Sex, Drugs, Booz, and Tubes

Vang Vieng Laos, a city with beautifull karst scenery, clear water, caves. Yet this tiny little city hides or bluntly shows the dark side of western influence.

Backpackers, and tourists transit through here on the way to Luang Prabang or Vientiane.

The "sin" city of Laos, where many foreigners come for not just the scenery, but also the easy and lax flow of weed and opium, and magic mushroom. I am guessing 70% of the people are using one form of drug or the other based my very unscientific observation of the group I was traveling with.

It is really unfortunate for the place where you can do a lazy tubing down the river, caving, rock climbing, kayaking, biking, trekking, visiting small villages, or just doing nothing/sun bathing on the river bank.

I went tubing for the first time, where beer bars lines the river bank ready to serve the boozing westerners. They even added incentive like rope swing, zip-lines, platform jumping to grab (literaly they have long baboon stick to drag the tubers to the shore) tubers attention. Many of the tubes also smoked weed as well, so some of them are totally zone out by the time they reach town.

The second day , I went by myself (away from booze and weed people for a while) and did a caving/kayaking/trekking. It was great even though I fell into water couple times, banged my leg, bitten by mosiquitos, I had great time. Don't need drug and booze to have fun like other people.

Most people smoked weed openly, and I heard once in a while the police will arrest couple people and fine them $500 each and let them go. So I think the police/government tolerate this to attract druggies, bring in tourst money, and pocket the revenue.

O, I forgot to mention the sex part. This is a real great story, too long and complex to explain. Anyway it involves a Canadian lady that was on the same bus as us, and her desperate search for sex in the city and her "dream" man she met in Thailand (an American from Denver). The guy was here and wasn't interested in her. BTW I roomed with her for one night! Other people make fun of me about what is going to happen when she found a man and bring him back and worst yet, when she did not find a man! BTW, she got big boos and big belly

O, the great group of people I was traveled with from Vientiane/Vang Vieng and eventually again in Luang Prabang included a Chinese Australian, a Czech Australian, a Dutch, an American couple from Settle, an Irish lady. A very strange mix of people, and I do enjoyed their company (most of the time) depite the constant booze and weed use by 5 of the 6 people (guess who did not smoked weed, well the person tried one puff)?

Vientiane, Laos

My flight into Laos from Siem Reap was non-eventful, not like my previous crossing by bus/foot and boat. Another twin turbo prop plane.

Paid $30 and got my visa, then I exchanged $200 travelers checks into Kips at 10802 Kips to $1 and what I got in return were 4 bundles of 5000 kips bills!!! Imagine you holding $200 worth of 50c bill. I felt like I have just robbed the bank with 2 millions plus of Kips in small used and untraceable bills.

After shared a taxi with a Canadian couple I checked into a grimmy single bed room for $7 a night. I just going to stay one night, so I did not mind too much.

I then went to find food to eat and had a best and cheap meal in a long time. I went back in cheap place again later. Laos is even cheaper Vietnam.

After lunch I went for quick 3 hours of temple sightseeing on foot. One of the temple was awesome, the whole temple is of shinny gold color and with bright sunshine and blue sky, it just jump out at you.

Even though Vientiane is the capital of the country, it felt like a provincial city than a capital. Many unpaved and dusty streets. Things tend to be much quieter than its neighboring countries. No car honking to speak of. Anyway much more of a layback feel to it. No wonder everyone who visited Laos has high praise for it.

I'll have a quick/short temple visit near where I staying in the morning tomorrow and then catch a 9:30AM tourist bus North to Vang Vieng for fun stuff and less sightseeing.

There are good pastries here. A Chinese type bakery and a scandinavia bakery as well. Both are pretty good!

Cambodia my impression

A dusty country where the gap between rich and poor is huge and where corruption is ingrained into the society. But a place full of history. Defintely worth a week of visit for sure and longer if you want to explore the beach area.

- proverty is very apparent, many beggers, and cripples around the tourist area. I heard few stories about fake ones like people renting out their babies to beggers to look more desperate.

- poor roads, some are finally improved, but there are still many potholes.

