Long time no writing...

I'm sorry this place has been all quiet for a while! Laos simply would not let me upload photos, no matter where I went, and so getting online just to write--with such horrible and expensive connections anyway--just didn't seem all that tempting. Since my last post I made it directly from Pakse to 4000 islands at the very south of Lao, 5 km away from the border to Cambodia. taying on Don Kohng the first night was not so interesting, but Don Det is a truly backpaker's island, only without the Vieng Viang party-tubing factor. That's what you want, you say? Well, that's not what I want... I wanted a small shack of a bungalow on the beach, though--and that was what I got! Hooking up with 7 other random people form the bus down to Pakse the group got a bit big for me, though--and after a few days of lovely company but the downs of having to wait for democracy to take its turns around all diplocamtic corners, I caught a bus straight to Bangkok (Thailand) on the 15th of October. Travelling through Pakse, I carelessly left my lunch baguette in the first bus--and had one of my nicest moments in all of Laos when I strolled the local food market for a food stall and found the loveliest woman selling amazing noodle soup and something tasty I don't know what is called, but yum!--tasty! In fact, I think that was my best meal so far on the trip, if not only for the food then also for the lady and her photo posing for me with the dead chicken she would make soup with for the guests after me.. (Yes, I'd show you the photo here, but all these computers think my folders are .exe files, and so I cannot get to the pictures.) The bus trip to Bangkok was uneventful, but fortunately rather speedy. Arriving in Bangkok I made the mistake of getting a metered taxi from the northern busstation to the southern one. They're much cheaper you say? Right. Not if they take you half way around town first... He had a few charming tricks up his sleeve, but after almost six weeks in various Asian countries the tricks are rather easy to spot. In the end I told him off and gave him the money he should have, and from the lack of fighting back I reckon he knew he was exactly what I called him; a cheeting bastard liar. Getting on a new bus an hour or so later, I was finally headed for Surat Thani, and a boat to Koh Pah-Nang! Well, so I thought... The bus got to Surat Thani ok, and having 60 km left to get to Don Sak and the ferry--and 2 hours until the last ferry departed--I was happy and content. The bus ride took 45 minutes more than I had...and so I ended up on a ferry to Ko Samui instead. There are, undenoably, other ferries I could have taken; the problem is that when you'are at one ferry pier 60 km away from the other piers, they don't tell you that the night ferry still runs, 'cause it's not their company that runs it. Ergo, the night ferry does not exist at the pier you're at, and so you have to take the chance on it existing elsewhere, or you can go to, say Ko Samui. Enjoy! It was an ok night in a very decent hotel, though--with plenty of time for pampering my poor feet, skin and hair, so I had a great evening by myself! Finally arriving in Ko Pha-Nang the next morning, my Canadian friend Mikey, who has clearly stayed too long in Bangkok and got too used to local ways, picked me and my bags up on a scooter--I wish I had a photo! Ko Pha-Nang is a lovely little tropical island, although very typically living from tourism more than anything else. There are no fishermen on the beaches in the morning, no boats coming in that I can see...there are however numerous places selling you food, onward tickets, renting you bikes and offering you a beach-side bungalow for a more or less ok price. The weather has been a bit on and off, with rain showers every day so far, but I'll be staying here for a few more days until I head up to Bangkok again to have Mikey as my local guide for the weekend. I'm hoping to get some photos to you there, and some more words about what I've been up to.

Vieng Viang -- Vientiane -- Pakse

Vang Vieng is a scenic little riverside vilalge turned into a non-stop backpacker party with wet 20-something Westernes in bikinis and swinnimg shorts. A heaven if you miss Thailand or want to get hammered--a rather odd place to be when you are looking to go trekking and see hill tribe villages.. Arriving there on Wednesday evening, I had already aquainted Swiss Sabina on the bus from Luang Prabang before I found Duch Susan in a random street. Together we spent Thursday exploring the surrounding rice fields, caves, local villages and roads around Vang Vieng--lovely! The village is also surrounded by small rivers and karst rocks; and it is amazingly beautiful. Going for 6 km on bikes, we were ready for a swin when we reached the Lagoon cave. After stopping for a lovely local lunch where they stressed that "this is Lao PDR--please don't rush" two hours had passed and the rest of the caves were missed out on as we peddaled home for a well-deserved beer. As sabina and Susan left the next morning, I rented a rubber tube to float down the river with Darren (UK)--apart from a rather deep cut in a minor toe, the trip was great fun! Vang Vieng is not really what I wanted in the long run though, so this morning I caught a bus to Vientiane, planning to head on to Pakse tomorrow. Unfortunately my small camera was stolen as i arrived here, but the big one is still with me! Internet connections (known as internert where I am right now) are painfully slow, or they think all my pics are .exe-files--so it seems photos will have to wait yet again.. Sorry! (I have plenty of great ones, though.)

Luang Prabang--keywords

Arriving late evening in a random street in Luang Prabang, two friendly guys at a guesthose got me a tuk-tuk. It was, obviously, overprised; but when it`s less than 2 euros, who cares as long as you get where you want to get safely? The city of Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site--and a gorgeous one! With temples all over the place, dotted with a subtropical scenery and two rivers making the whole place into a peninsula, it is a haven of guesthouses, travellers, fruit shakes, tuk-tuk rides and potential trekking adventures. Among others. In fact, I think that almost whatever you are looking for, Luang Prabang can provide a little, heavenly version of it. So far I have checked out one of the waterfalls in the area for a lovely swim; cruised the streets for good food and new sights; checked out local temples, sampled the local massages; sprawled at the Hmong night market; enjoyed a slow-boat ride up to the Pak Ou caves lined with myriads of buddha statues; made new friends, eaten great food such as a Lao braai, had cheap drinks, and--to finish the nights off--gone bowling at the local hot-spot and the only place i Luang Prabang not affected by the cerfew (apparently because it is run by a guy who could be called "Tony")...

