Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang went well, the formalities at the airport were a breeze and we took the airport taxi to our guesthouse, Muong Lao riverside. We were dropped at the Muong Lao guest house, but it looked nothing like the place I had seen on the website. The owner sorted us out and called a tuk tuk to take us to the Riverside version of the Muong Lao. The second one was as expected, on the banks of the Mekong river and our room had a balcony overlooking the river.

The Mekong view from our rooms balcony, in Luang Prabang, Laos

Our Guesthouse

That first afternoon we wandered about town and found our way, the rain came that evening and continued all next day. We climbed the towns sacred Wat located in the centre of town. The climb was very steep and constant, in the wet humidity it took it's toll. On the way down we ran into a small group of young monks. This town is full of Wat's containing monks, over 400 make the morning alms walk were they are given food by the locals and tourists, it is deemed to make you fell better when you donate. The young monks asked us to help with their English, when we agreed they whipped out their practice exercise books. The books contained their beautiful handwriting in basic sentences. These we corrected and helped them with some pronunciation.

Hilde helping her monk with mine closest to the camera.

At one stage my monk protested that Hilde was sitting too close to her student, they were sitting about 6 inches apart, he gestured them apart until he was satisfied with about a 12 inch gap. He said to me, "we are not allowed to have girlfriends."  That just showed their innocence, we were seated in a sheltered area within the confines of their Wat, at one stage 4 younger monks arrived, they were aged 10 to 13 years of age. They munched on snacks and when finished dropped the packaging into the garden and walked away. A big surprise!!!

The next morning the weather cleared and we gained a little freedom with our rental scooter. Rentals in Laung Prabang are expensive to the rest of Asia, Vientiane and Cambodia they rent for around 5 to 7 USD per day, at LP they are 20 to 25 USD per day. The story is that the locals are trying to limit the number of backpackers in favour of well heeled and better behaved tourists. 

Our rental at Laung Prabang.

The scooter took us out of town to a waterfall and a local weavers village, we were shown the whole process from the silk worms to the finished product.

A young Muong lady weaving at nearby village. 

After the village we headed right out of town, a ten kilometre slide on a muddy track to the elephant village. The ride out and back was very hairy, slipping and sliding through mud holes and avoiding collapsed sections of the roadway. We managed it ok although the bike needed a good clean. Here you can join in and learn to drive an elephant, take them into the river for a wash, or simply feed them some sugar cane. Hilde chose the lesser option, the big fellows frightened her. 

Hilde feeding an Elephant sugar cane. 

 The Mekong ferry driver and his very basic operations centre.

The Mekong ferry.

We returned to town for lunch and us we pulled up to our chosen restaurant the heavens opened and the afternoon downpour was hitting the town. Lucky for us the rain cleaned the bike and we remained dry. As soon as lunch finished the downpour ceased and we decided to cross the Mekong o the vehicle ferry. It is a very ancient thing that takes the odd car, but mostly scooters.  The other side of the Mekong was an eye opener, the opposite to what we had at Lunag Prabang. A short ride put us right back into the mud, this time up to our shins and the bike was now a nice Mekong brown. 100 metres of this was enough to turn us around back to the ferry.

T

The muddy track and the Local Police Station on the other side of the river.

We gave the bike back and arranged a boat trip up the Mekong for the next day, this was an organised day trip and we managed to find some others to fill our boat of 6.

The boat was a lot smaller and decrepit that what was sold to us. 

Our boat, boat driver and Captain at the wharf at the trips destination, a Buddha Cave.

The trip back.

Hilde handing out alms (Banana's) 

The next morning we were away from the guesthouse before 6am to get into position to see the monks parading for their alms though town. They came in groups of 30 to 40, a total of 400 monks. Each morning we were awoken by their drums at 4am. A large Wat is located right behind our guesthouse. 

An artists impression of the ceremony of the alms

Later that morning we headed to the big brother mouse store, an organization that helps with education in LP. Each morning they provide free English tuition to any person who wants it and at the same time they provide the opportunity for tourists to give that free tuition. In all respects it's a win for everyone. We both got a real buzz out of it, for me teaching was very new and rewarding, I can say my four guys taught me a thing or two also.

