Although we spent a month in Thailand, when I think back on it I realize that Jef and I really didn't do all that much. We do however have to say that we did not enjoy the people of Thailand. After coming from Lao where everyone is patient and friendly, Thailand is really impatient, rude, uncomfortable and is full of people just trying to rip you off.Hopefully, this blog will not be to long then since there really is not much to summarize besides us being lazy and bumming around on some islands for a couple weeks.
When we crossed the border from Lao into Thailand it as very much a cluster fuck with people yelling at us all different orders and places to go. We eventually got across however we only had a 15 day visa to show for it. It seems that when someone chooses to fly into Thailand they are allowed a 30 day visa but upon arrival you are only allowed a 15 day (unless you are Polish??) So this kind of put a damper on our plans since we were not planning on having to exit and re-enter the country just to be able to stay an extra 15 days. We ended up taking a sleeper train that night to Bangkok, which was at first really fun and then it quickly turned south to miserable. It is really expensive to travel by train, and since the train cars with a fan instead of AC is cheaper they fill up faster, so we were stuck freezing in a little bed all night. We also got stuck on the upper bunk because it was the cheaper one (I thought to myself SCORE because whenever I was at a sleep over when I was younger everyone always wanted the top bunk and it is cheaper here) however we soon realized why it is so cheap. It is right next to the AC and there is a blinding light that is on the ceiling right next to your face that never gets turned off.
When we arrived into Thailand we had a choice of either staying at the legendary and cheap backpacker hostel road, or to not. And we had had enough of locals trying to haggle us and forcibly throw you in their tuktuk every 15 ft. so we chose to not go where the locals go and chose to stay downtown. This ended up being an awesome spot because we were so close to everything, right across the street from the most massive mall I have ever imagined. It is seriously 7 stories tall and is endless (we have been there plenty of times and it still feels like we have hardly touched it). We ate the most delicious McDonald's meal in the world (I will not eat Thai food for a long long time when I get home). We then took the sky train out to the immigration office to try to extend our visa and payed WAY to much baht to find out that you can only extend it for 7days, meaning we still had to leave the country. So we chose to head down to the Thai Islands and to cross into Malaysia.
The next evening we took another sleeper train to a town in southern Thailand called Chumpon. We arrived there around 2 am and had a 'bus' to take at 6 am to the port to take a ferry to our first island Koh Tao. Well we didn't sleep much that night and the bus ended up being a massive tuktuk that just herded in tourists, we all laughed at how comical it was and how we all looked like we were being shipped like cargo to come concentration camp. We eventually got on our ferry and headed to Koh Tao. The island is the smallest in a set of three sister islands and it is best knows for it's diving and snorkeling since it is so small and that is all there really is to do. We got set up with a recommended diving company instantly and started our open water diving course that night. We were staying in bungalows right on the beach, and this resort was packed with backpackers. All the instructors were awesome and were people who were visiting and fell in love with diving and just decided to stay. We were going to have to do 5 dives in 2 days and we were going to have homework. I was really worried about diving because I have horrible ears but surprisingly the first 3 dives went perfectly for everyone in our group. We had a group of 6 people, ourselves and two other couples who we ended up seriously bonding with. We had a ball sitting up late at night together all talking and doing our homework together.After we all passed our exams it started to go south. Neither Jef nor I could equalize while going down on our 4th dive and had to call it off for a couple of days. It turns out that everyone at this resort was having ear problems because of how cold the rooms were at night. My ears then took a turn from bad to worse. Actually still right now (3 weeks later) my ears are still in loads of pain and are probably infected. I was unable to finish my course, however, Jef was able to and we celebrated by going snorkeling :) It turns out that snorkeling on Koh Tao is way better than diving and we saw LOADS of fish. We say barracuda and trigger fish, every sort of fish from Finding Nemo, massive and poisonous urchins, enemines and star fish. The fish aren't afraid of you so you will constantly just be swarmed with different schools, it was wonderful! We ended up spending a good week on Koh Tao just renting motor bikes and driving to the local beaches and going snorkeling. At night we would eat at the local food vendors and walk along the beach and watch fire dancers and then lay in hammocks.
Ko Phangan
We hadn't the slightest clue about the island of Ko Phangan until brushing over the Lonely Planet on the ferry ride over. All we had heard about it regarded the hoards of drunken & drugged out Europeans that collect in Had Rin awaiting the next full moon party. Being the old fogies we are we grabbed a taxi to the total opposite side of the island to a town called Had Yao. The taxi driver drops us off in the "Town" of Had Yao and it is as much of a "town" a Harvey the Rabbit is a good pet. As far as Jordan and I can tell we've just been marooned on some nameless road on an island we know zilch about. We eventually find a 7-11 along with a homely, scabbed up and probably still drunk Englishman that gives us directions to the happening place to stay in town, which still seems like a total sham because we've barely seen a car less than a guesthouse for a good 30 minutes.
After walking for a bit & weathering a pretty legit flash flood we found a homely alcove in "The Sun Moon Bungalow". It was pretty much a done deal once Jordan realized there was floppy dog with a whole bunch of frolic in him. Our time in Had Yao for the following 3 days was just pretty relaxed. The highlight of which was mostly reading, pictionary on the beach, taking on the San Francisco-esk hills by scooter, and of course gorging every night on fine 7-11 cuisine.
Around day four we go a little stir crazy & decide to venture down to Had RIn. We got down there to find that it's really not the Sodom & Gamora it's made out to be & the beach is gorgeous. The more we walk around the more we realize that this town is freak'n made for us. Along with the Metropolis of clothing stores to fuel jordan's addiction, we found our complete puzzle piece of a niche: "The Lazy House". It's a mecca of 16 couches, 7 tv's, 2 projectors, a bottomless supply of pirated movies, a full-out understanding of comfort food and a damn cuddly cat named Bacon. All that & an absolutely adorable waiter from Burma who we fell in love with... yeah, we found our spot. I swear we spent days there & I regret nothing.
We spent a good amount of time being beach rats but the water turned on us & became plagued with some devil spawn jelly-tick type monstrosity. These little bastards stung, and were in endless supply, so there went swimming... typically a pretty big part of the whole water thing. But I have to say the most profound thing that happened was on the evening of out second day there, during the perfect combination of storm on one side and epic sunset on the other the clouds blew up right in front of us with the brightest pink aura that filled half the sky. The waves turned bright green with caps so ridiculously white I swear they glowed. It only lasted about a minute and a half, but it was unlike anything I've ever seen.
The last thing we did on the island the night before we left was follow the crowd of hundreds of people out into the jungle for the "Half Moon Party" & absolutely nothing good came from it. Jordan and the vomiting corpse formerly known as Jef left the next morning for the mainland. The bus, boat, boat, bus tuktuk combination took about twelve hours and landed us in the city of Had Yai. Just to fill you in on the details, Had Yai is the raunchiest smelling rat infested city we've been in thus far and the whole point of this pointless trip is only to reach the Malaysian border before our visa runs out. Yes, underwhelming indeed.
