BootsnAll Travel Network



New Blog Site Up Please Check There for New Entries

November 15th, 2006

Hi Everyone. After a month long trip to Lao and 2 weeks chillin’ on a couple Islands in Thailand, I’m back to posting. I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that this will be my last post on this website. The Good news is that Missing…Presumed Having A Good Time will have a new home starting with my next post.  I’ve spent some time updating my map points of where I’ve been over the last 9 months on the new site. Click on “entry-less map pins” to view where I’ve been on a zoom-able Satellite world map courtesy of Googlemaps. So if you have ever wondered where the H3LL is Borneo much less, Sipadan, now you can just click on the map and see. I’m not sure if the new site is good or not, but I’m hoping that they won’t crash and lose 3 months worh of posts. Let me know if you have any problems getting over there.

Tags:

Racing Around Lao

October 12th, 2006

From Luang Prabang, I decided that it would be a good idea to take a boat trip up the river to Nong Kiaw after reading the Lonely Bastard’s description of the river scenery. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery is quite beautiful, Scenery Beautiful Scenery but after a few hours the beauty starts to fade and boredom sets in. We were put on this little boat PlaySchool Boat fitted with Playschool Chairs with just enough room for your head while seated. Standing was not an option as we found out quickly when the large guy with the camera decided to shift to the opposite side of the boat to get a picture. He almost sank us. I told him to “think canoe, sit down”. After about 5 hours, I figured out there was one place you could stand on the boat and got a much needed stretch and some nice vistas. Standing on the Boat We stopped along the way and I got to see the erosion of the river happening right before my eyes. There were hundredes of worms struggling to not get sucked into the river. Erosion But overall, I’d say don’t bother with the ride up river to Nong Kiaw, take the 3 hour bus ride instead. The worst part is that just before we get to Nong Kiaw, it starts to piss down rain. It’s funny because I really hate it when you arrive somewhere and there are 100s of touts trying to take you to their guesthouses. Here, no one greeted the boat and we had no clue where to go or what was available in this sleepy little village. In between rain drops I decided that I needed a beer and stopped at a restaurant when the rain got heavier. All of us from the boat ended up sleeping at their guesthouse after a few beers and the inability to bother crossing the river. We sat there and drank for hours and I realized that I didn’t have a room yet. After a few more beers and dinner, I decided to just crash with Peter, a Belgian guy from the boat. We ended up traveling all across Lao in 4 days to get to Huay Xai for the Gibbon Experience (see this post on my new blog site). If you look at the map on this site, you know that’s it’s a long way to get to the Thai border.
There was no internet or much of anything in NK except some beautiful mountains surrounding the river. We had to travel for about 6 hours in order to get to an internet cafe to confirm my reservation for a treehouse on the 16th because for some reason the ‘Gibbons’ weren’t answering their phones. We hopped on a Song Thaew (a pickup truck with 2 rows of bench seats in the back) with about 20 other people in the back. 20s A Crowd We changed trucks in Pak Mong and got a driver that was hell bent on breaking the land speed record from Pak Mong to Udom Xai. A trip that should have taken 4 hours was easily made in just over 2 hours. I said to Peter, “well on the bright side, if we live, we’ll get there quickly” One of the locals on the truck was hanging on for dear life Dear Life When we go to the bus station in Udom Xai we saw a great sign at the ticket counter. Good Luck Good luck Everybody ala Dr. Nick from the Simpsons! Well to make a long post not short, we took another truck and a full day boat trip to get to Huay Xai, but made it in time to register and pay our 1.3 million Kip for the Gibbon Experience.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Update info, news and Disclaimer

October 9th, 2006

If you are using my RSS feeds to notify u of my updates, please note that posts that I place back in time do not show up as new posts in your RSS notifications. Just added the Bends story on Aug. 26th.

Timeframes for reference: Taiwan – Feb/Mar, Korea – March, China – March/April, Hong Kong – April/May, Macau – May, Singapore – May, Vietnam – May, Cambodia – June, Indonesia – June/July, Malaysia – July/Aug., Thailand Aug/Sep. Laos Sept/Oct. Thailand Oct./Nov

What your are about to read is a story about my travels loosely based on facts, occurances and actual events. As such, my recount with poetic license may differ significantly from actual events as YOU remember them and are only my recollections and perceptions of experiences at the time of my blogging them. In other words, “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it“. The names may have been changed to protect the somewhat less than innocent. As I’m sure you may already know, most writtings are a few weeks to a few months after they occured, sorry. Blogging takes a lot more time that I had expected.

Thank you to all of you who responded to my notice that I was going to stop blogging. I guess I had a slightly larger readership than I anticipated based on the few comments posted on this site. The good news is that I will continue, but most likely not any more timely than I have in the past. That being said, Please enjoy Ray’s Tales of Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time.