Trevor and his students at big brother mouse reading program

Hilde and her pupils

Our last days in LP we took in the last remaining sites. A short walk down the street was the oldest Wat. A van trip crammed with back packers to a waterfall for a swim and the customary photo's.

The local and oldest Wat in Laung Prabang 

A small part of the largest waterfall some 30 kilometres from Luang Prabang, a day trip with some backpackers 

Our time in LP came to a close with a short flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia, a Vietnam airlines Fokker that sat 78 and with only 16 punters aboard it was nice. Although they did cram us all into the same section in the middle of the plane.

At Siem Reap we were collected by a Tuk Tuk, one of the best I have seen.

The royal carriage

.



Cambodia and Laos, the difference

As I mentioned at the conclusion of the last post, there are may obvious differences between Cambodia and Laos, those obvious ones were that Cambodia use the USD as their staple currency, has crazy traffic, rubbish lying about everywhere, uniformed guards on most businesses and many homes, no traffic rules that are obeyed, many beggars and people living on the edge and infrastructure that appears to be nearly non existent. Those all apply to Cambodia and it seems that Laos is a little well ahead on all counts. Although the People of Laos are a little reserved with the Cambodians being much more friendly. One thing I did read in the Cambodian newspapers was an article relating to the export of reeds to Vietnam, the main employee who checks and supervises the packing of the reeds earns USD$1.75 per 8 hour day. She needs to work two other jobs to survive, she has no time whatsoever for herself. In the same newspaper the President gloated about his anti corruption Police netting some big fish in one of his departments, the department looked after payments to retired public servants and youth affairs. It was found that they had tens of thousands of ghost's on the books, dead ex public servants that these guys were still drawing their pensions and keeping the loot themselves, an amount of 5.5 million USD ( a lot of money in Cambodia).

Anyway they were caught and the president decided on the punishment. They kept their jobs, they did not have to give the money back, they were not prosecuted. But their department was to receive 5.5 million USD less in their budget for the following year. So the people that they are serving will pay, not the thieves. The obvious difference between the people living a survival existence and those fat cats driving around in the black 4wd lexus is vast. The rich bastards in their big cars care little about the little man.

Now I am off of my soapbox and back to our travels in Laos.

Our arrival in Vientiane was very different to that of Phnom Penh, traffic was sparse, traffic lights obeyed and our airport taxi delivered us safely to the first actual hotel of the trip, the http://www.hotelkhamvongsa.com/. The others are all Guest houses. The hotel is in the centre of the city near the Mekong River, the building is an old colonial type building with large rooms all recently renovated leaving the thick wooden floors intact. It was a pleasant surpise, although the walk up the stairs to the third floor kept us in shape, an extra trip was made one evening when the hotels desk provided me with the wrong door key, something the receptionist was not allowed to forgot for the rest of our stay.

A street vendor making banana crepes, he was a real artist.

A short walk led us to the river markets which were interesting as were the footpath restaurants. Our first day was a walking day, there seemed to be a Wat (temple) on every corner, we were watted out after the first three. We walked to the markets which had a surprising twist, the regular type asian markets were honeycombed ( a maze) through the large structure and alongside stood a brand new shopping mall, although mostly empty of shops. We met a small group of monks who were out shopping, they approached us with some English practice questions, the one closest to Hilde had just bought an English Phrase book .

Our shy mong friends from Vientaine

Further up that same street was Laos's answer to the arc de Triumphe, 'the independance arch'. This was an outstanding feature of the city, great views from the top with many markets stalls of each level of the internal stairway.

Hilde with a Vietnamese tourist at the arc

Western tourists were in a minority compared to Cambodia, many Vietnamese, Chinese and the Lao themselves.