PHUKET:
The last island that we decided to bum out on was Phuket, probably the most famous island in Thailand.It was definitely nice enough, but we had to stay in a town that wasn't right on the beach because everything on the beaches is way to expensive. Phuket is the honeymooners kind of place, not necessarily a backpackers place. It is really hard to find cheap and chill guest houses and it is even harder to meet fellow backpackers. We ended up snagging a pretty great place, although not cheap, that was run by a very adorable and friendly Scottish man. We had a great room right on the end with a balcony...overlooking the street. We ended up passing out right away, since it was a long bus ride there, and the next day we woke up and started celebrating my birthday :) Now, usually I'm not used to taking notice to my birthday because it is during the summer so it normally is overlooked, and since we are broke and traveling I was not expecting anything special. It ended up being one of the best birthday celebrations I have had yet. We woke up and the first thing Jef does is give me presents...which is always a wonderful thing to wake up to. He had somehow bought and hidden gifts in his bag without me noticing and they were fabulous ;) We rented a scooter and drove to the nearby beach, which was terrifying and I will never ever buy a bike and/or drive in a city again. Once we eventually arrived at Kata Beach we walked around town and then walked on the beach at sunset. When it was dark we went to the most epic miniature golf course!! It was straight out of Jurassic Park, with rivers and the rain forest, dinosaurs and caves and erupting volcanoes. I love miniature golf and this place completely blew me away with how epic it was. Then we got all dressed up and he took me out to dinner to this super nice place on the beach. When we were praying the manager walked by and happened to be Christian as well and gave us a discount on our meal (which was freaking amazing!) Then a lady walked by and was selling massive floating lanterns, so we got one and lit it for good luck and watched it float away from the shore. We ended the night by buying a massive firework and letting it off on the beach. Jef was a giggling fool and he is once again fabulous for surprising me with an unforgettable birthday celebration.
The next day, we decided not to go on the scooter because we felt it was to dangerous at the moment. It turns out that we were on Phuket during a Buddhist holiday so we were woken up way to early by a massive parade and marching band going down our street. We slept is way to late after that and walked around town and went to an internet cafe and wasted a good couple hours there. We went out to a great restaurant that night with live music sung by two local men. They were absolutely fantastic, and the food was as well. We then went to the local mall and went to the theatres and watched The Rise of Planet of the Apes, and it was bomb. We totally loved it! We have missed the whole movie theatre experience and loaded up on candy and sushi and just had a ball.
The next/final day on Phuket we decided to give the scooter another go down the highway to Kata Beach and this time it went way more smoothly. However, it was still to dangerous for us to feel comfortable. There are no driving laws and there is no order so it is terrifying. There are no stop signs or yield signs, people don't drive in their lanes and are constantly swerving around you. There are always cars in the wrong lanes coming head on towards you, and random people walk into the roads or open their doors, or don't look before they pull out. I don't understand how the locals can comfortably drive with a baby and three other passengers on one scooter down the highway and feel/be safe. Anyways, that final day on the beach was great. The beaches are why this island it so popular because they are so gorgeous. Soft white sand and crystal clear, warm water with good waves. We rented some boogie-boards for the day and laughed our asses off while riding on the waves. Of course we also got our asses kicked by the waves as well and are bruised from head to toe and have some serious rashes on our stomachs. The good ting about Phuket was that it has great food and great beaches, but unfortunately everything on the islands of Thailand are overpriced, and this high maintenance place really drained our bank accounts. We were bordering broke and woke up the next day getting ready to head out on a 12 hour bus ride back to Bangkok (where we are now) to get ready to fly back home to San Fran!!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
A Summary of Lao
So, since it costs to much money to go to internet cafes and to type up a blog everyday and to try to upload pictures on insanely slow computers new pictures will probably be put up on facebook when we return and for now I am just going to some up our past couple weeks spent in Lao.
One of the first things we did was The Gibbon Experience. We got to spend 4 days in the ancient jungle hiking and zip-lining throughout the forest and got to sleep in tree houses 250+ meters high. We went after a big rain so our tuktuk out to the village got stuck a total of 5 times with everyone having to get out a push it up a monster hill. From the village we got to hike a way through the rain-forest until we eventually zip-lined into our tree house, which we shared with an awesome Dutch family. It was two stories with a roof made from banana leaves. We had a little kitchen and tables and our own two person bed. The bathroom (which was the most awesome part) was basically just a platform next to a massive tree branch, and the floor just dropped off and had the most gorgeous view of the mountains. We got to hear a couple of gibbons sing but never were we gifted with being able to see them up close. We made the mistake of getting up at dawn to go try and spot some and were seriously attacked by leeches, which crawl up your pants to get to you...it was terrifying. So we zip-lined all over trying to keep our eyes out for tigers or bears, which of course we never encountered.
After The Gibbon Experience and getting to spend times with bunches of naked curious village children, we took another terrifying night bus back down to the temple city of Luang Probang. When we arrived at 6 in the morning we decided to rent a motorbike and go see one of the local waterfalls. We drove a good hour to the villages on the outskirts and got a bag full of fried bananas :) Then we started hiking to the waterfall just to arrive at a sun bear sanctuary. There were so many tiny adorable little bears swinging in hammocks and sitting in a serious hot tub. Sun bears are endangered, like most Asian animal species, because their bones are used for ancient Chinese medicine and or they are kept as pets in little cages. Me being an animal rights activist this was depressing. So we donated some money to the bears and then went to go swim in the bright blue pools of the waterfall. There was a rope swing and a waterfall you could jump off of so we spent some time there and mingled with some other backpackers. That night we went to the Luang Probang night market, which is just a bunch of little booths set up right next to one another, so there is hardly any room to walk, and the entire street is lit with lanterns. I wanted to buy everything there because it was all gorgeous and cheap, but I was already tight for space in my bag so I had to cut the spending short.
The next day we started our 3 day elephant mahout camp. The term "mahout" means trainer or handler, so we were going to learn how to handle and care for an elephant. When the van picked us up in the morning to take us to the camp we automatically fell in love with the couple that was on the adventure with us. There was a 6 ft 2in Australian man who looked like Gerard Butler and was just so over the top, just like myself and Jef, and his little 4 ft 11in Taiwanese fiance who has the voice of an 8 year old girl. We adored them and spent majority of the next 3 days talking politics, religion, philosophy, law and psychology with them. We got to get on the elephants and start riding them on the neck instantly, which is a lot harder then it looks and takes quite a lot of leg strength and getting used to. We learned all the commands in order to control them; however, I'm pretty sure they never listen to us and only listen to their mahout/trainer who is on the elephant with you most of the time. My elephant's name was Sunshine who was the most obedient, and Jef's was Pancake. When we are riding through the rain-forest all we hear is laughter and Jef constantly barking out "PAI PAI, YAYAYA" which means "Go Go, Stop Doing Bad" but pancake really didn't listen and just continued to eat. We got to feed them everyday, pineapples and bamboo shoots, and we also bathed them twice a day (once at 5 in the morning and once again at night) where we go in the river with them and they lay down and start to consistently spray us with their trunks. Jef's unfortunately couldn't spray with his trunk so he would just lay down completely in the water so Jef is almost floating off his back and down the river. One day we did a 3 hour trek through the forest to have a picnic and other days we would just trek around and laugh. We all got to stay in our own bungalow suit on the river and got free food and then got to tube/kayak to near by waterfalls. That was an awesome 3 days.
When we got back into town we went to some of the nicer restaurants, which really weren't good. If you want good food, then stay in America! We have the means to cook anything that we want, and honestly we do it better. I won't discredit Europe just yet, besides Greek food which was honestly bad. We woke up at 5 am and watched the monks beg for food on the streets, which they do every morning. And when you think begging and think that they look sad and skinny and have hardly any food and it is exactly the opposite. They have BAGS full of food and when they get full they pick through it and leave it on the street. The streets are lined with people waiting to give them food. The giver to beggar ratio is easily 25 to 1. And of course no woman can touch the food that they give them (it's weird) nor can they actually touch a monk, or look him in the eyes, and they always get the best seats on buses.
We went to a couple monasteries and listened to the monks sing their hymns but after you see one temple you basically see them all because they all look the same and are all over the place.
On our last night in Luang Probang we finally found an awesome joint hang out at with good food and hookah to smoke. It was right on the river in a massive bungalow with a bar and floor pillows and was decorated with the bomb shells that litter their country. (Every once in a while you will see people in Lao with limbs missing and that is because they accidentally stepped on mine, since their country side is seriously littered with explosives from when we used their land during the Vietnam war). Anways, we hung out at this bar for a while and then got to know a group of Englishmen who were just to awesome to leave so we decided to stay one more night before moving on. We hung out with them all night, playing volleyball and then going to the Lao disco. Which is just a massive rave with short people. After that we had to call it because it was so late but normally most people will move on to the local bowling alley where are the local whoop ass and everyone else is either on drugs or drunk or both.
