Siem Reap/HCMC/ridiculous flight departure times.

Ah, Cambodia.. I really was not impressed by the scenery at first, but it redeems itself with its kind people (sans tuk tuk drivers at bus stations in the wee hours of the morning) and really cool old architecture. We were only in Siem Reap for 3 days, and one of those days were basically confined to the hotel room due to exhaustion. What we did see during our stay, though, was pretty amazing. Siem Reap was on our itinerary because we wanted to see one of the coolest temples I've ever seen, and the 7th wonder of the world, Angkor Wat. We really love UNESCO heritage sites.

 The temple grounds are huge; Angkor is the biggest religious monument in the world. There are also with many surrounding smaller wats around Angkor, including Angkor Thom. Each site has it's own architecture and history. There is a one day, 3 day, or even 7 day pass that allows you to check out all the temples.. We only had 1 day, so that's what we worked with. We only went to see the main temple, Angkor, but that enough was impressive and worth shelling out $20 per person. We even had our very own tuktuk driver who was super nice and professional, unlike many of his friends we've come in contact with so far.

We walked around the grounds for a few hours.. We arrived late afternoon, which was perfect because most of the hoardes of people had already left and we could move freely and take pictures without worrying about running into people or vice versa.. Here are some I snapped:

 Our nice tuktuk driver, Jim!

Its beauty and intricate detail in the stonework isn't done justice in photographs.. 

Angkor Wat was first a Hindu temple, and subsequently became a Buddhist monument.. You can definitely see both influences here. The walls have carvings of Hindu gods and goddesses and depict stories about them.. You can see a story as you walk around! It's really beautiful inside, and we were lucky to be there when there weren't a lot of people bumping into us.

 Many statues were robbed or defaced by the Khmer Rouge, who took control in the 70s-80s in Cambodia. There were other horrorific deeds committed by this group against Cambodians, but that's a whole other history lesson and we didn't get to learn much about it during our stay, unfortunately.

Angkor dog! She followed us around a bit.

It was worth a trip to Siem Reap just to see this "temple city".. It is very beautiful and impressive... So impressive that the French for some reason didn't think the Khmer people could create something so grand..(just as the Spanish doubted the South American indigenous peoples..... Oh you have to love imperialists, right?)

I wish we had more time to see the historic sights and frolic in the well-known tourist area, "Pub Street"

We made a short lived appearance here, but the journey and lack of sleep really caught up with us.. And we had just about enough of being harassed by tuktuk drivers and hawkers.. Call us party poopers...we needed a break. There seems to be a big expat community here in Siem Reap, probably due to the western interferences to help with poverty and rebuilding after the Pol Pot regime and dealing with the Khmer Rouge. The only bad thing about this is, that everything you buy is in US dollars! Cambodia was surprisingly the most expensive place we have been to in Southeast Asia.. At least Siem Reap was.. Probably because of the tourist influx. Why, dollars!? At least the currency wasn't euros, because then we really would have been ripped off. When we went to the store, I felt like I was back at home, paying 3x as much as I would have been if we were back in Lao or Vietnam. Not cool, cambodes, not cool.

That about sums it up for our Cambodia segment of our trip... As I had mentioned before, we only had 2 full days to spend here and 1 was pretty much a waste of a day.. I would have loved to have been able to explore more and see other parts of the country, but we had to get back to Saigon to depart for our next destination, Taiwan. At least the bus from Siem Reap to Saigon was nice... Even with the relentless karaoke videos and Kung fu movies that played the entire duration of 14 hours. The people on the bus were nice, and we had no issues! What a relief.

We made it back to Saigon around 10pm, and were in bed shortly thereafter.. We spent our last day in various coffee shops to keep us awake for our 2:35 am flight to Shanghai and then to Taipei. Eventually our coffee turned to Saigon beer at our favorite "western" spot..We thought it would be fun/a good idea to indulge ourselves before the flight and get a little silly..

Back to the beginning... The land of Uncle Ho and pho

Well that turned out to be a bad plan when we got to the airport and all the shops/restaurants/bars were closed (it was midnight, after all). Aaaand enter my headache. Luckily I managed to sleep for 4 hours on the plane. When we arrived to Shanghai, I was so out of it though.. All the bus journeys and staying up for the flight made me feel weird, and then adding a few Saigons to the mix, I needed sleep and needed it bad. Making our way through the airport was interesting.. China seems like a weird place, but I think I'd like to go back. We ended up eating breakfast, which was rice and stirfried cabbage for me and short ribs (?) for Paul, and then slept on the benches until our flight left at 12:30 for Taiwan.  It was crazy looking out the windows of the airport and seeing the smog... It was actually worse than Mumbai. Gross! I've heard about "blind landings" that pilots make in China because the pollution is so bad they cannot see the runway. I don't know how people live in such conditions.. I guess the face mask industry is booming here, which is heartbreaking. 

Our flight left promptly and on time from Shanghai with China Eastern airlines, and we even got a meal! I was really impressed with them; another airline I have never thought to fly with, but great nonetheless! I wish we had more time and could've spent some time in China , but we will have to save it for another trip. We have to do the Great Wall, right? I've heard there is a marathon on it...hmmm......

We entered Taiwanese airspace just an hour and a half later, and seeing the clean air, lush green mountains, and sprawling valleys, I knew we were in for a treat... And so far, I've been right! More on Taiwan to come!

Until then!

