Home Sweet Burma

I was really looking forward to seeing Chris and Chalain in the country they’ve been living in the past three years, and also being at a “home” for a couple weeks. Also, I was looking forward to getting to know more Burmese people since the Burmese people we encountered in Thailand were some of the kindest people I had ever met. Many work in Thailand on the islands since most Thai people do not find it enjoyable to be at the beach and can’t understand why anyone would sunbathe on the sand in the sun.

We took a taxi to Chalain and Chris’s home, also known as Inya Lake Hotel. Yep, they live in a really nice hotel and receive all the services offered, including toilet paper, water, and cleaning services. How awesome would that be? The apartment has a fully functioning kitchen and a huge living area, bedroom, and bathroom. So nicely decorated, too. It was good to have a home for a bit.

The first day we simply relaxed, watched movies, and went to a traditional Myanmar BBQ with Chalain, Chris, and many of their friends. All the food was displayed raw on a stick for people to pick out what they wanted barbecued. It was so good, and my favorite had to be the barbecued cheese and mushrooms. Bryan would probably say something completely different and it mostly likely includes red meat. The place was a huge two story outdoor restaurant with several locals and foreigners throughout.

The next day we went to the pool and then later made our way over to Shwedagan Pagoda which is a 2500 year old massive and beautiful buddhist temple. Together, Chris and I took about a million pictures before went to eat our first Mexican meal in a long time. Not the cultural experience by any means, but Bryan and I really had been craving our staple food from home. I was not expecting it to be as good as it was and it really hit the spot. I had tacos and a burrito and hadn’t felt so full in a long time. Good ol’ Mexican.

The following Monday Chris and Chalain went to work as teachers at the International School of Myanmar. Bryan and I stayed home and watched movies. It was so nice to sit on a couch and know exactly where we were going to eat breakfast. Chalain and Chris have a wonderful cook, Shelia, who prepared fresh fruit for us to eat throughout the day. It is very inexpensive to have a cook, and they treat her well. She comes to their place about three times a week and prepares delicious food. It was nice to be able to enjoy homemade cooking while we were there.

Through out the week I enjoyed yoga right off the lake with Chalain, went to a very informal and fun art gallery, and got a pedicure. Unfortunately, towards the end of the week I started to feel down in the dumps. This was especially unfortunate because it was right at the beginning of a fun birthday party that I really started feeling like crap. Their friends organized a party at a yummy Thai restaurant, and they were paying for all the food and wine. Thankfully, Chalain was willing to leave the party early in order for me to go home and go to bed. The next couple of days the symptoms turned from fever and chills to a really bad headache and neck pain. Later, I found a huge dent on my forward. I had no idea how I got a dent or why I had a headache for the following two weeks, but I really thought I had a brain tumor. No worries, everyone. I went to a doctor in Bangkok and he insisted I didn’t have cancer. Although, he was kind of a jerk and he barely looked at me, so….

The following night, Bryan and Chris, went to the hotel bar to watch open mic performers, among the performers included Chris and Chalain’s friends, Michael and Jim. Apparently, it was really fun, but I wouldn’t know as I spent the evening on the couch. Most of the following days in Burma were spent watching movies in the apartment and trying to recover from whatever disease I had acquired. Although, we did venture out onto the beautiful hotel grounds a couple times to take pictures. They live in a very big city, but it sure didn’t feel like it. The hotel sits right next to a beautiful big lake surrounded with palm trees, verandas, and all sorts of beautiful plants and animals. It was quite peaceful and relaxing.

One night, we were talking about whatever happened to Dave Chapelle, so Bryan went and looked it up on wikipedia. At the same time, I looked up and noticed a freaking humongous spider. It was so big I couldn’t find the words to communicate this to Bryan and Chris. My intention was to point and say spider, but instead I communicated this with a very deep and loud gasp. Bryan thought I was surprised about the fact that Dave had a mental breakdown, and then he realized what my gasp meant. Chris immediately called for help at the front desk and the guy came up with a paper towel. As soon as he saw the spider he ran out of the apartment and a minute later came back with a very huge bath towel and a can of poison. As he was spraying the spider, the spider sort of swung back and forth and we all screamed. Well, I know Chalain and I did, but I’ll have to watch the video recording of the scene to see if Chris and Bryan did too. It was pretty hilarious. Chris said he had never seen a spider that big in all the years they’ve been there.