It is so insanely easy to get drugs while in Lao. Opium, mushrooms, and weed are the most popular and you can get them at basically any bar or shake stand on the streets. So we saw a lot of people on drugs, some of our English friends where especially fond of the mushrooms which was more hilarious than anything else.
After that night we went to an insanely boring cave with some friends, that was way over priced and was full of a bunch of Buddah figurines. Since none of us are no where near Buddhist this cave was not in the least interesting but it was fun to be able to see the raw beauty of Lao, which is constantly surrounding you, and to be able to talk to our new friends. We left on another terrifying night bus that night and headed to the backpacker town of Vang Vieng.
Once in V.V. you can see why it is called the backpacker town, because it is covered in them, and there are guest houses and bars everywhere. Every restaurant is playing either Friends, Family Guy or The Simpson's so all the backpackers hoard to restaurants to satisfy their longing for westernization and humorous television. The tables aren't even table with chairs but are high platforms with a table and pillows around it so everyone falls asleep at the restaurants. We ended up having a few good meals there though and our guest house was insanely comfortable. On the night of arrival, we got in at 3 am and were so sick from our malaria medications being taken on an empty stomach that we were both clinging to the toilet seats all night. For the next couple days it down poured but it was so beautiful that we wanted to go outside, but we had no idea what to do yet.
When it finally stopped raining we rented a motorbike to drive out to the local caves. Now, Lao roads are always bad, but after it rains they are especially bad and if you get one scratch on the motorbikes then most of the time they just charge you for a new one no matter if it is the tiniest mark. I don't know how we escaped that day without being charged, because once we crossed the questionable bridge with gaping holes in it we had arrived onto the muddiest roads that had hidden sink holes just waiting to trap you. We were driving really slow just laughing yet the tension was just rippling off of us, but being able to watch other tourists fail and fall and get stuck made the day much more enjoyable (not because I'm Sadist but because that would mean that Jef and I were not completely and utterly incompetent). We were slipping all over the roads, and when I got on it it would just fall over. Around one corner there was a child standing in the road that pointed us over to the left side of the road, telling us it was safer. We think "well he is a local so we should probably trust him". It turns out that we had run into our first, and really the only, Lao scammer. When we went to the left side we sunk instantly up the handle bars of the bike. I got off but couldn't move because the mud was up to my waist and Jef had to reach in and help retrieve my shoes. The little boy would point tourists towards that direction and when they got stuck he would go and help them out of the whole and then ask for tips. Well we didn't tip him, and actually some other tourists came and helped us out.
When we drove all the way down to the end of the road (we decided to go to the very end cave and hit all the other caves along the back to town) and then reached our first cave. Since most of the mountains around Lao and made of Limestone there are tons of caves throughout all their hillsides. So I'm in a dress and in muddy flip flops (it was laundry day so this was all I had) so I couldn't lift my legs at all and could hardly take a step without slipping out of my shoes. So I basically crawled all the way up the mountain side, watching where I put my hands, until we reaching a very terrifying looking cave entrance. So Jef is not a big cave person but I talked him into going first and all we could think about for a while was the movie Descent or looking down to see a giant spider on our feet. So we start crawling with our headlamps and after a while we are seriously enjoying ourselves. We are crawling deep into the cave, and there were no bugs or bats so we weren't creeped out anymore. UNTIL...now this is really hard for me to think about because I truly try not to recall this memory because of how utterly terrifying it was. I was ahead of Jef and had just crawled down into this new part of the cave and was waiting for Jef to come up behind me but he was stuck at one point so I sort of walked ahead until he figured it out. Until I look up, I could hear something and when I looked I saw this figure crawling out of this hole in the wall. At first I though it was Jef, but then my light shined on his face and it was a local with a massive grin on his face. He started grunting and wheezing and laughing and was coming towards me. He was clearly mentally disabled because he didn't respond to mine or Jef's questions and instead he just made these sounds. He also had no shoes on or a light in his hand, so I thought that he lived in there or something. So I power walked towards Jef and told him lets go while I thought he was still back there trying to find a way down towards where I was standing. I thought that Jef and I were far ahead until I feel him standing right behind me breathing on me and making those noises into my ear. At this point I am shaking uncontrolably while Jef, as always, keeps calm and handles things perfectly (even though he said he was terrified as well). We slowly crawl our way out of the cave while trying to laugh and make idle conversationg. Anyways, we make it to the end of the moutain and I guess he thought he was our guide? So we paid him some kip. I guess he would just follow tourists up the hill to the cave and then pose as their guide and ask for money. He shoud be careful sneakign up on people though in the dark without them knowing.
We went swimming in a nearbye river with a rope swing and met some Canadians and I warned them about the potential shock of not being alone in the cave. Jef and I headed to the next cave and Jef decided to let me drive through the slippy mud and of course I fall over because the back tire slids and an adorable local man runs up laughing and helps me up. We parked and headed to the cave to be joined by two little boys with head lamps who were our new "guides". At least we knew that these two were following us this time. We walked through a farm of palm trees until we came to one of the most gorgeous spots I have ever seen ( I will try to attach a photo to this blog). It was a lagoon straight out of the movies! It was a clear blus pond next to the caves, with see through water and caverns to swim through and rocks to jump off of. We decided to seim in it on the way back from the cave so we entered the cave which was so deep I feel like we walked for an hour. I am thankful that we had guides with us because there were so many endless drops and slippery points that we would have likely ahve fell into some thinking that they were the way to go. Anyways, caves and their awesomeness are hard to explain but it was really awesome and on the way out we swam with the kids and started barting with them on how much to pay them for their guiding. We realized then how aweful the Lao people are at lying because even though we don't speak their language we can understand when someone is trying to scam you when they are whispering back and forth questions and then they tell us to pay them a ridiculous amount of kip. We just giggles at their ridiculousness and gave them a fair good amount since they walk so far to come guide and help give money to their families.
After that day we just went and relaxed and watched some Family Guy and then prepared to do the legendary Float the next day. The Float is what tourists come to Vang Vieng for basically. There are just hundreds of peope floating down a river with a multitude of bars lining the sides. All the tourists will stop at one at a time and either enjoy a a Lao beer or a bucket (which is literally a bucket of boose, some soda, and some red bull like stuff that is really about 10 times stronger than what is considerd healthy to intake). It was a total blast and we ended up meeting tons of people and learning all about the world and their travels. While floating down the river the bars will throw bottles attached to strings towards a group of floaters and they will pull you in. There is a bar with a massive slide that flings you a good 15ft in the air before you hit the water. Another bar has a huge mud volley ball pit and a rave floor, then the last bar has a massive pillow (as seen on the most recent jackass) that one person lays on while another jumps onto it from a platform and shoots the person sitting on it into the air. The float is really only about 45 minutes long but because of all the stops you end up floating all day. Afterwards everyone goes to the local bars where they spray-paint the poop out of you (which burns badly). There we met up with our old English friends from Luang Probang and hung out with them for a while that night and the next day. After that we got in a van and headed back towards the capital town Vietiene in order to leave Lao and move onto the next stop. We didn't really have the next stop planned we just knew that we wanted to spend the last couple weeks on an island diving and relaxing before we had to head back to school. It just so happens that there was one other New York backpacker in our van who had just come from the Thai Islands and he told us all about his diving adventures. Daniel Horowitz was his name and we owe the last couple weeks too him!
