Trip Update #11

Since I've booked the next 6 days solid and I'm not sure if I'll have access to the Internet, I figured I'd send this one out a little early. Hope ya don't mind... Before we continue, I have a correction I need to make: C&C Music Factory sang "Things that make you go Hmmm" and "Gonna make you sweat". "Pump Up the Jam" was sung by Technotronic. Now that you are thoroughly maxxed out on useless information... Monday, July 22nd From the sleepy little border town of Huie Xay in Laos, there are two ways to get to Luang Prabang, where there's actually people living: a slow boat or a fast boat down the Mekong River (opposite of the Yukon). In true Paraagian fashion, I took the fast boat. The fast boat takes 6 hours to complete the journey. Remember the longtail boat I described a few weeks back? This boat is very similar, except that the boat itself looks like it was meant for racing. And definitely not meant for comfort. We each had an area of about 2 ft x 2 ft to sit in, meaning that we were inhaling our knees for the entire trip. It's like an upright fetal position in fact. It would have been nice if it took six hours. But it didn't. The boat kept breaking down - I have a picture of this guy working on the motor with a machete, a hammer, and an iron spike. This is engine mechanics at its finest, folks. Take notes. After changing boats twice, and changing the propeller twice, we finally made it to Luang Prabang. The Mekong River itself is a funny river. To begin with, there had been heavy rains the last 2-3 days in the region and the river was already high because of rainy season - so this river was moving fast. But it was chaotic too - there were whirlpools everywhere, along with completely random waves coming out of nowhere. And the weirdest thing was that the river seemed to change level at it's own whim - my understanding was that gravity was a universal law and would dictate that the level be flat or descending. Perhaps I'm in some alternate universe. Tuesday, July 23rd I rented a motor scooter to drive around all day today. This was great fun, especially since I've never really ridden a motor scooter much in my life, let alone one that is manual shift. Thankfully, I didn't hit anyone. Or at least, not on purpose. Luang Prabang is famous for its Buddhist temples. Go figure. So I went temple watching for a good portion of the day. Temples are known as "wats" here and in Thailand. My favorite temple names so far: Wat That, Wat May, and Wat Pho. If I were to establish some temples, I'd add Wat Dahey, Wat chostep, and Wat Yoolookinat. I could go on forever here... Doesn't take much to amuse me, does it? In the afternoon, I rode 30km one way to the Kwang Xi waterfalls. It being rainy season and all, there was a boatload of water tumbling down the mountain - just awemazing (I'm getting tired of using the same old adjectives to describe things, so I'm going to start making words up). But I think I liked the scooter ride just as much as the waterfall itself, especially since the vast majority of the road was unpaved dirt road, where I had to maneuver around potholes and water puddles. Overall, Laos is much greener and less developed than Thailand - that's the alluring part of this country. As such, you won't find top-notch accommodation or anything fancy around here. It's a nature enthusiast's paradise - just so untouched. And the Internet connections are slow as all heck out here. Wednesday, July 24th Rode in the back row of a bus for 7 hours with my knees to my chest, heading south for a town called Vang Vieng. This town is pretty much a small tourist industry and that's it - no real town or village. Really quite a shame. But why? Because this area has some wowtacular mountainsides and caves. In fact, the number one activity for people to do here is rent an inner tube and float down the Nam Song River just to take it all in. So, I did that. Beauty. The mountains are just holeymoleyiscious - looks like a crazy large piece of shale just jutting out of the ground, and a layer could just flake off at any given moment. But it doesn't. Had a really interesting snack from an Indian street vendor - a roti filled with bananas and chocolate (rich chocolate Ovaltine in fact). Mmm, mmm, good. By the way, I leave for home in exactly one month. Terrifying. Thursday, July 25th First off, happy birthday to my big brudder Neeraj. Did a full-day kayaking/spelunking trip today with 13 other fine individuals - by the way, spelunking is the fancy-pants term for cave exploring. This was incredipendous. I got to have my own kayak too, though it wasn't complete with spray skirt and all - so I couldn't practice rolls or anything. But it was still a lot of fun to tool around a bit. The thing