The view from the top of the arc de Truimphe

The river area was the prime spot in the evenings and we managed to catch the sunset on the river before tucking into a local restaurant for a traditional Lao dish, 'Laap'. I was asked if i wanted it very hot, hot or mild. I chose hot, I did finish it although I think I sweated a few litres. I needed an icecream to douse the fire.

Our last day saw us astride a motor scooter again and we ventured outside town towards the Thai border on an excellent road, busy but not that busy to not enjoy it. We rode past the friendship bridge, a large span across the Mekong River linking Laos and Thailand, this was built by Australia completed in the late 80's. It is nice to see that we look after the infrastructure of Countries such as these, I wish we would start putting a few of these bridges across some of the rivers in Australia.

Hilde's picture of the big round thing. Spot wally.

Not that far from the bridge was the Buddha Park, a nice park built in the mid fifties, not sure if it is an amusement type park, but we did enjoy the visit. The buddha's were numerous and in varying sizes and unuasual poses, their expressions also gave it a funny twist.

A view of the Budha park and Hilde from on top of the big round thing.

A happy rider, Buddha park

We headed back to the city and took the 25 kilomere freeway, it was surprising that this brand new three lane expressway was virtually unused except by us and the odd other scooter. There were plenty of landscapers planting grass on the roads edges and one part had massive light poles to light up that section for I don't know who.

The busy Lao freeway.

The next morning we took the hotels shuttle to the airport for our flight to Luang Prabang, our flight was a domestic affair aboard a small commuter propellor aircraft. I ran into an Austrain guy who was departing on a helicopter to his copper mine, he was in company with a group of Asian mine workers for their two week site work. It was interesting to see them take off in two vintage Russian choppers, they actually ran down the runway to get some luft before they became airborn, scary.

The fight to Luang Prabang took 40 minutes, this was opposed to a 9 hour bus trip.

The view of Laung Prabang township as we came into land.

Out taxi took us to our guesthouse, but it appeared very different to the one that I had research, with the taxi now gone the guesthouse manager where we found ourselves corrected us and called a tuk tuk who delivered us to the correct place, http://www.villaxandria.com/  This one was as expected, direct uninterupted views of the Mekong River flowing by only 50 metres away.

Kep to Phnom Penh

Jasmine Valley, Kep.

After checking in at Jasmine Valley quite early, around 10am. Spent the rest of the day taking in the eco guest house. The pool is the result of the flow of a natural waterway into the dammed pool area. The pool is full of small fish ranging from size 1 1/2 inch to 5 inch in length. Hilde sat with her feet immersed and allowed the hungry fish (around 50 in number) to nibble the dead skin on her feet, she described it as a tickling massage. I tried and jumped at each nibble so it just scared them away. Swimming was really nice, water fresh from the mountain and long as I kept moving the fish stayed away.

Hilde getting her foot massage in the pool

The guesthouse supplied a very good range of Khmer meals, pizza was also available. At night we were captive as travel down and back up the mountain at night had its issues, a 2 1/2 kilometre winding track. We were quite happy to spend the evenings at home.   We retired early and kept the lights out as the insect sounds outside were quite loud and we didn't want to listen to them inside. Access for them is easy as the airflow from the verandah is unobstructed. The mossie net over our bed protected us from creepy crawlies but during the night the net got in our way a few times, still no unexpected visitors. We woke to the crescendo of birds and the natural sounds of the dense jungle.
Jasmine valley provided us with a motor scooter to explore the surrounding country side, the first obstacle was the trip down the mountain through puddles and gullies, no problems for a good bike rider even though Hilde was not as confident as I.
We headed inland to see some of the famous kampot pepper plantations and even bought some of the red and black variety. It is reputed to be one of the highest in quality in the world. Seeing that is dried we have been assured that Australian Customs will allow it.
The ride back to the coast took us through working rice paddies and the emergency visit to a tyre guy on the roadside, our front tyre was down. After it was pumped we were away again, we came across some young monks swimming near a monk statue, they swam in orange loin clothes with their orange robes draped over the rocks. I seemed to attract them as they took photo's of me posed with them. That was different, normally it is Hilde who attracts this type of thing.

