muang ngoi neua

One of the reasons I wanted to get to Laos was to get away from everything - even for just a short amount of time. It seemed remote, and until very recently, I really hadn't heard a whole lot about it from friends or even other travelers. During the first ten days of the trip in Laos, I didn't feel especially disconnected from anything. I was traveling with my Kellogg friends and everywhere we went we had western food, internet cafes and well... electricity. I decided to change that this week. With all the Kellogg folks heading their seperate ways to other parts of the continent, I continued on in Laos making my way 4-5 hours north of Luang Prabang to a tiny village called Muang Ngoi Neua. I still don't think I'm pronouncing it right, but I made it here safely and without too much hassle. It started with a quick three-hour bus ride to Nong Khiaw from LP, where I was dropped off on one side of the bridge, litterally. There really wasn't a whole lot else to distinguish this as a bus stop - save perhaps a few other confused westerners and another mini-bus.

Luckily, I quickly found the one tourism company in Nong Khiaw and asked for directions to the "port." This in turn was nothing more than a little hut (where you buy tickets) and cement stairs leading down to the Nam Ou river. There I bought a ticket to Muang Ngoi Neua (which, as I mentioned, I don't know how to pronouce properly) and was informed that the boat left in two hours. This gave me ample time to find Nong Khiaw's finest dining establishment and order some fried noodles. They were good. So what if I got rice instead of noodles.

The boat ride was a bit dodgy as they say in some parts of the world. I'm not convinced that the boat was designed to carry 24 westerners and their oversized backpacks up through rapids, but who am I to say. Sitting in the back, and right next to a wonderfully noisy 4-cylinder Toyota engine, I could see the front of the long tail boat move in every direction but the one the back of the boat was moving in. Amusing really.

Muang Ngoi Neua is everything I hoped it would be. It's basically the little village that time almost forgot - but didn't. While there aren't any phone lines and the only electricity comes from generators which run for but a few hours in the evening, there are a number of guesthouses and bungalows, as well as restaurants, that cater to backpackers and a few adventurous tour groups. A relatively cold Beer Lao is never that far away - neither is the cell tower or the satelite dishes. I even found a place with a warm shower. It's really an easy way to get away from it all for a couple days.

I ended up spending two nights and only one full day there, but I met some wonderful travelers and had a great time exploring the local villages on my own. Locals and tourists alike are quick to point you in the right direction as you're wandering through the dry rice paddy fields behind town, and other than the occasional snake or water buffalo, there really isn't much else to worry about. In the end, it's exactly what I hope Laos would be and if I didn't need to get back to reality sooner, I would happily spend a couple more days here just watching the overfilled long tail boats take tourists in and out of this little village on the Nam Ou River.

luang prabang

Everything I'd heard about the old capital of Laos turned out to be true - right down to the 11pm curfew. It's an extremely picturesque little town, with old french colonial buildings lining the streets and a relaxed atmosphere which slows everyone right down. I spent almost a week there enjoying the easy-going town and a few of the local attractions. I arrived a day earlier than John, Neha, Connie, and Kimberly to meet up with the Hong Kong Kellogg crew who were doing a rapid tour of SE Asia over their Chinese New Year break. After an arduous seven hour drive through endlessly winddy mountain roads from Vang Vieng, I arrived mid afternoon and made my way to the main street to rent a scooter. "$18 for one day - you've gotta be out of your mind!" And so ended my quest to rent a scooter. That evening I met up with Amity, Ashley, Darren, and Chris for some dinner, drinks, a massage, and a stroll through the night market. These activities would be repeated a number of times throughout the week.

Though we had every intention of making it to the local waterfall the next day, the unseasonably cold weather dictated that we find something else to do. And so we did - spending the day sampling the street food on offer, and specifically the pho - or foe as they spell it here. We also made a little trip to the locals market to take in the sights and sounds and this didn't dissapoint - rats, frogs, dogs... you name the animal, it was chopped up and ready to be cooked. I'm not entirely sure what else we accomplished that day - unless you consider the aforementioned - dinner, drinks, massage and stroll through the market an accomplishment. A cold, yet relaxing, day all around.

