Luang Prabang, Kunming and Beyond (Or: Requiem for a Journey)

Luang Prabang, for all intents and purposes my last stop in Laos, my last stop on this amazing trip. A beautiful old colonial French town, a tiny calm pocket of old-world charm on a green peninsula jutting into and bisecting the Mekong, the green mountains forming a kind of half-hearted basin-edge. It was a town for walking, for observing the sleepy wats and the shaded alleyways littered with UNESCO-protected buildings and links to a simpler, slower time. It was a great way to end the trip, until I had to take a thirty-three hour bus ride from Luang Prabang to Kunming, China.



Stop for a moment. Take a breath. Say that number aloud. "Thirty-three." Thirty-three what, you ask? Surely only certain things are measured in such terms, small things, insignificant things. The number of seconds it took for the popcorn to burn, the change in your pocket ... these things and more are often cited in the thirties, thirty-three even, and people don't pause.

Thirty-three HOURS. On a bus.

But to be fair, it was a sleeper bus, and a remarkably empty bus, by Chinese standards. We left Luang Prabang around eleven in the evening, and awoke in time to cross the border into China that morning.



Back on the bus, for more than a whole day of travel, and I tried to sleep as much as I could, off and on, music and sleep, the ceilings too low to sit and read or do anything other than lay down and try to sleep through it all. And so it was that I found myself waking up in Kunming, approximately thirty-three HOURS later, asking in half-asleep Chinese, "Kunming ... arrived ... ma?" I stumbled down the street and checked into the nearest (cheap) room I saw, showered, and for some reason decided to go explore Kunming. One last city for the road.



And now I'm in Hong Kong, ready to leave in just a few minutes to cross the border into the mainland, and from there, fly up to the great frigid wastes of Jilin and northeast China.

I remember thinking this time last year, after first dipping my toe in the "backpacker" pool by doing two and a half weeks in Cambodia and Vietnam, that long stretches of travel would be good things, maybe even great things. How the wanderlust was burning bright, and the flames were only fanned by a successful trip, not squelched. And how I could have gone on, maybe a solid month of travel, and while I thought that I might have become listless, unhinged after month on the road, but I knew it I could, should do it.

And here I sit at the end of nearly eight weeks of life on the road, a life of border crossing and bus riding and sight seeing, and I can't help but think: this is only a beginning. I thought crossing into Laos from Thailand that this would be it, this trip would scratch that travel itch for a while to come, and yet before I even arrived in Kunming, I was making plans on where to visit next: I cannot leave China without seeing Sichuan province, that mystical place calls to me, and hey, Tibet is practically next door ...

Travel. It seems like a way to rediscover yourself. You throw yourself into new places and things without much more than your instincts and, maybe, a guidebook with a lot of useless trivia but a few good maps and bus schedules. And that's the allure, I guess, of seeing what you can do and see on your own. It's easy in a backpacker ghetto where people order from English menus and mindlessly absorb repeats and Friends, but it's something different when you make your way overland from Singapore to China.

So the trip is over, the dream is ended. Further rumination is forthcoming, like it or not. For now, I gotta catch a bus into China, and then fly back to Jilin.

One More For the Road

Vang Vieng: as much Khao San Road as it was Ko Surin. A beautiful borderless green countryside, and the only bad part is you have to stay in Vang Vieng, this giant plastic tourist camp where nothing is more than ten years old and people mindlessly wolf down Western food while watching constant reruns of "Friends." Thankfully I spent as much time out of town as possible and saw some truly fantastic scenery, climbs limestone mountains, went spelunking in underground caves, and biked my ass sore through the lush mountain valleys.


Where I was staying ... a glimpse of tourist blight in front of green mountains.


Ah, outside of town ... that's better.


Nice flag! Where's that?


Oh.


A view from up there.


Nice hikes with friendly strangers.


Let's go spelunking!


Inside the caves.


Hero pose.


Biking 26km is easy when its through landscapes like this.

And now I'm in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage sight that is as beautiful as it is old. French shophouses line the streets alongside an old royal palace (now a museum) and ancient Buddhist wats, the long peninsular town comfortably nestled within the mountains with two rivers on either side. The whole scene is typically Laos: slow and comfortable, interesting yet low-key, old and traditional, beautiful and budding with new. I've been here for a couple of days, and I've even met up with fellow Jilin'er James. Tomorrow evening I leave, for a (hopefully painless) twenty-four hour bus ride back into China.

And so I stand on the precipice of the end: this trip, at long last, is coming to a close. It's been fantastic, unforgettable, fun and relaxing and awe-inspiring and, in every sense of the word, truly awesome. But more on that later; more Vang Vieng pics here.

Vientiane, Round Two

It's a lovely little city, that's for sure, but with a heart that feels no bigger than a square mile, it's pretty easy to see all there is to see here, and in a short period of time. It's a quiet city, by any measure. I climbed to one of the city's highest views, atop the four-arched Patuxai, and was amazed at how tiny, compact, and, well, green this city really is. But there's enough sights around Vientiane to show the pride and exuberance of the Loas people even after years of war and revolution.

So, yesterday on foot, and today riding a bike, and now ... well, I kind of feel like I'm done. So tomorrow I'll head north to Vang Vieng, a place renowned for it's natural beauty, be it rivers, caves, rock climbing, or just rolling green hills that look like they belong on an ancient scroll somewhere. We'll see how it holds up; here's hoping it's more Ko Surin and less Khao San Road. And if you don't understand that sentence, you haven't been paying attention to this blog.


