Bangkok, December 21-22

"One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble,

Not much between despair and ecstasy"

-Murray Head

Back in the City of Light and happy to be here. Some of my fellow travellers despise Bangkok, but once you get away from the backpacker places, it's a breathtaking city (in more ways than one). I splashed out on a boutique hotel in the Silom Road area which is pleasant while still lively (less punters and more high end hotels and locals). The hotel is a sleek, compact affair with just the right touches of good taste: lots of white plaster walls and real wood furnishings, a sunflower over a wooden bathtub, a hip little hotel bar, and dance music playing softly in the halls. Dance music? It eventually became apparent that I am staying in a place favoured by gay travellers: the good taste, the dance music in the halls, the gay staff, and the men's guide to Bangkok in the room! All this for about $120 a night (including a nice breakfast).

It was also a good choice location wise, as I planned to visit the Dome, an outdoor rooftop restaurant where I had an exceptional meal and service (visiting a restaurant alone, one relies on more heavily the service to make the experience). I started with a Southeast Asian Martini (a blend of gin, lychee liqueur, ginger and kaffir lime) and squid cakes in sweet chili sauce (yay, finally felt safe eating squid!). The had spicy Thai morning glory and Bresse chicken in lemon sauce. As my Aussie companions would say: so good.

OK, now I'm off to Auckland for the next stage of the adventure. Happy Christmas to all!

PS: the sidebar pics include some of the Thai-glish that I love to capture: the first one is the info booklet in my hotel (it's a fancy way of saying "six" channels) and the latter was a SkyTrain platform advert (I would have visited but was concerned that they were not specialized enough...)

Vientienne to Bangkok, December 20 to 21

The trip from Vang Vieng to Vientiane (Laos' capitol) was the coolest mode of transport I have yet taken: kayak! Admittedly, we left VV by truck, and arrived in Vientiane by truck, but for part of the journey we kayaked. And not wimpy, slow water kayaking but helmet-requiring rapids too! The guide took my glasses from me during one difficult rapid stretch, which I was thankful for as we tipped into the river and had to rescue another kayak er who was stranded on a rock. After lunch, my guide asked to borrow my lifejacket and returned my glasses. Of course, this pretty much meant that my kayak would tip! (I blame the lousy balancing of the other guide who shared it with me!). I was pushed under the water and quickly realized that the current was holding me under. I was thankful for my dive course instructor's words: stop, think and resolve the problem. I surfaced to discover that my glasses were still on.

The truck broke down on the way into town, thus ensuring that I got a full compliment of true Laos experiences. Had a nice dinner with my travel mates down by the river. Although they snickered at my insistence on seeing the kitchen where the food was to be prepared, I was especially thankful later on when another guest in my hotel began vomiting loudly about 4 a.m.!

Here's the stretch of river that tipped me into the water. Hope there's no river worms breeding in my brain now...

Vang Vieng, December 19

Well, this place has won me over. Kinda. As a fellow traveller commented, it's a bit like a frat party (attended by the banana pancake crowd). But some beautiful scenery and there are some good people around.

I rented a mountain bike and headed off through the rice fields to the hills to take in the landscape. And got a good traditional Laos massage. Met up with some Aussies from my minibus and have strengthened my resolve to visit that country to do diving, surfing and city exploration.

I had planned to do the rite-of-passage tubing thing today but several of my companions got food poisoned last night (having seen the kitchen on my way to the toilet it was really no wonder). I was lucky to escape unscathed and have reverted to my fallback diet: vegetarian only, high heat meals. This means pizza and soup, but it's only a few days.

PS: read the news online about the fiscally irresponsible Conservatives. I now have 30 billion new reasons to hate that man. As if the origonal reasons weren't enough!

Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, December 15-18

"For it's stupid to laugh and it's useless to bawl,

About a rusty tin can and an old hurley ball..."

-The Pogues

Well, the above quote was inspired by my biking experience in Luang Prabang -long story short, my rented bike was stolen while I perused the most gruesome images of Buddhist purgatory (who knew?!) in a Wat. I hope there's karmic justice for the thief. The mistake of not locking it up cost me $70, so I can't complain too much.

I took a kayak trip along the Ou River which was spectacular. And a cooking class on Laos food that included a trip to the market to learn about ingredients. Laos people are proud and knowledgeable about their culture, including food.

I also watched the monks collecting alms one early morning. The disappointing part was the other tourists who, despite numerous explanatory posters around town, obstructed the entire ceremony with photography (including flashes). One guy I met was so peeved about a tourist's behaviour that he rushed up to one and took his photograph!

Had a lovely dinner out with my companions at a festively-lit garden style restaurant where we had a Lao style BBQ. This consists of a large clay pot filled with coals, over which sits an urn that contains both broth (for hotpot) and a grill (for BBQ). Delicious and fun!