MC

The Bus From Hell: Part Deux

I thought it would be fitting to write a blog post of the second worst bus trip of my life while riding from Cambodia back to Vietnam on one or the nicest buses we have taken. We are sitting here while a soundtrack of Cambodian karaoke songs play over the TV monitor, as the driver makes lots of unnecessary beeps to fellow drivers on the road... But in comparison to our bus journey from a Don Det, Laos to Siem Riep, this bus is heaven! Yes, there is even a wifi connection on this bus.. And the attendant actually informs you where we are heading and when we will be stopping! And there is an onboard toilet! Living the high life on this bus, for sure. Mekong Express bus, you are a sight for sore eyes.

We booked a ticket on the island, which I thought at $35 per person was a ripoff. Especially since the bus I am currently on was 9$ cheaper per person and 1000x better. The travel agent on the island assured us we would be on the VIP bus, that there is a toilet, and that it makes stops (déjà vu?). Based upon the advertised picture of the bus, it was no fancy sleeper bus, but it would do, and according to the schedule, we would leave at 8:30 am and arrive at 10:30 pm. I knew that would be based upon a lot of factors, like the bus breaking down or other hiccups we have experienced, so I took the timetable with a grain of salt. If we made it around midnight, it would be fine.

We woke up bright and early at 6:30 to a sprinkling of rain, and then made our way down to the "beach" to get a ferry to the mainland. Again they packed us into the little wooden longboats and zipped across the Mekong. Once we made it to the other side, we didn't get onto land as the other boat in front of us did, but we had to climb through 3 boats to get ashore....with a big backpack, a small backpack, and whatever else we had in our hands. Paul soaked one of his shoes as he was getting into one of the boats, as it had 3 inches of water in the bottom. I thought I was going to pull some cartoon like stunt where I had one foot in one boat and the other foot in another and the two boats would pull apart and I'd go straight in the water. Luckily we both made it ashore in one piece and stayed dry for the most part.. What a crazy way to begin the day.. 

We got to the bus stop and the man "in charge" took our passports, 2 photos, and $35 for the Cambodian visa. I had read that the Cambodian visa was only $30, and they tell you there is a "stamping fee" on either side of the border, but it's a scam. So essentially this guys was making $5 per person on a fee that doesn't actually exist. When another passenger questioned him, the man got upset and said "Fine, you deal with the visa yourself, I won't help you if you need help. You will slow us down if you try to do it yourself and the bus won't wait for you" (apparently bribing is a big business at the border). In the end, everyone sucked up the fact they were getting ripped off $5 as a "convenience fee" and just dealt with it. From the beginning, and the attitude this guy had, I could tell we were in for a rough day. Our only alternative to get to Siem Reap was to fly, and the only airline we could have flown was Lao Airlines, and tickets were $185 per person! Flying was out of the question, so here we were, about to make a 14 hour bus trip.

We waited for an hour or so at the bus stop.. Luckily there was a little lady making sandwiches because otherwise we would have starved! We waited for the passport guy to get all the passports ready, and for our first mode of transport to scoop us up. We were going to get a minibus to the border, and then apparently a "nice AC big bus" would be waiting for us after we had our visa stamped. This crummy little minibus pulled up, a man yelled "Siem Reap", and our bags were thrown on top and we were crammed in... No air conditioning, and the hot, bumpy road made for a miserable ride to the border.. Luckily it was only 20km away, so we didn't have to endure it for long.

What our minibus resembled... I was too out of it to take pictures this time... I knew we had gotten ourselves into a grueling day and wasn't in the mood for photos.

We arrived to the border around 10:30, and there was a string of restaurants and vendors trying to sell us stuff. I'll be honest, at this point I am so over people trying to sell me stuff. I've had bread in my face, mangoes in my face, people trying to sell me sunglasses when I am wearing some, shoe-shiners trying to shine my sandals or Paul's trainers, and people trying to get us to come in their restaurant/store by saying "lady lady come here". It's tiring, and I am tired of saying "no thanks".. I knew this was a scheme to get us to spend money when we had to wait for over an hour and a half for our "nice" bus to come. I had to pay $1 to use a wooden shack squatty toilet with no toilet paper or anywhere to wash my hands. I tried so hard not to spend money here but they managed to get a couple dollars out of us..

We knew we were with a crummy company when this one guy came over and said, "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen. I know you have already booked your ticket to Siem Reap, but I will offer you a VIP ac van that will take you on the new private state road to Siem Reap and it only takes 4 hours instead of 14 and it costs $10". This angered a lot of us, since we had already paid $35 for our through ticket. We could have just paid for a minibus to the border and then gotten this "quick route" once we arrived for $10! But no, we were suckered by the tour company. One Italian woman began screaming at this man and demanded her money back. She even went to the police at the border (I wouldn't suggest getting in a argument with anyone at a border in Asia... Saving face is a big thing here). The group of us that traveled together decided that no,we will not pay another $10 and will just suck it up on the big bus.. I immediately regretted that decision when the bus that was actually taking us to Phrnom Penh, 7 hours away, rolled up to collect us.

It was an old bus, probably from the 90s, and it was so dusty and dirty inside. Someone had written on the headrest "this bus [explicative] sucks". The ac was nonexistent, and there was black gunk all around the vents.. I knew I would develop "Bus Cough" again after this ride. I really need one of those fask masks they all wear here.

Many of the the seats were broken, and my knees jammed into the seat I front of me. One poor guy had to sit on a plastic stool in the middle of the aisle. It was hot, dusty, and gross. This was not what we were told we would be traveling on, nor is it what I paid for... And there was no bathroom. Excellent! Yeah, right, VIP for sure. I know "VIP" is a loosely used term here in Southeast Asia, but this was a joke.

Finally around 12:30, after forking over $2 for a can of "Mister Potato" chips and $1 for a mango to the hawkers at the border, we were off! Sweating and gasping for fresh air, we plodded along the great Cambodian highway system. See the picture below for what turned out to be more of an "off-roading" experience.

