Emails from South East Asia

Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 19:25:14 -0700
Subject: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos --- We're off!

(This might come as a suprise to some, who still think we're off to Tibet, or,
for that matter, Nepal, or who had no idea at all that we were going
anywhere!)

Hello everyone,

We are leaving in a couple of hours for Thailand. Our bags are packed. They
weigh next to nothing. For the next 7 weeks we have a grand total of two
daypacks, one of which is currently empty. Oh dear!

Just to update everyone, we arrive in Thailand sometime on Monday. We will go
rockclimbing in Krabi for a week or so, stop through Cambodia to see some
temples, and then spend a long time traveling south to north in Laos.
Eventually we'll end up in Thailand again and fly back to San Francisco on
July 15th.

That's it.

If anyone wants to receive postcards then send us your address (and let us
know if there's a particular place from which you'd like to receive one)

Nina and Scott

oh, and do let us know if you'd rather NOT receive these emails... (you'll
still get them, of course, but at least we'll know that we're annoying you :-)
only kidding...)

Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 22:33:51 -0700
Subject: Thailand Beaches

Hello Everyone, we're here in Thailand, at Krabi. It's rained this morning, so 
we're not doing much until this afternoon, when hopefully the rock will have 
dried out.

We arrived in Bangkok Monday morning, and managed to get on a train heading 
south the same night. We didn't enjoy what we saw of Bangkok -- too much 
traffic, and crossing roads was a nightmare. Hopefully we'll get to see some 
nicer parts on the way back through.

The train was great - we were in sleepers, and arrived in Surat Thani the next 
morning. Our first big screw up happened here -- we got conned into thinking 
we'd been conned, and ended up buying a second bus ticket for Krabi... Oh well 
:-)

>From Krabi, we hopped on a longtail boat to East Railay (one of the beaches on 
the headland we're staying at now), then walked across to West Railay, and 
then to Ton Sai beach, where we're staying. We've got a nice little bungalow 
in the jungle (100 baht --that's $2.50US -- a night!), and we're enjoying Thai 
food for breakfast lunch and dinner (mango sticky rice!!) We climbed the first 
afternoon, and then again on Wednesday, at a few different places. We're both 
climbing okay, but both of us wish we were climbing better! There's so much 
beautiful climbing here, in the most wonderful location. We belay on the 
beach, take a swim in tropical water between climbs, and retreat to the shade 
for more mango sticky rice at lunchtime (when, as the guidebook says, not even 
mad dogs and englishmen would climb).

Yesterday we took a break from climbing, and went to explore a huge lagoon. 
It's hard to explain it exactly -- hopefully our slides will turn out. There's 
a steep long muddy descent into it, and the lagoon itself is about 100m 
across, pale blue, and surrounded by huge limestone cliffs dangling with 
stalactites. Wow :-) In the afternoon we explored Phra Nang beach, and swam 
out to Happy Island (perhaps we'll go climbing there later?)

This morning it poured (not the first time!), and Nina got stuck cleaning a 
route in the rain (Scott got wetter belaying, however). Our rope is drying out 
now -- happily everything dries pretty quickly here. (Including our laundry, 
and us -- we've been having outdoor, cold water showers, at night :-)

In a few days we'll head to Ko Phi Phi, an island south of here, for another 
day or two of climbing, and then head back north, and onwards to Cambodia!

Postcards will be coming to those who requested them (perhaps when we're back 
on the mainland, where both postcards and postage are cheaper -- we're 
counting our baht :-)

hugs,
scott and nina

Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 17:23:51 -0700
Subject: Cambodia here we come!

On our last day at Ton Sai beach we finished off with some more climbing (the 
best day yet, according to Nina). So, on 5-30 (after Scott got soaked during 
the belay) we climbing some very steep overhanging stuff (ie blocked from the 
rain) on Ton Sai beach. Scott dogged up most of a 7A+, hanging on every bolt. 
Nina couldn't even boulder the first move. Scott later lead Stelgasaurus 6A+ 
(his all time favorite sport climb). Later we waded across to a beach only 
accesible at low tide called Eagle Wall where Scott climbed a very cool climb 
on flowstone and Nina belayed while being eaten alive by mosquitoes. The next 
day (5-31 and the last day at Ton Sai) was excellent. Nina lead a 5, and we 
climbed a three pitch 5, 6A+, 6A+ called Massage Secrets that was incredible. 
Ranks very highly on both of our lists of favorite climbs. Later in the day we 
waded to an island accesible at low tide (the same one we'd swum to two days 
earlier) and climbed another incredible climb (don't know the name). 
Absolutely beautiful view at the top with various excellent sections of jugs, 
stalactites, and stemming. The 6B/C boulder start was a bit elusive for Nina, 
so we devized a prusik system (with only one prusik, since the rest of the 
slings were on the climb) to get past that part. But the rest of the climb was 
well worth the effort. Absolutely perfect day of climnbing, with time at the 
end to enjoy the beauty of Phra Nang beach.

