Loas – Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang, Laos – Day 27 (Feb-25)

Luang Prabang is a really cool place to chill out. This is great, because we are tired of moving around so much. Two weeks was too short for Vietnam, and the last week was a cram fest.

Luang Prabang is one of the most pleasant cities that I’ve ever visited (except for the poor air quality). The old town center area is in a Y shape, where the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers meet. There is a road along each river, and one in the middle. These roads join where the rivers come together. Side streets and walk ways cross the three roads, and are lined with small guest houses. The guest houses are in French Colonial style. That said, they seem like normal two story buildings to me, with wood shutter windows.

Mekong River

The city is UNESCO protected, and no buses are allowed in town. Within 10 minutes walk from the city center you can find; bars, Laos and western restaurants, guest houses, ATM, travel agent, bakery, crepes, street food, night market, Tuk Tuks, and 15 different Watts (temples). Bright orange robed monks walk between Watts with ocean blue shoulder bags. Even the monks have cameras and visit the internet cafes!

young monks walking to monk school

The average age of western travelers seems to have dropped significantly. I think cheap bus tickets are available from Bangkok, bringing in the backpacker crowd. Perhaps, Luang Prabang is on the party tour as a rest stop from Bangkok madness.

We rent bicycles and spend the days riding around town and visit a few Wats, including Wat Xieng Thong, the most famous Wat in the area. We take some great pictures around town; along the river, in the Wats, kids on the street, and monks during evening prayers.

our bikes parked together

Wat Xieng Thong

Wat Xieng Thong temple roof

Wat Xieng Thong

Wat Xieng Thong – temple wall decoration

KR find the perfect lunch – Bratwurst (at a small German restaurant)

Kids hanging out in the Mekong

sunset on Mekong River

monks chant during evening prayers

Over the last few days Vana has broken out in hives. She is in extreme discomfort, and wakes up in the morning with an empty jar of tiger balm next to her pillow. Between the hives and her Bali sunburn (which is still peeling), Vana is in tears from too much Vana-damage.

A nice local fellow from the restaurant next to our guest house takes Vana on his motorbike to a clinic. With no forms to fill out or payments to make, Vana is back quickly. The doctor thinks it might be fleas or hives, and prescribes some medicine to relieve the symptoms. Fortunately, the doctor speaks a little Mandarin and can communicate with Vana. Kevin does some research online and thinks Vana is having a reaction to the Doxy antibiotic medicine we are taking for malaria prevention.

CLICK HERE to see picture from Day 1

Luang Prabang, Laos – Day 28, 29 (Feb-26, 27)

For these days, we rent bikes and go through our new routine; cruising the morning, napping the afternoon heat, and cruising again in the evening. We take it easy, relax, catch up on our blogging, and do some laundry. We bike the rest of the town. We visit a large market a bit out of town, and run into one of the cooking classes. We follow them on their tour of the produce, fish, herbs, and tobacco. The cooking classes are more expensive here, so we decide the tag along tour is sufficient.

Market

We eat at a BBQ Hot Pot restaurant for dinner. It is very similar to a Korean style, with thin BBQ meats cooked in the circular raised middle of the pot, and soup with veggies and noodles in the lower edge of the pot. Dinner is cooked on the dinner table over charcoal fire. As a bonus, the soup is a lemon grass flavored chicken stock; a distant departure from the Korean style. We meet a couple from the UK and swap information, since we are heading in opposite directions.

Lao style BBQ Hot Pot – charcoal fire

Grilling the meat

Noodles and vegetable in the soup

Sauces and sides

Kevin farts in the quiet riverside restaurant, dinner must be GOOD!

We hire a boat to take us a short distance up the Mekong river, and visit a village famous for making Sa paper and silk products. On arrival, I am completely mesmerized by the women on their front porches working their looms. One porch has three women on looms side by side, with two younger women spinning silk into thread. They smile for our pictures, and seem proud of their beautiful work. Since I have trouble with basic knots, I am amazed how they use the loom to weave complicated patterns. Their work takes between three days and two weeks for each piece; depending on the size, and design.

our hired boat and driver (the small boat)

spinning silk into thread

working on their looms in the front porches

woven wall piece

silk scarfs produced in this village

In another shop, they are making Sa paper. They use the paper to create colorful lamps, umbrellas, and wall art. We buy a few table lamps, and later ship them home with some stuff we bought in Vietnam.