One of the first things we did was The Gibbon Experience. We got to spend 4 days in the ancient jungle hiking and zip-lining throughout the forest and got to sleep in tree houses 250+ meters high. We went after a big rain so our tuktuk out to the village got stuck a total of 5 times with everyone having to get out a push it up a monster hill. From the village we got to hike a way through the rain-forest until we eventually zip-lined into our tree house, which we shared with an awesome Dutch family. It was two stories with a roof made from banana leaves. We had a little kitchen and tables and our own two person bed. The bathroom (which was the most awesome part) was basically just a platform next to a massive tree branch, and the floor just dropped off and had the most gorgeous view of the mountains. We got to hear a couple of gibbons sing but never were we gifted with being able to see them up close. We made the mistake of getting up at dawn to go try and spot some and were seriously attacked by leeches, which crawl up your pants to get to you...it was terrifying. So we zip-lined all over trying to keep our eyes out for tigers or bears, which of course we never encountered.
After The Gibbon Experience and getting to spend times with bunches of naked curious village children, we took another terrifying night bus back down to the temple city of Luang Probang. When we arrived at 6 in the morning we decided to rent a motorbike and go see one of the local waterfalls. We drove a good hour to the villages on the outskirts and got a bag full of fried bananas :) Then we started hiking to the waterfall just to arrive at a sun bear sanctuary. There were so many tiny adorable little bears swinging in hammocks and sitting in a serious hot tub. Sun bears are endangered, like most Asian animal species, because their bones are used for ancient Chinese medicine and or they are kept as pets in little cages. Me being an animal rights activist this was depressing. So we donated some money to the bears and then went to go swim in the bright blue pools of the waterfall. There was a rope swing and a waterfall you could jump off of so we spent some time there and mingled with some other backpackers. That night we went to the Luang Probang night market, which is just a bunch of little booths set up right next to one another, so there is hardly any room to walk, and the entire street is lit with lanterns. I wanted to buy everything there because it was all gorgeous and cheap, but I was already tight for space in my bag so I had to cut the spending short.
The next day we started our 3 day elephant mahout camp. The term "mahout" means trainer or handler, so we were going to learn how to handle and care for an elephant. When the van picked us up in the morning to take us to the camp we automatically fell in love with the couple that was on the adventure with us. There was a 6 ft 2in Australian man who looked like Gerard Butler and was just so over the top, just like myself and Jef, and his little 4 ft 11in Taiwanese fiance who has the voice of an 8 year old girl. We adored them and spent majority of the next 3 days talking politics, religion, philosophy, law and psychology with them. We got to get on the elephants and start riding them on the neck instantly, which is a lot harder then it looks and takes quite a lot of leg strength and getting used to. We learned all the commands in order to control them; however, I'm pretty sure they never listen to us and only listen to their mahout/trainer who is on the elephant with you most of the time. My elephant's name was Sunshine who was the most obedient, and Jef's was Pancake. When we are riding through the rain-forest all we hear is laughter and Jef constantly barking out "PAI PAI, YAYAYA" which means "Go Go, Stop Doing Bad" but pancake really didn't listen and just continued to eat. We got to feed them everyday, pineapples and bamboo shoots, and we also bathed them twice a day (once at 5 in the morning and once again at night) where we go in the river with them and they lay down and start to consistently spray us with their trunks. Jef's unfortunately couldn't spray with his trunk so he would just lay down completely in the water so Jef is almost floating off his back and down the river. One day we did a 3 hour trek through the forest to have a picnic and other days we would just trek around and laugh. We all got to stay in our own bungalow suit on the river and got free food and then got to tube/kayak to near by waterfalls. That was an awesome 3 days.
When we got back into town we went to some of the nicer restaurants, which really weren't good. If you want good food, then stay in America! We have the means to cook anything that we want, and honestly we do it better. I won't discredit Europe just yet, besides Greek food which was honestly bad. We woke up at 5 am and watched the monks beg for food on the streets, which they do every morning. And when you think begging and think that they look sad and skinny and have hardly any food and it is exactly the opposite. They have BAGS full of food and when they get full they pick through it and leave it on the street. The streets are lined with people waiting to give them food. The giver to beggar ratio is easily 25 to 1. And of course no woman can touch the food that they give them (it's weird) nor can they actually touch a monk, or look him in the eyes, and they always get the best seats on buses.
We went to a couple monasteries and listened to the monks sing their hymns but after you see one temple you basically see them all because they all look the same and are all over the place.
On our last night in Luang Probang we finally found an awesome joint hang out at with good food and hookah to smoke. It was right on the river in a massive bungalow with a bar and floor pillows and was decorated with the bomb shells that litter their country. (Every once in a while you will see people in Lao with limbs missing and that is because they accidentally stepped on mine, since their country side is seriously littered with explosives from when we used their land during the Vietnam war). Anways, we hung out at this bar for a while and then got to know a group of Englishmen who were just to awesome to leave so we decided to stay one more night before moving on. We hung out with them all night, playing volleyball and then going to the Lao disco. Which is just a massive rave with short people. After that we had to call it because it was so late but normally most people will move on to the local bowling alley where are the local whoop ass and everyone else is either on drugs or drunk or both.
It is so insanely easy to get drugs while in Lao. Opium, mushrooms, and weed are the most popular and you can get them at basically any bar or shake stand on the streets. So we saw a lot of people on drugs, some of our English friends where especially fond of the mushrooms which was more hilarious than anything else.
After that night we went to an insanely boring cave with some friends, that was way over priced and was full of a bunch of Buddah figurines. Since none of us are no where near Buddhist this cave was not in the least interesting but it was fun to be able to see the raw beauty of Lao, which is constantly surrounding you, and to be able to talk to our new friends. We left on another terrifying night bus that night and headed to the backpacker town of Vang Vieng.
Once in V.V. you can see why it is called the backpacker town, because it is covered in them, and there are guest houses and bars everywhere. Every restaurant is playing either Friends, Family Guy or The Simpson's so all the backpackers hoard to restaurants to satisfy their longing for westernization and humorous television. The tables aren't even table with chairs but are high platforms with a table and pillows around it so everyone falls asleep at the restaurants. We ended up having a few good meals there though and our guest house was insanely comfortable. On the night of arrival, we got in at 3 am and were so sick from our malaria medications being taken on an empty stomach that we were both clinging to the toilet seats all night. For the next couple days it down poured but it was so beautiful that we wanted to go outside, but we had no idea what to do yet.
When it finally stopped raining we rented a motorbike to drive out to the local caves. Now, Lao roads are always bad, but after it rains they are especially bad and if you get one scratch on the motorbikes then most of the time they just charge you for a new one no matter if it is the tiniest mark. I don't know how we escaped that day without being charged, because once we crossed the questionable bridge with gaping holes in it we had arrived onto the muddiest roads that had hidden sink holes just waiting to trap you. We were driving really slow just laughing yet the tension was just rippling off of us, but being able to watch other tourists fail and fall and get stuck made the day much more enjoyable (not because I'm Sadist but because that would mean that Jef and I were not completely and utterly incompetent). We were slipping all over the roads, and when I got on it it would just fall over. Around one corner there was a child standing in the road that pointed us over to the left side of the road, telling us it was safer. We think "well he is a local so we should probably trust him". It turns out that we had run into our first, and really the only, Lao scammer. When we went to the left side we sunk instantly up the handle bars of the bike. I got off but couldn't move because the mud was up to my waist and Jef had to reach in and help retrieve my shoes. The little boy would point tourists towards that direction and when they got stuck he would go and help them out of the whole and then ask for tips. Well we didn't tip him, and actually some other tourists came and helped us out.
