MID LIFE AT THE OASIS

Today, after entering back into Thailand this morning, we were cruising in the backseat of a a nice little local bus from Chiang Khong to Chiang Rai (A pleasant return to the Muppet Bus!) and looking out on the scenery. A gentle, slightly warmish breeze was coming in the window and open back door of the bus as we passed golden farm fields and small mountains draped in evergreens. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought….I am home…. I am back in Northern California….driving in the old Toyota pick-up to Ukiah…or maybe Anderson Valley….ah yes…Anderson valley would be nice. It felt so real and so close, but then I was back. In a little bus in Thailand, just rambling along with no real purpose, other than to see what’s out there, and where I fit in the picture of the world. But I ramble and daydream yet again, so let’s catch up on the past few days.

TRADITIONAL VILLAGES ALONG THE MEKONG RIVER – LAOS

Two days by boat on the Mekong was both relaxing and beautiful, as we watched each day develop from dawn to dusk, and from thick fog to bright winter sunshine. Mind-boggling communities of people still living subsistence lives…harvesting bamboo, weaving, farming, fishing….it’s hard to imagine this world still exists.

THE VILLAGERS WERE LOADING MASSIVE BAGS OF RICE FOR TRANSPORT – OUR “BARGE” WAS DOCKED BETWEEN THE OTHER BARGES

The river is also much rockier than I imagined and is an amazing challenge to navigate as there are jagged rocks everywhere, many just below the surface waiting to slice a boat in two. (Apparently upstream of where we travelled in laos, the Chinese are busy blasting all the rock from the river to help navigation, but unfortunately this is also doing in the Giant Catfish [up to 200kg] native to the river that live and breed in the caves below the water surface.) Luckily, our boat captain clearly knew his way and we only travelled with some semblance of daylight. We spent the night midway in our boat journey in a lodge in Pak Beng.

This 2-day, 1-night “cruise” was the first organized multi-day tourist thing we have done to date as independent travel is my passion and I rarely relinquish control of anything related to travel, and I abhor marching around to sites with large packs of camera-wielding zombies. Nevertheless, we booked this tour/transportation as it seemed like the best option of 4 to get from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai, Laos and back into Thailand.

1) Short-haul flight by Lao Airways…….sketchy safety record and environmentally wasteful short-haul travel.

2) Slow barges: Uncomfortable to miserable seating for two 8 hour days upstream

3) Speedboats…..totally environmentally incorrect, scary, loud, uncomfortable, and very dangerous (like 1 death/week somewhere on the river!)

4) Context-sensitive Barge boat built to comfortably take 40 passengers up the river with some scenic stops, guides, food and drink. (We only had 23, 40 would have been crowded!)

LOTS OF TIME TO PONDER LIFE ON THE MIGHTY RIVER

Despite my general reluctance to ever sit still for 10 hours, the “cruise” was very pleasant and you could really take in the sights along the river; however, the overnight lodge was a bit worn, and the food just o.k., and as we predicted, we were about the youngest on the boat (besides someones child) Once again we found ourselves caught between the backpackers and the retirees and this mini-cruise took us into the latter realm. One of the funniest moments was the fact that our boat had many French tourists that just looked shocked when our guide told them after our 6 p.m. arrival at the lodge that dinner would be a 7 p.m. and breakfast at 6:15 a.m.!!! “Quell domage? We eat dinner in the middle of the day and have breakfast in the middle of the night…what is this?” O.K., we just heard their mumbles of shock, but Cheryl and I imaged the rest of the statement and laughed.

CHERYL BIKING (ON OUR OWN!) IN THE BEAUTIFUL LANDS NEAR CHIANG RAI

All in all, the boat trip was certainly memorable, but rushed upstream (downstream is only 7 hours on the boat), and overpriced as we could have done nearly the same thing on our own organization for 1/3 the price, with likely a less comfortable boat, but a better lodge and food. So as fairly intrepid independent travellers, it was nice to say “Au Revoir” to the crew and get back to travelling the way we like to……on our own.

The communist attitude here in Laos sure makes the country feel different. People are much more reserved and subdued than in Thailand and there just doesn’t seem to be a rush to do anything. It’s also harder to get people to smile, but once you get past the more somber veneer , I have found the people to be warm, kind, and very good natured. And they do like to party as was evidenced here in beautiful Luang Prabang over the New Years weekend. The city was packed to the gills with locals and tourists including a big government sanctioned celebration that included lots of cultural performances, food, BeerLao. and of course “Funy(sic) Paper Hats!” There was a huge table of completely different and hand-made paper party hats that you could buy for $1, so Cheryl and I sidled on up tot eh booth boldly and careful selected our festive wear for the night. Amazingly, we were the only foreign tourists who bought the hats, as the cautious and somewhat righteous Western Europeans here seemed to be above the simple fun. Well, pooh on them I said, and we wore our hats proudly and even managed to get the photo below, in which my new Lao friend seems a bit bewildered and terrified at the same time.

