Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time

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, but after a few hours the beauty starts to fade and boredom sets in. We were put on this little 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. 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. 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. 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 When we go to the bus station in Udom Xai we saw a great sign at the ticket counter. 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.

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.

Just a quick update! On a whim, I decided to go to Sipadan, one of the worlds top dive sites. After a 10 hour bus(es) ride from hell, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, this post is about a month and a half out of order, but it seemed to fit well after my Mt. Batur story of the bastards in Bali. Since I wasn’t able to make the ascent to that ... [Continue reading this entry]

I decided to go and check out one of the few rain forests in Malaysia that Mitsubishi hasn’t cut down yet. Set in the middle of Penninsular Malaysia, Taman Negara is a massive rain forest preserve where there are ... [Continue reading this entry]

Long Beach was beautiful at sunrise. The water was warmer than a bath, but a beautiful turquoise green. It’s too bad that I went to Gili Trawangan so ... [Continue reading this entry]

Finally after 4 days, I managed to get some direction and headed out of KL. I got an email from Ben, who I met 2 months before at the Hanoi Backpackers. He said he was heading to the ... [Continue reading this entry]

After almost 13 years, I've returned to KL. I didn't see much of KL the last time I was here because I spent most of my time in ... [Continue reading this entry]