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Day 341
The alarm went off at 6:30 am and I was tempted to just turn it off and go back to sleep. This wasn't really an option though so we got up and packed our few remaining things. At the bus station we were a bit shocked to find that we would not be in a bus, but rather in the back of a pickup truck with two rows of seats. A few people had to sit on wooden children's chairs in the middle. This is not a comfortable way to travel. Luckily I ended up next to some nice people from Montreal and I chatted with them for most of the ride. Even luckier was that they actually stopped for a bathroom break in a place were there were some woods to hide in.
About 3.5 hours later we arrived to Nang Khio. I was rather sore from the trip and happy that we had a couple of hours to kill before our boat left. Nicole and I were headed to a place called Moung Ngoi, a village only accessible by boat or a long walk through the woods. The boat was very small and full. Everyone had to spend an hour and a half with their knees around their ears. Luckily we didn't get wet though.
Moung Ngoi is the most remote place I have ever been, I think. There is only one street and they only have generator powered electricity for 4 hours a day. Forget the beaten path, we had really found the road less traveled. There aren't any real guest houses here. Most families have either opened small resturants or put up a few simple bungalows in their back yards. Our bungalow had an attached bathroom, sorta. It was a squat toilet and then a faucet about 4 feet on the side of one wall. There would be no hot water. This was just what we had wanted.
After showering we went to check out the town, well, the one road. It was all homes or small resturants and the occasional shop. We picked up some candles and water before picking a place for dinner. As there is no refrigeration our options were limited. They were also cooking everything over one small fire, so it took some time for the food to arrive. We had figured this would happen and had come prepared with books.
Around 9 pm we headed back, we wanted to be able to get ready for bed before the electricity was out. We were out of luck though as they had it turned off earlier where we were staying. We lit a few candles to cut the dark and then crawled into our mossie net covered beds.
As we were basically camping and it was still really early we decided to tell ghost stories. The French couple next door yelled at us to keep it down in a very rude manor. It wasn't even 9:30pm and we weren't being that loud. It had been a really long day though and we soon fell asleep anyway.
The next day we found out that the French couple had not been prepared for there not to be 24 hour electricity and were very rude to the family who owned the bungalows. They left on the first boat the next morning. I guess some people just can't hack it.
Day 340
Nicole and I were up early and determined to see Luang Prabang so that we could get the heck out of there. It was way too full of tourists for us. On the way to breakfast I picked up some postcards and wrote them while I ate my morning sandwich. I'm actually getting tired of these.
We wanted to visit the history museum but it was closed. Instead we walked to the end of the peninsula to see Wat Xieng Thong, built in 1560. The complex was beautiful. There were shinny mosaics over everything. I sat in the garden for a few minutes while Nicole prayed.
While we walked to our next stop we found a school with a sign inviting in tourists. The kids were at lunch, but we spent some time chatting with one of the teachers. We both left a small donation before moving on.
More western food was on the menu when we stopped for bagels at the Scandinavian bakery. We didn't want to go to our next destination until sunset so after eating we headed down a few doors to an internet cafe. One of these days I will actually get up to day with the blog. Well, I hope so anyway or it will be traveling long after I have stopped.
Around 4:30 we climbed up 190 steps to the top of Mt. Phousey, yes really. We had first heard the name from a local in Vang Vieng and it had us in stitches each time. Apparently we both need to grow up. After checking out the panoramic view of the city we found a good spot for the sunset. To pass the time we made up jokes to go with the name of the hill. The sunset was amazing and we spent quite a while taking pictures of its progress.
On our way back we grabbed dinner at a roadside vegetarian stand. It was really very good. Nicole and I had decided that we were going out a bit too much and picked a destination where there would be no place to go. We would need to get up really early to get there and decided to just stay in. This didn't stop us from chatting half the night though.
Day 339
Around 6:30 am I woke up to a huge amount of noise from the kitchen next door. I managed to sleep a bit more, but by 9 we were both up. Nicole and I had already decided to leave as early as we could and packed quickly.
As Sayaburi isn't really a tourist destination it took a long time for us to find a tuk-tuk. Due to the popularity of the festival buses were leaving as they filled up. We figured this wouldn't take very long. We bought our tickets, and I tried to find us some easy to eat on a bus food. We ended up with chips and some rather mankey oranges. We figured that we would be back in three hours so there wouldn't be a problem. I gave Nicole my ipod to watch while I took a nap. The bus didn't fill up until around 1 pm and didn't leave until 1:30. We had gotten to the bus station at 9:30. This was highly annoying.
