiabudhi Hotel came through for $35, a small fortune compared to our usual $3-6 rooms, but worth it for a hot shower, a comfortable bed, A/C, safety & security at 3am.
That kindly desk clerk turned the tables for us, because everyone we met the next day was incredibly nice and helpful. We breezed through the purchase of train tickets thanks to a few of the station staff, and I was able to mail in my ballot thanks to an old taxi driver who helped us locate the Fed-Ex center, and thanks to the program Express Your Vote which whisked my ballot overnight and for FREE back to Virginia. Thank you Fed-Ex!
Jakarta is a gritty, traffic-filled city, with this as it's sole tourist attraction/landmark.
Ben, who bore the brunt of the previous night's stress in ushering us to a safe haven, does not think on the city fondly, though I feel like I have a special connection with it since I was able to vote there. We BOTH, however, were very grateful for one of the city's newest residents, Stella, who worked last year with Ben in China, and now works at a private school just outside Jakarta. After our day of running errands around the city, she came in and swept us out to the subburbs where we had a fabulous Indonesian meal and spent a very special evening with her and her friend Santiago, comic genius and host extraordinare. 
Ben, who bore the brunt of the previous night's stress in ushering us to a safe haven, does not think on the city fondly, though I feel like I have a special connection with it since I was able to vote there. We BOTH, however, were very grateful for one of the city's newest residents, Stella, who worked last year with Ben in China, and now works at a private school just outside Jakarta. After our day of running errands around the city, she came in and swept us out to the subburbs where we had a fabulous Indonesian meal and spent a very special evening with her and her friend Santiago, comic genius and host extraordinare. 
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Some other things we did in Thailand...
1) After Pai, we went back to Chiang Mai and successfully picked up our India visas, woohoo!
2) Took a rather unhappy overnight bus ride resulting in us sleeping for 6 hours upon arrival in Bangkok.
3) Were overwhelmed by Bangkok's enormous MBK shopping center.
4) Spent several hours on a bus in Bangkok traffic.
5) Visited the very cool grand-palace.
--> For more shots of the grand palace and some other odds and ends from our 2 weeks in Thailand, go here.
6) Had some street food and drink and were repeatedly blessed by the little monk standing on the upper-right.
7) Boarded a flight to Jakarta, Indonesia.
2) Took a rather unhappy overnight bus ride resulting in us sleeping for 6 hours upon arrival in Bangkok.
3) Were overwhelmed by Bangkok's enormous MBK shopping center.
4) Spent several hours on a bus in Bangkok traffic.
5) Visited the very cool grand-palace.
--> For more shots of the grand palace and some other odds and ends from our 2 weeks in Thailand, go here.6) Had some street food and drink and were repeatedly blessed by the little monk standing on the upper-right.
7) Boarded a flight to Jakarta, Indonesia.
Pai aka Where We Had Some Big Adventures
Ohhh Pai, where aged American hippies go to marry beautiful Thai tribeswomen and live among the lush highlands of northern Thailand while obsessively reading conspiracy theory websites. Also where we tapped such aged hippie-resources for cheap rooms in the upstairs of a home, and bagels and creamcheese each morning for breakfast. Also where we did a great trek into the hills, and took our lives into our hands by joining the hordes and renting motor-bikes. Read on.
IN WHICH WE GO ON A TREK
Along with our rather solitary leader, Mr. Toil (really), we set out early on a public bus headed for a large hill-tribe village where we'd start our hike. In order to experience the countryside more fully, we were led off the road and through some paddies to a junglish hill which we slogged up and over.
On the other side of the hill there was the corn patch where Ben got lost for half an hour. Needless to say, his version of this story differs from the rest of ours, but we can all agree that our little group was mysteriously separated in the surprisingly labyrinth-like field for a significant period of time.
After we'd all successfully negotiated the corn patch, we waded through streams, beat down brush, wound our way through a bamboo forest, and hiked small dirt paths. I got 3 leeches.
