The Long Journey to Hanoi - 11/17/11

In Phonsavan, we confirmed our suspicions that there is only one option to go to Hanoi. That is an 18 hour long sleeper bus that starts its course 7 hours earlier in Luang Prabang. From Yasha and Yulya we heard all about the horrors of this bus and were anticipating the trouble ahead. So we took the necessary precautions:

1. Packed food in case there wouldn't be any on the way

2. Yelled at the booking agent to make him assign us the seats. (From Yasha's description there were people who had to spend their time on the floor)

3. Mentally prepared ourselves for this journey

Since the bus starts in the evening in Luang Prabang, it is supposed to arrive in Phonsavan at 2 am. (Yes, that's *AM*). The booking agent told us to come to his agency at 1:30 am, where he would open the doors and wait with us while the bus arrived. When Levka asked him for his phone number so that we can call in case he doesn't arrive, or bus doesn't arrive or anything else goes wrong, he refused to give it to him saying that he will be there no matter what. (Mind you, that the tour agency is on the bottom floor of the building and the agent and his family live upstairs). 

As planned we arrived at 1:30am only to find the doors locked. And knocking didn't help as the agent family slept peacefully upstairs. 2 am rolled around with no bus or agent anywhere in sight. We were not freaking out because Yasha told us that their bus stopped at Phonsavan only at 4 am and also there was another couple who booked with an agency directly next to ours. Their agent opened the door for them and they were waiting for the bus as well.

At 3 am our agent came down stairs in PJs to tell us that the bus is almost there. 30 minutes later it actually arrived.

The other couple got on first and us second. They went to the end of the bus only to be told that there are no seats there. We were walking behind them when the driver called us back and told us to sit in front. Apparently there was a local lady with a kid (we think a wife and child of the driver who were riding without a ticket) who freed up the seats for us. So we got practically the best seats in the house. The other couple were not so lucky and they spent the entire time on the floor. Oh and the fact that we had seats "assigned" didn't actually matter. Our seat numbers were 26 and 27 and it turned out that this bus doesn't have that many seats.

Now about the bus: The bus is supposed to be a sleeper. It has seats that are lifted about 1 m off the ground that unfold horizontally and they are long enough that you can kinda stretch your legs. (Taller people are less lucky in this respect). Also there are mattresses on the floor below each one of the seats and the unlucky people get to ride over there. The way that it is supposed to work, is that the tourists who pay a ton of money for this bus are supposed to have the seats. And the locals, who pay a little or nothing at all, are supposed to be on the floor. But it doesn't work that way.

So we got on the bus, got a great seat and were on the way! Sounds like we were set, but there were some clear downsides to the whole ride. The fact that the bus is called a "sleeper" is only known to the tourists who expect some peace and quiet. The drivers and staff are unaware of this notion. They talk, actually yell, at each other, blast the radio at random hours of the night and periodically sing songs. The most fun is when the bus stops at completely random places to pick up some friends of theirs. Then the "flight attendant" starts playing the game of Tetris where he yells at people on the floor about how they should move/fold their body so more people can fit into an already overflowing bus. And this lasts the entire trip. 

To add to the excitement, our first driver was trigger happy when it came to the bus horn. Vietnamese are known to be able to navigate in crazy traffic and they do honk a lot to avoid collisions. But this guy took the honking to a new extreme. He honked at passing cars who were not in the way, at chickens and cows crossing the road, at kids on bikes on the side of the road and generally at anything that moved anywhere in the vicinity. We think he averaged about 15 beeps a minute. 

At around 7 am we got to the Vietnamese border. All the locals jumped out of the bus and the foreigners were unsure what to do. Being in the front I started asking the driver about it. He yelled something to me in Vietnamese and pointed us out of the bus. So the whole crowd slowly piled out. And we ended up on a side of a road, with a few small mom & pop shops with strange food and no border anywhere. (BTW I asked one of the shop owners to use their toilet, she said "NO" and all the locals laughed in our faces. Yulya had a similar experience at the border a few days before.) Without much choice, we started walking straight on the road. In about 10 mins we reached a border. A small house with little windows behind which the officials are supposed to sit, but there were no officials. Turns out that the office is closed till 7:30. So we waited for a bit to get our Laos 'out' stamps. Then we walked across the border for another few minutes and reached the Vietnamese side.

There, all the passports were collected and we waited for another 40 mins or so to get them back. At the time the bus arrived with all our bags. We were told to unload them and go through a security check. The security consisted of a guy pretending to look inside a bag before waving you through. In my bag he lifted the top piece of clothing and he just stared at Levka's bag before deciding that it was too big to look at and waved him through. Not sure what the point was of this exercise. Anyway, about 3 hours later, we were on the way again.

The bus made several stops to let people out to buy food or use the toilet. The stops were becoming progressively worse on both fronts. The food was crappy and scarce. At one point we were able to buy Soup Pho for all of $0.70. Levka said that it was a lot better in CA. I think this is when he got nostalgic for the Pho Lunches in Mt. View. The rest of the time, the stops only offered beer, an occasional soda and maybe some chips. And the bathroom was reaching new lows. I'm already used to squat toilets and lack of toilet paper and running water. In this case the dirtiness levels were at new extremes. And the last bathroom was the "best", where the women's side had no partitions at all! The Vietnamese women had no issues with that. But the European women lined up to use the only available stall. The bus driver was shocked why there was a line when there was so much space inside and he was ready to leave.

I think the cultural differences are too great for either side to even comprehend. I think either side finds the other somewhat "barbaric". And if not barbaric then maybe uncultured, inappropriate, selfish and many other negative things.

So the ride dragged on in this way for about 22 hours. (4 hours longer than was promised). But we were kinda expecting that. We got more hungry and tired and annoyed with the situation. At one point in time, the "flight attendant" came to us carrying a small child in one hand. With the other hand, he moved Levka's legs a little to one side and then placed the child in the newly created space in our feet. 

