From Phom Penh we arrived in the beach town of Sianouksville, Cambodia's 3rd tourist hot spot after the capital itself and Siem Reap. Although the place felt seedy and had a famous reputation for bag snatching and scams, when we arrived at the beach for sunset and grabbed a couple of very cheap drinks, we felt great to be on the beach again after 2 1/2 months.
We took a boat snorkelling and spent part of the day on 'Bamboo Island' sitting in the hot hot sea watching poor tourists get urchins in their extremities.
The downside to Sianouksville as we saw it was the amount of children working and begging on the beach. There were also plenty of adults doing the same thing, and Kae and I had to develop tactics such as speaking in pretend French to deflect them. One young boy offered to play a game of naughts and crosses. If I win I get a free bracelet, if I lose I buy a bracelet. I naively asked him how much the bracelet might cost me, and then quickly changed my mind and said we should just play for fun. He told me that he hopes my plane will crash on my flight home, told me ''you are bad man" for emphasis and then sauntered off to the next table to do the same thing all over again.
The upside of the seaside town is the ridiculously cheap seafood bbq. 3 large prawns, a barracuda fillet and 3 squids with chips and salad for $2.50, with cold draught beer at 50c a glass. We had this exact same meal three times before we left.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Phnom Penh
In Phnom Penh we set ourselves up in a little windowless room and spent 5 days drinking fancy cocktails in classy colonial buildings such as the Foreign Correspondants Club, and places with a swimming pool and eating luxurious Western food like fondue and top class pizza for $6 a pop. We got a taste of the high life and our budget has never been the same since!
Kratchie
After a panic in Ban Lung, where we couldn't take out any money with Káe's Cirrus card, we wired $400 over with Western Transfer, at just under a 10% charge. With this we took the bus to Kratchie, and cycled with a Leed's gap year guy called Will and a Liverpudlian who hates football called Ed to find the rare irrawaddy dolphin, a freshwater dolphin with stumpy heads found in the Mekong.
There are meant to be only about 75 left in the river, and we must have seen all of them. We spent about 45 minutes in a hired boat and they kept bobbing up to breath all around us! Endangered my arse.
The cycle to and fro was great, and the Cambodians were proving to be just as friendly as the Laoatians, with a more savvy attitude and extremely good English from the earliest age.
One of the most talkative characters I've met runs a book shop in Kratchie, and among recommending an itinerary for Angkor Wat, he told us a little about the effects of the recent war with the Khmer Rouge. He had some friendly, equally overtly camp staff sitting watching telly across the shop and he pointed to one saying "his parents did very well out of the war, and were Khmer Rouge," he pointed to the guy sat next to him and said, "his parents suffered terribly at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, but noone talks about any of it, even though everyone over 40 has some memory of it."
Even with all the political undercurrents, the disturbing amounts of one legged landmine victims, more begging than I have ever seen by the old, the crippled and children, and more children working and selling things than I'm comfortable with, and so far really bad food, we were both starting to enjoy travelling through Cambodia.
There are meant to be only about 75 left in the river, and we must have seen all of them. We spent about 45 minutes in a hired boat and they kept bobbing up to breath all around us! Endangered my arse.
The cycle to and fro was great, and the Cambodians were proving to be just as friendly as the Laoatians, with a more savvy attitude and extremely good English from the earliest age.
One of the most talkative characters I've met runs a book shop in Kratchie, and among recommending an itinerary for Angkor Wat, he told us a little about the effects of the recent war with the Khmer Rouge. He had some friendly, equally overtly camp staff sitting watching telly across the shop and he pointed to one saying "his parents did very well out of the war, and were Khmer Rouge," he pointed to the guy sat next to him and said, "his parents suffered terribly at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, but noone talks about any of it, even though everyone over 40 has some memory of it."
Even with all the political undercurrents, the disturbing amounts of one legged landmine victims, more begging than I have ever seen by the old, the crippled and children, and more children working and selling things than I'm comfortable with, and so far really bad food, we were both starting to enjoy travelling through Cambodia.
Cambodia, Ban Lung
The Laos-Cambodian border crossing is a little suspect. Cambodian officials charge a dollar here for taking your temperature, a dollar there for ádministration', but they've been the same for years so we don't think too much of it. According to some watchdog, Cambodia is the 13th most corrupt country out of 162 on record, although how they measure this I don't know.
Cambodia also has the most active landmines sitting around than any country in the world!
Watch your step, then.
We carried on our bus journey to Ban Lung, and what a mess. It looked to me like someone had eaten a town in Laos and puked it back up in Cambodia. Kaeleigh said it reminded her of India.
We found a gigantic room here for $5, with a huge bath tub and telly etc. Easily the best bargain accomodation to date.
We did a day trip with guides on motos to some waterfalls, a 90 minute elephant ride where the elephant mosied around eating bamboo and drinking, and a long swim in a volcanic crater lake.
During this we were served the first meal that we couldn't stomach, $5 worth of old, dried meat. I was thinking of what I was told on the cooking course in Laos: "more flies, more flavour". and we gave the whole thing to our tourguides.
Walking around the lake after a swim, we saw 2 big snakes rush past us, both over 2m long. We told our guide, who hunts for them in the dry season. He reckoned on cobras, and said you can get $10 per kilo at the markets for them.
Cambodia also has the most active landmines sitting around than any country in the world!
Watch your step, then.
We carried on our bus journey to Ban Lung, and what a mess. It looked to me like someone had eaten a town in Laos and puked it back up in Cambodia. Kaeleigh said it reminded her of India.
We found a gigantic room here for $5, with a huge bath tub and telly etc. Easily the best bargain accomodation to date.
We did a day trip with guides on motos to some waterfalls, a 90 minute elephant ride where the elephant mosied around eating bamboo and drinking, and a long swim in a volcanic crater lake.
During this we were served the first meal that we couldn't stomach, $5 worth of old, dried meat. I was thinking of what I was told on the cooking course in Laos: "more flies, more flavour". and we gave the whole thing to our tourguides.
Walking around the lake after a swim, we saw 2 big snakes rush past us, both over 2m long. We told our guide, who hunts for them in the dry season. He reckoned on cobras, and said you can get $10 per kilo at the markets for them.
Don Det (4000 Islands)
Our last stop in Laos, Don Det is one of 4000 Island in the river Mekong near the Cambodian border.
The main event of our 2 nights here was a guy we met in Luang Prabang's 30th birthday party. It was about 30 people strong, and after the bar we headed down to the beach where I made a fire and it was a good way to finish our trip through Laos.
We found a Minsk motorbike for sale on the island for $200, and decided to buy it from them to travel through Cambodia on if they could fix the headlight, horn and indicators. Unfortunately they couldn't do this before our visa had overrun by 2 days, and we caught up with our bus by moto at the Cambodian border.
The main event of our 2 nights here was a guy we met in Luang Prabang's 30th birthday party. It was about 30 people strong, and after the bar we headed down to the beach where I made a fire and it was a good way to finish our trip through Laos.
We found a Minsk motorbike for sale on the island for $200, and decided to buy it from them to travel through Cambodia on if they could fix the headlight, horn and indicators. Unfortunately they couldn't do this before our visa had overrun by 2 days, and we caught up with our bus by moto at the Cambodian border.
Tha Kaek
Still with Tim, Nath, Francis and Brad, we took the bus to Tha Kaek and stayed the night in the seediest guesthouse to date.
We managed to arrange a 3 day, 450km motorbike tour the next day, with a boat trip through the 7km long Kong Lo cave as the main attraction. A Dutch girl called Juliette joined us at the last minute, and the 7 of us sped off on 4 scooters.
This trip turned out to be a stormer thanks to a variation of good and bad roads, gutsy little scooters, cheap repair shops, lot's of cathedral sized caves and running rivers to get stuck into, plenty of great views, meals and people and some time spent in rural Laos.
After a couple of hours the first obstacle was Juliette's bike leaking oil. We flagged down a few people and finally managed to make a phone call and have her bike replaced. Tim's bike had 3 punctures over the 3 days, one at 85kph, and he held the skid brilliantly! Kae burnt her leg badly on our exhaust, Nath rode his bike into a tree next to him from a standing start, with the damage to the stand being fixed Clarkson style with a hammer, I somehow got halfway through a doughnut when accidentally starting my bike in 1st gear, Neither Tim and Nath's bike or mine and Kae's bike had a working headlight or rearlight, and we all drove back for about over an hour in the dark on the last night, extremely carefully because of how many maniac farm animals wander about, and everyone apart from me and Kae ran out of petrol at least once.
These slightly dramatic moments transmogrified the trip, and made surviving the journey more rewarding. Other hightlights include the final day's mazy mountain road climb and decent, with perfectly smooth roads and ancient forest all around; the 62km off-road track on the second day, that took over 3 hours and was not suitable for scooters, but cut through more great rainforest; stopping whenever we liked for a drink or some food or a break, which was a great freedom after months of bus and train travel; meeting and greeting the locals, especially with Nath, the only person as enthusiastic as the Laos people; Kong Lo cave, which is 7km long, and at some points 100m wide and tall, with a lit up section that we explored on foot that looked like another planet, cheesy sci-fi scenery style; the thank-god-it's-all-over dinner and drinks.
We managed to arrange a 3 day, 450km motorbike tour the next day, with a boat trip through the 7km long Kong Lo cave as the main attraction. A Dutch girl called Juliette joined us at the last minute, and the 7 of us sped off on 4 scooters.
This trip turned out to be a stormer thanks to a variation of good and bad roads, gutsy little scooters, cheap repair shops, lot's of cathedral sized caves and running rivers to get stuck into, plenty of great views, meals and people and some time spent in rural Laos.
After a couple of hours the first obstacle was Juliette's bike leaking oil. We flagged down a few people and finally managed to make a phone call and have her bike replaced. Tim's bike had 3 punctures over the 3 days, one at 85kph, and he held the skid brilliantly! Kae burnt her leg badly on our exhaust, Nath rode his bike into a tree next to him from a standing start, with the damage to the stand being fixed Clarkson style with a hammer, I somehow got halfway through a doughnut when accidentally starting my bike in 1st gear, Neither Tim and Nath's bike or mine and Kae's bike had a working headlight or rearlight, and we all drove back for about over an hour in the dark on the last night, extremely carefully because of how many maniac farm animals wander about, and everyone apart from me and Kae ran out of petrol at least once.
These slightly dramatic moments transmogrified the trip, and made surviving the journey more rewarding. Other hightlights include the final day's mazy mountain road climb and decent, with perfectly smooth roads and ancient forest all around; the 62km off-road track on the second day, that took over 3 hours and was not suitable for scooters, but cut through more great rainforest; stopping whenever we liked for a drink or some food or a break, which was a great freedom after months of bus and train travel; meeting and greeting the locals, especially with Nath, the only person as enthusiastic as the Laos people; Kong Lo cave, which is 7km long, and at some points 100m wide and tall, with a lit up section that we explored on foot that looked like another planet, cheesy sci-fi scenery style; the thank-god-it's-all-over dinner and drinks.
VangVieng
Throughout Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, travellers would mention this place to us because of one thing: Tubing. It's not floating down a river on a tractors inner tube that they would talk about, thought - it's their new , the injuries they saw, and how several people die every year on the massive rope swings and giant slides!
We took a seriously sweaty bus with the lads from Luang Prabang to the capital, Vientiene, and stopped there while Tim extended his visa. After 5 hours, in which Kae bought 2 new dvds for 5000kip each, we were happy to be moving on from the slightly depressing city and towards the tourist hole of Vang Vieng.
Kae and I found a room on a cliff edge with beautiful views of forests and sheer cliffs, and unfortunately overlooking the late night clubs. Walking around the small town and we heard The Simpsons, Family Guy or Friends on repeat in every otherwise identical restaurant, serving the worst food in Laos. There are easily twice as many Westerners than locals, and everyone has the same idea - get drunk and go tubing! So we put on our sheep's clothing and joined the herd.
Happily, the Northerners we met in China were about, and we joined them for some drinks and went rock climbing with Tom the next morning, where we learnt the 'pinch' technique. So there we were pinching our way up rock faces, and for all the sweating and pinching and struggling, it was great. We did two climbs, a level 6A and 7A climb, but my pinching wasn't up to the 7A climb.
