A few slow days but mostly travelling

After Ponsavan I returned to Luang Prabang for two reasons. Firstly for provisions - money mainly as there were to be no ATMs in Muang Ngoi Neua and it was rumoured only a few hours of electricity a day so charging the tech was also a must. Secondly the trip from Ponsavan to Nong Khiaw (where the boat to Muang Ngoi Neua leaves from) going east then west was a bit of an unknown in terms of bus connections. Besides any extra time spent chilling at Utopia is a bonus! So with that sorted it was off on another overpacked mini bus. Disaster almost struck when my travel companion left her phone back at the hotel but she was able to retrieve it before the bus left. We arrived in Nong

Khiew and headed for the boat landing. After a short wait the assortment of travellers heading up river were crammed onto a skinny long boat for the hour long trip. Slightly concerned at the guy at the back of the boat bailing out water and the hard time we had fighting against the current we arrived a bit damp but without incident. From the water the first view of Muang Ngoi Neua is a row of riverside bungalows with hammocks lining the shore. I must admit the choice of bungalow came down to which had the most comfortable hammocks as I planned to spend a bit of time in one.

 

The town itself centres on a short road with views of towering cast mountains which surround the town in all directions. A walk the following day would reveal a landscape as beautiful as Vang Vieng.

 

Bedtime was pretty much by 10.30 as the townspeople are farmers and fishermen and its only fair to respect this. But the town very recently acquired 24 hour power. I got talking to a couple of French guys who are doing a documentary about how these changes and the increasing influx of tourists is affecting the town. In one of those serindipitious occurances the next day was market day where people from surrounding villages come to buy and sell. Clothes, shoes, farming and fishing implements, nails and happily for me lovely noodle soup were on offer. Most facinating was sitting overlooking the boat landing watching a family butchering and selling a cow.

 

I'd planned to spend longer (and get through more of my book - Pattern Recognition by William Gibson if you were wondering) but to be honest I was being savaged by mosquitos (the bane of my existance on this trip) so I moved on quicker than I'd planned. Which lead to one of my more epic days of travelling. My plan was to at least get to Udomxai on my way to the Thai border at Huay Xai. Luckily there were a few more people heading in that direction as I would not otherwise have got out of Nong Khiew that day. Onwards travel was at the mercy of local mini bus operator who would not leave without a minimum of passengers (fair enough, petrol and mini buses aren't cheap). So paying double the advertised price we left for Udomxai picking up passengers along the way. Once in Udomxai (it was 3pm at this point) the rest of the group were continuing to Luang Namtha. So I figured, safety in numbers and headed with them on the local maxi bus. Rolled into Lunag Namtha around 7 and found a guest house to overnight in. One more hop the next day (on another packed local bus) brought me to Huay Xai and the border. Huay Xai is like any other border town, well mostly. On my 'post guest house acquired' wander I headed down a side street to the river only to realise it was actually the border checkpoint - not that the guys in uniform seemed fussed or challenged me. At least I knew the drill for the next day. After being stamped out of Laos (Goodbye Laos, I'll miss you) I was the lone occupant on a narrow boat for the short river crossing to the Thai side and the last two weeks of this particular SEA adventure.

 

Luang Prabang and a side trip

The road from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang winds around hairpin bends for almost all of its 5 hour journey. Now, I'm fine with minibuses for shorter trips but for anythings over 3 hours I prefer a big bus. But sometimes the best laid plans... find you in a maxi bus (bigger than a mini bus, smaller than a coach) rattling your way up and down mountains feeling every bump and pothole. All because "the big bus is broken" but hey, same same, this is South East Asia after all! So arrive at the bus station, touts, tuk tuk. Find a guesthouse. Go to Utopia and have a beer by the river.

 

I love Luang Prabang as much as last time I was here. Its so chilled, so easy. With great food. My morning soup from the lovely lady in the morning market. A new food discovery - "yellow pancake" an omlette stuffed with greens and pork with a peanut sauce from a tiny roadside stall - its only offering. And my beloved Lao coffee with condensed milk almost everywhere.

