Thakhek

I arrived in Vientiane, the capital and felt completely alone and very lonely. This city seemed to be filled with mostly bars and restaurants, activities usually enjoyed by groups. I had to get out and decided that the next day I would get on a bus and leave to the next stop. I took out the map and tried to figure out whether I wanted to do a northern loop in the country or travel directly south. I had read a lot about each place and remembered that Thakhek had something cool to offer and so I purchased myself a ticket and arrived there the next night.

I found myself a hotel and headed out to get something to eat for dinner. I decided now would be a good time to figure out what to do next. I read through the Wikitravel article on Thakhek and realized the single reason people come to this town is to do a 360 mile motorcycle loop through the jungle. I had two options, get back on the bus and head somewhere else or learn how to operate a motorcycle. I opted for the latter and picked adventure over wussing out.  

I inquired at my hotel where I could go about getting a motorcycle  The attendant said he could have his friend there early in the morning with a motorcycle. I retired to bed and woke up early to get started learning how to ride a motorcycle. The man showed up and he gave me a five minute lesson and then tossed me the keys. 

At this point I assessed the state of the bike. Various parts of it were falling apart or already broken. I remembered from months ago, reading a blog about the motorcycle loop and how the guy had a broken odometer and indicated its value. If I was recalling correctly, I was now sitting on the same bike with the same broken odometer value. The rental price for the bike was $8 a day so I couldn't exactly complain about the state of the bike. 

I grabbed a few key articles of clothing and other necessities from my big backpack, filled up the gas tank(with a broken gas gauge), and headed off for mile one of the journey. 

Hanoi to Vientiane

This bus journey was quite possibly the most bizarre experience of my travels. I booked the transportation through a travel agency that would take care of getting me from the hotel, to the bus station, across the Vietnam-Laos border, and to Vientiane, the capital. It all started with a shuttle bus which picked me up at around 8pm and then continued on to pick up other backpackers who had shared the same idea of an overnight bus ride to save time for more exciting activities. We continued  to pick up more people. Eventually we reached a comfortable maximum capacity and then continued to pick up even more people. By the time we were 'full' we filled a ten seat bus with fourteen people with a backpack for each person roughly the size of its owner. The bus then sat on the side of the road for another ten minutes or so with a driver who didn't speak English and the guy who picked us up missing in action. The bus driver received a call and we started moving again. We eventually made our way to the bus station, got just about pushed out of the shuttle and directed towards the entrance to the bus station. The group of us entered and found a very grumpy worker at the counter who refused to acknowledge us or let anyone go to the bathroom. He continued to not answer our questions but eventually started handing out bus passes and we were herded onto the two buses. I found my seat and tried to get comfortable for the bus ride that would occupy the next eighteen or so hours of my time. 

Surprisingly the ride went pretty smooth until we made it to the border crossing at around 5am. The group of us filed out and into the border crossing building. One by one we got our paperwork filled out and then directed out the next door. After a long wait and a small fee to line the employees' pockets, I found myself on the other side of the door. What awaited me was a scene from a horror movie. There was extremely thick fog which reduced my vision to a considerably shorter range. For some reason, we're not allowed to ride the bus between the two countries I had to walk to the other side. The road to the left ran back into Vietnam so I took to the right and started walking. I could see shapes of other travelers in the fog and so I followed them. On the sides of the road sat trucks waiting to pass through the border. They weren't turned on and no light illuminated from inside. This added to the creepiness of the whole thing. After a five or so minute walk, thinking something was going to attack me from the fog, I found our bus waiting to continue on to Vientiane. 

Odds and Ends Cambodia Vietnam Collection

One of the best hot sauces I've had. 

Live fish market

If I convert my USD to Vietnamese dollars, I'm rich!

Go on vacation, take pictures with iPad..

Monkey hanging out snacking on some food.

Hanoi: Last Stop

Seventeen wonderful hours later, the train finally pulled into Hanoi. We disembarked and were greeted by a much different climate than when we boarded. Just days ago we had suffered from sunburn and now we were bundled up in all the cold clothes we had.

We made a beeline for pho, dropped our stuff off at a hotel, and then continued on to a tourist agency. The only destination high on my friend's list of places to see was Ha Long Bay and so we made a reservation to leave on a shuttle the next morning.

After making the purchase, we wandered the city for the night without any real goals.

The next morning we woke early and headed to the shuttle. Several hours later we arrived at the entrance to the bay. Since most of it was a lazy cruise I'll place a few pictures below of the last two days of our trip.

Our boat for two days one night.

The view looked like this for miles.

We got kayaks and went paddling into different caves. 

Fresh fruit and vegetable vendor. 

Catching some sun. 