And then onward to Vang Vieng, one of the strangest places in Asia (and that's saying something). It's like a cross between a North American rec room (with regard to bad taste and the ubiquity of television), a derelict bar district, and Khao San Road in Bangkok (loud, loutish expats). Of course Asia influenced (surprisingly calm locals wait patiently for drunken guys to get off the roof of their truck, locals still smile at me). I'll reserve judgement on this place until I have had a few more days here.

Luang Prabang, Decemeber 13-14

"Eggs and sausage and a side of toast, coffee and a roll,
hash browns over easy, chile in a bowl
with burgers and fries, what kind of pie?"

-Tom Waits


In a rare splurge on luxury, I flew into Luang Prabang rather than take a 2 day boat trip along the Mekong. The flight took 35 mins, though looking down at the river I wondered if the scenic trip might have been worth the (literal) pain in the ass. Never mind, time is now of the essence: I have only 2 weeks left and lots still to see.


The food in Laos deserves special mention. It is spectacular: fresh and flavourful. My first meal, at a funky restaurant-cooking school, I ordered the "lemongrass stuffed chicken", thinking that a translation error mean I would receive chicken stuffed with lemongrass. Not so. Here's a picture to prove it: the dipping sauce was divine. Last night, with the company of two Laos girls from my travel agency, I had chicken with basil, local sausages, and a river fish cooked with lemon grass, chilies and lemon. The fish was expertly cooked, just long enough to cook the flesh but still incredibly moist. The flavours induced a whimper of happiness from me. I tried not to think about Agent Orange or PCBs in Mekong fish. Mine, I'm sure, avoided such unpleasantness.



Drinking here is also noteworthy. First of, you can order any beer you like, as long as it's Beer Lao. It's thankfully a non-offensive lager that suits the climate. My guesthouse owner invited me to join her and two mates for beer, which is consumed as follows. First, from a large bottle, she pours herself one quarter of a small glass, says "now I drink" and downs it. Then she repeats and offers to the person on her left. As a result, beer is consumed rather slowly and at the discretion of the host! Ice may or may not be added. Don't laugh, it's refreshing!



Spent most of yesterday kayaking on the Ou river amidst karst land formations and beautiful, jagged mountains. Went to bed tired and slept 11 hours.






PS: delighted to hear about Ignatieff back home. He's got the guts (backed by actual thinking) to repair Harper's mess. All I want for Christmas is...

Bokeo Nature Reserve, December 10-12

The Gibbons Experience is a cleverly assembled tourist draw that brings small groups of visitors into a natural area on foot, equips the with zipline harnesses and houses them in treehouses. Although we did not see any Gibbon monkeys, the scenery was spectacular, the zip lining really fun, and the treehouses quite cool. We were a group of Aussies, Canadians and a German and got to know each other quite well.

Day two included a hike to a waterfall and swimming pool where we swam and, thankfully washed away accumulated sweat! I observed how our Western sensibilities melted away: notions of privacy are hard to maintain when you sleep co-ed in a 20 square meter treehouse and bathe in a swimming hole, and squeamishness about insects turns to "look, a bug in my food" or "cool spiders on the ceiling"! One girl, however, was not fond of the rats...

The trip back to town was typical Third World: once the tourists were in the truck, any extra room in the truck was used for transport of people and goods. At one point, out driver stopped the truck, grabbed a massive machete and hacked down a half dozen bamboo trees and loaded them on the vehicle.

Arrived back in Houay Xai dirty, sweaty and happy to see a clean bed and hot shower.

Chiang Mai - Laos (Houay Xai), December 8-9

"I'm a traveling man don't tie me down,

There's just too much living going all around,

A man he's got to see what he can see"

-Lyle Lovett

Yesterday was an errand day -book sales, book purchases, change money, recover from hangover, etc. I dozed by Aaron and Faith's pool (they moved to a boutique hotel that dripped elegance and taste -unlike mine, which just dripped gungy green stuff on the bathroom floor).

We went our for a lovely dinner at the Blue Diamond, a great find among many great places in Chiang Mai. Had Khao Soi, the local style of curry, plus a killer avocado salad and an eggplant puree that was quite arresting.

On my way how I stopped off at this little cowboy-looking bar to hear a Thai guy in a cowboy hat play covers like Hotel California, singing along in his unique brand of English ("On a dar deser highway, coo wi nama hair...")

Then a 6.5 hour trip to Chiang Khong (I was told 4 hours, so no real complaints) and a 10 minute walk to the river and I was on a longtail boat crossing the Mekong into Laos! I felt like Bill Murray in "The Razor' Edge" when he arrives in India. I noted with interest that the Thai side of the river offered a muddy slough for landing boats (top pic), while the Laos side (bottom pic)has a paved ramp. Got a visa in minutes and found a tasty curry for dinner. Tomorrow, I'll be heading into the Bokeo Nature Reserve for 2 nights and will update this blog when I return.