There were patches of pot-holed asphalt every now and then, but for most of this trip I bounced around on the hot, sticky seat. Forget reading my book, which I had planned on finishing during this trip.. The words were basically jumping off the page! I would not want to see what the roads here are like during the rainy season.. Mud and potholes galore! I think my brothers would enjoy driving here in the rainy season their big trucks.

At 5:30 we stopped at a restaurant and were able to use their traditional SE Asian bathrooms, but luckily we didn't have to pay. None of the bus staff told us how long we were stopping for or anything, but when I saw them eating a meal I figured we should ask and possibly eat some food too, since you never know when you are going to eat when traveling on buses..they said we were stopping for 20 minutes. A nice kid that worked at the restaurant told us we should probably eat some food now, because Phnom Penh is at least 4 hours away.. So we scarfed down some vegetable stew and rice, which wasn't too bad. We were starving since we hadn't eaten lunch, and didn't know when/if we were eating again.

We all hopped back on the hot bus and continued on the "road". The Cambodian countryside seemed pretty desolate.. Dry, brown rice paddies and farmland dotted with cows, wooden shacks on the roadside and the occasional huge house here and there (the disparity between the rich and poor is quite obvious).. There were small fires burning in the farmland, and trees sparsely filling the wide, flat landscape. You could definitely tell we were in a poor nation, as there was trash strewn about everywhere and the types of homes people lived in.. It is so eye opening seeing how people survive and live with solely the basics. As the sun went down, you could see a single light bulb illuminating the wooden shacks and homes of the locals. One light!! I think about all the lights we have in one room at my mom's house and it's probably the equivalent to what 5 families have in each of their homes. 

Time ticked on consistently with the bumps and potholes, and at 9:45 we pulled into another restaurant where the man on the bus yelled "Siem Reap"! We and our fellow travelers unloaded the bus, grabbed our bags, and went to the roadside restaurant where we told to wait for the bus to take us to our final destination. We were told the bus would be here in 20 minutes, so knowing that means probably longer and that we were at least 4 hours from our hotel, I called to notify them that we were on the side of the road somewhere in Cambodia and at least 4 hours away..I then called my mom because I was having Asia burnout and needed to hear her voice. By this time, I hadn't had any water because of lack of bathroom facilities, and I was so thirsty. The nice man at the restaurant charged me $1 for 2 small bottles of water, which I chugged like I hadn't had water in days. We used the traditional SE Asian toilet facilities which had no lights or running water (that made it interesting!) and waited for our next mode of transport to arrive.

At around 10, a big bus with "VIP Luxurious Bus" written on the side pulled up, and we both gave a hesitant sigh of relief. The bus we had actually paid for may have actually arrived! We waited for 10 minutes while the bus staff rearranged the cargo or whatever was on the bottom floor of the bus, and being the quick thinker I am, I left Paul again with the bags and hopped on to grab us a seat, as there were no assigned seats. Good thing I did, since there were already people on the bus and not many seats available. Again more people than seats, which meant those who didn't have a travel partner were out of luck.. The bus staff guy pointed, shouted, moved people around.. He even made one family move their sleeping child and put them in their lap so someone could sit down. I felt bad for those in the back row, which should accomodate 5.. They squeezed in 6 people and sat like sardines for the whole trip. One poor guy sat on the floor in the back because he didn't want a lady with a baby to have to move.

This bus did have AC, yay! But it reeked of gasoline fumes that burned your nose and throat..I sat with a scarf wrapped around my face, and the ac was so cold Paul sat with his arms in his sleeves. The bus was also dusty, thanks to all the dirt from outside. Everytime we hit a big bump, dust fell down on Paul's head. One time 2 big spiders fell from the ceiling onto him and then scurried off. The bus may have been big and had AC, but it still was awful. The guy in front of me put his seat back all the way and a handle slammed into my knees every time we hit a big bump. Ugh. 

The worst part was coming in and out of sleep and seeing that the night was continuing on and yet there were no lights or towns anywhere to be seen.. We were in the middle of nowhere.. Where was Siem Reap? I would doze off and wake up, seeing 1,2,3 something AM on the clock at the front of the bus and wonder when we were actually arriving. 

We finally rolled into a sketchy alleyway "bus station" at 3:45ish and saw tons of tuk-tuk drivers waiting for us.. Great, I thought, this is going to be fun. Like a pack of wolves, they set upon us as we stumbled the bus in a half-sleep stupor. In good tuktuk driver form, they tried to tell us that our hotel was not in the center and way outside of town (it wasn't) and even got aggressive at some points. We were definitely not in the mood to deal with them, or their scams ($5 per person to the hotel?! Yeah, right). We finally got a half decent guy to take us to our hotel and ended up paying $6..it should have been 3 but we didn't want to argue anymore.. We FINALLY arrived to our hotel at 4 am, and the driver had the cheek to try and arrange to be our "driver" while we were in Siem Reap and wanted to set up a time to pick us up later that day and take us to Angkor Wat. He didn't seem to understand that we had been traveling for 21 hours and had no interest to do anything but lay in the hotel room all day.

When Paul tried to explain that we would take his information and let him know, he got upset and said "I know what tourists are like, you're all the same! You won't call me!". Well tourists aren't all the same, but so far tuk tuk and taxi drivers that hunt for prey at bus stations are all the same... They are jerks!

Finally in bed, at 4 something, we were glad that we only had one more longmbus ride to endure. It was a bummer, though, because we basically wasted a day in Siem Reap because we were so exhausted and had no drive to do anything but seek out food and watch TV. I took 3 naps that day. Siem Reap is a pretty cool town, and that's what my next post will be all about. I wish we had more time to spend there!

