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February 21, 2007
Back into the Scramble
On Tuesday we made our way over to the oldest mosque in KL, back over by Merdeka Square. Tourists were allowed to walk through during non-prayer times so we decided to walk around. The only catch was that proper dress was required. For me, that meant pants. For Kelly, that meant being completely covered head to toe, including hair. I felt somewhat guilty that all I had to do was zip on the other half of my shorts to create pants (what a brilliant invention!), but I wasn't the one making the rules. Regardless, I was very impressed with the place. For a center of worship, it was gorgeous.
After that, we walked over to the Islamic Arts Museum and checked out a really cool temporary exhibit about spices. So cool! Kelly and I both being suckers for cooking, we examined each display with the care of a curator. It was great. After that we made our way upstairs and took a look at the various permanent exhibits. There were some amazing displays on textiles, weaponry, and calligraphy, but the coolest thing was the architecture section in which they had scaled reproductions of some of the most famous and disparate mosques around the world, from China all the way to Morroco. It was fascinating!
The museum was beautiful and truly top of the line, but unfortunately I walked away with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth for two reasons. One, they had a small display with a timeline about the plight of the Palestinian people that was, in my opinion, completely unnecessary. Not only was it out of place in an art museum, but it also managed to leave out quite a few facts. I am all for a Palestinian state and believe that the only way there will ever be peace is if Palestinian independence is achieved. However, the facts were skewed and it was the wrong place for something like that.
Second, in the gift shop, there were quite a few books detailing traditional Muslim beliefs and practices. Now, I suppose you can find similar books in any right-wing religious fundamentalist book store, but these books said word for word how women should be beaten if they refuse to "beautify" themselves for their busbands, how they should not leave the house unless accompanied by their husbands, how they should be praying five times a day at home (not at a mosque), and how once they are married they should avoid contact with adult males who are not their husband. Wow. I can't believe that mainstream Islam would profess such beliefs, but there it was, written out in several books on sale for the general public. It's hard to understand something so different, which certainly must account for a lot of the problems we're dealing with these days on a global scale.
After the museum we walked down the street to the national mosque, a gigantic complex complete with a huge prayer hall (capacity of +3000), a massive library, big lecture rooms, and much more. Once again Kelly was forced to don the robe and hair wrap while I undid my shoes and zipped on pants to my shorts. I wanted to wander and explore but Kelly was burning up due to the heat so we only made a quick tour of the place. Poor girl.
After a lazy evening and early night, we got up once again to cross the border. Hopping on a bus and retracing our route to Singapore, I dozed off while reading "The Inheritance of Loss," by Kiran Desai. Don't let my sleep fool you--it's a great read. Anyhow, we got back to Singapore and pretty much made our way to the airport. Though traveling from bus to subway to bus to airport is never fun, Singapore makes it about as painless as possible. Even the budget terminal at the airport has good food, free internet, a decent bookstore, and run of the mill duty free stuff.
We were sitting on the benches waiting for our flight (non-stop to Guangzhou) when they announced the gate number. Suddenly, without warning, there was a massive influx of people all running, shoving, and elbowing their way towards the door. I had somehow forgotten that this was par for the course in China, and it really caught me off guard. I had an extremely bitter reaction to it and was not pleased. What was the rush? Why did that guy feel the need to blatantly cut me in line? It was as if the time in Laos just strolling around without care or worry erased my memory of the Chinese way.
I had to swallow my anger and annoyance and remember what I've dealt with over the past year and a half. Maybe I was just tired. Either way, the flight itself did not help. I was surrounded by people that either had never been on a plane before or simply had no concept of basic plane etiquette. Behind me there was an older woman (mid sixties) who felt the need to kick my chair incessantly. The first few times I gave her a look. The next few times I asked her in Chinese to stop. After that I got up, leaned over and said in English, "STOP." Not my finest moment, but I really wasn't in the mood.
On my left was another older guy who felt it was his right to reach over into my seat compartment with the in flight magazine and grab my passport and inspect my customs documents. I didn't even say anything to him because I was just too befuddled by the whole thing. Who does that? Anyhow, the vitriolic feelings eventually subsided and by the time we landed I was throwing elbows with the best of them. I even hip checked some guy trying to pass me as we were leaving the airplane and boxed out a few people by baggage claim in order to give Kelly room to grab her stuff. Just like riding a bike!
All in all, it was one of the most incredible trips I've ever taken in my life, and opened up my eyes to a whole new side of Asia that I'm dying to explore even more of. It also paints China in a whole new light, both good and bad. I was dying for a good hunan meal, but less excited about the crowds. It's a give and take. Anyhow, for those who didn't catch it before, the following is a link to my pictures from the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594555283382/
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February 19, 2007
KL
Once again we got up early, grabbed our passports, and headed for another border crossing. The Singapore-Malaysia border reminded me a lot of the Hong Kong-Mainland China border because the Singapore side was completely spotless, very well organized, and extremely efficient. The Malaysian side, on the other hand, was a quite a bit more chaotic. We weren't sure for a while if we were waiting on line or just hanging out outside, since there was no distinction between the two. We made it though, and got two more stamps in the process.
Arriving in Kuala Lumpur ("KL," in the hip vernacular), it felt like we had left civilization for a rundown, loud, dirty pigsty of a city. It was a bit of a ride awakening. Then again, I guess that's what happens when you get dropped off at the bus station (notoriously dirty areas in every city). Actually, I think I would have thought KL was dirty and disorganized no matter what--absolutely nothing can compare to the pristine streets of Singapore. I think I also had the thoughts in my head of all the Singaporeans who warned us, "KL is dangerous! Watch your pockets! It's very dirty! Don't hold hands unless you're married!" Again, very similar to Hong Kongers talking about the mainland.
Anyhow, we grabbed our stuff off the bus, I conveniently left the one souvenir I bought in Laos behind (a nice black and white drawing of Wat Xieng Thong that I will never see again
For dinner we found a cheap Indian place and chowed down once more on some curry goodness. From there we made our way to KL's chinatown, to see if there were any New Years festivities. It didn't appear there was anything organized, though there were a ton of people and we enjoyed the people watching quite a bit. Drinking a beer at an outdoor table by a restaurant, we reflected on all of the amazing things we had done so far, from elephants to cooking. As we were reminiscing, I thought I saw an old friend out of the corner of my eye--Jack Hagihara, former member of my singing group from college. What are the odds though?