That afternoon Kae and I went to meet the lads at the tubing, where we saw the huge rope swings and riverside bars. I hadn't the strength in my grip to open my can of beer, thanks to a slow and painful defeat on the 7A rock face, and couldn't hold onto a rope swing. There are better reasons not to swing back and forth 40 feet in the air with potentially fatal consequences, but mine was weedy forearms. In any case it was pretty spectacular to sit and watch. There were a couple of dangerous moments where people got tangled up in the ropes, one person round the neck, and although they screamed and panicked a bit, no-one was hurt.
A couple of days in this town was enough for us. We had been enjoying the Laos lifestyle and people and Vang Vieng had neither, so we left for Tha Kaek, and a 3 day motorbike tour.
We took a seriously sweaty bus with the lads from Luang Prabang to the capital, Vientiene, and stopped there while Tim extended his visa. After 5 hours, in which Kae bought 2 new dvds for 5000kip each, we were happy to be moving on from the slightly depressing city and towards the tourist hole of Vang Vieng.
Kae and I found a room on a cliff edge with beautiful views of forests and sheer cliffs, and unfortunately overlooking the late night clubs. Walking around the small town and we heard The Simpsons, Family Guy or Friends on repeat in every otherwise identical restaurant, serving the worst food in Laos. There are easily twice as many Westerners than locals, and everyone has the same idea - get drunk and go tubing! So we put on our sheep's clothing and joined the herd.
Happily, the Northerners we met in China were about, and we joined them for some drinks and went rock climbing with Tom the next morning, where we learnt the 'pinch' technique. So there we were pinching our way up rock faces, and for all the sweating and pinching and struggling, it was great. We did two climbs, a level 6A and 7A climb, but my pinching wasn't up to the 7A climb.
That afternoon Kae and I went to meet the lads at the tubing, where we saw the huge rope swings and riverside bars. I hadn't the strength in my grip to open my can of beer, thanks to a slow and painful defeat on the 7A rock face, and couldn't hold onto a rope swing. There are better reasons not to swing back and forth 40 feet in the air with potentially fatal consequences, but mine was weedy forearms. In any case it was pretty spectacular to sit and watch. There were a couple of dangerous moments where people got tangled up in the ropes, one person round the neck, and although they screamed and panicked a bit, no-one was hurt.
A couple of days in this town was enough for us. We had been enjoying the Laos lifestyle and people and Vang Vieng had neither, so we left for Tha Kaek, and a 3 day motorbike tour.
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Luang Prabang and Laos new year
We had booked our guesthouse a week earlier while in LP the first time, as prices double and triple and rooms are hard to find. So we make a dash for the room as soon as the minibus stops and we successfully dodge the waterfight mayhem and keep our backpacks dry.
LP has a curfew, at 11.30pm all the bars close, but we found a way around this by sitting in the gardens after the staff had gone home, and bumped into a guy called Tim who we had had a beer with in Nong Khiaw, and his mate Phil, and then their travel friends Francis, Brad, Nath and 2 Danish girls. After leaving LP, we were to travel together with ''the lads'' for a couple of weeks.
We were'nt ready or steady for this 9 day long water, flour and ink fight, never mind armed well enough. Luckily we had been warned not to carry anything you wouldn't take swimming. All throughout the city, which had grown from 20,000 people to a guesstimate of 300,000 people, small and big groups of Laoatians stand dancing and drinking every 10 - 20 meters next to barrels of water, soaking everyone who walks, runs, scoots or sneaks past with happy shouts of "Pee Mai Laos" "Happy New Year". If they don't soak us, they give us a glass with ice and fill it with the tasty beerLao or rice wine and demand - sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes because they are extremely generous and sometimes because they are bladdered - we down it pronto, force feed us extremely spicy cabbage and then refill the glass to down it again, again and again until at least one of us staggers away. All the while with crazy cow bell Lao music blaring from gangs standing and cruising on pick up trucks and old army jeeps throwing water around, and live bands playing Michael Bouble covers. Immense.
The party kicked off in a big way every day way before lunchtime. On the third full day there was a huge party organised on an island in the river. Massive tents and food and drinks stalls were set up for easily 10,000 people. This is where the great sandcastle (or sandpile) competition takes place, overlooked by military officials.
Animals are released on the 16th, and so it was in a quieter area near the loos at this island party that Kae and Francis and I released 2 small birds from cages, which we had bought from the market for 5000kip each. Fish are also released (and turtles and snakes apparently, but we didn't see any).
We all had flour gleefully rubbed into our faces and hair (a natural shampoo, if dry. A natural glue if wet) from every angle, especially on the island. All foreigners get extra attention, but even then the locals seemed to especially aim for Kae. We bought some flour and joined in. This is also where the ink fight started, with children with black or yellow or red hands running through the crowds and coming atcha like the beginning of a Daz White advert.
The lot of us decided to get the ferry back to the mainland, and walked right into a trap. We were led to an empty boat and asked to sit and wait for it to fill up while insanely manic tireless men and women splashed us contantly for at least 20 minutes.
The next couple of days merged into a blur of water fighting and drinks. Morning hangovers were cured by strolling out of the guesthouse towards a chicken sandwich, getting soaked, eating a sandwich and coke and then get more soaked on the walk back. Rockets were fired into the air intermittently, said to encourage rainfall, which would be a blessing as the water is said to be a way of washing away the sins of the previous year. Some of the kids and women were very sweet when they poured water from a bucket down your shoulders, and the symbolism and belief that the water purifies you for a fresh start in the new year is sometimes very clear. On the other hand, there's always the odd fat old German who chases you down the street with his oversized super soaker, as if he wished he were firing live rounds.
On the morning of the 16th there is the biggest alms giving ceremony of the year, where monks travel to Luang Prabang smaller towns and villages, and they all walk along the main street next to the temple on a high hill, carrying bowls or baskets. People are sat waiting for them to come past with food to put into their baskets to curry favour with the spirits.
Alms giving happens every day at dawn, but this one is the biggie and we weren't going to miss it because of a hangover, neither were we to sensibly go to bed early, so the 7 of us stayed up overnight, drinking beers outside mine and Kae's guesthouse. During this session, we sat up chatting with the police and drinking water at their open air station. When 5.30am came, I woke Kae up and we all trundled down to the main street. I bought a load of rice with fish and mango wrapped in banana leaves to give to the monks, and they were so delicious I ate some of them myself. But only one or two, or three, and I was encouraged to by a Loas lady, and I definitely gave most of them most respectfully to the monks, so don't believe Kae if she tells you different.
On the last and 6th full day we stayed in LP, there was one huge rain and thunderstorm. Kae and I had decided to climb the big hill with a temple on top to see the city from above before we left, and just as we began the rain began to pour like I've never seen before. We took some shelter at the top and on the way down the long winding staircase had turned into a fast flowing, muddy river. At the bottom of the hill, scooters were ploughing through flooded streets, and just like every day but this time for over 12 hours, the power went down. That evening we struggled to find food, and the next day we headed for Laos' famous 24 hour party town, Vang Vieng.
LP has a curfew, at 11.30pm all the bars close, but we found a way around this by sitting in the gardens after the staff had gone home, and bumped into a guy called Tim who we had had a beer with in Nong Khiaw, and his mate Phil, and then their travel friends Francis, Brad, Nath and 2 Danish girls. After leaving LP, we were to travel together with ''the lads'' for a couple of weeks.
We were'nt ready or steady for this 9 day long water, flour and ink fight, never mind armed well enough. Luckily we had been warned not to carry anything you wouldn't take swimming. All throughout the city, which had grown from 20,000 people to a guesstimate of 300,000 people, small and big groups of Laoatians stand dancing and drinking every 10 - 20 meters next to barrels of water, soaking everyone who walks, runs, scoots or sneaks past with happy shouts of "Pee Mai Laos" "Happy New Year". If they don't soak us, they give us a glass with ice and fill it with the tasty beerLao or rice wine and demand - sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes because they are extremely generous and sometimes because they are bladdered - we down it pronto, force feed us extremely spicy cabbage and then refill the glass to down it again, again and again until at least one of us staggers away. All the while with crazy cow bell Lao music blaring from gangs standing and cruising on pick up trucks and old army jeeps throwing water around, and live bands playing Michael Bouble covers. Immense.
The party kicked off in a big way every day way before lunchtime. On the third full day there was a huge party organised on an island in the river. Massive tents and food and drinks stalls were set up for easily 10,000 people. This is where the great sandcastle (or sandpile) competition takes place, overlooked by military officials.
Animals are released on the 16th, and so it was in a quieter area near the loos at this island party that Kae and Francis and I released 2 small birds from cages, which we had bought from the market for 5000kip each. Fish are also released (and turtles and snakes apparently, but we didn't see any).
We all had flour gleefully rubbed into our faces and hair (a natural shampoo, if dry. A natural glue if wet) from every angle, especially on the island. All foreigners get extra attention, but even then the locals seemed to especially aim for Kae. We bought some flour and joined in. This is also where the ink fight started, with children with black or yellow or red hands running through the crowds and coming atcha like the beginning of a Daz White advert.
The lot of us decided to get the ferry back to the mainland, and walked right into a trap. We were led to an empty boat and asked to sit and wait for it to fill up while insanely manic tireless men and women splashed us contantly for at least 20 minutes.
The next couple of days merged into a blur of water fighting and drinks. Morning hangovers were cured by strolling out of the guesthouse towards a chicken sandwich, getting soaked, eating a sandwich and coke and then get more soaked on the walk back. Rockets were fired into the air intermittently, said to encourage rainfall, which would be a blessing as the water is said to be a way of washing away the sins of the previous year. Some of the kids and women were very sweet when they poured water from a bucket down your shoulders, and the symbolism and belief that the water purifies you for a fresh start in the new year is sometimes very clear. On the other hand, there's always the odd fat old German who chases you down the street with his oversized super soaker, as if he wished he were firing live rounds.
On the morning of the 16th there is the biggest alms giving ceremony of the year, where monks travel to Luang Prabang smaller towns and villages, and they all walk along the main street next to the temple on a high hill, carrying bowls or baskets. People are sat waiting for them to come past with food to put into their baskets to curry favour with the spirits.
Alms giving happens every day at dawn, but this one is the biggie and we weren't going to miss it because of a hangover, neither were we to sensibly go to bed early, so the 7 of us stayed up overnight, drinking beers outside mine and Kae's guesthouse. During this session, we sat up chatting with the police and drinking water at their open air station. When 5.30am came, I woke Kae up and we all trundled down to the main street. I bought a load of rice with fish and mango wrapped in banana leaves to give to the monks, and they were so delicious I ate some of them myself. But only one or two, or three, and I was encouraged to by a Loas lady, and I definitely gave most of them most respectfully to the monks, so don't believe Kae if she tells you different.
On the last and 6th full day we stayed in LP, there was one huge rain and thunderstorm. Kae and I had decided to climb the big hill with a temple on top to see the city from above before we left, and just as we began the rain began to pour like I've never seen before. We took some shelter at the top and on the way down the long winding staircase had turned into a fast flowing, muddy river. At the bottom of the hill, scooters were ploughing through flooded streets, and just like every day but this time for over 12 hours, the power went down. That evening we struggled to find food, and the next day we headed for Laos' famous 24 hour party town, Vang Vieng.
Nong Khiaw
Lao new years is partly one big 10 day long nationwide waterfight, and on 9th and 10th of April we got splashed and drenched and bet beer money on village vs village boat races. Then back on the minibus for 6 days in Luang Prabang where it really kicks off.
Muong Ngoi
4 hours north of Luang Prabang and 1 hour by boat is the small and lazy village Muong Ngoi. We met John the Canadian veteran, Dale the English English teacher and damn I've forgotten the name of the Portugese advertiser. We were neighbours for 5 days, staying with a crazy, funny landlady that poured us unlimited lao lao and when Kae caught a chicaca she put it in her mouth and let it buzz and rattle behind her teeth just to show off. When I chased off a spider the size of a cowpat from our room she told us forlornly that she would have had it for dinner.
The 5 of us took a days fishing trip with the landlady's brother Kao and his 2 amigos. First they showed us how they catch fish with their bare hands by speading a long vertical net like a fence and then pulling net to fence in the fish, then they dive around trying to grab it. They caught 5 fish and we tried to help by pulling the net a bit. A great days fishing because they told us that sometimes they catch nothing. We even caught the really big one that got away.
As 2 of the guys made a fire by the river we explored a long cave, and came back to a great picnic lunch and a hell of a lot of lao lao. 2 of the guides were plastered and couldn't stop laughing at some daft song, and the other guy who was driving the boat was only a bit smashed. We carried on with the drinking and eating of spicy cabbage while floating back on tractor inner tubes, paddling over to the boat whenever it was our turn to have a shot.