Another flat tyre took us to a guy who changed the tube for $4. We attracted the attention of local kids on their way to school.

Local school kids.
All geared up we headed to the crab market, Kep is well known for it's crabs and prawns. A water side restaurant had been suggested to us and we took a ocean side table with the odd wave splashing us. I ordered the pepper crab and Hilde the grilled crab, we watched as about 50 boats were crabbing about 200 to 300 metres from shore, one of the boats came in and a guy swam a shore with a basket full of crabs, sold them to the restaurant and swam back with a fist full of money raised above the water. The crabs were delicious, but messy and a pain to pull apart and eat.

Kep Crabs
As we left the restaurant a little girl was playing on my motor bike and looked a little scared when she saw us, when she realized that she was not in trouble, she turned into a real poser.

She loved having her photo taken
Back to the jasmine valley for a peaceful afternoon beside the pool and some table tennis. There were 2 french couples staying at the Jasmine and had planned to take a boat to Rabbit Island the following day, they invited us to join them and share the cost. That night we left our normal routine of eating only dishes we hooked into a pizza baked at Jasmines brick oven, It was really nice, even better than the ones I make.
The next morning it was overcast and the sea was flat, the open boat over to Rabbit Island took a half hour and we were dropped off at a fisher mans hut with much of the beach littered with rubbish. The boat boy took us for a walk through the jungle and we appeared at a nearby beach equipped with a few beach side restaurants and bamboo beds. Beds were selected and mats provided by the ladies from the Restaurant.  We enjoyed a swim in the cool water which was quite shallow for the first 75 metres or so. Lunch time soon came around after a snooze on the raised beds, I again went for the crab, this time the waitress who was fully dressed in  a smart outfit walked right into the sea up to her chest and retrieved a basket load of crabs from their crab storage facility. A crab basket floating some 25 metres from shore. The crabs were deposited in the kitchen and she sloshed fresh water over herself  from a barrel and kept serving us, soaked to thew skin.

Rabbit Island waitress
After lunch and another swim we headed back to shore, this time the wind and sea were up, we had all had a fresh water wash down and wore fresh clothes, the boat trip saw us soaked to the skin as the waves spent most of the time over the deck on us.
Later that afternoon with a few icy Gin and Tonics on the balcony we watched some of the rain squalls rushing through the tree tops from the mountain tops towards us, they came with a roar and passed by with a whimper.

Our last night at Jasmine the monsoon rains came and it belted down all night, the noises of the wind and rain blowing through the surrounding jungle was amazing, we made it to breakfast in between showers and relaxed all morning with some feet nibbling by the pools resident mass of fish. I saw a small snake on the pools edge, the reception had a snake book and we found that it was a reed snake, harmless to us, but not to frogs and lizards. It look like it had been washed into the pool and could not escape, we helped it on it's way, back to the reeds that is. The whip snake was also still around in the trees above us. Owen the owner manager of the guesthouse told us of two cobra's doing a mating dance in the property next door, they were killed and eaten by the local residents. He said that the cobras were very shy and would always take off if disturbed, they also hunted the 50 or so species of snakes in the area so were good to have around.