Just in case, I shouted his name and got up to get a better look at him. The person did not respond and continued walking across the way so I didn't get a good look at him. "Oh well," I thought. However, the more I contemplated the possibility, the more real it seemed. Last I had heard he was in Taiwan, which means he would also be on vacation for Chinese spring festival. Hmmm. I decided it couldn't hurt to go ahead and email him from the internet cafe back at the hostel. Though I didn't have a cellphone with me, I could at least give him the info of where I was staying.
So I went ahead and did just that. As I walked upstairs to find Kelly in the common room, I hear a male voice say, "Ari? Ari?!?!" Sure enough--Jack Hagihara in the flesh. How's that for a small world? Unfortunately he was catching a bus to Singapore in an hour, but we did manage to catch up for a while and chat about Wesleyan and some of the old guys. It's great to see old friends anytime, but when you're traveling in the middle of a foreign city and you run across one unexpectedly, it's even better.
The next day we walked over to the KL tower in the "Golden Triangle" central business district in order to have the buffet lunch at the top. We took the elevator up about 280m and were immediately rewarded with the incredible sights of the city from the rotating restaurant, complete with an unparalleled view of the Petronas Towers. The Towers, currently the tallest building in the world, are spectacular. If any of you have seen the movie "Entrapment," it's the big building where the make the heist at the end. And yes, it looks just as cool in real life.
We stuffed ourselves silly and marveled at the city. From up where we were, you could see mountains in the distance, highrises, skyscrapers, stadiums, mosques, and everything in between. We both immediately changed our opinion about the city and decided that the bus station is probably the worst area around. From there we walked through the heat to the base of the Towers. About halfway there, three Pakistani guys randomly stopped us and asked if they could take a picture with us. We weren't quite sure what that was about but we were happy to oblige. I think they wanted a photo with an American girl but Kelly thinks they were just intrigued by caucasians. Who knows.
At the Towers, we immediately sought refuge in the air conditioning of the massive mall at the bottom. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but the mall had an incredible English book store, a pretty sweet Tower Records (no pun intended, but I was amused), a Dunkin' Donuts, a Famous Amos, and an A&W restaurant. Holy western products, batman! We hung out there for a while and then hopped on the light rail to Merdeka Square.
The square is a huge grassy area crowned by the tallest flagpole in the world, at somewhere around 100m meters high. It's a pretty big flag too. This was the location at which the Malaysian government declared independence in 1957. Across the street is the Malaysian supreme court, a magnificent building that combines colonial and moorish architecture. We decided to sit around on the grass for a while and day dream but we kept getting interrupted by groups of Asian tourists wanting to take pictures with us.
Now, this happens in China for sure, but I had never experienced so many in a single day! Again, we were flummoxed as to the reason (Kelly's non-black hair? Our Americanism? Simple white skin? Both of us wearing shorts? A caucasian couple?) but we rolled with it and joked around. I kept saying we should start going up to strangers and ask to take pictures with them, but Kelly nixed that idea.
After dinner at a Thai restaurant in the Central Market, we spent a bit of time in another Hindu temple. I am embarrassingly ignorant when it comes to Hindu religious practices, but we did manage to catch the end of what appeared to be some sort of evening ritual ceremony. The religious-studies major in me also wakes up at these moments and I feel like I should be there with a notebook furiously scribbling down all the interesting similarities and differences with the semitic religions and with other non-traditional forms of worship. When it comes to Hinduism, though, I can't quite get past the fact that Kali has got to be scariest god out there.
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February 17, 2007
Hands On
After waking up and changing hostels (making sure, of course, that we returned the sheets and towels on time), Kelly and I began to explore one of the best areas of Singapore-Little India. I really believe that every city (and neighborhood) has a distinct rhythm and vibe that is directly related to its sounds, smells, and people. Chinese cities often fall short on the first two but make up for it with the people. Little India really excels in all three.
Every store with speakers was playing traditional or modern Indian music. TV's were showing Bollywood music videos. Stores were selling Indian spices, teas, curries, and drinks. The chatter of various Indian languages was ubiquitous. There was a Hindu temple on every other street corner. While I have plans to get to the real India sometime in the near future, I felt like this would be as close as I got for a while. That was just fine though, because I really took to the place right away. Just think--India without any chance of contracting the plague!
Anyhow, we picked a random restaurant for lunch (out of the many choices) and sat down. As we looked around the place, we noticed that, a) we were the non-Indians in the place, b) we had no idea how or what to order, and c) everybody was eating with their hands. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me, but I had never seen people eat without utensils before. Luckily we had a very friendly and knowledgeable waiter who gave us a thirty-second rundown of the entire menu and helped us order. He even tracked down some forks, which was nice. While I know there are around a billion people around the world eating with their hands, I was happy to stick with the other four billion.
After an incredible south-Indian feast, we walked around through several churches and mosques. One mosque in particular was very educational and was doing everything possible to distance themselves from the radical right that everyone associates with terrorists. I think it was a very admirable effort but I was disappointed in one small part. They had dozens of posters around the walls of the outer mosque that were trying to dispel various myths about Islam (e.g., that it gives no rights to women, that they hate America, etc.), many of which were extremely informative. They made a point of noting how Muslims believe in the holy nature of Jesus and that they have a major connection with Christians and with Christian belief. Unfortunately, there was not a single mention of Jews, the close historical relationship with Judaism, or the current efforts to live side by side with Jews. Maybe it was just me and where I'm coming from, but it seemed to be a conspicuous absence.
After the mosque we went to buy our bus tickets to Kuala Lumpur, which turned out to be an amusing experience. We approached one vendor and asked the price and availability. He gave the price but said, "I don't have exactly what you're looking for, I recommend trying someplace else." Usually in China, they'd say, "This is it--take it or leave it." So we tried another vendor. They did have the time we wanted and said the price was fifty each. I went to pull out the money and the lady said, "You guys seem nice, I'll give it to you for forty each." I hadn't even asked for a discount! Whle negotiating travel arrangement can usually be a big pain, this was a pleasant surprise.
Walking from there to some of the more historic, colonial buildings, I was really struck by Singapore's beauty. It felt a little strange and perhaps a little sterile because it was so freakishly clean, but it was quite an achievement. While it lacks a harbor and skyline like Hong Kong, Singapore makes up for it in other ways, such as its diversity, location, safety. The subway system was unparalleled (at least in my experience). Each stop was listed in English, Malay, Chinese, and Hindi. How cool!