That's what I mean, baby: Laos pride.


The pace of life here can generously be called "relaxed."


Ah, Beer Lao. The first genuinely good Asian beer.


Love this photo.


Love that Laos style ... architecture clearly influenced by the Khmers (Cambodians) and Thais (take a guess), but it has it's own distinct features: gently sloping roofs, simple clay scales, intricate but not overly-ornate.


Patuxai, Laos' own Arc de Triomphe.


Climbing to the top ...


View from (near) the top.


The symbol of Laos, Pha That Luang.


More here!

Vientiane!

No, that's not some perverse Lao-language come-on, it's the capital city of this lovely little country, Laos. So far Laos is quiet and relaxed, lazy slow hours spent in a cafe (with fresh Lao coffee) or on leisurely strolls around the grounds of a wat or two. Tomorrow I guess I'll rent a bike and really see the sights, but for now, it's slow and simple, and that's what I like about it.

Few too many foreigners, though. Like Bangkok, only this city is so damn small ...

Going into the National Museum this afternoon, there was the interesting, predictable stuff on show: exhibits explaining what was up in the land that is now Laos during the stone age, the bronze age, and all that; Laos history as a former vassal to the Khmers (Cambodia) and the Siamese (Thailand); a brief flirtation with the Dutch East India Company and contact with the west, and on until today. But there's also a lot of vivid images of the fight against French colonialism, as well as the "secret" war America undertook against Laos while we were fighting in Vietnam.

You mean you don't know about this "secret" war that has offered Laos the distinction of being the most heavily bombed country, per capita, than any other in the world? "Between 1971 and 1973 the USAF dropped more ordnance on Laos than was dropped worldwide during World War II." And the best part is, the war wasn't even real! Which means the money to drop those bombs didn't appear on any budgets, the Laos body count never appeared on anyone's tally of the war dead, and the Geneva Convention didn't apply, meaning American and Laos pilots could (and did) target schools and hospitals and other civilian targets with those bombs! Hurray for American Imperialism. And people wonder why I don't trust this government in the Middle East.

Anyway, in addition to all of that horrible shit, there was also a sense of a young country proud of it's nearly sixty years of independence. And I mean really proud, because it seemed that nearly every inch of current Laos progress made it into the museum in some form or another: large bundles of illegal drugs on display to show the might of the drug enforcers, pictures of farms and the bountiful Laos produce (read: framed images of cabbage in a museum), a display of what looked like the exact same medicine you'd see in the local pharmacy, only here proudly displayed to show the pharmacological progress of the Lao People's Democratic Republic! It was kind of hokey, but also interesting to see a country whose past is so mired with violence so proud of its progress. They were closing the exam and I didn't get to see a good chunck of it, but I'll probably go back tomorrow, it only costs 10,000 kip (just over a single US dollar) to enter.

So, yes, that's my first impression of Vientiane. Tomorrow should reveal more.

On the Border: Nong Khai, Laos, and a Bizarre Sculpture Park

So here I am, on the border with Laos (and that's a silent French "s," for the record, so it should rhyme with "wow"), the Mekong River lazily, neutrally sliding past. I've been following this river, off and on, for over a year now: I walked along it in Cambodia, I sailed on it in Vietnam, I'm looking at it now in Thailand, I'll see it tomorrow in Laos, and I'll soon be following it to its source in Yunan, China.

But anway, I don't know what any of that means, so, moving on: I intended to blow through this Thai town, Nong Khai, and just go right to Laos. But I lingered, because it's a cool little town with a slow pace of life, some nice cool weather, and a really strange sculpture park. Behold! (Stick around/skip forward to the big sculptures, they're really cool!)



So tomorrow I'll cross the bridge into Laos. Should be fun! I'll be crossing over the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge, a bridge that goes from Thailand to Laos (or from Laos to Thailand), built by Australians for (American dollars here, folks) $15 million. So it's a bridge international even in its contrsuction!

More, later, from Laos!

Ruins in Ayuthya

So I was in Kanchanaburi, seeing the River Kwai and hanging out with tigers and such, and I just got tired of that town. After five in the evening, there was nothing to do but roam the streets and pass by loud bars blaring muzak and watch rich fat white men sit in a table with two or three Thai "lady-friends" who'd always give a chorus of "hal-uoh" and "well-come." So friendly! I guess I needed some Bangkok decompression, too, because I found myself sleeping a lot, which wasted a lot of daylight, but I also didn't feel like dishing out for the overpriced trips to waterfalls or other parts of the Death Railway, so I ended up doing a whole lot of not too much.

So I left. On a whim. Just woke up, hopped on a bus, and plopped myself down on a seat and rode. I knew I was heading generally north, then generally west, and when we came to the end of the line, I saw a bus for Ayuthya, which I knew was a city with some interesting ruins, and used to be a Thai capital, so I figured, what the hell?

So here I am. Ayuthya. I spent the day on a rented bike, driving around the city and seeing a whole lot of impressive (but not quite Cambodia-impressive) old Thai ruins. It was a great day of sun and biking and temple-spelunking.







And then I got an elephant kiss. I hope you can hear it.



More photos - temples and elephants - here.

So What Did I Do Today?

I hung out with tigers.





And then visited the famous bridge over the River Kwai.





More photos here. God I love traveling.