 |
| Vientiane, Laos - Day 2 |
Showing posts with label Laos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laos. Show all posts
Friday, October 24, 2008
Vientiane, Laos - Day 1
So I traveled to Vientiane with some travelers from Ireland that I met in Vang Vieng and we decided to grab some dinner after touching down in town. We settled on a restaurant that was very nice, modern, and could have done business in the US. It has a rather extensive menu from Laos, American, Chinese, Indian, and Italian foods.
My new friends wanted to get the crickets and started to pop them like nuts once they arrived. Do I want some? Sure why not. They were crunchy and salty like most other snacks. The main difference was the distinct bug after taste, somewhat earthy like eating a handful of dirt, that you got which reminded you that these weren’t Cheetos.
My new friends wanted to get the crickets and started to pop them like nuts once they arrived. Do I want some? Sure why not. They were crunchy and salty like most other snacks. The main difference was the distinct bug after taste, somewhat earthy like eating a handful of dirt, that you got which reminded you that these weren’t Cheetos.
 |
| Vientiane, Laos - Day 1 |
Vang Vieng, Laos - Day 2
I took a white water rafting tour today which was amazingly fun. I learned how to paddle my canoe backwards and sideways. I played a game with the local tour guide where we’d throw around a huge orange fruit with our paddles during the slow sections of water. I can’t wait to do it again in South America. We also got to go off a huge rope swing which I somehow managed to do upside down. Fun day!
 |
| Vang Vieng, Laos - Day 2 |
Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 4
So I found out today that Thai and Laos are relatively similar in terms of culture, food, and language. I met some Thai Airways flight attendants at a waterfall which was severely overflowing due to the huge monsoons that have been hammering the area. Every four years they get an irregularly high amount of rain fall during the wet season. In Vang Vieng, where tubing is popular with tourists, the river had become so flooded and powerful that a Swedish girl flipped over in her tube and died when her foot got caught in the rocks. They had to suspend tubing for a while amongst the massive evidence of the rain’s impact as houses and buildings were left in disarray, bridges collapsed, and trees were strewn around like Godzilla had just sauntered through. At the waterfalls we were practically walking mid shin deep in water up the steps which are obviously not normally covered with water.
At dinner, we were talking about how a lot of the foods of northern Thailand and Laos are very similar. The use of sticky rice, formed into small balls with your hands and then dipped into the foods, is common in the northern half of Thailand and in Laos. The languages are also somewhat similar and the girls spoke Thai to the Laos people and they were able to understand Thai mainly because the only TV channels that they get are Thai. I also believe that at one point Thailand had ruled parts of Laos.
At dinner, we were talking about how a lot of the foods of northern Thailand and Laos are very similar. The use of sticky rice, formed into small balls with your hands and then dipped into the foods, is common in the northern half of Thailand and in Laos. The languages are also somewhat similar and the girls spoke Thai to the Laos people and they were able to understand Thai mainly because the only TV channels that they get are Thai. I also believe that at one point Thailand had ruled parts of Laos.
 |
| Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 4 |
Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 3
I got to hike through elephant poop…barefoot.
So we stayed overnight in the village which was really fascinating. The villagers had a chief who was one of the taller guys in the tribe and had one of the best looking woman for his wife. But best of all…he had one of two TV antennas in the village. They hosted TV night where what seemed like the entire village squished into their living room and watched the wife channel surf the Thai TV channels.
The next day I woke up early around 6 am and it started raining shortly after. So we started hiking down the mountain after breakfast in a steady downpour. The trail was a complete mud slide. I would just slide down the mountain; and I had two sticks that I would periodically stick in the mud to stop myself from careening out of control. So for most of the hike the mud was the slippery variety which required a lot of effort to not fall off the trail. Then we hit another type of mud that was more clay like and it stuck to anything it touched. After hiking about 5 minutes in the clay like mud it would constantly build up on the bottom of my sandals until I was basically walking on stilts. Stilts that weighed 25 lbs. I couldn’t get the mud off my sandals it was caked on so hard. So I took my sandals off and proceeded to slide down the mountain barefoot. It was smooth sliding until I hit these HUGE pot holes which looked like a couple moon landings took place on the trail. I asked the guide what these were and he said that they were elephant footprints. Then I noticed the large mounds of poop scattered along the trail which were slowly “melting” into the trail as the rain mixed them in with the mud and made little poop pools in the elephant footprints. And I still couldn’t put my sandals on because I would be sliding all over the place – not that they would have offered much protection from the feces mud mixture. LOVELY!