4000 Islands

We arrived to the mainland and were all piled into this long wooden boat.. You could see the water through the cracks in the bottom, and the amount of people and backpacks in the boat seemed to make the engine whine. I thought we might begin to descend beneath the Mekong at any moment. The gruelingly slow boat ride ended and we were greeted by an 8 year old kid who pulled us ashore.. Kind of. The boat almost went back into the water as I was trying to get out because it wasn't tied on to anything. It was definitely not the safest disembarking I've ever made off of a boat, and I had all my electronics in my bag which made me even more nervous. We made it to the island, Don Det, which was all that mattered.

There are a number of islands you can visit in the area, Don Khong and Don Det being 2 of the major tourist spots. I tried to count to see if there are actually 4000 islands, but I couldn't decide what counted as an island, there are little green spots of vegetation dotting the river and little islands you can swim to if you can face the current.

Don Det is known as the "backpacker island" as it is cheaper than it's counterparts and has lots of little  basic bungalows, bars, and restaurants that cater to the backpacker budget. We stayed in a small bungalow with a double bed and no ac, but had a nice fan that kept us cool at night. There was also a nice hammock on the front porch that was perfectly conducive for intervals of reading my book and taking a nap.. It was so hot during the day, and pretty much everyone hops in the river at some point to cool off. You can also rent a bike and ride the 7km loop road around the island, or cross the bridge to the other islands that are connected (but be prepared to pay 25,000 kip per person to cross over the bridge as there are trolls there collecting your hard earned money). Tubing down the Mekong is also an offered pastime on the island, and lots of people have a few Beerlaos as they float down the river... You have to be mindful that you don't go the wrong way and head toward some of  the surrounding waterfalls, though. That could be bad.

The island was loaded with tourist agencies offering kayak tours, fishing, trekking, and boat tours but we didn't  take any tours during our stay.. I felt like the island agencies tried to inflate the prices since you are stuck on the island. We just read our books, took walks, and hung out with our friends we made on the Pink Paradise Barbie Sleeper Bus. If you are looking to do nothing, Don Det is a good place to do it. Many restaurants offer "happy menus" if that is your sort of thing, and it's not uncommon to see western tourists laid about in the bars all hours during the day. Personally, it's not a place I could stay for long.. We even left a day early because apart from partying (until the 11pm curfew) kayaking, tubing, or taking a tour, there is not a lot to do or see.. And we only had 9 days left in Asia at that point! 

There is lots of nature around the island, and it's a great place to see a sunset. If you're lucky you might catch a glimpse of the rare Irrawaddy dolphins, which are funny looking river dolphins that are native to the area. Here's some of the nature we came across..

Chickens and ducks everywhere!

Water buffalo!

 Friendly dogs that follow you and escort you around the island.. Luckily they were all nice and I didn't have any problems when I went for a run... There were more dogs, cows, buffalo, and chickens than people combined from all the islands, I'm sure.

 The main"road" around the island

One of the many riverside restaurants where you could enjoy some Lao food and a delicious lemon mint fruit shake (my new fave).. We spent some quality time in a few different restaurants, as these were the only places you could get wifi.. Also a nice way to escape the heat.

Don Det is a beautiful place to spend some quiet time.. Just make sure if you aren't looking for a party scene to stay on the "sunrise" side of the island rather than the "sunset". The only thing I found surprising about this place was how unfriendly many of the locals seemed... Those who worked in the restaurants and bungalows appeared to not like the fact that their island is overrun with tourism, which I can understand.. It just didn't seem like the rest of Lao we have experienced.. I think it was a bit of a tourist trap as well, which is sad. There were people there who had visited and ended up staying for weeks or months, but 2 days was enough for me. We booked a bus from one of the tourist agencies on the island, thinking we were getting a VIP bus from Don Det all the way to Siem Reap, Cambodia.. We knew it would be a long trip.. It was advertised the bus would leave at 8:30 am and arrive at 10:30 pm... Adding on the "Lao time" we should arrive by midnight, sure, whatever, we are used to it...but little did we know we were setting ourselves up for "The Bus From Hell: Part Deux"

And that's the next post.. 

Vientiane/Best Sleeper Bus aka "Pink Paradise Barbie Sleeper Bus" Combo Post!!

We headed from Luang Prabang bright early at 8:30 am and were on our way to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos just 9 hours away.. The bus was actually decent, with a bottle of water and a snack given to us, and some nice air conditioning. We made our way through the hills and along the curving roads into the nothingness between the major cities. Laos has not developed much of its land due to unexploded bombs and land mines that can detonate at any second, and has killed numerous people. Thanks to the US and the "secret war", where plane loads of bombs were dropped every 8 minutes on a sovereign country at the tail end of the Vietnam war, Laos will be spending the next 30-40 years trying to find the rest of these bombs so hopefully one day more of their country can develop and grow.  But for now, the landscape between cities ranges from dry, dusty rice fields and deep lush jungle covered mountains. It made for a scenic route, but the excitement didn't begin until we reached just the end of Luang Prabang province.

The roads in Laos aren't the best, and at one point we went over a hole and felt something that didn't sound right.. The next thing we knew, we were pulling off at the next village and I had thought maybe we were just stopping for lunch. Oh no, it was not lunch time yet... We had messed up part of the compressor on the brake of the front left wheel... Water was spilling out everywhere, and in almost instantly the jack was out and one of our drivers crawled on the dusty ground underneath to check the damage. Paul and I knew this was going to be a while, and wondered what the mechanical experience of the bus crew was like. We walked around the village, picked up some fruit and snacks, and watched the show of these guys fixing the broken wheel.