The Tuk Tuk taking the creek from Jasmine Valley
We checked out and our tuk Tuk arrived to take us to the bus station, it was pouring down and the track down the mountain was now a small river, our tuk tuk went with the flow and we reached dry land on the main road a little quicker than normal. As our clothes had become a little wet on the trip to the bus station, it was icy when we boarded as the air con on these vehicles is always set to the lowest possible temp.
The bus had a crew of three, the driver, the assistant driver and the cabin crewman/ticket collector, the trip was uneventful for the next hour or so, the rain stopped about 25 kilometres from the coast were it was still dry. We stopped a few times to pick up passengers, all Cambodians until one town had three poms, they consisted of a couple around our age and a younger girl. The driver and crew attempted to get them to board, but they were eating their lunch and told them to wait, for the next ten minutes the driver kept hitting his horn while they munched on their baguettes. Finally they unloaded their gear from a tuk tuk, put it on the bus and boarded. I was tempted to yell out leave the bastards, but refrained as it was enough for the Cambodians to tolerate only one group of rude westerners. I didn't need to add to the number. As we entered Phnom Penh the driver was negotiating the worst traffic ever, trucks, buses, tuks tuks, cars bikes and people, all going any which way without any sort of order. The large PB woman was on her mobile speaking to what appeared to be her hotel. She waddled down the aisle and stuck her phone into the ear of the busy driver. It appeared she wanted her hotel to explain to him how to take her to the hotel, she didn't want to go to the Central market with the rest of us.  He shoved the phone aside, if it was me I probably would have chucked it out the window. She seemed to expect a taxi service instead of a bus service with a $4 fare.
At the central Market we were confronted by a gentleman Tuk Tuk driver, Sam who spoke excellent English with an Aussie accent. He took us to You Khin house where we ate in the neighbourhood, the guesthouse is an oasis amongst a constantly busy city.

A block of burnt out apartments in our neighbourhood.
Our last day in Phnom Penh we had to tick off the remaining sites including Wat Phnom and a nice riverside restaurant for lunch. That night the riverfront was amazing all the locals were out, dancing exercising and playing games in the large paved riverfront area while on the road alongside it was mayhem as usual.

Phnom Penh Riverfront
Our last morning Sam the tuk tuk man picked us up and delivered us to the airport for our Laos Airlines flight to Vientiane, problem was there was no Laos Airline flights, I suspected that there may have been a code share deal or something but could find nothing. Finally I approached the Vietnam Airlines check in and surprising the lady said yes, you can come with us.
The flight of 1 hour 10 minutes was nice and cosy, they provided a full meal and drink service which surprised me of how efficient they were. There even warnings of turbulence but the cabin crew kept serving.
Vientiane is the opposite of Phnom Penh, neat rubbish free streets, no traffic congestion and road rules that people actually use. They also use their own money, the kip around 8,000 to the USD.

Laos will continue later.

Kampot, Kep and back to Phnom Penh

The last post was submitted on a PC in Kampot using a keyboard with worn keys, I have now fixed the irritable errors.

We checked out of the You Khin House, www.youkhinhouse.com , the only resident westerner, a young french guy had handled our travel arrangements by Coach to Kampot, he explained that we would be collected at 9.30am on our day of departure. That morning he was no where to be found, also the transfer was not there, a tuk tuk got us to the Bus Station at the central Market just in time. The ticket even had allotted seats, just ike an airline, we also had a bus driver, a co driver and a cabin attendant, also just like an airline. The coach was air conditioned to just above freezing and the entertainment was Cambodian soap opera's and cambodian Karaoke at the maximum volume. For us it was irritating but for the Camobodians on board it was hilarious, their laughter was to be raucous for the next 4 hours. But our departure was not to be on time, a pommie passenger had not arrived and his pommie mate objected to our leaving. After a half hour of to and froing we were off with the PB sitting well to the back.
The coach took us through the crowded Phnom Penh streets, it seemed to be more interesting and squalid as we went through the outer suburbs, mayhem was the only way we could describe the traffic chaos.  Once out of the city we were surprised that we actually built up speed and could average around 60 kph, it was to be a smooth trip with an excellent driver who did not have a death wish. 
With a half hour late start, we experienced another half hour stop by the Police. The king was coming so all traffic was stopped and with all the local school kids and locals we had to wait and wait and wait so that we could return his wave as his 50 vehicle convoy passed us.

The King passing the line of stopped traffic.
After about 4.5 hours on the road we arrived intact at Kampot. Kampot is an old french colonial town on the banks of a river near the Cambodian coast. A mass of tuk tuk drivers greeted us as we stepped off of the bus, bags were being grabbed and we managed to retain our own and move away from the frenzied crowd. A shy looking guy was standing by next to his Tuk Tuk and in a quiet voice asked us the never ending question '"tuk tuk"". We liked the look of him and approached him, next was "where are you from and where are you going.""  We had him take us to our booked guesthouse Mea Culpa,   http://meaculpakampot.com/
He said it was a 200 metre ride and agreed on a dollar, it turned out to be a kilometre and was still a dollar. Our tuk tuk guy offered his services to tour the area and we said that we would think about it.  Mea Culpa was what we expected, very relaxing and laid back, run by an Irishman who had a singing voice. The building was a large and roomy of the french colonial style, the garden restaurant was tranquil and a very enjoyable place to sit and reflect.