When we drove all the way down to the end of the road (we decided to go to the very end cave and hit all the other caves along the back to town) and then reached our first cave. Since most of the mountains around Lao and made of Limestone there are tons of caves throughout all their hillsides. So I'm in a dress and in muddy flip flops (it was laundry day so this was all I had) so I couldn't lift my legs at all and could hardly take a step without slipping out of my shoes. So I basically crawled all the way up the mountain side, watching where I put my hands, until we reaching a very terrifying looking cave entrance. So Jef is not a big cave person but I talked him into going first and all we could think about for a while was the movie Descent or looking down to see a giant spider on our feet. So we start crawling with our headlamps and after a while we are seriously enjoying ourselves. We are crawling deep into the cave, and there were no bugs or bats so we weren't creeped out anymore. UNTIL...now this is really hard for me to think about because I truly try not to recall this memory because of how utterly terrifying it was. I was ahead of Jef and had just crawled down into this new part of the cave and was waiting for Jef to come up behind me but he was stuck at one point so I sort of walked ahead until he figured it out. Until I look up, I could hear something and when I looked I saw this figure crawling out of this hole in the wall. At first I though it was Jef, but then my light shined on his face and it was a local with a massive grin on his face. He started grunting and wheezing and laughing and was coming towards me. He was clearly mentally disabled because he didn't respond to mine or Jef's questions and instead he just made these sounds. He also had no shoes on or a light in his hand, so I thought that he lived in there or something. So I power walked towards Jef and told him lets go while I thought he was still back there trying to find a way down towards where I was standing. I thought that Jef and I were far ahead until I feel him standing right behind me breathing on me and making those noises into my ear. At this point I am shaking uncontrolably while Jef, as always, keeps calm and handles things perfectly (even though he said he was terrified as well). We slowly crawl our way out of the cave while trying to laugh and make idle conversationg. Anyways, we make it to the end of the moutain and I guess he thought he was our guide? So we paid him some kip. I guess he would just follow tourists up the hill to the cave and then pose as their guide and ask for money. He shoud be careful sneakign up on people though in the dark without them knowing.
We went swimming in a nearbye river with a rope swing and met some Canadians and I warned them about the potential shock of not being alone in the cave. Jef and I headed to the next cave and Jef decided to let me drive through the slippy mud and of course I fall over because the back tire slids and an adorable local man runs up laughing and helps me up. We parked and headed to the cave to be joined by two little boys with head lamps who were our new "guides". At least we knew that these two were following us this time. We walked through a farm of palm trees until we came to one of the most gorgeous spots I have ever seen ( I will try to attach a photo to this blog). It was a lagoon straight out of the movies! It was a clear blus pond next to the caves, with see through water and caverns to swim through and rocks to jump off of. We decided to seim in it on the way back from the cave so we entered the cave which was so deep I feel like we walked for an hour. I am thankful that we had guides with us because there were so many endless drops and slippery points that we would have likely ahve fell into some thinking that they were the way to go. Anyways, caves and their awesomeness are hard to explain but it was really awesome and on the way out we swam with the kids and started barting with them on how much to pay them for their guiding. We realized then how aweful the Lao people are at lying because even though we don't speak their language we can understand when someone is trying to scam you when they are whispering back and forth questions and then they tell us to pay them a ridiculous amount of kip. We just giggles at their ridiculousness and gave them a fair good amount since they walk so far to come guide and help give money to their families.
After that day we just went and relaxed and watched some Family Guy and then prepared to do the legendary Float the next day. The Float is what tourists come to Vang Vieng for basically. There are just hundreds of peope floating down a river with a multitude of bars lining the sides. All the tourists will stop at one at a time and either enjoy a a Lao beer or a bucket (which is literally a bucket of boose, some soda, and some red bull like stuff that is really about 10 times stronger than what is considerd healthy to intake). It was a total blast and we ended up meeting tons of people and learning all about the world and their travels. While floating down the river the bars will throw bottles attached to strings towards a group of floaters and they will pull you in. There is a bar with a massive slide that flings you a good 15ft in the air before you hit the water. Another bar has a huge mud volley ball pit and a rave floor, then the last bar has a massive pillow (as seen on the most recent jackass) that one person lays on while another jumps onto it from a platform and shoots the person sitting on it into the air. The float is really only about 45 minutes long but because of all the stops you end up floating all day. Afterwards everyone goes to the local bars where they spray-paint the poop out of you (which burns badly). There we met up with our old English friends from Luang Probang and hung out with them for a while that night and the next day. After that we got in a van and headed back towards the capital town Vietiene in order to leave Lao and move onto the next stop. We didn't really have the next stop planned we just knew that we wanted to spend the last couple weeks on an island diving and relaxing before we had to head back to school. It just so happens that there was one other New York backpacker in our van who had just come from the Thai Islands and he told us all about his diving adventures. Daniel Horowitz was his name and we owe the last couple weeks too him!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Vip bus vs Slowboat
Vip bus to luang probrang…
I wish a had a snappy acronym it, but basically VIP means night bus that is air conditioned enough to hang meat and Karaoke’d enough to bleed from the ears all night. So sleeping is pretty much out of the question, but it gives you what Lao high-life is all about. We were fortunate to soak up an extra 6 hours of full volume androgynous lao music while a huge chunk of the mountain was being pulled off the road.
We show up in Luang Probang dragging some serious ass, but fortunately we find a tuktuk to pour into that takes us straight to the doorstep of a guesthouse. It always feels like being an orphan dropped off on stranger’s doorstep, and I know we look the part. Jordan is still all kinds of sick, so most of my day was spent taking trips to the saddest pharmacy ever and the local pancake nook with Jordan totally cheating on me with The Shawshank Redemption in our room. (I’m still a little wounded, that movie NEVER comes on in Laos.)
After a couple days of the same, cheap food, antibiotics and HBO, we book our two day slowboat up to Huay Xai. Although the trip is gorgeous the title isn’t kidding about the slow part, it took us 10 hours to get up to the next town. I mean come on, it’s like an inch away on the map. It turned out to be just a lot of getting rained on through the 3 foot wide cloth flap that is supplied for your barrier from the elements and 10 later we’re in Pakbeng. The next day god decided to supply us with Jay and Sam, two canooks that have enough Bacon/zombie movie/ New Findland/ Thai prostitute stories to keep us thoroughly entertained. Jordan and I fully abscond with them as friends, forcefully made them Drink Laolao(rice whiskey) with us and exchange silly stories ‘til the wee morning hours(like 10:00).
I wish a had a snappy acronym it, but basically VIP means night bus that is air conditioned enough to hang meat and Karaoke’d enough to bleed from the ears all night. So sleeping is pretty much out of the question, but it gives you what Lao high-life is all about. We were fortunate to soak up an extra 6 hours of full volume androgynous lao music while a huge chunk of the mountain was being pulled off the road.
We show up in Luang Probang dragging some serious ass, but fortunately we find a tuktuk to pour into that takes us straight to the doorstep of a guesthouse. It always feels like being an orphan dropped off on stranger’s doorstep, and I know we look the part. Jordan is still all kinds of sick, so most of my day was spent taking trips to the saddest pharmacy ever and the local pancake nook with Jordan totally cheating on me with The Shawshank Redemption in our room. (I’m still a little wounded, that movie NEVER comes on in Laos.)
After a couple days of the same, cheap food, antibiotics and HBO, we book our two day slowboat up to Huay Xai. Although the trip is gorgeous the title isn’t kidding about the slow part, it took us 10 hours to get up to the next town. I mean come on, it’s like an inch away on the map. It turned out to be just a lot of getting rained on through the 3 foot wide cloth flap that is supplied for your barrier from the elements and 10 later we’re in Pakbeng. The next day god decided to supply us with Jay and Sam, two canooks that have enough Bacon/zombie movie/ New Findland/ Thai prostitute stories to keep us thoroughly entertained. Jordan and I fully abscond with them as friends, forcefully made them Drink Laolao(rice whiskey) with us and exchange silly stories ‘til the wee morning hours(like 10:00).