Anyhow, the next two days were spent relaxing, wandering the streets, eating TONS of tasty Indian food, napping, doing some window shopping, and eating some more. On Sunday we decided to brave the crowds and celebrate Chinese New Year in Singapore's Chinatown. While it didn't compare to the Hong Kong crowds from Christmas, it was still wall to wall with people and we had to surf the crowds out of the MRT stop to get anywhere. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised that no one batted an eye when we spoke Chinese. We chatted with a couple of store owners and food vendors, none of which were even remotely impressed with us. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in such an ethnically diverse place.
After we saw the lights and ate some snacks, we decided that the year of the pig (or boar, depending on who you ask) would roll in just fine even if we didn't wait until midnight. We retired early and took advantage of some English-language TV. I'm perfectly happy not watching things like "American Idol" on a day to day basis, but it was sort of fun for a little while...
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February 14, 2007
No Torsos!
We woke up Tuesday and headed out for an all-day cooking class. As much I like to eat, it just makes sense to learn some official cooking and I was geared up for it. We paid a tidy sum and chose which seven courses we wanted to learn. I went with the pad thai, curry paste, green curry chicken, tom yum soup, papaya salad and several other side dishes. It all looked glorious in the brochure so I was banking on my skills to fill me up for the day.
Our guide in this endeavor was a pleasantly plump young Thai woman who was possibly the funniest non-native English speaker I've ever met. She was throwing sarcasm around left and right (e.g. "To see if the oil's hot, put in a drop of water. Or just stick your finger in it--if your finger burns it's ready."). She had one liners (e.g. "The onion and scallion go together like Romeo & Juliet."). She even poked fun at us in an appropriate old-friend sort of way. It was great! And, eating both my creations and half of Kelly's I stuffed myself from 9am to 4pm.
After a quick nap we went back to the Night Bazaar and made a handful of purchases. Or, at least, the girls did. I pretty much observed. One thing that I thought was interesting, though, was the amount of Hebrew around. I saw a bunch by one of the hostels near us but I wrote it off as an isolated occurrence. Nope. Right in the middle of the night market was a huge restaurant owned by a couple of former Jerusalem residents who were making a killing selling falafel, shwarma, and Israeli salads. Walking around, I even heard quite a bit of Hebrew being spoken. For such a small country, they sure do get around!
For dinner we met up with Keely, my friend and two year PiA Chiang Mai veteran. She led us (on her awesome motorbike) to a great little place on the river where we chowed down and yet more amazing Thai food. It was great to reconnect with Keely and hear about her travels and experiences. I was also supremely impressed with her Thai. It put a little perspective on how far I've come in Chinese and how far I still have to go.
After dinner we retired to the rooftop bar to celebrate Tricia's 21st birthday in as much style as Chiang Mai had to offer. The rooftop bar was just that--a bar on a roof. It was pretty cool! I tried unsuccessfully to have Tricia come of age to the tune of a hip dance club but she decided that imbibing a few buckets of mai tai on the roof would suffice. Probably a good call.
We woke up early yet again and headed to the airport. It was time for another couple of passport stamps--leaving Thailand and re-entering Singapore. We arrived in the late morning and took the immaculate subway to our hostel. The hostel, though highly recommended in our guidebook, was one of a kind. It was easily the most unfriendly place I have ever stayed and I'm still unsure why it had to be that way.
There was an extensive list of rules posted up by the check-in desk (that was also posted on several other walls) that included the following: no wakeup calls, no using the [highly towel-like] sheet as a towel, no public displays of affection beyond holding hands, no showing of bare torsos, no checking out after 10am, no leaving your sheets in the room, no leaving on the lights or air conditioner, etc. These don't seem too over the top until you got to the bottom of the sheet and it informed us that any infraction of the rules was punishable by immediate and conclusive dismissal. In other words, get out and don't come back. Wow.
Anyhow, we took the MRT to Chinatown and waded through the new year's crowds to get to a magnificent Hindu temple. Having never been to a Hindu temple before, I was totally overstimulated with the the sights, sounds, and smells. It was amazing! The architecture is pretty incredible to begin with, but add in the people, the statues, and the offerings, and it's very cool. The Hindu temple also seemed to serve as a community center, of sorts, where people could meet and hang out. Again, it appeared to be much more active than most Chinese temples.
After wandering around for a while around several other Singapore neighborhoods, we took a bus to the Night Safari Zoo. I had my reservations about shelling out a lot of money to see a bunch of animals sleeping, but I was way off on that one. We got inside and the place could not have been more alive! We decided to go all out and pay for the tram ride around the park and were rewarded with one of the best experiences of the whole trip.
We saw anteaters, lions, tigers, deer, hairy pigs, rhinos, vultures, hippos, and hyenas. What made it so incredible was that most of them were only an arm's length away! I could swear that they were fake at the beginning of the ride, but I was wrong. It turns out that they were very much alive and very much active. I was speechless watching my namesake, the lions, walking around and yawning. I could learn a thing or two from them--apparently the males sleep for about 20 hours a day and then spend the rest of the time taking care of the kids and eating the food that the lionesses have hunted. Not bad.
After the ride we walked around through some of the trails and got right up close to even more cool animals including bats, flying squirrels, and pumas. We then had a late dinner and celebrated Tricia's birthday one more time by buying her ice cream. What newly-crowned 21 year old doesn't want ice cream and a trip to the zoo on her birthday? We made our way home and went to bed. Unfortunately Tricia's vacation with us had come to an end and she had to get up way before the crack of dawn in order to catch her 6am flight back to the States. We bid her goodbye and hoped it wouldn't be too long before we'd get to vacation together again.
[For those of you who are interested and can't wait, here are pictures from the trip. For those of you who want to be surprised, hold off and I'll post the link again at the end-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594555283382/]
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February 12, 2007
Five Meals a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Unfortunately Kelly woke up still pretty sick and Tricia and I had to put her right back to bed after having a late breakfast. This was extremely unfortunate, seeing as how Kelly had been talking about eating Thai food in Thailand since I met her, but we hoped a little rest would take care of the problem. Tricia and I decided to explore on our own for a while and check on Kelly in the afternoon.
We walked down the main street by our hostel towards the old city center and got a feel for the lay of the land. First and foremost, I was incredibly struck by the number of tourists in town, something that is decidedly absent in my China life. And why not? The city was beautiful. There were cool wats on every corner, clear blue skies, smiles from every Thai person, and a clean city. I could tell right away why so many people take to the place.