- seems like everything run on monoploy here; probably as result corruption

- a culture of past glory (angkor) and recent tragedy (genocide)

I sure hope the country and people will get its act together and work toward better future for everyone.

Siem Reap/Angkor

The bus journey from Phnom Penh was better than I expected. After many nightmare bus/boat rides I was expecting the worst. The bus left a bit late, but we got to Siemp Reap in the promised time of 5-6 hours.

I checked into the guesthouse I had in mind without much hassles from tons tuk tuk drivers and hawkers at the bus stations.

The guesthouse tried to charge me with rate of $1 = 4200 riels which highest I ever seen. After some haggling promising I'll staying at least 4 nights, the rate was back to 4000 the standard.
My room had a fan and good ventilation and plus that Siem Reap is a bit cooler than PP, so I felt pretty comfortable while in the room. There is no hot shower, but one does not need it. Also no TV, so boring nights for me. One can't complain too much for a $4 room!

I then went to book a flight to Laos and found out that there is no flight for Thursday day(thanksgiving), so I have no choice but stay one extra day and leave on Friday. So I am all set for flights to Laos and from there to Bangkok (open-jaw).

Siemp Reap is extremly dusty (and other cities as well), my eyes (with contacts) do not like it a bit.

After Cambodia I will be 1 day ahead on my schedule, but I probably will stay longer than the 6-day planed for Laos and will most likely going to negative.

The beggers and cripples are much worst here than in PP. On top of that hawkers and moto bikers like that of Vietnam, constant bombard you with offers. Every few minutes at a road side restaurant, you'll get a begger or cripple come calling. I think my Vietnam exeprience has immunized to most of it. I know many people here are truely poor/hungry/cripple, but the corrupted government has stolen so much of the tourist money for themselves instead of helping their own people.

My first sigtseeing to the Angkor area was to catch the sunset at a small hill top temple. The short climb up was pretty difficult, but that does not prevent million other tourists coming up to get a peek at the sunset. Well, no photo pleasing sunset that day, too much cloud at the sunset point as usual.

The real sighseeing for me starts on Day 2 (started at 5 am to catch sunrise over Angkor and for the next 12 straight hours of sightseeing) and lasts until Day 4 since I bought a 3-day pass. I hired a moto bike driver for 3 days include the sunset on day 1 for $30, but after day 2 we agree I can finish the whole thing on day 3 and I agree to pay him $25 for his service. I rented a bicycle on day 4 and rode to some minor sites that I did not visit the days before or too touristy before and visited my favorite site for a quiet reading on my next destination. It was nice to seat in the crumpled temple that is being consumed by the jungle with only the sound of birds, falling leaves, and wind. OK it was not that perfect, few tourists did find my quiet spot....

I really enjoyed my temple visits. I was afraid I might be tired after 1 day, but I think 3 days was perfect for me. I know some people got sick and tired of seeing the temples after day one, I guess they are city folks. The bike ride was great on the last day of visit since it allowed for slower pace and riding in the jungle was awesome as well (although riding an uncomfortable bike and behind exhusts of many buses was not good for the health). This place definitely is one of highlight of my trip despite the touristy nature (timing is key to avoid the massive crowd). Also the weather was relatively cool and sunny (except day 4 - cloudy which is good for bike riding, despite of this and shady road/path I still sweat a lot from the backpack on my back)

I am only able to upload very limited pictures (I took a lot) because the upload speed here in Cambodia is extremly slow (128kb/s)

So happy Thanksgiving everyone, I had a massage this afternoon to celebrate it.
And I joined Lisa, Shirely, Gill, Yana, and Mark for get together dinner.

Tomorrow morning (it will Thankgiving night your time), I will fly to Vientiane Laos.

Phnom Penh

The capital of Kingdom of Cambodia (Constitutional monarchy) is rolling in dollars. Actually the whole country as well. The US$ is the defacto currency here. Most things are quoted in dollars. So it makes everything expensive. The display of wealth is more evident here than in China and Vietnam. I guess in a communist country one is afraid being to showy that might incur the wrath of the party (such as investigation into possible corruption).