After this we just kind of mill around Huay Xai until Our big Gibbon Experience day comes about.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Land of Smiles
Here is Laos everything is different. Traveling here makes me feel like someone cannot possibly be complete without traveling, especially to this part of the world. The people here have a philosophy that is so different than that which is witheld within America citizens. I will not bore you with details yet I am starting to see why people get depressed when having to go home, although believe me we are excited as well. Thinking about the next trip is becoming a consuming thought though.
Laos is vibrant in basically every way imaginable. The peoples smiles, their generous and always happy attitudes and the colors of the temples and the rainforest surrounding us. There are new types of flowers and plants everywhere, and on a more negative note bugs. We have had plenty of run ins with the massive insect and spider population here in Asia. Our first couple days we stayed in an Eco Lodge out in the rainforest right on the Pha Nam Tha River. We were the only guests at the lodge since it is the slow season here in Lao so we got a personal bungalow for no money at all right on the river. It randonly downpours throughout the day but it never gets cool andit is humid but not unbearably so. I couldn't imagine visiting during the hot season, during the tourism peak, because boy oh boy that would be miserable. The locals working at the lodge and within the surrounding villages are all shy, and supposedly view foreigners as "superior", but they are extremely curious and always look while you walk by, smile and then say hello. Some will approach you and smile and touch you like you are the most gorgeous thing you have ever seen and they have been waiting all their lives to meet you, where as others will just approach you in hopes to better their English and ask you a series of questions.
There are lots of children running around, all are adorable with the msot creative hair cuts, and every morning we woul wake up and go to the floating restaurant that would have a bunch of local children running around and fishing on it. We were so smitten with the people we were with we never wanted to leave, it was complete paradise for us. There are butterflies the size of birds floating around everywhere; however, the downfall is that there are also bird sized spiders that you have to try to avoid walking into. Thankfully there are no poisonous spiders in Lao but that does not make them any less creepy.
The man who runs the lodge is british and a couple other workers speak english so it is great to get to communicate with the locals. Every day I would go to the floating restaurant and sit in and help with the english lesson that our british friend would be teaching. Along with helping them learn english they would help me learn lao and they slowly got less and less shy around Jef and I that they started joking, eating and playing games with us on the regular.
The first day there we were reading the menu and it said that every once in a while they have snake that they serve. Instantly Jef and I were completely interested and couldn't wait to try it. While we were sitting at the restaurant I saw a river snake start booking it across the river. I turn to Jef and say (in a rather unexcited manner) "Oh look a snake" and at the mention of the word snake everyone perks up like dogs hearing a squirrel and literally hop onto their feet asking, "Snake? Snake?" A young 17 year old boy named Dalat jumps into a flimsy little canoe that is hardly staying together and starts to paddle (against the fast current) towards the direction of a snake that was way out of sight. I thought for sure it was on the other side by now but we sit and watch him patiently. He is on the other side of the river observing the bank slowly, standing/balancing on the front tip of the canoe until all of a sudden he swings his paddle and smacks the water! Before we new it he was paddling back over with a snake in his hand, and his dad was beaming. We watched his dad, named Boon, prepare our dinner for that night. And it did taste like chicken :)
We fished for a day, which cracked me up because Jef behaved exactly how I did when I started fishing as a child, impatient and anxious and always getting the hook stuck. He ended up just helping them with the fishing net used to catch small fish, which we caught hundreds of. The locals are always laughing with you and sharing with you and trying to bring up new and cool bugs to show us and then stick in our hands. When you're walking and you hear a crack you know to run because fruit is about to fall from above, and it is covering the ground. We can just pick it up and crack it open and enjoy! For the first couple nights we fell asleep to the sound of rain, falling fruit and the geckos which cover every guest house in Lao. They make that unmistakable gecko call that sounds like "Gecko, Gecko, Gecko".
We went to the local Hmong village. They are the tribe that helped America during the Vietnam war by giving us a pathway through their country and aid to our troups. After the war some of them were offered sanctuary in our country (mostly in California) however not all were helped. So they were treated as terrorist race herein Lao and were forced to live in the mountains to starve. They have survived though and are recognized as equals now by the rest of Lao. They believe that their ancestors were wherewolves who flew down on magic carpets to Lao, where they avoid the major communities. We rode bikes to their local markets and bought TONS of weird fruit to share with those at our lodge and just soaked up the scenery of families working in fields of rice patties with the raisforest mountains in the distance.
Laos is vibrant in basically every way imaginable. The peoples smiles, their generous and always happy attitudes and the colors of the temples and the rainforest surrounding us. There are new types of flowers and plants everywhere, and on a more negative note bugs. We have had plenty of run ins with the massive insect and spider population here in Asia. Our first couple days we stayed in an Eco Lodge out in the rainforest right on the Pha Nam Tha River. We were the only guests at the lodge since it is the slow season here in Lao so we got a personal bungalow for no money at all right on the river. It randonly downpours throughout the day but it never gets cool andit is humid but not unbearably so. I couldn't imagine visiting during the hot season, during the tourism peak, because boy oh boy that would be miserable. The locals working at the lodge and within the surrounding villages are all shy, and supposedly view foreigners as "superior", but they are extremely curious and always look while you walk by, smile and then say hello. Some will approach you and smile and touch you like you are the most gorgeous thing you have ever seen and they have been waiting all their lives to meet you, where as others will just approach you in hopes to better their English and ask you a series of questions.
There are lots of children running around, all are adorable with the msot creative hair cuts, and every morning we woul wake up and go to the floating restaurant that would have a bunch of local children running around and fishing on it. We were so smitten with the people we were with we never wanted to leave, it was complete paradise for us. There are butterflies the size of birds floating around everywhere; however, the downfall is that there are also bird sized spiders that you have to try to avoid walking into. Thankfully there are no poisonous spiders in Lao but that does not make them any less creepy.
The man who runs the lodge is british and a couple other workers speak english so it is great to get to communicate with the locals. Every day I would go to the floating restaurant and sit in and help with the english lesson that our british friend would be teaching. Along with helping them learn english they would help me learn lao and they slowly got less and less shy around Jef and I that they started joking, eating and playing games with us on the regular.
The first day there we were reading the menu and it said that every once in a while they have snake that they serve. Instantly Jef and I were completely interested and couldn't wait to try it. While we were sitting at the restaurant I saw a river snake start booking it across the river. I turn to Jef and say (in a rather unexcited manner) "Oh look a snake" and at the mention of the word snake everyone perks up like dogs hearing a squirrel and literally hop onto their feet asking, "Snake? Snake?" A young 17 year old boy named Dalat jumps into a flimsy little canoe that is hardly staying together and starts to paddle (against the fast current) towards the direction of a snake that was way out of sight. I thought for sure it was on the other side by now but we sit and watch him patiently. He is on the other side of the river observing the bank slowly, standing/balancing on the front tip of the canoe until all of a sudden he swings his paddle and smacks the water! Before we new it he was paddling back over with a snake in his hand, and his dad was beaming. We watched his dad, named Boon, prepare our dinner for that night. And it did taste like chicken :)
We fished for a day, which cracked me up because Jef behaved exactly how I did when I started fishing as a child, impatient and anxious and always getting the hook stuck. He ended up just helping them with the fishing net used to catch small fish, which we caught hundreds of. The locals are always laughing with you and sharing with you and trying to bring up new and cool bugs to show us and then stick in our hands. When you're walking and you hear a crack you know to run because fruit is about to fall from above, and it is covering the ground. We can just pick it up and crack it open and enjoy! For the first couple nights we fell asleep to the sound of rain, falling fruit and the geckos which cover every guest house in Lao. They make that unmistakable gecko call that sounds like "Gecko, Gecko, Gecko".
