The Cheat. Trip to Thailand for a week.

The coin flipped and Thailand won, I was actually relieved in some way. The trip to southern Laos didn’t sound overly interesting from people I talked to and it was also going to put me days away from the things in Cambodia I wanted to see.

Anyways the friendship bridge greeted me the next morning. What I completely forgot in all of the planning of my route was my Thai visa… yeap I spent days in Vientiane  and in the end forgetting this… I hit the border and checked out of Laos with no problems apart from lots of confusion as to where I had to go and who I had to bride to get my bike through, in the end I gave the dude my bottle of Lao-Lao (whisky) and waved away, so much cheaper than when I entered Laos.

On the Thai side it was even worse, I had gone through the customs and passport control then asked how I get my bike and then they promptly asked me with guns drawn to empty my bike contents out for inspection… 2 hours later and a x-ray on my body I was aloud to go. I still have no idea why I was targeted by they were extremely interested in my bike, must have been the Vietnam plates.

Anyways I was in Thailand, WELCOME. I had a visa for 15 days, no where near enough time to see the country so, I pulled into the first thing I could see after the border. A 7 Eleven! Clearly I was in a “westernized” country again, otherwise there wouldn’t be a 7 eleven on every corner. 

Parked at the train station
ready for loading

Bought a map and looked at the ground I had to cover. If I wanted to spend any time in Bangkok or get to Cambodia around Christmas I would have to do a lot of KM to get there then move on with no time to see anything. I took the easy way, I drove all day then pulled into a town with a railway station. Bought myself a ticket with a sleeper and booked my bike on as well. I was heading directly to Bangkok.

Im going to leave the day to day accounts here. I spent a lot of time in Bangkok but most was relaxing, I had been on the bike every day for a month and needed some serious beer time, hell I was in Bangkok after all!

While in Bangkok I did manage to see lots of the sights by foot and Tuk Tuk.

The Giant relining Buddha and royal temple was awe-inspiring. It was completely covered in gold with mother of pearl on the souls of Buddha’s feet. The temples around were covered in glass and mirror pieces that made them sparkle as you walked around.

In the center of the Palace area was the great Jade Buddha. A Buddha carved out of a single piece of Jade and the largest of its kind in the world. The temple was amazing and had paintings on all the walls telling the story of how Buddha came to this place and how the king of Thailand came to be… I sat in the temple for a good 40 min listening to the monks prays, it was a really quite mesmerising.  

The palace was beautiful as well, it had a very French feel to it and the guards even looked like the European royal guards.

I was able to catch the Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn) at sunset and have a nice relaxing beer over the riverside.

While in Bangkok I also took a day trip out to see the floating markets, there’s a large number of them and I can not remember the name of the one I visited but it was a good 2 hours out of the city.

The markets themselves where nothing overly special in comparison to others ive been to in Asia, but the food there was amazing!
 Small boats on the side of the river offering fresh seafood and meals for 1-2$. I pigged out and took a small boat ride around the markets, before heading back to Bangkok for the evening.

The rest of the 5 days I spent in Bangkok I used to try and find some new shoes… you would think in 7 major retail shopping centers in Thailand you could find some shoes that are 13.5, but it would appear the largest they have is 12. So no new shoes my ones that are falling to bits will have to do.

The shopping centers were not without mention either, I was in one that had Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini on the 2^nd floor of the shopping center, you can only imagine the things that were on the ground floor at the entrance…

Another center was made out to look like a airport, it was called Terminal 27. Each floor was a different themed country, Italy, England, China, Japan… they were all there and the shops had fronts that made it look like you had entered the place. Each level also greeted you with gate 2, 3, 4 whatever as in the floors… it was very cool, but super expensive.

The nightlife in Bangkok didn’t disappoint either, I had a great time heading out on the town with some friends I met and it was very easy to see how you could get into trouble. But a hell of allot of fun with the locals ;)

I left Bangkok after 5 days, and had enough of the city. It was nice to be in a place with subways and cars but it was time I got away from the big city again. A friend of mine in Japan told me about a small town called Pattaya, that was “fun” so that’s were I headed next.

