TravelStream™ news feed for member lisamcsherry on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lisamcsherry en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:25:25 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1218131760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1218131760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1218131760/tpod.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:25:25 -0400 There and back again

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Koh Phangan, Thailand

This is more like it! Phangan, only a few miles south of Koh Tao, is bigger, still quite developed but nowhere near as loud and expensive. We've decided to take up residence in Haad Salad, or Salad beach, high on the north west corner of the island.Phangan is known for its full moon party, where thousands of backpackers descend to par-tay. The island is big enough for us all to exist happily though and we've been very lucky in our resort. We're staying in a plush (and cheap!) resort on a pristine beach with a lovely pool and good food and drink. You can't ask for more than that. And the only compromise we've had to make is not to have a sea view room, for that we get a fair room price. At least they have working showers, flushing toilets and air con, unlike rooms twice the price on Koh Tao.We plan to spend the next few weeks swimming and sunning and, inevitably, looking for jobs and sorting out real life again. This day had to come. But at least we're going to go out in style!<i>Complete the experience by taking a look at Paul's photos of Phangan. Word of warning: they're mainly sunsets.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1219753020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1219753020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1219753020/tpod.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:23:41 -0400 There and back again

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Koh Phangan, Thailand

There's nothing for it but to be honest, even if I can hear muffled "bastards" from many reading this, but we've had a particularly good time here in Koh Phangan. We've spent the last 3 weeks sunning, swimming (either in the pool or in the glorious clear warm waters of Haad Salad bay), then occasionally kayaking, getting massages, snorkelling, playing bat and ball (our record is over 100!) or Frisbee (never really mastered that one) or heading out and about to other bays on this wonderful island.We've been presented with incredible sunsets most evenings (I'm up to several thousand photos by now) and have washed it all down with wonderful Beer Chang to accompany the glorious food here on our adopted home. In terms of picking a place to plan the rest of your lives, we couldn't have done any better.There have been ear infections (three and counting), chronic diarrhoea, coral cuts and the odd dodgy mozzie bite but I can't imagine we'll get a huge amount of sympathy about that.The first few weeks we went posh and got a good deal in the Haad Salad Resort, complete with pool, free breakfast and all those other resort trimmings. But recently we moved closer to the beach and into a little lovely hut down the beach. It's been so relaxing just popping your book down and ambling in for a cool-off swim.We avoided the Full Moon party (seemed like too much hassle, these things are fairly manic) and met up with friends from previous travels and best of all, had our friend Jennie Ball come out and stay for a few days, with whom we headed out to the Half Moon party a couple of nights ago (there's pretty much some sort of moon party every night on this island). She and Lisa spent a couple of days learning all about Reiki in probably the most idyllic class room I've ever seen, down by a little bay with beat up wooden fishing boats bobbing nearby in the water.I've had great fun making friends with all the dogs on the beach (we even had one come home with us from the half moon party - we called her Tuk Tuk) and watching two incredible half wild Hornbill birds that swoop up and down the bay. Remarkable and huge birds, very curious and clever.&nbsp;It's just been the best time. I have never felt this relaxed in my life and Lisa concurs. That said, we have been diligent enough to start looking for jobs (it had to come to an end eventually) and work out what the next move is. When we have an idea, we'll be sure to tell.Next up we're off to Koh Samui for a few nights to meet up with our honeymooning friends Barry and Claire. Seeing as we missed the wedding we'll treat them to a few Changs.If you ever fancy a week or two on white sand beaches with all those picture postcard views, and friendly folks, topped off with great food and drink, then Koh Phangan is a good option. It's developed enough, but not too much. Most of the islands roads are fully paved, just recently it looks like, so it might not stay this idyllic for long. So hurry up!In the meantime, a big hello from us to you and hopefully we'll be seeing you all very soon.<i>See what the hell we've been doing for the last 3 weeks by checking out Paul's photos. There aren't many. What the hell have we been doing?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220296200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220296200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220296200/tpod.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:21:22 -0400 There and back again