Tags: ,

Boun Souang Heua Festival

October 9th, 2006

Here I am in Luang Pragang for the End of the rain festival. All weekend there have been Dragon Boat Races, boat parades, fireworks, parties… celebrating the end of the rainy season. The funny part is that its been bucketing down for the last 3 days and today has been raining non-stop ever since this morning. I’m sitting in an internet cafe whiling away the day and escaping the rain. The festival has been a riot tho. It was a special treat to be able to watch the boat races for me. I came here specifically to watch the races, but missed them by a few hours. Fortunately, the large annual all village boat race was only about 40mins away on Saturday. There were thousands of people all gathered along the banks of the river and in the river watching some really good competition. Boat Races These boats are a little different than the ones we race back home. Our boats only have 20 or 22 people in them if u count the drummer and steersman. These boats have about 30+ and I’ve seen some with 50+ in them in the Capital. They have 3-4 steersman and no drummer. photoshoped The winning teams also were amazing in their unison. I’m not positive on the distance they raced, but the winning time was in the low 1:40s and it looked like a sprint. If that’s for 500M, that’s pretty quick. I remember for the events that I was at, the winning times were in the 1:50s for 500M. Last night was the best part of the festival. Thousands of people were out regardless of the rain celebrating with thousands of boats and floating flower bouquets lit up with candles and sent down the river. Some boats caught on fire before getting into the river other’s would have made a Viking funeral proud while most just sailed down the Mekong with twinkling lights for all to see. I was a bit naughty and sorta lanunched whistling bottle rockets in the general direction of several of the boats. I personally was not responsible for any of the viking ships. It was sorta like Venetian night in Chicago with fireworks and lit up boats, but on a model boat scale (seeing as no one seems to own sail boats around here). Well, that and the food vendors had a slightly different menu than burgers, hotdogs… as well. Thank God there were no giant Crayola blow up crayons here either.

Tags: , , , ,

Vang Vien

October 5th, 2006

VV is an interesting place that seems somewhat out of time. It’s what I sorta imagine the old West in America would have looked like back in the days of gunslingers only without the sheriff element. There are no guns here, but the building progress is everyday in the streets. New places are going up everyday. The town seems to be in a constant state of construction. Existing places are adding on new additions or changing the existing configuration. There are many bars and restaurants all over the town that seem to serve pretty much the same food. The only difference is whether they have: Friends, Simpsons, Family Guy or some movie on TV. The Laotian people as a whole are very friendly and generally very nice and welcoming. This town is not exactly typical of Lao tho. It’s more of a small village that has grown into a backpacker haven. The Nam Song River is relatively clean and the town is set amongst picturesque rock formations Sunset on Nam Songsorta like Guilin or Halong Bay if you’ve been there. On clear sunny days, the views are spectacular. Riverside They’ve set up an area on the river where the current is swift, but managable with an inner tube. For $3.50 they take u 3Km up the river to a drop in spot and let u loose into the current. Along the way, there are bars set up that will throw you a rope to drag u in from the current. It’s truly a beautiful sight. One bar we stopped at had a huge swing that was about 50ft high (15M). Man that can be painful if u hit the water the wrong way from that high. Ouch! Nothing like a Nam Song Enima. I’ve spent many days lazing by and on the river. It’s great right now in the first week of October just before the boat races because you get to see all the teams practicing along the river. Dragon Boat Practice on Nam Song All in all a pretty chill place. I was going to leave today, but I found a 24 hour bar, Smile Bar/Island Bar, and didn’t manage to get up in time for a bus to Luang Prabang.

Tags: , , , ,

Bus Scam from Hell

October 5th, 2006

A funny thing happened to me on the way to V V. I went to the local bus station to catch a public bus to V V, I suggest doing this, $2. The bus didn’t leave for another hour and already looked pretty crowded. It looked like the sort of bus that would have chickens on it. In the heat of the middle of the day, I decided to listen to a Tuk Tuk driver and let him take me to the VIP bus ticket place back in town near where i started. I bought a ticket for a VIP A/C bus, $6 and started to see the scam unfold in front of my eyes. They bus didn’t leave at 1:30 as promised, but picked me up from the ticket seller in a pickup truck around 1:40 and proceeded to drive all around town picking up other suckers. We actually stopped in front of my guesthouse at one point. We finally get to a different bus station after 2 and am told that we are waiting for other suckers until about 2:45. When we get on this shitty bus it has no A/C and the guy says that there’s something wrong with it. No shit Sherlock! It’s a 100 degrees in here. About 2 hours into our trip a loud sound of a tire delaminating fills the bus and we pull over to the side of the road. flat tire We have no spare so we have to wait for a bus from VV to come and get us. Not only do we wait, but when the bus does get there we have 2 wait some more until they fix the old bus. Fixing a Flat w/o a jack Guess what, the new bus also has some problems with the A/C too. Go figure! Finally, 8 hours after I leave on a 3 hour tour, I arrive in a strange little town after dark. I need a beer Lao, Now!