We went to the local Hmong village. They are the tribe that helped America during the Vietnam war by giving us a pathway through their country and aid to our troups. After the war some of them were offered sanctuary in our country (mostly in California) however not all were helped. So they were treated as terrorist race herein Lao and were forced to live in the mountains to starve. They have survived though and are recognized as equals now by the rest of Lao. They believe that their ancestors were wherewolves who flew down on magic carpets to Lao, where they avoid the major communities. We rode bikes to their local markets and bought TONS of weird fruit to share with those at our lodge and just soaked up the scenery of families working in fields of rice patties with the raisforest mountains in the distance.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Bangkok, it’s like getting beaten to death with a bag full of cuddly puppies.
I honestly don’t know what needs to be highlighted within this 8 hours of the absolute friendliest pandemonium known to man. The second we arrive we realize we don’t know what time and but we’re pretty sure our plane leaves in like 8 minutes. We got off the plane to find a squad of very smiley Asian people holding a sign with our names on it. At this point we’re convinced that our hostel in Vietnam has misunderstood our directions and has driven to Bangkok to pick us up. I know this sounds like a ridiculous conclusion to come to but I promise for most third worlds it’s not far fetched idea. So we’re trying to explain that we didn’t need a ride from Thailand while they start walking us all over the airport. Everywhere, up and down escalators to the complete opposite side terminal and through security we have truly no clue but at this point we’ve some what figured out that their not from our hostel. Apparently the airport appointed this special task force for the purpose of making sure we figured out where our connecting flight was. We’re then delivered to a counter where a very sweet lady explains the complete wrong time for us to check in but it’s totally cool in that we understand that if we have a flight that leaves at 1pm we don’t check in 11 hours later at midnight. No big deal. We take a nap in our terminal and come back to find another posse of Thai airport staff assembled to find us and make sure we knew what time we leave.
While checking in with our new friendly airline representative (let me remind that every person you talk with in this country is beyond frantically helpful especially in matters that are not their jurisdiction) he very politely explains that you cannot enter Vietnam without a letter of approval. The letter, of course, has to be received 24 hours before arrival and the next flight will be 4 days out. At this point in our summer Jordan and I have become surprisingly good at the art of not caring at all what happens. We just shrug it off, “Well… the hell with it I guess we’re going to Laos, and by the way how do we get there?” At this time we are appointed a new conglomeration of staff lead by the very small, active and unintelligible worker of god knows what department; who starts leading us in figure eights all over the 3rd and 4th floor while talking into 2 phones and a radio. The whole time we’re trying to intervene and make sure he knows that we’re just trying to take the train. Every time we say train it’s always “Oh yes, yes, yes”. He then comes back with receipts for Lao airlines and tells he spent the $400 out of pocket for the tickets (THAT WE DIDN’T WANT!) and to just pay him back for them. By the way $400 is basically a full months pay in Thailand. We accept because what in the hell else are you supposed to do in this circumstance. So we take the tickets and tip him so he can feed himself the next time his friendly functional retardation gets him into trouble; he's off in a flash and from that whole encounter we still don't know what his name is, or if he really even works at the airport. After his disappearing trick we sit down and realize our names are completely wrong, and we have absolutely no freaking clue where he bought the tickets let alone where he is. All we know is that even shadiest of airlines would not let me on the plane as first name Jacson Last name Jeggrey.
Due to the same rabid friendliness that everyone so far has shown us we get the most amazing girl at a general information desk to taking it upon herself to get our tickets squared away. This poor girl ended up spending the next 45 minutes on the phone back and fourth with us and the operator (who doesn't understand what the problem is) and manages to get this phantom company to correct and fax over the tickets. Facebook buddies!
We board our flight at around 6 to arrive in Monsooning Vientiane, meet our escort that we threw together at the last minute, and start the hour long trip to god knows where in rural Laos.
While checking in with our new friendly airline representative (let me remind that every person you talk with in this country is beyond frantically helpful especially in matters that are not their jurisdiction) he very politely explains that you cannot enter Vietnam without a letter of approval. The letter, of course, has to be received 24 hours before arrival and the next flight will be 4 days out. At this point in our summer Jordan and I have become surprisingly good at the art of not caring at all what happens. We just shrug it off, “Well… the hell with it I guess we’re going to Laos, and by the way how do we get there?” At this time we are appointed a new conglomeration of staff lead by the very small, active and unintelligible worker of god knows what department; who starts leading us in figure eights all over the 3rd and 4th floor while talking into 2 phones and a radio. The whole time we’re trying to intervene and make sure he knows that we’re just trying to take the train. Every time we say train it’s always “Oh yes, yes, yes”. He then comes back with receipts for Lao airlines and tells he spent the $400 out of pocket for the tickets (THAT WE DIDN’T WANT!) and to just pay him back for them. By the way $400 is basically a full months pay in Thailand. We accept because what in the hell else are you supposed to do in this circumstance. So we take the tickets and tip him so he can feed himself the next time his friendly functional retardation gets him into trouble; he's off in a flash and from that whole encounter we still don't know what his name is, or if he really even works at the airport. After his disappearing trick we sit down and realize our names are completely wrong, and we have absolutely no freaking clue where he bought the tickets let alone where he is. All we know is that even shadiest of airlines would not let me on the plane as first name Jacson Last name Jeggrey.
Due to the same rabid friendliness that everyone so far has shown us we get the most amazing girl at a general information desk to taking it upon herself to get our tickets squared away. This poor girl ended up spending the next 45 minutes on the phone back and fourth with us and the operator (who doesn't understand what the problem is) and manages to get this phantom company to correct and fax over the tickets. Facebook buddies!
We board our flight at around 6 to arrive in Monsooning Vientiane, meet our escort that we threw together at the last minute, and start the hour long trip to god knows where in rural Laos.
other armenia things...
So we did a few other touristy things while in Armenia. We were really enjoying our new hostel and were having some conversations about God with a few new people which went well I suppose. We went to a monastery called Khor Vrap that was built where a kingdom used to once be. Under one of the monastaries was a prison where a man named Grigor was kept for 13 years. The story behind this man went as follows..
Once upon a time there was a King and a kings advisor. One day the kings advisor kills the King of Armenia and the advisors two sons went into hiding. One of the sons was a boy named Grigor ho converted to Chrisianity later in his life. He then befriended the old kings son (so the new king of Armenia) and became part of his council all the while keeping his faith a secret. One day the King ordered Grigor to bow and place a wreath at the feet of one his pagan god idols. Once Grigor refused and revealed his faith, the King realized he was the son of the man who killed his father and had him thrown into prison to die. However, someone within the noble family was sneaking food to Grigor who sat down in his tiny little whole deep under the earth. The King then got very sick/cursed becoming insane in the mine and grew pigs ears until one night his sister came to him telling him of a dream she had. In her dream she had to let Grigor, who was still alive, go free and listen to what he says. So he lets Grigor go and Grigor tells him that in order to be cured he had to denounce his Pagan faith and become Christian. So the King oes so and was cured and then declared Armenia the first ever Christian Nation. The End.
So we went to the old monastery and then went down into the whole that Grigor was kept. It was just a ladder down through a whole to a circular stone room with one tiny little air/light whole. How this man kept sane and remained faithful while in this whole we have no clue. Then Jef and I got laughed at by a bunch of locals (which is not rare). Some of which followed Jef around and giggled for a while, then we took our leave and met a weird Russian universalist/budhist of some srt who decided to lecture us on how all religions are the same…it was strange.
We also went to the equal of the Vatican within Armenia called Ejmiastin (I butchered the name) and we went to the local relics museum where all the old pope like dudes outfits and staffs and chalices and incense things were kept, and the spear point that pierced Jesus’s side. I asked a couple questions about how they would have gotten ahold of this spear tip since there are 4 recorded throughout the world. Apparently this is the only spear tip that dates back to the year of Jesus’s death and when the Roman soldiers blind eye got healed by the drop of blood from Jesus’s body he realized the Jesus was indeed God and gave it to Bartholomew. However, they do not really know how it came into the hands of the ancient Armenian church so I’m definitely still skeptical and doubt it is accurate.
