filling in the blanks
So there are several weeks that passed which have not been immortalized in blog form.. how about I highlight some of the best parts? Ok. Cool.
So I left Pai after a day or two.. it was the chillest place I went on the entire trip, and if I was back in the north again and had time to spare I'd definitely go back and do some day trips from there to hill tribe villages and waterfalls. But I had to go get my visa renewed, and I had heard wonderful things about this boat trip down the mekong river in Laos... so I decided to take the few days I had left before my mom came and do that.
Good decision. I spent a day in a minivan riding across Northern Thailand (from Pai, via Chiang Mai) to Chiang Khong, which is on the Mekong across the border from Laos. I stayed in this really rustic and cool place on the Mekong called Bamboo Guest House or something like that. My room was the second floor single room in a tiny A-frame thatched house.. it was basically an over head lamp (read: exposed light bulb), a hard matress on the floor, a mosquito net, and a fan, but I loved it! It's low season now in Thailand, so I think the owners had taken off for a vacation (the restaurant, overlooking the mekong, was closed) and left some friendly thai women who spoke no english to care for the place. They were sweet, and taught me how to say "snail" after I kept watching the gigantic snails that seemed to be taking over the paths after it got dark. So, for future reference, snail in Thai is "huay"... I think.
I only spent a night in Chiang Khong, which seemed relatively deserted in terms of tourists aside from the dozen or so people who came in on the minivan I was on from Pai/Chiang Mai. That night I wandered a few kilometers down river to a restaurant that lonely planet reccomended (I was the only person there, and I don't think the thai woman making my dinner actually knew what pizza was, but there were great views of the river) and stopping in this cool antiques shop where the owner said I was her first customer that month (I think it was about the 6th of June). The next monring I got up early and took a boat across the river, got my visa stamped in Laos, and met up with an English couple about my age to head to the pier for slow boats going down the Mekong.
The Mekong slow boat experience was both awesomely beautiful and off-puttingly touristed. The views were great.. mountains coming right down the the river, lovely limestone cliffs and caves, little straw and bamboo huts perched on hills, fishermen in canoes and longtails picking up their nets from the edges of the river. It was a long trip though, and I and many of the other westerners I talked to on the boat got the sense that our suspicions about the guesthouse hawkers and ticket salesmen were not exactly unfounded. It was a two day long trip, about eight hours each day, but the people who sold us the tickets downright lied about the amount of time it would take on the second day, and convinced me to get a room before I left on the first day because they told me there wouldn't be anything available otherwise. Of course, there were tons of places to stay in the little village that's the stopping point for all the slow boats, and I wish I would have waited to actually see a room before I picked something out cause the place I stayed was the worst place I've stayed this whole trip.. It was funny too, cause the Lao currency is called the kip, and it's about 10,000 kip to the dollar, but since the kip is super unstable and not worth much everyone also accepts dollars and baht, which is the thai currency. So in Laos, a price on a restaurant menu or at a guest house might be quoted in kip, but you'll probably get your change in baht or dollars. And some places dont take baht, only dollars or kip... so it was always so confusing to pay for anything, and there were a few times in the town on the first night of the slow boat trip when I was sure I was getting ripped off when I would pay in dollars and get my change in baht... but oh well. It was probably only a few bucks in the end, if anything. It was definitely worth it overall.
So the slow boat trip ended in Luang Prabang, which is this gorgeous city in the middle of Laos. It's a UNESCO world herritage site, and has a ton of cool temples and architecture. I hung out with the same English couple I had met coming across the border. We walked around the city, hiked up to this Wat on a hill in the middle to get a sweet view of the river and the valley and the mountains all around us, and had lunch by the river before paying a few bucks to go swimming in the pool of some swanky hotel. Swimming pools are awesome when its as hot as it is here, and the one that day was absolutely essential to my sanity. Luang Prabang had a really good number of nice silk shops, and I bought a beautiful scarf, and would have gotten more except that Luang Prabang also has no ATMs! It took me an hour or so to find a bank. I was planning on staying two nights in Luang Prabang and going all the way from Luange Prabang to Bangkok on the day and night of the 9th to meet my mom on the 10th, but I was convinced by a tour agent to take an overnight bus to Vientiane on the 8th, then an overnight train the next night to Bangkok. That all worked out fine except that I had 12 hours to kill in Vientiane, no bed or room to hang out in, and I was totally exhausted cause I didn't sleep on the bus. yeah, so I spent a good part of the day in a cafe with comfy chairs (I think there was literally one of those in Vientiane, cause I spent most of the day scouring the city for a comfy place to sit) reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Good book, but kind of a boring city if you are dead tired and just want a place with cushions and a good view of the pedestrians and maybe some vegetarian food.. Ok, I guess that's kind of a lot to ask 3000 miles from home, but... what can I say? It's what I wanted.
So that was my week alone in south east asia. I'll write about all the missing time with my mom next, maybe tomorrow.
