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Similans - Vientiane - Luang Prabang - Siam Reap
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WARNING, VERY LONG BLOG UPDATE!
Sorry again for the tardy update but we've been travelling a fair bit and either not been near a decent internet connection, seeing the sights or in transit....
Anyway, this entry comes to you from Siam Reap and covers my time back in Samui, onto Phuket and then to the liveaboard in the Similans, the journey from there to Bangkok and into Laos and then into Cambodia.
So, to where I left off.....
We relaxed at the Sandy resort in a quieter area called Baphut Beach. We took advantage of the diving board, went out on a Kayak and drank. After here we said goodbye to Bry at Samui airport (still really pissed that you had your money stolen in Bangkok, mate - I hope your new cards arrive soon). Bry really helped ease me into the whole travel mood with advise etc so that was a real help, plus he was great company (Thanks again for leaving Uno!!).
We then flew from Samui to Phuket and stayed one night at a place in Karon Beach - A nice part of Phuket and stayed in a great hotel that would be termed a boutique hotel back home. This place was great - amazing food, great room, free pool table, free internet etc. From here we then headed to Patong to meet our dive guide and head for the boat down near Koh Lak and the rest of our party. We grabbed the front cabin as there were 3 of us and our guide took the 4th bed (Kris, cheers for the loan of the mac and all your dive advice - oh and I think Steve owes you some o2!)
We left the harbour to head out to the Similans, a group of nine islands off the Andaman coast of Thailand. The word Similan, literally means 9 islands. As we moved off, the crew set fire to a stick covered in firecrackers, a ritual that is meant to bring good luck at sea and a safe return..... We arrived in the Similans around 2am the next day and the sight of the islands and the amazing, clear ocean!
Everyone on board was great and met some nice peeps. (Cristy! Hope you got my message and you're safely back at work in Bangkok! It was great meeting you. Fiji? ;). We had a whole load of Japanese guys that came laden with expensive underwater cameras etc as well as a load of Heiniken. We all cracked a few beers and were given a boat briefing by a very likeable chap called Hiro. We were told about the next 5 days - 14 dives in total; 4 a day for 3 days and then 2 dives on the morning of the last.
First dive was to be 7am. We were woken with the words "Dive Briefing, Dive Briefing". Fantastic - What a great way to start the day! We did various dives around the islands, including 2 night dives, 1 sunset dive and various deep and shallow dives. We were fed pretty much constantly and every meal was great! Kim, Andy, Jan - My dive computer came in so useful that I now wonder how I used to dive without it! A great piece of kit! We saw a fair few leopard sharks, turtles, Blue-spotted rays, Snapper, Wrass, Lion fish, Batfish, Lobster, huge cuttlefish, etc etc. We were spoilt! The only disappointment was the fact that the seas were too rough to take us to Richeleau Rock! An amazing dive site and meant to be the best in Asia. Gutted!!
One of the best nights was undoubtedly New Years Eve. Lots of drink and some good tunes and then we all moved to the sun deck to set off fireworks. When the boat anchors for the night, there are always loads of other dives boats in the same area so on new years eve we all got to see the other boat' fireworks and due to the differing nationalities on board, they were set off at different times. As we were 7 hours ahead, it turned out that we were actually diving when everyone back at home was celebrating! A great way to celebrate the new year, except that I slightly overdid it on the beer the night before so when I came up for my safety stop, the pressure release on my stomach was too much and I was sick in my reg, TWICE! Nasty but quite funny watching the fish come to feast on it.... Anyway, no more drinking and diving for me!
The next day we headed back for Khao Lak and the next part of the adventure - the journey into Laos. We weren't able to fly due to the excess nitrogen still in our blood from the diving, and me not wanting to spend another 5 ¾ hours in a chamber and us not wanting to spend another night in Phuket, we opted to get the night train from Surat Thani to Bangkok - a journey I did in April and loved.
This turned out to be a very lucky day! One of the dive guys on board, a Mr Vuong, that trained to be a dive guide with funding from the Tsunami, hooked us up with a mate of his that agreed to drive us for a pretty decent price. Apart from the crazy driving, high speed and a few near misses, we arrived safely in ST and headed for the booking office. It turned out that we had the last 3 tickets on the train for that evening! We then met an American couple that happened to have 3 cans of beer they didn't want, so we devoured those, chatted and waited for out train. Everything just worked out perfectly and we got into Bangkok the next day as planned. We then headed for airline office via tuk tuk and booked flights to Vientiane, Laos and headed for the airport.
Whilst on the boat, a German couple would ask what we though the evening meal would be, or what we really fancied. For some reason I was craving a Bacon double cheese burger so when we arrived at Bangkok airport Burger King was too hard to resist! I love my Asian food but that super-sized triple whopper went down a treat!