That night we had a bonfire and drank tea and learned from Toil about the political apathy and almost wholly agricultural lives of most hill-tribe villagers. He also told us though, that for the first time, the hill-tribes have food for at least a year and improved connections to the outside world. This was our home for the night.
We also watched the most perfect and brilliantly bright full moon that I have ever seen light the sky as it rose above the trees.
The next day, we did some serious up-hill hiking and re-prised much of the day before, arriving at last in the sun-drenched village where it had all begun the day before. We hitched a ride home from some friendly military folks in a pick-up.
IN WHICH WE TOOL AROUND ON MOTORBIKES and feel like badasses...
We're still alive, and we have no tell-tale burns or bandages the way half the other foreigners wandering around town did. We spent two days scooting around the area with Ben and Pierce manfully steering us out to waterfalls and hot springs, around elephants, etc. 
The countryside was just beautiful and we had perfect cruising weather.
IN WHICH WE GO ON A TREK
Along with our rather solitary leader, Mr. Toil (really), we set out early on a public bus headed for a large hill-tribe village where we'd start our hike. In order to experience the countryside more fully, we were led off the road and through some paddies to a junglish hill which we slogged up and over.
On the other side of the hill there was the corn patch where Ben got lost for half an hour. Needless to say, his version of this story differs from the rest of ours, but we can all agree that our little group was mysteriously separated in the surprisingly labyrinth-like field for a significant period of time.
After we'd all successfully negotiated the corn patch, we waded through streams, beat down brush, wound our way through a bamboo forest, and hiked small dirt paths. I got 3 leeches.
That night we had a bonfire and drank tea and learned from Toil about the political apathy and almost wholly agricultural lives of most hill-tribe villagers. He also told us though, that for the first time, the hill-tribes have food for at least a year and improved connections to the outside world. This was our home for the night.
We also watched the most perfect and brilliantly bright full moon that I have ever seen light the sky as it rose above the trees.The next day, we did some serious up-hill hiking and re-prised much of the day before, arriving at last in the sun-drenched village where it had all begun the day before. We hitched a ride home from some friendly military folks in a pick-up.
IN WHICH WE TOOL AROUND ON MOTORBIKES and feel like badasses...
We're still alive, and we have no tell-tale burns or bandages the way half the other foreigners wandering around town did. We spent two days scooting around the area with Ben and Pierce manfully steering us out to waterfalls and hot springs, around elephants, etc. 
The countryside was just beautiful and we had perfect cruising weather.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Chiang Mai
In Chiang Mai we met back up with Pierce and Hannah, which entailed a lot of poker while we waited for Monday to arrive so we could go to the consulate and apply for our Indian visas.
Border Crossing: Laos to Thailand
Here were our options to get from Luang Prabang, in northern Laos, to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, just a wee distance apart on the map.
1) Fast boat + bus = a speedboat which is liable to disintegrate on contact with Mekong River debris and is so dangerous that it may soon be outlawed to foreigners (1 day) + border checkpoint and 2 buses (1 day)
2) Slow boat + bus = 100 foreigners packed onto hard wooden benches for 10 hours one day, and 7 hours the next day to reach the border (2 days) + border checkpoint and 2 buses (1 day)
3) Bus + bus = 17 hours of windy, muddy, pot-holed roads in Laos to get to the border (1-2 days) + border checkpoint and 2 buses (1 day)
4) Plane = 1 hour
We like to consider ourselves intrepid travelers, but we were staring down the barrel of one month and three countries left in SE Asia... we took the plane.