The child only sat there for 15 minutes before deciding that he would rather be with his mother and started to cry. They swiftly removed him and didn't return him. The kid was small and cute and we really didn't mind, we just couldn't understand this.

More annoyances came when we actually arrived to Hanoi. We were dropped off at a "New" Bus station instead of one of the regular ones that are really close to Old Town. This "new" bus station was nothing but a dirt road with no toilet or even a building. And there was only one guy who offered a mini van to take us directly to town. The ride only cost $3 for the both of us, which is nothing for us (but expensive by Vietnamese standard), but we know that it is another sort of scam to make an extra buck off the tourists. They even stopped by an ATM on the way to make sure that everyone could get money to pay for the ride. 

The owners of the company brought us to their booking office / hotel and offered us to stay there. We looked at the rooms and they were unpleasant so we decided to walk around and find something better. Mind you that it was 12:30am when we started walking. At around that time all the cheaper hotels started to close down their doors. We were walking to a hotel recommended by the guidebook. After about an hour of not being able to find it, we realized that the book made a mistake and marked the hotel at a wrong spot. When we finally got to that hotel, the doors were tightly locked and we were SOL. At this point we were desperate to stay somewhere. Especially since we kept on being harassed by people on motorbikes who tried to take us to a hotel. Levka almost had to beat a guy in order for him to go away. In the end, we ended up staying at a Backpacker hostel which was on par, if not better, than any European hostel that we've been to.

At around 3 am we were happily in bed!

As you may have guessed, we are now exploring Hanoi, but we won't show you the pictures and videos until we write another post :)

 

Phonsavan - 11/16/11

So we arrived for Phonsavan in the evening of 11/15.

Since we wrote about transportation in Thailand, we'll add a few interesting details here as well.  First - Thailand's transportation is well ahead of Laos's.  This is the "VIP" bus we took to Phonsavan:

Here's the kicker.  While we were waiting for the departure of the bus I was walking around and noticed the bus's rear tires.  The driver noticed me taking a picture of it, and came over.  I pointed my finger, and said "Not good".  He said "OK!" and smiled.

Lucky for us the bus had 2 rear wheels on either side, so when we lost a large piece of the outer thread on one of the tires, all the driver had to do was rip off the flapping piece, deflate the tire a bit so it would not make a noise, and we continued on.  Also lucky for us by then we passed over the mountainous road:

Once in Ponsavan we searched around for a hostel. At some point we were following the signs towards a hostel that we read about in our guide book, but we missed one of the signs and kept walking in the wrong direction for a good 10-15 minutes. Then when we finally found the place we were quite disappointed. The building that was recently remodeled and described in the guide book was completely full and the lady placed us in one of the older rooms. It was quite disgusting, but we were tired and decided to stay there for one night anyway. However, after Levka found (and threw out) a half-dead frog in the bathroom, we changed our mind, returned the keys and went out on a search. We were lucky to bump into some people who were on our bus and they had already found a decent guesthouse which had one last room that we happily took.

Few words about Phonsavan:

We wouldn't classify this as a city, more of a large village. It has *nothing* there. One road with restaurants, guest houses and travel agencies. Only one of the restaurants seemed decent enough and had an English-speaking owner, so we ate both dinners there. There are no coffee shops (the guide said there was one, but we did not see it), no Internet in most guesthouses, barely any tourists, generally very poor and completely unremarkable town.

However, the town has an insane amount of construction all around it. We were amazed by the amount and type of construction. We are talking about huge hotels being built on every corner. This is completely uncommon in everything that we have seen of Asia. Only huge cities, like Bangkok and Hanoi have large hotels to support the insane amount of tourists. The smaller cities, tend to have guesthouses and tiny hotels all built in the style of the neighborhood. And we are not sure why they needed the big hotels because the amount of tourists was so insignificant. We kept thinking that this town has some secret industry that it was developing. But since we didn't find a single person who spoke English who could explain it to us, this point will remain a mystery :)

We have to mention one form of entertainment that's apparently very popular among the Ponsavanians.  It's karaoke.  First night we were there as we were exiting the restaurant we heard "singing", and decided to check out what was going on. It turned out to be a wedding, or celebration of sorts with a makeshift outside sitting/eating area and a karaoke setup.  Some guy was singing extremely loudly, and a bunch of women were trying to dance.  We had to cross the street to another side, and hide behind a car because we could not stop laughing, it was so bad.  The next day we heard at least 2 more places where karaoke was sung, and neither one of those singers did it well.  You know, how they say that all Chinese have perfect pitch?  Well, it's definitely not the case with the Laotians. 

On the next day, unwilling to take a group tour, we rented a scooter and were on the way to see the one attraction that we came there to see which was the Plain of Jars. Its several sites of huge stones carved out in a form of jars. They have been around for several hundred or thousand years. And their original purpose remains unknown and is a matter of debate. Either way, we were interested.

You can check out more information about the Plain of Jars here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars

There are 3 nearby jar sites. The first one we found rather easily. It was about 10 km out of town on a straight paved road with the signs leading up to it.

This site was also heavily bombed during the Vietnam war and there are clear reminders of that:

We only had to remember to stay within the white markers that showed us the area that has been cleared off of the unexploded bombs. The rest of the area was marked as "Walk at your own risk". 

 

The real fun started when we were going to the second site. Apparently its another 10 km of unpaved, washed out road. The drive looks something like this:

After 20 km (there and back) we decided not to go further to the 3rd site.

We had some fun at the first and the second site though, climbing rocks and playing "where's Waldo?"

Upon our return back to Phonsavan, we went to the only restaurant and that's when we noticed a sign with the rules about the Plain of Jar sight. Apparently, we are not allowed to climb the stones. Too bad we didn't see that ahead of time.

After only one day at Phonsavan, we felt like we covered everything that was worth seeing and that same night we were off to Hanoi.