 

I really haven't seen many sights. I've just been content to wander. Until a chance meeting found me with a travel companion and a plan to see Ponsavan and the Plain of Jars and Muang Ngoi Neua. So I've just come back from a 3 day round trip to Ponsavan. It pretty much takes a whole day to get there on the afore mentioned windy roads and a day of touring the sites. Ponsavan is known mainly for two things. The Plain of Jars and being the most bombed area of Laos during the Secret War 1964 - 73. The Plain of Jars are a series of megolithic sites scattered across the Ponsavan area.

 

No one is 100% sure what they were for. The locals believed they were where the gods made their rice wiskey. Archaeologists think they they are probably graves or grave markers (though the bodies were cremated). Either way they are one of those curiousities that are quite a sight. These things are up to 2 meters tall and carved out of granite in quarries at least a kilometer from their final resting place. And up on hills no less (apparently the dead like a view). But many were destroyed during America's secret bombing campaign that saw a bomb dropped every 8 minutes for 5 years due to its proximity to the Ho Chi Minh trail and the situation that had been created by the CIA of arming the Lao army against the communist Pathet Lao even though officially Laos was a neutral country during the Vietnam War. Thousands of innocent people died and plunged the region into poverty, a situation that still exists. Not to mention the scores of people a year who die or are maimed by unexploded ordinance. Things are improving on this front as more areas are being cleared but it is slow, painstaking and dangerous work.

Next stop Muang Ngoi Neua.

 

Laos - changing places and changing my mind

Leaving Nong Khai I hitched a ride to the border with a group of Australians I'd met at Mut Mee Guesthouse who were also heading to Vientiene. Thanks to their their kindness my border crossing was painless. It was interesting coming into the town - I don't often revisit places so the thrill of recognition was new. Vientiene hasn't changed too much though there is now a 7 story Chinese hotel on the riverfront, the Fox and Hounds English pub is now a tapas place and the riverfront itself is a paved walkway and road - not the sandpit it was last time. But Vientiene still feels a bit seedy, I think it being Thai visa run town contributes to this as well as the (admittedly low key) girlie bars. That said I still love Patuxai, the vertical runway.

 

I really didn't want to spend 3 days there, especially paying $30 a night for a hotel room, but I was doing my usual boots and braces approach to travel and applied for a longer Thai tourist visa as you only get 15 days when using a land border crossing. Two half days at the Thai embassy waiting for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn and what's the bet I don't end up using it? So, happy to be leaving I got the 9am mini bus out of town and on to Vang Vieng.

 

Re-reading my entry from 2010 my reaction was one of dislike and dissappointment. Crazy party town, hangover, couldn't see the landscape through the smoke haze etc. What a difference a few years makes! For those of you who don't know, from the late 90's Vang Vieng was famous for the ease with which backpackers could get themselves drunk, drugged, laid and spend their days floating down a river in an old innertube. But then lots of people started dying. So late last year the government put its foot down and stopped the tubing, pulling down all the bars (21 of them), slides and ziplines that covered the banks of the river. Tourism dropped by 50%. And today the town is a shadow of its former self. The party island is overgrown with weeds, the Aussie Bar and Kangaroo Sunset are no longer where they were and have amagalmated into one bar a few doors down from the Irish pub. Even the Organic Farm Cafe that I stayed above last time is empty and up for rent.

 

There are still 3 Nazims (most Indian restaurants in Laos are called Nazims) and its still 4000 kip to cross the bridge to the other side of the river. Which is where I stayed, this time in a little place called Maylyn run by Joe, a lovely Irish curmudgeon with a dry sense of humour (I think you can be a curmudgeon and lovely at the same time!). It was practically empty the day I arrived so I had the pick of the place which is bungalow 15, one of the older bungalows and very minimalist but with a breathtaking view.