Next we made the mistake of checking out the island Ko Phi Phi before we left 
(it's the island made famous by the movie, "The Beach"). It was a disaster. It 
was so built up, touristy, and commerical. We weren't prepared for anything 
like it. We had come from the seculsion of Ton Sai, with our bungalow in the 
jungle, and electricy only running after 6pm, to the commerical nightmare of 
PP. We spent about 24 hours there, much of the time regretting our decision to 
come. But Scott did get in some good kayaking (Nina got sick and went back to 
shore). We left on a boat, then bus, then another bus and arrived less than an 
hour ago at the infamous Kao San Road in Bangkok. So now we're here making 
plans for the next leg of our journey. Cambodia here we come!!!

The border is known to be a nightmare of transportation and visa scams. We're 
both practicing being surly and rude to anyone trying to sell us anything. We 
have a few transportation options (each with their various drawbacks... see 
talesofasia.com/cambodia-overland-bkksr.htm) Whatever option we choose, it's 
sure to be an adventure. Updates will follow upon arrival.

Also, we've had a few requests to see a map of where we're going. Searching 
google, the best map we found was at 
http://www.mekongexpress.com/laos/general/maps/map_indo_thai.htm

Nina and Scott

Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003
Subject: Cambodia, we're here!

[Should have been sent June 4th, but got delayed due to some computer problems 
:-) ]

We had fun and adventurous border crossing. We opted to leave the afternoon of
the 3rd, in order to get to Siem Reap before dark on the 4th. A third class
train from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet was not too bad. But once in Aran, we had
some trouble finding a guest house. We found a cheap and nice one just as it
was getting dark. Then we went to the night market. We hadn't yet been to a
non-tourist place, so to speak. No menus in thai, no solicitations; it was
great. We managed to communicate "no meat" in the phad thai, and had mango
sticky rice, some odd sweets, and corn, along with lots of fruit. We had tons
of lychees (one of Nina's new favorite fruits) and mangosteens (nothing like
mangos - hard and purple like an eggplant with some tart/sweet citrus like
sections in the middle). We called it a night early in order to be rested for
our adventure today.

We got up early and went over the plan, how to cross the border, how to shove
away touts, and where the visa office was, etc., so we wouldn't have to check
out map and look like first-timers. :-) We started with a tuk-tuk to the
border. We weren't accosted by as many touts as we'd expected. In fact, the
whole border crossing, visa getting process went very smoothly. It was
incredible to see the throngs of Cambodians lined up on the other side waiting
to get into Thailand.

Our next step was to walk about 1 km to get a pick up truck that would take us
as far as Sisophon. We came upon one that was sort of empty, which indicates
that it won't be leaving anytime very soon, but we jumped in anyways. We
negotiated the price down without too much trouble, to only slightly more than
the locals pay. And within a half an hour we were off, with 13 people in the
back of the pick up, and annother 5 in the cab.

In Sisophon we had to find another pick-up for the rest of the way to Siem
Reap. As we stepped out of the first pick-up, we were surrounded. We sat on a
bench drinking water and eating melon while being watched by a score of
people. People tried to sell us water, sunglasses, grasshoppers, sparrows,
juice, lychees, baguettes, cigarettes, chewing gum, purses, chapstick.....

We eventually picked a truck (it ended up being a bit tooo empty and we waited
for the next 1.5 hours to leave). We talked with some Cambodian kids who asked
us our names, our ages, where we were from, and more. Then they gave us
complimentary (complementary!) lychee and lychee juice, and we bought some
baguettes from them.

The next part of the ride was longer and bumpier, especially for Scott's bony
bum. And it started to rain 15 minutes from the destination. This time there
were 17 people in the back, along with a motorbike and a couple of chickens.

But we're here now, hungry and wet. We'll look for a guest house tonight and
hopefully see some temples tomorrow morning, if this rain stops by then.

Nina and Scott

Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2003
Subject: Cambodian Ruins


[Ought to have been sent June 7th. As you can see, we've had ongoing computer 
problems!]

We've spent the last two days seeing Angkorian temples. We're a bit templed
out now. The ruins were pretty spectacular, really huge, with extensive bas
relief around the outside of many of them. The biggest temple, Angkor Wat, has
a moat around it that is 200m wide! It's pretty hard to convey much about them
in an email - hopefully some of our slides will come out (from 72 attempts),
and you'll be forced to sit through a slide show sometime.

The tourist scence surrounding these ruins, however, is also immense (though
MUCH smaller now than ever, due to Iraq, SARS, 9-11, economy, etc.). We
managed to stay fairly clear of most of the tourists by seeing some of the
temples that were further out. It was fun and relaxing renting bicycles and
seeing the temples that way. Bicycles are a VERY popular form of transport
among the locals, along with motorbikes. You will see tiny little kids riding
bikes way too big for them, with an even small younger sibling stradling the
rack in back. Motorbikes as well are a form of communal transport here, with
up to three (or even four) people fitting on a fairly small 100cc bike. It's
also completely flat here, making the riding fairly leisurely (on our
one-speed bicycles).