There seemed to be some special activities going on for the weekend--fairs, street vendors, etc.-- and it provided for a very cool atmosphere. After some 10 baht pad thai from a food guy in the street, Tricia and I decided to educate ourselves by going to the Chiang Mai Culture & Arts Museum. I think we both learned quite a bit and the museum was pretty well done. The basics: Chiang Mai was started back in 1296 by a King of the Lanna kingdom and prospered as a cultural and religious center (with Buddhist connections to Luang Prabang), it was occupied by Burma for a while in the 18th c., and it didn't become an official province of Thailand until 1932.
My favorite part of the museum was actually one of the temporary exhibitions featuring watercolors of the city. The artist was there and I chatted with him for a while. He grew up outside of Chiang Mai in a small village but excelled in math and engineering enough to go to college and major in architecture. After working in that field for about twenty years, he decided to quit in favor of pursuing art. He now teaches painting at both universities in the city and even has a school for kids in which he never turns anyone away, regardless of their financial situation. He was a pretty cool guy and I was happy to buy one of his smaller works.
After the museum we walked through the Sunday market and admired some of the artwork and trinkets for sale. There were also a fair number of street musicians as well as students approaching foreigners to practice their English. It was very cute. And, me being me, I decided it was time for another meal. We consulted the handy dandy Lonely Planet and decided on some pizza which was spectacular.
Tricia and I then went back to the hostel to see if Kelly had recovered. She hadn't. We carried her down the street to get her some soup at the incredibly hip Art Cafe and then put her back to bed for the second time that day. It was sad. I decided that I would take it upon myself to eat for both of us and had my fifth meal of the day. I'm a martyr, what can I say?
Tricia being Tricia, she decided we should inspect the night bazaar, supposedly a shopper's paradise. I can't say I was thrilled, but I was happy to go along. After a pleasant evening stroll we found the area and started to peruse. It basically reminded me a lot of Shenzhen with tons of fake designer clothes/bags, pirated DVDs, watches, and lots of other things that my mother would refer to as chazerei. It was obvious that superior bargaining skills were essential.
After that we wandered into a little building with a kickboxing ring surrounded by some bars. Seemed like fun so we sat for a drink. Unfortunately the fight was obviously staged and the two guys were basically just playing around. Couple that with the fact that we quickly realized we were surrounded by prostitutes either looking for or accompanying older white guys, and we were out of there pretty quickly. It definitely an aspect of Thai culture that is unfortunate yet virtually unavoidable. We headed back and went to bed hoping that would be our last experience with the Thai sex-tourism industry.
We woke up the next day and Kelly was rejuvenated enough to head out on the town. Having done the museum the day before, we decided to see some of the more famous wats and went directly to Wat Pra Singh, perhaps the city's best. On the way we literally walked right into one of Kelly's friend's from high school that she hadn't seen in years. What a small world! After making plans for the next day, we continued on.
The temple had a handful of amazing buildings and peaceful gardens but to me there was something missing. I guess after seeing the wats in Luang Prabang, hardly anything compares. The Chiang Mai temples seemed somehow... less holy. I can't put my finger on anything in particular, but it was missing something. It was nice to walk around though. I also encountered a huge spider that was fun to watch for a few minutes.
We went from Wat Pra Singh to a small restaurant for lunch and I burnt off a few taste buds on the spicy papaya salad (yum!). After that it was off to the day market for some more shopping. I suppose I would have been really interested in the foods and goods available if I hadn't been living in China for two years, but it seemed relatively tame compared to some Chinese markets I've been to. That said, it was an area of the city lacking a lot of tourists which was pretty cool.
Eventually we met up with Nell, current PiA-er in the city who filled us in on her experience thus far. I always enjoy meeting PiAers in situ because you can really get a feel for what their life is like. It seems like a pretty amazing post and it was great to hear tell teaching stories as well as random anecdotes of the other fellows. All in all, a very relaxing day.
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February 10, 2007
On the Water
We woke up early yet again and rushed out to catch the boat to the border. Though we thought about flying to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, a lack of tickets and excessive prices made our minds for us. We hopped on a slow boat and settled in for two long days on the water. Unfortunately we got to the boat a bit late and were some of the last passengers aboard. Much like in middle school, it meant we got the crappy seats. In this case, it meant the wooden benches towards the back end of the vessel.
Since the boat was packed, we had almost no room to maneuver and, as such, my rear end fell asleep periodically throughout the day. It was less than ideal. It also happened that the boat was full of foreigners (mostly European) who all decided that the boat was a lot like their local pub where everyone is expected to chain-smoke and drink cheap whisky. It really did smell like a bar, despite the open window-spaces on the side of the boat. I basically resigned myself to have a less-than-comfortable day and started to read and daydream.
We arrived in Pak Beng, a midway point in Laos, at around 6pm. The boat unloaded both passengers and baggage, and we were on our own to find food and housing for the night. Sitting in the back of the boat, we caught the end of the announcement that the boat would be leaving at 7:15am the next morning. Fair enough. The Pak Beng pier was at the bottom of a very steep hill and there were a ton of little kids waiting by the boat to try and make a buck carrying luggage up the hill. I said no thanks but felt almost compelled to give the kid who grabbed Tricia's bag some money anyway--it was twice the size of him!
Anyhow, we made our way up the hill, shopped a couple of hostels on the only street around, and settled on a place with a lack of hot water but surprisingly clean rooms. Exploring the small town, we quickly realized that it really only existed as a midway point between Luang Prabang and the Thai border. It was nothing but a few restaurants and hostels. Oh, and one very fancy looking and out-of-place hotel. I can't imagine who they're trying to cater to because anyone with the money to stay there would probably fly over the border. Anyhow, we actually found an Indian restaurant for dinner which, despite being sub-par Indian food, was surprisingly refreshing.
We stumbled out of bed at the crack of dawn the next morning and walked back down the hill. I could tell that something was wrong immediately because there were only four or five other people down by the boat--not the eighty or ninety who were there the day before. Huh. Well, it turns out the other people there were sitting in the back of the boat the previous day and also failed to hear that we were supposed to meet at the other pier. Oops.
There happened to be a younger Lao guy who spoke great English and decided to broker a deal with us--take his boat and we could pay half price. I was fine with that and we started to board the boat when an older Lao guy from a different boat started to yell at him. We stopped in our tracks and waited to see what was going on. The younger guy told us that we had to go back up the hill to buy official tickets and go on the other boat. I was annoyed about having to go back up the hill but, with no control over the situation, began the ascent once again. As we started to walk away, the younger guy whispered that we would walk up and then back down to his boat once the other guy left. I believe his exact words were, "We make old man think we leave, then we go back."