It’s strange. This is the second time I’ve paid extra for a bus to make sure it’s a nice one and this is the second time it’s broken down on me. (See Hoi An to Nha Trang post in Vietnam.)

Tags: , , , ,

Vientiane, Capital of Lao

September 27th, 2006

After a 14 hour train ride from Bangkok, I’ve gone from capital to capital. The first 2 hours were spent sitting in Bangkok for some unknown reason, Thai Time rivals Cuban Time, but for some reason, it’s less annoying. Guess the comfy bed that I had on the train and a couple yummy sandwiches that Lisa made for me made the time go by faster.

So far so good in Lao. I’m staying on the river just on the otherside from Thailand, which is nice because my Thai SIM card still works here. Nice little town that doesn’t seem like a capital city. The main road thru town is little more than a dirt road, but the city has some fine dining restaurants and some good wine. But the best part of Lao so far is Beer Lao. Finally, back in a country where the beer is cheap and good. It’s difficult to beat a 640mL beer for .80 cents, unless of course you’re in the Czech Republic and u get a Staropromen for .15 cents. Besides the food and drink, there’s not much to do in Vientiane (Vin Chan). I didn’t bring my camera out with me tonight so I’ll post pictures later. I went to see the Patuxai – Victory Monument “Arc de Triumph” Lao Style that looks sorta like a cement Rook from a chess game on a massive scale. I also saw That Dam (Black Stupa) and the pride and joy of Vientiane umm…. Big Golden thing, oh ya That Luang (Royal Stupa). Man this Stupa is really Gold! Impressively gold, even! Besides that, there’s not much else to see here. I did go and get a very nice massage at Wat Sok Pa Luang for a mere $3 an hour. Better than the Thai massages that I’ve been getting in Bangkok. So far, I’ve been mostly impressed with how cheap things are here. i.e. internet for .01 cent per minute or .50/hr That’s nuts! I’ve heard there’s even a cheaper place than that, but couldn’t be bothered to look for it. I think I’ve spent about 10 bucks a day here eating and drinking most of the day. I could sure get used to this.

I’ve found the best internet cafe in all of Asia. It has reasonably quick internet speed upto 756MB with some semi new well managed computers. The best part about it is Ta, he has a good knowledge of how computers work and diligently cleans them of Spyware, adware and viruses. I did my normal clean up job I always do before doing any banking and found only a few negligable items in all my scans. If you’re in Vientiane, you should come here for your internet. The best part is that it’s only 100 Kip/min or 5000/hr. Btw Samsenthai Rd and Setthathirath Rd. towards the river from the National Cultural Hall and Xayoh Cafe in the Lonely Bastard. Just down the street at a guesthouse, it’s 150/min no breaks. Ta at Starnet Internet Cafe

Tags: , ,

Worst Case Scenario

September 24th, 2006

Sorry for the dramatics. It’s only worse case for my Blog. Thailand is still intact and holding. Well if you have been following closely to the updates that I had put up on the Military Coup here in Thailand, you know it was pretty exciting around here for a couple days. Things have pretty much calmed down for the moment. If you were really watching closely, before the servers went down, you saw that I even spent a day out at Governement House, where all the tanks and soldiers are, taking pictures of the latest tourist attraction in Bangkok, Tank Row. Unfortunately, as with Murphy’s Law, the last few blogs have been lost forever. The servers at Bootsnall crashed a couple days ago and they lost all the entries that I’ve done all the way back to August 17th. The worst part for me is that since August 17th, I’ve filled in entries that have been missing from about June 15th to August 16th. Hundreds of hours of entries were lost. Fortunately, with the help of Google cache, Yahoo cache and Chris at Bootsnall, I have been able to reassemble most of what was there before their server blowup except for the real time war correspondent entries from the last few days here in Bangkok. That I’m really upset about that because the emotion, sense of urgency, the unknown… was all captured in the entries that came after the coup in near real time. I’m heading out of the country in a few hours and most likely won’t have much time to blog in Lao. Don’t know what the internet connections are like up there. I just know that ATMs are scarce.

Tags:

NEWS FLASH: Military Coup in Bangkok 4 blocks away

September 19th, 2006

Tanks in BangkokI was woken up by a text message from the wife of an AP reporter that tanks were rolling down the street and a state of martial law had been declared in Bangkok. This is a great picture! If u blow it up, you can clearly see a Tuk Tuk speeding past the tank. These guys are fearless in normal traffic, but it seems they don’t even care if there is a tank in their way.