During the second week of being in Burma, Bryan and I decided to extend a week in order to spend Thanksgiving with Chalain, Chris, and several of their American friends. This also gave us the opportunity to get our India visas there instead of Bangkok. Chris and Chalain were so kind to let us stay a whole other week as we weren’t quite ready to leave our temporary “home.”

While we were there Obama visited. He is the first US president to visit Burma and all the Burmese people we talked to were very excited. Burma has had a tough and sad history, but with the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi, a powerful, peaceful, and influential female political figure, and the newly elected President, Thein Sein, things are starting to look up for the Burmese people. It was fun to see all the painted murals of Obama around the city.

We also went to school with Chalain and Chris for a day. Chalain teaches 1st grade and is a very good teacher. It was fun to see her interact with the kids. Bryan and I participated by teaching them about passports. Bryan also taught them a few Moroccan Berber men dances. They soaked it all up. Later, we visited Chris’s preschool class and he is also very good with little ones. The kids were so incredibly adorable it was ridiculous…and so well behaved for the most part. Initially, they were quite shy to meet Bryan and me, but they soon warmed up to us. Chris is also a high school basketball coach, so we were able to see him in his role as a coach. His team dominated the game.

We also attended international day at their school which was a day for people from all over the world to represent their countries. There was food, parades, a talent show, and adorable kids dressed in traditional outfits. Bryan and I really enjoyed the Pakistani food….so good.

Thanksgiving was a blast. Their friends Rue and Ara prepared the Butterball turkey, yes I said Butterball and the most amazing stuffing I have ever had. When I asked Ara what the secret was he said butter. “If you think you need more butter, then you do,” he said. Also, lots of garlic and green onions. Bryan made his famous homemade mac and cheese, and I made deviled eggs. Thanks to everyone for a fun and memorable Thanksgiving.

On one of our last days in Burma, Bryan and I made our way over to the circle train and what an experience this was. I had no idea what to expect and only knew the idea was to ride the local train around the city. It was so much more than this. The trains were colorful, usually blue, orange, or green. The seats ran sideways on both sides and it was mostly filled with local Burmese farmers. At one of the stops about 50 people got on the train and completely filled it with bags filled with produce all the way to the top of the train. This made it impossible for people to get off without having to climb on the huge stacks of produce. At one point, the nice Burmese lady and her little girl we interacted with needed to get off, so one by one the local people handed the little girl down the aisle to her mom. It was quite cute and it was fun to see the community work together to help. The train smelled of all kinds of interesting things, including food which was prepared by ladies who would sporadically come on the train. They sat on little chairs and made noodle type dishes using gloves and their hands. They then held the big bowls of ingredients on their head without using their hands…while on a moving train. Pretty impressive. It took about 3 hours before we made it all the way around, and even though the seats were uncomfortable, it was hard to look out the window, and it smelled of who knows what, I’m so glad we were able to see what it was like to be a local Burmese farmer. It is not an easy job.

The Burmese people were wonderful. So kind, thoughtful, honest, and loving. For example, we went to a garden party at one of their friends place and one of the guys left his beer in the taxi. Ten minutes later the taxi driver brought the beer back. It was wonderful to be surrounded by people like this.