We boarded the smallest plane I've ever been on and arrived into Laos a little over an hour and a half later. We hopped a cab and started the search for a hotel. Nearly everywhere was full and we probably looked at over 10 hotels before we found an agreeable one with any rooms. We dumped our kit and headed off to see what this place had to offer. First stop was to grab some food, a Laos barbeque that consists of a BBQ with a raised metal tray on top that you pour stock into to cook noodles, veg and eggs and then you fry your meat up on the top - tasted great. We then headed off to see what night life there was. Our cabbie mentioned the "Snake" bar so we went off in search of this.
After wandering the streets for quite a while we came across a place that was actually called "Snack" bar! We had a look in anyway as it appeared to be some weird club too. There was a young girl picking nits out of an old guys hair out the front... We walked in and then straight back out. It was Laos' answer to a working mans club....
We then got a tuck tuk driver to take us to another club, and when they wouldn't let us in due to wearing flip-flops, t-shirts and shorts (they even had a neon sign with a cross through all of the above - as bad as London), we went to what must had been a youth club with booze. We had a beer, I used the exact toilet as featured in train-spotting, Steve had his shoulders massaged by an old guy as he took a slash and then we left! Funny place...
The next day Howie and I commandeered a tuk tuk and asked him to show us the best sights in Vientiane in 2hours as we had a cabbie arriving to take us to Vang Vieng at 11am. We saw some pretty impressive Wats (Temples) and then met the cabbie, another Mr Vuong (Kim!).
The plan was to drive to Vang Vieng, have a days tubing and then head for Luang Prabang. About half way there Steve came up with the plan to skip VV and push on through to LP. I'm glad he did, especially as we drove though the main strip and it looked pretty crappy to be honest. There's a huge airstrip at its heart that the yanks used but the backdrop to the place is amazing with its mountains and jungle, but the thought of a load of pissed 18 year olds heading down the river didn't really do it for us. Just before we passed through we stopped to refuel and Steve came across an AK47 just lying around in the petrol station! He asked if he could pose for a photo with it and the guy agreed (it was missing its magazine). Laos was proving to be a pretty crazy country the more we saw of it. The roadtrip started off as fun, passing through village after village and seeing the pockts of people that occupy these tiny hamlets. We stopped at a place called Kasi and had some lunch and then pushed through to Luang Prabang.
Mr Vuong proved to be a little crazy and would gesture a gun at all things that crossed our path. At several points during the trip we narrowly missed a goat, several cats and dogs and a few chickens before he finally crushed a small chick under the tyres. I looked at him the in rear view mirror and he shrugged. The funny Mr Vuong was now getting annoying and a little scary, but not quite as scary as when we missed a small naked boy by millimeters....
We were driving through a small village when a group of kids crossed in front of us, Vuong bibbed his horn but didn't slow his speed even though there were a few kids playing etc. Anyway, from the other side of the road came this tiny naked boy that was obviously running to catch up with the rest of his friends/family. Vuong skidded and the boy somehow had the sense to dive into a ditch at the side of the road, missing his head by mere millimetres. He ran off in the other direction crying and Vuong stopped the car slapped his own hand several times, swore in Lao at what may have been the child's mother and then we drove on... Even after this episode he still drove at silly speeds through the remaining villages.
We finally rolled into Luang Prabang and stopped at what appeared to be a pretty nice hotel called the Merry Lao Swiss. We agreed to stay for several nights and Steve and I went across the road to a pretty cool bar for a much needed drink and to discuss what had happened that day, meanwhile Howie got his head down for some kip.
Whilst in this bar I started chatting to a couple that would become great friends for the rest of our time in LP, Keon and Evelien. (Hey Koen, hope you're both well and the Indian visa's all applied for. Such a shame our travel plans didn't collide elsewhere down the line!).
Due to the dark it was hard to figure exactly where our hotel was so it was great to realize that we were in pretty much the nicest area with the best bar and restaurant opposite.
It was also great to find that LP is great for running as my opportunities since Samui had been pretty much non-existent. Luang Prabang was a lot cooler in the morning and evening and the streets were laid out in such a way that a nice route was easy to plan. I ran every other day and loved it. I need to make sure I keep my fitness in readiness for NZ the Inca trail and the Galapagos!
Luang Prabang is simply stunning and Laos is the most photogenic place I have ever been. It's also the first place I have been able to completely relax since the start of the trip. Everywhere else has been great but LP just has something that allows you to feel completely at ease. We spent the next 4 or 5 days unwinding, eating, drinking, exploring and hanging out with Koen and Evelien. We climbed Phousie mountain (pronounced pussy) and met and spoke to some young monks (see my profile pic on facebook). It was pretty cool.