We went to a pretty nice fountain light show in he downtown court yard and then went to a place that looked amazing from the outside and all the locals were telling us to go to. It was some pizza bistro thing and I wanted the super cool looking salad bar full of unique treats. Once we get inside we order ONE salad bar and a pizza. The waitress asks if we want 2 plates for the salad bar so we can share so we are like SHWEET yes! But once we get to the salad bar it was soooo nasty. You didn't know what you could eat from because everyone left their half empty plates up there. Everything was cold and stale and or smothered in ketchup (LUKE: you may have liked it). So we pushed that away dissapointed and waited for our pizza which was again a little ketchup, barely any cheese and shredded chicken. It was very awful, and it was the most expensive meal we had and the waitress charged us for 3 things we didn't want and we had to pay for it because she would just shrug when we tried to explain and say sorry. So we left totally pissed and to throw a little of God's grace in there we left all of our money on the table there that night because we were so flustered. Oh-well.
I was pretty done with Armenia and ready to leave, it is nice, but overall I don't think we were to impressed. If you leave Yerevan though than it's wonderful, always escape the citiesif you want a real taste of a place.
Once upon a time there was a King and a kings advisor. One day the kings advisor kills the King of Armenia and the advisors two sons went into hiding. One of the sons was a boy named Grigor ho converted to Chrisianity later in his life. He then befriended the old kings son (so the new king of Armenia) and became part of his council all the while keeping his faith a secret. One day the King ordered Grigor to bow and place a wreath at the feet of one his pagan god idols. Once Grigor refused and revealed his faith, the King realized he was the son of the man who killed his father and had him thrown into prison to die. However, someone within the noble family was sneaking food to Grigor who sat down in his tiny little whole deep under the earth. The King then got very sick/cursed becoming insane in the mine and grew pigs ears until one night his sister came to him telling him of a dream she had. In her dream she had to let Grigor, who was still alive, go free and listen to what he says. So he lets Grigor go and Grigor tells him that in order to be cured he had to denounce his Pagan faith and become Christian. So the King oes so and was cured and then declared Armenia the first ever Christian Nation. The End.
So we went to the old monastery and then went down into the whole that Grigor was kept. It was just a ladder down through a whole to a circular stone room with one tiny little air/light whole. How this man kept sane and remained faithful while in this whole we have no clue. Then Jef and I got laughed at by a bunch of locals (which is not rare). Some of which followed Jef around and giggled for a while, then we took our leave and met a weird Russian universalist/budhist of some srt who decided to lecture us on how all religions are the same…it was strange.
We also went to the equal of the Vatican within Armenia called Ejmiastin (I butchered the name) and we went to the local relics museum where all the old pope like dudes outfits and staffs and chalices and incense things were kept, and the spear point that pierced Jesus’s side. I asked a couple questions about how they would have gotten ahold of this spear tip since there are 4 recorded throughout the world. Apparently this is the only spear tip that dates back to the year of Jesus’s death and when the Roman soldiers blind eye got healed by the drop of blood from Jesus’s body he realized the Jesus was indeed God and gave it to Bartholomew. However, they do not really know how it came into the hands of the ancient Armenian church so I’m definitely still skeptical and doubt it is accurate.
We went to a pretty nice fountain light show in he downtown court yard and then went to a place that looked amazing from the outside and all the locals were telling us to go to. It was some pizza bistro thing and I wanted the super cool looking salad bar full of unique treats. Once we get inside we order ONE salad bar and a pizza. The waitress asks if we want 2 plates for the salad bar so we can share so we are like SHWEET yes! But once we get to the salad bar it was soooo nasty. You didn't know what you could eat from because everyone left their half empty plates up there. Everything was cold and stale and or smothered in ketchup (LUKE: you may have liked it). So we pushed that away dissapointed and waited for our pizza which was again a little ketchup, barely any cheese and shredded chicken. It was very awful, and it was the most expensive meal we had and the waitress charged us for 3 things we didn't want and we had to pay for it because she would just shrug when we tried to explain and say sorry. So we left totally pissed and to throw a little of God's grace in there we left all of our money on the table there that night because we were so flustered. Oh-well.
I was pretty done with Armenia and ready to leave, it is nice, but overall I don't think we were to impressed. If you leave Yerevan though than it's wonderful, always escape the citiesif you want a real taste of a place.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
On a More Serious Note
Just a little history:
In 1915, just after World War 1, the Turkish systematically invaded their neighbouring country of Armenia in hopes to conquer and destroy it and turn it into a Muslim nation. Talk about Christians being persecuted for their beliefs, it is amazing to think of how the Armenian's stayed strong and faithful while being slaughtered by the thousands. And to choose Jesus still while looking death in the eye (that is if they were given a choice). It amazes me that I never heard of the Armenian Genocide before I met Jef because this is a nation that deserves respect for their faith and hope in the Lord. And their courage for still being a declared Christian nation surrounded by Muslim countries who are pressuring them constantly with threats. It was the first recorded modern genocide or holocaust with the total number of resulting Armenian deaths at 1-1.5 million. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands left to die, tortured and sold to slavery. Jef's family was involved in this genocide, his great grandfathers sister was one of the woman taken as a slave and raped until her right to bear children was taken away,and the rest of his family 5 brothers and sister and his parents and extended family apparently were forced to jump to their death. Turkey still does not even acknowledge that this event even happened, and it not taught in their textbooks so it will soon be forgotten by the new and upcoming generations. Before I visited the Armenian Genocide Museum, the word Genocide was just another word and the phrase "1-1.5 million killed" hadn't seeped in. It was just another issue or event that there was no face for so it elicited little emotion. These people and their remaining families deserve our prayer and respect not just on the basis of murder but also on the basis of faith, and the strength given to them by God.
Oh and although Jef states that we are not one of the countries mentioned at the monument, America was the cause for majority of Armenian orphans finding orphanages and support and was also the main country that raised support to help the Armenian's during this time. Within the museum we are recorded as a country that recognizes the term "genocide" and recognize that this was indeed what the Armenian's suffered.
In 1915, just after World War 1, the Turkish systematically invaded their neighbouring country of Armenia in hopes to conquer and destroy it and turn it into a Muslim nation. Talk about Christians being persecuted for their beliefs, it is amazing to think of how the Armenian's stayed strong and faithful while being slaughtered by the thousands. And to choose Jesus still while looking death in the eye (that is if they were given a choice). It amazes me that I never heard of the Armenian Genocide before I met Jef because this is a nation that deserves respect for their faith and hope in the Lord. And their courage for still being a declared Christian nation surrounded by Muslim countries who are pressuring them constantly with threats. It was the first recorded modern genocide or holocaust with the total number of resulting Armenian deaths at 1-1.5 million. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands left to die, tortured and sold to slavery. Jef's family was involved in this genocide, his great grandfathers sister was one of the woman taken as a slave and raped until her right to bear children was taken away,and the rest of his family 5 brothers and sister and his parents and extended family apparently were forced to jump to their death. Turkey still does not even acknowledge that this event even happened, and it not taught in their textbooks so it will soon be forgotten by the new and upcoming generations. Before I visited the Armenian Genocide Museum, the word Genocide was just another word and the phrase "1-1.5 million killed" hadn't seeped in. It was just another issue or event that there was no face for so it elicited little emotion. These people and their remaining families deserve our prayer and respect not just on the basis of murder but also on the basis of faith, and the strength given to them by God.
Oh and although Jef states that we are not one of the countries mentioned at the monument, America was the cause for majority of Armenian orphans finding orphanages and support and was also the main country that raised support to help the Armenian's during this time. Within the museum we are recorded as a country that recognizes the term "genocide" and recognize that this was indeed what the Armenian's suffered.
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