Because the tourist population is a bit low, I think it makes the locals extra
keen to sell us everything. It got a bit exasperating entering every temple
with the words, "hey lady/mister, want to buy something cold drink?" ringing
in our ears. Every kid tries to sell you postcards, flutes, ugly souvenirs,
and more. And they very competitive about who we do business with. When Scott
bought water from one little kid instead of another little kid, the
disgruntled kid followed us around swearing at us! But we had a very good and
relaxing lunch yesterday that we bought from a friendly family, with
complimentary cambodian tea and bananas. They were very sweet, without
pressuring us to buy more of everything.

We didn't really know what to do with ourselves today, not being able to bring
ourselves to see yet more temples (plus we've seen all the easily accesible
ones), so we've tried to stay under fans as much as possible; it is very HOT
here. We've also both had massages today, by a nonprofit called Seeing Hands.
All the masseuses/masseurs are blind. Massages here are CHEAP! $3US/hour.
That's another thing, all prices here are quoted in US dollars, because the UN
completely dominated the economy while they were here, and since they've left,
the tourists took over. But, they don't use american change, so all change is
given in riel (1000 = 25 US cents, so our pockets fill up with bills/notes
worth less than 2c.)

We head for Phnom Penh tomorrow on a bus, which promises to be a truly
miserable journey. More on that when we arrive,

cheers,

Nina and Scott

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 06:41:44 -0700
Subject: Cambodia to Laos, can they do it?

[Hopefully from now on emails will arrive in a more timely manner. This one is 
from yesterday!!]

We arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday without a hitch. The bus ride wasn't nearly
as miserable as we'd heard it was going to be, the roads here get better by
the day. We are emailing this evening because we may be without email access
for the next few days, depending on how fast we take the next leg of our
journey.

Phnom Penh is full of motorbikes. They out-number cars 20:1. The only way to
get around is by moto. Even short distances walking seem like miles because of
the heat. And when we walk around we are clearly the only people doing it;
haven't seen a local walking yet. But the moto rides can be scary experiences.
Most of the drivers don't speak any English, and trying to consult your map,
gesture directions, while hanging on for dear life can be quite a task.
Traffic here works in a unique way. There are four lanes of traffic. There are
the two normal lanes, and then two more skinny lanes up against the gutter,
going the wrong way. When you want to turn left (for the Australian audience:
everyone here drives on the wrong side of the road), you first turn left into
the oncoming traffic, and end up riding on the left edge of the road (one of
the skinny lanes) and then you ride into/across the oncoming traffic, merging
into the left edge of the lanes going the way you wanted to go in the first
place. And because all of the traffic is motorbikes, there are really no lanes
anyways, and motorbikes swerve madly about each other. Crossing the road on
foot is a whole other story (think Frogger).

But our stay has still been pleasant. We went to a chinese restaurant last
night with a local expat, Bruno L'Hoste, a friend of Nina's grandmother, where
they make the noodles by hand seconds before they cook them for you ($1 each,
which includes unlimited iced green tea, some broth, peanuts, and watermelon
too). It was yummy, and we're headed back there again tonight. We went to a
museum today and did lots of errands, including money, visas for laos, and
other technicalties.

We had an Indonesian lunch (Phnom Penh has good food -- for $5 you get get a
great meal for two :-), and did some shopping at the markets, and a disastrous
moto fare negotation...

We thought our first border crossing would be an adventure, but this one has
some unknown factors, basically: how much will we have to bribe officials. The
border has an on-and-off status; sometimes open to foreigners, sometimes not.
It sounds like it's been ok in the last couple of months from what we've read
online.

We leave tomorrow morning for Kratie, taking a boat up the Mekong River. We'll
overnight there and hopefully take a side trip to see some rare fresh water
dolphins. The next leg is further up the Mekong by boat to Stung Treng. Then
across the border we go!! Our first stop in Lao will be Siphandon, the large
collection of islands in the middle of the Mekong in the south of Lao. Maybe
there will be internet there, maybe not.

[Addendum -- we postponed heading to Kratie for a day because Scott got sick, 
but is happily now mostly better :-) ]

Nina and Scott

Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 22:50:33 -0700
Subject: Laos adventures

Wow, so, where to start...

As was mentioned in the last email, our departure from Phnom Penh was delayed 
a day   because Scott got rather sick. But, we ended up leaving the morning of 
the 11th in a boat headed up the Mekong to Kratie. Our boat had some problems 
and we were put out by the side of the river until a truck turned up to get 
some of us and a boat  the rest of us. We ended up on the boat, which was 
*very* slow, compared to the boat we had come off of.  In the end, what we'd 
expected to be a 4 hour trip took 10 hours!