Here are the rest of the pix:

2011.11.15 Phonsavan

Phonsavan 11/15/11

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Last night we arrived to Phonsavan after a long, 8 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang. The bus kept stopping for restroom breaks in random spots on the side of the road. It was convenient for men, but not so much for women...

Previously we have mentioned how we can't tell apart a store front and a living room. Yesterday, we were really confused. Couldn't tell if the food was for sale or bring cooked for the family. If the clothes were for sale or is just being dried outside, etc

The picture is a clear illustration of this. We are sitting in the busiest restaurant in town. And if you look past Levka you can spot a small child peacefully sleeping in her bed. This particular restaurant (as many others) is converted into a living room at night.

Luang Prabang

This is what wikitravel says about Luang Prabang:

"Set at the confluence of two rivers that almost surround the town, and beneath a temple-topped hill, Luang Prabang is a wonderful patchwork of traditional Lao wooden houses and hints of European architecture - reminders of when Laos was part of the French colony of Indochine. Golden-roofed wats (temples), decorated with mosaics and murals of the life of Buddha, sit under the gaze of wrap-around teak balconies and 19th century shuttered windows. All of this is set against a backdrop of verdant greenery and rugged mountains."

After spending 5 days here we agree, although in a lot of places “hints of European architecture” are a lot more than just hints.  But first about our ride there...

We started from Huay Xai, and this time we chose a new mode of transportation, the slow boat. Once again it has proven very hard to find straight answers to our questions about the boat, the ride etc. But we’ve done the buses, and decided that we’d try something new.  Additionally, everyone who was with us at the Gibbon Experience was taking the slow boat as well.

So at 9:30am we were ready to go.  Tuk-tuk picked us up from the guesthouse, and took us to the pier.

2.5 hours later the boat finally moved.  Most of the people who got there around 9-9:30am got decent seats in the front.  Those who got on last got stuck in the back next to a very, very noisy engine.  They had no other choice but finish off the boat’s supply of Laos Beer, and to become noisier than the engine.  Some people told us that the boat would have food, so we did not bring much of anything.  That was a mistake, because the boat only had beer and snacks.   And snacks here are all Lays potato chips.  They are everywhere.  At first I thought it’s because tourists love them, but locals seem to indulge as well.   My prediction is that obesity will come to Asia soon.  Luckily we had a couple of yogurts and a loaf of bread.  Nevertheless the scenery was beautiful, and we enjoyed it tremendously, much more than we would from a bus window.  


The ride lasted for 6-7 hours, at which point we arrived to Pak Beng, a town where we’d spend the night.  We were immediately approached by a bunch of people offering guesthouses.  Rob and Gilly (the British couple from our tree) knew a couple of guesthouse names that came recommended, so we negotiated a decent rate for the night, and went out for dinner. Rob and I got a taste of home-made whiskey.  I was not impressed.

The next day was more fun because it started raining. 

About an hour into the ride Rob and I built a gutter to channel the water leaking from the roof away from our seat. (Julie: Both Levka and Rob were extremely proud of their engineering skills, while the rest of the boat was entertained watching  the process of construction) I must admit it was not a very good gutter, so it was a good thing that it stopped raining shortly.

We also got some sandwiches to go.  That’s one thing Laos knows how to do, must’ve gotten it from the French.

Here are some more pix from the boat:

2011.11.08 Slow boat

By 5pm we were in Luang Prabang, and started walking searching for cheap and good accommodations.  We were only able to find cheap and good-enough for the night.  We figured the next morning we’d find something better, and so we did.  The rest of the time we spent in Nam Sok 3 guesthouse, where our room cost 60K kip, or $7.5 per night.

The town has a lot of temples, and we went to see a few.  It also has a museum housed in the old king’s residence.  By now we are not impressed by temples, and the king was not living large, so we needed something else to keep us interested.   Luckily the town also has a great night market.  The market takes up (and closes) the whole street with 4 rows of vendors selling (unfortunately) very similar things.  The most impressive though is a food section.  Đ¢here you can have such delicacies as barbequed fish on a stick, chicken on a stick, pork on a stick … well, you get the idea.  There are also buffets full of dishes to accompany the “main” course.  We ate there a few times, dinner with beer running around $7 for the both of us.  When we first inquired what fish it was, the answer we got was “it’s from Mekong, and it’s fresh”.  Indeed it was.  And it was yummy, as was the chicken.  

And while we are on the subject of food: the restaurants here, which are plentiful, are quite expensive compared to the night market fish, and the price of our room.  Breakfast would usually cost us about $8-10, and dinner would run up to $12-15 (for the both of us, but Julie barely counts.)  

In Luang Prabang we caught up with Yasha and Yulia, the Russians we met in Pai.  

They’d spent a few days in town already by the time we arrived, and they did not take a boat to get here.  So when we decided to visit a cave full of Buddhas, they asked if we can take a boat there instead of a tuk-tuk.  On the way to the cave we saw a floating gas station that ran out of gas, and a beautiful sunset.  The cave with Buddhas was also impressive.

Check out the rest of the pictures in the album:

2011.11.10 Luang Prabang

Before we got to town the Russians had already visited another very prominent local attraction, Kung Si waterfall.  So we went there with the Brits.  I must admit, I did not expect much, and was very pleasantly surprised.  This is easily the most beautiful waterfall to date in Asia.  

We hiked to the top of it, as well as visited the bear sanctuary on the way.  We agreed with the tuk-tuk driver and the other passengers that we’d be back in 3 hours; and 3 hours later we were just getting done with walking around, and I wanted to go swimming.  That’s when we saw the swimming area complete with the Tarzan jump, and we figured we can be 15-20 min late.  Rob and I jumped in, and the girls took pictures.

The rest of the waterfall photos are here:

2011.11.13 Kouang Si waterfall

The rest of the time in Luang Prabang we spent eating, walking around, sleeping a lot and catching up on our blogs. We are now fully caught up on our posts!