We waited about an hour or so, watched the bus that left at 9 am drive by, saw other happy travelers making their way to their destinations, and sat roadside in the random village. After a quick lunch of whatever takeaway the driver/mechanic ate mid-fixing (good thing he had chopsticks, he was covered in dirt and dust), a new screw, and a few attempts to jimmy-rig the wheel part with an aluminum can (I wondered how long that would hold up) the wheel was repaired and we reboarded the bus.

No other hiccups occurred during this bus trip, the seats were comfortable, and we did eventually stop for some food (which was included in the ticket price). We arrived to Vientiane around 8 pm, naturally adding the 3 hours of "Lao time" you have to tack on to any transportation via road.. By now, I'm used to this, and despite having the typical breaking down of a bus (which I have read happens a lot) the trip was pretty painless. I just appreciated being treated like a human and not a piece of cargo for a change! The guys on the bus were all super friendly, and apparently great mechanics as well since we all arrived in one piece. It was sweet too, at one point we made a random stop, and one of the guys got out and did a quick prayer blessing at a roadside shrine. I think that's how all thse dinosaur buses make it from one place to another here... With the power of blessing incense!

As usual, we had to deal with tuktuk drivers and them having a much higher inflated price than what you read in the guidebook or anywhere else for that matter. By the time we arrived to the bus station, everything seemed shut and these were the only guys who could deliver us to our accomodation, so we paid their extortionate price.. After all, 2.50 per person isn't too bad really, it's the principle of knowing you are getting the tourist price that's aggravating... In the end, we made it safely to our guesthouse.. Having eaten lunch at like 4pm, we opted for a minimart dinner of yogurt and a Beerlao, and went to bed.

Vientiane is a unique capital, by that it doesn't have the hustle and bustle like other capitals we have been to.. Sure, it's got more going than Luang Prabang! but it definitely felt like a small town rather than a metropolis. We walked pretty much everywhere, and there is a long promenade along the Mekong that is perfect for walking and running. I've been wide awake at 6:15am lately, and it's just cool enough then to run right now in SE Asia... Any later than that and you're dripping with sweat after 10 minutes of walking down the street. I was happy to see that there were plenty of parks, workout areas, and running paths around the town, and also the usual people out doing their tai chi or other energizing exercises in the morning. 

The presidential palace is located in Vientiane, as well as other government building monstrosities. Seriously, some of these buildings are ridiculous in size and grandeur, for a country with so much poverty and a population around 7 million. It made me question the integrity of the communist system here.. There is also an "Arc d'triumphe" style building in the middle of a park, but according to the sign, the Lao people don't think much of it..

Make sure you don't pass a grass, by the way.

 Cool random wat in the middle of a roundabout.

Our second day in Vientiane we headed 25 km outside the city to a place called "Buddha Park". We had our first public bus experience to the dropoff point, and from there you have the joy of haggling prices with beloved tuktuk drivers. The public bus was amazing! Air conditioning, comfortable seats, and the driver even played the radio. I sat next to a sweet old lady, and though we had no chance of making conversation due to language barriers, she gave me a Halls mint and a nice big smile. What a nice lady. Paul was somewhere at the back of the bus, as there weren't 2 seats together. Luckily when we arrived to the dropoff point, there was a load of other western tourists who were making their way to Buddha park so we all shared a jumbo tuktuk (after 5 minutes haggling the price down to 6000 kip per person, of course).

We rode down a bumpy dirt road for about 10 minutes and then arrived to a large fenced area with hundreds of old Buddhist and Hindi statues all over the place. It as built by a priest-shaman who blended Hinduism and Buddhism together back in the 1950s. There are tons of crazy looking statues, and they all appear to be really, really old...but they aren't. There wasn't much explanation behind the statues or the purpose of the park, since one had to buy the book to find anything out. Wikipedia gave me all the info I needed, and the sculptures, whether old or not, made for some cool photos.

We walked around the park and snapped some pictures. It was a scorcher, so we didn't stay too long, but long enough to make friends with an English couple from Nottingham, and we strolled around the statues with them. Then we all headed back to the bus stop in the tuktuk and made our way back to the city... We had a sleeper bus to catch! We decided to head to the 4,000 Islands, which is in the Mekong of southern Laos.. According to the tour agency, we would leave at 8:30 pm and arrive to Pakse early the next morning, from where we would get a minibus and a boat to Don Det.

I vowed that this would be the last sleeper bus we take, unless it's absolutely necessary, after the fiasco with the Bus from Hell. We were picked up in a jumbo, along with 20 other western tourists, and made our way to the VIP Bus station. Yes, we were adamant with the booking agent to be sure we at least got "VIP" and that yes there is a bathroom on board. Ah, we were so glad when we arrived to the bus and found Pink Paradise Barbie Sleeper Bus! We named it that because of the beautiful pink decor that lined the walls of the bus. The Angry Birds micro fleece blanket was an added bonus. But really, this bus was the best so far... No reclining seats, just beds the whole way down the aisle! Wow, Laos!

 Somehow we both managed to fit in this space along with our little backpacks and travel guitar.. For the first couple hours, we chatted with our new friends we made from jumbo ride to the bus station. We passed around a plastic water bottle filled with "LaoLao"' (the local rice whisky) which is a good way to start any long bus ride, shared stories from our travels, and settled down to sleep at around 11:30. We had a pretty good group of people from all over..Germany, Italy, and Holland. Most of the group were heading to the same place, so we vowed to all stick together.