On the way I stopped off at a free range zoo, this was fun as I was on my bike and able to ride in and around all the enclosures. It was a zoo and all the usual African animals, but what I found funny was the wild monkeys sitting on the cages. The zoo keepers trying to shoo them away.

It was a beach side city with more pubs and clubs that I could hit up in a year… definitely a fun spot. I spent the days on the beach swimming and the nights partying. Oh Thailand was going to be expensive but so much fun.

I only stayed in Pattaya for 1 day, it was all I needed to see what it was about and I had enough party time in Bangkok.

My visa was getting close to finishing, my Cambodian visa was opening up the next day, so I headed for the border and the following day entered into Cambodia.

So it was only a short 9 days out of 15 on my visa, and I will come back and see the “real” Thailand as I have no doubt that I have missed 99% of the country. But this was a detour at the end of the day.

Either way it was fun, I enjoyed the nightlife and the city… it was nice for a change not to have to worry about drinking water and ice cubes and to have fast internet to update my blog.

Time to head back into the unknown, Cambodia here I come!...

Till next time have fun!

Steffen.

Merry Christmas!!

To my friends, family and loved ones around the world. May you all have a blessed Merry Christmas, thank you for the times been and times to come.

Thank you to the many kind people and new friends, I have had the pleasure of meeting over the last 5 months. I look forward to the day we cross paths again and thank you for the memories.


Merry Christmas,
Steffen
(Somewhere in Cambodia)

Tubing, Caving, Visa's and a Coin flip - Vang Vieng and Venetian

I had arrived at the Vang Vieng and took a walk around the town. It was completely obvious this was a backpacker town. Teens walking around in swim ware, people walking around sky high on something. It was a noisy and happening place.

Every bar, restaurant and business had either Family guy or Friends showing and were full of people watching the episodes while drinking.

The next day I had heard about the tubing and caves surrounding Vang Vieng. I headed to the tube starting area on my bike to check it out, it was a launch pad for the tubes. The Tubes being basically big truck tire inner tubes. Then the riverbanks were covered in bars, clubs, swings, seesaws, and other recreation activities. I was way to early, everyone was still sound asleep or working off a hang over, so I went caving.

There was something like 10 caves in a small area, some of then were nothing special but there was a few that were amazing and large. One in particular went on for a good 500m or so, and had massive limestone curtains and other cave formations.

It wasn’t like they were easy to get to either, I got completely lost on the way to one of the caves and ended up riding around on my motorbike through some farmers rice fields. It would have been a blast if it wasn’t so muddy and the 2 meter cobra I almost ran over. That was enough for me.

That afternoon I doubled back to town and went tubing. Sorry no photos as it was all on water. But I got extremely drunk and it was a blast, I stayed well away from the swing of death. You could see the injuries from the people who had tried it, the water was only ½ meter deep and they are jumping at height into it… yeah smart one! Never the less the tubing is considered a rite on passage among backpackers around south east Asia.

The following day I packed up my things again and headed out of town, as much fun as the town is it simply didn’t interest me to stay for longer.

The ride to Venetian was truly nothing special after about 20km the road hit a flat plain and became industrial and farm land for 100km. Plus I had a headache from the previous day.

I reached Venetian nice and early that day, and checked into my hostel. I was in the capital city of Laos for the main reason to get my Visa’s for the onward trips sorted, the border visa’s were very expensive as I had to add a bribe on top so hopefully this would stop that?

Never the less I had 4 days to kill. So I went and to see some of the sights and sounds around Venetian. The day that I arrived I spent the rest of the day just walking along the Mekong river, it was so peaceful and when the sunset it was like always, perfect only thing missing was Sông. ;)

Some of the sights I visited in Venetian were really old and nice.

