Rand Wacker

Man, that is a long plane flight, but thankfully coming back we had a 100+ MPH tailwind that cut numerous hours off both legs. Had a good meal in Japan (all meals in Japan are good), but since I never slept for more than a couple of hours at a stretch I’m not sure what time zone my body thinks it is in. Multiply that by the fact that I’m leaving for Las Vegas for a four-day bachelor party tomorrow and I think I’m just going to give up trying to adjust to any time zone other than “Insanity Standard Time”.

Not quite Angkor Wat, but these two Khmer-built temples inside Thailand were some of the most impressively restored momuments from the 12th century we’ve seen on this (or any) trip. We started out on a mission to see Phanom Rung historical park (photo on the left), which is situated the summit of an extinct volcano 100kms from the middle of nowhere; nowhere being the small town of Buriram we took the train to and spent the night in.

The ruins are great. There is a small museum attached to the park and little descriptive signs next to most doorways that describe the intricate carvings that tell a long story of the Shiva (these were originally Hindu-inspired temples), and then later the Buddha. The site was small, but extremeley well restored and we enjoyed wandering around for a couple of hours, being only two of a handful of farangs that made the journey.

We had intended to only go here on our really quick day trip, but since we hadn’t brought anything but our day-packs and we finished up by lunch time (when the thermometer was already climbing well past 100F), we decided to try and make a complete circuit and get up to Phimai as well. After a short ride in the back of a pick-up to the local whistle stop of Nong Rang, a slightly longer ride in a not-so-air-con bus to the provincial capital of Khorat, and then a hurried bus trip the final leg to the small town of Phimai, we realized that we had no idea where the ruins were or how to get to them. Turned out we didn’t need to, as the historical park is smack dab in the middle of town, with the ancient stone walls carving out a nicely manicured spot of green, hemmed in by shops on one side, a soccer field on the other, and houses all around. We’re really glad we went out to Phimai as the ruins were even more extensive (this site had a road connecting it directly to Angkor), and the little town was quite enjoyable for the couple of hours we were there. There was a national museum that is supposed to have some good Khmer sculpture, but we missed it’s closing time of 4pm (we barely made it to the ruins before they closed at 6pm).

We were able to hop on the last bus back to Khorat (a rickety old local bus with holes in the floor and doors that didn’t close), finally arriving with about 4 hours to kill before our train was leaving. Our tickets were actually supposed to be from the previous town of Buriram, but we figured that since we paid the full fare from the further stop, we’d be OK picking up the train a couple hours later (yeah, we hoped the enterprising locals wouldn’t sell our seats).

Wandered around Khorat for the evening, got some good food at the local night bazaar, saw some truely interesting local culture, and finally stumbled out to the station. By the time we climbed in to our sleeping compartment we stunk to high heaven. The whole time we’ve been here we’ve tended to take three to five showers a day to ward off stench and exhaustion…we just went 18 hours in 115 degree heat all day. Luckily, we splurged for 1st class sleeper on the ride back to Bangkok, for something like $20, so we took a quick sponge bath and fell in to bed, awoken at 5am by a railway cop telling us we were at the last stop and had to get off. Our favorite hotel was nice enough to let us check in early, so we’ve been relaxing all day, running a few last-minute errands, and are spending tonight relaxing around Bangkok, probably going to see a movie or something mellow as we have to head to the airport at 4:30am tomorrow morning to try to get seats together on our totally oversold flight.

It’s been a great trip, but we’re excited to be going home…that’s always how it is at the end of a long journey, you start thinking about what’s next!

Usually I’m pretty good at remembering what I need to bring when I go somewhere, but for this last trip we had less than 24 hours to prepare (all the wedding stuff we had to do before hand), and I managed to miss a couple of brain-dead obvious things to take. So, I’m putting up my standard travel/backpacking list up so I can refer to it next time; and maybe others might find it useful.

First of all, let me preface this by saying that you can buy pretty much anything you need on the road, so don’t freak out. Also, don’t worry about carrying enough of X, Y, or Z for your entire trip; you will be able to buy toothpaste on the road. When in doubt, pack lighter than you think you should, especially when it comes to clothes. Again, you can buy those if you need on the road.

This whole list is based on what I’m carrying with me RIGHT NOW.
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I think we’ve been here a little too long; the heat is starting to get to me. Either that or with all this food we’re eating (amazing Lao, Thai, French, and Indian) I’ve gained back my winter coat and the 100+ degree weather is wearing a little thin. Oh well, we’ve had a good five days or so, and tomorrow it’s time to move on. We’ve booked tickets direct from Luang Prabang to Bangkok. This is a new international route offered by the reputable Bangkok Airways, and not the internationally infamously dangerous Lao Aviation.

Tomorrow evening we’ll be back in the hustle and bustle, taking a little time to finish up a few errands in Thailand and then off for one last adventure. Our next (and final) trip is going to be to Thailand’s rarely travelled northeastern provinces, near the Cambodian border. We’re going to visit Phanom Rung Historical Park, which supposedly has the best preserved and restored Khmer (Angkor style) ruins in Thailand. We’re going to take an early morning train from Bangkok on the 28th and then head back the day before we fly out on the 30th. I can’t believe we’re so close to the end!

I’m a sucker for waterfalls, so when we read in our Rough Guide that “Kouang Si [is] one of the best day-trips from Louang Phabang” (yes, there are multiple spellings for everything in this country), I really wanted to check them out.