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Bangkok, Thailand

Arriving back in Bangkok was a bit like meeting up with an old friend. This is our third stop over here in recent months so we know the drill by this stage. We headed back to Rambuttri House again (it's clean, central, not too manic and relatively cheap) and we're happy to have made it that far. Seems like the PAD supporters are blockading some of the tourist airports down south and I'd imagine it's only a matter of time before they think of blockading Samui. Still we made it out without a bit of hassle (it's a strange airport though, the whole of departures is in the open air!)The political thing going on over here is quite interesting, so let me get a little political for a bit. I can hear the sound of people scrolling past this paragraph from here. Anyway, it is very interesting. We were reading in the papers and seeing on the internet all the news about the PAD (a new political party set up to get the current Prime Minister out of power) invasion of the Prime Minister's residence. 500 of them wandered in and just kind of sat down in a house that I suppose has the same significance to Thai's as the White House has to Yanks, or Number 10 to you Brits, or wherever it is that Brian Cowen lives to us Irish. So it's a big deal and making headlines worldwide.Yet while we were on the islands you wouldn't know a thing was going on. They seemed disinterested in what was big news worldwide. These PAD fellas where accusing the Prime Minister of being a proxy (or puppet) of the former ousted Prime Minister who is wanted in Thailand for corruption, and the current PM didn't deny it, but argued that he'd been democratically elected, which he had. And that's the interesting point, the previous PM is the main issue here. &nbsp;He had worked wonders early this century by boosting the Thai economy through financing rural co-operatives or enterprises (to completely over simplify the economics) so he is incredibly popular with the poor and rural folk. But then he went and did something very foolish and corrupt so he's very unpopular with everyone else. So when he got kicked out, the rural folk out voted the middle class folk and put the ex-PM's puppet back in power. And now the middle class don't like it. Hence the PAD demonstrations.It's a strange situation, the rural folks tutting and disapproving away from Bangkok and the PAD's storming residences and blocking airports and demanding the elected PM resigns. Yet in our whole time in Bangkok, when we did see a rally or something (and you didn't see many), everyone seemed to be having a great time and waving at us as we waved back. Still, the PM is losing face every day by not barrelling in and getting his house back, and the army is getting twitchy, I just really wonder which way it'll work out. It's got all the ingredients of becoming something nasty, let's hope we get out of Bangkok before it kicks off.Anyway, welcome back if you're still with us. While this was all going on, we went all touristy and took off on a Bangkok tour. The first stop was the remarkable floating market a good two hours from town. It is exactly what it says it is, a market that floats. Hundreds of boats paddled by little old Thai women float up and down little neat canals and sell everything from fruit and veg, to trinkets and toys. Of course, boats filled with tourists both get in the way but also make the market possible by paying over the odds for tat.I sat back on the edge of the canal and watched the madness while Lisa seemed to have been caught up in a madness of her own. After months of being very careful about what we buy (we constantly worry about baggage weight, partly because of airline weight limits, mainly because you have to carry the heavy bastards), Lisa seemed to have thrown off her cautious consumer shackles and was whizzing around the stalls at the side of the canals in a buying frenzy. Occasionally she'd emerge from the mess of shiny stalls and shiny people to show me her latest "bargain" purchase. Well, we've only got a few days left to go, and I suppose we could do with some souvenirs.We ate lunch under a motorway (no extra charge! Ah no, it was part of the tour and down by the river. It was quite nice actually) before we went to the Rose Garden tourist trap. It's a nice trap though. They have all the greatest hits of Thai tourism - elephants shows, "cultural" products (coke cans made into tuk tuks are not cultural) - but they also had an excellent day-in-the-life-of-a-Thai-village show that was pantomime with added violence. We were treated to traditional dances and wedding ceremonies before Thai boxers and guys wielding bamboo sticks bashed several shades of shit out of each other. It was all highly entertaining.Our last night in South East Asia was a bit muted. We decided to eat posh and went to a decent restaurant for a change, and let it be a lesson to us. We ordered good old lovely coconut milk seafood soup and green curry, staples of our time in Thailand, and it turned out we picked the worst restaurant of our trip. The food was dreadful, salty and reheated, which is something we haven't experienced even in the smallest most remote village. Shame.Next morning, we slinked through the early morning streets, seeing only a few riot police hanging around looking bored, and arrived at the airport. With bags checked, we said a sad goodbye to South East Asia and quietly reflected on what a wonderful tour we've had around here, from the con artists of Vietnam, to the star-struck kids of Indonesia and the wonderful people of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, we've just had the best time. And that's just the people. With scenery, beaches and abundant wildlife (except in Laos, they've eaten it all) thrown in, this part of the world is a must visit. We'll definitely be back.<i>Meet the hot floating aged chicks of Bangkok's floating market in Paul's photostream HERE!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220382840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220382840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220382840/tpod.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:19:24 -0400 There and back again