Eventually the older guy did leave on his boat and we went back down to the first boat and hopped on, paying half price under the table. I would have paid double for these conditions--not only was the boat itself nicer, but we were sharing the eighty passenger cabin with all of four other people, two Brits and two Parisians. We settled in and enjoyed better weather, more room, good company, and a tasty breakfast.
All was well in the world until about an hour and half into the ride when a speedboat buzzes up next to us and motions the driver to take the boat over to the shore. It seems that we were getting "pulled over" by the Lao boat police. A couple of serious official-looking guys boarded us and looked around. Clearly there was a problem, but we didn't have any idea what was going on for a while. They spoke to the three Lao guys running the boat and, while nobody raised a voice, we could tell they weren't happy.
After about five minutes, the younger guy who made the deal with us came over and informed us that we had to pay more money to equal the official ticket price. I really didn't care and just wanted the boat to get moving so I forked over the money immediately. The Brits were a little short on cash so we spotted them and that was pretty much that. Was it a bribe? Was it the money going to the ticket office? Who knows. My guess is that the older Lao guy from the pier radioed a friend with some authority and told him that the younger guy was taking passengers away from the other boat, potentially run by a friend of the older Lao guy. This caused the boat police (or tourist police or whoever it was) to track us down.
What was interesting to me was that nobody lost their cool at all during the argument. They didn't show any emotion whatsoever--just a calm exchange of words and a lot of standing around. I really wish I had understood Lao at that moment but I had to settle with imagining the dialogue in my head. Alls well that ends well though and we were on our way after about half an hour.
The sky really cleared up by noon and we enjoyed a gorgeous day going down one of the most famous rivers in the world. Periodically we passed small villages on the water or saw animals grazing by the shore. Some of the scenery was monotonous but overall it was fantastic. Between staring off the side and reading, I also found time to do some crosswords, play some poker, drink some Beer Lao, and even learn an important life skill. Tricia fixed my technique in shuffling a deck of cards and I feel that I will be eternally grateful.
We arrived at the border around 5:20pm and had to hustle in order to go through Lao exit immigration, hop in a little boat to cross the river, and stamp into Thailand. We had the unfortunate experience of dealing with the only rude Lao guy of the whole trip who got furious with us for refusing to take his minivan to Chiang Mai. I'm not sure why he went off the way he did but it took us by surprise. Regardless, we took the last motorboat across the river and made it to the Thai side at almost exactly 6pm.
I chuckled as I walked up to the office because it was easily the most lax border I had ever seen. There was no fence, no gate, no officials, no nothing. If we had wanted to, we could have walked right through without talking to anyone. Instead, I knocked on the window and got some guy's attention to hand us the necessary forms. We stamped in without a problem (stamp #10 overall) and went to try and negotiate a ride to Chiang Mai, a five or six drive from where we were.
Being with the two French travelers, we thought we had enough leverage to bargain down the price a bit. We talked to a tuk tuk driver and he called a friend on his phone who agreed to take five people for the price of four. The deal was, we had to make sure that all of us bought tickets. I wasn't quite sure how that was going to work, but he convinced us it would work out. Four of us arrived to the minivan and we handed over two 500 baht bills, the agreed upon price. The driver's friend changed the two 500's into ten 100's and proceeded to look away and hold out two 100 baht bills. I was a bit confused but decided to play along and took the bills. The second French guy arrived a moment later and the organizer announced that we had to pay for the fifth ticket, at which point we handed him back the two bills he had just given us. Whatever works!
We boarded around 7:30pm and were on our way. The road between the border and Chiang Mai was incredibly windy and unlit, but our driver seemed to know what he was doing, as he was speeding the entire way. I wasn't thrilled about going around hairpin turns at that velocity, but I didn't really have a say in the matter. I was also more concerned about Kelly who seemed to be getting hit with a bout of food poisoning at a really bad time. Sure enough, she had to toss her cookies at one of the rest stops and felt like she had been hit by a truck--hardly ideal at anytime, but especially when you're in transit. Luckily our psychotic driver got us to Chiang Mai safe and sound in record time (less than four hours) and we signed right into the hostel where he dropped us off. Only took two days, but we made it.
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February 8, 2007
The Trek
Up early once again with the roosters, we quickly finished packing, magically found bagels (real bagels! in Laos!!) for breakfast, and then hopped in a minivan for a thirty minute ride out to a camp where we would begin our two day trek on elephants. I can't say that I've had a burning desire to ride around on elephants in the Asian jungle, but once the idea was proposed to me, I was pretty psyched about it.
As we sat around the village waiting for our elephants to arrive, Thong, our twenty-year old guide for the next 48 hours, filled us in on some basics regarding our hike, the elephants, and how he ended up working as a guide. It turns out the elephants are a bit different from African elephants and are used primarily for logging now. They are smaller than their African counterparts and only the males have tusks. They also spend three quarters of their day eating so I was sure we'd get along.
After a little while the mahouts, the elephant trainers/drivers brought the animals over and we began. All I could think was that they were magnificent creatures. I suppose I had seen elephants before in zoos or circuses, but it's totally different when you're right on top of one. My mahout in particular seemed to have an incredible rapport with his elephant. He sat right on top of the head and talked to the animal in between singing some slow melodic folk songs. I'm still kicking myself for accidentally deleting a video of the guy singing these incredible songs, but I'm guessing my digital camera would not have done him justice anyway.
After about an hour and a half, we hopped off the elephants and fed them some sugar cane. It was really cool to watch the elephants grab the pieces with their trunks and chomp down on the cane with one loud crunch. I didn't want to leave them but we had to have a quick lunch and get moving in order to make our destination before the sunset. The hike was really more of a walk at this stage and I enjoyed chatting with Thong about his village and about the village where we were going.
Northern Lao has several hill tribe minority groups with long and varied histories. Thong was a Khamu who grew up outside of Luang Prabang in a similar village to the one we were headed towards. Able to speak their dialect, he was perfectly suited to guide us. After about two hours, we came upon the village. It was relatively small, with only forty families or so, but and dropped our stuff in a small second floor with a few mats on the floor to sleep on. Though not a particularly trying hike, we were all pretty exhausted from the heat so we decided to catch a quick nap.