We are leaving to Phonsavan tomorrow morning, and we got our Vietnam visas, so on Thursday we will leave for Hanoi.

 

Gibbon Experience and Huay Xai

We crossed to Laos from Thailand in Huay Xai.  The town itself is nothing special – just a village with a strip full of guest houses, and cafes.  A lot of tourists come there when coming to, or leaving from Thailand.  We had 2 possibilities – either leave for our next destination, Luang Prabang as soon as possible, or try our luck getting in on the Gibbon Experience.  Our friends who told us about it had to book it well in advance, so we did not keep our hopes up.  However once we got to their office they had space available for the following day.  Excited we signed up.

The adventure started even before we got to the forest.  In Huay Xai we loaded into 2 pickup trucks, and set out for a remote village from where we were to hike.  The village was about 3 hours away.  The first interesting part was when the truck had to cross the river, but that was simple.

Then we got to the fun part of the road.  The drivers go by this road every other day there and back, and know every turn, so they tend to speed.  Those of us who were sitting in the bed of the truck got to enjoy every bump on the road.  A couple of times the truck had to cross a muddy part of the road, and on the way back one of the trucks actually got stuck, and had to be pulled by the other truck.

An hour and a half of this road later we arrived in the final inhabited village.  We got a taste of the “real” village life: pigs running around with chickens, kids running around without underpants, and pooping right where they are (puppies that were running around as well would lick up the poop and clean their butts – who needs diapers and toilet paper.)  We stayed in the village long enough to buy warm beer from the “shop” and started the hike through the jungle.

In about 30 min we took a break for sandwiches, which is when we heard the first scream of a girl who got a leech on her leg.  She just was not prepared for it. A lot of people got those in the course of the next 2 days, and eventually some (not all) stopped freaking out about them that much. In another 20 min or so we got to the ranger station where we met our guides, put on our ziplining gear, and continued onward.  Shortly after we got to our first zipline, and a couple more ziplines later got to our house.

While we were waiting at the village, we talked to the group that just finished their time in the house, and they suggested that given a choice we take house #1.  So we did.  This house was built most recently to replace the one that has burned down thanks to someone leaving a candle on (nobody got hurt in that accident.)  This house, unlike most others, had 3 levels, which provided for the most privacy, and coolness.  We took the bedroom on the 1st floor, which is closest to the bathroom, and the food naturally.  The Russian girls Inessa and Olga that joined our group took the 2nd floor, and the Brits, Rob and Jillian took the 3rd.  A very important feature of our treehouse that others did not have was the living room which was big enough to fit a dining table; we spent our evenings playing cards and Uno at the table.

The coolest feature of the house was probably the bathroom.  Imagine sitting on a toilet, or taking a shower some 20 meters off the ground (you can see the ground, and, in case of the shower, not the toilet, the water running all the way down under your feet), and overlooking the canyon and the jungle in front of you.  Did I mention that the house doesn’t have walls?  It’s got railing around each floor, but no walls.

To make the bedrooms cozier they have a non-see-through mosquito net that creates a space like a tent.  Inside you get a normal mattress with sheets, and a blanket – the whole shebang.  Once everyone goes to bed you start hearing the noises of the jungle, and it’s quite amazing.

The food gets delivered 3 times a day by a lady in her late forties, and the site is quite picturesque.  Unfortunately I only caught her once on the way out:

We spent 2 nights in the tree house, and during the day in between we did quite a bit of hiking and ziplining around.  We visited most of the tree houses they had – 7 of them, and confirmed that ours was the best.  The rest of the houses were also awesome, of course, but none had the grandeur of ours.  Usually most of the people would be on the same floor, and the privacy was only thanks to the dark mosquito net; the other downside with most of them was the absence of the large table at which the group can play cards.  I find it hard on my back to do things sitting on the floor for long.  That being said, I’d still gladly stay at any of those houses.  It was extremely sad to leave the following day.

We were on the lookout for Gibbons, but only heard them sing in a distance. We did see a black monkey with an orange face that turned out to be a gigantic squirrel. For us she'll forever remain a monkey.

So on the 3rd day we packed up our stuff, and headed out.  A few ziplines and leeches later we were back at the village, back on the trucks, and back in town.

2011.11.04 Huay Xai and Gibbons

The End of Thailand

11/2 - 11/4

As our last destination in Thailand, we went to Chiang Rai. The road to Chiang Rai was long and windy with a stop at Chiang Mai. (Levka wrote all about the road in the transportation post). At the Chiang Mai bus station we had a lovely surprise: bumped into Katya who we met at Pai. We kept each other company, caught up on recent travels and exchanged advice while we waited for our busses. And soon we went our separate ways.
Katya, if you read this, let us know how the rest of your trip was. Hope you made it safely to Phangan and found Zhaba :)

Four hours later we arrived to Chiang Rai's bus station. After a usual amount of haggling with a tuk-tuk driver, he delivered us to our guest house. We stayed at Baan Rub Aroon. This was by far the nicest place we stayed at. Huge light rooms, comfy beds, helpful owner who actually spoke English and breakfast was included. The owner had a tiny kitten that she recently adopted. And that was an added bonus for me :)

There is not a whole lot that I can say about the town. It's dirty, stinky in most places, the are no decent restaurants. Overall it's unremarkable. Generally people come there as a starting point for the treks into the native villages (ex: long necks) or a stop over before crossing the border into Laos.

We briefly considered one of those treks. It feels like one of those things that you have to see when in Thailand. But then we heard many negative things about these tours as well. Most people say that it feels like a human zoo. It's very sad that these people were made into a tourist attraction. So we decided to skip that. And had a lazy day instead.