1) Fast boat + bus = a speedboat which is liable to disintegrate on contact with Mekong River debris and is so dangerous that it may soon be outlawed to foreigners (1 day) + border checkpoint and 2 buses (1 day)
2) Slow boat + bus = 100 foreigners packed onto hard wooden benches for 10 hours one day, and 7 hours the next day to reach the border (2 days) + border checkpoint and 2 buses (1 day)
3) Bus + bus = 17 hours of windy, muddy, pot-holed roads in Laos to get to the border (1-2 days) + border checkpoint and 2 buses (1 day)
4) Plane = 1 hour
We like to consider ourselves intrepid travelers, but we were staring down the barrel of one month and three countries left in SE Asia... we took the plane.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Luang Prabang
First off, Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site, mostly, as far as I can tell, because of the number of wats and monks. 
The town is filled with these wats (small monastery/temples) where monks of all ages go about there daily lives. Around 6am each morning the monks process to receive food offerings from locals and, increasingly, tourists who are sometimes bused in just for the show, and line up in droves with cameras on tripods to capture it. I had been pushing for us to get up and see the procession, but we found ourselves embarrassed to be among the other tourists, and decided to refrain from taking photos and take a quiet stroll instead.
We had great company while in Luang Prabang, including friends from southern Laos and an Irish couple who had spent 6 months in India and were on their way to China; we exchanged lots of stories and tips. One of the quirks of Luang Prabang is that the whole town closes up at 11pm except a Chinese run bowling alley on the outskirts of the area. One night, after a lovely evening of drinks by the river and all-you-can-fit-on-your-plate vegetarian food for $.60, we piled into a tuk-tuk and bowled the night away.
The 3 Americans far out-bowled the Cambodian, the Belgian, and the 2 Irish. In case you were wondering.
While we enjoyed an afternoon cycling around town, and evenings of fantastic street food, our favorite day took us out of town to the Kuang Si waterfall, hands down the best I've ever been to! On our way in, we stopped by the moon bear preserve where several rescued bears, captured when babies to harvest their bile for "medicine", were living out their lives in peace.
They're called Moon Bears for the distinctive half-moon shaped swoop of white marking their chests.
The waterfall itself was super dramatic.
Walking up to it, we passed some beautiful smaller pools,
and once at the top we were able to hike up around the side where we found a wooden staircase which went straight up through some cascades to reach the top of the mountain.
Back in town, we climbed Phu Si hill on our last evening in order to catch the sunset and the lovely views over the whole area.
The town is filled with these wats (small monastery/temples) where monks of all ages go about there daily lives. Around 6am each morning the monks process to receive food offerings from locals and, increasingly, tourists who are sometimes bused in just for the show, and line up in droves with cameras on tripods to capture it. I had been pushing for us to get up and see the procession, but we found ourselves embarrassed to be among the other tourists, and decided to refrain from taking photos and take a quiet stroll instead.We had great company while in Luang Prabang, including friends from southern Laos and an Irish couple who had spent 6 months in India and were on their way to China; we exchanged lots of stories and tips. One of the quirks of Luang Prabang is that the whole town closes up at 11pm except a Chinese run bowling alley on the outskirts of the area. One night, after a lovely evening of drinks by the river and all-you-can-fit-on-your-plate vegetarian food for $.60, we piled into a tuk-tuk and bowled the night away.
The 3 Americans far out-bowled the Cambodian, the Belgian, and the 2 Irish. In case you were wondering.While we enjoyed an afternoon cycling around town, and evenings of fantastic street food, our favorite day took us out of town to the Kuang Si waterfall, hands down the best I've ever been to! On our way in, we stopped by the moon bear preserve where several rescued bears, captured when babies to harvest their bile for "medicine", were living out their lives in peace.
They're called Moon Bears for the distinctive half-moon shaped swoop of white marking their chests.The waterfall itself was super dramatic.
Walking up to it, we passed some beautiful smaller pools,
and once at the top we were able to hike up around the side where we found a wooden staircase which went straight up through some cascades to reach the top of the mountain.
Back in town, we climbed Phu Si hill on our last evening in order to catch the sunset and the lovely views over the whole area.