We woke up to some music and I immediately went off in search of the source. It turns out that sitting at a table across the way was a bunch of younger guys drinking beers and singing along with a guitar. I ventured over to the table and they immediately welcomed me to have a seat. While none of them spoke English, I spoke the international language of "Beer Lao" so all was well. While they seemed somewhat curious about me, they were not shy in the least. I gather that this is somewhat due to the fact that I was not the first foreigner they had seen, but regardless, I was impressed.
Kelly and Tricia joined me and we shared a couple of lukewarm beers with the guys while listening to them play and sing. One of our new friends made quite an impression when he opened up the new bottles with his teeth. Of course he soon staggered home, seemingly too drunk to sit upright anymore. Maybe not the best behavior for the middle of the afternoon, but he was extremely friendly. We sort of took his exit to cue our own though and we went exploring the small village further.
We quickly happened upon the one room school house and the younger residents of the village all running around. They, too, gave us a curious glance, and then came over wanting to play with us. I joined a ball game (that is apparently quite popular around Southeast Asia) in which a hollow rattan ball is kicked or headed over a net with rules somewhat like volleyball. I had a blast and the kids seemed happy that I wasn't totally incompetent on the court. Meanwhile, Kelly and Tricia did a little jump-rope with a crude vine-made rope and took pictures. The little girls, especially, loved seeing the digital images of themselves. All in all, it was very cute.
It was a little strange to see some of the t-shirts that the kids were wearing though. Some had Bruce Lee knockoffs, others had stars and stripes tees, and still others had old "praise jesus" shirts. I was not impressed with that one. All of the women were wearing beautiful skirts and the men were wearing jeans. One other detail of note is that it seemed that the men were mostly in charge of the babies. That is, it wasn't the mothers carrying around newborns or infants--it was the fathers.
After a little while Thong came around and took us away from the children to tell us dinner was served. It seemed a bit early for dinner until I remembered that there is no electricity in this place and it's pretty much bedtime once the sun goes down. We sat down inside and started eating under the light of a single candle. Thong impressed us by the soup and stir-fried veggie concoction he rustled up. I don't usually enjoy meals without any meat but this was actually one occasion where I didn't really mind. After all, I didn't really need him grabbing one of the rusty knives and slaughtering a piece of livestock for our sake. I did, however, very much enjoy a local treat which is made from crushed buffalo skin and chilis. Basically you take your sticky rice, make a little ball, dip it into the soup, wrap it around some of the veggies, and then dip that into the spicy ground buffalo skin. Yum! I was a big fan.
Pretty soon the sun had set and we headed back up to our mats, crawled under our mosquito nets, and went to bed around 8pm. As I drifted off to sleep, I found myself wandering what my life would be like if I followed the cycle of the sun... Up with the roosters yet again, I trudged out to the outside feeling slightly uncomfortable with some stomach issues. Too much buffalo skin? You be the judge. I had an extended, umm, "session" on the squatter and then headed back for breakfast. Though not particularly hungry, I chowed down on the eggs since I knew we'd be hiking all day.
The next seven hours were spent trekking through the Lao countryside--up and down mountains, over streams, into and out of the jungle, and over farmland. It was pretty incredible. Thong was keeping a fast pace and I had to struggle at times to keep up. I enjoyed picking his brain about various topics including the Lao government, international relations, the countryside, his family, his future, etc. While the path we were taking was more or less straightforward, there were definitely times that I wished I had a machete to cut the path a bit more. It was a lot of fun.
Along the way we stopped in two more villages--one hmong minority village and another khamu village. Thong informed me that there is very distinct hierarchy among the different minority tribes and that the hmong were at the top. Apparently they had a history and culture that was somewhat warlike and the US government took advantage of this during the Vietnam war, using them as armed insurgents. Kelly and Tricia also had a special interest in the hmong since Minneapolis happens to have the second largest hmong population in the U.S., outside of California. Sure enough, some of the people we talked with had cousins in the States.
Anyhow, eventually we made it back to Luang Prabang and all of us enjoyed well-needed showers. Actually, I wish we could have done another few days out in the wild, maybe doing some kayaking as well, but that'll have to wait for another time...
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February 6, 2007
Perfect!
After waking up late (a recurring theme this vacation), we headed back to the French bakery for breakfast and then tuk tuk-ed it to the airport. Final thoughts on Vientiane--what a cool place to live. Though I'm sure it gets oppressively hot and is no day at the park during monsoon season, the food is great and the people are very friendly. If I had to pick a PiA site outside of China to live in, this one is at or near the top of my list.
So we checked in for the short flight up north to Luang Prabang and then had some time to kill. We did some people watching and reading until our flight was called and we had to go through security. Kelly realized at the last second that she had her Swiss Army knife in her carry-on and was concerned they'd confiscate it--a reasonable fear in most airports, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be a big deal here. And I was right. They waived her right through, returning Kelly's smile and not even looking at the x-ray screen as she passed through. I guess it didn't exactly insure my safety, but I wasn't worried. This is Lao, after all. People are too busy being relaxed to worry too much about anything.
The hour-long flight to Luang Prabang went by in a flash and before I knew it we were circling beautiful mountains to land in the former royal capital. I enjoyed the fact that they allowed us to walk across the tarmac to the baggage claim building on our own. In China you will often have to board a bus that will take you from the landing site and drive approximately thirty meters to the arrival gate. Thirty meters. Anyhow, we tuk tuk-ed it to a guest house and began exploring.
First impression--Luang Prabang made Vientiane seem like midtown Manhattan. It was even more relaxed and I took to it immediately. I guess it's easy to sustain this feeling when the population tops out at 350,000 or so--not exactly a bustling metropolis. We walked up the side street of our guest house to the main drag and walked right into one of the thirty three temples in the main city area. Besides being beautiful, Lao temples differ a bit from Chinese temples in that they seem to be more active as centers of study and worship, as opposed to tourist sites. It could be my imagination though.
We walked around a bit more and before we knew it we got caught in the set-up of the extensive night market which takes over a sizable chunk of the main street in town. While shopping is hardly my forte, I will admit that the market looked pretty at night with the lights and colors of the textiles. I wasn't all that into the products (especially since every vendor seemed to have exactly the same merchandise) but a few interesting chess sets caught my eye. I was prepared to bargain hard but when the prices *started* at one hundred and twenty US dollars, I knew I was out of my league.