 

I say breathtaking but really there aren't enough superlatives to describe it. Nor will photos do it justice. This is the real reason to come to Vang Vieng - the incredible karst mountains, the emerald green rice fields and the caves and swimming holes that dot the landscape. I just couldn't leave that view so I stayed 4 nights in the end. I also extended as a couple of days in I was sitting at breakfast and heard my name called - it was an ex MV colleague who now lives part time in Thailand! So we spent a couple of days hanging out and chatting which was lovely. And as though it knew I was leaving Vang Vieng had one more surprise for me on the morning of my departure - a low flying hot air balloon drifting past my bungalow! So now converted to the charms of Vang Vieng (though the town centre is still not pretty) it was time to move on to my favourite place in South East Asia - Luang Prabang.

 

Finding my feet again in SEA

Its taken almost a week but I have begun to settle into this travelling lark again. Its taken a few day to re-aquaint myself with the heat, the money, the language barrier and the same same but difference of it all but I think I'm getting there. Of course I go pretty hard in my first few days even when I've told myself I won't this time and collapse in a heap. But back to the beginning...

After an uneventful (and on schedule) flight I arrived in Bangkok, sailed through immigration and was in a cab and drinking a beer on the balcony of my guesthouse within the hour. Here I met the usual reprobates including that one guy who swears he's leaving tomorrow if only he could get his ticket sorted while regaling you with tales of the ping pong shows and that time he got arrested on one of the islands. The next day I headed off to the closest MRT station to take me to the river for a boat up to the Grand Palace. Avoiding the touted 150B daily ticket I instead spent 15B for a short trip. The trip was interesting if shorter than anticipated. I wandered the wrong way around the Grand Palace to find when I got to the entrance it was packed with people - Chinese and Korean tour groups by the looks of it. I gave up and started walking in the vague direction of Chinatown. And I walked. And walked. And walked some more. En route I wandered through the flower markets which sell the makings of the temple offerings; had a random bowl of soup at a street stall which turned out to be all offal (of which I ate half, it wan't bad, just a little alarming at first), drank iced coffee in a mall and got very lost trying to find the main train station. I returned to the hostel exhausted, with some serious cankles and collapsed into the air conditioning. That night I joined a few people to hang out at Nest, a fabulous rooftop bar in Sukhumvit. We drank cocktails and smoked apple shisha while overlooking the city. The following day was spent replacing my camera that had died - I think from heat exhaustion from being in my pocket all day. So off to MKV, a big mall selling all manner of electronics (some of it I'm sure was legit...). Its is also quite near the Jim Thompson house, an American who exported Thai silk from the 1940's. He bought a number of traditional wooden houses from the north of Thailand and used them to create his home. Its beautful - filled with antiques and surrounded by lush, green gardens. But it was time to move on, east a bit then north up into Laos.

 

While buses are quicker I love the romance of riding the rails. So I found myself at Hua Lumphong station (love that name!) just after 6am taking my window seat in a 2nd class, fan cooled carriage for my 6 hour trip to Nakhon Ratchasima for a connecting bus the Phimai. It was a very comfortable trip despite the lack of AC. I had 2 seats to myself and was kept fed and watered by a constant stream of food and drink sellers - grilled chicken and sticky rice - yum.

 

When I got to Phimai it was raining and I found myself only one of two guests in the guesthouse. Apparently it had been raining for 3 days and as it was too late to see the Khmer ruins I'd come to see I sat on the rather nice balcony reading. The next morning the rain had eased slightly allowing me to see the ruins and not drown. And they were worth going to see particularly as I had the whole place to myself, something I wouldn't get at Angkor.