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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

What a weird place the UAE is. It feels like it shouldn't exist. The Emirates have existed for a long time, but it's only since oil was discovered and exploited in the 1960's that this place has become such a weird desert oasis.Everyone knows the Emirates for Dubai (and we'll be getting there presently, patience!) but we opted to stay in the capital Abu Dhabi for a day and night to see a bit more of the place. We flew from Bangkok with Etihad whose base is Abu Dhabi. Had we known that Etihad, no doubt realising how boring Abu Dhabi is, provide free buses down the highway to the much more fun Dubai, we would have skipped this strange little non-city.It's not dirty or tired, or smelly or anything, it just lacks any sort of redeeming or charming character. It feels like a city that's been thrown up recently in a flurry to provide for lots of wealthy people who suddenly want to be near the seat of so much oil money, which is exactly what it is.Our impression of Abu Crappy wasn't helped by us cleverly arriving during Ramadan. Everything is closed - restaurants, shops, sights (not there are many). Plus everyone stays indoors because during Ramadan, which is strictly enforced in the Emirates, no one can eat, drink or have fun between 6am and 6pm. Considering temperatures hit in the mid 40's at this time of year (and the breeze is somehow hotter), strolling around empty streets where you're not allowed eat, drink or show any affection (not that I'd let anyone touch me in that heat) is not too appealing.We made a good fist of it though. We took off from our hotel in the hellish heat (foolishly we thought our previous months in SE Asia would have acclimatised us) and made for the nearest mall. We arrived 10 minutes later, clawing our way through the front door gasping into the air conditioned heaven. It's not like you can stop for a slug of water. We needn't have bothered anyway, everything was shut.Not learning our lesson, or getting the fact that everything is closed during the day, we set off for the colossal Marina Mall out past Abu Dhabi's deserted but nice looking Corniche waterfront. Guess what, everything was closed. Maybe the heat was dulling our brains. In fact it had to have been because your intrepid photographer here decided to head out down the road because he thought he spied a good angle for a shot of the world's largest flagpole (you can tell a city is bored when they start trying to break such ridiculous world records as this). Big mistake, I got my shot, but arrived back into the mall about 2 stone lighter from sweat loss. I was licking the condensation off the mall windows in an attempt to get rehydrated before I was stopped by a humourless mullah. No drinking during Ramadan!Another great decision was to walk around to the Heritage park not far from the mall. Or at least it didn't seem too far but the march was merciless. Baking heat, spinning heads from lack of food and water, hell. We got there, and (wait for it) it was closed, starting to see a trend here? There was no one near the place except for a camel, a donkey and a horse who all had big fans keeping them cool. We considered hoping in beside them.We cut our losses and headed back to the air con to get some dinner (by now night had thankfully fallen and we could eat again) before giving up on Abu Dhabi and taking to our room. A combination of jet lag, enforced fasting and Abu Dhabi's crappiness had taken its toll.<i>EXCLUSIVE OFFER! Now add to the travel experience by viewing Paul's photos of UAE here! Or don't.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220646780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220646780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220646780/tpod.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:18:34 -0400 There and back again