We went around several Wats, sampled many Lao dishes, including waterbuffalo (tasty but very tough). We charted a boat and ventured down the river to a place called Pac Ou to see a cave filled with Buddha statues and then visited the Whisky village. See photos for interesting filtration system!
The river is the lifeblood of LP - They eat from it, wash in it, drink it and play in it. It's amazing seeing the locals don a mask and catch fish like bears in the river!
The next morning we combined saying goodbye to Howie at 5am with seeing the monks come to receive Alms from the local people. It's quite extraordinary seeing a line of orange come out of the mist in front of you and walk down the streets collecting food and wares from the local people. A few westerners also joined in and it just looked wrong.
We then headed to a place called Nong Kwai via local bus, our first real taste of local transport. I had a pretty good seat, read my book and listened to my ipod but poor old Steve was sat in front of a baby that puked in the face of the guy sat beside him! Nice thing was that the guy just calmly removed the headrest cover from the seat in front, wiped his face free of puke and then put it back.... Nice!
Once in Nong Kwai we then met a boat that took us up river to a place called Muang Noi. This place was great, but a bit of a shock to the western system. The setting for it is amazing. Everything is powered via generator and there are no roads, just primitive huts. We went to visit a funky Buddha that said something in Lao and gave us a small wrist band. It's meant to bring luck so it's a keeper.... I also found a spider as large as my hand on the wall next to my bed... I had to squash the thing with a shoe and it made quite a mess... I slept ok considering...
We then headed back to LP via jumbo with a whole heap of locals, chickens, rice etc all packed in. The journey was fun except for the 4 locals that kept being sick!
We had one more night in LP and shared a bottle champagne with K and E and ate French bread and cheese by the river. Very civilised! I went for a run early the next morning with Koen and then we had to say our goodbyes and head for our next plane and our next country (Siam Reap, Cambodia).
We did the usual cab and hotel trip and checked into a place with a pool called the Mekong Angkor Palace Hotel! Steve insisted on a place with a pool and I wasn't complaining! We checked in, had a dip in the pool, relaxed a bit and then went to check the place out. We had a drink in a nice bar and got chatting to a girl called Sonia who it turned out works for Tiscali back in London and knows a mate of mine back home called Steve Sampford! Small world number 1. We then ate at a great place called the blue pumpkin that resembles a small Suppaclub. A place you may know in Amsterdam. Very nice anyway. We also bumped into a load of Ausies that we'd met in LP, Carcrash Jo and her crew....
The next day we headed for the temples on Angkor. Angkor Wat was the main reason for our trip here and it was a pretty amazing sight! It's labeled as one of the 7 wonders and you can see why! It's just huge and proves what power and vision the Khmer empire had. We did several other temples, including the Bayon - a temple with 216 faces, pointing in 42 directions. An amazing place and so far my favourite after Angkor Wat. The kids that hang around the temples are the most persistant I've met. Mister, Mister, but my T-shirt, Mister, buy some water etc etc. Some very poor kids but with great English and an answer to every knock-back they receive!
My only dislike of Siam Reap so far is the bar area in the town. It's a street filled with bars and restaurants full of westerners getting drunk and loud. Police guard it and and it just feels awkward and wrong when you know that just a few metres away there's extreme poverty and suffering.
The same evening we went to a place called the Dead Fish Tower, a restaurant recommended by Koen and Evelien. Great place and great food! One weird attraction is several huge, living crocodiles that are sited beneath part of the floor! Cruel but strange. Whilst here I got chatting to a girl called Haylie. Small world number 2! Turns out she's a voice actor and knows a good friend from my old work, Sara Quin! Ring any bells Sara?
So that brings me to today! We decided on a day of complete rest. I read the rest of the Richard Pryor autobiography and the start of a book on the Khmer Rouge called, first they killed my father - so far a very disturbing but amazing read, lay by the pool, swam and ate. Perfect and something that was well overdue!
Tomorrow we continue our temple tour before we depart and head for Phnom Penh and the museums and killing fields. We have also changed our itinerary from the craziness of Vietnam to the orangutans, diving and rainforest of Sabah in Borneo. I'm hoping to spend a couple of weeks there and fit in a lot of diving around Sipadan, climb Mount Kinabalu and explore the rainforest before we head for Fiji on the 6th Feb.
I really hope to get my next raft of photos and my next blog to you quicker next time..... I hope everyone's well and you all had a great Christmas and New Year!
Link to photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesaharrison/
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| 2. | Similans - Vientiane - Luang Prabang - Siam Reap - Siam Reap, Cambodia Jan 13, 2008 |
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