The one attraction in Chiang Rai that is worth mentioning is the White Temple. We were told to catch a local taxi to the temple. By local taxi we mean the back of a pickup truck. So we got on the taxi for our 13 km ride. The driver asked whether we would need a ride back and we said that we wouldn't that we would catch another taxi later. Through an interpreter, another helpful passenger, he told us that taxis don't go that late. Having been "misinformed" before, we decided not to listen to the driver.

It took about 40 mins to get to the temple as the taxi stopped frequently at unmarked stops to pick up or drop off passengers. At exactly 5 pm we were there and it turned out that that's the time that the temple closes :( We still walked around it and took pictures.

The place is incredible. Unlike any other Wat that we have seen. It's modern. In fact it's still being built. And it incorporates a bunch of popular culture. You can read more about this temple here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun

So after we were done admiring this temple, we were ready to head back. Our logic and past experience told us that there should be many taxis, tuk-tuks and busses around this tourist attraction. When we didn't find any, we asked around the local shop owners. Turned out that the taxi driver wasn't kidding when he said that there is no transport after 5 pm. So we went to the main road and started walking in the right direction and attempting to hail a cab. We did this for quite some time and none of the cabs stopped. And did I mention that we are 13 km out of town?

Then our savior came in a form of a local girl in her early 20s on a scooter. In her broken English she explained once again that taxis don't stop in that area after 5 pm. (the logic of this is still a mystery to us). And she offered to take us to the closest bus station, 10 km away. Having no choice, we both hopped on her scooter and were off. It was a little scary especially when she told us that it was the first time that she had 3 people on her bike at once. Thankfully she shared that tid-bit only after we have safely arrived :) Throughout the ride we felt like true locals, we were only missing a small child or a basket of chickens. Ann got us to the bus station safely and helped negotiate a price with a tuk-tuk who eventually got is back to the hostel. Ann, thank you for your kindness!

2011.11.02 Chiang Rai

The following morning we were on our way to cross a border to Laos.

Goodbye Thailand. You've been good to us!

A Little Bit of Pai

10/29 - 11/2

From Chiang Mai we took a mini van to Pai. In general, mini vans offer a quicker and more convenient service in Northern Thailand. It is a little more expensive than a local bus, but it is direct. It can be booked through any hostel or travel agency. So in 3 hours we were in Pai.
Pai is a wonderful relaxed city. It is a getaway for locals as well as 'farangs'. Apparently it has become more popular among the locals after it was featured in a romantic Thai film. It offers a ton of cafes, restaurants, bars, book stores and markets. There is no shortage of ways to spend money here. It is also set in a picturesque valley North of Chiang Mai. So there are a ton of sites around if you choose to get out of the city.

The hostel that we booked was Darling View Point. It's a little off the center, uphill and has a wonderful view. The owner promised to pick us up so we don't have to walk uphill with the bags. We were quite amused when he came on his motorcycle. 3 people, 2 large bags, 1 motorcycle... So we rented our own bike and let him take our bags. Apparently he gives these kinds of rides to town every day and we saw him going up and down the hill many times carrying bags, people or both.

The guesthouse was pretty cool. The bungalow was huge. It had two king size beds in it and 2 bathrooms and a veranda. It's made to be rented out by families. Since the season hasn't started, we got it all to ourselves. The only down side is that stuff kept going wrong or breaking in that house. First we were attacked by ants. We had to borrow a chalk and draw lines around our bed in hopes that the ants don't reach it. But they still did. Then the next day Levka managed to break one of the faucets. It was leaking and he might have used too much force in an attempt to close it. And the water started gashing straight out across the bathroom and hitting the opposite side. We had quite a task trying to explain to an Thai grandma about what happened. She was the sweetest lady but spoke no English. Half hour later, her and Levka figured out how to shut down the water and the pump from the outside. At this time we were hoping that we shut down the water only in our bungalow. Luckily the owner came back and took care of everything while we were out for dinner.

Upon arrival to Pai, we met these people:

Yasha and Yulya are friends of friends from NY. And Katya is another friend of theirs. They spent a few days in Pai before we arrived and gave us great advice. We followed the plan that they outlined to the tee:

Day 1:
We explored the city, the night market and met our new friends for drinks.

Day 2:
We took our scooter and explored the area. The only available map of the area has a big disclaimer on it that states "map not to scale" so sometimes it was hard to find things. But we managed and had quite an adventure. Started the day exploring the area north of the city; Yun Lai viewpoint, Mar Paeng waterfall and a bunch of little villages. The most impressive part was the road itself and not the points of interest. It was the most beautiful countryside with rice fields, little huts, and locals working those fields. It looked like something out of a different century or out of a movie.

Since the map was not clear, we "missed" some of the villages. We physically drove past them without ever being able to identify which village is which. But we stopped to take pictures along the way at all the pretty places. Until we accidentally ended up back in the center of town in time for lunch.

In the afternoon we went to the Pai canyon. Here are some pictures of the hike around the canyon:

Looking back at these, we now think that the hike was not the smartest thing to do, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. And we had a blast and survived!

We watched sunset at the canyon and headed to a local spa. Note to self to avoid all water related activities around sunrise and sunset. We were literally eaten alive by a swarm of mosquitos. Aside from that a wonderful day where we felt like we accomplished a ton and could spent the rest of the time at Pai doing nothing.

Day 3:

We scratch the plan to do nothing and instead take a 40 km ride to the Lod Cave.
We went caving in Hungary, so I didn't expect anything special from these caves.
We get to the park, negotiate a price with one of the guides (a very old Thai lady) and she leads the way to the cave. We walk through the park and enter the first part of the cave. She sits down to light the oil lamp that she was carrying while we wait for the boat to take us through the cave. The boat is thin and long, made out of bamboo. It sits only one person per row on a tiny stool and is operated by a local barefoot kid, who uses a long bamboo stick to push the boat forward.


