Travels in Thailand

Well we made it back from Vanvieng in one piece getting back into Vientianne about 9:00 PM that night. Our ride home was fast, bumpy, hair raising, and full of close encounters with cows. Very similar to our trip up. Since we were all pretty tired we turned in early for the night.

The next morning our faithful guide Rung had more sightseeing for us to do in Vientianne. The first stop was the Buddhist garden on the outskirts of the city. It was pretty interesting with a lot of Buddhist and Hindu statuary. On one end was a representation of hell and the other end heaven.  I am a little hazy on Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife so I am not sure how much was influenced by the two religions. I have noticed that there is a fair amount of blending of the two religions in Southeast Asia.  I have included pictures of the garden.

Next up was lunch at one of the more interesting restaurants I have ever visited. It was on a tributary river leading to the Mekong – again on the outskirts of the city. The restaurant was built on pontoons in the river and had smaller boats moored to it. The boats were designed for eating and cruising along the river. We ordered our meal which they served to us on the boat and then cast off for a one hour meal and cruise.

A brief digression is in order here. We had a lot of food choices like fried pork intestine, roasted cicadas, roasted crickets, grilled buffalo skin, and fried sun dried algae among others. If you doubt me take a look at the pictures I took of the menu. I settled for broiled fish. Later in the day we were at a riverside bar and Bee and Jularat ordered chicken knuckles. I was thinking  they would be something like chicken fingers but they were fried chicken cartilage – oh well.

Our next stop was a museum dedicated to the controversy surrounding the French colonization of Laos and to the American bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. I am pretty sure Rung was probably required to take us here due to his licensing as an official tour guide of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Did I mention Laos is a Communist Country? There was some anti-French and anti-American propaganda but it seemed pretty pro-forma to me.

After our visit to the museum we headed to a silver smith/factory in Vientianne for some western style shopping. I bought my wife some … well she will have to wait till I get back.  Finally we went to a very good French restaurant (which Laos is fairly famous for) and then back to the hotel.

Next blog : Our run in with the Thai State Highway Police

Needless to say they were a constant hazard. Of course, our driver was not intimidated by the road conditions and drove at his usual high speed with lots of swerving and slamming on of brakes.  Poor Bee got queasy from the winding mountain roads and aggressive driving.

We arrived in Vanvieng after about three hours of driving. One of the advantages of having an aggressive driver is that you get to your destination faster – a mere mortal would have taken five or six hours to get to our destination. 

I immediately liked Van Vieng when we got there. There were mostly European and American backpackers there so it made for a festive atmosphere. One thing I noticed is that a lot of the restaurants and bars did not have chairs but large benches next to the tables. The benches had pillows and bedding so that you could recline while eating and drinking. I liked that a lot. 

We first stopped for lunch at an outdoor restaurant (with the reclining benches) for lunch and I immediately grabbed a big pillow, assumed the reclining position and ordered beer and lunch. We spent a leisurely hour or so eating, drinking and people watching. Vanvieng has a lot of outdoor activities including rafting, tubing, and rappelling. Our guide suggested that we go rafting down the mountain river nearby which we decided to do.

After lunch we headed for one of the outfitters and rented kayacks to paddle down the river. The course we chose was ten kilometers long which seemed long to me. However, the river was quite high due to the rainy season and the water was probably flowing at about seven miles per hour so the trip would only take an hour if we did not stop. But, there were good reasons to stop along the way.

Our guide told us there were a couple of places we could stop and have fun on a trapeze like swing over the river. He did not tell us about the various open air bars along the river. After about six kilometers down the river we saw the first set of bars. Using the term bar is a bit generous – they were basically no more than shacks that served alcohol and food. 

One of the really funny things I saw were the Laotians fishing for tubers. As person floats down the river they can wave to someone standing on the river bank and a rope will be thrown to them. They will then be pulled to the bank and can go to the bar for refreshments. Not sure why, but I thought this was really funny. The ropes had a weight on the end of them for better aiming.

Next to the bar/shacks were mud holes for swimming, volleyball, and tug of war. There were lots of young Europeans and Americans at the bar/shacks partying and having fun. We did not need to be pulled to shore since we were in kayaks but we did stop for a beer – actually I had a mojito. Ben and I decided to try the trapeze contraption.

Well , I had a great trip to Laos – officially known as The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). I’m not sure if I mentioned that Laos is a communist country, but it was no problem to get in and there seems to be a thriving free market there as well. There is poverty in the country but I would not call it destitute.