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates

We took a public bus from Abu Dhabi to Dubai which was an interesting experience. We got there just before it left so there were only two seats left. Naturally everyone had taken the window seats and left two aisle seats one in front of the other for us. No problem, we thought, we've braved Vietnamese public transport, sitting a couple of feet apart wouldn't be a problem. But the bus conductor didn't agree.&nbsp;In the Emirates a married woman wouldn't be let sit next to a stranger, especially when her husband is nearby, so one poor lad got shifted from his window seat and made sit next to the other fella while we got seats side by side. We tried to say it was okay, but the conductor was having none of it. Maybe they should put these practices in place back home to promote marriage? Guaranteed window seats, it'd work for me.Our western impropriety was something we had to be constantly aware of during our time in the Emirates. Holding hands, or kissing in public, even hugging is very dimly viewed upon. I'd read in the papers how one married couple were facing 6 months in prison for kissing in their car while in traffic. This was all reported with no hint of the ridiculousness of the charges, that's just the way it is around here. So I made sure I kept Lisa at bay every time she made one of her frequent lunges at me.Dubai is a fun place though. Utterly surreal, but fun. I daresay that if we went back in 2 years time we'd barely recognise the place, there's just that much building going on. In the centre of town, where we stayed, it's much more established with an old town, a nice creek, and some of the earlier high rises and financial district. While in the distance, about 5 miles down the Abu Dhabi road a whole new city is being built, filled with huge skyscrapers, in fact it will soon contain the worlds tallest building (The Burj Al Dubai, due in 2009). I've never seen so much construction, and I lived in Dublin during the housing boom.As soon as we arrived at our hotel we organised to head out on a desert sunset safari. Dubai is pretty famous for these and they're great craic. Of course, it being Ramadan, booze, music and belly dancing which normally form part of the night, where off the menu. But dune bashing was still hilarious. Basically you get in a big jeep and rip out into the desert, where the driver abruptly turns off the desert road and proceeds to swerve and race up and down very steep sand dunes, while we get thrown about in the back of the car, hence "dune bashing". We spun around steep dunes for about an hour, avoiding the occasional alarmed camel, until we headed on to our desert camp for dinner.We took in the sunset and dressed up as Mr and Mrs Bin Sherry before a late dinner sitting on a rug chatting to two friendly Aussies under the stars. It was supposed to be chicken and beef kebabs for dinner but I suspect there were a few less camels wandering about that evening.&nbsp;&nbsp;We learned the hard lessons of Abu Dhabi and at our breakfast buffet the following day we stocked up on everything we could lay our hands on - Danish's, crumpets, fruit - and made sandwiches out of whatever looked appetising. There was no bloody way we were fasting again today! We snuck our sandwiches into a bag and hopped on the Big Bus city tour.&nbsp;The bus tour takes in all the required stops and it was interesting seeing a lot of the city. We stopped off at a posh souk (Arab market) and took a wander down to the long stretch of Jumeira beach, all white sand and deep blue sea, while the remarkable Burj Al Arab, a giant sail shaped hotel, sat looking down over us.&nbsp;It really is a surreal and disjointed city, but not an unpleasant place. There's serious wealth here too, as we'd find out when we met up with our dear old friend Rachael (who lives in Muscat, Oman, but has family in Dubai) as she took us out to see the incredibly posh hotels down on Jumeira beach. We went down for some dinner in a lovely noodle house overlooking a brand new marina which was surrounded by giant beautiful housing towers (it's not like Ballymun here), all of which didn't exist 3 years ago. Then it was on to Le Meridien hotel, which is a fabulously over the top hotel where it was chandeliers and grand pianos all the way. We sat up on the roof top bar with Rachael, her sister Rose and their friends, sipping expensive cocktails in the desert heat, while in the background thousands of labourers were working through the night to get all those skyscrapers built on time.So we're finally on our last day on the world's best trip. What a strange feeling it is to be sitting in the airport, about to fly back to Dublin, and writing about our final day of 170 days (170!) travelling. So this is what we did: We took the bus downtown and took a very pleasant Dhow boat trip on Dubai's famous creek. We snuck our sandwiches out and munched when no one was looking and had a wander around an old souk (market) which was half closed, although Lisa still managed to find 4 pairs of shoes that were an essential purchase.Rachel swung by and picked us up to take us out for a sunset snack overlooking the creek. We sat chatting and watched the sun drop for the last time of a remarkable few months. God, it's quite a weird feeling thinking back over all the amazing places we've been, the weird sights we've seen and strange and wonderful people we've met. It's very hard to fathom that at this time tomorrow we'll be back in Ireland and it'll all be over. For now.<i>EXCLUSIVE OFFER! Now add to the travel experience by viewing Paul's photos of UAE here! Or don't.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220993760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220993760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1220993760/tpod.html Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:57:34 -0400 There and back again