making Sa paper

drying Sa paper

Sa paper lamps

Later, in the night market, a hand woven wall piece catches my eye, while an American guy is bargaining hard for it. He walks away and returns several times trying to get a lower price. I can’t resist and offer a few bucks less than her price, and a few bucks more than his price. Vana buys a few other misc textiles. We heard from other travelers that the quality of the fabrics in Laos is much better than other places in South East Asia.

night market

hand woven wall piece

In these days, the foreigners in town are in a bit of panic. The ATMs and credit cards are out for the past two days. There is a post on the two ATMs in town saying the telephone lines are down. Also, the internet in the cafes seems to go in and out of service randomly. It is pretty stupid to rely on ATM machines as your only source of travel funds. We are travelling with two ATM cards, US cash, traveler’s checks, and three credit cards. We use our traveler’s checks for the first time this trip, and pay the hotel with US cash.

CLICK HERE to see pictures from Day 2
CLICK HERE to see pictures from Day 3

Luang Prabang, Laos fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia – Day 30 (Feb-28)

I had a few thoughts about Laos before leaving today. Despite the poor air quality (in this season) the people here make the visit very pleasant. They are quiet, pleasant, friendly, easy going people. They don’t speak much English, and they don’t move too fast, but it’s all good.

I think the Lao men have it made. First, the Lao women are attractive, and well dressed; although for being short and petite, their feet seem proportionally large. Second, you can see the Lao women working everywhere; in the markets, shops, restaurant, food stalls, and even on the loom on their porch. In contrast, you can see the Lao men sleeping everywhere; in the back of their Tuk Tuk, on hammocks on the boat dock, and in the lobby of guesthouses. Perhaps they are tired from the ass kicking they get at home from their big feet Lao women.

We fly from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap Cambodia without incident. The only trouble was confirming our flight ahead. Our Guest house didn’t know how to confirm a flight, and didn’t have any airline telephone numbers. The travel agents wanted $4 per ticket. We biked to the airport the day before, but Vietnam airlines office was closed at 4PM. I Skype called from the internet café to Vietnam (closed after 5PM), Singapore (closed after 5PM), and San Francisco (woke up some poor women in her sleep). We gave up, and luckily had to trouble.

(2 hour flight)

On arrival, our Tuk Tuk hotel pick-up is sweet. The Tuk Tuk in Cambodia is a motorcycle pulled trailer. The ride is like sitting on a couch and watching the world go by in 360. We like it better than the Tuk Tuk in Laos. We stay at the Green Village Palace Guesthouse, which is off a dirt road a few minutes bike ride across the river from the town center. The hotel is like a mini-resort, with pool and bar/restaurant. The air quality in Siem Reap is much better, like a hot moist towel with slight touch of burnage.

our Tuk Tuk

our hotel with a swimming pool in the front yard

Siem Reap is all set up for tourism. The Temples of Angkor are the main sight, and is what everyone talks about. Coming from the modern airport (better than most in the US, it’s like a museum), we pass ten new modern hotels with tour busses parked outside. We pass restaurants and KTV buildings with signs in Korean and Chinese. The ATMs here dispense only US cash. Everything is paid with US cash. The only Reil (Cambodian money) we see is if something is priced to $0.50.

We bike to town and try Kymer food (local food). We find it same, same as Thai, Chinese, or Vietnamese; depending on the dish.

Lao spring rolls and dumplings (I love the dumpling, it’s definitely different from Chinese dumpling)

Lembongan Island and Ubud

Lembongan Island, Indonesia – Day 6, 7, 8 (Feb-3 to Feb-5)

For these days, we are traveling on island time. We left Kuta in a torrential downpour. We checked several sources to find information about the boat to Lembongan island. I think we heard every combination of the following; public boat, private boat, 30/45/90 minutes,175,000 Rp, $23 USD, 3PM/3:30PM/4PM, “3PM boat leaves at 4PM”, and “no boat today”. Anyways, we made a 4PM private boat for $23. It was a bumpy ride.

Our hotel (Pondok Baruna) was the only one from the travel book which answered the phone. The owner is a local woman, who speaks with a thick British accent. She is also the first and only local diving instructor. The hotel staff is friendly and funny. Rooms are very small, pleasant, face a working beach, no hot water, and no AC. Everything here is wet in the first day, even the beds are damp, things take forever to dry. After a cold shower, and talcum powder bath; I find two T-shirts and no underwear commando are the way to roll. We luck out because this Hotel also has the dive shop listed in the book, and the food is really good and cheap. No bank or ATM on the island, so we can charge everything with 3% penalty, which is worth it in this time.