The great thing about the Pink Paradise Barbie Sleeper Bus was that we were actually able to sleep! I woke up around 7 am when we stopped at a random place to let someone off, and actually felt refreshed- which was the first time that's happened with our bus experiences. The bus was clean, quiet, and the people were respectful. If anything, we were the loud ones that night.. But we made sure to be quiet so not to disturb the locals on the bus. Ah, the pink paradise sleeping bus... That's a winner!

We arrived to Pakse around 8:30 and 20 minutes later we were whisked away by a minivan to another bus, which was not paradise... No AC and lots of broken seats. We endured 3 hours of the old bus and finally made it to Kamphong, where we would be taken by a boat to the island Don Det. 4000 Islands will be my next post.... And Don Det is quite an interesting one of these 4000... Not everyone's cup of tea I'm sure, but unique to day the least. 

Until next time!

MC

Luang Prabang

After the hell bus, Luang Prabang was just what we needed.. It's a small town in northern Laos, on the banks of the Mekong river and is also a unesco heritage site. Our guesthouse was so quiet and relaxing, with a large garden and porch out front. The city is small and easy to get around on foot, with lots of day trips available to the surrounding waterfalls. We opted to just explore the town and visit the many tea and book shops during our stay rather than going to the sights outside of town..The city is a perfect place to put a good dent into a book, and relax. It was pretty hot during the day, but you could walk through the town from one cafe to another and escape the heat. There is a nice paved sidewalk that circles the downtown area, so it made for some good early morning run views along the river.

We booked 3 nights with our guesthouse, and ended up staying an extra day. The people in town were super friendly and it was a nice refuge away from the busy city we had grew accustomed to in Hanoi. There are tons of riverside bars and restaurants to relax at, but everything closes at 11 pm so things don't get too crazy in Luang Prabang.

One thing we did that was pretty neat/different was a stencil art class.. There was a little bookshop that had all these pretty stencil artworks hanging and by them was an advertisement for a class. You use a pattern, different sized metal tools and a hammer to punch out paper so when it is opened, you have a design. The class was taught by a former novice monk who had a passion for the craft and decided to share his passion with others. It is a kind of active meditation, because you have to focus on getting the tools lined up with the pattern just right, and then hammer to cut the pieces of paper out. We spent like 2.5 hours working on our stencil art and I will say I felt very relaxed afterward.. These monks were on to something. By the end I had a beautiful Buddha piece and Paul had created a tree, which we thoughts were some cool souvenirs considering we had created them!

You had to be very particular about which tool to use, so that the curves of the lines would come out exact.. It was a lot tougher than it looks and takes lots of patience!

We also spent our days walking around and seeing all the local temples and sights. I can see why this place is a heritage site, and I am glad it hasn't over developed into a place that's too touristy... All of the buildings are low and many are original and over hundreds of years old. It's really a beautiful place to spend a few days. I definitely could have stayed there longer but we are in a bit of a time crunch to see everything we want to see in Southeast Asia!

Luang Prabang was a great place to shop.. The night market had some great finds, not like many of the other markets we have seen. There were stalls with good quality clothes, antiques, embroidery, and your usual "Beerlao" shirts or other Lao cotton tees. There was also an all you can eat buffet for 10,000 kip! That worked out to be a $3 meal for both of us.. There is also an area called "Shake Street" where you can get sandwiches and all kinds of fruit shakes, stall after stall of vendors.

We were sad to leave Luang Prabang, as it really gave us a good introduction to the Lao way of life... Laos is a communist country, the Lao PDR (people's democratic republic).. But it's commonly known that PDR actually stands for "Please Don't Rush". Everything is slowed down here, and there is a relaxed feeling everywhere. I've seen more people sleeping in hammocks than I've ever seen before in my life. You order food and one meal comes out, and the other comes 15 minutes later.. It's just the way it is.. Very different from the hustle and bustle of Vietnam, and it was a nice change of pace. Most places open early and close early, and from what I've seen the people here are all about family. If we had any bad tastes in our mouth after the tuktuk incident following the "Hell Bus" ride, it quickly dissipated not long after being in Luang Prabang. What a great place!

The Infamous Bus from Hell

Okay I'm not going to lie.... I had anticipated what was coming our way long before we left our hotel in Hanoi. I'd researched this trip endlessly, reading fellow travelers blogs, Lonely Planet, trip advisor, all those websites I reference for tips and information and making preparations to cross the border and begin our adventure in Laos. Everything I read, except for one forum post on LP, described what would be an agonizing 24 hours confined to a bus. Thinking our hotel would be a good place to make reservations for the trip from Hanoi to Luang Prabang may have been my first mistake, but there were so many travel agencies and no online reservations I figured it was the easiest and there was no way they would put us on a bus that would give them a bad rep, right? After all, recommendations and trip advisor ratings are supreme in the travel world. These thoughts of "we won't get on the 'Bus from Hell'.. That blog post is 2 years old" or "all the other buses in vietnam have been fine" tried to comfort my mind after reading other peoples experiences of this journey. I still had my doubts, and made sure to pack some snacks for the ride as I had read one poor soul who had also taken this trip only ate a packet of crackers for the duration of the 24-that-was-actually-27 hour bus ride because there was no real food stops.

I should have known that we were in for a treat when we were waiting to get picked up for the bus ride. I was expecting a minibus or taxi or something to scoop us up and take us to the main bus station. A man pulled up on a motorbike and motioned for us to come outside. I looked at Paul, and then at our bags, and said, "there is no way we are getting on that bike". Silly me! We weren't going to get on the bike, we were going to wear our bags and walk as fast as we could and follow him while he rode his bike past various hostels and picked up more travelers along the way. Shuffling through rush hour old quarter Hanoi, with bags, and trying to follow a man on a motorbike that is wearing the same outfit as the 1000s of other men on motorbikes. It was like a fun Vietnamese game of "Where's Waldo?" The group of travelers grew as we walked through the streets, and finally we reached the minibus at 6pm.