And this is when I feel like I'm in an Indiana Jones movie. Only the theme song was missing. But I assure you that it was playing in my head the entire time :)
So this kid takes us through the cave and at some point we exit deep in the cave and go up some sketchy stairs... Indiana Jones theme song still playing...
Anyway, the tour of the cave was really cool. And it ended too quickly. But we didn't have enough money with us to buy a tour to other caves. The closest ATM was 10 km away. And no, they don't accept credit cards :)

Day 4:
This was a day of R&R. And getting ready to go to Chiang Rai the next day.

2011.10.29 Pai

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was our first destination in the Northern part of Thailand.  Since it’s almost impossible to get a straight answer about anything at all in Thailand (I can now say that Laos is the same way), we decided not to risk getting stuck somewhere between Bangkok and Chiang Mai due to flooding, and got on a plane instead of a train, or a bus.  

AirAsia flight was uneventful.  In Chiang Mai airport the 2 competing taxi companies offered us 120 baht ($4) ride to our hostel, which was on par with our expectations.  Once in a cab the driver immediately said: “Oh, you are going there?  It’s an extra 30 baht”. I told the driver to drive by the taxi office since that guy was very specific that 120 was the full price. He didn’t do it and  we did not hear about the extra 30 baht again.

Our hostel Parami was right across the river from the old town, the part where the night market is.  The hostel was clean, and the owner was very helpful.  The only grievance was the nail salon next door where hostel owner’s wife botched Julie’s nails. (Julie got over this fact in a mere 5-6 days).

It appears that the further north you go, the higher the concentration of temples.  Chiang Mai has around 300 of them, and the town is not that large.  We visited the most prominent ones, including the ruins of Wat Phra Sing, and Doi Suthep, situated on a nearby mountain, and featuring a kick-ass view of the town.

It was in Chiang Mai that we got to play around with elephants. (See an earlier post).  We also rented a scooter, and drove the 100Km Samoeng loop in Mae Sa valley north of the town.  It’s a very picturesque ride over the mountainous region with various points of interest along the way.  One of them was Mae Sa waterfall, which did have plenty of water unlike some of the other waterfalls we visited.

After about 1.5 hours of hiking to the top, and back we discovered a view point where all normal tourists start, and enjoy the full view of the waterfall.  As it happened we started, with a “backdoor”.  Maybe it was a good thing, otherwise Julie would not let me drag her up the 10 levels of the waterfall.

At one point of the ride it started to rain, but we were lucky enough to spot a roof on the side of the road, and sheltered there for the next 40 mins.

Unfortunately by then we were really hungry, and somewhat cold.  So as soon as the tropical storm turned to a drizzle, we were on our way down the loop to the next food place.  In about an hour more we were enjoying fried rice with chicken at a local café on a side of the road, but not before bugging some random family with questions about the price of the bbq they were cooking.  See, we find that in Asia it’s hard or downright impossible to tell a difference between someone’s living room, and a store front.   The mother of that family pointed across the road to the place where we ended up eating.  It was not a touristy place by any measure, so the food cost next to nothing.

Overall we liked Chiang Mai. Our next destination was Pai…

Notes on moving around Thailand

There is a lot of information on the web regarding ways to travel in Thailand.  What I found however was that a lot of forum sites are not optimized for Google search, resulting in older threads getting higher visibility.  So I decided to write my own post for my own memory sake, as well as for those who happen to ask me for this info.

As you know, we started in Bangkok.  Why? Why not, we booked a month in advance, and we were not sure where we’d go from there.  Good thing we did not try to book anything else.  When we arrived we learned that the North (Chiang Mai etc) was flooded.   So after spending 3 days in Bangkok we set out for the islands in the South.  

Bangkok – Koh Samui

We booked our “transfer ticket” right at the hostel we were staying in. Most hotels/hostels/guest houses all over Thailand are also travel agencies.  The transfer ticket included the van that picked us up from the hostel, the overnight bus, and the morning ferry from the mainland (I think from Don Sak) to the island.  On the island we’d have to find our own transport to wherever we were staying.

The transfer ticket cost us about 600 bhat, or $20 each.  The bus was called “VIP”, which sounded good.  We read horror stories about people buying tickets to good buses, and getting shitty ones, or getting their luggage stolen while they were riding the bus.  So we were happy to book something that was called “VIP”, and from a reputable agent.   

The minivan picked us up on time, and drove us to a place next to a bigger hotel.  There was a kiosk there that (I guess) sold tickets for that particular bus company.  Around us were a couple of massage places, some food place with plastic furniture, and some clothing stores – a very typical corner for Bangkok.  It started to rain.  The lady from the kiosk ran away somewhere, but the people from the nearby food place said she’d be back soon.  And in about 15 min she was, with another guy who told us to follow him.  We picked up our bags, and started walking.  10 minutes later he brought us to a parking lot behind a large (and stinky) food market that was already closed for the night.  He said the bus was running late, but would be there shortly.  On the parking lot there were a total of 20 or so people, all our age, all going to Koh Phangan, to the full moon party that was taking place the next day.  For the next 2 hours with even intervals of about 30 minutes the guy kept telling us the bus will be there in 30 minutes.  Most people had books, or alcohol, or games to keep them entertained.  I can’t keep still when the bugs and mosquitoes bite me, so I hunted the market rats with my camera.

When the bus came we loaded on it, and started moving.  In about 15 minutes it became apparent why the bus was late – we would not go faster than 30 mph at best.  About 20 minutes into the drive we pulled up to the curb, and just stayed there.  One of the Israeli guys insisted that one of the drivers opened the door to let him out for a smoke.  Once outside he went to the back of the bus, where he was hit by the spare tire the second driver threw out from one of the compartment doors of the bus.  After a short and painful exchange of hand gestures (neither of the 2 drivers spoke any English at all) we guessed that there was something wrong with the gears, and we were waiting for a repair man.  The repair man arrived in about 30 min in a small pickup truck with his wife and son.  Another 30 min or so later they did some repairs.  Those of us who were trying to understand what was going on witnessed their exchange in which it was apparent that the repair man asked the bus driver where he was going, and after the bus driver answered, the guy shook his head, apparently doubting we’d make it.  The repair man took the extra wheel that fell out from the side of the bus (why carry extra weight?), and was on his way.  So were we.