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Road to Luang Prabang
At 9am a mini-van swung by our guest house and we were whisked across town to the bus station where we and about 30 other people were packed like sardines into three mini-vans, our bags slung up on the roof, and after a little rearranging, we were off!
'Off' being relative because this road was just FULL of potholes, mud pits, hairpin turns, and the like... not the worst we've ever been on, but, tucked in the back with our knees to our chins, our
mournful early thoughts were that this was going to be a LONG ride. Luckily, it was also a stunning ride as we headed up and into and around and through the mountains of northern Laos. Entire villages were tucked along the curves, with stilts holding them up over sheer drops, and each time 
we emerged from behind a mountain another gorgeous vista was spread below us.
All this beauty served to lull us despite the high speed and violent taking of turns that our driver was committed to.
About 4 hours in to what was billed as a 6 hour ride, there was a thud directly beneath me, and a scraping sound as we screeeched to a halt. Ben looked left, and saw our tire go whirling past us and over the side of the mountain.
Driver was absolutely unperturbed. Getting out of the van, he sent some local kids who were standing around to go look for the tire. We passengers were a little stunned, but pitched in by scouring the road in search of the nuts. Driver pulled out a hammer and went at the wheel well with a vengeance. Was this the end of the road for us today, you might ask? Not at all. The kids reappeared with the wheel, the driver put that wheel right back on, and we loaded back up and took off. At first the driver was definitely testing the waters carefully, taking curves slowly and carefully, pulling to a stop twice to get the hammer back out when the wheel got a little wonky again. Soon his confidence was back though, and we were tearing around curves like our wheel had never flown off at all.
Big sighs all around when we pulled into the bus station outside of Luang Prabang.
'Off' being relative because this road was just FULL of potholes, mud pits, hairpin turns, and the like... not the worst we've ever been on, but, tucked in the back with our knees to our chins, our
mournful early thoughts were that this was going to be a LONG ride. Luckily, it was also a stunning ride as we headed up and into and around and through the mountains of northern Laos. Entire villages were tucked along the curves, with stilts holding them up over sheer drops, and each time 
we emerged from behind a mountain another gorgeous vista was spread below us.All this beauty served to lull us despite the high speed and violent taking of turns that our driver was committed to.
About 4 hours in to what was billed as a 6 hour ride, there was a thud directly beneath me, and a scraping sound as we screeeched to a halt. Ben looked left, and saw our tire go whirling past us and over the side of the mountain.
Driver was absolutely unperturbed. Getting out of the van, he sent some local kids who were standing around to go look for the tire. We passengers were a little stunned, but pitched in by scouring the road in search of the nuts. Driver pulled out a hammer and went at the wheel well with a vengeance. Was this the end of the road for us today, you might ask? Not at all. The kids reappeared with the wheel, the driver put that wheel right back on, and we loaded back up and took off. At first the driver was definitely testing the waters carefully, taking curves slowly and carefully, pulling to a stop twice to get the hammer back out when the wheel got a little wonky again. Soon his confidence was back though, and we were tearing around curves like our wheel had never flown off at all.Big sighs all around when we pulled into the bus station outside of Luang Prabang.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Vang Vieng, Laos
Vang Vieng is a small town conveniently located halfway between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, in Northern Laos. It's in a beautiful location, with caves and cycling draws, but has become a fixture on the backpacker trail for its special take on tubing (mom, that's sitting on a big inner-tube and floating down a river; often beer is involved). The river there is pretty clean, and flows between mountains, villages... and bars. About a dozen bars, with bass beats throbbing, mud volleyball, crazy zip-line and trapeze style swings out over the water, and cheap whiskey buckets, line the first two kilometers of the trip. As you float by, they throw out ropes and haul you in for the party.
I was prepared to look down my nose at all, but I have to say that it was a GREAT party.