I was also impressed with the diverse international crowd that was perusing the offerings. According to the guidebooks, Luang Prabang used to be a little known backpackers haven but it's expanded now to include people of all ages, colors, and nationalities. I heard about a dozen different languages and was impressed by some of the older travelers who were visiting. I truly hope that when I'm in my sixties I still have the desire and wherewithal to travel to the less-developed corners of the world. Then again, I hope there are actually corners of the world to go to that have not been overtaken by globalization (i.e., I don't want to see a McDonalds in the middle of the Sahara).
We had a late dinner at a place on the river billing itself as the "Antique House." I have no idea what was particularly antique about the place but the waitstaff was friendly and the food was tasty. We had several people helping us who were all excited to practice their English a bit and they were funny. My favorite moment of the meal came when one waitress came over to pour beers for us. She managed to pour a glass exactly up to the brim, to which we all remarked, "perfect!" with a smile. She smiled back, responded with "you're welcome," and then went directly to her friend and asked, "what does 'perfect' mean?"
Once again, everything shut down around 11pm so we went back and read for a while before falling asleep. Good thing we did, too, because we all woke up the next morning bright and early with the vociferation of the neighborhood roosters. Though less than thrilled, we decided to seize the day and head out right away. We booked ourselves a two day trek through the Lao jungle starting the next day and then went on a walking tour of the old city streets.
We wandered through countless "wats" including the most famous, Wat Xieng Thong. I enjoyed all of the temples but this one was particularly interesting for its architecture, flowers, and stone steps all the way down to the river. I also thanked Kelly for reminding me to wear sandals because you're not allowed to wear any footwear inside any temple building.
Walking into a smaller, less well-known wat, we chatted with some of the monks-in-training. One, in particular, had fantastic English and only had a little over two years of formal instruction. Wow. He filled us in on their lifestyle and some of their routines. I gotta say, it doesn't seem half bad to devote your life to studying and attempting to reach enlightenment. Plus, especially in a place like Luang Prabang, you'd probably meet some pretty interesting travelers. Overall though, once again, I was simply blown away by his English ability.
Before climbing up the hill to see one final wat and watch the sunset, I decided to grab a snack. There were several street vendors selling small baguettes with grilled chicken and some fixins, and it looked quite tasty. I asked one lady, "how much?" She mumbled, "10,000 kip." That's only about a dollar which was fine by me but I wasn't sure I had heard her correctly. As I was fishing out my money, I asked for clarification- "how much?" She said, "okay, 5000." Moral of the story? Always bargain.
After chowing down on the sandwich (worth all five thousand of those kips), we hiked up the long staircase to the stupa at the top of the hill. Despite the massive number of foreigners trying to crowd atop the summit, it was quite pleasant. We lounged around for a while watching the sun retreat behind the mountains and eventually made our way down for yet another tasty meal. All in all, a great day.
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February 5, 2007
Beer Lao
Our first order of business, per my usual needs and desires, was to drop everything and get food. I guess at this point it's no secret--I'm in it for the food, it being the whole Princeton-in-Asia experience. We leisurely strolled around looking for food and I immediately noted that the chaos, crowds, and pollution of Guangzhou seemed worlds away. As I wrote before, nobody in Lao is in a rush, even here in the capital city of Vientiane (population ~475,000). I loved it immediately.
The food options were plentiful but we opted for the scenic cafe right on the Mekong River. Due to the timing of our visit (pre-monsoon season), the river was quite low and people were able to walk across. As I sat there chatting, enjoying the warm weather, and devouring the dishes they brought us, I looked off and saw a group of three monks making their way across the wide river. It was probably business as usual for them but the contrast of their orange robes with the brown of the river was striking. Though Laos shares a border with China, it could not be farther away. More on that later.
It was also at this meal that I was introduced to the nectar of the gods, also known as "Beer Lao," the national brew and only game in town for those who enjoy beer. I truly believe that almost every backpacker who goes through Lao imbibes heartily on the stuff and even goes so far as to buy a t-shirt before leaving. It's that good. This is amusing for a few reasons. First, everyone in the country recognizes the Beer Lao logo and gets excited when you mention it. It is actually a profitable source of national pride,
thus the government has yet to relinquish control of the operation. I had read about this in my trusty Lonely Planet guidebook and it was right on--"fresh" Beer Lao, i.e. on tap, is a tasty tasty beverage and only available in the capital so I took full advantage.
After a nap and some more walking around the river area, we had our first "tuk tuk" experience on the way to a restaurant. A tuk tuk is basically a motorcycle with a little carriage connected in the back that can carry passengers. The name, presumably, comes from the sound the small engine makes while running. They vary in size, shape, and reliability, but they are a convenient method of transportation, especially when traveling in small groups. What is notable about Lao tuk tuks, though, is that they are almost all decorated--mostly with painted designs. It's a small thing, but it really adds to the atmosphere, in my opinion.
After dinner at a highly recommended local joint, we headed back to our hostel and looked for the nightlife. Despite being Saturday night, it appeared that most bars and cafes shut down around 10:30pm. Needless to say, it was an early night, which was just fine by us since we were still exhausted from our marathon travels.
The next morning we walked down the street and found a really nice French bakery for breakfast. It wasn't cheap and was not even remotely tailored to the locals, but it sure was tasty. Having been a part of the former French colonial empire, Laos still shows traces of French influence and this is one of the benefits. I had one of the best croissants and baguettes I've had since coming to Asia and wanted to sit there all morning eating. I resisted though and we went out to start some sightseeing.
We tuk tuk-ed to Pha That Luang, the most famous national monument and temple, featured on Lao currency and visible on the cover of most Lao guidebooks. Our driver, with incredible English, filled us in on some recent history for the city and even joked about how the US embassy in town is unnecessarily guarded by tons of watchmen who don't seem to be doing much. Anyhow, we arrived at the building and immediately marveled at the architecture of it. Kelly decided it looks like an enormous elaborate sand castle and I won't disagree with that. Pretty cool.
We then went to the Pratuxai, Lao's compliment to Paris' Arc de Triumphe. Apparently the concrete was donated by America and was supposed to be used for making an airport runway a few decades ago but they decided this was a better option. Notable is the English sign declaring that the structure looks much less impressive up close. At least they're honest! We paid the small fee to climb up and were rewarded with a pretty decent view of the city. Vientiane has got to be the smallest and most laid back national capital in all of Asia. It's great! Our tuk tuk driver left us to wander on foot, but he was such a friendly guy that I decided to buy him a bottle of Beer Lao as a thanks before he took off.