Kratie was a cute town, but we didn't stick around long, since we were headed 
north. We did stay long enough to have a few meals and exchange some of our 
books for new ones, as well as go see some of the rare and endangered Irrawady 
dolphins, fresh water dolphins that live in the Mekong. (less than 100 left 
today :-(  )
 
At midday on the 12th we took another boat  further north to the town of Stung 
Treng where we spent the night before taking a speed boat to the Lao-Cambodia 
border the morning of the 13th. We'd anticipated a slightly difficult border 
crossing, but all went well. We had to pay the border guards (in the form of 
institutionalized bribes) more than we'd expected, but Scott got away with 
paying very little, since they'd handed his stamped passport back to him 
before getting his money :-)

Once over the border we took a truck then a small boat  to get  to the island 
of  Don Deth, one of the many islands in the middle of this part of the 
Mekong. (The area is known as the "4000 islands".)  When we first turned up at
 the bungalows the family was sitting down to lunch. Right away they passed us 
some rice and rice whiskey. The rice whiskey is a sort of home brew made all 
over Lao called "Lao Lao". They drink it everywhere! The Lao Lao in this part 
of Lao is supposed to be of the finest quality :-)

We settled in to relax, layed around in hammocks, ate some food. Then the 
owner of the place offered to take some of us on the boat to see some rapids. 
He asked us to chip in for petrol, but at the end he wouldn't even accept  
that.. We rode in the boat until it got rocky. Then we had to hop over some 
rocks and do some wading to get  to the rapids. However, Nina never made it to 
the rapids, because while walking through some of the watery bit, her foot got 
stuck between two rocks and she wasn't able to walk any more. She sat in the 
water while the other three guests went to the rapids. The Mekong river here 
splits up, and all passes through a series of rapids and waterfalls spread out 
across a few kilometres. The fresh water dolphins we'd seen further downstream 
can't pass this area. We saw some bamboo fish traps built in some of these 
rapids, which act as gigantic sieves, a few metres across. When everyone 
returned Nina was walking fine...but this didn't last. By dinner time the foot 
was more uncomfortable, but still nothing alarming.

However, waking the next morning, before even putting any weight on it, was 
extremely painful. So we both spent the WHOLE day in hammocks reading outload 
to each other, and to oursevles. Togethre we gradually were able to straighten 
the foot back out, which had stiffened in a funny position during the night. 
This was a lazy day. And since we were on the west side of the island, we got 
to watch a lovely sunset over the Mekong (while drinking complimentary Lao Lao 
cocktails with honey and lime)..

This island is small. There is no running water. And electricity runs for 
about 3 hours in the evening from a generator. All the locals bathe in the 
river and wash their clothes there. To get around each family has their own 
small motorized boat. The morning of the 15th we went with the family early in 
the morning in their boat to market.. Nina bought a small rice steaming 
basket. All the rice here in Lao is sticky rice. They soak the rice overnight 
and then quickly steam it in little bamboo baskets. You can pick it up with 
your hands, and that's the way the Lao people eat it.

After the market we had a bit of a snooze. Nina's foot was already doing much 
better, and we decided to go for a bike ride around the island. We rode across 
a bridge on the south of the island, across to the nearby Don Kohn. We rode 
around there and saw a waterfall, some rapids, and a beach at the far southern 
end of the island, where they gave us more Lao Lao. Here we met one of the 
guys who worked at the bungalows we were staying at, who was there to visit 
his brother, and possibly an invisible monk! (Nina and Scott had slightly 
varying interpretations of this conversations.)

The next day we took a boat back to the mainland, then a bus north to Pakse, 
and got off before Pakse to make a side trip to Champasak. We spent a night 
here, and in the afternoon went to see Wat Phu, an Angkor-era ruin on a 
hillside. This was great - incredibly situated, with beautiful trees growing 
out through the old stonework all the way up the central stairs. Even after a 
few days of temples at Angkor, this place is highly recommended. From 
Champasak, we went on to Pakse, only passing through, on the way to Tadlo.

Tadlo is a small town by a set of waterfalls on a small river. We spent two 
nights here. On the first afternoon we took an elephant ride. A bit pricey, by 
our budget ($5 each!!), but well worth it. We each got to ride our own 
elephant, and wandered about through the jungle (elephants make short work of 
undergrowth when it's time to go off a trail), across a river which would have 
been impossible to cross on foot. and through a small village. (We were very 
embarrassed here, and felt very intrusive, but came back on foot the next day 
and realised it was mostly just the kids there getting excited about seeing 
the elephants that brought so much attention to us the day before.) Our walk 
the next day, with a guide from the guesthouse we stayed at, passed through 
several minority villages, some jungle, and slash-and-burn agriculture.

Yesterday (we've almost caught up!) wasn't such a great day... mostly spent  
on a long, slow bus ride from Tadlo to Savanakhet, where we are now. We had 
way overpriced pizza for dinner (we were getting a little sick of noodles and 
decided to splurge), followed by fantastic (and cheap - 30c each) pineapple 
and coconut shakes. (These were way  too big - at least half a litre/quart 
each, and Scott couldn't finish his!) Today we've just been wandering around 
Savanakhet (doing some errands like writing this email and changing some more 
travellers cheques), and soon we'll hop on a bus north for Tha Khek. Over the 
next few days, hopefully we'll go see a huge underground river, and visit the 
village on the other side. It might be a week before we next have email, in 
Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

love,
Nina and Scott

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 05:30:38 -0700
Subject: Laos - south to north

[This one is really long (so was our last one for that matter :-) For anyone 
except our parents, who'd read anything, perhaps you should plan on setting 
this down half way to finish some other time :-) ]