The nice man on the motorbike screamed at us to put our luggage in the back of the minibus. He grabbed my bag while it was still buckled around my waist and tried to throw it in the back. I had to yell and say "It's still attached!" but he didn't seem to mind. I am surprised I didn't end up in the luggage hold with my bag. I wasn't the only one he did this to either, there were other poor girls who were almost chucked in the front or back with bags still on their bodies. What a nutter. Meanwhile all this is happening there is a lady trying to sell us mangoes and bananas. Oh, Hanoi..

So we all pile on the minibus, and wait for a few more people..they get on and bags get thrown about. The minibus is rammed full of people and bags, and by the time it's time to depart there were no seats and people standing for the 45 minute bus ride to the main station. When we arrive to the station, we are split up into 2 buses, one for Vientiane and one for Luang Pranbang. 

Bags piled to the ceiling in the front seat 

We get to the bus and realize that our backpacks will be joining us on board, as there are satellite dishes and boxes of cans of cooking oil in the cargo hold. Honestly, who knows what the heck is in the cargo hold...but not our bags. We slip off our shoes and place them in a plastic bag and board the bus, which seems to be comfortable... More comfortable than our bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An, seat wise at least.

We had to climb over backpacks, giant packages wrapped in burlap bags, boxes, and whatever else they were carrying to get to our seats. I climb into a top bunk seat and Paul ran off to have one last quick bathroom break before we jetted off.. The little man who helped the driver kept trying to get me to move to the back of the bus and I refused because I didn't want to get split up from Paul. He finally understood when I showed him Paul's stuff and said "no I want to sit with my husband" and left me alone. He was screaming at people and being generally unpleasant pretty much the entire trip.

Mistake number two was when Paul returned from the bathroom and then we decided to move a few seats back after all.. There was a seat with tons of thick pads (we assumed more cargo) in it where no one was sitting, so we got the seats behind it because we figured no one would be sitting there to lean back on our legs. Ha! How silly we were. Our small, feeble western minds.

So we were off... Chatting with other travelers we had befriended on our minibus journey, relaxing, and thinking that despite the crazy screaming onboard staff and the long duration of travel time, this trip may actually be alright. We even stopped for dinner and a rest just a couple hours after departure! Granted, it was a truck stop and the food wasn't the best, but you can't really go wrong with rice, greens and tofu.. The little voice in the back of my mind told me to eat real food now, because of what I had read about other "bus from hell" trips. But so far, the trip had been good, and I thought maybe those other posts were just people being dramatic.

I purchased some prescription strength sleep aids in Sapa for our train ride home after the snoring incident, and thought it would be helpful for the sleeper bus as well. It's hard to sleep on buses and trains, especially in Vietnam. After our dinner got down and the lights went off inside the bus, I took some of my sleeping pills, curled up under the fleece blanket, and settled down for a nice long sleep...

Then 2 AM rolled around. Magically more cargo was being loaded into the bus. The pads that were in the seat in front of us were taken and put on the floor and on the second level of the sleeper seats in the back of the bus- which made a makeshift bed. There was a platform where those who had the very back seats could lay their legs out,while bags other luggage was beneath on the first level. Along with cargo on top of the bus, under the bus, and in the aisle, 15 more people, all local Vietnamese men, climbed aboard. The crazy man that tried to get me to move began waking up other westerners and making them move to the seats in the back of the bus. There were people everywhere.. Sitting on the stuff in the aisle, and sitting on the platform in the back of the bus, right next to us. I don't think these men had showered in days and they were all speaking extremely loudly and woke up everyone on the bus. All the people who had paid $50 per person were an afterthought on this bus.. What mattered was whatever goods they were transporting and the local people who climbed in... I'm fine with riding on a local bus, but not when I was sold a "nice soft sleeper bus" and probably paid 10 times what these locals paid.

 These guys had their feet in the faces of the

poor guys in the back of the bus...

People and stuff EVERYWHERE

I turned on my trusty iPod, slipped my eyemask over my eyes, and managed to sleep for 4 hours before I awoke to my bladder screaming at me. Ah yes, the bus we were sold did not have an onboard toilet. As gross as many of these are, I would have looooooved to have had an onboard toilet for this journey. But alas, we were on the bus from hell. It was 6 am and we hadn't stopped in 10 hours except to pick up random people, cargo, and whatever else. I thought I was going to get a kidney infection when I had to wait another 2 hours before the bus came to a halt on the side of the road. It must be nice to be male and just be able to go to the bathroom wherever you want. But for me, I had to stumble over bags and crap on the bus, then seek out a bush to pop a squat..which isn't really a big deal, but this coupled with everything else that had happened so far made it a lot worse. I thought my bladder was going to explode and I was in agony!  This incident made me avoid drinking water for the duration of the rest of the trip. I figured I'd rather be dehydrated than chance peeing in my pants or getting a kidney infection.

We putted along the winding roads for another hour or so and made it to the Vietnamese border. We had to get off the bus and walk to the immigration counter where they give you an exit stamp. I took advantage of the facilities in the office like 3 times due to paranoia caused from the lack of stops thus far. This whole process took about 45-1hour minutes, in beaurecratic Vietnamese fashion..you would think exiting would be easy. Once we got our exit stamp, we walked about 1km to the Laos border, where we were greeted by kind immigration officers. They took us to a room, gave us a form, and we waited maybe 10 minutes before we had a visa in hand.. $30 and a passport photo will get you a visa on arrival in Laos. I was just happy to see a nice smiling immigration officer after dealing with the hardlining Vietnamese guys. 