The next morning, the 9:30 AM dive boat leaves at 8AM. Good thing we went to bed early. Our banana pancake breakfast entertainment is the locals packing one boat to the max with burlap sacks of plastic bottles, cans, bicycle wheels, and other misc, while another boat unloads bottled soda, and water. The boats are flat on the bottom, with stabilizers on opposite sides. Because the water is very shallow out to the reef, the boats’ depth to keel must be small (see pictures).

Our dive boat heads to the north side of Penida Island away from the south swell. We have a German diver, and a Holland doctor, Kees, who snorkels with us (we befriended with Kees on this trip). First spot is a little murky, second spot is clear. The break includes some tasty pineapple, Sprite, and a Indonesian snack of rice, noodles, vegetables, and roasted peanuts, wrapped in a banana leaf; scarfed down with your hands. The style is drift diving here. We follow the reef next to the drop off with the current running east to west. We see tons of coral, fish, and a green eel. The colors are really bright, because the reef is not very deep. Vana gets a little sea sick and skips the second snorkel. We get a downpour during the second snorkel, which looked and sounded really cool. Vana enjoys her rain gear on the boat, and feels better. The divers are picked up in a torrential downpour. The boat caption has good eyes and spots their surfacing balloon. The weather is changing every hour. Apparently this is the wet season for Indonesia, with weather coming from the Indonesian Ocean in the east.

CLICK HERE to see snorkeling pictures.

The boat passed many seaweed farms, which seems the main business for the locals. I even see them picking it up from the beach. It looks like square plots in the water, connected to beaches with thatched houses, using a small netted fence; to keep bottom feeders from coming in to eat the seaweed? I swam to the net, and it isn’t tall enough to keep out all the fish.

The next day our 8AM dive boat leaves at 9AM. They wait for the tide to come up, because there is surf on the reef, a quarter mile off shore. We pass a surfer making the paddle out to the reef. Fortunately for him, the boats go slow inside the reef when it is shallow. I was surprised because I think most surf in Indonesia is from a boat. We see a boat parked inside the reef, which I assume is a surf boat. We see people surfing. It looks almost overhead on the reef, with a messy onshore wind. Apparently, Australians pack the place in the spring, with the wind goes offshore.

Today with have a pair of Canadian divers who are teaching in China, and a Swiss diver, as well as Kees (the doctor from Holland) who again snorkels with us. The weather is sunny, and I get burned right through my surf shirt. Vana gets a lobster butt. First spot is the same as yesterday, which is disappointing. The second spot is opposite some mangroves on the north of Lembongan Island, and we see some different and larger fish. One fish is green, long and thin, with big eyes. The water is really clear, and the current is very strong. We follow the drop off for what seems like a few miles, with the reef flying under us in the current. The boat picks up the divers a mile away and fortunately comes back for us. This dive wipes me out.

CLICK HERE to see the snorkeling picture from this day.

We learn from Kees (the doctor from Holland), there was a heart attack on his flight to Bali just before landing, and he works with another doctor (a student of his, randomly on the flight) to revive the patent with shock, oxygen, and other onboard gear. I comment about how he always travels with this responsibility, and he shakes his head and says it’s his job. Apparently the dive boat also includes a defibulator and oxygen, which I guess is PADI standard equipment?

We meet a traveler from San Francisco, Johanna, who works in the restaurant business. We take a walk together into the village, and see a group of locals gathered in an old rundown looking temple, sitting on the floor under a terrace, watching a traditional Asian movie on a flat panel widescreen. It is a bizarre and funny looking sight. We pass a cock fight on the way back. Johanna and Kevin pass quickly in disapproval. Vana stops and takes a quick picture (Vana: I took a picture with a great interest because the first essay I read in college is about Balinese cockflight). From what I could hear, the fight seems over quickly.

The next day afternoon, Vana takes a motor bike with Johanna to Dream Beach, Mushroom Beach and Devil’s Tear on the south side. I resist on safety concern, but the traffic is light on the island. So far it seems any place where there are no locals is labeled with “dream”. That said, the pictures look a lot like Big Sur, and quite dreamy (see pictures).

In our last night, the guests have all the tables pulled together in the restaurant by candle light. Vana had a spicy curry. I ordered chicken satay, rice, and a side of French fries. Vana orders another papaya and pineapple drink, but the staff motions back and forth with his hands indicating that the mixer will not work because the power is out tonight.

Kuta, Bali Indonesia– Day 9 (Feb-7)

We leave the island on the 8AM public boat which is a fourth the price of the private speed boat. Just outside the reef it’s a bit bumpy and we briefly don our rain gear. The public boat has the flat bottom and long stabilizing weights on each side of the boat, and takes the swell like a champ.