We left you last in Savanakhet, a ghost of a town. We stopped next in Tha 
Khaek, an even ghostier town. We had a disastrous time finding vegetarian food 
because it felt like we were the first western tourists there in a million 
years. We managed though, by pointing to our phrase in the guidebook, "I only 
eat vegetables." Predictably, we got Chinese style fried vegetables every 
night. Yum. :-/

But Tha Khaek had some redeeming features. We rented a motorbike for a day 
there to explore the countryside. Of course, as many of you might know, 
neither of us actually know how to ride a motorbike. With the exception of a 
few slightly embarrasing mishaps, we both caught on quickly enough. We left 
town on a dirt road headed to a small village called Ma Ha Xai. The plan was 
to see some limestone caves along the way, but mostly to enjoy the ride. The 
countryside was spectacular. There were cliffs on all sides covered with wispy 
mist. There were some massive stalactites like we had climbed on in Thailand 
-- if the rock quality is any good, there could be loads of great climbing out 
here. (Rockclimbing barely exists in Laos). We weren't able to find any caves 
on the way there, but after lunch and some riding in the rain, we spotted one 
on our way back and explored a bit. We returned to Tha Khaek after a very long 
day to some more crap veggie food. But the trip to Ma Ha Xai was great.

We left the next morning (early) trying to catch a bus bound for Lak Sao. 
Waiting at the bus station we watched some Lao pop music -- much of which is 
endearingly moralistic and nostalgic. One video clip was about a man who goes 
to work in the big city (Laos' biggest city being a huge 150000 people), and 
sends the money he earns to his mother in the country.  Scott cried.

We planned to get off at a small village on the way - Na Hin - and then make 
our way to an isolated village - Kong Lo - where we'd heard about a 4km long 
river tunnel that we wanted to see. We waited 1 hour longer for first bus than 
we'd planned, but the bus was empty, so the ride fairly comfortable. We got 
off in Na Hin as expected and faced the challenge of transport to Kong Lo.

We boarded a large truck bound for Na Phuak, a whopping 10 km down the road. 
Once in Na Phuak we had to negotiate a fare with a boat driver to finish our 
transport by river. We'd originally intended to go to Sala Hin Boun, a small 
resort half-way up the river (but way outside our budget), but after meeting 
another tourist (who we both still think was a figment of our collective 
imagination) who spoke Lao, who helped with the negotations (and then 
disappeared!?) decided to head right up to Kong Lo, the village right near the 
tunnel, and try to stay with a Lao family there. We agreed on 300 000 kip 
(that's $30US -- it's easy to be a millionaire while you're travelling in 
Laos) for the round trip, returning the next day. The boat was a tiny 
motorised canoe, at the back only a few inches above the water. It turned out 
the $30 was good value -- it took forever getting all the way up the river! 
The scenery again was incredible. Jungle and villages on both sides, and 
towering jagged black limestone cliffs. The ridges of the cliffs looked like 
gothic arches, full of knife-blade spires and water-smoothed rock. After about 
4 hours on the river, we arrived at Kong Lo, which seemed mostly deserted 
(it's rice planting season here, and we discovered later that everyone was out 
in the fields). With some trepidation we walked into the village, but it 
turned out to be very straightforward. Our boat driver knew a family there, 
who had taken in tourists before, and we went there. After some introductions, 
Nina managed to explain that we don't eat meat, which was received with 
uproarious laughter. They seemed to understand, even that we didn't eat fish, 
although this part didn't quite work out. We went down to the river later with 
the boat driver and the son from the family to bathe.

When we got back to the house Nina wrote some in her journal, which fascinated 
the family. After it got dark dinner was brought out. Fried morning glory with 
egg, and morning glory and fish soup. oops. But we ate around the fish, and 
dipped our sticky rice in the broth. The two of us, the boat driver, and the 
father ate sitting sitting on the floor around the small wicker table. The 
mother, son, and daughter didn't eat until we had finished. Eating in Laos is 
done with the hands. There are huge quantities of sticky rice which you roll 
into little balls and use to pick up the other food. We went to bed not long 
after dark, and some other kids turned up, to do some (school?) reading with 
the father.

We rose early the next morning to go through the tunnel. Some of the men in 
the village had fixed the price at $7 (for the boat), but for some reason 
today we were paying $7.40. The tunnel starts only a kilometre or two up the 
river from Kong Lo. You come around a bend in the river, and see the river 
issuing from a wide black hole in a sheer cliff. It's a big river by the way 
-- 15-20m wide, and hard to swim against. There were some rapids at the mouth 
of the tunnel, so our guides had to carry the motor over the rocks, and tow 
the boat around the edge. We got back in the boat inside the tunnel mouth, 
turned on our lights, and started in. The tunnel is almost impossible to 
describe. It dark and quiet, in most places about 20m wide, with the river 
filling it to both walls, and about 5 or 10m high. In many places there are 
stalactites hanging from the roof, in other places peculiar vaulted ceilings, 
with small waterfalls falling from the cracks, and in other places huge 
chambers where the roof and the far wall receded away into the darkness. It 
takes a long time to pass through the tunnel, about 45 minutes on the way 
upstream, and the whole time the only light comes from the two caving lights 
the guides had, and our puny LED headlights. Arriving at the far end, and 
coming out through the stalactite hung opening, back into the warm jungle, was 
indescribable. We tried taking some photos coming into and out of each end of 
the tunnel, but I doubt they'll do much justice.