So I left Pai after a day or two.. it was the chillest place I went on the entire trip, and if I was back in the north again and had time to spare I'd definitely go back and do some day trips from there to hill tribe villages and waterfalls. But I had to go get my visa renewed, and I had heard wonderful things about this boat trip down the mekong river in Laos... so I decided to take the few days I had left before my mom came and do that.
Good decision. I spent a day in a minivan riding across Northern Thailand (from Pai, via Chiang Mai) to Chiang Khong, which is on the Mekong across the border from Laos. I stayed in this really rustic and cool place on the Mekong called Bamboo Guest House or something like that. My room was the second floor single room in a tiny A-frame thatched house.. it was basically an over head lamp (read: exposed light bulb), a hard matress on the floor, a mosquito net, and a fan, but I loved it! It's low season now in Thailand, so I think the owners had taken off for a vacation (the restaurant, overlooking the mekong, was closed) and left some friendly thai women who spoke no english to care for the place. They were sweet, and taught me how to say "snail" after I kept watching the gigantic snails that seemed to be taking over the paths after it got dark. So, for future reference, snail in Thai is "huay"... I think.
I only spent a night in Chiang Khong, which seemed relatively deserted in terms of tourists aside from the dozen or so people who came in on the minivan I was on from Pai/Chiang Mai. That night I wandered a few kilometers down river to a restaurant that lonely planet reccomended (I was the only person there, and I don't think the thai woman making my dinner actually knew what pizza was, but there were great views of the river) and stopping in this cool antiques shop where the owner said I was her first customer that month (I think it was about the 6th of June). The next monring I got up early and took a boat across the river, got my visa stamped in Laos, and met up with an English couple about my age to head to the pier for slow boats going down the Mekong.
The Mekong slow boat experience was both awesomely beautiful and off-puttingly touristed. The views were great.. mountains coming right down the the river, lovely limestone cliffs and caves, little straw and bamboo huts perched on hills, fishermen in canoes and longtails picking up their nets from the edges of the river. It was a long trip though, and I and many of the other westerners I talked to on the boat got the sense that our suspicions about the guesthouse hawkers and ticket salesmen were not exactly unfounded. It was a two day long trip, about eight hours each day, but the people who sold us the tickets downright lied about the amount of time it would take on the second day, and convinced me to get a room before I left on the first day because they told me there wouldn't be anything available otherwise. Of course, there were tons of places to stay in the little village that's the stopping point for all the slow boats, and I wish I would have waited to actually see a room before I picked something out cause the place I stayed was the worst place I've stayed this whole trip.. It was funny too, cause the Lao currency is called the kip, and it's about 10,000 kip to the dollar, but since the kip is super unstable and not worth much everyone also accepts dollars and baht, which is the thai currency. So in Laos, a price on a restaurant menu or at a guest house might be quoted in kip, but you'll probably get your change in baht or dollars. And some places dont take baht, only dollars or kip... so it was always so confusing to pay for anything, and there were a few times in the town on the first night of the slow boat trip when I was sure I was getting ripped off when I would pay in dollars and get my change in baht... but oh well. It was probably only a few bucks in the end, if anything. It was definitely worth it overall.
So the slow boat trip ended in Luang Prabang, which is this gorgeous city in the middle of Laos. It's a UNESCO world herritage site, and has a ton of cool temples and architecture. I hung out with the same English couple I had met coming across the border. We walked around the city, hiked up to this Wat on a hill in the middle to get a sweet view of the river and the valley and the mountains all around us, and had lunch by the river before paying a few bucks to go swimming in the pool of some swanky hotel. Swimming pools are awesome when its as hot as it is here, and the one that day was absolutely essential to my sanity. Luang Prabang had a really good number of nice silk shops, and I bought a beautiful scarf, and would have gotten more except that Luang Prabang also has no ATMs! It took me an hour or so to find a bank. I was planning on staying two nights in Luang Prabang and going all the way from Luange Prabang to Bangkok on the day and night of the 9th to meet my mom on the 10th, but I was convinced by a tour agent to take an overnight bus to Vientiane on the 8th, then an overnight train the next night to Bangkok. That all worked out fine except that I had 12 hours to kill in Vientiane, no bed or room to hang out in, and I was totally exhausted cause I didn't sleep on the bus. yeah, so I spent a good part of the day in a cafe with comfy chairs (I think there was literally one of those in Vientiane, cause I spent most of the day scouring the city for a comfy place to sit) reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Good book, but kind of a boring city if you are dead tired and just want a place with cushions and a good view of the pedestrians and maybe some vegetarian food.. Ok, I guess that's kind of a lot to ask 3000 miles from home, but... what can I say? It's what I wanted.
So that was my week alone in south east asia. I'll write about all the missing time with my mom next, maybe tomorrow.
posted by Liz @ 2:08 AM
1 Comments:
At 3:15 PM,
Anonymous said…
i'm still reading too! wow, sounds awesome, i'm jealous. you know, i think maybe you were in luang prabang at the same time as my friend erik who i introduced you to over email...how weird. anyway, enjoy your last couple days and i can't wait to hear your stories in person!
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