The gap between rich and poor is much more evident here. Many beggers and many people driving with big American and Japanese made cars. The moto bikes here are more crowded. In Vietnam most the bikes have 1 or 2 people, here 2,3,4 are much more common. So are the standup taxi (pickup truck with many peoples cramped in standing up) and people riding on the roof tops (like that of Africa). Streets are also appear to be dirtier and many are full of pot-holes. One thing nice about the motos and cars here is that they are nicer to pedestrians, much less honking and a little more yielding.

The people looks much darker unlike far East Asian (including Vietnam), Cambodia more like that of Thai, Malay, Indonesian I think. I will find out when I get there.

Also the temples (wats) are total different in color and architechure than far East Asian temples.
So far the food here aren't much different than that of Vietnamese.

O, I made some money here! I exchanged US$120 into local currency at rate around 4170. But then at resturant where everything is charged in dollars, but I paid in Riels and they use conversion of 4100. Now that is first in currency conversion.

On day one I went to the the royal palace, a very fancy place! Just think that all those poor people on the streets.

Then I went to the genocide museum, the former detention/torture place. The place was a school before the Khmer Rouge converted into their instrument of terror. The place is pretty much the way it was back in the mid/late 70s. The museum is well incorporated into the place with shocking death photos, stories of the victims and pepertrators, and photos of everyone that were held there. Only one person survived the camp out of 14,000 or so people. What stick to my mind is that the most brutal abuses are carried out by kids between 10-15 years old. I guess at that age, the sense of what's right and wrong is just started to form and if one is expose to the wrong too much, it become the norm. The place is more telling of evil that people can do to each other than the war museum in Saigon. I am sure it is on par with the atrocity committed by the Japanese and the German in WWII.

At night, the two Canadians ladies and the German lady that I was traveling with since the disaster Mekong delta tour, went to the river front for dinner and we walked around for little while after dinner. We then say our good-byes. I am sure I might see one of them at my furture destinations.

Day 2, I started with early morning run to the Palace and river front. I then checkout the price for air flights to Laos and to Bangkok. Very expensive. I'll book a bus ticket to Siem Reap/Angkor, one of the highlight of my trip (I hope).

O, one really need AC here. The room I stayed last night has just fan (no real windows to speak of), and room stayed hot all night, of course there were mosiquitos in the rooms, so with blankets, it was too hot to sleep, so I put on bug spray. Anyway I paid double price to get a room with AC tonight.

Another thing the internet is pretty slow here, so there might be less pictures online, sorry.

The long journey into Cambodia

Well the last morning in Vietnam, we went to see some fish farms on the Mekong delta. They raised mainly catfish and carps there. But soon we're told that those people (like me) who booked the "fast" boat to Phenom Penh will not be able to do so because the boat is out the service and that it is also overbooked (who knows what the real story is). We're also told that we'll get our money back (US $7) although most people paid $8 (the tour company took a cut there).

A lady on the boat went bulletstic, I think it is because the tour is well below expectation and now the final blow. She demanded the boat guide gave her the full tour package refund ($43) and the guide actually cried as a result. Most people are calm knowing it is the tour company that is responsible and not someone like her.
Anyway the last item on this tour was visit to a Cham village, no one was in any mood of visiting. Although the visit to the family toliet was very interesting. The houses along the Mekong delta are build on stilts, so the toliet is just hole with long drop down to the river. In our case it was low tide, so no water at that time (use your imagination ;)

Our journey to Cambodia started with a "slow" moto boat ride up the Mekong to the border. We disembark for lunch, had our Vietnam exit stamp, and cleared custom, got Cambodia visa (for those don't have one yet, like me it is $25) and walk over to Cambodia side to get on another "slow" boat for Cambodia. The official visa rate is $20, but most people paid "bribe" to the official/agent.

The lunch place is also function as currency exchange in which you paid in Dongs and in return you get Cambodia Riels. But the money ladies were pulling a fast one on the tourists with conversion rate of US $1 = 3000 Riels, the real rate is around 4200! I told them no, want my changes in Dongs. I rather keep few dongs as souvenirs than to give it to the blood suckers. I then told some of tourists about their scheme, and the ladies denied it is 4200, but now they raised to 3500. They were not too pleased with me.