Returning down through the tunnel was fast -- we had the current with us. We 
made a quick stop in Kong Lo, for some breakfast (more fried morning glory -- 
they'd worked out about the fish by now), and we paid the tunnel guides and 
the family. Just before we left, they cut some short pieces of hand spun 
cotton, and started chanting and tying the strings around our right wrists, 
and putting balls of sticky rice in our hands to hold. We were quite 
surprised, and everyone thought the whole thing was hilarious. The mother of 
the family was a real character -- we think her face naturally set in a 
puzzled and bemused expression, but it could have been us as well. She cracked 
up especially when we gave them some Lao sweets we'd bought on the bus.

The trip downriver was fairly uneventful. Nina slept most of the way, while 
Scott stayed on duty waving to all the excited kids on the shore who waved and 
danced and shouted 'falang' (Lao for 'French' and by extension 'tourist'), and 
occasionally leapt into the river, every time we passed a village.

Our next leg was a long bus or two to Vientiane, the capital. We've been here 
now for 3 days, and we'll write about our templing, eating and shopping 
adventures (and frequent siestas) later, because we are very hungry by now!

Scott and Nina

Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2003 04:26:47 -0700
Subject: Laos - almost over :-(


Wow :-)

we're kinda behind in our spamming, so you'll get a whirlwind tour of 
Vientiane, Vang Vieng, and perhaps Luang Prabang (where we are now).

We spent four wonderful days in Vientiane, the capital. We never seemed to get 
much done each day, because it was blisteringly hot the whole day. Between 
siestas we did lots of shopping in Vientiane's great markets, visited some old 
temples around town, and ate lots of good food (Indian about once a day :-). 
We also found the best fruit shakes in the world, so had quite a few of those.

We (especially Nina) were constantly distracted by the beautiful textiles in 
all the shops and markets. We spent 1.5 days JUST shopping. Our bargaining 
skills became impecable and we learned that if someone says "$10" you can 
usually work it down to four! We may still have been ripped off a bit, but we 
definitely fared better and better as our purchasing progressed.

Besides shopping, Vientiane is a city of monks. There seemed to be as many 
monks as tourists! And their bright orange robes never cease to dazzle us. 
Besides temples we also checked out this incredibly surreal place called the 
"Buddha Park". Every hindu deity as well as plenty of buddhas (in different 
poses) are crafted rather crudely out of cement in towering proportions. The 
highlight is a 30 meter reclining Buddha with a quirky smile, looking more 
like he is laying on the beach than doing whatever reclinging Buddhas are 
meant to be doing.

We also got dressed up one evening (in some of our new Lao clothes!) and went 
to see a free concert -- the Asian Fantasy Orchestra! It was an exuberant 
disaster (just like the Buddha park) of world music. Picture daiko drums in a 
rock concert, playing along with saxophone and traditional Lao instruments, 
all masterminded by a crazy long-haired Japanese electric guitarist in tight 
black pants. We stamped and clapped and roared along with the enthusiastic Lao 
audience :-)

On to Vang Vieng. Rain, rain and more rain. Nice place, however. The town 
itself is barely more than the main street -- one side guesthouses, the other 
side a row of identical pizza restaurants, serving western, lao, and israeli 
food, along with "happy" pizzas, "special" mushroom tea, and other tourist 
favorites. We spent two nights in town, but in between went out on a 2 day 
trekking and kayaking trip -- our most organised tourism so far! It turned out 
to just be the 2 of us and a guide the first day. We saw some great caves out 
on the mountain, and ate bbq'd vegetable shish kebabs in the middle of 
nowhere. The second day a 3rd person and another guide joined us, and we 
hopped in our kayaks to head downriver back to Vang Vieng.

We wrestled with some exceptionally exciting "class 1" rapids..hmmm... At any 
rate, we had a lot of fun and some big adrenaline rushes, especially when  
Nina flipped over in an eddy. After a moment or two of disorientation she 
remembered how to get out of the closed kayak, and reboarded it mid-river from 
another kayak while drifting closer to another set of rapids. We had a stop 
for lunch and a stop at a wonderful cave that we had to swim through part of. 
It's a huge, branching cave called the "sleeping cave" where local people went 
to live during the american invasion of Vietnam to escape the carpet bombing 
that officially never occured.

The next day we were off to Luang Prabang. It's a very idyllic city at the 
intersection of the Mekong and a tributary. This is our third day here, and 
we're getting ready to leave, but would love to stay longer. Most of the town 
sits on a peninsula formed by the two rivers. There isn't much traffic and 
there are so many trees that from the top of the hill in town you can see 
temple rooftops and not much more. There's again lots of good food, and 
between the two main streets there are tiny brick laneways and temples. (From 
the windows of our guesthouse room we can see the saffron colours of monks' 
laundry.) On our first day we visited quite a few temples, the royal palace 
museum, and got wonderful Swedish-Lao massages from the red cross with scented 
oils. Yesterday we took a day trip to one of the local waterfalls. We explored 
some of the upper levels before taking a dip in a deeper pool and swimming 
behind the falls. We took another swimming break further down stream in a 
series of cascading green pools. It was so hot and the water was very 
refreshing. In the evening we hiked up the stairs to the top of the hill to 
take sunset photos.