We spent two days in town, and the highlight was really where we stayed...
a gorgeous little guest house just on the outskirts of all the action. Based on a recommendation from some girls we'd met farther south, we splurged on the $10 dollar bungalows down and across the river from the guest house proper. Our place was BIG -- we felt like we should have been subletting the extra bed! -- and we had our own bathroom and hot water and hammock. A minor detraction came in the form of the dessicated tarantula corpse that we found in the bathroom. I mean, what, exactly, lives up in the rafters that was going around killing tarantulas? But it all faded into the background when it came to location. Just look at where we were:
I was prepared to look down my nose at all, but I have to say that it was a GREAT party.
We spent two days in town, and the highlight was really where we stayed...
a gorgeous little guest house just on the outskirts of all the action. Based on a recommendation from some girls we'd met farther south, we splurged on the $10 dollar bungalows down and across the river from the guest house proper. Our place was BIG -- we felt like we should have been subletting the extra bed! -- and we had our own bathroom and hot water and hammock. A minor detraction came in the form of the dessicated tarantula corpse that we found in the bathroom. I mean, what, exactly, lives up in the rafters that was going around killing tarantulas? But it all faded into the background when it came to location. Just look at where we were:
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Massage Stop & Vientiane
From Don Det we regretfully took the boat/mini-bus transfer to the lovely southern town of Pakse. Fellow travelers report that outside of Pakse are some lovely waterfalls and Khmer ruins, but with an overnight bus to catch that night, we decided to spend our afternoon there in a different way.
Ben, a great lover of massages, had convinced me, the cheapskate, that we were due a little luxury, and we were directed up the street to this hotel,
where we were told we could grab a shower and a massage. It looked wayyy too fancy to me... I figured that they'd take one look (and smell!) at us with our ratty t-shirts and shoo us right out the door. That and I imagined that any spa services that this place was offering would be just a tad outside our budget. How wrong I was. For $5 a pop we each had an almost warm shower (we'd been almost two weeks with the cold showers in this stretch) and a fabulous Lao massage. We'd both gotten stuffy noses while staying in the green paradise of Don Det, so the menthol rub-down that came with the massage not only left us tingly, but cleared our noses right out as well.
After street-sandwiches and a beer with some fellow travelers from the islands, we boarded our overnight bus for the capital. These sleeper buses were totally different than the ones we became so familiar with in Vietnam -- on each side of the bus were bunks of almost-full length "double" beds. It was a very cozy night's sleep for Ben and me, though perhaps might have been less so if either of us had been stuck spooning a stranger.
We arrived in Vientiane at 6am, and lucked out in that our shared jumbo tuk-tuk from the bus station ended up driving us all over town dropping other people off, allowing us to see lots of beautiful wats in the morning light. After finding a hotel, we set out to look for a cobbler to repair Ben's sandals (success!), and to find the Arc de Triomphe look-alike in the center of the city.
We had been promised ugly by travelers moving the otherway down through Laos, and the sign on it's wall seems to support that view... 
That afternoon heavy rains moved in, and so we ate, napped, emailed, and took it easy in a city that it is easy to relax in. While everyone had told us there wasn't much to do in this tiny capital city, it was wonderfully laid back and if we'd had more time, we would have loved to stay another day or two soaking up the great French food and architecture and the slow pace.
Ben, a great lover of massages, had convinced me, the cheapskate, that we were due a little luxury, and we were directed up the street to this hotel,
where we were told we could grab a shower and a massage. It looked wayyy too fancy to me... I figured that they'd take one look (and smell!) at us with our ratty t-shirts and shoo us right out the door. That and I imagined that any spa services that this place was offering would be just a tad outside our budget. How wrong I was. For $5 a pop we each had an almost warm shower (we'd been almost two weeks with the cold showers in this stretch) and a fabulous Lao massage. We'd both gotten stuffy noses while staying in the green paradise of Don Det, so the menthol rub-down that came with the massage not only left us tingly, but cleared our noses right out as well.After street-sandwiches and a beer with some fellow travelers from the islands, we boarded our overnight bus for the capital. These sleeper buses were totally different than the ones we became so familiar with in Vietnam -- on each side of the bus were bunks of almost-full length "double" beds. It was a very cozy night's sleep for Ben and me, though perhaps might have been less so if either of us had been stuck spooning a stranger.