Tank Tuk TukI got up to watch BBC World report with Tanks rolling down the street only a few city blocks away from where I’m staying. Shortly thereafter, the TV screen went blank and a message came on the screen that said due to Sun Spots, coverage may be temporarily disrupted. Pretty funny. It’s been an hour and nothing has come back on yet. Now they’ve blocked all the “Farang” satellite stations, not just the BBC. The Thai stations all have the same guy on talking about something in Thai. I wish I could understand what the hell he is saying. Now they’re broadcasting file footage of the King and playing patriotic songs from the last military coup 15 years ago.

They haven’t blocked internet access yet, so I’m still up to date on what’s going on. But I’m sure as hell not sticking my head outside to see what’s going on. I look too Thai for that sort of thing. There was an eyewitness that said, “We saw a group of blokes bundling a cameraman and another chap into a van. We are taking photos, but not out in the open.” Probably not a good idea to go out and get some shots for my blog. May we live in Interesting times, eh???

Tanks in front of Government House Tank Driving down Street Great Shot

This may sound a bit selfish, but I’m almost out of Thai Baht so I hope the ATMs still work. But on the bright side, this kinda news should really crash the value of the Thai Baht even worse than the US Dollar has crashed in the past year. If I can find an ATM that works, I should get a pretty good exchange rate tomorrow. I just looked on Yahoo, the Baht is trading down 1.5 percent already in the States and should really crash when the Asian markets open in the morning. I just may get the prices I remember from Thailand 13 years ago if it crashes the economy tomorrow. More to come as news develops… as long as they don’t cut my internet access

Well… it looks like the coup has been a success as of 2am local time. Martial law has been declared and they’ve occupied the offices of the PM, who now all of a sudden is not sure if he’s coming back or not. At least he has a few properties in the UK that he bought from ill gotten gains while in office.

This is amazing! I just looked up martial law on wikipedia and they’ve already updated their site to include today’s coup that happened less than 3 hours ago. Martial_law#Thailand

Well… I’ve just been outside with the break of day and it seems fine. Shops are opening and busses are running. Since I’ve never been awake at this time before, I have nothing to compare it to, but my friend says that it’s VERY quiet compared to a normal morning in Bangkok. But there is no panic or even a sense of urgency in any of the locals. For the first time since I arrived in Thailand, I took my passport out with me though just incase there were checkpoints.

Tags: ,

I Got the “Bends”

August 26th, 2006

After an amazing 9 dives in 3 days, I managed to get the Bends. I’m not sure if the Scuba Junkie dive shop is to blame, but my instructor most likely is. Frankie, possibly not really a PADI certified Dive Master was the “leader” of my Sipadan dives. He had a group of 7 people of varying skills from 3 newly certified open water divers to some more experienced divers. He was also my dive buddy so I technically was supposed to follow him wherever he went. He went into the cave so I went into the cave. He went to 30 Meters, so I went to 30M. Unfortunately, he has a lot more experience than me and can control his breathing much better than I was able. So I managed to go thru 100 of my 180 Bars of air in about 15 mins in a strong current drift dive with a possible down current at the end of the dive. I still slowly ascended to finish my dive in about 30-35 mins with a safety stop at 5M for about 3 minutes. I didn’t have a watch. When I surfaced with less than 10 Bars left, I had a slight headache, but I hadn’t been feeling all that great anyway so I didn’t think much of it. I did one more dive that day and still seemed alright. I hopped on a bus that took me back past Mt. Kinabalu back to Kota Kinabalu for a flight to Bangkok. After the suggessted 24 (26 actually) hours before flying I got on a flight and really didn’t feel well. I tried to shrug it off with daily massages to sooth my aching muscles, but the symptoms didn’t clear. So off to the Thai Navy Hospital I go to see the doctor. After a few Xrays and a quick check up, Doc says u got the bends and I recommend a Table V decompression regiment with pure oxygen. Unfortunately, that’s a 10,000THB treatment. OUCH! Nothing I can do, I can’t go around with expanded nitrogen bubbles in my body so I get in the decompression chamber for about 3 hours breathing pure oxygen. They bring me down to the equivalent of 20M and there I sit for the next 3 hours with no fish to look at. They should have at least given me a fish book to study. I didn’t feel better right away, but after a day or 2, my headache went away, my dizzy spells cleared, my joints didn’t ache as much, my muscles felt a bit better (after several more massages) and my body returned back to normal. But the doc said that I’m not allowed to dive again for at least 1 month. So much for my glorious return to Thailand to do the diving that I had planned to do 13 years ago on Koh Tao, but didn’t make because I got stuck on Koh Phanghan for 45 days. Ooohhh the backyard bar. I’ve heard from people that were just in Koh Tao that the diving isn’t that good anymore. Much of the coral has been killed by the thousands of divers that go there every year. The running gag these days around Koh Tao is that you see more divers than fish on your dives.

Tags: ,