This morning we woke up early to watch the monks collect alms (they just 
collect sticky rice during their morning rounds, and buy other food with money 
from donations). There were a few hundred of them, all walking single file 
around the main roads of town. After that, we went across the river to see 
some other temples. We had a relaxing time just watching the villagers, and 
drinking some Beer Lao so Nina could celebrate the 4th of July. After some 
further monk voyeurism, we returned across the river. Before lunch (wonderful 
fresh spring rolls from a little no-name shop we found) we moved to a 
different guesthouse, where the people we'd gone to the falls with were 
staying, which is nicer than our previous place. Unfortunately they don't have 
electricity this afternoon, so our planned siesta was unbearably hot. Even 
now, sitting inside under a fan at 6:30pm it's too hot.

Tonight we're splurging big time! Breaking out the credit card, we're heading 
to the fanciest restaurant in town (french); a 3 course set meal for $10! 
(Most meals have cost us around $3 for both of us, and if we liked Lao food 
more than we do we could probably eat for $1.)

Tomorrow morning we're heading north -- next stop Meung Ngoi, then on to Luang 
Nam Tha (almost at the Chinese border), and hopefully downriver for two days 
on the Nam Tha, which takes us to the Thai border. We probably won't send any 
more email until then!

Cheers,

Scott and Nina

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 19:42:04 -0700
Subject: Thailand again!


I guess we wrote last from the lovely riverside haven of Luang Prabang. We've
come a *long* way from there -- three days ago we took 8 separate legs of
transport, and the day before that saw 4 different countries (without actually
setting foot in all of them :-)

>From Luang Prabang we headed north, to Nong Khiaw, a riverside village on the
Nam Ou river, which runs to the farthest northern corner of Laos. From there,
we took a boat a short distance up the river, to hang out in Muang Ngoi for a
day. This was a fairly touristy place - not busy, but it was clear the economy
of the village depended heavily on backpackers. It was a nice place, with
views of the river and mountains beyond. All through the town bomb casings
from unofficial civilian bombing campaign by the US were used as steps, fence
posts, and flower boxes. There were a frightening number of these - the US
dropped more bombs on Laos than on Vietnam... Many of the bomb casings had
plates on them stating the location of manufacture: 'Camden, US', or
stencilled dates: 'Loaded 3-69'.

We walked out to a cave, where we swam through a dark tunnel to some large
caverns beyond (getting scared by a dragon in a side cave on the way!),
bouldered outside, and sat in the crystal clear stream flowing out of the cave
to cool off.

>From Muang Ngoi, we left with some other tourists, and spent the next night
back at Nong Khiaw. Here we had great sunset views, a great dinner, and a long
conversation with an older Australian couple. In the morning, we raced out to
see some caves, but didn't stay long - we had a bus to catch to Luang Nam Tha
(which we inevitably ended up waiting another hour for at the bus station).
The Lao bus system takes some patience. Hotel managers and travel agents like
to tell you that the buses leave at a specific time, but as we soon figured
out, the buses arrive when they feel like it, and leave when they're full. And
after they're full, there will be a couple more stops 10 meters down the road,
for the driver to do some shopping for his mother (which it seems he could
have done in the two hours the bus was sitting there...)

The ride to Luang Nam Tha took forever, and a change of buses, and arrived
after dark. The second bus was packed past capacity, and Scott ended up
sitting on the floor, facing backwards. Just before getting into town, we
stopped at a checkpoint, where we got to witness first-hand some low level
extortion :-) Just outside our window, the driver and an official (half in
uniform, half in his pyjamas) held a tense discussion, and at several points
bundles of money (money in Laos comes in big bundles -- $50 is an inch thick!)
were exchanged surreptiously. We had a perfect view, and were sorely tempted
to take a photo, but thought the flash might disturb things :-)

We only spent one night in Luang Nam Tha, but rented a motorbike in the
morning and zoomed around some neighbouring villages, endured a brief
rainshower, then made it back to town on muddy roads. We had been thinking
about taking a boat out of Luang Nam Tha down the Nam Tha river to the Thai
border, but they wanted about $100 for the boat charter (which we would have
been able to split with another couple), and anyway we were keen to see Muang
Sing, and the hill tribes who live there. Also, this gave us a chance to try
the lesser travelled route down the Mekong river, along the Burmese border.

>From Luang Nam Tha, we took a bus to Muang Sing, the major town in the far
north-west corner of Laos. It's about 8km from China, and 50km from Burma.
By now we were quite concerned about how little time we had left -- if we
couldn't find a boat going down the Mekong from Xieng Kok, we'd have to
backtrack a long way; two full days of buses over bad roads. At the same
time we were sure we wanted to spend a day walking in the area around
Muang Sing, to see the hill tribe villages.