NEW YEAR’S EVE IN LUANG PRABANG

But first let’s catch up on how we got to be wearing funy paper hats on New Years Eve in Northern Laos. Getting to Luang Prabang by bus is not easy as it involved 12 very curvy hours on buses, but luckily with a 4-day break near the middle in Vang Vieng (VV), which is somewhat plain town in a magical location along the stunning Nam Song river. The river winds through dramatic valleys bonded by limestone cliffs and mountains on all sides. Now VV has certainly been discovered and there is a heavy backpackers scene primarily based on cheap beer and access to tubing, biking, caving, kayaking and other outdoor activities. There is also a mini building boom going on as fancier guest houses and even mini “resorts” are starting to accumulate along the riverbanks faster than carbon dioxide above LA. With the fancier digs has come more families from Northern Europe on cheap holidays. We also saw four trucks full of developers, easy to identify with logos on some of the few doored vehicles in the town. (it’s mostly scooters and tuk-tuks) It made us sad, since they seemed to be looking at the far river bank, which is solely inhabited by natives right now, but looks to be under threat due to a new single-lane auto bridge just opening. No question Vang Vieng will look completely different in 10 years, but if brings better lives to the poor in the area, then it’s better….right? Still working on that big question.

So we had a great time swimming in blue lagoons outside of limestone caves, cycling on the worlds heaviest and ill-fitting bicycles, kayaking, and even partaking in the ritual tubing procession on the lower part of the river. The 3km tubing stretch of river is conveniently lined with bamboo pavilions and “bars” playing bloody awful music, but selling an endless supply of BeerLao to the tubing masses. Other than the fraternity party vibe, the prime entertainment is provided by people of various skills and blood alcohol levels jumping off high platforms on huge rope swings and zip lines.

Now I’d like to say that at the mature age of 39 that I was above all these post-collegiate shenanigans, but I’m not. As many of my friends know, I’m a huge sucker for beer in beautiful outdoor venues. And the Nam Song is beautiful. It was lots of fun, although the lack of a decent medical facility in the entire country kept me from doing the highest water jumps and swings. Just one run on a tamer zip line, but a good time for sure. Once again we found ourselves wedged between the backpackers and the retired people and constantly switching worlds. We visited 4 caves that were all amazing. including one with a day kayak-trek tour group that required wedging ourselves through a pretty small opening to get out of the cave. Amazingly, my lanky legs just levered though the crack, although even our guide looked a bit concerned with me at one point. The limestone formations are just spectacular and seem to be endless in this region of Laos. They also have some history with the locals as they have served as very safe and convenient hiding places during the many wars that have plagued the country in the past century. Not to mention the bats.

Again, cycling out of town to the villages has been extremely rewarding, as you see the real Laos, and get a hundred interactions per mile. We even found some girls in native costumes willing to pose next to the giant freaky American, and had a delicious,. but mysterious meal of BBQ meat at yet another roadside eatery. We honestly couldn’t identify many of the meats on our plate, although there were definitely some cholesterol-rich organs on the platter (liver, heart?). We prefer the Anthony Bourdain (by the way, I must mention again that his travel/food show “No Reservations” is the best travel show ever made! Period) coined “squeezle”.

MORE AMAZING COUNTRY FOOD (AND SQUEEZLE)

(Dr. Brinkman please do not read the following….) We are breaking many of the “rules” of safe eating in our travels including eating some fresh vegetables, but so far have been lucky to avoid any major ills, although I did feel a bit ratty the past 24 hours. But the food is so good! This is one of the huge advantages of travelling for a year as you get less freaked about being down and out for few days or even a week. Lots of wood to knock on here, but I would certainly regret not trying things even more.

Tomorrow morning we are getting on a “cruise” boat that will take us up the Mekong River the Huay Xai and the Thai Border in two days with an overnight stop and more cave visits along the way. It should be really nice if I can manage to sit still for two days straight on a boat. No typhoon induced waves on the Mekong either, so the Squeezle should stay put this time!

Happy New Year to you all and may 2007 find you happy and free.