One of the days, i did take a nice long long long... drive out of town past the friendship bridge (the border to Thailand that crosses the Mekong), to a small town that had a big reclining buddha made out of stone.

The site had a few 100 different buddha statues, from all over the world. They had a massive globe like thing with a mig mouth, inside was a staircase and what could only be described as the "internals of buddha" it was grose.
It was all made out of clay and concrete but the figures were grose however it did give a good view when you reached the top.

I also went to see a small temple, the locals were hard at work renovating it by hand. They had some pet spider monkeys as well.

The last night in Venetian, I was up late. The next morning I new I was moving on but I couldn’t decide on where. The problem was that the south of Laos was a long drive around the Mekong river, and although it would be a nice drive. It would put me ½ of Cambodia and a week of riding to get to the things I wanted to see there. The alternative was to skip the south of Laos for another trip, and take the friendship bridge, which was 10km away over to Thailand. Then head to Bangkok and then to Cambodia. This would give me more to see and put me in the correct place.

I flipped a coin for it.

Till next time, have fun.

Steffen

Laos Whiskey, big guns and a New Year? - Luang Prabang to Phonsavan to Vang Vieng

I was leaving Luang Prabang after having a hell of a morning, my credit card was eaten by the ATM (got it back though), and my Mirrors on my bike were “borrowed without permission”, this all seemed to stem after I posted my blog post called “What could possibly go wrong”. It was karma… I knew it.

I wasn’t overly worried I had a great run on the roads, the sun was out and the roads were amazing as always. 

This road was sealed, it had places to stop safely on the side and take photos and I thought I was making great time.

Then the road climbed, and climbed. I passed a few trucks broken down. One was completely blocking the road and only motorbikes could pass while a crane pulled the engine out of the truck. The locals were a bit ripe so I didn’t stop.

Some time after lunch I was still climbing and I thought to my self I really should slow down a bit as I was getting far to comfortable with the corners and runs. It had only just started to rain and I took the next corner, the bike back wheel shot right and I tried to pick it up and over stirred, and the back wheel came out. I was trapped under the bike sliding on the road.

The car I had over taken 2 min later drove past without a look as I lay on the ground under my bike. I managed to get my foot free and my shoe had wedged in under my saddle bag and backpack. I came away from the slip with a busted knee and exhaust burn on my leg (didn’t notice that till days later).  The rest of my body was covered by my safety gear, but I could not find leggings my size so suffered the cost.

It turned out there was some oil or something on the corner and that plus the rain seems to have caught me on the corner.

15 min later the rain was gone and the roads were dry again… so if you ever write a blog never entitle it “what could go wrong” you will have a hell of a day.

I stopped in at the next town, at the local pharmacy to ask for some things to fix up my leg. The girl turned out to be the local doctor as well and pulled out a surgical tray and gloves, very pro and cute till she put iodine on my knee then she was the devil! OUCH!

The next day I had still not reached Phonsavan as I had planned the day before, so I was up early. It was difficult to change gears on the bike but with every hour it became easier.

The road to Phonsavan was great, the views started off in the mountains and along the road there where guys with AK47’s and Rocket Launchers. I have no idea why but every 1km there was guys with big guns. I didn’t stop, I had heard that people had died on this road many years ago so without any knowledge of why these guys were hear I wasn’t going to stop and ask for directions.

I reached the plains just after lunch, it was all hills and up down and then suddenly out of no where it was flat… it looked like something from Canberra in Australia.

The grass was brown there was gum trees on the side of the road and the roads had pot holes.

I stopped off at a small village for lunch, the group of old men were sitting out the front and they took a fancy to my bike and my gear. I was offered a shot of rice wine while my noodle soup was cooking. Its considered rude to refuse, so downed it. 
Then a second shot came, so I walked calmly to the back of my bike and pulled out my 600ml bottle of rice wine and put it on the table. The old guys almost fell over laughing at it. They had not expected that one. I downed one more then told them I had to ride onwards so I couldn’t. They were understanding.