We were in the front row, and there was a German girl next to us with her husband.  She was apparently very knowledgeable about cars because shortly she started arguing to the driver that he can’t switch higher than the 2nd gear.  After about 10 mins of arguing she turned to me, and asked me to reiterate her point because the drivers would not pay attention to a female.  So I went down (the bus was a double decker where the driver and the bags were on the 1st floor, and we were on the 2nd), and saw one guy driving, and the other one next to him trying to push/pull the stick shift lever.  I immediately agreed with the German girl’s assessment, and proceeded to explain to them what they would not hear from the girl – they needed to switch the bus.  In a little while the driver gave me a phone where I spoke to someone with some knowledge of English, but an impossible accent (mind you, I’m used to a variety of accents, native English speakers are a minority in my line of work.)  That guy told me that the driver assured him that the bus was in a good enough working order to make it there on time.  I said (well, repeated after the German girl, really) that nobody on this bus besides the driver thought so, and if they made us late for the boat we’d raise hell.  So we proceeded at about 40 kph.  In another 15 minutes as we were moving along the highway I saw that the drivers switched places… while we were moving.  Then the cabin started to get a bit hot, looked like the AC went out.  Shortly the bus’s headlights (and I suppose rear lights as well) went out, and for about a minute we were driving along the highway in absolute darkness.  The Germans moved from the front seat to the 3rd row just in case.  All of us in the front who could see this started yelling to the drivers to stop the damn bus. Finally they did, and the driver handed me the phone again where the same voice said another bus was coming.  So we waited for about an hour at the gas station.W11 he bus that came was even older, and crappier.  It was quite obvious that this bus was kept around for occasions like this, and was not the regular one.  Before we boarded the drivers explained that we were waiting for so long because they were testing the bus to make sure it was OK...  We moved our bags, as well as blankets that the other bus had, and this one did not, and were soon on our way.  The German couple and us breathed the sigh of relief when the bus successfully changed into the 3rd gear. We made 2 more pit stops along the way, and you could even buy food there, but it did not look like something anyone on our bus wanted to eat.  Somehow we made it to the boat by 7am, and to the island some 3 hours later.  Most of the folks disembarked on Koh Phangan, and we proceeded to another boat that took us to Koh Samui.

That was the "VIP" bus.  Below I'll describe the "Super VIP" bus, which we opted for the next time we had to take a long bus ride.

Koh Samui

In Bangkok the taxis are quite cheap.  To board a cab costs you just over a dollar, and to drive for about 15-20 minutes will cost you another $2.  That's a different story on the islands.  The taxi

drivers there don't like the meters, and all of them have a sheet of paper that they agreed among themselves to show to tourists.  So on Koh Samui everybody kept showing us the same pricelist, laughing and waving their arms in the air telling us that there's no way they can take us to the other side of the island for less than 400 ($13). We were convinced that this was too much, and eventually turned the corner from the ferry terminal.  At that point another taxi driver pulled up, and after some negotiation he took us there for 280.  We figured it was fair because the "local" cabs, aka pickup trucks with benches in the truck bed and plastic roofs attached to them that made a few stops on the way charged 150 per person.

Koh Phangan

From Koh Samui we booked a transfer ticket to Koh Phangan.  Same story - booked it with the hostel, and the ticket included pickup from where we lived.  If I remember correctly, the whole thing was 400 per person, around $13.  The ferry terminal was not the same that we arrived to, and it actually took us longer to get there.  I'm sure that if we were to take a cab there, and buy a ferry ticket at the terminal, we'd pay much more.  So transfer ticket is a good thing.

The driver of our van to the terminal had his ~3yo daughter with him, who was riding right next to him in the front, and sometimes turned around to look at us.   About half way through the driver stopped the car, went to the back, and started moving our bags in the trunk.  We were curious about what was going on right until he got out the baby's potty, and said to us - "need to go pi-pi" :)  So he put the potty on the front seat, the little girl did her business, and we were on our way.  We called it "bring your kid to work day".

The Lomprayah catamaran took less than an hour to get to Koh Phangan, and was a very comfortable ride.

Once on Koh Phangan we went to get a cab again.  This time around we got onto the "local" pickup truck taxi, but after negotiating a 300 baht for the both, instead of the 200 per person he charged everyone else.  We promised him not to tell anyone else on the taxi that we paid less.

After spending a couple of days on the beach, and meeting some local Russian folks, we finally decided that it was for our benefit to rent a scooter, which has all but replaced the bicycle in Thailand.  The scooter rental is $5 - $7 per day, and of course you pay for gas.  I rode the scooter by myself for an hour to make sure I felt comfortable enough on it, and later Julie joined me.

The next 7 days we went everywhere on it, and it has proven invaluable.  Once you have it, that's really all you need to get around an island.

Koh Phangan - Chiang Mai (via Bangkok)

We considered a few options of getting to Chiang Mai.  The most reasonable, and acceptable by Julie (from the comfort standpoint) and me (from the price-point) was to get to Bangkok by bus, and fly to Chiang Mai from there.  Here's why: flights were available from Koh Samui, but were too expensive; bus to Bangkok, and then a bus/train to Chiang Mai would be way too long for either one of us to endure, and the area between Bangkok and Chiang Mai was partially flooded, so the train could've stopped completely, and bus might have had to make a detour taking even longer.

Having not enjoyed our VIP bus ride to Koh Phangan we opted for a twice as expensive (1200 bhat, or $40) "Super VIP" bus.  The transfer to the bus was additional 200, which could've been cheaper if we booked with the bungalows we stayed at.  Oh well, we went with the travel agent our Russian friends recommended because he was good enough to arrange a bus ride.