The trip started last Wednesday night when I met Ben, Jularat (aka Judy) ,Wayne, and Pariyanuch (aka Bee) at our office building  - Judy and Bee are Ben and Wayne’s wives.  We rented a van with a driver who was a former Thai marine – his wife went along as well. We left Bangkok about 9:00 PM and headed north.

Our trip itinerary took us to Nongkhai in northern Thailand, which is on the Thai/Laotian border and from there to Vientiane, Laos.

 On the way up we could not see a lot since it was nighttime, but we did run into some really bad traffic due to a two day holiday on Thursday/Friday and due to an overturned bus by the side of the highway.

 Our driver was fast and aggressive, but with expert reflexes.  In the heavy traffic he started driving on the shoulder of the highway.  We probably spent an hour or two driving on the shoulder.  When not in heavy traffic he drove quite fast – sometimes about 80-85 miles per hour. I felt it was better not to look out the windshield but some of my friends were pretty uncomfortable with the driving style and did not sleep very well.  I will say that had we had a lesser driver our ten hour trip would probably have been closer to fifteen hours.

When we reached Nongkhai we knew we would need our visas processed (you should see the cool Cambodian and Laotian visas in my passport). 

But, something slightly odd happened before we actually got to the border.  We were in Nongkhai about to go to breakfast when our driver stopped on a side street, he  asked for our passports and gave them to a policeman who seemed to be waiting for us on the street. We were not yet at the border so it seemed strange to me that we had to hand over our passports at this point. Our driver told us that the visas needed to be processed and we would get them back on the Laotian side. In addition we had to pay 1,500 baht each for our visas plus 800 baht to get the vehicle across. We coughed up the money and passports and headed for breakfast.

After breakfast we went to the border and went through immigration. We only had to wait a little while and had no problems. As promised, we got our passports back (with the cool stamps) and drove into Laos. In retrospect, the visa cost seemed high to me and I wonder if it was for “expedited” processing at immigration and customs.

Oh, I forgot.  As a surprise we also found out we had a guide – a flamboyantly gay Laotian man who was to be our constant companion for the next three days. His name was Rung, and he proved to be worth the fee he charged, 500 baht for three days.
We drove to Vientiane (pronounced vee-in-chon) from the border which was about a 15 minute trip.  We immediately drove to the hotel, checked in, and took a two hour nap. We were quite tired due to the overnight trip from Bangkok.  About noon, Rung guided us to a restaurant – open air with traditional Thai/Lao food – and we spent a pleasant hour eating. There was a papaya salad that was extremely spicy and I knew better than to eat it because I have eaten it before. However, Wayne did not know and bit into it and suffered for it. Even Jularat thought it was too spicy.

The afternoon was spent sightseeing and visiting temple after temple after temple. That evening we went out to eat and I split a pizza with Wayne. Since we were all pretty tired we went back to they hotel the name of which was the Don Chan Palace. It was a nice and comfortable hotel and billed itself as the only five star hotel in Vientianne. Finally we all turned in pretty early.

Tomorrow : Highway 13 to Vanvieng

Tonight (Wednesday) I travel to Vientianne, Laos.  The main reason is to do my second and final visa run. Several ex-pats will be tagging along and it promises to be an interesting trip.
 Much to my wife's disgust I have done little to no planning for the trip and I am not real sure what I will be doing there. We do hope to spend some time on the Mekong river, however.
I am a little behind on my posts but hope to make up for it next week.
Wish me luck!

Last weekend I took a boat trip up the Chao Phraya river which runs through the heart of Bangkok. Somboon,  who is a colleague in the office, and his family graciously to invited me to go with them to Koh Kret  - an island in the middle of the Chao Phraya. We actually took two boats, the tourist boat from Saphan Takhsin pier to Thonburi and then a long tail boat from Thonburi to Koh Kret. It took about one and a half hours one way.

Koh Kret contains a fairly large community of people who live on the island in traditional river front houses. Additionally, it has various arts, crafts, and traditional food businesses. But Koh Kret is best known for it’s pottery.

One of the more interesting aspects of the trip was the long-tail boat. This type of boat is fast, handy, but somewhat unstable in the water. During the trip the boat operator stopped the boat and asked everyone to squeeze into the middle because we were listing to the left.

Somboon and his wife were very generous and kind to me and we spent a very pleasant afternoon on the Chao Phraya eating, shopping, and hoping we did not capsize.

Check back in the next couple of weeks for the following posts:

Movie and Pizza Night with Tuk, June, Pod, Petch, Gade, Weep, and Pui.
Hua Hin III
Visa Run – Bound for Laos 

Here are some pictures from Koh Kret!