We stretched our legs, used one last bathroom break, and reboarded the bus. We were hoping our new friends who had hopped on would be disembarking at the border, but no such luck. They all climbed back on and made themselves comfortable in the non-seat areas of the bus. One guy kept leaning on Paul, and after what we had already endured, he was not going to put up with it. I think the local guy understood not to mess around with someone that's about twice his size and stopped using Paul as a seat back. Then all of a sudden I smelled something gross.. I turned around and saw one of the locals cheesy disgusting feet were by my head on the seat. I thought there were 2 German guys behind us, but the crazy bus guy must had made them move in the middle of the night to accomodate the local guys that were now sitting there. I turned around to the foot guy and yelled "No way!" and he put his feet down. This went on a few times, and finally Paul scared the crap out of him the 5th time I had to say something.. I don't know who these guys were or where they came from but they had no respect for anyone.

Also throughout this journey, there would be random times when loud Vietnamese music would blast through the speakers, or a movie with people singing would come on the TV. I had my earplugs in and made a pretty good dent in "Gone with the Wind", which I am loving right now. We made our way through the winding roads and our bellies began to growl, as we hadn't eaten since 8 pm the night before and hours were slowly ticking by.. We stopped to drop off cargo at random places, on the side of the road for bathroom breaks, but by 2 o'clock there was still no sign of nourishment coming our way besides 2 smashed bananas, a couple of apples I bought before we left, and a few multigrain cookies I had from a few days ago. Paul had already eaten all of his chips, and we were starving. I was still scared to drink water because I didn't know what our stopping schedule would be like. On previous buses, we stopped about every 3 hours at proper places, like a gas station or a restaurant. But this was no ordinary bus. Haha!

Not only were we starving and thirsty but scared to drink, but hot as well. I guess this bus has seen better days, because everytime we made an ascent up the hill, the driver turned off the air conditioning. So we only had downhill or flat road AC. All those bodies and goods and no ac makes for  a really fun trip.

Around 3 o'clock we reached a small town in Laos and the driver announced "Restaurant!" By this point, I was past the hunger pangs but knew I needed to eat. So we sat at this restaurant that was actually pretty good.. I had noodle soup, but was still paranoid to drink the broth after my human rights to stop for a bathroom break were violated. We stopped at a little shop and picked up a few more things and a small bottle of water and boarded the bus again. Some of our local friends left near the small town where we stopped, which freed up some space on the bus. I had thought we were only a few hours away from our destination, but again, I was proven wrong.

Around 8pm we made another stop, this time at an actual bathroom (a squatty toilet but a toilet!)  There was a little store next to the bathroom that sold beer. After being on the bus officially 25 hours already, I signaled to Paul to buy a beer and he walked out with 2 large Beerlaos. I was nervous at the amount of liquid inside those bottles, but at this point I didn't care. The beer tasted delicious and made me giggle.. I could have probably made friends with those guys who shared our seats with us! Paul and I gave a "cheers" and figured we didn't have much longer on the bus to go. I drank my beer slowly and ended up falling asleep when it was gone.. I awoke to find we were still on the bus, on dark mountain roads, with no civilization in sight. It was 10pm by now, and we had been sitting on this godforsaken bus for 27 hours.

I spent the next hour and a half looking out the window at the stars, and seeing small brush fires sweeping across the mountains. It's the burning season in Laos, where they burn all the underbrush before the planting season. Finally we began making our way down into a valley, and I began to see the lights of  Luang Prabang. We made it!!! We screeched into the bus station, and there was nothing in the town open and only one tuk-tuk driver waiting for us. Of course, the bus crew unloaded all of the cargo from the bottom and top of the bus and whatever else was important first, and then threw our bags out the door.

The tuktuk was was a 10 seater, but we managed to fit 15 people plus all of our backpacks in it. Paul sat up front with the driver, and he said that at some points the driver was making some nervous faces. The tuk tuk was swaying back and forth as we puttered along the main road from the station to the center of town. Just a short 5 minute ride, and we made it. The driver dropped us off in the middle of the main intersection, in the dark  and then left us with no direction of where we needed to go to reach our accomodation. Another driver pointed us down a main road, so we started walking trying to read road signs and see which way our place was.. There are like 253 hotels in Luang Pranbang, so they are all over the place.. Finally, we decided to just get another tuktuk as we didn't know where we were or which way to go and it was almost midnight. We flagged down a tuktuk and it was the same guy who told us to walk down the road we were on... He magically could understand us now, as he was getting business from us, and  took us to our guesthouse which was the exact opposite way of the way we were walking... After being on a bus for 30 hours you don't want to be messed around with by a taxi driver. Paul was fuming at this guy.... He told him "You are a horrible person. You need to go tell all those people they are walking the wrong way". It turned out all of the people we met on the bus had hostels on the same road as our place, and that guy was sending them the completely wrong way, in the middle of the night! What a jerk!

Thankfully, everyone else minus the taxi and bus people we have encountered so far in vietnam/Laos have been lovely. I feel like you have to be a certain kind of person to be a taxi driver... We have encountered more jerks than decent ones when it comes to taxis during our travels. I can't paint them all with the same brush, though. There are good people in the world who aren't always trying to rip you off!

We can now say that we have endured the longest, most hellacious bus ride to date. I have no regrets, as it makes for a good story. The only bad thing is that the air conditioning filtration system on that bus was horrible (you could see black stuff in the vents...yuck), and both of us have a stupid cough again. That may have been down to the fact those local people were coughing all over us as well. I think we may buy one of those mask things that everyone wears here for the next bus ride we have to take.... Which will be a 16 hour bus ride to Vientiane! In 2 days! Wish us luck!