The day had come where it was time to let Chalain and Chris have their privacy and apartment back. All and all, their place was the perfect spot to relax and recover from the world of backpacking. We were ready to be adventurous again. Thanks again, Chalain and Chris, for allowing us to invade your place for three whole weeks. We definitely did not go by the old Ben Franklin saying, “house guests are like fish, after three days they start to stink” idea, and you two never once made us feel awkward or unwanted for staying so long. You’re going to make such good parents, and I can’t wait to meet your little baby girl in the summer. Love you two.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on December 19, 2012 by leslie

Been There, Don Det, Laos

We were two of the thirty backpackes jammed onto a longtail boat that was skipping towards the island of Don Det next to the Laos/Cambodia border. The recommendation had come from Chris and Chalain. We had ten days left in Laos and were likely to spend a chunk of them on this little island.

Don Det is one of the 4,000 islands, which are an island chain in the Mekong River. The rivers gets so big in this part of Asia that it contains an entire island cluster which spreads across the Laos border into Cambodia. Granted, most of the islands are pretty small, but it requires a boat to reach them.

The longtail arrived around 2pm, and it took all of three minutes for Leslie to declare that Don Det has made her shortlist for best places in the world. Its been said that Laos is Thailand 30 years ago, and this island made the case.

The beach itself was sandy, but the main road leading into was dirt, and dusty. There was the occasional motorbike, but the main ways of getting around the island were foot and bicycle. Little restaurants and shops sold mostly Western food.

Soon, we had taken a right onto the “Sunset Side”, and began our hike to Vixay’s Guest House, a place that Chalain and Chris pointed us at. It was one of the furthest away, so took all of ten minutes to walk to.

There were no waterfront bungalows, so we checked into one of the more expensive variety in back. It was more expensive because it had a private bathroom. It was 40,000 kip, which translates to $5. Yes, both of us slept for $5. It had a hammock, a porch and came included with a water buffalo four feet off the porch. We stayed there for a night before moving to the waterfront “bungalows”. These were really a longhouse, with four bungalows connected and a massive porch out front. Ours had two hammocks, a little desk, and a direct view of the water. It was a little closer to the restaurant than we would have liked, but for 30,000 kip, we’ll manage.

That night, we went walking and found a restaurant that was quite hopping, called “Sawnpetheon” or something like that. There, we met Sogol and Mambo, two friends from Nurnberg. Mambo was full German while Sogol’s family had moved to Germany from Iran when she was a child. They invited us to join them at “One More Bar” after dinner. Like almost all the restaurants around the Sunset side, it was a large, open-air platform looking out over the river with knee-high tables, sitting mats and triangle-pillows for leaning against.

Family is very important in this little traveller enclave for the local people. Businesses are family-run, so having a large family translates into a large staff. The Sawpetheon place was ran by a man who had three sisters in their 20s and 30s, a wife and a plethora of the next generation. The whole thing translated into a well run place and a kitchen that could crank out food.

Kien, (pronounced Ken), is the proprietor of One More Bar and a couple bungalows, but only has himself, his wife, and an 8 month old child to run the place. A group of Germans had decided to help him out, so he had four more staff at the moment. They had decorated with strings of lights, painted new signs and collected tables and sitting mats for the bar. His wife makes an excellent homemade gingerale and they were selling a gin and gingerale concoction that was quite popular.

The next day, we went out on a fishing trip with Sogol, Mambo and Kien. Kien took us out in his longtail to a place with lots of small islands and reeds. It looked like a good place to fish. Soon, Mambo, Sogol and I were up to our waist in the Mekong with bamboo polls when Sogol asked an interesting question to Kien.

“Does this river have snakes in it?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Kien.

“Are they poisonous?”

“Yes.”

That was the end of fishing for Sogol as she joined Leslie in taking pictures on shore.

Mambo and I were more interested in the net. The fishing net was about 12 feet in diameter with a chain around the edge for weight, and it was a lot of weight. You had to wrap it around your body, then fling it out into the Mekong so that it landed in a circle, with as much surface area as possible to catch the fish underneath.

Kien made it look easy.

Mambo and I had trouble even walking around the river. Kien knew every rock, where the ridges were so he stayed out of the water and generally understood how to navigate. Mambo and I were tripping, struggling with the current, kicking rocks, slipping on rocks and it wasn’t long before both of us were going for an unintentional swim.