The laos guys invited us to a local party, where we were given non stop free shots of more lao lao by the most solemn man at the party, danced different versions of the hokey kokey and macarena but laos style with cow bells, and ate (were force fed) really dodgy spicy crab and cabbage that put dale in bed for the next few days. Kae was paraded around by the most drunk of our guides, a tiny man that the locals call ''baby'', who apparently told people Kae was his girlfriend when I wasn't around.
The next afternoon I played football with the local lads, it was about 20 a side on a pitch made of cowpats and ankle twisting bumps. The very solemn man from last night turned up and was an absolute laughing stock for over an hour. Charlie Chaplin couldn't have been better, nor half as serious.
The 5 of us foreigners went on a long walk and found a cave that you swim through to explore. John had a waterproof headlight on and after I had swam ahead I went back to get him. The fact that the man had fought in Afganistan for 7 months made his scream when a bat flew at his head even funnier. In fairness it was a really big bat, and I might have screamed a bit too.
We carried on walking for a couple of hours and played laos' favourite game boules with a man in a tiny village, ate cabbage soup and walked back hungry and defeated.
Another game of football, and time to move on to Nong Khiaw where Laos new year starts early.
The 5 of us took a days fishing trip with the landlady's brother Kao and his 2 amigos. First they showed us how they catch fish with their bare hands by speading a long vertical net like a fence and then pulling net to fence in the fish, then they dive around trying to grab it. They caught 5 fish and we tried to help by pulling the net a bit. A great days fishing because they told us that sometimes they catch nothing. We even caught the really big one that got away.
As 2 of the guys made a fire by the river we explored a long cave, and came back to a great picnic lunch and a hell of a lot of lao lao. 2 of the guides were plastered and couldn't stop laughing at some daft song, and the other guy who was driving the boat was only a bit smashed. We carried on with the drinking and eating of spicy cabbage while floating back on tractor inner tubes, paddling over to the boat whenever it was our turn to have a shot.
The laos guys invited us to a local party, where we were given non stop free shots of more lao lao by the most solemn man at the party, danced different versions of the hokey kokey and macarena but laos style with cow bells, and ate (were force fed) really dodgy spicy crab and cabbage that put dale in bed for the next few days. Kae was paraded around by the most drunk of our guides, a tiny man that the locals call ''baby'', who apparently told people Kae was his girlfriend when I wasn't around.
The next afternoon I played football with the local lads, it was about 20 a side on a pitch made of cowpats and ankle twisting bumps. The very solemn man from last night turned up and was an absolute laughing stock for over an hour. Charlie Chaplin couldn't have been better, nor half as serious.
The 5 of us foreigners went on a long walk and found a cave that you swim through to explore. John had a waterproof headlight on and after I had swam ahead I went back to get him. The fact that the man had fought in Afganistan for 7 months made his scream when a bat flew at his head even funnier. In fairness it was a really big bat, and I might have screamed a bit too.
We carried on walking for a couple of hours and played laos' favourite game boules with a man in a tiny village, ate cabbage soup and walked back hungry and defeated.
Another game of football, and time to move on to Nong Khiaw where Laos new year starts early.
Luang Prabang
On a comfortable double bed sleeper bus straight to Luang Prabang, Laos' second city with 20 odd thousand people, and we arrived with the Slovaks at a night market full of farang. White people everywhere! Too much white people, we agreed, diving for bottles of the cheap and tasty national treasure BeerLao, some fruit shakes, baguettes, and pork chop and chicken bbq. We ate almost no meat in China because of their stingy portions. A chicken noodle soup would get you a quarter of a boiled chicken neck in plenty of noodles and soup. We made up for lost time, and spent 4 days in the lively city and took a cooking course.
The cooking course taught us a lot. We learnt, walking around the meat market that ''more flies, more flavour''. Meat and veg bought off of the floor costs less than if bought off of a table. Fermented fish sauce is made by putting fish bits in water in the sun and waiting a year (in this case, flies mean bad fish sauce). Rat stew tastes much worse than locusts. Sticky rice is made by soaking the rice in water overnight, and rice wine (lao lao - 50%proof but who's counting?) is made by boiling this leftover water for 8-10 days. We learnt about what to do with some herbs and spices I've not seen before and wouldn't want to see again, and because sticky rice makes you sleepy, "no sticky rice, no lao people''.
There was no blow torching dogs in this market, and we moved on to the outdoor kitchen where we made 5 or 6 dishes, the best being not chicken stuffed with lemongrass, but chicken and herbs stuffed in lemongrass.
The cooking course taught us a lot. We learnt, walking around the meat market that ''more flies, more flavour''. Meat and veg bought off of the floor costs less than if bought off of a table. Fermented fish sauce is made by putting fish bits in water in the sun and waiting a year (in this case, flies mean bad fish sauce). Rat stew tastes much worse than locusts. Sticky rice is made by soaking the rice in water overnight, and rice wine (lao lao - 50%proof but who's counting?) is made by boiling this leftover water for 8-10 days. We learnt about what to do with some herbs and spices I've not seen before and wouldn't want to see again, and because sticky rice makes you sleepy, "no sticky rice, no lao people''.
There was no blow torching dogs in this market, and we moved on to the outdoor kitchen where we made 5 or 6 dishes, the best being not chicken stuffed with lemongrass, but chicken and herbs stuffed in lemongrass.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Jinghong
From Lijiang we took a 20 hr sleeper bus to Jinghong, which is on the border to Laos and has a more tropical climate.
In our hotel room we put on the news and found that the Yunnan Province is suffering serious drought and armies are being sent in to help. We looked out the window and the streets were wet with sprinklers watering the plants in the street.
We spent a day in Jinghong's botanical gardens and the next day went on a trip to an out of town market, tea plantations, a small village with a street gang of tiny children, some farms, a temple and a hot spring swimming pool. The Slovakians bought 10 discs of tea, spending about 25quid, and told us that in Slovakia, Pu'er tea costs 10 times this price.
We also met a German, Toby, who was working and studying the nearby protected forests. Massive thunder and rain storms opened up over the city. Kae and Toby both believe that the Chinese are setting off 'rain bombs' (firing chemicals into the air) to make it rain where there's drought. They could be, and they told everyone they've done it before in Shanghai, as well as clearing the sky for the Olympics in Beijing.
Toby took us all to a night market bbq, where he ordered food and beer for everyone, and we met some more Germans and tried some of the local specialities.
In our hotel room we put on the news and found that the Yunnan Province is suffering serious drought and armies are being sent in to help. We looked out the window and the streets were wet with sprinklers watering the plants in the street.
We spent a day in Jinghong's botanical gardens and the next day went on a trip to an out of town market, tea plantations, a small village with a street gang of tiny children, some farms, a temple and a hot spring swimming pool. The Slovakians bought 10 discs of tea, spending about 25quid, and told us that in Slovakia, Pu'er tea costs 10 times this price.
We also met a German, Toby, who was working and studying the nearby protected forests. Massive thunder and rain storms opened up over the city. Kae and Toby both believe that the Chinese are setting off 'rain bombs' (firing chemicals into the air) to make it rain where there's drought. They could be, and they told everyone they've done it before in Shanghai, as well as clearing the sky for the Olympics in Beijing.
Toby took us all to a night market bbq, where he ordered food and beer for everyone, and we met some more Germans and tried some of the local specialities.
Back in Lijiang
After the trecherous Tiger Leaping Gorge we stayed in Lijiang for a few days. We drank yak yoghurt, ate dried yak and squid balls and explored some of the new town as well as the old.
An impecunious old Austrian woman approached us and offered us some extra work in a Chinese travelogue for Lijiang. She told us that the pay was 'miserable' and then offered us 50yuan (5quid), which we thought was good money for an hour's sitting in a bar.
That evening we met some northerners and invited them along to the extra work the next day. Two of them, Ralph and Lisa, had been teaching in China and told us a story of how a fashionable English teacher suddenly had to dive for the toilets in the middle of a class, he couldn't find any toilet paper and when the kids followed him they found him squatting and wiping his arse with some of the smaller Chinese bank notes. They thought he was the coolest teacher after that.
We went to the Amsterdam Bar for the extra work the next day and the people making the film were just looking for a couple, and as the northerners had a beer at the bar we were paid to sit at a table and kiss. 15 minutes work, so that's... 20quid an hour for my first soft core porn role?
An impecunious old Austrian woman approached us and offered us some extra work in a Chinese travelogue for Lijiang. She told us that the pay was 'miserable' and then offered us 50yuan (5quid), which we thought was good money for an hour's sitting in a bar.
That evening we met some northerners and invited them along to the extra work the next day. Two of them, Ralph and Lisa, had been teaching in China and told us a story of how a fashionable English teacher suddenly had to dive for the toilets in the middle of a class, he couldn't find any toilet paper and when the kids followed him they found him squatting and wiping his arse with some of the smaller Chinese bank notes. They thought he was the coolest teacher after that.
We went to the Amsterdam Bar for the extra work the next day and the people making the film were just looking for a couple, and as the northerners had a beer at the bar we were paid to sit at a table and kiss. 15 minutes work, so that's... 20quid an hour for my first soft core porn role?
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge
Lijiang is a ancient city on display; full of rivers and canals and picturesque cobbled streets and bridges; a tourist hot spot and on busy days you are shoulder to shoulder, mauling through people in tribal dresses, red panda hats, weavers and jewellers, big Chinese cameras and the rare white man.
On our first night we found out how expensive the bars are - 2quid50 a pint! Hah! So we drank rice wine in the streets.
On our way back to the International Youth Hostel Lijiang we met a group of Germans and they took us into a place where we could drink cheap, home-brewed rice wine for cheap. This became our local and we returned the next day even after I fell over into their display of meat and veg.
We were planning on exploring the town for a couple of days while our blisters from the Shaxi trek healed but on our second evening we met Kate from Kidlington, and we found ourselves ready and willing to get going on to the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge hike at 7am the next morning.
The group we were setting off with included 3 typically organised Chinese chaps, who had a week long itinerary and weren't about to be put 1 minute behind schedule and they led the way.
A 2 hour bus ride to Quetou, the starting town, and a French girl called Maria joined the group. We found out that the 50yuan entry fee was waived on agreement that their liability is waived if we were injured during their ongoing road building, or in other words, explosions.
We followed the Chinese chaps up the hill and some men with donkeys followed us, incase we got tired and were rich enough to hire them to carry us to the end. These guys were a pain and split our group up along the single file path while asking us do we want a horse and telling us to keep moving. Kate found the walk harder than the rest of us with her heavy backpack, after lunch she shouted at the donkey men until they got the bloody message and stopped following us.
From there on in the trek became more enjoyable and our surroundings more beautiful. We split into 2 groups, with the Chinese squirming at the idea of arriving late, and the German couple being of the hardcore-multi-lingual-medical-student-hike-through-snow-for-a-week-why-does-Kate-not-give-me-her-bag-so-she-can-keep-up-with-me-carry-their-own-theme-tune variety, stuck with the Chinese.
The trek turned out to be tiring, with a section called 'the 28 bends' that was steep and long. Views were constantly spectacular, above us snowy peaks, hundreds of meters below us the blue river was rapid.
We took our time with plenty of rest and 8 hours after starting off we arrived at the Halfway House just 30 minutes after the speed walkers. One of the Chinese chaps had even hired a donkey.
We copied Michael Palin's previous pose squatting in the outdoor toilet looking out over the mountains.
In the gorge, sunrise was technically at 10.30am, so we were up just after daybreak. 3 hours of walking to go before reaching Tina's guesthouse and a taxi back. A heavy and wide waterfall ran over our cliff edge path along the way, and was easily the most risky and entertaining moment of the day's walk so far.
We arranged to share a taxi with some French and Argentinians. The road was a cliff side quarry and we bumped along slowly until after an hour we reached an impassable and recent landslide. Rocks bounced their way from up high down and over the cliff non-stop and our taxi driver stood there as surprised as we were.
After about 10 minutes of watching the stones roll our driver ran over to the edge of the rocky radius and waved at us to follow. We didn't move. 10 seconds later he retreated back after a close shave with some speedy and dusty slides.
5 minutes more waiting and a Chinese man in a suit on the other side made a run for it and at halfway a head sized rock bounded down and missed his trailing leg somehow and he made it. We clapped and carried on waiting.
10 more minutes and we all crossed, with no casualties, although a Chinese man was hiding behind the Argentinian couple just to be safe.
Back to Lijiang by bus.
On our first night we found out how expensive the bars are - 2quid50 a pint! Hah! So we drank rice wine in the streets.