We head to Ubud, which is the Paris of Bali (or the cultural highlight of Asian); food, art, dance, culture, etc. We arrive unannounced at Sania’s house. I hold payment to the driver while Vana checks the room. I think we are getting it down now. As described in the travel book, Sania’s house gives Babylon a run for its money. Three story intricate stone buildings random dispersed and connected by covered walk ways, stair cases, and flowing water with Koi fish. Even the cheaper $20 room we choose has a tiled balcony larger than our room on the island. The rooms with AC include huge intricate carved wooden doors with decorated four posted beds.

For lunch we head straight to Ibu Oka for some babi guleng, which is slow roast pig with crispy skin; the only thing on the menu. They make a pig every day, and the restaurant is closed when they run out. This is a local specality and there is only one restaurant that serves the suckling pig. There is a lady in the front going to town with a knife on that pig. The hot sauce on the side almost puts me under the table. The Japanese guy next to me turns white. Vana just loves the hot sauce!

Vana haggles to buys some earings in the market. Unfortunately, she hasn’t located the decimal place in all those zeros yet. We take a much needed hot bath, and then head to Three Monkeys for dinner, which is a bit more western style, but the back yard dinning is right next to a rice field. We celebrate our first wedding anniversary because tomorrow is a travel day.

After dinner, we see a Barong dance show, with gamelan music. For me, the adjective to describe Indonesian classical music and dance is paranoid. The dancers have crazy eyes, and the dance and music is very jerky; constant changes in tempo, switching between one cord, and a dissonant variation of the same cord. Reminds me of my band Mungbucket, after we drank some beers and played all the songs we know.

Ubud back to Singapore, Bali Indonesia– Day 10 (Feb-8)

Today is our first wedding anniversary! We got a slow start, and searched out the smoked duck roasted in bettle nut leave for lunch (smoked duck is another local specialty besides the suckling pig). It was relatively expensive ($17 for two) served with chicken satay, vegetable, and rice. It was one of the best duck I tasted, the Balinese source they used for the duck is absoluately to die for. We dined next to another rice field, in the back yard of another downtown restaurant on Monkey Forest Road. (Vana: I’m reading the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ where the author Eliz goes to Italy to eat, India to pray and Bali to love. To me, I would eat in Bali and love in Italy)

Let’s take a time out for Indonesian food. We REALLY enjoy it. We didn’t have a single bad meal. All the food is fresh, there is lots of spice and flavor, but it is not overdone. The island has rich volcanic soil, so they seem to get the California effect to their food if not better; fresh, quality, taste. Plus, everything is organic. After lunch, we did a quick tour to Museum Puri Lukisan.

CLICK HERE to see Ubud pictures.

Today is a travel day. We hired a driver on the street to take us back to the Airport. He was quite talkative. He grew up around Ubud, and has never left Bali. He lives near three temple, and has a temple in his family’s home. Each temple has a ceremony every 6 months. In addition, any time someone in his village is born, married, and dies, then he must attend and participate. He fells jealous sometimes driving the tourists and he dreams to be able to travel; but impossible for him to schedule. He says he cannot be a “fire in the water”. For their New Year day in the spring, everything is closed, and no one is allowed on the street; even tourist.

The people of Bali are predominately Hindu (but different from India, it’s orginiated from Java), which is different from the rest of Indonesia which is the biggest Muslim nation (and fourth biggest country in the world). They have a lot of dedication to their god(s), and there are daily offerings in front of every business, in every temple, and in homes. You can see them everywhere on the street; small banana leaf box containing rice, a cracker, flowers, and piece of fruit. The ants, rats, and dogs have a field day.

Good thing we arrived early. We didn’t confirm our flight (a mistake) because none of the hotels we stayed had a phone. We are rescheduled on an earlier flight, which is then delayed two hours.

At the Bali airport we run into Kees (the doctor from Holland). He is headed to Jakarta, then Amsterdam. On Monday is it back to 56 patients per day. Vana and Kees compare their sunburns from the snorkeling, then we fly back to the dreamy Singapore airport. The Airport hotel is full as it always is. There is a bit of confusion as to where our luggage is headed, because Singapore is used to overnight stays. There are rows of Indian travelers dreaming away on the terminal floor. We clear immigration, find our luggage, book a nearby hotel at the info desk, and within minutes we are rushed to our free shuttle (the concierge apologizing ten times for the rush).You got to love Singapore, everything is so efficient. It’s an improved western country with an Asian culture.