I think it’s fair to say that Kien went fishing, as he actually got one. Mambo and I tried, but our throws looked more like really skinny jellybeans than anything like a circle. We went splashing.

We then floated down the river a bit in tubes and went back to One More Bar.

The next day was bike and dolphin day, so the four of us took off on our bikes and rode the little dirt road all around the island. We found the one bridge and made it from Don Det to Don Khan. The southern tip is where the enclave is for the endangered irrawaddy river dolphin.

A man about twelve rented us a longtail. “Man” seems like the appropriate term because he was the top salesman for his family because he spoke the best English and was constantly chain-smoking. People grow up fast here.

“You’re a little boy! You shouldn’t be smoking!” said Sogol, while he just laughed.

Soon, a young woman navigated the longtail out to the Irriwaddy, turned off the motor and anchored us on a rock. We were hoping to see one or two, but they were everywhere. They don’t jump unless its mating season, but they poked their fins up quite often. They were tough to get a picture of though. We got one that’s okay, but it’s a bit Loch Ness monster-ish.

The next day we went on another bike ride with Sogol. Mambo went to get pictures of a temple, but we had a beach goal. This day was also when we met Loy, who had just opened his restaurant with a few picnic tables. He thought there was too much Western food and people would appreciate a chance for real Lao food. His place looked a little iffy. We were full of trepidation as we ordered the Chicken Lap and sticky rice, but it was fun talking to Loy, who built his own, rather Western looking house. He showed us around as his wife cooked. We were the only two in the restaurant. At one point he showed us the master bedroom and announced he had air-con. He got a proud little grin on his face, like if a car-buff were to show you his new Porsche.

The lap arrived and was absolutely great. Lap is minced chicken with green onions, mint and some other spices I didn’t recognize, but were quite fresh. When you order street food sometimes you get sick and horrible food, but Loy and his wife delivered one of my favorite meals in Lao. Of course, there were no utensils. Instead, a small wicker basket of sticky rice came with it, so you ripped off a piece then grabbed food with that.

The last big adventure we went on in our eight days on Don Det was a kayaking trip with twenty other people, including Sogol and Mambo. It was an all day trip with about four hours of paddling, so we got rather sore. At one point, we headed down some class 2 rapids, which was a bit hairy as many people had no idea how to kayak. I was reminded how lucky we are to live in a place where there’s rivers, lakes and oceans all readily available. In other words, there were a couple groups that were clueless with a paddle.

That translated into four groups tipping….

We came out of one of the rapids with some pretty good speed, reeds and plants sticking up all around us. We had done pretty well, me in back, using the paddle like a rutter while Leslie kept us steady. Then,we paddled hard to shoot the rapids once we were angled right. Unfortunately, the group in front of us hadn’t done so well. They were floating down the river sideways, and for some reason they were both paddling backwards.

This wasn’t working. We ended up cutting right to avoid them, then had to cut back hard to avoid the reeds. We didn’t make it and went careening into the bushes.

Soon, we were taking on water as both Leslie and I were out of the boat. We grabbed the paddles to make sure we didn’t lose them and Leslie scrambled back in the boat. I pushed the boat over towards the right area, thankful that the dry bag they had given us looked to be holding up.

I scrambled back in and we were on our way.

The rest of the trip including a (techinically illegal) trip to Cambodia for lunch, a trip to the largest waterfall in Southeast Asia and ended with a sunset ride.

We spent another couple days in Don Det, just hanging around. We’ve learned that when we find somewhere we like, we just stop for awhile.

Our last day included waking up for sunrise, dinner at Loy’s and of course, a last trip to One More Bar where we shared a beer with Kien. He had another friend from Portland that was going to help him build a pizza oven out of clay and straw. I don’t know what it is about Cascadians, but the only Americans we met here were from the Pacific Northwest. When we left they were testing out different sizes of bricks.