On our way back to the International Youth Hostel Lijiang we met a group of Germans and they took us into a place where we could drink cheap, home-brewed rice wine for cheap. This became our local and we returned the next day even after I fell over into their display of meat and veg.
We were planning on exploring the town for a couple of days while our blisters from the Shaxi trek healed but on our second evening we met Kate from Kidlington, and we found ourselves ready and willing to get going on to the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge hike at 7am the next morning.
The group we were setting off with included 3 typically organised Chinese chaps, who had a week long itinerary and weren't about to be put 1 minute behind schedule and they led the way.
A 2 hour bus ride to Quetou, the starting town, and a French girl called Maria joined the group. We found out that the 50yuan entry fee was waived on agreement that their liability is waived if we were injured during their ongoing road building, or in other words, explosions.
We followed the Chinese chaps up the hill and some men with donkeys followed us, incase we got tired and were rich enough to hire them to carry us to the end. These guys were a pain and split our group up along the single file path while asking us do we want a horse and telling us to keep moving. Kate found the walk harder than the rest of us with her heavy backpack, after lunch she shouted at the donkey men until they got the bloody message and stopped following us.
From there on in the trek became more enjoyable and our surroundings more beautiful. We split into 2 groups, with the Chinese squirming at the idea of arriving late, and the German couple being of the hardcore-multi-lingual-medical-student-hike-through-snow-for-a-week-why-does-Kate-not-give-me-her-bag-so-she-can-keep-up-with-me-carry-their-own-theme-tune variety, stuck with the Chinese.
The trek turned out to be tiring, with a section called 'the 28 bends' that was steep and long. Views were constantly spectacular, above us snowy peaks, hundreds of meters below us the blue river was rapid.
We took our time with plenty of rest and 8 hours after starting off we arrived at the Halfway House just 30 minutes after the speed walkers. One of the Chinese chaps had even hired a donkey.
We copied Michael Palin's previous pose squatting in the outdoor toilet looking out over the mountains.
In the gorge, sunrise was technically at 10.30am, so we were up just after daybreak. 3 hours of walking to go before reaching Tina's guesthouse and a taxi back. A heavy and wide waterfall ran over our cliff edge path along the way, and was easily the most risky and entertaining moment of the day's walk so far.
We arranged to share a taxi with some French and Argentinians. The road was a cliff side quarry and we bumped along slowly until after an hour we reached an impassable and recent landslide. Rocks bounced their way from up high down and over the cliff non-stop and our taxi driver stood there as surprised as we were.
After about 10 minutes of watching the stones roll our driver ran over to the edge of the rocky radius and waved at us to follow. We didn't move. 10 seconds later he retreated back after a close shave with some speedy and dusty slides.
5 minutes more waiting and a Chinese man in a suit on the other side made a run for it and at halfway a head sized rock bounded down and missed his trailing leg somehow and he made it. We clapped and carried on waiting.
10 more minutes and we all crossed, with no casualties, although a Chinese man was hiding behind the Argentinian couple just to be safe.
Back to Lijiang by bus.
Shaxi
To get away from the Chinese tourists and on advice from the Lonely Planet we took a 4 hour bus ride and 1 hour taxi to the small and secluded Shaxi village.
We were dropped off at the Dragonfly Guesthouse, a Ming dynasty house with a cobbled courtyard and even though we were the only guests the owner cooked us up a feast of half a dozen plates of meat and veg for dinner, including fried goat's cheese and sweet bamboo grubs. We were careful not to finish all the food and by extension question our host's generosity. We were still waiting on news of whether we would have a guide the next day for a 2 day hike along an ancient salt road and we sat around, had some rice wine and watched a film.
In the morning we were woken up and told that breakfast was ready and a guide was waiting for us. His name was (probably not) Dwan and he spoke no English, was shy and patient and turned out to be a fast walker.
A hot sunny day and the path full of dust and hard climbs and fresh water streams which we drank from with the donkeys. 15km later and we arrived in a small village with 1 toilet in the school for it's 8 children. The fastest way back was the way we had come. We were to stay in Dwan's farmhouse with his family. Kae impressed Dwan's folks with some drawings of the local temple while I played connect 5 with Dwan on a 'Go' board.
In the evening a friend of Dwan's made his arrival in the village known by setting off a string of firecrackers, and he was invited over. The 4 of us played a mix between dominos and a card game, and with the Chinese telling us which moves to make instead of what the rules were, we became supreme champions!
The whole family huddled around some hot coals as the night got colder. Dwan's father smoking from the typical gigantic pipe (between 2 and 3 foot in height, made of a metal tube, and smoked while squatting next to it) and everyone singing along to their 1 DVD, Chinese folk song kareoke.
We creeped outside at midnight to check the stars and there wasn't a light on in the village.
The next morning we woke up late and saw the old man peering though our bedroom window. We left, walked back the same way and on returning to Dragonfly to pick up our bags, made our way North to Lijiang.
We were dropped off at the Dragonfly Guesthouse, a Ming dynasty house with a cobbled courtyard and even though we were the only guests the owner cooked us up a feast of half a dozen plates of meat and veg for dinner, including fried goat's cheese and sweet bamboo grubs. We were careful not to finish all the food and by extension question our host's generosity. We were still waiting on news of whether we would have a guide the next day for a 2 day hike along an ancient salt road and we sat around, had some rice wine and watched a film.
In the morning we were woken up and told that breakfast was ready and a guide was waiting for us. His name was (probably not) Dwan and he spoke no English, was shy and patient and turned out to be a fast walker.
A hot sunny day and the path full of dust and hard climbs and fresh water streams which we drank from with the donkeys. 15km later and we arrived in a small village with 1 toilet in the school for it's 8 children. The fastest way back was the way we had come. We were to stay in Dwan's farmhouse with his family. Kae impressed Dwan's folks with some drawings of the local temple while I played connect 5 with Dwan on a 'Go' board.
In the evening a friend of Dwan's made his arrival in the village known by setting off a string of firecrackers, and he was invited over. The 4 of us played a mix between dominos and a card game, and with the Chinese telling us which moves to make instead of what the rules were, we became supreme champions!
The whole family huddled around some hot coals as the night got colder. Dwan's father smoking from the typical gigantic pipe (between 2 and 3 foot in height, made of a metal tube, and smoked while squatting next to it) and everyone singing along to their 1 DVD, Chinese folk song kareoke.
We creeped outside at midnight to check the stars and there wasn't a light on in the village.
The next morning we woke up late and saw the old man peering though our bedroom window. We left, walked back the same way and on returning to Dragonfly to pick up our bags, made our way North to Lijiang.
Dali
We arrived in New Dali (skyscrapers, big roads etc.) at 5am after another comfortable sleeper train journey. The buses to Old Dali (ancient, quirky town) did not start running until 6.30am and a friendly Chinese couple approached us to share a taxi there. We squeezed into the nearest taxi and a third of the way into the journey the driver did a U-turn, saying she wanted to pick up 2 more people. There was no chance of managing this without us sitting on each others laps and so I found a slightly more expensive, legal taxi for us to share when we stopped back at square 1. We don't have much luck with taxi drivers.
We arrived in Old Dali which was still asleep apart from an old man just starting to make steamed buns. The Chinese couple spoke to him and we sat down to drink tea and watch him make our breakfast. Along with the tasty sausage meat buns we had porridge with pickled cabbage, which was OK. The Chinese couple then woke up a guesthouse for us and found us a room and then they left.
Old Dali is a bit unreal, it looks a lot like the old China one sees in films, with ornate gates, canal networks and temples nestled between misty mountains and a giant lake. All this only slightly ruined by hordes of Chinese tourists carrying huge cameras. We explored and in the evening we almost went into a bar but were approached by a kung-fu and tai ji master called xiao bin. We arranged for lessons early the next day and so we skipped the bar and went back to get some rest.
During the kung fu lesson we played a couple of balance and strength games. One where you stand, legs far apart, infront of the opponent. You put your hand on their stomach, and slowly and firmly try to push them over. Xiao Bin weighed 50kg, but he was beating us all, including a very strong French man. I asked to have another go, he said I could have 20 more goes, it would make no difference. Then I beat him! A couple of times too. And the Frenchie. I also beat him at a frog jumping race. So that's kung fu mastered then, the only thing he could do that I couldn't was kick himself in the head. We moved onto tai ji where we memorized a succession of flowing movements. After an hour of that Xiao Bin took the 2 Frenchmen and Kae and I to the market and bought some food and some beer and took it to his house where a girl cooked it for us. Xiao bin showed us how to smash the base of a glass bottle full of water by hitting the top with the flat of your hand. The big Frenchie eventually managed to do it, but might have broken his thumb. Xiao Bin also showed us his new sword, which he uses to scare off groups of drunks who want to take him on. He says unarmed he can take on 3 people but any more than that and he needs his sword.
The next day we took a cable car up into the mountains. Just before this a gypsy woman cursed Kae by flicking her boob. Luckily Kae new a counter curse and reflected it back on the old hag. We saw the gypsy earlier on and our waitresses were making fun of her, but crapped themselves and ran away when the gypsy came near them.
We checked into the only hotel up the nearest mountain, the Higherland Inn, with amazing views of Dali, friendly staff, a peaceful garden with a Taoist cave, and no electricity. We walked around on the mountain and had some strong Tibetan rice wine by candlelight. The man who runs the hotel is from Tibet and told me that all their alcoholic drinks are 60% proof or stronger. We also met a Chinese illustrator and a Brit called Lenny.
Lenny has done a fair bit of travelling in Asia, you can tell by how he talks, in a simple and slow pidgin "I go to China. China is very good. I am happy here in China." He talks to me and Kae like this too, which is amazingly annoying. Lenny had met the owner of the Higherland Inn while in Thailand 2 years previous and he had fallen for her, but they went their seperate ways. Lenny had flown to China to find her, but he was too late, she had married a Swiss after knowing him for 6 days and moved to Switzerland. So now we were stuck with him.
We hiked up into the forest the next day, not just to escape Lenny. The forest was beautiful, and we ate some snickers (chocolate is more expensive than gold, in China). We took the cablecar down (the only thing more expensive than chocolate), and left the national park. If I had been caught with my lighter during our stay I would have been charged between 50 and 100 quid, and had to sign a form 3 times stating that I didn't have one, so I smuggled it in and out. Jack 1, communist China 0.
We arrived in Old Dali which was still asleep apart from an old man just starting to make steamed buns. The Chinese couple spoke to him and we sat down to drink tea and watch him make our breakfast. Along with the tasty sausage meat buns we had porridge with pickled cabbage, which was OK. The Chinese couple then woke up a guesthouse for us and found us a room and then they left.
Old Dali is a bit unreal, it looks a lot like the old China one sees in films, with ornate gates, canal networks and temples nestled between misty mountains and a giant lake. All this only slightly ruined by hordes of Chinese tourists carrying huge cameras. We explored and in the evening we almost went into a bar but were approached by a kung-fu and tai ji master called xiao bin. We arranged for lessons early the next day and so we skipped the bar and went back to get some rest.
During the kung fu lesson we played a couple of balance and strength games. One where you stand, legs far apart, infront of the opponent. You put your hand on their stomach, and slowly and firmly try to push them over. Xiao Bin weighed 50kg, but he was beating us all, including a very strong French man. I asked to have another go, he said I could have 20 more goes, it would make no difference. Then I beat him! A couple of times too. And the Frenchie. I also beat him at a frog jumping race. So that's kung fu mastered then, the only thing he could do that I couldn't was kick himself in the head. We moved onto tai ji where we memorized a succession of flowing movements. After an hour of that Xiao Bin took the 2 Frenchmen and Kae and I to the market and bought some food and some beer and took it to his house where a girl cooked it for us. Xiao bin showed us how to smash the base of a glass bottle full of water by hitting the top with the flat of your hand. The big Frenchie eventually managed to do it, but might have broken his thumb. Xiao Bin also showed us his new sword, which he uses to scare off groups of drunks who want to take him on. He says unarmed he can take on 3 people but any more than that and he needs his sword.
The next day we took a cable car up into the mountains. Just before this a gypsy woman cursed Kae by flicking her boob. Luckily Kae new a counter curse and reflected it back on the old hag. We saw the gypsy earlier on and our waitresses were making fun of her, but crapped themselves and ran away when the gypsy came near them.
