Last night was our last night together as a group. Dustin and Jared are leaving to head back into China, and Thad and I are going back down to Bangkok over the next week. We went to Pizza Falconi, where we have been eating every night, and hung out with the staff there for a while. We made our way down to the strip of beach bars that run across the island in the river, but quickly left after a bunch of drunk Irishman broke a bench and the fire pit.

Thad and I are about to get on a bus to Vientiane, the capital and largest city in the country. About 200,000 people live there. Vangvieng, where we are now, is something like the 5th largest city in the country, with 26,000 people. It is three roads and a river. This country has simply not joined the economic ladder at all.

Just wanted to post quickly before we left!
-Ben

Pizza Falconi Crew

Thad and I woke up this morning and left for our motorcycle trip. Dustin and Jared decided to sleep in and have a lazy day. We left and headed north on Hwy 13, one of the few paved roads in the country. We had no set agenda, just to explore. This we accomplished to perfection. We crossed rivers, rice fields, went through bamboo forests and banana groves, flew down dirt paths carved in the side of mountains, and chickened out of fording a stream. We parked the bikes for a while and went hiking into a cave, where a guide appeared out of nowhere and pointed to a sign that said no admission with out guide. Obviously a rip off, but what were we going to do? This happens all the time around here – 5000 kip to cross a bridge, 10000 to enter a lagoon area, 20000 for a guide because you can’t enter without one… we think most of it finds its way to organized crime but who knows.

We went 1 km back into this cave and swam around for a while in an underwater lake. This was extremely cool, and the pictures do not do it justice. After leaving, we found a well traveled dirt road and decided to follow it. It ended up leading through the mountain range to a small village on the other side. The river had washed out the road and we were nervous about crossing since our bikes were hot and we would have to pay for any damages. Loas on the other side were telling us that it was fine to cross, but we didn’t. On the way back I did get a picture with some Lao kids who were carrying AK-47s. Strangely, they have been the only show of a darker side of Laos that I have seen yet. I assume there is a stronger violent presence, but it is not evident. These teenagers were thrilled to have their picture taken, and took the time to straighten their shirts before the shot.

We are thinking about heading to Laung Probang tomorrow, not sure if we are still going to do it on motorbikes or the bus. Motorbikes were fun today, but tiring.

More later,
Ben

The teenagers with AK-47’s

Skinny boats at the river crossing

Flag flying in a field

Another panorama (to view larger, visit flickr.com/benhanna)

The past two days have been amazing. We went tubing down the river yesterday, which was a lot of fun and then today we rented motorcycles (oh, and when I say motorcycle, I mean motobike. 110cc, no clutch, 4 gears) and drove them up to a lagoon near the base of the cliffs. After the lagoon, I left the guys for a while and went far out into the country, steering around cows and stray dogs. I made my way to a bridge that I did not feel comfortable driving the bike over before I turned around. This country is beautiful, and of all the places I have been so far, I like the atmosphere, climate, and people here the most. They are smiling, honest and hardworking. I have made friends with one woman who is a cook at the restaurant we have been eating at, and I get her to choose my meal for me every night. She chooses well.

My ankle is feeling much better now, and I can move around alright. The guys and I are planning on meeting up with Greg, a Canadian we met in Ton Sai in Laung Probong, and I think we are going to rent motorcycles to make the journey there. Should be a good way to see the country on a more intimate level. We are sick of busses, so this method of transportation appeals to us. Thad and I went and cruised at dusk tonight for about 45 minutes and wandered way back on some old roads next to a river. I love the feeling of freedom that having a motorcycle gives me in this place because I can just zip off anywhere whenever.

Driving here is a trip. They drive on the right side of the road, same as in the US, but there are no lanes (on dirt roads how could there be?) but generally you pass on the left, and slower people stay to the right, but sometimes someone will be heading right for you, and you have to go all the way to the other side… when there are busy sections, it is chaos, but somehow it works.

I have been trying to get my laptop online so I can upload a ton of pictures, but no luck.

More Later,
Ben

Rice fields and the Mountains

The bridge I would not cross on the bike

Cows

The Lagoon 

Today I have rented a motorcycle, cruised down dirt roads in the center of a city, crossed a river in a boat no wider than myself, rock climbed, hung out on the river, visited a hospital, and used a bamboo stick as a cane. As I was climbing my second route of the day, I was reaching out to clip into the rope, missed the clip-in, and lost my grip. I fell about 15 feet and sprained my ankle worse than I ever have. I also tore some skin off of my ring finger on the left hand. I did not hit the ground, but bounced off the wall with my foot, which sprained as it absorbed the impact.