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Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

So that's it. We're back in Dublin now and all the fun is over for the time being. It's back to the reality of job searching now, which is proving difficult because of some sort of "credit crunch" that we seemed to have completely missed.While we've been away it's been reassuring to see that absolutely nothing has changed (except the toll has gone up on the M50 toll bridge in Dublin, but that's a weekly occurrence) and you all seem to have had the wettest summer since the beginning of time. We nearly got beaten up walking down Grafton Street for looking so tanned and smug. Not to worry, our tans are disappearing rapidly and we're getting just as depressed as the rest of you about this rubbish weather.Our plans are a bit up in the air at the moment. We're looking for work in Dublin, Galway, Edinburgh and London and we're happy to wait until the right job pops up. Patience is the key now. We'll let you know as soon as we know.It's weird not having a pidgin English conversation every time we want to buy something, and when ever I hear an Irish voice I think "Ohh, an Irish person" before I quickly realise that I'm in Ireland and it's not uncommon to meet Irish people. We miss the heat, although it's nice not to be constantly sweating, and we miss the madness too. Everything is so organised and polite in this part of the world.But it's great to be home and seeing everyone again and to have such convenience and so many familiar things around us. A lot of people have asked us what our favourite part of the trip was, and to be honest, I change my answer every time. There were just so many highlights and it's very hard to process what we've just done. It's been a blast, but it's back to reality now. So that's the end, you can all stop living vicariously through our blog posts and we'll all get back to the fun and frollicks of living life on these fair isles.Ta ta!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1219950360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1219950360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1219950360/tpod.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:09:02 -0400 There and back again

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Bo Phut, Koh Samui, Thailand

The Salad days are over. After a long stay on the beach it's time to move on. We piled into the back of our jeep and headed, forlornly, towards Thongsala (Phangan's biggest and only town) to hop on a boat to Koh Samui. At least we were meeting our friends Barry and Claire there. Hitching a free ride in the back of our truck was a wobbly-headed Brazilian covered in cuts and bruises who epitomised everything about some of the backpackers who hang around on Koh Phangan waiting for each of the moon parties.I'd seen him and his chain smoking missus knocking around the beach huts. I noticed him most mornings when he was picking up a Beer Chang for breakfast. Our truck driver, one of the lovely young fellas from Haad Salad Villas was telling us that he'd crashed 3 bikes so far (not surprisingly, he'd wobbled passed us on a bike one afternoon with eyes half shut) - which explained all the cuts - and that he was been taken to an ATM to get money out for the 3 crashed bikes and his room, which he hadn't paid for in 30 days. We felt a bit sorry for him really, he seemed a bit lost, and sober for a change, plus he had a lot of seriously painful cuts.Anyway, that aside, our boat trip was uneventful and we landed in Koh Samui and headed to Bo Phut, where we'd meet Barry and Claire. From what we've heard, Bo Phut is one of the nice beaches on Samui, but it was a bit of a shock for us. We've been too long on laid back Koh Phangan and the cars and bustle around the beach was a bit much, not to mention the prices - twice that of Phangan!Still, we shacked up in the very nice Smile House hotel near the "Fisherman's Village" (there hasn't been a fisherman living in this village for a long long time) and started to enjoy the place pretty quickly.We were meeting the lads for dinner, and Barry had booked us a lovely table looking over the sea in a posh restaurant. It was strange, having a restaurant booking and meeting people at an allotted time was weird. We're long out of practice. But it was great to see the lads - we'd missed their wedding, we weren't going to miss the honeymoon! We ended up heading out and around Bo Phut with the lads for the three nights we were there. It was great craic, catching up on news and actually talking to someone who'd been at our wedding. Well the first night we caught up, then the second night we reminded each other what it was that we'd said the previous night, and by the third night we'd run out of conversation.After 3 short days of pools and relaxing and buckets of beer we're off back to Bangkok, and our final stop in South East Asia. How weird. Although, it looks like we'll be having some fun before we go. We're hearing lots of stories of protests and airport closures across Bangkok at the moment. Back to the real world so.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217872320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217872320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217872320/tpod.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:54:27 -0400 There and back again