After spending some time looking through a textiles market (fun for girls, boring for me), we walked by an incredibly old stupa. It turns out it's the oldest surviving stupa in the city and is now used as the center of a roundabout on a side street. For those not "in the know," a stupa is basically a Buddhist funerary monument in the shape of a dome or pyramid. Some stupas supposedly hold relics and most are contained within temples (or "wats," as they're called in this part of Asia).
The stupa itself wasn't all that notable, except for the fact that a Chinese guy born in Shanghai stopped me and asked me if I could take a picture of him with his motorcycle in front of the stupa. I was happy to oblige and asked him a few questions about what he was up to--apparently he has taken a motorcycle (he's currently on his third bike after the first two broke down) through 54 countries and has his picture taken with the bike in front of every major monument. Wow. I'm sure that guy has some wild stories to tell. I was also somewhat taken aback by the fact that he was the second Chinese person that day who I spoke to in Mandarin and didn't flinch. Usually Chinese people either say something about it or show surprise in their faces when you speak to them in the mainland but he couldn't have been less impressed with me. I liked it.
Eventually walked down to the river and looked at a few temples along with the Presidential Palace through the gates. The temples weren't all that unique except for the fact that Tricia struck up a conversation with a group of younger novice monks studying at one of the smaller wats. I was floored by their level of English and quickly began to realize that almost everyone I had interacted with had basic English skills above and beyond even well educated Chinese students. How do they do it?? That's a more complicated question for a different time.
The rest of the day was spent tasting wine at a fancy french wine store, eating tasty sandwiches from a street vendor, napping, heading out to another amazing dinner, and watching some of the Laos v. Vietnam football match. One other thing I noticed at dinner was that Pepsi appeared to be everywhere in Laos. Not Coke, but Pepsi. I have no idea how that came about but it held up all the way the country--hardly anyone drinks Coke, partially because it does not seem to be as widely available. Not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless.
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February 3, 2007
Currencies and Stamps
After a hectic week of grading exams, hosting several PiA visitors, adding pages to my passport at Citizen Services at the US Consulate here (a story actually deserving of its own blog), chain-watching Season 1 of "The West Wing" (I'm completely addicted), and packing up, I headed out on my second Spring Festival travel adventure. While last year I went the traditional Chinese route and celebrated the holiday with my coworkers family in rural Hunan Province, this year I decided to go the traditional foreign teacher's route and explore Southeast Asia. Kelly and I, along with Kelly's little sister Tricia (visiting from her year abroad in Chile), decided to see as much as we could of Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Because of the difficulty in securing cheap tickets at this time of high travel, we had to take a bit of a roundabout way to get to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos and our first destination. This little odyssey included the following route- starting in Guanzhou, we took the train down to Shenzhen in order to allow Tricia sometime to peruse the mass amounts of cheap/fake designer clothes. Of course our train was delayed and slowed, which, in turn, caused a leisurely shopping trip to become more like a 10 minute sprint through a six story shopping center in search of jeans. But we were impervious to the adversity!
We crossed the border into Hong Kong, received two passport stamps (leaving the P.R.C. and entering HK) and had to change money to our second currency (RMB to HK $). At that point we took the KCR rail down one stop and transferred to a bus headed for the airport. No problem! We arrived just in time to grab some food (the HK airport has Burger King--I was floored) and check in. We then had a quick four hour flight to Singapore.
Arriving in Singapore a little after midnight, we added our fourth passport stamp (the third being the one when we left HK) and changed to our third currency, Singapore dollars. We had six hours to kill until our 6am flight. Ugh. We took advantage of the 24 hour DeliFrance (three cheers for their steak sandwich) and then took the bus over to the budget terminal where we tried to hunker down and get some sleep. Being exhausted, I nodded off for a few hours but it wasn't exactly the height of comfort.
Anyhow, after stamping out of Singapore for #5 in the passport, we boarded on time for quick 6:15am shuttle to Udon Thani, Thailand--a small city close to the border with Laos. The flight itself was painless (I slept) and we touched down on time, waited on line, received our 6th stamp entering Thailand, changed some money into our fourth currency (Thai Baht), and took a limo to the city bus station.
Limo, you ask? Limo indeed. That's what the sign said, anyway. At the Udon Thani airport the only option for transportation is a single company advertising limousines to several locations. It was a little unclear what was going on, but some guy saw us looking around outside and, taking a cigarette from the mouth of a policeman, pointed us to the limo ticket counter. Our three tickets bought us a small amount of space in a rundown minivan with our bags strapped to the roof of the vehicle. Sweet. At least our driver handed the cop's cigarette to a third guy before hopping behind the wheel--I was encouraged by his generosity.
We got dropped off at the bus station (tiny not only by Guangzhou standards, but even by American standards) and booked three seats on a coach to Vientiane. We reached the border around 11am and proceed to get stamped out of Thailand (#7) and then waited on line for a visa upon arrival on the Lao side. It all went down without a hitch, but I was highly amused by the fact that I had to pay an "overtime" fee to the office. According to the sign on the window, they charge overtime when processing between 11:30am and 1pm, it being lunch time and all. Whatever--the visa was legit and even looks cool.
After changing money into currency #5 (Lao Kip) and getting stamp #8 entering the People's Republic of Lao, we grabbed a taxi and headed into the city center. Usually we'd all be enjoying the scenery, but unfortunately we were on the clock. As it happened, we had to make it to the Lao Airlines Office to pay for our next plane tickets before they locked their doors at 1pm or we'd lose our seats. We stepped into the cab at exactly 12:30pm and the woman told us it would take exactly thirty minutes. Hmmm.
Inside our beaten up old sedan, I began to try and explain to the driver that we were in a hurry. Two things struck me about this moment: first, it was the first time since I initially arrived in China that I had no ability to communicate and was reduced to gesturing; second, we were in trouble for one good reason--no one in Lao is in a rush. For anything. At any time. I loved this about the place (it just oozes a laid back aura) but at the moment we were pressed for time. I managed to communicate the urgency of the situation though and our poor driver began passing cars and bikes at a surprisingly un-expeditious pace.
Luckily we made it in the nick of time--a few minutes after 1pm. Of course as we paid for our tickets and made our way out, it appeared that they had no intention of closing shop anytime soon, but we had no way of really knowing that. Oh well. At least I entertained the driver by trying to mock a race car driver flooring it.
Anyhow, we shopped around a bit for hostels and settled on a nice one right near the river. It only took about 24 hours, 8 passport stamps, and 5 currencies, but we had made it to city #1 on the list and it was gorgeous.
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