The Super VIP bus had 3 instead of 4 seats in a row, so the seats were wider, and reclined almost horizontally, kind of like a business class on the plane.  It also included a lady who handed everybody their juice boxes, some muffins, and a bottle of water.  She did not go as far as helping us negotiate with a Thai man to move 4 rows so that Julie and I can sit together.  Other passengers had to help us translate.  But in any case, this bus was more comfortable, even though it was just as old.  The AC was blasting all night long as if it was 40C outside, so we were very cold until a lady next to us disembarked, and we scored the 2 blankets she had.  She must've been a regular on these buses, and knew ahead of time to get an extra blanket.  I saw one European girl ask for an extra blanket, and not get any.  We were lucky, and the only thing that was wrong with our seats was the overhead light that I could not point at my book.  Other passengers enjoyed AC that was leaking on them by the morning, and those in the back did not get any of the awesome AC those in the front had.

Bangkok

By 6am we were in Bangkok, by 6:15am we were laughing at the driver who was offering us a ride in a shared minivan to our hotel for 200 baht each.  We told him it was not our first time in Bangkok, and we estimated that our taxi ride would be around 90 baht.  He just waved his hands and left. 100 baht later the cab got us to our hotel not far from Khaosan road.

A couple of days later we were going to the airport.  To get to the airport the simplest way is to get a cab all the way, but it's a bit expensive, and you need to pay for the road tolls.  Or you can take the cab to the AirLink (SA train), which should cost about 100 baht from the Khaosan road, and for 50 baht more get to the airport on AirLink.  We settled for a slightly more expensive, but easier way of getting a shuttle from the hotel for 150 each.

Bangkok - Chiang Mai

The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on AirAsia was just fine.  We ended up paying 3800 baht for 2 tickets with seats assigned, and one bag checked.  I make it that specific because each little thing bears additional cost with AirAsia.  It still ended up cheaper than any other airline we tried.

Chiang Mai - Pai

Our hostel/travel agent booked us a minivan ride from the AYA service for 150 baht each.  That included pick up from the hostel, and was barely more expensive than a normal bus.  As we learned later, some people prefer big buses on the way to the mountain/North regions because the minivan drivers tend to make turns at higher speed, and the puking factor is then much higher.

Pai - Chiang Rai

If you look at the map, you'll see that Pai is not that far from Chiang Rai (both are in the North). The problem is there's no road in between, so you have to go via Chiang Mai.  AYA service was offering one ride a day that started at 5:30am, and was in Chiang Rai 6.5 hours, and 550 baht later.  That seemed a bit harsh to us, so instead we took AYA back to Chiang Mai at a reasonable hour (150 baht each), and then got on a regular bus at the bus station for around 160 baht each.  The trip took longer because we had to wait at the bus station for the next bus that was not sold out.

The bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai had 3 grades: 1st class, 2nd class and the VIP.  VIP was twice as expensive, and since the ride was only 3.5 hours, as well as given our previous experience with the VIP I did not think we needed it.  1st and 2nd class tickets were very similar in price, so I asked for the 1st class.  All 1st class buses for that day were unfortunately sold out, so I bought 2nd class, and was waiting anxiously to see what the 2nd class bus was like.  It turned out to be a smaller bus, without a bathroom, and with a smaller luggage compartment, but a normal bus nevertheless.  The only complaint I had was that once again my overhead light was pointing in a random direction and not my book.  There were 2 non-locals besides us on this bus.  I guess I was not the only one worried about what the 2nd class would bring :)

Chiang Rai - Chiang Kong - Huay Xai, Laos

The guest house owner told us about a local bus that would take us to Chiang Khong, to the border town where we can cross to Huay Xai, Laos.  The bus costs only 65 baht, and leaves from the local bus station.  She said that in order for us to catch the boat across Mekong River we had to get on the earliest bus that leaves at 6am.  So we did, only to discover that there are about a dozen boats that take you across as soon as enough people are ready to go.  So we could’ve slept for 2-3 more hours easily.  

Once at the border you stamp out, get on the boat across (costs about $1.20), and get your Laos visa/stamp on the other side for $35. Don’t be afraid if you don’t have a spare passport picture.  For an extra dollar they will copy the one from your passport.

Bangkok - Take 2

On 10/24, we departed Phangan and went back to Bangkok. We might have stayed there longer, but days became rainy as the mansoon was approaching and we felt like there was a lot more that we wanted to see.
We were going up North to Chiang Mai but decided to spend a few more days in Bangkok to cover the sites that we missed the first time around.
This time we arrived to Bangkok with new found confidence. Maybe it was due to the many days of R&R or maybe because it was our 2nd time. This time we enjoyed ourselves immensely when we could laugh at the taxi driver who was offering to drive us at 4 times the price that we could get. Or we could scream "TAGIL!" every time a tuk-tuk driver asked us where we are going :) (Anybody who has seen comedy club will know this reference.)

Anyway, in this second visit we covered more in half the time even though we were there during the flood. (see an earlier post about our flood experiences) This time we could really appreciate the city. To quote a friend of mine who spent a lot of time here, "It's loud, dusty and dirty, serene and beautiful, crowded and friendly. So much to do and see."
Carl, thanks for that description. I couldn't have said it better :)

Our story about Bangkok is not complete if I don't mention Mae Kadee, a wonderful vegetarian restaurant / cooking school. Even Levka, who is a true carnivor, remembers this place fondly every other day or so. We can't even count how many times we ate there over our two visits to Bangkok. I do remember one day where we had breakfast, lunch and dinner there. On that day, the owner made the whole restaurant dance traditional Thai dance. Apparently it'd good for digestion. One regret is not taking their cooking class to learn their magic. So if anyone is in the area, we highly recommend it!

After only 2 days we fly North to Chiang Mai.

2011.10.24 Bangkok