 

I had thought to stop between Phimai and Nong Khai to grab a Lao visa to save time on the crossing but being a weekend and not overly enamoured of the towns in the north east I decided to go straight to Nong Khai to chill for a couple of days on the river. After 7 hours on local buses I arrived at Mut Mee Gardens Guesthouse, an absolute traveller's haven and one that is very hard to leave. Its owned by an Englishman and has everything one needs, a range of rooms in a lovely garden setting with plenty of communal spaces, an onsite restaurant, bookshop, yoga courses and and a running tab that you pay at the end. Its also right on the river with a view over to Laos. So most of my three days there were spent reading and relaxing. I did take a bike out for a couple of hours to see the sights - mainly the budda park - built in the 60's by a Lao man (who also made the famous one outside Vientiene). It is filled with huge sculptures of the budda and scenes from his life. There is also a fascinating (and slightly odd) group that shows your life cycle - if you all the right things you will follow the Budda to nirvana, if not you are doomed to start all over again. But relaxing as it was it was time to move on to Laos.

 

 

 

 

Arty farting on Naoshima

After accidentally underbooking my stay in Hiroshima I had a night free so I thought I'd head to Okayama which is the jumping off point on to Naoshima my next major port of call. The first main point of difference is the relative lack of English spoken, and signage for that matter. It's not exactly off the beaten track but outside the Tokyo - Kyoto - Hiroshima route most taken. I found a small hotel near the station for 4500 yen a night and after changing rooms to get wifi reception I settled in for some blogging and postcard writing. I ended eating takeway in the room after an attempt at sushi train with no English menu saw me choosing what I think was raw pork which freaked me out somewhat. I know it's all part of the adventure and I have a cast iron stomach but... a solo traveller freaks occasionally!

So a 30 minute local train the next morning brought me to Uno, the ferry teminal for Naoshima. A short boat ride later (with some of the more colourful ferry decor I've seen) I arrived at Miyanoura, my home for next night. I say night because even though I'd intended to stay two days one of those was a Monday when everything is closed (except for the Benesse House Museum thankfully) so instead of being bored and lonely (and possibly hungry!) I cut my visit short and packed almost everything into my day of arrival. Now don't get me wrong - Naoshima is well worth the visit, just not on a Monday! I dropped my stuff at Little Plum a restaurant and dorm accommodation where I slept in a (well appointed considering) shipping container which I had all to myself. A 40 minute walk later with some lovely views, only slightly marred by the industrial smoke stacks in the distance, I arrived at Chichu Museum one of three built on the island in the 90's by the Benesse Corporation to house its art collection. The buildings are designed by Tadao Ando and are works of art in themselves. Chichu is subterranian and houses a few late Monets and a purpose built installation by Walter De Maria among others. The De Maria is certainly monumental and you have to take your shoes off to view the Monets. But all in all not my cup of tea. Likewise was my next stop the Lee Ufan Museum, very much of the 'a couple of rocks and sheet of metal and call it art' school. Now It might sound like I'm a bit down on the place but things improved imeasurably when I saw this:

The famous yellow pumpkin and sort of mascot of the island. Its so unlikey and adorable! But it was my next experience that made the whole visit worth it, and why I can recommend going there. The Art House Project are a bunch of houses in a quiet fishing port that were given over to a group of contemporary artists. By turns funny, surprising and downright beautiful they have to be experienced. After dinner and an early night watching Howl's Moving Castle it was up early to see the Benesse House Museum before catching the 11.10 ferry. The museum opens at 8am and as it was I got there by 9 after forgetting that the walk there is quite long and uphill most of the way! By 9.30 I was done - the collection is not very big and with few surprises. There was a Bruce Nauman work I liked! So a wander around the outside art and another wander past the yellow pumpkin and it was back on the road (sea, bus, train) to Osaka and the shopping that is inevitable in the last few days of a trip (well for me at least)!