Don Det was great and definitely one of our favorite places, but it was time for us to get moving. We had one of the hardest travel experiences coming up, and although we were dreading it, it was time to go.

Longtail, minivan, lunch, minivan, tuk-tuk, overnight bus, taxi, night in Bangkok, taxi, airplane, taxi… Chennai,India.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on December 18, 2012 by bryan

Biking the Bolaven Plateau, Laos

Our goal yesterday was to get up at 6am and be on the motorbike by 7am, but as it turned out, that didn’t happen. While I was finishing eating breakfast, Bryan went and rented the motorbike at about 9am. Later he told me while he was turning the motorbike around to test drive, he almost ran into the sign across the road. It’s okay, family and friends, this was the only incident throughout the day.

We grabbed our day packs and off we went to explore Bolvean Plateau. It took a bit of time for the both of us to feel comfortable on the motorbike, Bryan as the driver and me as the passenger. At one point we had to cross a bridge that would have been defined as non-navigable if it weren’t for the two wooden planks that ran across. We had to stay steady on one side of the bridge or else we were pretty screwed. After driving on the bridge, the barely paved roads seemed like a piece of cake.

There were no big cities around and everything was pretty rural. As a result, we saw many farm animals, including pigs, cows, chickens, and even water buffalo crossing the street. Actually, we almost hit a cow.

What better way to see how local Southern Lao people live and what their little villages look like then on a motorbike? We drove by many people in their villages and as they were walking on the side of the road. Almost all of them looked at us, smiled and waved, and said “Sabadee,” which is hello in Lao. I’m pretty sure they were amazed to see people other than Laos, especially the children, as we were the only tourists/backpackers I saw throughout the day. We received a lot of I love you’s and heart symbols by the local kids. It was incredibly cute and sweet. At one point, we stopped to see a waterfall, and there were about 20 kids sitting at the table next to us just staring. They kept saying hi over and over with the heart symbol. I wish I could have taken a picture of this moment, in fact, they probably would have loved having their picture taken. Opportunity missed. Oh well.

The Villages were small with farm animals everywhere. The houses were more like little huts elevated high on wooden stilts, probably for the rainy season. There was a lot of luscious green jungle surrounding the villages with dirt roads running through the them. The only paved road was the one main road which we were on for the most part, except when we turned into the villages to see the waterfalls.

We saw a total of three beautiful waterfalls and saw a lot of little naked children swimming in them. One of the waterfalls had little huts set next to the river where the locals set up for a day picnic. As we were walking through, one of the local guys took a picture of Bryan and me in a non-discreet way.

Towards the end of the day, my butt and upper thighs were in a lot of pain, and I could barely get on and off the motorbike. I also had the privilege of acquiring the worst raccoon eyes I have ever seen thanks to the sun and my pink and yellow fluorescent sunglasses. Life is good.

This has been one of my favorite travel days.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on December 6, 2012 by leslie

Getting to Tad Lo Falls

We woke up in the Sabaidy2 Guest House in Pakse, the transportation hub in the Southern part of Laos. Our goal for the day was to make it to Tad Lo, which is a waterfall and guesthouse area in the Bolvean plateau that had been recommended by our friends Chalain and Chris.

They had actually recommended that we take motorbikes from Pakse, but we opted to take the bus as we didn’t want the expense of two bikes per day and thought we could rent a bike in Tad Lo and explore from there, so the bus it was.

When traveling, there’s two kinds of buses. The first is the tourist bus, which is usually air-conditioned, the seats recline, it’s at least comfortable and it goes from place A to place B.

Then there’s the local bus, which is never as predictable, but always an experience.

After a quick breakfast we hopped in a three wheeled vehicle that was a bit like a small pickup truck with a cover. It took us to the local bus station, which had no pavement.

There were dogs everywhere along with people in Vietnamese-style triangular hats carrying a stick on their shoulders that had baskets hanging off both ends. We purchased the bus tickets and waited for our bus. Thirty minutes later we were shepherded onto the bus, where we were given a seat in the second to back row; by the rear door. The back row was piled with bags, so our seats wouldn’t recline. We were the only non-locals on the bus.