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Koh Tao, Thailand

We had visions of pristine laid back Thai beach wonderness. It hasn't worked out that way. Koh Tao is grossly over developed, there's not a single shred of west facing beach front that isn't grinding under jerry-built accommodation or restaurants. The beach is still nice but this place is a bit too busy. Full of scuba divers as well, nothing worse. What is it about people who pay lots of money to learn to sink that makes them think they're so great? Box checkers of the highest order, and I've done the PADI courses too.Anyway, we've decided to move on. Koh Tao is not completely without its charms, its southern facing beaches are very pretty but the rest is horribly over-developed. As for the prices, well, they're practically western, which for Thailand is a sin. The accommodation is poor to modest yet twice the price of anything else we've seen so far. We reckon it's best to move on and avoid the box checkers.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217785740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217785740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217785740/tpod.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:51:05 -0400 There and back again

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Bangkok, Thailand

And so, with the grinding reality that is credit card bills and other depressing thoughts, we've realised that our exceptional adventure can't really go much further. We've been very very lucky to have had the time to travel as far and as wide as we have, but sadly, we only have limited time left. So, flying back to Bangkok, we realised that we could finish our trip on a high note, staying for a few weeks on a Thai beach.We're back in Bangkok again, only on a flying afternoon visit before we hop on the bus to Champong and then onto a bus to Koh Tao, and hopefully, a few weeks of rest and appreciation of just how good we've had it.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217607060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217607060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisamcsherry/3/1217607060/tpod.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:15:18 -0400 There and back again

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Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