We checked into the only hotel up the nearest mountain, the Higherland Inn, with amazing views of Dali, friendly staff, a peaceful garden with a Taoist cave, and no electricity. We walked around on the mountain and had some strong Tibetan rice wine by candlelight. The man who runs the hotel is from Tibet and told me that all their alcoholic drinks are 60% proof or stronger. We also met a Chinese illustrator and a Brit called Lenny.
Lenny has done a fair bit of travelling in Asia, you can tell by how he talks, in a simple and slow pidgin "I go to China. China is very good. I am happy here in China." He talks to me and Kae like this too, which is amazingly annoying. Lenny had met the owner of the Higherland Inn while in Thailand 2 years previous and he had fallen for her, but they went their seperate ways. Lenny had flown to China to find her, but he was too late, she had married a Swiss after knowing him for 6 days and moved to Switzerland. So now we were stuck with him.
We hiked up into the forest the next day, not just to escape Lenny. The forest was beautiful, and we ate some snickers (chocolate is more expensive than gold, in China). We took the cablecar down (the only thing more expensive than chocolate), and left the national park. If I had been caught with my lighter during our stay I would have been charged between 50 and 100 quid, and had to sign a form 3 times stating that I didn't have one, so I smuggled it in and out. Jack 1, communist China 0.
China, Hekou and Kunming
The border crossing from Loa Cai in Vietnam to Hekou in China was like jumping from a cramped and hostile frying pan into a giant, inveterate, friendly fire.
We quickly moved on to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan province, after a long struggle to find the bus station in Hekou, which we walked past twice, being completely unable to read any signs - our first experience of the impossible Mandarin script. The Chinese have been helpful when we ask for directions, but we have to be shrewd with who we trust, as some point in any vague direction, and smile, rather than suffer the humiliation of admitting that they havn't the foggiest.
We have spent our first full day in China now, I can't believe how quiet the streets are, and they're massive, busy streets with buses and cars and scooters, but most of these are electric and wierdly silent, much like the Chinese.
We saw an ambulance speed right past us, but the sirens were so quiet we hardly heard them. No hassling, and hardly any honking - whereas in Vietnam they honk their horns rather than brake. We had a really strange arrival last night. At the Kunming bus station we were being hassled by a taxi driver (standard practice) after arriving by long distance bus and as we tried to ignore him we asked for help from a likely looking Chinese girl. When she offered to help us take the bus to the centre of town the taxi driver grabbed her by the throat, pushed her back and shouted at her (with me, Kae and a gigantic Canadian inbetween) for so long (him being backed up by a couple of other taxi drivers) that the police turned up. The Chinese girl was going to be taken for questioning in the police hut next door and didn't seem happy with this, so we all accompanied her to back her up. Eventually, after we got our story accross, they handcuffed the sneering little bastard and made him sit on the floor. We then had to wait for a more official guy to turn up and the police were making us tea and handing around nuts, and showed us a 'magic trick' with a banknote (he showed us how to do it - rookie mistake, so I took the floor and dumbfounded half a dozen policemen and the Canadian couple with my magical ability to see through the top card of a shuffled deck).
The final drama played out when the Chinese girl's Aunt and brother turned up, had a good go at the scrote in the handcuffs on the floor and then the Aunt whacked him round the head, hard, twice, and the brother took a running kick to him knocking him over, shoulder to shoulder with the police who were pretty relaxed about this but eventually insisted that they stop. The police paid for us to get a taxi into town and that was that, we swapped contacts with the Chinese girl, shared a dorm room with our new Canadian amigos and spent the day hanging around with them today.
Chinese food is interesting, and quite tasty, once you figure out how to get some. All they have on show for us to point at from the streets is offal, chicken feet and duck heads. We would have rather eaten a blind masseuse and so we approached a busy restaurant, where you pay and probably order at the door. So we handed over 10RMB (1quid) each and made complex faces and hand gestures at the woman, communicating brilliantly that we didn't know what we wanted, what she was saying or what to do, and walked inside.
Lot's of people queuing at windows and sat around tables collecting and eating food. We stood in a queue. The Chinese don't actually queue, so we realised we weren't stood in a queue and we asked for help. I asked the waitress for a clue loudly enough and someone who spoke a bit of English came over to save the day and we were told to just sit down and be quiet.
Food was served, and we were given at least 5 plates each. One with herbs and greens, one with 2 raw quail eggs, one with a selection of sliced raw meat, one with crunchy pig skin, some cold noodles and a couple of soft white bits. We sat very still and looked around. At last a man came over with 2 massive bowls of steaming broth and we poured all the ingredients in and enjoyed the area's speciality, our first 'over the bridge noodles'.
After a second night at the Hump Hostel we arranged a much needed Chinese lesson for a couple of quid. We wrote down some of the basics which have been very useful so far. The most interesting lesson was how to count to 10 with your hands. Numbers 1-5 are standard finger counting. 6 is our hand signal for phone, or 2-legged spider with your thumb and pinky pointing. 7 is as if you were making a shadow puppet of a rabbit head with no ears. 8 is a gun or the sign for 'loser'. 9 is a hook with your index finger like a claw (angry face optional). 10 is a cross made with both index fingers, as if you were warding off a vampire.
Before leaving Kunming for the historic tourist town, Dali, we spent a couple of hours tea tasting with a group of Westerners. We learnt a bit about the different teas about town, and how to use the complicated and ceremonious tools necessary to make a brew. Here we met an English couple who agreed to join us for dinner at a food court that we had tried out earlier that day.
At the food court, you put some money on a card and find and jealously guard a table, some of you walk around an underground trail of choices and pick out what you like. Here we tried the stodgy and cheap steamed buns that always give you gas, some with sausage meat inside, some with custard.
In the end, I was happy to leave Kunming for more rural and historic towns even if we did go to see the new Sherlock Holmes film in English. Onward to Dali, and sadly, the last time we've seen any life-size statues of robocop in the streets, with a big red button on his 6 pack that either calls the rozzers or brings him to life in the name of justice.
We quickly moved on to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan province, after a long struggle to find the bus station in Hekou, which we walked past twice, being completely unable to read any signs - our first experience of the impossible Mandarin script. The Chinese have been helpful when we ask for directions, but we have to be shrewd with who we trust, as some point in any vague direction, and smile, rather than suffer the humiliation of admitting that they havn't the foggiest.
We have spent our first full day in China now, I can't believe how quiet the streets are, and they're massive, busy streets with buses and cars and scooters, but most of these are electric and wierdly silent, much like the Chinese.
We saw an ambulance speed right past us, but the sirens were so quiet we hardly heard them. No hassling, and hardly any honking - whereas in Vietnam they honk their horns rather than brake. We had a really strange arrival last night. At the Kunming bus station we were being hassled by a taxi driver (standard practice) after arriving by long distance bus and as we tried to ignore him we asked for help from a likely looking Chinese girl. When she offered to help us take the bus to the centre of town the taxi driver grabbed her by the throat, pushed her back and shouted at her (with me, Kae and a gigantic Canadian inbetween) for so long (him being backed up by a couple of other taxi drivers) that the police turned up. The Chinese girl was going to be taken for questioning in the police hut next door and didn't seem happy with this, so we all accompanied her to back her up. Eventually, after we got our story accross, they handcuffed the sneering little bastard and made him sit on the floor. We then had to wait for a more official guy to turn up and the police were making us tea and handing around nuts, and showed us a 'magic trick' with a banknote (he showed us how to do it - rookie mistake, so I took the floor and dumbfounded half a dozen policemen and the Canadian couple with my magical ability to see through the top card of a shuffled deck).
The final drama played out when the Chinese girl's Aunt and brother turned up, had a good go at the scrote in the handcuffs on the floor and then the Aunt whacked him round the head, hard, twice, and the brother took a running kick to him knocking him over, shoulder to shoulder with the police who were pretty relaxed about this but eventually insisted that they stop. The police paid for us to get a taxi into town and that was that, we swapped contacts with the Chinese girl, shared a dorm room with our new Canadian amigos and spent the day hanging around with them today.
Chinese food is interesting, and quite tasty, once you figure out how to get some. All they have on show for us to point at from the streets is offal, chicken feet and duck heads. We would have rather eaten a blind masseuse and so we approached a busy restaurant, where you pay and probably order at the door. So we handed over 10RMB (1quid) each and made complex faces and hand gestures at the woman, communicating brilliantly that we didn't know what we wanted, what she was saying or what to do, and walked inside.
Lot's of people queuing at windows and sat around tables collecting and eating food. We stood in a queue. The Chinese don't actually queue, so we realised we weren't stood in a queue and we asked for help. I asked the waitress for a clue loudly enough and someone who spoke a bit of English came over to save the day and we were told to just sit down and be quiet.
Food was served, and we were given at least 5 plates each. One with herbs and greens, one with 2 raw quail eggs, one with a selection of sliced raw meat, one with crunchy pig skin, some cold noodles and a couple of soft white bits. We sat very still and looked around. At last a man came over with 2 massive bowls of steaming broth and we poured all the ingredients in and enjoyed the area's speciality, our first 'over the bridge noodles'.
After a second night at the Hump Hostel we arranged a much needed Chinese lesson for a couple of quid. We wrote down some of the basics which have been very useful so far. The most interesting lesson was how to count to 10 with your hands. Numbers 1-5 are standard finger counting. 6 is our hand signal for phone, or 2-legged spider with your thumb and pinky pointing. 7 is as if you were making a shadow puppet of a rabbit head with no ears. 8 is a gun or the sign for 'loser'. 9 is a hook with your index finger like a claw (angry face optional). 10 is a cross made with both index fingers, as if you were warding off a vampire.
Before leaving Kunming for the historic tourist town, Dali, we spent a couple of hours tea tasting with a group of Westerners. We learnt a bit about the different teas about town, and how to use the complicated and ceremonious tools necessary to make a brew. Here we met an English couple who agreed to join us for dinner at a food court that we had tried out earlier that day.
At the food court, you put some money on a card and find and jealously guard a table, some of you walk around an underground trail of choices and pick out what you like. Here we tried the stodgy and cheap steamed buns that always give you gas, some with sausage meat inside, some with custard.
In the end, I was happy to leave Kunming for more rural and historic towns even if we did go to see the new Sherlock Holmes film in English. Onward to Dali, and sadly, the last time we've seen any life-size statues of robocop in the streets, with a big red button on his 6 pack that either calls the rozzers or brings him to life in the name of justice.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Hanoi, Halong Bay
A 30 day Chinese visa takes 6 days and cost $45 and so we had time to spend in and around Hanoi, if not money.
In Hanoi, each respectable tourist operator / hotel has a dozen copycat companies with the same name and logo and we learnt this the hard way. Three nights spent sleeping with several hundred ants later, and we had a face-off with the owners who were trying to charge us a massive $3 extra! We argued and pointed at things for 30 minutes until they gave it up as a bad job. In the last 6 weeks of bargaining I've been practising being indignant in a vaguely friendly way handing out peace-keeping cigarettes with careful timing.
After plenty of shopping around and bloody bargaining, we booked a 3 day, 2 night trip to Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for $40 (travel, accomodation, sight entry, activities and food all inclusive). I was a spectacular trip. We travelled and ate (rice and cabbage and some tofu, which nobody ate) on a junk, a rickety old ship with 4 levels. Our first stop was a gigantic cave which we explored with an wise guy guide. We then moved on to stay in a hotel on Cat Ba Island to be ready the next morning for a hike up a rocky hill in the national park. At the top of the hill was a rusty 30m tall tower with a sign posted at the bottom that said it could hold a maximum of 5 people without collapsing. Kae and I climbed it and shared a collective nervousness with the 3 other people at the top before getting the hell back down. Back at base camp we shared our 3rd consequetive meal of rice and cabbage and climbed back onto the junk where we stayed for the night. We had a comfortable room, but the Vietnamese, ever ready to scrape every penny, turned off the electricity at 10pm just as Kae and I were halfway through our smuggled stash of rum (they charge $10 for every bottle not bought aboard).
The next day we cruised between the awesome craggy islands of Halong Bay, stopping next to a floating fishing village and poked our noses in via sea kyak. This was great fun and I didn't even mind being sold a rotten pineapple for $1 by a sweet little devil child who did rub it in a bit by shouting, laughing and pointing throughout her getaway.
The crew took us back to the harbour, and herded us to a restaurant for our 5th and final consecutive rice and cabbage, and by now everyone was tired of the budget level Vietnamese tourist industry.
We were lucky to bump into a creative couple (Kris and Neko, not to forget Kris' bro, Joel) who (coincidentally for Kae) had friends in animation studios in Bristol and a bunch of other shared interests. We spent an evening with them and were grateful to be invited to tag along for a tasty meal in a private room with their family and friends in Hanoi before we left for China the next day.