that made today a hit though was the spelunking. The second cave we went into was waterlogged, so we had to swim into it in the complete dark. Only the guides had lights, so we were just kinda feeling around to make our way through. Finally, we reached dry land inside, though it was not so dry. We were pretty much walking on mud. This cave served as a home to the locals for 4 months while the U.S. was carpet-bombing the area during the Vietnam War to keep the North Vietnamese from using Laos as a land crossing to the south. There was even a toilet (big hole in the cave), a kitchen area (room with a vented roof), and a large sleeping area. We continued through the cave for another hour or so, none of us knowing in the least what to expect since the guides didn't bother telling us about all this before. I was totally fine with this, but a few others were really disappointed and upset, which I can completely understand. We were scrambling up steep muddy banks several times - no doubt a slip had the potential to fall for quite a ways in the darkness and potentially hit a rock and break something. We even got to slide down a mud-chute into a water pool - I enjoyed this so much that I climbed back up and went again! After squeezing through a very narrow crevice (I could barely fit through it!), I was outside at last. Free at last, free at last. But now where to? And walking in the forest with no shoes? Not only the forest, but also ankle-deep in mud... or at least I thought it was mud until a distinct smell arose. Needless to say, many of us spent some time in the muddy river trying to clean off said "mud". And a nice long shower was in order when I got back to the guesthouse. Friday, July 26th Rode for four hours in the back of a pick-up truck to Vientiane (capital of Laos) this morning. After finally reaching the backpacker area, I did something I should have done before - read the guidebook. After realizing that Vientiane is kinda like Jakarta in having a lack of things to see or do, I went to a travel agent. Fortunately for me, there was still a flight left this afternoon for Hanoi, Vietnam. So, I took it. At the airport, I bumped into an American fellow (Rob) who I had met in Luang Prabang. So we hung out the rest of the evening around Hanoi and just chatted. It was really nice to just talk with someone who's from the same country - it'd been a while. Especially since we could compare notes about our observations and such about everything. I think this is the first Communist country I've ever been in. There seems to be an abundance of red flags everywhere, and plenty of people dressed in a military-looking uniform. But otherwise, Hanoi seems like a normal city. In fact, some have apparently termed it the "Paris of the Orient", a fitting description since Vietnam was under French rule until independence some 55 years ago. There are still many French remnants left in the landscape, architecture, and even food (baguettes are quite common to see on the streets). Saturday, July 27th Spent the morning booking up trips for the next 5-6 days. Then the afternoon was left to explore the city. First stop - Ho Chi Minh Museum. This place is weird - don't even know how to describe it. But they had a room with a bunch of Picasso stuff in it - made no sense at all. UNESCO has designated Ho Chi Minh as being a great leader, and this is the guy we were fighting against in the Vietnam War. Of course, you won't see the U.S. side of the story here. In any case, it's clear that I need to brush up on my history a bit. The rest of the day, I just wandered around the city, checked out a few pagodas, strolled by some lakes, etc. This city has a strong potential to be a really romantic place to spend some time. I've definitely had my fill though. Since I'm not much of a city person, I'm pretty happy that I leave tomorrow morning. By the way, it's frickin’ hot out here. Till next week, -Paraag Tidbits: 1. Pringles are everywhere. I mean absolutely everywhere – even in a small itty-bitty village along the Mekong River between Huie Xay and Luang Prabang. It appears as though they are a bigger hit outside of the U.S. than in the U.S. 2. Red Bull apparently was created in Thailand. It is sold in this area in glass containers that resemble medicine bottles. And it's cheap. Really strange to see. 3. In Laos, the highest denomination bill is 5000 kip, which is equivalent to roughly 50 cents. So, people pretty much walk around with a stack of bills. Larger purchases are made with Thai bahts or US Dollars. 4. Laos and Vietnam both drive on the right side of the road. So, what happens at the land crossings between Thailand (left side) and Laos? Does the road do a twist? Or are there just a bunch of head on collisions?