The next day, with John, Neha, Connie and Kimberly back in the mix, we all rented a long-tail boat (and its driver) and made our way down-river to the waterfall. Now that the weather was once again cooperating, this turned out to be one of the nicer waterfalls yet - even during the dry season. The rest of the day we did what we do best - eat, drink and enjoy a massage :)

We kept up the same routine almost daily for the rest of our stay.mixing in a few other activities including treks up into the local villages and even a tiny little bit of wat-seeing. Overall I really enjoyed Luang Prabang. It's clearly in the midst of a huge tourist boom, and is clearly changing on a daily basis. I would certainly recommend it to anyone traveling through the area, especially if you want to relive a small part of colonial French Indochine.

lethargy and debauchery

Someone on wikitravel describes Vang Vieng as "lethargy by day and debauchery by night." This isn't completely true. I'm not sure how to describe this place. On one hand it's nestled in a beautiful valley along a river in what would be a very serene setting if not for the hordes of backpackers that have turned this place into a bizarre world where watching endless American sitcoms and tubing down a river with a bucket of alcohol in hand seem perfectly logical. So first the town. It's two main streets are lined with restaurant/bars where no one talks. Why don't they talk? Cause all the bars show reruns of Friends, The Family Guy, and The Simpsons all day, every day. So basically everyone picks a bar based on what season is showing from one of those three shows (and only those three shows), and just sits around and watches as much as their little hearts desire. Of course they're all drinking large Beer Lao's, but really alcohol is an afterthought here.

On the other hand, along the river, alcohol appears to be a priority. Backpackers have managed to turn this tranquil spot spot into a year round spring break party - you might as well be in Cancun in March. Besides drinking, the activity of choice is tubing. You rent a tube in town and then get dropped off upriver, and proceed to slowly float back south into town, stopping at one of the many bars that line the river. Each bar obviously has various drink specials, but they also have swings, zip-lines, slides and other dangerous ways to launch yourself back into the river. Needless to say, safety does not appear to be anyone's primary concern.

I wish I could tell you I took part in this debauchery, but alas, we were content just tubing down the river watching the 18 year olds doing belly flops and giving themselves whiplash. It was remarkably amusing and just floating didn't wear us out too much - so that we could join them afterward for half a season of friends. One day of all this was enough for me however, so I left Neha, John, Kimberly and Connie behind, and moved north to Luang Prabang. The eight-hour mini-bus ride was, well... long, but certainly worth it. Traveling up Highway 13 in Laos has got to be one of the most picturesque trips you can take. The road is lined with schools, villages and people going about their daily routines. It was surely a fascinating way to see the country. Unfortunately as I was sitting in the middle of the bus, no pictures were taken. Hopefully I'll take some as I continue to travel north. (btw picture uploads are coming... just some minor technical difficulties)

onto laos

Back to full time vacationing! This time I’m off to Laos with John, Neha and Kimberly from Kellogg as well as Connie who was also on exchange at Sasin from Cornell. Our trip started at the Bangkok train station where we caught an overnight train to the Laos border. Since the A/C units were all sold out, we settled for fan only 2nd class beds, which turned out not to be as bad as we imagined they might be. It wasn’t that hot at night, but keeping the windows open all night was loud and dusty – and so sleeping was a bit challenging. We arrived in Vientiane, the sleepy Laos capital at 11am, and after securing a hotel room for the night, we followed the Lonely Planet walking tour of the city... err town. With a population barely over 200,000, Vientiane is certainly one of the smaller capitals I’ve ever been to. We walked around rather lethargically, trying to get a quick feel for this new (to us) country. Unfortunately we were exhausted from our train trip, and so our walk, turned into a very lazy stroll through the blistering heat (it was probably 95 degrees and rather sunny). He hit some of the main sites, which were generally rather unimpressive, and so after an early meal, I passed out early for evening on my hotel bed. Somewhat unimpressed with the capital, we decided to move northward towards Vang Vieng, our next destination, four hours north of Vientiane. Overall though, it’s nice to visit a new country, with some new foods to try – including many baguette sandwiches :) There's certainly a strong French influence around town - both in terms of food and architecture. Alright onto Vang Vieng.

last hoorah in bangkok

My last week in Bangkok was somewhat eventful. After a fun, albeit exhausting, weekend in HK, our last week of school at Sasin was predictably full of presentations, papers and finals. Though these weren’t much fun, they weren’t especially stressful and so we still managed to have a pretty good time and fit in a few more Thai meals. Unfortunately halfway through the week I managed to also get my first bout of food poisoning (from a boring red curry at school) and so that slowed my eating for a couple days. Nevertheless we had a great going away seafood dinner on the river. Crab, prawns, various whole fried and steamed fish, goose feet, pork ears, and many other dishes were enjoyed by all (well perhaps not the pigs ear). I will certainly miss all this great food when I leave, and how easy it is to get at any time of the day.