I can control the largest beasts walking the planet. Yes, not only can I cook Laos food (see previous blog) but now I know how to command elephants! Fear me! Our Mahout (what you call an elephant driver, basically) training was tremendous fun, and very hard on the groin area, what with all the sitting on hairy elephants we had to do.In Luang Prabang there's one tour company (Tiger Trails) who run a 2 day, 1 night Mahout training course. Only 6 people can go on the training at any one time as there are only 6 elephants. This means that the whole experience is very intimate and not too touristy.We were taken from Luang Prabang to our jungle station where we'd be staying the night. Our room was fairly plush (though pretty damp smelling and filled with mozzies) with a killer view over the Nam Khan (which flows to Luang Prabang). Across the river is where the elephants lived. We forded the fairly rapid river and hiked a little bit through the mud (this is nothing to us at this stage) to where the elephants take tourists on forest walks. Initially I was worried that this would be a glorified elephant hike, and we were taken on a forest walk with other tourists, but it was only after lunch that it really got fun.Each evening the elephants are taken up high in the jungle where they get to spend the evening eating and chatting and doing whatever elephants do in their leisure time. It was our job to get the elephants up there. After feeding them some well earned bananas it was time to head uphill. This time, no saddles or chairs atop the elephants, you have to climb up over their legs and sit on their heads. Then, once ready to go, you shout "Bai!" and off you go. My elephant, Merkot (female, 48 and single), was a laid back sort, which suited me fine. Whenever she wandered off trail to pick up a bit of dinner, I let go for a bit before shouting "Rai!" or "How!" (left or right) to get her back on track.The elephants give off this low grumble to communicate with each other that you feel reverberating around their heads when you sit on them, and their slow plod through deep mud is very soothing. For the size of them, they never slip or stumble (whereas me and Lisa has been slipping around like Bambi on ice when we walked through this stuff) and they are remarkable surefooted. Even when some of the trails were quite steep and you're sure that the track is going to give beneath them.So we left our elephants high up and hiked (slipped) back down to our jungle room and had dinner. It was a pretty uneasy night though. We were getting dive bombed by mozzies all night (we never got the mozzie coils going cos our matches were sodden) and the downpour outside was a worrying omen for our hike the following morning.Up at the crack of dawn and across the river again to go get our elephants. This would be the fun bit, after the hike up hill that is, then we'd bring the elephants back down to the river and give them a bath. After about an hour hiking and then an hour of bai-ing our elephants back downhill we took them into a fairly fast flowing, deep stream. The elephants just seem to enjoy this so much. Basically you get a scrubbing brush and you climb all over them scrubbing for all your life to get the muck off the dirty girls. It's tremendously fun and rewarding. The elephants just seem so happy swinging their trunk around and having a nice bath.Of course, it did dawn on us that basically the Mahouts were charging us to do their work for them, feeding and bathing their elephants. Still, it's an experience that'll never leave me.Lisa had enough of the mud and decided to go shopping back in town.&nbsp; I couldn't blame her, but I figured I had one more good hike in me, so myself and our lovely guide Satith decided to take off hiking through jungle to 3 very remote villages up in the mountains. I was a bit worried when Satith told me we'd have to wade through a river up to our chests. The trail was a pure mud bath. The best way to get through it was to step into the giant elephant footprints that went uphill. For some reason I was trying to stay dryish, which was pointless as we were soon wading up to our necks across a fast moving river. Great fun! After that I gave up worrying about the giant puddles and just waded through the potholes and knee high streams.We got to our first village, which was a Khamou village. These guys originate from Cambodia and speak a language all of their own. The have large bamboo houses on stilts and I was surprised to see not a single adult in the whole town. Apparently during the day they're all out in the paddy fields working the rice. Instead the village was filled with half-naked, curious and friendly children.The rain started up then and didn't stop for the rest of the hike. It was like a tap was turned on, and this heavy flowing constant deluge of rain just soaked me through. At least it was warm. The trails turned into fast flowing streams, but at least they were shallow streams. I only stumbled once, and that would be the only time we passed anyone on the trail. He must have thought I was slipping all the way over the mountains.The second village was even more remote and had great views over the highlands around here. This was a Hmong village. &nbsp;Again, they speak an entirely different language although Satith said they, unlike the Khamou, will learn Lao and marry and mingle with the locals. What surprised me was that they originate from Mongolia, and you could really see it in their faces. I've no idea how they ended up here, but they make up a good 20% of Laos.Anyway, we trundled downhill from there, kind of free-running as we went as it was the best way to make sure you didn't end up on your arse. Very hard on the knees though. Finally we arrived back at the Nam Khan river, a long way upstream from the Mahout camp at the third and final village. Our boat wasn't there so we sat in the rain and watched a couple of local kids have a fight over who'd clean the rice for Mum and Dad's dinner (Satith translated). &nbsp;It ended up coming to blows but the lazy brother (after wailing for a good 20 minutes) finally got off his butt then and did his share of the work. These fellas were about 10 and 11. European kids have it so good. The kids have to work from day one around here.So we got back to camp and I couldn't wait to get in the tuk tuk and get back and get clean. Only the dirt road to the jungle station was washed out so we'd have to head back up stream to a different pick up point. Once we got there, our tuk tuk driver wasn't there. So, rather than having a nice shower, we had to hike a good 10kms to the nearest big village to get a lift. Still, we passed the time singing songs. Satith has a career as a Cat Steven's impersonator ahead of him.I finally got back, expecting Lisa to have bankrupted us shopping all day, and collapsed.We left Luang Prabang very early the next morning and were lucky to get to see the monks collecting their Alms. Every morning at sunrise all the monks in Luang Prabang (that's a lot of monks) file down certain roads and the locals kneel at the roadsides and put food offerings in their ornate bowls. This is the only food the monks will get all day. The lines of monks filling past is an incredible site. And with that, we were on our way back to Bangkok!
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