There were several floating villages throughout the area. This is a floating school. 

Odds and Ends Cambodia Picture Collection

As I was looking through my pictures to pull out for each blog post, I realized lots of pictures didn't fit in but we're still worth a mention. Here are those photos from Cambodia.

The Ups an Downs of the Tet Holiday

One of the great things about a country with a widely used public transportation system is that the system is generally pretty awesome. Vietnam is one such country and trains that have beds are readily available for the booking. When you've only got twelve days to get through Cambodia and Vietnam, as we did, overnight trains manage to cut travel and sleep time in half by combining them together! 

We left Hanoi on an overnight train to Nha Trang and arrived before the sun had risen. The goal of the day was getting to the beach and so we found a taxi driver who understood our desire, and we headed off directly to the beach. The sun began to become visible during the drive and so did our appetites. 

The taxi dropped us off right next to the beach. Conveniently located across the street was a hotel offering an appetizing looking breakfast, so we made our way there first. (Also to use the restrooms to change into our bathing suits, ha!) After breakfast, we walked back across the street and found ourselves a pair of beach chairs that had been conveniently set up by the hotel. In no time, our heavy backpacks were dropped to the ground and we set about relaxing for the day. 

About an hour past noon we had grown bored of sitting on the beach and decided to head into town to find a tourist agency and see what they had to offer to occupy the several hours until the departure of our train. With not a clue what there was to see in the city or where there was to go, we walked towards the most important looking road and continued along it, stopping at each intersection to see if this newly found road would be more interesting than the road currently being walked on. We quickly realized that there were no tourist agencies open, or much anything for that matter. This city was not as important as Hanoi and almost everybody had closed up shop for the Tet Holiday. 

This time, the Tet Holiday got the better of us and had left us without an excitement filled day. What the day did leave us with however was terrible sunburn. Luckily our train for the night was air conditioned  otherwise I'm not sure how an ounce of sleep would have been achieved. Next stop, Da Nong.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Before I start talking about my day trip through the Cu Chi Tunnels, I'd like to give a brief history lesson about this location. 

During the Vietnam War, The Vietcong, of Northern Vietnam, utilized a series of underground tunnels to wage war against Southern Vietnam and the United States. These tunnels ran throughout the country and large amounts of information, supplies, and soldiers were kept hidden within them. The United States tried several times to render the tunnels useless but failed. In the end, these tunnels were a strong aid in the winning of the war by the North. More information can be found here and I suggest checking it out. 

Our tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels started with a short informational presentation about the American Imperialism invading Vietnam and turning the country against itself. It was weird and rather uncomfortable at the time to be associated with a country that came into Vietnam and ravaged the land with a war.  

After the tour was over we continued on to the booby traps that were used to wound and kill the "Invading Americans." From here on out it was just a waking tour of things to look at, so I will leave pictures below.

Crater left behind by a B-52 bomb.

False floor with spikes underneath. 

My friend entering one of the hidden entrances to the tunnels.

Not much action in this picture but as I gazed into the forest I managed to put myself in the shoes of an American soldier walking through these woods just a few decades ago unsure of what was awaiting ahead. 

Part of the ventilation system of the tunnels

Booby trap where the leg enters and leaves wounded, letting disease of the jungle take over

Another booby trap. Spikes enter at the waist as you fall in

 And finally we got to go into the tunnels. This is a tunnel enlarged almost 2x and it was a tight squeeze. Imagine living down there for years...

Tet Holiday

After a long night bus ride we arrived in Ho Chi Minh... or so we thought. What happened to the border crossing, why didn't we get awoken for that? Why were we getting dropped off next to a random coffee shop? Then I realized that we'd only made it halfway through our bus ride and we were awaiting another bus to take us to the border and then on to Ho Chi Minh City. 

Several hours later we arrived. Since the day was almost over and the sun was setting, we headed straight to the hotel, dropped our stuff off, and then headed aimlessly out into the night. 

When originally planning the trip  I read about the Tet Holiday which is the Vietnamese version of Chinese New Year. This meant a rather chaotic atmosphere would fill the entire country for almost a week. This also meant that some cities were overwhelmed with crowds while other were left vacant. Being in the capital, we lucked out and ended up walking right into the middle of the Tet celebrations in a giant park in the middle of the city. 

Since neither of us spoke the language we decided to continue aimlessly walking. I became intrigued by a vendor cooking some sort of omelette with pigeon eggs (I think...I hope). Since I was growing hungry, I placed an order for one.

It was a whole family operation where the mother cooked the egg and the daughter added the ingredients. The father and other daughter were responsible for selling souvenirs for the holiday.