The rest of the week was devoted to shopping. Ten new tailored shirts, two new pairs of pants, various t-shirts, a pair of shorts and plenty of other little trinkets were purchased at the weekend market and around town. The weekend market was somewhat like I remembered it (I hadn’t been back yet on this trip). It’s overwhelming, there’s tons of great food and of course there are endless deals to be had. You can buy everything from fish aquariums to giant brass horses to decorate your lawn. It’s also tremendously hot and crowded. Quite the experience.

Other than shopping and eating, I spent most of my time thinking about how much I’ll miss the conveniences of living in downtown Bangkok. Everything you could possibly need within a ten minute walk through any of the many massive malls and markets nearby, and aside from the traffic and pollution, it’s a pretty great place to live. So there it ends, now I’m off to Laos and beyond for sixth weeks before I return to reality and head back to Evanston.

hong kong

Hong Kong weekend didn't quite go according to plan. The goal was to eat my way across town. Unfortunately alcohol and rain got in the way of that plan. I flew into Hong Kong on Friday evening after class along with Kimberly, Neha and John and we made our way to Darren's place in Causeway Bay - right in the middle of all the action on Hong Kong Island. It was late, but we didn't waste any time getting our first meal. We went just around the corner to a local beef noodle soup place. Not entirely sure what was in the soup though I think mine was filled with tendon, which I quite enjoy (the texture and flavor is somewhere between meat and fat... delicious!). Afterward we went up to LKF which is full of expat bars, clubs, pubs, etc. I wasn't quite feeling the banker crowd so much that night and neither was John. After a couple beers we called it a night and retreated back to Darren's, though not before stopping at a Chinese diner of sorts and getting noodles, Chinese french toast and various other bizarre concoctions at 3am (still early by HK standards).

Day two started with a stop at a soup dumpling and yellow-noodle soup place that Darren knew of in Kowloon. The soup dumplings were quite delicious as was everything else. The meal was surprisingly filling considering we mostly just had dumplings, potstickers and noodles, and so we went for a walk along Kowloon pier to check out the skyline on the other side of the bay. Unfortunately, it was rainy/foggy/cold (compared to Bangkok) all weekend and so the view left something to be desired, and the wind kept us from hanging around too long. We snapped some pictures and then made our way back into Kowloon so I could go buy a netbook - which I did. $380 for 14hours of battery life - not a bad deal!

After my purchase we made our way back to Darren's to prepare for what would turn out to be a very long night. We had dinner at a BBQ place where Darren decided to order roughly 15 dishes for 8 or so people. You can see everything we ate in the Chow section to the right - but it was a rather impressive spread of food. Duck, pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, and plenty of other animals were consumed. YUMMM! We returned back home for a little beer before attacking LKF street once again. The details after this become a little blurry despite our best attempts to piece them back together the next morning. Let's just say everyone made it home safely at some point between 4AM and 7AM. I did find a receipt for $85 for 12 Miller Lite's at 3AM though. Ooops.

And so that's about where the weekend ends. Sunday and Monday were spent recovering and watching the incessant rain fall over Hong Kong. No more big meals or crazy nights out. In fact we mostly stayed inside and watched movies. I would still chalk this up to a successful weekend - but certainly not how I saw it unfolding when I bought my flight 2 months ago.

boxing and buckets

The pictures below are from a Muay Thai boxing event we attended last week and this past weekend in Ko Pha Ngan. The boxing was rather enjoyable - much more interesting than last time I went in '06. Many of the fights were well contested and the crowd was really into it, which always makes it better. We saw one knock-out out of the ten fights and there were even skirmishes in the crowd... After the fights we made our way to what is supposed to be some of the best Pad Thai in Bangkok. I found it quite delicious, although perhaps not the best ever.

Ko Pha Ngan lived up to the expectations. We arrived early Saturday morning and spent the day relaxing at the hotel in anticipation of the long night that awaited us. After a thunderstorm that had us worried about the evening's plans, we finally made it to the party on Haad Rin beach just after midnight. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but it was an 18-year old's dream come true. And for a 30 year old... it was still rather entertaining to be a part of. Buckets of alcohol, lots of music and Besides the monthly full moon parties, Ko Pha Ngan seems like a beautiful island with long stretches of soft sand and palm trees in every direction. Worth visiting even if you don't attend the parties and it's certainly somewhere someone could decide to drop everything and call home. Not that I would ever think of doing that...