I went and hung out at the river bar for a while with ice tied to my foot in a compress while the other guys kept climbing, then Thad took me on the back of one of the motorbikes to the hospital, which was five minuets down the dirt road. They did an x-ray and said it wasn’t broken. I got wrapped up in an ace bandage and given some cream to rub on it. Total cost for x-ray, consultation, and cream: $20.70. On the way back I ran into Todd and Kim, whom I had gotten to know in Ton Sai, and he lent me his walking stick as a cane.

All things considered, I am pretty lucky. It could have been worse. I do look pretty awkward hopping down the road on one foot with a bamboo pole, but since I can’t put any weight on it at all, I don’t care.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with Todd, his girlfriend Kim, and some girls we met while climbing today to tube down the Nam Sam river. No need to use my foot!

More Later,
-Ben

We finally left Ton Sai on Friday the 23rd and got a bus up to Bangkok. Again we took the easy way and took a tourist bus. I have a love hate relationship with the tourist busses. I do not like the way they prohibit you from having a true Thai experience, but I do enjoy the comfort that they offer. The company rounded up everyone who was going in a certain direction then gave us all stickers that were color coded to our final destination. They put us on a bus then shipped us off to a stopping point that was owned by them, so we had to eat the food they sold or wander a ways away to find our own, which we did. We had to wait again for the next bus, then get on it and repeat the process. The bus is all tourists and no Thais, except for the driver and his relief. This bus ride took 12 hours and we got back to Koh San Road at around 6:00am, on Saturday.

We were sick of being treated like cattle, so when we got to Bangkok, we checked my mail at the guesthouse I had been staying at, and went to the local bus station. It took us a little while, but we found a ticket to the boarder town of Nong Kai. We bought a ticket that would put us at the boarder at around 5:00am, and it opened at 6:00am. We still had a few hours to burn, and weren’t sure what we were going to do, but one of the women who worked behind the counter was about to take her lunch break at a giant outdoor market and wanted us to join her. (We were the only foreigners in the entire station) She paid for our bus ride to the market and we accompanied her there where she led us around for an hour before taking us to a small place inside the open air market. I told her to choose food for all of us, as long as it was not too spicy. She got us a pork and egg dish with rice that was excellent. We found out that she has a 21-year-old son and a 24-year-old son. We paid for her meal and thanked her, letting her know we would see her back at the bus station but that we were going to wander for a while.

We made it back to the station with plenty of time, and got on the bus half an hour early. These busses are a step down from the tourist busses, and a big step. Before we left, the bus was packed completely full, and people were sitting in the aisle on plastic stools. I had my eye mask, pillow and earplugs so I was ok, but still did not sleep that well. The bus stopped every 30 minutes or so and people got on, off and it was crazy. Sometimes we would stop and half the bus would rush off to go to the bathroom, so we would stumble out of our sleep stupor, run to the bathroom, and come back. We were always the slowest ones. Once Jared and I had to run back to the door because the bus was threatening to leave us! We had only been gone about three minutes!

This ride quickly got old, and then we had to switch busses at 2:00am to another one that drove the rest of the way to the boarder town. We got in at 3:00am. The boarder did not open until 6:00am. There was no going back to sleep at this point, so we had a breakfast of tea, coffee and fried donuts (like at the Chinese buffet places…) for one baht per donut. A market was setting up, so around 5:30 we wandered through it and got some meat on a stick, that ended up being a horrible liver, then settled on soy milk and fruit.

We got a tuk-tuk to the actual boarder and went sat to wait to check in when it opened. A quick ride across the Mekong river and we were in Laos. We took a 30 minute ride to Vientiane, the capitol of Laos where we ate a proper meal for the first time since lunch the day before. We were all so sleep deprived from the past two nights on busses that we were a little out of it. We were headed for the town of Vang Vieng which has climbing, caving and tubing, so we jumped on another crowded, this time non air-con bus and went for another five hours. We were in the back row, so we jumped out the windows when the bus stopped to go to the bathroom because there were so many people sitting in the aisle.

We finally arrived and it was beautiful. Big rock all around, and in the middle of the mountains on a river. We checked into the same place that Dustin and Jared had used before which had hot water, a fan, two actual beds, a dresser, mirror, side table and a separate bathroom.

Total cost to me a night: 15000 kip = $1.50.
Cost of food: About $1-2 for a full meal
Beer Lao: 80 cents for 22 ounce
Motorbike for 24 hours: $3
Laos is Cheap!!

After dinner we went to the river to watch the sun go down but got there just as it dipped below the tree line. Tomorrow we are waking up, renting bikes, and going climbing all day. This place is so much less touristy than Thailand, and much more laid back. Everything closes at 11pm and starts early, which is great for us.

More later,
-Ben

3am breakfast with (from L to R) Dustin, Jared, and Thad

Walking into Laos at 5am, yes that is the moon.

It was all worth it!