So we stayed overnight in the village which was really fascinating. The villagers had a chief who was one of the taller guys in the tribe and had one of the best looking woman for his wife. But best of all…he had one of two TV antennas in the village. They hosted TV night where what seemed like the entire village squished into their living room and watched the wife channel surf the Thai TV channels.
The next day I woke up early around 6 am and it started raining shortly after. So we started hiking down the mountain after breakfast in a steady downpour. The trail was a complete mud slide. I would just slide down the mountain; and I had two sticks that I would periodically stick in the mud to stop myself from careening out of control. So for most of the hike the mud was the slippery variety which required a lot of effort to not fall off the trail. Then we hit another type of mud that was more clay like and it stuck to anything it touched. After hiking about 5 minutes in the clay like mud it would constantly build up on the bottom of my sandals until I was basically walking on stilts. Stilts that weighed 25 lbs. I couldn’t get the mud off my sandals it was caked on so hard. So I took my sandals off and proceeded to slide down the mountain barefoot. It was smooth sliding until I hit these HUGE pot holes which looked like a couple moon landings took place on the trail. I asked the guide what these were and he said that they were elephant footprints. Then I noticed the large mounds of poop scattered along the trail which were slowly “melting” into the trail as the rain mixed them in with the mud and made little poop pools in the elephant footprints. And I still couldn’t put my sandals on because I would be sliding all over the place – not that they would have offered much protection from the feces mud mixture. LOVELY!
 |
| Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 3 |
Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 2
So I decided to do a two day trek with an overnight stay in village. This would have been one of the highlights of the trip if it wasn’t pouring both days. Now I’d been traveling during the rainy season in South East Asia so I figured I would get stuck in the rain sometime but so far I had been lucky. The only rain that I got was a little bit in Sapa for a couple hours. It also had to happen on the days that I decided to do a trek. I was trekking with two girls from Italy and one from Spain along with our guide. We first took a boat that looked about as sturdy as one of those paper boats that I made when I was 10 and floated in my sink until it sank. If you leaned a little the entire boat rocked, so you tried to do your best to mimic a statue while one of the guys on the boat was bailing water. The water was extremely fast and viscous as it was engorged with the past monsoons. We were crossing the river to a point perpendicular to where we were starting, but the water was so fast that we had to go up stream a bit then boat down across the river. The combo of the fast water, preposterously paper thin boat, and the bailer only having two arms and one small bucket didn’t lead me to have much faith in this trip. And of course safety regulations like life jackets are nonexistent in the interior of a third world country. And if there were life jackets they were probably pillaged a long time ago to be made into pillows or something more ingenious and practical than a life saving device.
Somehow we managed to skitter across the river and hiked up the mountain in the rain - luckily I had a poncho from my Sapa trip. I only had flip flops and because of the rainy and muddy conditions sliding a bit on the way up. But it was better than the girls who had sneakers. As we had to cross a couple rivers, they had to keep taking them off and putting them on. After an hour or so they were soaked and covered in mud. Sandals were cleaner and more convenient; you just a little less traction when climbing…which isn’t the problem…going down in where lies the issue. So we climbed for 4 hours, made it to the top and then got a small bowl of fried rice to eat. I’m trying to remember the last time I ate so little fried rice in one sitting when rice was the only available food item, especially after a grueling 4 hour hike…I’ll let you know when I think of it.
Somehow we managed to skitter across the river and hiked up the mountain in the rain - luckily I had a poncho from my Sapa trip. I only had flip flops and because of the rainy and muddy conditions sliding a bit on the way up. But it was better than the girls who had sneakers. As we had to cross a couple rivers, they had to keep taking them off and putting them on. After an hour or so they were soaked and covered in mud. Sandals were cleaner and more convenient; you just a little less traction when climbing…which isn’t the problem…going down in where lies the issue. So we climbed for 4 hours, made it to the top and then got a small bowl of fried rice to eat. I’m trying to remember the last time I ate so little fried rice in one sitting when rice was the only available food item, especially after a grueling 4 hour hike…I’ll let you know when I think of it.
 |
| Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 2 |
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Hanoi, Vietnam - Day 2
It doesn't take much to be a pop star in Vietnam. I ran into a music video shoot at the Temple of Literature with a 5'6'' guy lip singing to a boom box and dancing with a girl. Wasn't really impressed but afterwards my driver told me that he's the biggest thing in Vietnam right now.
 |
| Hanoi, Vietnam - Day 2 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