At the river crossing there wasn't much of a line, but the ferry must have been on a break because we waited for about an hour. We were both really hungry at this point and had two food choices. Rodent on a stick or river washed chicken. We went with river washed chicken and tried not to think about it. One woman had hard boiled eggs and threw the shells on the floor of the bus.
Once we were across the river the bus seemed to stop every two feet. Really, people would yell to give off, the bus would pull away and then two houses down someone would yell again. As the ride went on it got dustier and dustier. There was no way to avoid being covered.
By the time we got back it was almost 5:30, the day was shot and we were completely covered in a rather thick coating of dust. We didn't care much what the tuk-tuk to the guest house cost. We were just happy to not only get to take showers, but to have hot water.
Our day was shot and we decided that we really needed some western food. Just around the corner was one of the nicest places I have eaten at for this whole trip. It wasn't even very expensive. We both got pizza. This wasn't quite enough though, ice cream was needed as well. For this we went to a place just across the street from where we were staying.
Nicole is the only other person I have met who is traveling with Uno cards. We sat there for some time playing while we got funny looks from the staff. They must have thought we were nuts. When the place closed at 11 we headed back to our room and went to sleep.
Day 338
We were up early and soon had a tuk-tuk to the bus station. Luckily we got there early and got real seats. The people who were late had to sit on stools in the aisle. We were headed to Sayaburi for an elephant festival.
Towards the end of the ride we had to cross a river on a really sketchy looking ferry. While we were waiting our turn we watched a woman wash her hair in the river and another clean out a chicken just a few meters down stream. Across the river the traffic was so bad that we were not even on the road. A few large stones blocked the way and a couple of the passengers got out to move them.
Around lunch time we arrived. There had been a very oddly dressed man with a colorful and pointless pointy hat. We ended up sharing a tuk-tuk with him and found out that he was French. He asked the time and when Nicole responded that it was half past noon he didn't understand, I then said that it was 12:30 and added that Nicole doesn't speak English very well. (We spend a lot of time teasing each other and arguing over who speaks real English) The French man very slowly and clearly asked Nicole what her first language was. We tried to explain the joke to him but he just didn't get it.
We were dropped off at the tourist office and soon we had the address to our home stay. We had been warned that the conditions would be very basic. Due to this we decided that we would keep our room in Luang Prabang so that we would only need to bring small overnight bags with us. We didn't want to show up with all of our stuff when our hosts had nothing. A huge percentage of people in Laos only have one room homes. We expected to be sharing a room with the family.
It turned out that wasn't really the case for us. Our hosts had a two story house and then a separate building with a kitchen and bathroom. There was a small storage room with two beds for Nicole and I. We even had mossie nets.
Right away our hosts insisted on making us lunch. The mother of the family cooked over a fire while shooing away chickens. The food was good, veggies and rice, but we struggled to eat it all.
We were about to leave when Moonse, the eldest daughter, came to chat for a bit. She was overly and strangely apologetic saying that their home wasn't nice and that they only had a squat toilet and no hot water. Most people living in Sayaburi bathe in the river. They were clearly much better off than most of the town. I felt really awkward, but did my best to show how much I appreciated the chance to stay with them. It's really a wonderful thing to be able to do home stays on occasion and really see how the locals live.
As I mentioned earlier the reason for coming to Sayaburi was for a 2 day elephant festival. We thought we would just go for the second day, but later found out that the first had been much better. We had a printed schedule with a map but nothing seemed to be happening in the spot that was indicated. There was meant to be a roundup and a circus. All we saw were elephants giving tourists rides.
Our host family had invited us to dinner and we got back in time to take showers. It was really hot out. Earlier we had been asked what we liked to eat and had replied chicken. We ended up with chicken soup that had every bit of the chicken in it. Western manners dictate that you eat all of whatever your hosts offers you. Surly there must be a line drawn at chicken feet?!?! Luckily dinner came out of a few communal bowls (that you used your own spoon to dip into) and we were able to easily stick to veggies and rice without being noticed.