Mea Culpa garden restaurant, pizza oven in the back ground something we avoided in preference for Khmer cuisine. It is hot all of the time.
That afternoon we took the complementary pushbikes for a spin around town, wide spacious roads and very little traffic and traffic rules. My bike had wonky pedals, Hilde who is a much more experienced rider took it off my hands.

Hilde on her bike in the centre of Kampot, like Australia they like big things in Cambodia, here is a Duran.
The town was interesting, many French colonial type buildings all in need of tender loving care, some parts of the town were infested with squalor. One interesting thing that we had observed that day were the impromptu volleyball courts set up all over the country side, we came across a game in progress at Kampot, they played very well, even though the players did not have that much height, they could jump.

    Volleyball, a National sport is appears.
That night we ran into our Tuk Tuk guy from earlier that day, we asked him for a half day ride around the area for $10, he agreed to pick us up at 9.30am. True to his word he was there right on the dot. He took us across the river to the local temple and a study centre for local monks. 

Hilde and Tuk Tuk at the temple 

Tuk Tuk Getting some fuel.
The fuel system is strange, they have large modern clean service stations all over the place, but locals only seem to buy their fuel from small roadside stands in soft drink bottles.  I saw guys in vehicles collecting 20 litre drums from the service stations and delivering them to the road side stands. The fuel is transferred to the bottle and straight into the tank. Petrol costs around USD 1.50 a litre, compare that to the average daily earnings of USD$5, it makes up a great part of their living costs. The Phnom Penh times report on a reed export industry quoted a female sorter earning $1.75 per 8 hour day. Makes us feel very humble.

 What does this mean. ?
Our guide took us to a Cambodian park/picnic/resort area for locals, this is where we saw the Buddha above. We saw children playing games with their thongs, sliding them on the tiled area alongside the Buddha, closest to the stone wins, took us back to our childhood, playing games with whatever was at hand, fond memories.

 The thong/stone game.

A little girl very inquisitive of the large white people.
The next morning we arranged for our tuk tuk guy to collect us for the trip to Kep, around 30 kilometres, we told him we wanted to go to Jasmine Valley eco Guesthouse. http://jasminevalley.com/ he arrived with another Tuk Tuk in tow and explained that there was a large hill and that his tuk tuk could not manage it, he brought a friend who had a super Tuk Tuk, it had a large motor bike instead of a scooter pulling us. The 45 minute ride was interesting, more volleyball, courts and another volleyball game in motion.
Our arrival in Kep and the ride up to the Guesthouse was adventurous to say the least. The last hill had us walking the last 200 metre as the supper tuk tuk could not make it.

Super tuk Tuk heading up the jungle path to our eco Guest house.
The Jasmine valley guesthouse was amazing, beautiful open side buildings of mud brick (local mud) timber (local) and reed walls and thatched roofs on the cabins and buildings. All situated in the Cambodian jungle sitting on the side of a steep hill looking towards the ocean. Jungle insects and snakes are part of the package. (we only saw two snakes in the common area. Both harmless, one a whip snake and the other a reed snake. Our mud brick cabin was number 4, it had a spacious bedroom, bathroom, balcony and all power was from its own solar system on the roof, basically if we ran it down with gadgets we would have no lights. We managed to maintain full power for our entire three night stay.

 Hilde on our balcony, note the paw paw hanging on the right.

  The view from our balcony, the thick jungle and the two tree houses also a part of the Jasmine Valley guesthouse.

That's it for this post, we need to head to the airport for our fright (I mean flight) to Laos.