In Hanoi, each respectable tourist operator / hotel has a dozen copycat companies with the same name and logo and we learnt this the hard way. Three nights spent sleeping with several hundred ants later, and we had a face-off with the owners who were trying to charge us a massive $3 extra! We argued and pointed at things for 30 minutes until they gave it up as a bad job. In the last 6 weeks of bargaining I've been practising being indignant in a vaguely friendly way handing out peace-keeping cigarettes with careful timing.
After plenty of shopping around and bloody bargaining, we booked a 3 day, 2 night trip to Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for $40 (travel, accomodation, sight entry, activities and food all inclusive). I was a spectacular trip. We travelled and ate (rice and cabbage and some tofu, which nobody ate) on a junk, a rickety old ship with 4 levels. Our first stop was a gigantic cave which we explored with an wise guy guide. We then moved on to stay in a hotel on Cat Ba Island to be ready the next morning for a hike up a rocky hill in the national park. At the top of the hill was a rusty 30m tall tower with a sign posted at the bottom that said it could hold a maximum of 5 people without collapsing. Kae and I climbed it and shared a collective nervousness with the 3 other people at the top before getting the hell back down. Back at base camp we shared our 3rd consequetive meal of rice and cabbage and climbed back onto the junk where we stayed for the night. We had a comfortable room, but the Vietnamese, ever ready to scrape every penny, turned off the electricity at 10pm just as Kae and I were halfway through our smuggled stash of rum (they charge $10 for every bottle not bought aboard).
The next day we cruised between the awesome craggy islands of Halong Bay, stopping next to a floating fishing village and poked our noses in via sea kyak. This was great fun and I didn't even mind being sold a rotten pineapple for $1 by a sweet little devil child who did rub it in a bit by shouting, laughing and pointing throughout her getaway.
The crew took us back to the harbour, and herded us to a restaurant for our 5th and final consecutive rice and cabbage, and by now everyone was tired of the budget level Vietnamese tourist industry.
We were lucky to bump into a creative couple (Kris and Neko, not to forget Kris' bro, Joel) who (coincidentally for Kae) had friends in animation studios in Bristol and a bunch of other shared interests. We spent an evening with them and were grateful to be invited to tag along for a tasty meal in a private room with their family and friends in Hanoi before we left for China the next day.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Hoi An to Hanoi
Ahhah! Hahahah! I can add more to my blog! The Chinese thought they could keep me out, but they couldn't! The Great Firewall of China has crumbled! Rush in, comrades! The revolution has begun!
The last time I was able to add to this tally of tittilations, I boasted about my ability to beat anyone in Asia at necking a beer. Ever since then I've been cursed, probably deservedly, but definitely cursed. If I don't choke and splutter half a pint through my nose, then I put the glass down with beer left in it. I'm still up, money wise, but humbled.
This was in Hoi An, where I had a 3 piece cashmere suit tailor made, with a couple of shirts thrown in, for 100quid. I went for the expensive option, which means that if I don't get a decent job when I get back you'll probably see me wearing it down The Plough.
Kae had a coat tailor made, for a good price, which was very sensible as our next stop is the Yunnan Province, China, where the temperature drops to 0'C at night!
While in Hoi An we stayed in a great hotel called Green Fields for $23 a night, with free breakfast buffet and an hour of free cocktails in the evening! After some time, we worked out that due to the number of baguettes we smuggled out of the buffet room for later, and the number of free cocktails we drank, we were paying well below the $10 mark for our room. Job done! On our last night we met a couple of girls, Harriet and Megan, and went out for a meal (even though we'd had our baguettes) and then some drinks with some electricians from Leeds. The two groups had plenty of interesting stories and scars to tell/show us from their travels in China and Laos, which are our next 2 stops.
We took the sleeper train straight from Hoi An to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, in order to arrange our visas in time. The train journey took about 19 hours, and we shared our carriage with a family of 4, but it was very comfortable, and there's far less last ditch swerving and furious horn beeping than the sleeper bus.
Hanoi is fantastic, with the main tourist areas surrounding the old quarter, which surrounds a lake, where an old king fought off the Chinese with a sword given to him by a god, which was nicked off him by a giant golden turtle. (My translation of this, from my own experience, goes as follows - the King travelled with a backpack through Vietnam and one day he packed his bags and before checking out of the palace he searched under the bed, in the cupboards, around the bathroom and in all the draws thoroughly. Twice. He then journeyed to another palace and checked in, where, upon unpacking his bag, he realised that he must have left his legendary sword back in the last palace. Along with his swimming shorts, his Union Jack boxer shorts and his copy of Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' that he was halfway through. The king then told everyone a giant golden turtle nicked it from him when he was out sailing.)
A couple of days spent in Hanoi so far, which celebrates it's 1000th anniversary with itself this year. We saw a 'water puppet show' last night, which was surreal, and accompanied by groovy old Vietnamese tunes, and we've found some more great coffee and cheap beer. We were ripped off for lunch today, though - making the mistake of not settling how much our beef and veg cost, resulting in the cost doubling to 80,000 Dong (4$) each, but the beers were still only 6000 Dong (35c / 20p) and I made some money back by swiping a load of their monkey nuts.
The last time I was able to add to this tally of tittilations, I boasted about my ability to beat anyone in Asia at necking a beer. Ever since then I've been cursed, probably deservedly, but definitely cursed. If I don't choke and splutter half a pint through my nose, then I put the glass down with beer left in it. I'm still up, money wise, but humbled.
This was in Hoi An, where I had a 3 piece cashmere suit tailor made, with a couple of shirts thrown in, for 100quid. I went for the expensive option, which means that if I don't get a decent job when I get back you'll probably see me wearing it down The Plough.
Kae had a coat tailor made, for a good price, which was very sensible as our next stop is the Yunnan Province, China, where the temperature drops to 0'C at night!
While in Hoi An we stayed in a great hotel called Green Fields for $23 a night, with free breakfast buffet and an hour of free cocktails in the evening! After some time, we worked out that due to the number of baguettes we smuggled out of the buffet room for later, and the number of free cocktails we drank, we were paying well below the $10 mark for our room. Job done! On our last night we met a couple of girls, Harriet and Megan, and went out for a meal (even though we'd had our baguettes) and then some drinks with some electricians from Leeds. The two groups had plenty of interesting stories and scars to tell/show us from their travels in China and Laos, which are our next 2 stops.
We took the sleeper train straight from Hoi An to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, in order to arrange our visas in time. The train journey took about 19 hours, and we shared our carriage with a family of 4, but it was very comfortable, and there's far less last ditch swerving and furious horn beeping than the sleeper bus.
Hanoi is fantastic, with the main tourist areas surrounding the old quarter, which surrounds a lake, where an old king fought off the Chinese with a sword given to him by a god, which was nicked off him by a giant golden turtle. (My translation of this, from my own experience, goes as follows - the King travelled with a backpack through Vietnam and one day he packed his bags and before checking out of the palace he searched under the bed, in the cupboards, around the bathroom and in all the draws thoroughly. Twice. He then journeyed to another palace and checked in, where, upon unpacking his bag, he realised that he must have left his legendary sword back in the last palace. Along with his swimming shorts, his Union Jack boxer shorts and his copy of Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' that he was halfway through. The king then told everyone a giant golden turtle nicked it from him when he was out sailing.)
A couple of days spent in Hanoi so far, which celebrates it's 1000th anniversary with itself this year. We saw a 'water puppet show' last night, which was surreal, and accompanied by groovy old Vietnamese tunes, and we've found some more great coffee and cheap beer. We were ripped off for lunch today, though - making the mistake of not settling how much our beef and veg cost, resulting in the cost doubling to 80,000 Dong (4$) each, but the beers were still only 6000 Dong (35c / 20p) and I made some money back by swiping a load of their monkey nuts.
Monday, 15 February 2010
Miscellaneous
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Picture from top of the 'Fairy Stream' waterfall
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Snorkelling in Nha Trang
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Chinese New Year fireworks on Nha Trang beach
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Dancing Dragon, Chinese New Year
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Snorkelling in Nha Trang.JPG)
Chinese New Year fireworks on Nha Trang beach.JPG)
Dancing Dragon, Chinese New Year
Locals fishing in Mui Ne
Year of the Tiger
The new year celebration in Nha Trang was bigger and shorter than I expected. After meeting up with Scuba diver Andy again we watched a dragon dancing show at about 10, and then watched the impressive firework display at midnight. I couldn't count the amount of people that were on the roads and on the long beach for this, but being there reminded me of the London marathon the way everyone was packed in shoulder to shoulder (albeit most sat on their scooters), ready to move as soon as the last firework explodes!
We met some great characters that night, including an old school Aussie punk rocker couple and a group of Swedish guys. We played 'cham den cham' or 'bottoms up'. It was my idea, but the Swedes were telling me me I was up against "The Fastest Beer Drinker In Scandanavia" and the punk rocker was, well - a punk rocker. No match for a Witney-ite though! I've been playing locals all up the coast from Saigon and Si, Paul, if you're reading, out here you'd make some easy money!
The next night was Feb 14th, and Kae and I bought a couple of 5 course set menus at a nearby restaurant for about $10 each. The highlight of the menu was big chunks of raw grouper fish with dill dressing and salad.
We've been lazing around the beach town of Nha Trang since, and have got into the cheap red wine they grow nearby in the hilly town of Dalat. There is little to do around Nha Trang at the moment as the locals are on holiday. The cheap meat baguettes are causing some plumbing problems so I'm taking it easy myself.
Lunch at a top little restaurant/bakery that hires the disadvantaged, the Vietnamese beef stew with baguette was delicious and only a quid, now we're sitting in a bar waiting for the sleeper bus to take us to Hoi An.
We met some great characters that night, including an old school Aussie punk rocker couple and a group of Swedish guys. We played 'cham den cham' or 'bottoms up'. It was my idea, but the Swedes were telling me me I was up against "The Fastest Beer Drinker In Scandanavia" and the punk rocker was, well - a punk rocker. No match for a Witney-ite though! I've been playing locals all up the coast from Saigon and Si, Paul, if you're reading, out here you'd make some easy money!
The next night was Feb 14th, and Kae and I bought a couple of 5 course set menus at a nearby restaurant for about $10 each. The highlight of the menu was big chunks of raw grouper fish with dill dressing and salad.
We've been lazing around the beach town of Nha Trang since, and have got into the cheap red wine they grow nearby in the hilly town of Dalat. There is little to do around Nha Trang at the moment as the locals are on holiday. The cheap meat baguettes are causing some plumbing problems so I'm taking it easy myself.
Lunch at a top little restaurant/bakery that hires the disadvantaged, the Vietnamese beef stew with baguette was delicious and only a quid, now we're sitting in a bar waiting for the sleeper bus to take us to Hoi An.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Nha Trang
Second full day in Nha Trang, and it's Chinese New Year's Eve 4708, or 2010. Whenever it is, the Vietnamese has closed up shop for the next week, and there's people setting up stages, fireworks and decorations all over town.
As a kind of tester to see if I'm going to do a scuba diving course, yesterday Kae and I slpurged $15 to go on a snorkelling trip alongside scuba divers. A fun trip, with a surprisingly large and tasty smorgasbord for lunch. The reef was unbelievable - huge and pristine. We snorkelled around and the divers were 5-10 metres below us, seeing much the same thing, so decision made - no scuba course for now.
Spent the evening with the scuba divers, Andy and Mark, at a couple of bars, and had a couple more of those deadly cocktails!
We're set up for the New Year celebrations now, and have bedded down in Nha Trang, with a ticket out ona sleeper bus to the more unique town of Hoi An.
As a kind of tester to see if I'm going to do a scuba diving course, yesterday Kae and I slpurged $15 to go on a snorkelling trip alongside scuba divers. A fun trip, with a surprisingly large and tasty smorgasbord for lunch. The reef was unbelievable - huge and pristine. We snorkelled around and the divers were 5-10 metres below us, seeing much the same thing, so decision made - no scuba course for now.
Spent the evening with the scuba divers, Andy and Mark, at a couple of bars, and had a couple more of those deadly cocktails!
We're set up for the New Year celebrations now, and have bedded down in Nha Trang, with a ticket out ona sleeper bus to the more unique town of Hoi An.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Moving up Vietnam, Mui Ne and Nha Trang
Met another English couple while out for beer with Lawrence. Watched the Man U game and spoke to an expat who had set up a cafe in Dalat. Spoke to him about living in Vietnam, deciding on the spot that I'm going to set up a Backpackers somewhere. Not in Vietnam, apparently - but it will be called "sofasogood backpackers" - also he assured us the tourist industry will be running over TET. And so Kae and I confidently got the extortionate 'open tour bus' the next morning to the kite surfing mecca Mui Ne.