That evening Nicole and I headed back out to the festival for the music bit. We had a bit of time to kill and managed to supplement our dinner with some donuts of varying quality. We then found a bar/restaurant that we could easily see the stage from and sat down with some other westerners.
The music was really weird. There was some traditional dancing but most of it was a group of men and women in army uniforms dancing to very communist sounding songs. The crowd was even weirder. They didn't clap or even laugh when the comedy act came on.
When the music was over we had a hangeron American guy who neither of us liked. He wanted to follow us to our home stay and we didn't want him to know where it was. We ended up at a campervan bar for a bit. There weren't any tuk-tuks around. Eventually a group of locals were leaving and Nicole and I negotiated for Alex for them to take him to his hotel. He really didn't want to go, but he must have picked up on how annoyed we were and finally left.
Nicole and I then headed around the corner to our homestay. Everyone was asleep and they had locked the bathroom door for the night. Who the hell does that? Both of us needed it and had to think fast. Next door there were some younger guys hanging out drinking. We went over to introduce ourselves and then after a bit asked to use their toilet. This worked and soon we went to sleep.
Day 337
The night before Nicole and I had decided that we would sleep in the next day. We had had several early mornings and needed a break. I woke up around 9 and saw that she was still asleep, so I went back to sleep. She did the same thing. This happened a few times until we realized that it was almost 3 pm. Hmm, two people who can sleep forever traveling together doesn't bode well. We then chatted and took our time getting ready and didn't actually leave until 5pm. Luckily we had bought some Laughing Cow and some baggetts the day before and had something to nibble on.
When we did leave we didn't go very far, just around the corner for some chocolate cake. It was already too late in the day for the sites on our list. After the cake we went to an internet cafe for some time. I'm really behind with blog so it was good for me to have a few hours to try and catch up.
For dinner we went to the Lao Lao bar. The service was terrible. They forgot half our order and took over an hour to bring us the first bit. When we were done we were still hungry and went down the street to Hive bar. We ordered pizza there, but when it came it had olives on it, we had ordered the Hawaiian pizza. Neither of us eat olives so they gave it to another table for free. The kitchen was closed so they wouldn't make us another one. They also took away the free beer that came with it!
Valentines day was really a bust so we just cut our losses and headed back to the guest house.
Day 336
We were up early for a long ride to Luang Prabang. Nicole and I had decided to spring for a mini bus that would cut about 3 hours off the ride. We lucked out as it wasn't full and we each had our own row.
What we and not counted on was how winding and bumpy the road was. It twisted and turned to no end. Both of us were feeling pretty bad because of it. One of the other passengers was a man with his toddler daughter. She was sick, a lot. I felt really bad for her. The bumps were so bad that we were constantly thrown around on the seats.
During one of the side of the road bathroom stops Nicole and I asked some people if we could use their outhouse. There wasn't any water, but at least we got to pee in privacy. We stopped for lunch, but no one could eat. We all just took advantage of the upgraded bathroom situation.
Nicole and I paid the mini bus driver a bit more to take us right to our guest house of choice. Luckily they had a room with two beds in it. We quickly took showers and I dropped off my laundry before we headed out for lunch. We didn't go far and planned our next few days in Luang Prabang, the most historic city in Laos.
After lunch we tried to head to Wat That, but it closed. Instead we found an internet cafe, but the connection was so slow that I couldn't do any work on it and I left. Nicole got lucky and her computer worked a bit better. I spent some time reading in our room before she came back.
Around 9pm we headed out to the night market, but it was shutting down. We managed to get some dinner from one of the last stalls opened. It was just chicken and fish though. Afterwards we headed to a pretty relaxed place with a fire and a lot of people. It was in the process of closing, but they let us stay for one beer.
The only place opened after 11pm is the bowling alley. Nicole and I negotiated with a tuk-tuk driver and got in. Just as week were about to take off an Aussie jumped in, not even asking where we were going. He then turned to us and said "sabadee," or hello in Thai. Right away we knew that he wasn't the type of person we wanted to chat with. He then continued to brag about how in touch with local culture he was and that he had the best way to travel. We paid when we got out and he tried to bargain a different rate with the driver. The driver looked at us and we told him that the Aussie wasn't with us and went inside.
All of the lanes were full so we ended up just t chatting and drinking some beer before heading back to our guest house.