Nuclear destruction and a floating tori - Hiroshima and Miyajima

So after ringing in the new year it was time to move on and pick up the pace. Next was 2 nights in Hiroshima which with travel days really meant only 1 whole day but compared to a whole chapter in the Lonely Planet for Kyoto, Hiroshima is dealt with in a few pages. That's not to say its less important but it can't help be overwhelmed by its relatively recent history. I threw my bag in a locker at the station for a couple of hours of sightseeing before checking into the hostel. I had intended to see the A Bomb dome first but I got on the wrong tram and ended up closer to the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art Museum which was on my list anyway. I've been loving the art and museums I've seen in Japan. Hiroshima MOCA is relatively small but with fantastic architecture. I wandered through the permanent collection and saw one work, Each and Every by Koki Tanaka which fascinated me. Check it out on Vimeo if you're so inclined. Checking into another great hostel (K's House) I was in a proper shared dorm for the first time. It's been so long I wasn't sure of the protocols. I'm thinking it doesn't include rolling in at 3am after karoke and beer. Yes gentle reader, I ended up at karoke, crowded into a small room belting out The Passenger with an assortment of fellow backpackers from the hostel. When in Rome right? I did get to the A Bomb dome after walking for a little bit in light snow. It is quite a sight. Its hard to imagine a whole city wiped out in seconds with just a few buildings left standing at the hypocentre. On my last morning I went to the Peace Museum which gave a non sensationalist account of the lead up to and aftermath of the bombing. Although I must say for a peace museum the architecture of the building itself is squarely in the Brutalist school.

Hiroshima is also famous for its proximity to Miyajima and its floating tori. At high tide (1:38pm for all you nautical types) the tori which is a few hundred meters offshore, appears to float. It's rather fab. And so thought the other hundreds of holiday makers on the island that day. Between me, them and the wild deer that roam the island, it was quite a crowd.

And with holiday crowds come the yummy snacks like this custard filled fish shaped cake consumed near the shrine at the (reconstructed in the 60's) castle:

Another tasty fish! So with that I will leave you until we meet again on Naoshima, my next destination. H.

 

Ringing in the new year in Kyoto

After the craziness of Tokyo, it was a relief to get to Kyoto - a more compact, easily navigated city (in other words I didn't get lost once!). Continuing my return to hostels after a long absence I can highly recommend Khaosan Kyoto Guesthouse, a fabulous hostel in which I blissfully had my own room. On my first full day I went on a tour run by some lovely local university students. The walk went through the old streets of Gion past the geisha houses and to a temple that from memory was dedicated to to the god of the liver (yes, I know, that's one god I should be getting on side!). Then on to one of the most popular temples, Kiyomizuda. The temple is two stories off the ground and the story is if you jump off your wish will be granted. And apparently most who have attempted it have survived. But I think the practice had been stopped now.

It's interesting being in Japan at the new year. All the shrines and temples are busy with people getting ready to literally ring in the new year by ringing the bell of the temple so the god will hear their wish. As for Kyoto's other sights - I had a wander through the Nikishi Market - it sells fresh pickles, seafood, miso and so on. Its a long, narrow lane so crowding and bottlenecks are inevitable! I also visited the "bamboo forest" in Arashiyama by way of an adorable electric railway. Now, being from Australia where it takes a concerted effort to see snow, when it falls somewhere like the middle of a bamboo forest I giggle with wonder like a child! Luckily it was a few flutters of the stuff not a blizzard so it was romantic without me worrying about frostbite!

Even lovelier was the Fushimi Inari temple, most famous for its lines of orange tori (gates) winding up the hillside. And when you got off the main pathways into the surrounding woods there are smaller shrines to discover and its own bamboo forest. If you've only got time to see one major temple in Kyoto, make it this one!

I also walked the Path of Philosophy that has many smaller shines branching off of it. And just in case you are thinking it was all temples and philosophy, I did end up on a pub crawl and at a club (yes, a smoke machine, laser lights, expensive drinks club) on New Years Eve for the countdown with a bunch of other backpackers. We will never speak of this again ;-)

Hiroshima next. Signing off. H