From here on in the towns turned into moung villages and I was in luck.  I had arrived in the region on there new years day. All the girls were dressed in there traditional cloths. They were also playing traditional games to promote they are single and to find a partner. The cloths were extremely colorful. I stopped in a small town and took a few pictures. The kids seem to always be the most inquisitive. I had a bag a of candy left over from Vietnam so handed a few out as well to say happy New Year ;)

Moving on down the plains, every town had the same festival going on it was great to watch. I reached Phonsavan in the afternoon and the town was alive with activity, all the small villages around the town had gathered for there new years festival. 


They had a roller coaster, dodgem cars, jumping castles. All the girls were dressed in there traditional cloths, and having a blast. 
Not even the dodgem cars could stop them from riding around. It was a blast to watch.

They had also setup a tunnel of this ball game, in which single girls would be throwing a ball to each other. If one of them dropped it they would have to give a present to the other. If a guys could join in as well to get close to the girl and get to know her, or something like that.

The party ran into the night and a disco was setup that night, the girls still in traditional clothing, at 11pm it all stopped and they all went home.

The next morning I was off to see the plain of Jars. The main thing that you come to Phonsavan for. For a bit more info through ill explain the area. Phonsavan was a old capital city area 1000’s of years ago and has lots of artifacts in the area. More recent history though, the area was the most heavily bombed area by the USA during the Indochina war during the Vietnam war. 
They dropped tonnes of cluster bombs on this area as it was believed to be part of the supply path for the Vietnam troops. Even though Laos was neutral in the war. (very rough and quick over view)

Today a small volunteer group called “MAG” (Mines Advisory Group) work every day to clear UXO (Unexploded Ordinates), they clear farm land and roads. Every day in the region someone is killed due to a UXO. Most happen because farmers are trying to expand there field into area’s they know are not safe yet but have no choice as they are not growing enough to live or children find a cluster bombie (a small fragment of a larger bomb that looks like a ball), and play with it… I stopped off at the MAG office and took a look at there presentations. Then made a small donation.

Out of town I reached the plain of Jars site 1, and was greeted with a large sign. Stay within the white stones, every where else is a mine field. Then it sunk in how massive the job was that MAG had to do.

The Jars themselves were big, the size of cauldrons, no one knows what they were used for or why but the theory is that it was used to make large quantities of Rice wine for a festival for a king. It must have been one hell of a festival there were hundreds of these Jars in the area.

They were concentrated to a few sites around Phonsavan, only 3 sites were open to tourists the others were still loaded with UXO’s. After visiting site one I moved on to try and find the other 2 sites.

Site 2 was much smaller than site 1, but the Jars were much closer together, they were also located on a hill top which gave amazing views over the surrounding areas. Getting to site 2 and 3 was a nightmare, the road was dirt for 20km there was massive pot holes. All this I could deal with but it was the water trucks that wet the road to stop the dust, that made it so slippery to ride it was silly.

Site 3 was very much like site 2 but to get to it I had to hike through farms, all recently cleared by MAG so the farmers could use the land.

On the way back I stopped off at a old Russian tank, really not much to see its had its top blown off and its rusted to pieces.

Worth a mention as well is the guest house I was staying at, they had collected a massive amount of war items and had them on display in the bar, they were also using a old missile shell as a fire place.

The owner of the guesthouse was cool as well, that night around the fire I wrote down the lyrics for a song he like, it took a good hour of work. In return I got him to write all the words in Lao for my motorbike. Fair trade and it came in very handy to get it fixed later on.

The next day I left for Vang Vieng along the same road I drove a few days earlier. Back tracking wasn’t to bad as I got another chance to see the guys with the massive guns. This time i did stop... "screenshot or it didnt happen", I use to always say

I reached Vang Vieng just on dusk that day driving through more mountain sides and amazing views.

But that’s for another story ;)

Till next time have fun!

Steffen.