After some walking around we began to grow more hungry and so we headed off down a side street for some dinner. My friend pointed out a restaurant selling phở and so we stopped to have a bite. I had no idea what this was due to the fact that I ate almost nothing prior to my living and traveling abroad. My friend corrected my ignorant food ways and educated me on the joy that is phở. 

After some more aimless walking we started making our way back to the hotel since we had a large day of tours ahead. On the way back we came across this intersection:

Looking at this chaotic mess from the sidewalk, as we were, you would think, why not wait for the red light or use the cross walk? That is generally not a thing in Vietnam. To cross through this, you simply walk straight ahead into the crowd. So long as you walk at a constant speed, not speeding up, slowing down, or panicking  you'll be fine. Of course, I panicked and was nearly hit by a scooter. With nothing else interesting to tell once we crossed the road, I'll leave you with a life lesson for Vietnam:

Walk strong and be confident or you'll get hit by a scooter. 

Sunburn Recover and Overnight Buses

After finishing the daylong biking journey through Angkor Wat and suffering from a decent redneck looking sunburn, I decided to relax in Siem Reap before the overnight bus to Vietnam. Since I'd been abroad for almost a year, I felt that having local food for a majority of the meals didn't apply to me. This is how I found myself sitting in a bar eating fried bananas and drinking Beerlao. Through all of my travels through South East Asia, no beer compared to this. (Expect another post about this beer once I start writing about Laos.)

After finishing my drink and relaxation there was one thing left for me to try in Siem Reap, a fish massage. I'm horribly ticklish and couldn't stand it for more than a few seconds at a time. Writing this over a year later, I can still remember the feeling of the fish. With that in your head, I'll let the two pictures explain the rest.

One of the most testing parts about the journey was the overnight travel.  To begin with, I am a terrible sleeper. To make matters worse the bed was cramped, the entire ride was on bumpy dirt roads, light and noise constantly floated in from outside the bus, and the air conditioning was broken. With all that in mind, I hated every moment of the ride but left with a better appreciation for life and what it throws at you. Without going greatly into depth, I'll leave it at, enjoy the ride and don't take things for granted.

Angkor Wat: Part II

Taking a nap in the hot afternoon sun.

Pineapple snack in a bag.

Coconut milk for lunch.

The end result of too much sun and not enough sunscreen. 

Angkor Wat: Part I

For those unfamiliar with Angkor Wat, it is to Cambodia what the pyramids are to Egypt.  It is absolutely amazing and deserves a visit if you’re ever in the area. This part of the trip found its way to the top of our wish list and we made sure to make time for it. Once we arrived in Siem Reap we looked at the available tours. It looked to be about three days to see all of the different sites throughout the entire area or one day to see a select few sites. Not content with either plan, we set out to see everything there was to see within a day. We also said to hell with the tour and rented bicycles to make our own tour.

To ensure that bikes would be available we awoke extremely early, had a quick breakfast in the hotel, and then headed off to the rental shop.  It is lovely how cheap things are in South East Asia, once you get a plane ticket there isn’t much left to worry about and the bike were a typical example of this, costing only a few dollars for a full day’s rental. 

Lacking a tour guide, our next stop was to locate a map. Once we had this in hand, along with my compass purchased prior to the trip, we headed off in the direction of Angkor Wat. We arrived to huge lines of cars and Tuk Tuks [Link to previous article] waiting to get in. Luckily, since we were on bike, we were able to pass them to the non-car line.  Due to, what I’m assuming are ticket scalpers or something, we were required to get a ticket with our picture printed on them. Surprisingly, the process of getting a photo ID was relatively fast and we continued on the road leading up to the temple.

The road was lined with trees and continued on for some time. Eventually it opened up to an absolutely amazing view of Angkor Wat. A moat formed the perimeter,  so we rode our bikes around to the entrance, locked our bikes, and walked in. Since I couldn't possibly do justice to Angkor Wat with words, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Angkor Wat from the outside.

This was some of the art along the walls of the Wat.

Hallway of Angkor Wat.

Sitting on the steps leading up to one of the rooms.

The whole place was filled with beautiful architecture.

A view from the top looking down back towards the entrance.  

The wildlife are also welcome to hang out.

Once we finished up with Angkor Wat, we headed back out towards our bikes. About this time, the heat made it known that the rest of the day would be very hot.  The best way to see the other temples we deemed was with a giant loop along the path that would typically be completed over three days.  Along the way as we rode to the next Wat, we noticed many children dressed up on their way to school. One girl was very friendly and talked with us while we rode to the next destination. Her English was amazing, she learned only by talking to people as she went to and from class. We didn’t have much time to get into conversation before we arrived and she continued on to school.

My friend and the Cambodian girl talking.

Stay tuned for Part II.