Mui Ne - not much to say about it apart from meeting a charismatic couple, Steve and Harmen, who have been travelling the world for we guess just over 20 years. They invited us to join them on a day trip to the 'Fairy Stream', and some large sand dunes in an old American army jeep. Walking down the Fairy Stream was the highlight; a shallow sandy river banked by colourful, earthy cliffs and foliage that led to a waterfall, which we cooled off in before being splashed by local hoodlums.
We hired a plastic sheet to slide down the sand dunes on, which was good fun, but I don't think it'll catch on!
We found some great places to eat along the shore, and had scallops with garlic and spring onions at a bargain $1. One lunchtime we were given some free sweets and nuts by the owner for TET, and then offered some duck, the same duck that Steve was told not to take photos of, it being part of a religious offering (we think). Anyway, the duck looked very old, dry and grey and so we made our apologies and escaped quickly.
We left Mui Ne after 2 nights. I would have loved to go kite surfing, but was shooed away by the cost - $350 for a day! On our last evening meal we found out that a little flirting will reduce the price to about $40, which I will remember for next time.
Next stop, Nha Trang - Vietnam's dive centre. I've found a reasonably priced PADI course for $220, which is run by 70 year old French diver 'Seawolf'. Might go and sign up now.
Mui Ne - not much to say about it apart from meeting a charismatic couple, Steve and Harmen, who have been travelling the world for we guess just over 20 years. They invited us to join them on a day trip to the 'Fairy Stream', and some large sand dunes in an old American army jeep. Walking down the Fairy Stream was the highlight; a shallow sandy river banked by colourful, earthy cliffs and foliage that led to a waterfall, which we cooled off in before being splashed by local hoodlums.
We hired a plastic sheet to slide down the sand dunes on, which was good fun, but I don't think it'll catch on!
We found some great places to eat along the shore, and had scallops with garlic and spring onions at a bargain $1. One lunchtime we were given some free sweets and nuts by the owner for TET, and then offered some duck, the same duck that Steve was told not to take photos of, it being part of a religious offering (we think). Anyway, the duck looked very old, dry and grey and so we made our apologies and escaped quickly.
We left Mui Ne after 2 nights. I would have loved to go kite surfing, but was shooed away by the cost - $350 for a day! On our last evening meal we found out that a little flirting will reduce the price to about $40, which I will remember for next time.
Next stop, Nha Trang - Vietnam's dive centre. I've found a reasonably priced PADI course for $220, which is run by 70 year old French diver 'Seawolf'. Might go and sign up now.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Third full day in Saigon, and our 30 day visa doesn't seem like enough.
Vietnam is much more like it - after paying the 'I'm new in town' tax via taxi from airport and first couple of nights accommodation, we explored the city and here's some reasons why our daily budget goes much farther than in Thailand.
Firstly, the beer! We've been drinking surely the cheapest beer in the world, 'Hoi an' (fresh beer) at 5000Dong a glass - thats 17p, and we've read you can find it at 2000Dong.
Secondly, the coffee. Holy cow pat in a glass Vietnamese coffee is real, real tasty. It's got a chocolate soup kind of quality and they serve it with still dripping through the cafetiere, I guess because it takes so long to filter through. You can buy one for 6,000 - 15,000 Dong
Thirdly, the food. Vietnamese food are adaptations of Chinese and French food, with much more herbs. From street stalls there's freshly baked baguette sandwiches for 10,000Dong, or 'Pho' (Noodle soup), or 'Nem' (Spring rolls) that they roll infront of you and contain fresh basil and mint leaves, onions and nuts, which come with sauce at 2000D each. I could write much more, and Kae and I plan on doing a cookery course up north is Hoi An, where it's cheaper.
While these 3 things are cheaper than second hand chips, hotels, courses and transport are relatively expensive. You pay for these in US$, and hotels are $10 if lucky, $20 if not. Cheapskate, you say? Too right.
The Vietnamese new year 'TET Festival' is on 14-17th Feb, and like the French in August, everything stops. Interestingly, everyone in Vietnam becomes a year older during the festival, so it's also a nationwide birthday party. This means Kae and I are booking ahead. We leave Saigon tomorrow, stopping at 2 beach towns over 6 days, and hopefully arriving in Hoi An - an olde worlde town - for TET. Accommodation seems hard to come by so I've followed in Dan's tracks and joined couchsurfing.com
While in Saigon, we visited the Fine Art museum, zoo and botanical gardens, which were all just shy of dull. Much more interesting was learning how to cross the madcap roads - the key is you walk very slowly into the middle of the constant swarm of scooters and taxis and buses, and make eye contact. It's easy, but that doesn't mean it's not completely mental.
Being in the city is fine but stressful due to the continuous hussling, selling or begging. It'll be good to get out tomorrow.
A big post, this one, but I could write more. Kae and I are meeting a guy, Laurence, who shared a taxi with us from the airport, who(m?) we bumped into today for lunch.
Also, the language is nuts. It's more complicated than chinese and on top of that it's mainly tonal, so depending on whether you raise or lower your voice as you say a word, it means completely different things. Lonely planet reckon you can accidentally 'make crude remarks about your genitals when attempting to say thankyou'. I've been saying thankyou (c'am on) as much as possible ever since!
Vietnam is much more like it - after paying the 'I'm new in town' tax via taxi from airport and first couple of nights accommodation, we explored the city and here's some reasons why our daily budget goes much farther than in Thailand.
Firstly, the beer! We've been drinking surely the cheapest beer in the world, 'Hoi an' (fresh beer) at 5000Dong a glass - thats 17p, and we've read you can find it at 2000Dong.
Secondly, the coffee. Holy cow pat in a glass Vietnamese coffee is real, real tasty. It's got a chocolate soup kind of quality and they serve it with still dripping through the cafetiere, I guess because it takes so long to filter through. You can buy one for 6,000 - 15,000 Dong
Thirdly, the food. Vietnamese food are adaptations of Chinese and French food, with much more herbs. From street stalls there's freshly baked baguette sandwiches for 10,000Dong, or 'Pho' (Noodle soup), or 'Nem' (Spring rolls) that they roll infront of you and contain fresh basil and mint leaves, onions and nuts, which come with sauce at 2000D each. I could write much more, and Kae and I plan on doing a cookery course up north is Hoi An, where it's cheaper.
While these 3 things are cheaper than second hand chips, hotels, courses and transport are relatively expensive. You pay for these in US$, and hotels are $10 if lucky, $20 if not. Cheapskate, you say? Too right.
The Vietnamese new year 'TET Festival' is on 14-17th Feb, and like the French in August, everything stops. Interestingly, everyone in Vietnam becomes a year older during the festival, so it's also a nationwide birthday party. This means Kae and I are booking ahead. We leave Saigon tomorrow, stopping at 2 beach towns over 6 days, and hopefully arriving in Hoi An - an olde worlde town - for TET. Accommodation seems hard to come by so I've followed in Dan's tracks and joined couchsurfing.com
While in Saigon, we visited the Fine Art museum, zoo and botanical gardens, which were all just shy of dull. Much more interesting was learning how to cross the madcap roads - the key is you walk very slowly into the middle of the constant swarm of scooters and taxis and buses, and make eye contact. It's easy, but that doesn't mean it's not completely mental.
Being in the city is fine but stressful due to the continuous hussling, selling or begging. It'll be good to get out tomorrow.
A big post, this one, but I could write more. Kae and I are meeting a guy, Laurence, who shared a taxi with us from the airport, who(m?) we bumped into today for lunch.
Also, the language is nuts. It's more complicated than chinese and on top of that it's mainly tonal, so depending on whether you raise or lower your voice as you say a word, it means completely different things. Lonely planet reckon you can accidentally 'make crude remarks about your genitals when attempting to say thankyou'. I've been saying thankyou (c'am on) as much as possible ever since!
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Phuket
Boat to Phuket, and evening at another night market with great KFC style chicken and decent Pad Thai noodles. Air conditioned room with satellite TV for a night. Today we hired a scooter and drove 20km North to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre, and explored the nearby waterfall, which is where they are released into.
The monkeys were a sad sight all in all, but I did find the biggest wild spider I've ever seen - as big as your face - sitting on its web a metre above a Japanese guy taking photos. I dramatically pointed the spider out to the man, and everyone survived to live another day.
We moved accomodation to the On On Hotel, which is very cheap, and 'where Daffy died' in the film 'The Beach'. Tomorrow evening, we fly to Saigon. Far poorer that anywhere I've been to, with monthly earnings in the city averaging about $50, to $15 in the poorer provinces.
The monkeys were a sad sight all in all, but I did find the biggest wild spider I've ever seen - as big as your face - sitting on its web a metre above a Japanese guy taking photos. I dramatically pointed the spider out to the man, and everyone survived to live another day.
We moved accomodation to the On On Hotel, which is very cheap, and 'where Daffy died' in the film 'The Beach'. Tomorrow evening, we fly to Saigon. Far poorer that anywhere I've been to, with monthly earnings in the city averaging about $50, to $15 in the poorer provinces.
Kho Phi Phi
Plans changed, and we stayed in Phi Phi for a couple of extra days. It's an expensive tourist hive but also definitely the most beautiful island I've ever been to, so we decided to slum it as best we could. Activity #1 : Make your own chess set. We split up to comb the beach and town for potential chess pieces. This resulted in my greatest haggling moment so far. A couple of black ornamental elephants (knights) down from 150B each to 50 for the both - It's amazing what showing a bag full of old crap you've found on the beach does for the cause.
On the white side, Kae had bought some superglue, which was then commandeered by a posse of local 6 yr old school girls, resulting in Kae removing stones and shells superglued to their fingertips.
The next day we paid about a tenner to be taken around Phi Phi on a snorkelling tour, which also took us to Phi Phi Ley (Small Phi Phi) where the film 'The Beach' was filmed, and where Kae saw a black and white striped sea snake. Kae also saw a fish leap from one rockpool to another, a very risky manouver for a fish at low tide, we thought.
That day we met and had dinner at the night market with Rachael and Kate, and a Canadian girl, Jessy. We were surrounded by half a dozen rats during the meal, but Kae and I returned again later on in the week regardless, not least because the chef let us buy beers from the supermarket and consequently let me have a pee in his home, where I had to meet his family in the tiny living room.
The evening turned into another session of free promotional bucket drinks, which I more than made the most of and stumbled off home leaving Kaeleigh out with the girls.
On our last full day we hired a sea kayak and travelled to a secluded beach, finding some more great coral reef to explore. On the return journey I found the liveliest and largest corral reef I've seen. Shoals of fish the size of keyboards. So a brilliant day, only slightly marred by some good old fashioned sunburn.
That night I met some good people while watching United take Arsenal apart (3-1) - and Nani played well! How long have I been away!?
On the white side, Kae had bought some superglue, which was then commandeered by a posse of local 6 yr old school girls, resulting in Kae removing stones and shells superglued to their fingertips.
The next day we paid about a tenner to be taken around Phi Phi on a snorkelling tour, which also took us to Phi Phi Ley (Small Phi Phi) where the film 'The Beach' was filmed, and where Kae saw a black and white striped sea snake. Kae also saw a fish leap from one rockpool to another, a very risky manouver for a fish at low tide, we thought.
That day we met and had dinner at the night market with Rachael and Kate, and a Canadian girl, Jessy. We were surrounded by half a dozen rats during the meal, but Kae and I returned again later on in the week regardless, not least because the chef let us buy beers from the supermarket and consequently let me have a pee in his home, where I had to meet his family in the tiny living room.
The evening turned into another session of free promotional bucket drinks, which I more than made the most of and stumbled off home leaving Kaeleigh out with the girls.
On our last full day we hired a sea kayak and travelled to a secluded beach, finding some more great coral reef to explore. On the return journey I found the liveliest and largest corral reef I've seen. Shoals of fish the size of keyboards. So a brilliant day, only slightly marred by some good old fashioned sunburn.
That night I met some good people while watching United take Arsenal apart (3-1) - and Nani played well! How long have I been away!?
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Krabi region, Thailand
Night bus to Krabi was fine, they put a film on for us, but had it on a 2 minute loop with the director's commentary on. We, everyone on the bus, sat through this for about half an hour until I finally cracked and went and explained with sign language that they needed to change the f-ing dvd pronto! It worked, and we arrived with some sanity intact at Krabi in the early morning.