We arrived in Vientiane at 6am, and lucked out in that our shared jumbo tuk-tuk from the bus station ended up driving us all over town dropping other people off, allowing us to see lots of beautiful wats in the morning light. After finding a hotel, we set out to look for a cobbler to repair Ben's sandals (success!), and to find the Arc de Triomphe look-alike in the center of the city.
We had been promised ugly by travelers moving the otherway down through Laos, and the sign on it's wall seems to support that view... That afternoon heavy rains moved in, and so we ate, napped, emailed, and took it easy in a city that it is easy to relax in. While everyone had told us there wasn't much to do in this tiny capital city, it was wonderfully laid back and if we'd had more time, we would have loved to stay another day or two soaking up the great French food and architecture and the slow pace.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Da Last Don (Det)
Ahhh, Don Det. I like Don Det. It's a place where you could easily spend a few weeks and drastically lower your blood pressure, take some time away from the impending collapse of the global financial market and ponder a multicolored sunset over the Mekong.
Located on the Cambodia/Laos border, Don Det is one small dot in an area known as 4,000 Islands where the Mekong branches off creating, well, thousands of small islands. Connected to the slightly larger Don Khon, Don Det has emerged as a special kind of backpacker hideout - very basic accommodation (shared flush-it-yourself-with-a-bucket toilets, electricity between 18:00 and 21:00 and cold showers) for less than 1 dollar a day.
As an aside, if anybody should travel here, be careful of bungalows with supports in the water. While seemingly innocuous, we saw some folks taking apart a building we learned had earlier collapsed with a couple of travelers inside! While neither were physically hurt, the woman was apparently in shock and the couple had all of their belongings take an unexpected swim. Here you can check out the frame.
With the influx of Western travelers, many of the farmers on the island have discovered a relatively lucrative business opportunity. This doesn't change the fact that our residence was a few meters away from any number of chickens, dogs, cats, cows and water buffalo. Grandma still ran the household, and although no English emerged through her crimson betel nut stained lips, she smiled and shooed us to a prime bungalow just the same.
We were lucky to stay on the 'sunset' side of the island, a more quiet area still just a couple hundred yards from the other side of the island where boats docked from the mainland. We had a great vantage point to check out long-tail fishing boats puttering up and down the river as well as monstrous thunderclouds bearing down on us (it is monsoon season after all).
Now 'keeping yourself busy' on an island such as this is not necessarily a priority. We woke early and went to sleep early and spent a lot of time eating, playing rummy and going for walks. This isn't to say that we were necessarily lazy, we did have a couple of very legit 'see-stuff' days - dolphin day and bike-ride day.
Dolphin day was, as you can imagine, a day where we went to see dolphins, namely the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. Native to SE Asia, the dolphin is able to live in both fresh and salt water. Now going to spot dolphins is a risky business as we had no guarantee that they would be there when we were. Riding in a van to a launc
h point then taking another long tail across the river back to the Cambodian side we arrived to a smallish island with a few benches. As we were getting off the boat one of the other passengers let out an 'Oh! I saw one!' and sure enough we found a pod of 5-20 dolphins hanging out. Now these dolphins are not of the Flipper variety jumping out of the river to do tricks, but it was a special opportunity to see these big-brained mammals surfacing just a dozen yards away.
Less interesting, but still impressive was a waterfall that we stopped at as well on the way home. While not very tall at all, the falls do have the distinction of having the largest quantity of water flowing down in all of SE Asia.