More photos will be added once I can get the net to upload them!

Entering Laos

As I got on the sleeper bus from Kunming to Luang Prabang (Laos), the old and familiar feeling of starting a trip, going somewhere hit me--and it occured to me that I never had that feeling in China. Probably because there was so much to do before I literally jumped on the plane; but maybe also because China, despite its many differences from the West, is a very organised (in fact sometimes overly organised) country. The buses run in given patterns, on scheduled times, taxis have signs and metered fares, and prices--althoug you have to haggle--are to a certain extent set. Crossing the border to Laos this morning was like returning to Africa: All of a sudden we were delayed three hours for a customs inspection and a food break; the roads got ten times bumpier, the scenerey got subtropical and lush, people got somewhat darker, and the countryside was filled with charming little wooden huts with thached roofs. And I love it! And, just in case you wondered: Of course you can have a visa on arrival in Laos! Contrary to popular belief among the organised Chinese in China, not everyone has one in advance, and once the border is crossed the Lao-feeling affects the bus so that most problems are solved quite easily; they are perfectly happy to wait the 15 minutes it takes to get a visa on arrival. I navigated this fascinating scene with my newfound friend Ben (US), who added to the African/random feeling by his story of having his wallet stolen in Kunming and now lacking the money to get across the border and to his friend in Bangkok; we sorted this out in the end, though--as far as I know, I got off the bus after "only" 25 hours, long before Vientiane... In accordance with the cultural change, the Chinese bus let me off not on one of the three bus stations serving Luang Prabang, but in some random, rather big-ish street, claiming I was where I had paid to be taken. I had no idea where I was, and it was dark. However, the sounds around me were friendly, so no reason to despair; and within 10 minutes two local guys had hauled me a tuk-tuk and explained the driver where to take me to find my hostel. The temperature has got a bit higher, the sun has shone on me all day, and everyone seems to speak English--I cannot wait to explore the city tomorrow morning.

Buddhism-galore I: Dafu, the giant buddha

The past three days have been devoted to two major Buddhism sites in Sechuan, including the giant Buddha--Dafu--close by the city of Leshan. Arriving in Leshan I met a more rural and rugged China than I had seen so far, with rickety local busses and no English but plenty of sign language used to interact with travellers. I planned on getting a ferry across from the city to a temple at the side of Dafu. However, due to my lack of Chinese and the busdriver`s lack of English I was promptly let off at the side of the bridge they felt I should be at. So, starting at the northern gate I made my way on small, neat walking roads through hordes of Chinese visitors travelling in groups (min. size seems to be the 57 people a bus takes, plus one tour guide with a silly flag and a matching hat). Passing a pagoda, a few options to look at random buddha and cave stuff and even more Chinese hordes, I found myself next to the gigantic ear of Dafu much quicker than expected. A friendly Chinese family on pilgrimage explained the easier way to explore the Dafu for me, and I promptly set off on the steep climb down to the lower path along the shore--a beautiful walk leading to a fisherman village and a temple. The Dafu was impressive enough--his ears are 7 m long, and his eyes are 10 m across, and he is by far the biggest buddha I ever saw. However, I often find it easier to appreciate the little things that differentiate China from other places I`ve been: The greatness the Chinese seem to treasure so highly--everything in China is big--will often only make me feel alienated. (Fittingly enough; the Chinese Police posters stress that aliens, i.e. non-Chinese citizens, should report where they are to them.) However, the walk was lovely, the fisherman village was scenic and the potted plant garden in front of the cave tombs was really beautiful. Arriving at the monastery I thought of skipping it; I`ve seen a bunch of temples in China already, but a local monk motioned me in and so I decided to follow. In most buddhist temples, including this one, they ask you not to photograph the holy figures. In stark contrast, the little monk (I was a head taller than him) urged me to take photos of the different buddha figures, then literally pulled me into the main room of the temple and told me what figures to snap shots of. This was accompanied by Chinese explanations, of whom the figures were I suppose, but our only common word was "buddha"--so he kept showing me all the buddhas and showed mne that Bussha can be in your stomach. In fact, he insisted that buddha could be in my stomach, and proved this by rubbing it vigourusly. As the local, slightly forced tour of the temple grounds continued, the walk got more and more bizzarre--and in the end I have no idea of whether I was actually felt up by a monk, or simply had most of my sweaty body dried off with tissues! Walking back to the starting point I was sent off with some sort of greeting or blessing, while the weird monk wandered off in the gardens, still in his own little world. I got a bus back to town. It left when it was full of people, honked appropriately as one would expect in any rural, slightly undeveloped countryside, and after a few stops a lady walked on with a live chicken in a bag and another bag of vegetables that seemed to go well with...well, chicken. I just love it when people carry chickens on busses, I don`t know why, but the sight of her simply made my day as I was heading for the long-distance bus station to get to Emei`shan before it got dark.