We got ourselves a 300B room and a brand new scooter, and explored some hot springs about an hours drive out of town. The next day we moved to Lipstick hotel for 150B p/n and climbed up to the Tiger Cave Temple, which was spectacular. There were over 1200 very steep steps, monkeys everywhere, caves to explore, a huge tree and a gigantic spider.
Promising news - We met some interesting Thais at a bar that evening who reckon there are short term teaching jobs in Krabi beginning in April.
Next day - Early morning boat ride to the famous Phi Phi island. We found a room for 500B p/n, which is very cheap for Phi Phi. The downside is we share the outdoor bathroom with a swarm of oversized mosquitos - Last night I strolled in there for a shower, and was ambushed. I had the quickest shower of my life - didn't even let go of the towel!
In the day we took a boat over to Hat Yao and did some snorkelling, which was top notch and not too far to swim out to. Kaeleigh nearly drowned, though. We walked back through a jungle path, and had some great fish and chicken with rice in the night market west of the town centre.
Today we'll try some more snorkelling, we're making plans to move on already because it's so expensive here. Next stop should be Khao Sok national park, north of Phuket.
We've started taking doxycycline, anti-malarial pills, because we're flying to Vietnam on the 3rd of Feb. No side effects as yet!
We got ourselves a 300B room and a brand new scooter, and explored some hot springs about an hours drive out of town. The next day we moved to Lipstick hotel for 150B p/n and climbed up to the Tiger Cave Temple, which was spectacular. There were over 1200 very steep steps, monkeys everywhere, caves to explore, a huge tree and a gigantic spider.
Promising news - We met some interesting Thais at a bar that evening who reckon there are short term teaching jobs in Krabi beginning in April.
Next day - Early morning boat ride to the famous Phi Phi island. We found a room for 500B p/n, which is very cheap for Phi Phi. The downside is we share the outdoor bathroom with a swarm of oversized mosquitos - Last night I strolled in there for a shower, and was ambushed. I had the quickest shower of my life - didn't even let go of the towel!
In the day we took a boat over to Hat Yao and did some snorkelling, which was top notch and not too far to swim out to. Kaeleigh nearly drowned, though. We walked back through a jungle path, and had some great fish and chicken with rice in the night market west of the town centre.
Today we'll try some more snorkelling, we're making plans to move on already because it's so expensive here. Next stop should be Khao Sok national park, north of Phuket.
We've started taking doxycycline, anti-malarial pills, because we're flying to Vietnam on the 3rd of Feb. No side effects as yet!
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Bangkok
3 more nights in the capital and Bangkok is growing on me and Kae, we found an air-con room with a telly for 2quid each p. night, and have ventured out of the tourist ('farang') area of Khoa San Road, Banglamphu a couple of times.
We walked to Wat (Temple) Pho to see the massive reclining Buddha (with a 5m wide grin), and on the way I was conned for the first time so far, and by the lamest scam.
Old ladies and a fat boy put bags of corn seeds on me, on my bag and into my hand, smiling and saying happy new year, and then started throwing some into the air for bird food and getting me to do the same thing. As soon as I had thrown all the seeds they started hassling me for 150B! Kae was wise enough to run away much earlier and turned to see me shouting at the fat boy, in the end I gave the most persistent old lady 20B and retreated.
We've spent a couple of nights on the cocktails, sitting next to little drinks stalls set up in the street and mingling with whoever is lucky enough to be within shouting distance. Last night we met 4 young English teachers, one had been out here for 7 years. When we told them we want to work later on we were offered practice lessons at schools disturbingly quickly! Contact details swiftly extracted for future, but we leave by bus for Krabi today.
The night before we tried some local bugs as a snack. Crickets, grubs and cockroachy things. A couple of girls came over to watch us eat them. The grubs were actually OK, and meaty, but the crickets and other crunchy things were grim.
Yesterday we took the bus to the gigantic Chatuchak weekend market, on the outskirts of Northern Bangkok. We read that it holds 200,000 people and 8000 stalls every Sat and Sunday. All of these stalls are under cover, and closely packed. It was amazing, you could buy almost anything. Some of the clothes stalls were surprisingly chic, but the pets section was the most interesting. We saw big turtles, a crocodile, snakes, squirrels on leashes and dogs out for people to pick up, some wearing ridiculous clothes, and literal piles of fish and birds I couldn't recognise.
Also, I shared a toilet with a huntsman spider. Luckily I was planning on crapping myself anyway.
We walked to Wat (Temple) Pho to see the massive reclining Buddha (with a 5m wide grin), and on the way I was conned for the first time so far, and by the lamest scam.
Old ladies and a fat boy put bags of corn seeds on me, on my bag and into my hand, smiling and saying happy new year, and then started throwing some into the air for bird food and getting me to do the same thing. As soon as I had thrown all the seeds they started hassling me for 150B! Kae was wise enough to run away much earlier and turned to see me shouting at the fat boy, in the end I gave the most persistent old lady 20B and retreated.
We've spent a couple of nights on the cocktails, sitting next to little drinks stalls set up in the street and mingling with whoever is lucky enough to be within shouting distance. Last night we met 4 young English teachers, one had been out here for 7 years. When we told them we want to work later on we were offered practice lessons at schools disturbingly quickly! Contact details swiftly extracted for future, but we leave by bus for Krabi today.
The night before we tried some local bugs as a snack. Crickets, grubs and cockroachy things. A couple of girls came over to watch us eat them. The grubs were actually OK, and meaty, but the crickets and other crunchy things were grim.
Yesterday we took the bus to the gigantic Chatuchak weekend market, on the outskirts of Northern Bangkok. We read that it holds 200,000 people and 8000 stalls every Sat and Sunday. All of these stalls are under cover, and closely packed. It was amazing, you could buy almost anything. Some of the clothes stalls were surprisingly chic, but the pets section was the most interesting. We saw big turtles, a crocodile, snakes, squirrels on leashes and dogs out for people to pick up, some wearing ridiculous clothes, and literal piles of fish and birds I couldn't recognise.
Also, I shared a toilet with a huntsman spider. Luckily I was planning on crapping myself anyway.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Kho Phangan to Bangkok
Take me to your visa / Hasta la visa, baby! / visa the days of our lives
We're up to our neck sorting out visas for Vietnam, Loas / China, it's all been very complicated. A man in Kho Phangan officially assured us that we need to BE in Bangkok to get our Vietnam visa, so we left the island and took an overnight bus to the city. We needn't have though, and have since applied over the internet with guidance from my old man!
We plan to travel slowly from Saigon North to Hanoi, and eventually get a bus across to China. The national TET festival, which starts on the 14th Feb, brings Vietnam to a halt, so we need to be sorted by then with a Chinese visa, or if that isn't possible, we will try to get to Laos!
Two weeks left in Thailand, I'm finally getting to grips with haggling, and fighting over every Baht! We're going to a few bars tonight, beers are about 50B (1quid) and buckets of rum and coke are about 200B. So far the budget is intact, and we will be heading down to the slightly cheaper beaches around Krabi and Phi Phi soon.
We're up to our neck sorting out visas for Vietnam, Loas / China, it's all been very complicated. A man in Kho Phangan officially assured us that we need to BE in Bangkok to get our Vietnam visa, so we left the island and took an overnight bus to the city. We needn't have though, and have since applied over the internet with guidance from my old man!
We plan to travel slowly from Saigon North to Hanoi, and eventually get a bus across to China. The national TET festival, which starts on the 14th Feb, brings Vietnam to a halt, so we need to be sorted by then with a Chinese visa, or if that isn't possible, we will try to get to Laos!
Two weeks left in Thailand, I'm finally getting to grips with haggling, and fighting over every Baht! We're going to a few bars tonight, beers are about 50B (1quid) and buckets of rum and coke are about 200B. So far the budget is intact, and we will be heading down to the slightly cheaper beaches around Krabi and Phi Phi soon.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Koh Phangan, Thailand
Five days lazing about in Koh Phangan makes one week - and lazy, and possibly chubby - there's way more chubsters in Thailand than I thought there would be.
We're moving on to a slightly more plush resort - an upgrade of a toilet seat and a mattress and cover for an extra quid per day.
Thai boxing was fairly riotous, the best fight being between a young, tall, powerful white guy and a small, ridiculously cocky old Thai guy. The Thai had more experience and a swagger, the white guy had a massive punch. Huge knockout in the third round! Massive punch trumps swagger! The other fights were less intense, and more skilled, except for an embarrassing fight between a Swedish girl and an English girl. The Swede was pretty good, but I don't know where they found poor Stephanie. It was like seeing a newborn giraffe take on a mosquito. Not great, but still worth a bet.
We've made good friends with an English couple, Phil and Reggie, and a Canadian called Patrick, and have spent the last couple of nights drinking and dining with them. Phil and Reggie are off to Cambodia today, whereas we may see Patrick again later on in the week when we come back for a Thai guy's (name of Sec) 42nd birthday party at a beach bar. Great character, who plies us with free barbeque (sweet fish and nuts) and talks complete gobbledegook.
Black moon party was epic. We had to pay 6quid each on entry, but the atmosphere was great and the drinks were strong!
Moving on to another place now for a couple of nights, and planning to move to a diving island called Koh Tao soon.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Ko Phangan, Thailand
The overnight bus from Bangkok was a small, smelly and uncomfortable part of a feckin long journey to Ko Phangan island, even though the bus driver was doing his best to speed things up by ignoring a few red stop lights! We left the city at 6pm and arrived at our accomodation (flea infested garden shed) at noon.
Jumping from cold icy Witney to the heat and humidity of Thailand has changed Kaeleigh and my appetites to those of baby gnats, but the food is tasty - especially in the extra-cheap places where they add more kick for your baht, and so we nibble on.
Have just left an amazing food market, we didn't know what half of whatever it was was, like the green goo drink, and the black goo drink, we think we saw a frog spawn drink, but we chickened out tonight and got some fried chicked and spring rolls - will be braver tomorrow, or maybe the next day.
We are staying on a quiet beach on the West side and so far have had a swim, played volleyball, gone drinkin' and relaxed on hammocks. Things will be getting more interesting tonight, as we're heading to a Muay Thai boxing fight night in 20 minutes, and then there's a 'black moon' beach party tomorrow.
Jumping from cold icy Witney to the heat and humidity of Thailand has changed Kaeleigh and my appetites to those of baby gnats, but the food is tasty - especially in the extra-cheap places where they add more kick for your baht, and so we nibble on.
Have just left an amazing food market, we didn't know what half of whatever it was was, like the green goo drink, and the black goo drink, we think we saw a frog spawn drink, but we chickened out tonight and got some fried chicked and spring rolls - will be braver tomorrow, or maybe the next day.
We are staying on a quiet beach on the West side and so far have had a swim, played volleyball, gone drinkin' and relaxed on hammocks. Things will be getting more interesting tonight, as we're heading to a Muay Thai boxing fight night in 20 minutes, and then there's a 'black moon' beach party tomorrow.
Monday, 11 January 2010
Bangkok, Thailand
Flew in luxury to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi, which has a stunning airport with a double layered waiting room covered in blue, green and white tiles and no windows.
Q. If I arrived at 11am, left at 6am the day before, slept for 7 hours, shared 2 buckets of Thai strength whiskey and red bull, subsequently travelled forward in time four hours and slept for another 7 hours, what time is it and where am I?
A. Lunchtime and Khaosan Road. Fruit for breakfast and a free film at our hostel, then arranging to take a night bus to some island.
Looking out from the delightfully air conditioned computer booth (the air is like warm soup out there), it looks like Kae has made a new friend. He looks like a nefarious, flagitious, sly, nasty, troublesome, bad-tempered, intolerant and foul-smelling character who lives in a cave above the town, but I'm sure he's lovely.
Q. If I arrived at 11am, left at 6am the day before, slept for 7 hours, shared 2 buckets of Thai strength whiskey and red bull, subsequently travelled forward in time four hours and slept for another 7 hours, what time is it and where am I?
A. Lunchtime and Khaosan Road. Fruit for breakfast and a free film at our hostel, then arranging to take a night bus to some island.
Looking out from the delightfully air conditioned computer booth (the air is like warm soup out there), it looks like Kae has made a new friend. He looks like a nefarious, flagitious, sly, nasty, troublesome, bad-tempered, intolerant and foul-smelling character who lives in a cave above the town, but I'm sure he's lovely.
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