Travel Zulu

It has rained almost non-stop the last couple of days, but I decided to go ahead and book a kayaking trip. There was also a hiking trip available, but I thought the kayaking trip sounded more fun, especially after my last hiking experience.

Since it has been raining most of the past two days and through the night, the water was moving pretty fast. The kayaks were pretty buoyant so there wasn’t much chance of coming off.

The first stop was to see the water and elephant cave. To get to the water cave we had to go through a rice paddy. My sandles have no grip left on them (Thailand cheapies), so I took them off and instead of falling into the rice paddy I walked straight through it in the mud.

We got to the water cave and saw some people coming out. It was actually a little difficult to even see the entrance of the cave. One girl who had just come out, said how relieved she was to get out as she started to feel claustrophobic and felt like she couldn’t breath.

Shit, I thought, but when you are in a group with other people you don’t want to be the one backing out and you always know you will regret it later. So I get my tube to sit in and flashlight which you strap to your head - grab the rope and pull myself into the cave. The roof of the entrance is pretty low and is probably not more than a foot high.

We were supposed to go around 200 meters into the cave. Rather than feeling anxious I ended up feeling relaxed and just enjoyed myself pulling myself upstream through the cave. At one place we left the tubes behind and started crawling along and then wading through the river.

We were then free to explore on our own but I didn’t feel like going to far. We then made our way back and since we had done a loop, coming back was pretty easy. We then had a BBQ lunch on the river, feeding the chickens our left over rice.

The sun had come out a bit by this stage so the ground was a little drier and I didn’t have to walk in the rice paddy, although I still found it easier to walk bare foot. I was pretty much caked in mud by now, but it was fun.

Back in the kayaks again we paddled through magnificent surroundings - limestone cliffs and forests surrounding us. The people living in these areas are basically subsistence farmers, growing just enough for their family/village.

We stopped off at an organic farm which grew mulberries. Our next stop was what they call “jumping bar”. There were a few bamboo huts, with a full on bar and music. It was pouring with rain again but groups of people played volleyball outside in the mud. They had flying foxes going across the river, which I suppose was a Laos version of the bungey jump. I was happy to just enjoy a beer.

On we went past more bars along the river, but I think everyone was now keen to back and have a hot shower. I am bit sore in the shoulders and sun burnt a little, but it was another great day in paradise.

I got a bus up to Vang Vien today. It is about 3 hours from Vientiane, which is about as much I can usual handle on a bus at once. Vang Vien is a beautiful little town on the Nam Sot River and surrounded by limestone mountains. It is famous as a place to go tubing and that a lot of the cafes in town play old episodes of Friends non-stop. Why people want to come to Laos and watch re-runs of Friends baffles me. Fortunately I am staying at a very quiet bungalow on the river looking onto the mountains. The view is magical.

Here is what I had for lunch today. It was very spicy!

I am still in Vientiane. It has been pretty hot the past few days - around 38 degrees. I think Vientiane must get a vote for being the quietest capital cities in the world.

I think Bia Hoi just means draft beer in Vietnamese, but it also refers to a cheap draft beer that is sold in cafes across Vietnam. I noticed them more in Hanoi. In the old quarter of Hanoi there are a couple of cafes that spill out onto a busy intersection.

The places are popular with both foreigners and the locals and are good place to meet up with other travellers. Small plastic seats are set up outside on the street. A glass of draft beer is just 2000 dong (US $0.12), so you can get a pretty good buzz going for just a dollar. People come around selling snack food and there is guy selling kebabs nearby for just 10,000 dong (US $0.62).

Hanoi closes down pretty early. Most restaurants and bars close at around midnight. The police regularly come around to check that the bars have closed for the night. Midnight is pretty early so most bars just pretend to close down. They close the shutters and turn the music down. They employ people who stand around outside looking out for police.

If they get a warning that the police are coming, they turn off all of the power and tell everyone to be quiet. Once the police move on the party starts again. It seems like a pretty ridiculous charade and I saw at least once the police come into a bar and collect money.

As we drove across the tarmac, I was a bit surprised to see the propeller driven plane we were taking to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. My seat looked right onto the propeller of the plane. It was a pretty clear day so got to see some great views of Laos and Vietnam.

I sat next to a German guy who runs his own micro-brewery in Hanoi. As drinks came around on the plane, he said I should try a Beer Lao. He said his beer was good, but not as good as Beer Lao. It was still only around 10 a.m. but I thought why not.

The streets are much quieter here than Vietnam and the weather is much hotter.

Lao Airlines.

Boarding the plane.

Great views.

Wattay International Airport (Vientiane)

I got back to my hotel yesterday feeling happy I had my passport, visa and plane ticket all fixed up. I was organizing my money and passports when I couldn’t find my ATM card. I searched in a panic looking in all of the obvious places. I generally don’t always carry around my cards unless I am going to get some cash out.

I retraced where I went the day before and came to the conclusion that I must have left it in the ATM. I had just withdrawn some money to pay for my visa. There was a chance still that I dropped it somewhere along the way, but if that was the case there would be no chance of getting it back.

The ATM was a machine in the front of a hotel. The guy at the reception desk said the machine would take back the card if you didn’t take it away. There was still the chance of course that someone could have swiped the card, as the machine faces the street.

The hotel doesn’t have access to the ATM and told me to come back the next day. I went in at lunch time the next day and a different girl told me someone only comes out once a week, so she kindly called the bank and said they would send someone in a couple of hours.

Fortunately they found my card in the machine. I was so happy. I gave the receptionist a generous tip which they were pretty happy with.

I have other cards for different accounts, but this was my Japanese bank account. I just knew it would have been a huge hassle to get a new card from Japan.

The experience reminded me I need to be more careful with my stuff.

Picked up my passport today with my visa and they only ended charging me $10 to get it done, which is much better than the $35 which the woman initially said it would cost.

I bought my plane ticket to Laos today and will be leaving on Saturday morning.

The feedback is that I don’t have enough pictures on the site, so here are a few that I took this afternoon.

Most people eat outside like this at road side cafes and noodle shops.

Walking down any street is a game of dodging motorcycles, cyclos and taxis.

You want banana, mister?

Fresh veggies.

When it rains, it pours.

I picked up my new Australian passport today from the embassy here in Hanoi. Another Australian guy was doing the same thing. He had just come back from the Vietnamese immigration office and they needed a letter from the Australian embassy for him to get a new visa. The Australian embassy official didn’t know this, so he made one up for me also.

This was just at around 11:30 and the immigration office closes for lunch between 11:30 and 1:30 pm, so I also took a break for lunch. Back at the immigration office I run into the Australian guy again. He had just finished submitting the paperwork and was complaining that it was going to take a week. Another week’s wait in Hanoi, I thought.

Fortunately the immigration lady said I could pick it up on the 21st - only three days of waiting, but would cost US$35. The Aussie guy said his was going to cost $10. I don’t really like arguing with immigration officials but wanted to know why my friend’s visa was only going to cost $10. She explained that since I was on my second visa or something that it would cost more.

Who knows the real story, but you can’t really negotiate too much with socialist government officials.

It was a hot and humid day today which didn’t make it any easier. I was thinking of going back to Thailand and then Laos, but I think now I will just fly to Laos from here and make my way by land to Thailand.

I am running on a competition to win $100 on my new Australia website.