During the first evening in Muang Sing, we walked around town to find out
about guided trekking options. We've never been keen to spend too much
money on this trip, but perhaps this time we shortchanged ourselves :-) We
went with a guide who charged $16 for the two of us, where others wanted
at least that each. Inevitably, we didn't get what we didn't pay for :-)
He organised our transport at the beginning and end of the day, provided
lunch, and knew where to take us to see the promised 6 villages, but his
English wasn't great, so most of our questions went unanswered.
Nevertheless, it was a great day -- we learnt a bit about the tribes,
mostly Akha and Yao, in the area, and saw some of their villages. (There
are actually quite a few Akha people in California!) It feels a bit
intrusive walking into these villages, but on the whole the people seemed
fairly friendly and welcoming.

Both mornings we were in Muang Sing we went to the town market, which was
probably the best one we saw in Laos. Hundreds of people, buying and
selling everything under the sun, and almost as many people in traditional
hill tribe clothes as we saw while out walking! We also had some great
Chinese doughnuts -- the best ones were filled with crushed peanuts and
sugar; yummy :-)

We left Muang Sing on the 10th, to Xieng Kok, a small town on the Mekong
river. It took two bus rides, and Scott thought the second one was perhaps
the most beautiful section of road we saw in all of Laos! The road wound
through a narrow valley, with dense jungle on both hillsides, with
sections carved out for agriculture on the hillsides, and rice paddies in
the flats by a small river. The rice crops had been planted in the last
few weeks, so everything was covered with the beautiful iridescent green
of rice shoots. Hiding over the hilltops were probably some opium crops as
well -- this is the centre of the famous Golden Triangle.

We hadn't seen the Mekong for about a week now, when we left Luang
Prabang, and arriving in Xieng Kok it was great to see it again -- we've
been following the Mekong ever since Phnom Penh, in Cambodia, and now
we're hoping to leave Laos by taking a boat along the Mekong, just like we
entered. Xieng Kok is a tiny little town, with no one around -- there's
one other falang (foreigner) on the sonthaew (small passenger truck) with
us, but no others around town. This is bad news for us, as we're expecting
the boat charter to be expensive, and would like to be able to share it.

After lunch, we settled in at a guest house by the river, with a view
across to Burma on the other side! We made a visit down to the boat
landing, and make casual enquiries about chartering a boat to Huay Xai,
the border crossing into Thailand. The boat driver wants to know how many
of us there are (why? we're chartering the whole boat!), and asks for $75.
(That's 3 entire days budget for us...) We decided to hang around town to
see if anyone else turns up heading the same way, and perhaps ask about
boat charters to halfway towns down the Mekong, where we won't be at the
mercy of the 2 boat drivers here.

Later that afternoon, however, a Lao guy turns up at the door of our room,
and offers to take us -- he lives in a town half way to Huay Xai, and is
going there anyway that afternoon. After a little negotiation, we agree on
700 Baht -- a bit less than $20, and we're off! It's an exhilarating ride;
on a speedboat about 1m wide, 5m long, with 30cm draft, doing about 70 kph
through small rapids, bouncing across standing waves and whirlpools! On
the way down we passed a few Chinese barges, which can navigate this
section of the Mekong, making this the sole trade route between northern
Thailand and China. The right bank of the river is all Burma, and in fact
on the map the official border jumps back and forth between the two banks,
so perhaps we can say that we got to visit Burma! :-)

After about 2 hours on the river we arrived at Ton Pheung, a pretty small
town where I don't think they see many tourists :-) Our boat driver
dropped us off at the one guesthouse in town. After one failed attempt
(oops!) we managed to get some vegetarian food, then went to sleep.

The next morning, we'd been planning on meeting up with the same boat
driver to go further downstream. We never found him though, and ended up
on another boat with some other passengers. We all got off the boat at yet
another small town on the Mekong, and took a bus into Huay Xai. Here we
changed the last of our kip into Thai baht (the bank wouldn't do it for us, so
we had to settle for a not-so-great exchange rate in town), passed the border
formalities, and took a ferry ride across to Thailand. We were very sad to be 
leaving Laos :-(

After a long and fairly non-descript bus ride, we made it to Chang Mai not
long after dark. Counting the two legs of this bus ride, the day totaled 8
different legs of transport!! (boat, songthaew, samlor, boat, tuk-tuk, bus,
bus, share-taxi) Our record for the trip :-) We haven't really done very much
here. Eat, read, sleep, etc. Nina spent an afternoon looking at temples, but
got rained out. There have been consistently heavy showers in the afternoon,
but we've been really lucky, having a late monsoon this year. And we've been
shopping. Chang Mai has an infamous night market, and we've been further
tuning our bargaining skills. We also saw the day market yesterday and got the
cheapest fisherman's pants around. We're both set for life.

Today we are taking a thai cooking class!! These are all the rage in Chang
Mai, and we've heard that no visit here is complete without one. We'll see how
it goes, it's supposed to be loads of fun. In fact, we have to leave right now
to get there in time!

I guess this is the last email from SE Asia! Hope you haven't been too bored
:-)

Love, Nina and Scott