I couldn’t sit without my knees banging into the seat in front of me. The whole seating apparatus was about 80% the size of the USA, so I just didn’t fit too well. The sun beat down through the window, quickly making me hot. There was a curtain, tied in a knot that could be used to provide some shade, so after untying it, and beating as much sand and dust off it as possible I pulled it partway close.

The smell of marijuana soon filled the bus as the guy two seats in front of me started smoking the largest joint I’d ever seen. I’m not sure what it was rolled in, but it looked like a corn husk. Large bags of rice began coming in the door and were piled in the aisle, only to see more Lao people get on and begin using the rice bags as seats, as well as the bags in the back. A woman named Ped, sitting on the rice actually pretty good English, and we talked to her until a seat opened up front and she pounced on it.

Finally, the guy who worked on the bus got on and sat at the rear door. He shut the door, letting me see that only three of the four window panes in the door had windows.

Soon, the bus was rolling down the road. You can imagine the dust bowl that the bus soon became. Fortunately, I’m reading “Dune”, so the dust seemed apropos. Propeller fans connected to the roof of the bus oscillated, keeping the heat from being unbearable.

The Bolvean plateau spread out before us, soon reminding us that the vast majority of Southern Laos is very rural. Wooden structures that only partially obscure the elements created houses while pigs, chickens, dogs and the occasional water buffalo ran all over the streets. Trees, bushes, plants and farms made the rolling hills very green and jungle-y, but somehow dry at the same time.

Small farming villages flew by as farmers sold their wares to each other in local markets. Small standing pools of water on the side of the road reminded us that although the risk is small, this is a malarial part of the world… meaning those mosquitoes that are usually just annoying and itchy can give you malaria.

Our guidebook told us that the ride should be about two hours, so after an hour and a half, we started asking if we were close to Tad Lo.

“Tad Lo?” we’d ask, gesturing forward.

Soon, we knew we were close, but all the locals began arguing about where we should get off. “Yes” and “no” were really the only words we understood. We decided to go with the advice of a woman in front, who seemed to know what she was talking about. Ped agreed with her, so we went with that.

Once we got off, we were offered a ride to Tad Lo for 20,000 kip, which is about $2.40. We took it, but it wasn’t worth it. We could have walked.

Finally, we found the waterfall, although this was Tad Hong, a waterfall a further down the river that is surrounded by accommodation. We ended up getting a bungalow set a little back in the jungle for 60,000 kip. Tad Hong is only about ten feet, but makes up for the lack of height with impressive width.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the woods. We found some weird plants that embed themselves five feet up a tree, Leslie was attacked by fire ants after sitting on a bamboo fence and some really cute puppies attacked my sandals.

The guest house has a nice restaurant situated so you can see over the water. There’s more impressive glass-windowed air-conditioned houses set right over the waterfall, but those are 180,000 kip, or about $22 a night. That’s out of our budget. Those appear to be filled up with 60 year old Germans who arrive by the tourist-bus load.

Good for them, and they’ve seen the waterfall, but they missed the culture. We’ll take the local.

Tomorrow, motorbiking around the Bolevean Plateau.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on December 3, 2012 by bryan

Ubon Ratchathani to Pakse

We woke up as we rolled into the largest eastern city in Thailand, Ubon Ratchathani.  The night train was pretty nice with the sleepers running along the side of the train as opposed to six per cabin as in Europe. There was a permanent bunk above with two seats that would convert to a bed underneath.  All in all, it was pretty nice as there were curtains to give you privacy and a reading light.  The only problem was that the coupling between the cars squeeked loudly, keeping Leslie awake.

We woke up in the morning and immediately made a fateful decision.  We got on the “songtheauw,” which is a flatbed truck-taxi with benches along the side.  It sat about a dozen people comfortably.  We knew the songtheauw would take us to the bus station for 20 baht (about 66 cents) as opposed to the taxi for 150 baht. It took us about an hour, which meant we missed the direct bus from Ratchathani to Pakse, so we knew we were about to begin the journey with mystery transportation. 