Even though they are 35km north of town over a very bumpy road through the country, it’s no problem to get there. Everywhere you walk there are “tur-turs” — a Lao cross between a Thai tuk-tuk and songethaw — with painted signs and drivers eager to take you out to the waterfalls. Basically these are a tiny utility pickup where the back has been converted into two short rows of bench seats and a canopy to hold on to over the bumps.

The falls did not dissapoint…and this was in the driest of seasons! A cascade of water tumbling 60m (and that’s just the bottom drop) onto some deep limestone pools. The water is perfect for swimming and all the backpackers love to try to get their head under the falls themselves, not realizing what force the water is coming down with. We took a bunch of nice pictures, had a cool dip, and generally enjoyed the not-so-damn-hot afternoon then.

Oh! Added bonus! On the road up there was a little fenced in compound with an ominous sign that said “Please do not stick fingers in fence, the tiger bites!” Turns out that there was a 5 year old Indochine Tiger which had been rescued from poachers as a cub that they had there. When we came by she was peacefully sleeping in a caged in building, but it looked like she had a gigantic yard to play in and she looked extremely pretty there, calm on the ground (no, I didn’t stick my fingers in the cage!) I asked Lex if we could get a tiger when we got home and she said no, her sister is allergic to cats…darn!

We took a slow boat up the Mekong river the other day to visit an unusual site. This is something akin to a burial ground for old Buddha images which have become damaged and for some reason are no longer displayable. But Buddha images are never destroyed. In this area (Luang Prabang), they are instead brought to this pleasant cave overlooking the river and set in amongst their breatheren to await…who knows what.

There’s one large cave near the bottom with hundreds upon hundreds of little statues all looking over the river, and there is another, much deeper and darker cave at the top of a long flight of stairs, which has some more interesting and somewhat different images. It was difficult to take any decent pictures in this second cave but we did manage a few interesting shots with an extended shutter opening and by using a flashlight for illumination.

The trip on the river was nice as well. There was the obligatory stops at a couple of tourist oriented villages, one making paper and silk and the other making lao-lao rice “whiskey”. The first village actually had a very good shop tucked away further than most of the people on our boat went, where we found some great deals on silk fabrics that were woven right there.

At other parts on the river we saw people netting for freshwater shrip, trawling for some kinds of fish, and even panning for gold in a couple of places. Three times we got buzzed by one of the speedboats that cut the 2-day trip time from the Thai border down to something like 6 hours. Apparently these boats are fairly dangerous, as evidenced by the funny crash helmets that we saw some of the passengers wearing and the terrified look that was on a number of their faces.

This was definitly one of the more touristy things to do around here, but we had a good time so it was well worth the day.

We’ve made it to what will be our final destination in Laos before we head back to Bangkok and then on home. This morning we took a mini-bus (driven by a Mario Andretti fan, I would guess) up through the mountains to the old city if Luang Prabang.

I was a little dissappointed by the drive because we’re at the hottest time of the year, but before the monsoon, and the air is hazy. So bad in fact that you can’t see through the mountains more than a kilometer or two. If it had been clear I’m sure the views would have been stunning, but alas.

This town is great though. We found a recommended guest house and set out for some lunch. LP is known for it’s food, and so far has not dissapointed. Since then we’ve been wandering around, getting our bearings, and noting places we’d like to visit next. There’s a slew of temples and museums plus numerous day-trips out to some interesting caves and waterfalls, plus quite a bit of interesting buildings to see around town (this place is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site…which I have to look up). Wide range of accomodation too, from $4 tea-houses to the $100+/night Villa Santi and a number of amazing looking spots in between. We’ve been checking in looking for some special places to try as our last few nights on our honeymoon.

There’s also going to probably be a binge of shopping before we leave with all the local crafts people here selling their goods directly on the street. We found a great hand-made paper shop where they were drying the sheets right on the street today, have to go back and check that out.

We’re here until the 29th, at which point we’re going to fly directly back to Bangkok.

Now…to decide on what to have for dinner!

Yesterday we had a fantastic time in the country-side out here in Laos. We got up in the morning and had a lazy breakfast then we took our rented $1 clunker bikes out for a journey west of the river. Our destination was Phou Kham cave 7km over some rather bumpy dirt roads. We got an early start but it still climbed to over 100 degrees by the time we made it out.

We were rewarded when we got there by a cool blue lagoon perfect for swimming, or better yet, jumping!

I had to talk Alexis in to clamboring up to the cave above as it had gotten even hotter and the pitch was ridiculously steep, but we were again rewarded for our efforts by some impressive limestone cathedral-like columns and a serene reclining Buddha right in the middle of the passing sunlight.

By the time we got down, the daily crowd had started arriving. Quite a few people turned up on bikes, in the back of local tractors, and most annoyingly, on motor-scooters. We headed back to town for a shower, some rest, and some lunch.

The afternoon brought an old favorite back, we went tubing down the Nam Xong river (yes, that old Chico favorite, tubing). For $3 we got a tube rental (life jackets optional), and a tuk-tuk ride up to a bend in the river 4km north. We were accompanied by some younger Brits who had heard of this concept but never done it, and a couple of Swedes who thought this was completely insane (but at least they were willing to try).

The tourism industry has really taken off in some of these small towns in Laos, there were half a dozen river-side “bars” setting up to sell fruit and cold BeerLao. Now that’s something we need more of in Chico!

(Pictures have to wait as we took to waterproof film camera on this journey)

After a long shower to soak off the river grime and a healthy dinner we were ready for bed. Almost slept the whole way up to Luang Prabang this morning as well!