Anyway on the slow Cambodia boat, the "guide" also let people exchanged money, but his rate is more reasonable at 4000. I exchanged US $2 just to get by.
We then disembarked at an warehouse 1.5 hours away from Phnom Penh and took a bus over potholes ridden roads into the city. So 9 hours later we arrived in Phnom Penh around 6:30. Of course it was dark and we're in a new country/city, we decided to check in at the hotel the bus dropped us off instead our original plan.

I roomed with a German lady into an AC/TV/hot shower double-bed room for $10. The price here is pretty expensive (just like Saigon). But from what we saw, Cambodia is lot poor than Vietnam, although things are changing as well.

I'll stay here for couple days, before I head up to the famous Angkor Wat in Siemp Reap

Vietnam, my impression

- the greed of the Vietnamese people, everywhere and everyone is trying to cheat you. The government actually allowed dual price for things. Sort like what China had many years ago.

- the constant hassle of people who are trying to sell you things, even though you express no interests at all.

- the many customs in Vietnam reminded me so much what I experienced growing up in Taiwan 30 or so years ago. I feel there is much more Chinese culture here than what I experienced in China on my two trips there. I think the destructive culture revolution wipped out many Chinese tradition in mainland China. Even today the communist government there with its continue focus on economic growth, is making the old culture/tradition/sights even less.

- Vietnam = motobikes. there are every where, just like Taiwan, but with a good mix of bicycles as well. Again it is more like China 15-20 years ago and Taiwan 25-35 years ago.

- The ecomomy of Vietnam is growing fast as well, but the middle class is still very small, so most of the tourist places, you only see non-local tourists. So it less crowded than China.

- There are lessing smoking by men here than China

- The honking by the drivers is approaching Chinese standard

- The food in the North and central are less oily as in south western China, but a lot of fried food.

- girls here are cuter, but a bit short. In fact the people here are pretty short even by Asian standard. I think average height of men here is 5' 4".

- Vietnam seems to be lot cleaner than I expected in comparison to China, all sit down toilet, less dirty looking street.

- the residential buildings in Vietnam is greatly influenced by French, it created a good visual on the eyes, not like the gray and dirty looking building of China.

- although roads are less and narrower in Vietnam, it seem to be better build than China. Come to think of everything is China seem to be of lowest quality. That explains their exported goods as well :)

- sit-down toilet is norm and you can flush the used toilet paper down not like China where you need to put the used toilet paper in a basket, yuck! French did good here.

Vietnam I think has more "culture" appeal to me than China. Although its people are less honest and more annoyance. Time to visit is now (hopefully with a person who knows Vietnamese and local custom,so to avoid being taken to the cleaner everytime), before there is a large middle class. Else in 10-20 years, u might get a place like China.

Mekong Delta and Onward to Cambodia

I signed up for the 3 days 2 nights tour of Mekong delta that includes transportation to Phnom Penh.

Day one we left HCMC and went to My Tho, the gateway into Mekong delta. The sights were particular interesting. Obvious there is lot of commerce on the river and along the river and the delta is extreme fertile with 3+ plus crops a year. Vietnam is the 2nd largest rice producer (#1 is Thailand). We also saw the coconut candy making process (I bought one package).

Day two, started from Cantho, the 5th largest city in Vietnam (the largest in Mekong delta), we checked out a floating market, again I wasn't impressed, and also visited a rice sheet/noodles factory, a rice husk removing plant, and small snake farm, and a crocodile farm (with couple Asiatic bears for beal farming). We arrived in Chau Duc on the border with Cambodia just in time for a sunset.

The hotels we stayed weren't particular great, even worst than what I would normally stay in Vietnam. The one in Chau Duc smelled like raw sewage! I paid $1 more just to get the AC to reduce the smell.

I roomed with a japanese lady for the two nights.

Then there is the van, overcrowed and the AC failed not long after we left the boat, so everyone was pretty hot to say the least

So the package tour is well below my expectation... Might be the worst in Vietnam if not the whole trip. Consider I payed $43 for it, you get what you paid.

Well, I'll report how the journey into Cambodia once I get there...