Bike ride day was our attempt at making it around the circumference of both Don Det and Don Khon without taking a tumble into an irrigation ditch or a water buffalo along the way. We rented some bikes that looked suspect (that ended up being fine) and set off with our friend Joost (pronounced Yosht), a medical student from the Netherlands. The ride was fantastic if a bit bumpy and muddy, but we were lucky to have just a bit of rain as we stopped for a break. One of the highlights was a small 'beach' that we stumbled upon with some sort of crazy quicksand. If you dug your feet in and started moving around you would, unsurprisingly, start to sink. Even more fun was jumping around in a small circle and creating a sort of trampoline/divot depression area.
I'm not feeling particularly able to do justice to just how beautiful the ride was amd this post is already overdue, but I hope that the pics will help. I'll just say that as nice as it may appear on the monitor, it was even more beautiful in person.
Located on the Cambodia/Laos border, Don Det is one small dot in an area known as 4,000 Islands where the Mekong branches off creating, well, thousands of small islands. Connected to the slightly larger Don Khon, Don Det has emerged as a special kind of backpacker hideout - very basic accommodation (shared flush-it-yourself-with-a-bucket toilets, electricity between 18:00 and 21:00 and cold showers) for less than 1 dollar a day.
As an aside, if anybody should travel here, be careful of bungalows with supports in the water. While seemingly innocuous, we saw some folks taking apart a building we learned had earlier collapsed with a couple of travelers inside! While neither were physically hurt, the woman was apparently in shock and the couple had all of their belongings take an unexpected swim. Here you can check out the frame.With the influx of Western travelers, many of the farmers on the island have discovered a relatively lucrative business opportunity. This doesn't change the fact that our residence was a few meters away from any number of chickens, dogs, cats, cows and water buffalo. Grandma still ran the household, and although no English emerged through her crimson betel nut stained lips, she smiled and shooed us to a prime bungalow just the same.
We were lucky to stay on the 'sunset' side of the island, a more quiet area still just a couple hundred yards from the other side of the island where boats docked from the mainland. We had a great vantage point to check out long-tail fishing boats puttering up and down the river as well as monstrous thunderclouds bearing down on us (it is monsoon season after all).
Now 'keeping yourself busy' on an island such as this is not necessarily a priority. We woke early and went to sleep early and spent a lot of time eating, playing rummy and going for walks. This isn't to say that we were necessarily lazy, we did have a couple of very legit 'see-stuff' days - dolphin day and bike-ride day.
Dolphin day was, as you can imagine, a day where we went to see dolphins, namely the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. Native to SE Asia, the dolphin is able to live in both fresh and salt water. Now going to spot dolphins is a risky business as we had no guarantee that they would be there when we were. Riding in a van to a launc
h point then taking another long tail across the river back to the Cambodian side we arrived to a smallish island with a few benches. As we were getting off the boat one of the other passengers let out an 'Oh! I saw one!' and sure enough we found a pod of 5-20 dolphins hanging out. Now these dolphins are not of the Flipper variety jumping out of the river to do tricks, but it was a special opportunity to see these big-brained mammals surfacing just a dozen yards away.Less interesting, but still impressive was a waterfall that we stopped at as well on the way home. While not very tall at all, the falls do have the distinction of having the largest quantity of water flowing down in all of SE Asia.
Bike ride day was our attempt at making it around the circumference of both Don Det and Don Khon without taking a tumble into an irrigation ditch or a water buffalo along the way. We rented some bikes that looked suspect (that ended up being fine) and set off with our friend Joost (pronounced Yosht), a medical student from the Netherlands. The ride was fantastic if a bit bumpy and muddy, but we were lucky to have just a bit of rain as we stopped for a break. One of the highlights was a small 'beach' that we stumbled upon with some sort of crazy quicksand. If you dug your feet in and started moving around you would, unsurprisingly, start to sink. Even more fun was jumping around in a small circle and creating a sort of trampoline/divot depression area.
I'm not feeling particularly able to do justice to just how beautiful the ride was amd this post is already overdue, but I hope that the pics will help. I'll just say that as nice as it may appear on the monitor, it was even more beautiful in person.
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