I bought some “mooyoung”, which is a spicy mystery meat (I think chicken) cooked into a hotdog shape, wrapped in plastic and then kept warm by being wrapped in banana leafs.  It was pretty good, and did the job of filling up the stomach.  Leslie got some sort of sweet rice cakes. 

An hour on a mini-bus later saw us pull up to Chong Mek on the Thai border.  We then got a couple motorbike taxis that took us about a quarter mile to the border.  We could have walked it, but we didn’t know where to go so I guess it was a wash. 

We walked through the border, which was one of the least secure we’ve seen.  Passing from Thailand to Laos was quite a difference.  First off, the pave road ended as the little Laos city on the border was all dirt.  There was also nothing forcing you to go to immigration, although we crossd the 100 meters of city to find the immigration office, which had a “back after lunch” sign up.   We paid the $70 visa fee (in USD) and went looking for a taxi. 

No taxi.

There were a couple motorbikes, but the only form of transportation was a minibus that wasn’t going to leave until all 10 seats were filled. We ended up sitting at the attached “restaurant” for about two hours. The restaurant was outdoor picnic tables under a wobbly wooden structure, a camp stove and three cows wandering about ringing their cowbells.  Leslie got quite hungry so we tried to order rice.  We ended up with two rices and an unidentifiable meat dish.  I think it was pork, but there was also some bone and big chunks of fat in it.  The broth was okay though, and it didn’t make me sick, so I’ll call it a winner.

After two hours we realized that the guy who had agreed to take us to Pakse was gone, although his van was still there.  There was another guy in his place who quickly agreed to the same price, loaded us into a different van and we were on our way.  I’m not exactly sure what happened there, but no worries, we ended up where we were going.

An hour later we arrived in Pakse. The last form of transportation ended up being a small motorbike with a side-car that barely fit Leslie and I.  The guy had to push-start it, but managed to get us to the Sabaidy 2 guest house, where we checked into a pretty nice room for about $10. 

We have two main goals from here.  First, is the Tad Lo waterfall area in the Bolvean plateau.  The second is Don Det, which is a little island in the south by Cambodia.  The islands are actually in the Mekong River, which spreads out and flows around them.  Our original plan was to ride motorbikes in a big loop from Pakse, but doing that would be prohibitively expensive.  Instead, we’re going to take public transpo, then rent motorbikes for a couple day trips.  We’ve got one more night booked here in Pakse, then off to Tad Lo waterfall.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on December 2, 2012 by bryan

Night Train to Laos

Greetings!

We’ve decided that we’re going to try and be better about letting everyone know exactly where we are.  We’ve been trying to write bits about each city we’ve been to, which has been working, but as a result, we have a tendency to be a bit behind.  Earlier today we got up a blog about Melaka, Malaysia, which was about a month ago. From there, we went and spent three weeks in Yangon, Myanmar with Chalain and Chris.  We’ll get some stories up about that later, but figured it would be nice to let you know where we are. 

As of this writing, we’re back in Bangkok, which has once again sucked us back.  This time, because it was the closest airport hub to Laos.  Chalain and Chris convinced us that the southern part of Laos is awesome, so after we post this we’re off to catch the night train.

The other big event from today was we bought an India guidebook.  We finally got our India visas in Burma, so have opened the door to the subcontinent.  We bought a used copy of the India Lonely Planet from a kid who was running the shop, but later found that we were missing a dozen pages (including the map!)  Note to self… always check.

Fortunately, when we got back, the father was running the shop and accepted the return without a receipt or anything.  Then, he asked us to wait a couple minutes to get a new copy.

His son pulled up on a motorbike with a “fresh” used book.  

That said, I have one minute on the hard-wired computer we use to check bank accounts and whatnot.  Gotta go. 

Next stop.  Laos.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on December 1, 2012 by bryan